Patience and Working the Scene

The three children in the scene are cousins.  While watching the children play in the water, I talked to their parents about taking a photo of them playing.

What drew me to this scene, of course, was the children playing; but I quickly noticed that the curvature of the water spray was matched by the curvature of the wall in the background.  I thought this implied circle would make a great composition.

Now, what did I do wrong.  First, I was not patience.  The real photo was the little girl in the foreground and how she was studying the water.  I should have waited until the two cousins moved out the scene—which was right after this photo was taken.  Second, this photo should have been taken at f/8 (very sharp portion of this lens) which would have resulted in a shutter speed of 1/750^th of a second.  The f/8 aperture would have better isolated her by making the foreground and background slightly out-focus and the 1/750^th of second would have frozen the water better—basically, a win, win situation.

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, ISO 200, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 70mm, f/19 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3:  Set black and white points, added contrast with a mild curve and added a little vignetting.

Gesture Is King!

Another photo from 2011 and another question about what was I thinking.

Here, I saw this frog character approach this boy and knew that there was about to be a good photo.  I asked the boy’s parents if I could take a photo and they agreed.

Looking over the metadata, I can see that I shot the photo at 38mm rather than 70mm.  Why?  The photo is about the gesture, not getting all of the boy and the frog into the photo.  Next, I see that I used f/11, which I can accept but that forced me to shoot the scene at 1/125^th of a second—too slow to stop the boys hand from blurring.

Thanks to Jay Maisel workshop and a little (very little) knowledge on my part, today I would have had my camera set at ISO 1600 which in turn would have resulted in a shutter speed of 1/1000^th of a second—fast enough shutter speed to stop the boy’s hand.

Lessons learned:  street photography means using ISO of 1,600 or higher unless blur is an important element of the photo and make what drew you to the scene the most important element within your frame.

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, ISO 200, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 38mm, f/11 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3:  Set black and white points, added contrast with a mild curve and cropped second image to simulate lens at 70mm (guess on my part!).

Jay Maisel Workshop #4

I have had several people ask me:  “What exactly did Jay teach you about street photography?”  “Could we have more details about your process in taking these shots?”

I guess the biggest thing that I learned from Jay was “slow-down”.  Walk slowly; take-in everything around you.  When you see something interesting, study it to determine what you want to do.  Then slowly raise your camera to your eye (“don’t scare your prey with sudden movement”).  Slowly and carefully frame your subject.  Remember to look around the edges to make sure that you have no distracting elements.  Forget:  “I will fix it in Photoshop”.

Jay liked today’s photo.  He liked that I was down at the little girls level—we were looking eye to eye.  He liked that she was looking straight at me—that generated a feeling of connection between me (and ultimately the viewer) and the little girl.  He liked how the stroller’s lines added a dynamic element to the photo and how the balloon acted as an anchor and also eliminated a lot of bright pink that would have taken the viewer's eye away from the little girl's face.  He did not like that I shot the photo at f/5.6.  He believes that for ultimate sharpness, you need to shoot every lens about one to two f-stops up from its maximum f-stop, which would be f/8 to f/11 for this lens.  He also did not like that I shot this in landscape orientation.  It showed too much uninteresting space to the left of the little girl.

I agreed with all of his comments.  For my blog, I have committed the mortal sin of cropping today’s photo to illustrate Jay’s point about landscape vs. portrait orientation.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 200mm, ISO 1,600, f/5.6 and with shutter speeds 1/250^th of second.

Post Processing:  NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #3

What did Jay say about this one?  Well, it went something like this.

Jay:  Larry, what were you thinking when you took this?  Better yet, were you thinking when you took this image?

Larry:  I liked the way the little girl was looking at me.

Jay:  Did you notice the eyes of the doll?

Larry:  No, not really.  I only saw them when the photo came-up on my computer.

Jay:  So, you openly admit before me and your fellow students that what helps make this photo a really good street photo was just a lucky accident?

Larry:  Well, yes, I guess it was.

Jay:  In street photography, accidents happen.  Sometimes the accident helps your photos, and sometimes it &%$#*! your photo.  Accept both and just move on.  What helps make this photo is contrast:  the little girl’s look is so intense and the mother’s look is so passive; the dark little girl with her almost black eye and the lily-white doll with bright blue eyes.  The contrast draws you into the photo.  It makes you wonder.  I like this one.

Larry:  Thanks.

Jay:  You thanking me?  You should be on your knees thanking the photo gods for the blessings they bestowed on you.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #12

One of the things that I immediately noticed as I walked around Cuzco is the bright colors.  Almost everyone seems to be dressed in bright colors with lots of geometric designs —especially, the children.  In today’s photo, I simply liked the colors and how they seemed to be amplified by the dull brown and grey of the road and the ruins in the background.

Enjoy

All’s Fine in the World

As I watched this couple with their little girl, I could not help but marvel out how safe and secure she seemed to be.  Just holding mom’s and dad’s hands was enough.  Wish we all could have a secure place like that!

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/180^th of a sescond.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, adjusted exposure, added clarity and mid-tone contrast, and added vignette.

