Casey—Doctor, Competitive Swimmer and Nice Lady

Meet Casey.  She is a medical doctor that swam competitively in college.  In addition, she is a really nice person.  But, I hope I never see her professionally—no offense, Casey.

Here, I was trying to be a Sports Illustrated photographer—I really had no idea how hard it was to time the shot, even at 1/6000^th of a second.  At the end of the shoot, I had lots of shots with nothing but water!  I guess this proves that every time you pick up the camera, something will be different.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8, ISO 400, f/3.3 at 1/6000^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—set white and black point and increased contrast, increased clarity, contrast and sharpness around Casey with the adjustment brush.

Inga

Although Inga had a great big smile and beautiful hair, I personally like her best with a slight smile and her hair put-up.  I think this way just set off her face much better.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x, 85mm f/1.4, ISO 100, f/8 at 1/90^th of a second on a tripod with two Elinchrom strobes with umbrellas on each side.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—set white and black point and increased contrast, increased clarity, contrast and sharpness in his eyes with adjustment brush.

Inga and Omar

Inga is a very out-going young lady who loves to smile in contrast to her boyfriend, Omar.  She lights-up in front of a camera.  She wanted a few shots of the two of them.  I had to work quite hard to get Omar to get this close to Inga.  His idea of a portrait of a couple was each person about three feet from each other looking directly into the camera with no smile.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x, 85mm f/1.4, ISO 100, f/8 at 1/90^th of a second on a tripod with two Elinchrom strobes with umbrellas on each side.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—set white and black point and increased contrast, increased clarity, contrast and sharpness in his eyes with adjustment brush and did some basic dodging and burning.

Omar

Omar was at this portrait session because his girlfriend told him that he would be there.  He had no desire to have his photo taken. 

He had a great smile but no matter what I did, he would not show it for the camera.  Omar is from Iceland and according to Inga, his girlfriend, men don’t smile for the camera in Iceland.  Don’t know if that is true or not, but I do know that Omar did not smile for my camera—I think he is a Canon guy!

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x, 85mm f/1.4, ISO 100, f/8 at 1/45^th of a second on a tripod with two Elinchrom strobes with umbrellas on each side.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—set white and black point and increased contrast, increased clarity, contrast and sharpness in his eyes with adjustment brush and did some basic dodging and burning.

Brent—A C&W Singer and Songwriter

I recently had a portrait session with Brent, a country & western singer and songwriter.  Brent is originally from Alabama but recently moved here to promote his career.  He is very natural in front of a camera, but became even more so when he picked-up his guitar.

This photo is a natural light photo.  There was a very small spot in the lobby of the building where the light was streaming-in.  I wanted to use that light as a spotlight on his face, but was faced with a problem—it was right in front of a pole and so I would have pole coming-out of his head.  To me, it was a no brainer—light first!

If I were going to print this, I would probably try to remove the post.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x, 85mm f/1.4, ISO 400, f/4 at 1/60^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—set white and black point and increased contrast, increased clarity, contrast and sharpness in his eyes with adjustment brush and did some basic dodging and burning.

Christina—A Serious Young Lady

Before I took Christian’s photos, I asked: “What type of photo do you want?”  She said:  “I am pretty serious and I look stupid with a big smile on my face.  I am not a super model.  I do not like that plastic-skin look that you see on so many portraits.  I want the photo to look like me.  As I am.”

I think this is impressive insight for a junior in high school!

In the photo I tried to follow her wishes.  The photo is a high key portrait of a serious young lady with a minimum amount of retouching.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x, 85mm f/1.4, ISO 100, f/4.8 at 1/90^th of a second on a tripod with ring flash lighting her face and strobes lighting the background.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—set white and black point and increased contrast, increased clarity, contrast and sharpness in her eyes with adjustment brush and cloned out some temporary blemishes on her skin.

Nikon D4—A New Experience—Letting the Shutter Rip!

Today’s photo was also taken at Brazos Bend State Park.  I wanted to isolate the bird from the background so I did wait until he got in a good position on the log.  I then did something that I rarely do—I put my camera in high-speed continuous shooting mode and held the shutter down.  Do you know how many frames you can rip-off in about five seconds of shooting—a lot more than I am accustom to!  I shot 68 frames in a matter of seconds.  I can see how Tim Timmins (see his work here) fills up so many memory cards each week.

I almost forgot my normal disclaimer:  I am not a bird photographer!!!

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/180^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—set white and black point and increased contrast.