Happy New Year!

You have now entered the second decade of this century.  Where did those first ten years go?

Have not been doing too much photography over the holidays except, of course, for family affairs.  Normally, I am not allowed to show any photos of the grandchildren but I got a special permission from Mrs Patrick the First and Mrs Patrick the Second.

Here are two shots of youngest grandson, Cameron. He has very definite opinions on what is in style and what is not.  During the unwrapping a presents he would decide on adding this or that to his attire.  And, to prove he was fair and balanced, it did not matter whose clothes it was (the boxer shorts are his eight year old brother's and the shoes are his six year old sister's).  

Hopefully Cameron will work with me this year to help me improve on my dress.

Here is hoping that everyone has a safe and happy 2011.

Concert on the Kemah Boardwalk #3

If I would title these two photos, the titles would be:  “Action” and “Reaction”.

To me, the first photo works well because you can see the lady dancing and also see the band playing.  You have all of the story that you need to understand what the photographer was trying to capture.  However, the second photo needs more to help the viewer understand what it is about.

The young girl in the second photo is reacting to the lady dancing.  Looks on the young girl’s face ranged from bewilderment to concern to embarrassment.  

As I watched the scene, I was unable to determine whether the two had any relationship with each other.  Yet, another question left unanswered by the photos.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Both photos—Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at shot at 190mm, ISO 400, f/2.8 and 1/250^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, added clarity, vibrance and mid-tone contrast.

BAPC Field Trip—Portraits #8

Today’s post of Crystal is my last from the BAPC portrait field trip.  Before I took this shot, I knew that I wanted three things:  dad was only going to be a prop, the photo was going to be about emotion and the photo would work best in black and white. 

I knew that there was many things working against me getting the photo I wanted:  dad was wearing a light blue shirt and Crystal was wearing a relatively bright orange shirt.  Neither shirt would help me achieve what I wanted.  I arranged dad’s and Crystal’s arms so that they would form a nice diagonal across the entire frame.  I positioned the light to camera right and I feathered it so that it fell softly on Crystal’s face. 

Crystal is a natural in front of the camera.  She has no hesitation about looking straight into the lens—which is exactly what I wanted—that look connects her perfectly with the viewer.

I used nik Silver Efex to convert the photo to black and white.  When I took the photo, I was pretty sure that I would be able to use the red or orange filters—which act the same as red and orange filters with black and white film—to darken dad’s shirt.  The filter did lighten Crystal’s shirt, but I felt that I could live with that.  Overall, I pretty well got the look and feel that I wanted.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 shot at 70mm, ISO 200, f/9.5 and 1/60th of a second with large Elinchrom softbox to camera right and feathered slightly.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, adjusted saturation of various colors, added mid-tone contrast and vignetting.

Photoshop—used nik Silver Efex Pro to convert the photo to black and white.

BAPC Field Trip—Portraits #2

My next portrait from the field trip is one of Amy.  This portrait may have been the most challenging one I took all night.  Why?  Well, Amy is so tiny and seemed quite shy that I had a hard time framing her—there was just not enough of her to fill the frame.  Part of my problem was that I really had no idea of how the image should look.  I tried various things, but did not like anything that I was getting.  In desperation, I started to study Amy’s face and think about how to photograph it.

Here, I must say that I think this is a habit that many photographers follow—keep shooting until you get something rather than seeing the image and then going about creating it. 

After studying Amy’s face I decided that I wanted to show-off that great completion, color and bone structure.  I took a high to low camera angle to simplify the image and help get light into her eyes.  Because she is so slight, I had no problem broad lighting her—lighting the largest part of the face.  In hindsight, I wished that I had moved her hair back on the left side of the camera so that her great cheek and jaw line would be set-off against the background better.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3X, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 52mm, ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/60^th of a second with Elinchrom large softbox at camera right and feathered towards her right cheek.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—set white and black point, increased contrast with a tone curve adjusted hue and saturation of various colors.

Two Different Approaches

Let’s see, children, water and lots of space.  What does that add up to?  Da, FUN!

These two little girls had completely different approach to life.  The first girl was in constant motion.  She ran from here to there and back again—smiling all the time.

Our second young lady was much more cautious.  She was very curious about what the other young girl.  She watched her very carefully, but, when Girl #1 would come around, she would become super shy.  Although she was most interested in her newly found friend, she also kept looking over at dad for his reassurances. 

In both photos, I wanted to capture the essence of the girls.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 50mm f/1.4 shot at ISO 800, f/5.6 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, adjusted hue and saturation of various colors and added clarity and mid-tone contrast.

Photoshop—used Topaz Adjust Pop filter to add detail to most of the photos.

A Photo of April to End April

Meet April.  I met her last week when I was trying some new things while doing some street photography—just for the record, my experiment did not work, maybe next time.

April was totally engrossed in her balloon.  She had no idea that I was photographing her.  Her attention was absolutely fixed on that big blue balloon. It was great to watch.

Three things attracted me to April and her balloon—her angelic face, the contrasting cool colors of green and blue versus the warm oranges from her face, and her total concentration on her prize.  I wanted the photo to be primarily about the glow of her face.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 shot at 155mm, ISO 200, f/4 and 1/350^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, added clarity and increased contrast, and adjusted hue and saturation of green, red, yellow and orange, and added vignette.

Photoshop—Used high-pass filter method to sharpen April’s face and hair.

A Snapshot of the Moment

I was out doing a little street photography and trying some new things when I spotted this father and daughter. They were having such a wonderful time and enjoying each other’s company. I really like their expression and how her face was reflected in his sunglasses. I wanted my photo to be totally about the moment so I zoomed into their faces as close as I could. I added a frame to make the photo look more like a snapshot.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-210mm f/2.8 with 1.7x teleconverter at 340mm shot at ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/500^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points.

Photoshop—used onOne Photoframe to add frame.

I Got the Message

I think a few of you out there did not like the background of Terry’s photo that I posted last week. Well, I agree. The background was distracting. However, this was street photography. I am not of the school that says to do street photography you cannot let the subject know that you are photographing them. I generally let people know that I am photographing them, however, I generally do not change their environment. Consequently, when I look at Terry’s photo, I use a different criteria in judging it than I would a photograph which I call “street portraits.” I consider the photos that I take at the various festivals as street portraits. At the festivals, I often move people to better backgrounds, direct their pose and use flash. Here, I did none of that.

All that being said, it is very easy to push Terry’s photo into a much better portrait. When I look at the photo, I want to simplify it and bring Terry's face forward. Here are the changes that I think need to be made:

It took me about 20 minutes to “finish” Terry’s portrait. Here is a screen grab of the layers that I used to make the adjustments (please excuse the poorly worded labels, but I label for my benefit and was too lazy to change them for this post):

Enjoy

Those Blue Eyes

I was walking down the sidewalk when I looked over and saw this great looking pair of eyes staring at me. I immediately told Terry’s mother that he had quite a pair of eyes. She shyly smiled and said that he already seemed to know how to use them to his full advantage.

Terry and his mother were there to cheer his dad and uncle to the finish line. I asked his mother if she minded if I took a few shots of Terry. This is my favorite photograph of him. For some reason, I really like the way he was intently staring at something, but from my perspective, I did not know what it was. It seemed to give the photo a little added mystery.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm shot at ISO 800, f/5.6 and 1/90^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, added clarity.

Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast to his jacket.

Family Cheering Family

Before I discuss today’s photo, I would like to write a few words about last weeks photo. I appreciate all the comments that everyone took the time to write, however, I would prefer that people keep from criticizing other’s opinions. I do not see that helping anyone. I do fully expect a critical analysis of everything I post; that is why I post my work. Now, about today’s post.

Probably the neatest aspect of the Houston Marathon is meeting lots of family members who are cheering their fellow members.

Meet Annie. Her brother and cousin were running in the Fun Run and her father was running in the half marathon. She was at the starting line cheering each of them off and was planning on being near the finish line cheering them. She told me about each one of them and how proud she was of all of them. Great conversion with a really cute young lady.

After we talked a while, she asked me to take her picture for her dad. I wanted this photo to be about her enthusiasm and her child-like charm.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 70mm shot at ISO 800, f/4.8 and 1/350^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, added clarity and reduced saturation of pink to reduce affect of pompoms.

Dickens on the Strand #4

While doing many portraits over the last year, I have noticed a very difference between how females and males react in front of a camera. It does not seem to be affected by age.

In this photo, notice how relaxed and posed the young girl is and how the young boy seems to be more tense and suspicious he looks. For whatever reason, this seems to be the norm.

In this photo, I wanted to show how boys and girls react so differently.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 62mm shot at ISO 200, f/9.5 and 1/125^th of a second with a SB800 with softbox attached right and left of subject and set to 1/8^th and 1/16^th power and triggered with AlienBee radio triggers.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, added clarity.

Photoshop—use nik Color Efex Pro soft focus filter to add minimium amount of soft focus to the overall image.

2009 Renaissance Festival #8

Yes, the color did attracted me. Yes, the face painting attracted me. But, what really got my attention was how this young lady looked me straight in the eye and didn’t even bat an eye.

When someone, especially a very young person, looks straight into the camera lens, you have immediate connection within your portrait. I believe that I got the connection here. I had to do nothing special with the exposure or the flash. I just had to make sure that I stayed out of my own way.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 70mm shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/90^th of a second with a SB-800 flash in a softbox at camera left.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, added clarity.

Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast to add contrast to highlights, mid-tones and shadows of her dress and the wagon.

Renaissance Festival—Part 5 for 2009

I meet these two little girls and their mother while I was taking a photo of the girl behind the counter. The smallest girl wanted to know what I was doing, so showed her a lot of the photos that I had taken. I then offered to take her and her sister’s photo. She agreed and so I asked mom who also agreed. Since Doug and Bob were off socializing with other members of Bay Area Photo Club, I had to solicited mom to be my VAL. Mom was quite nervous—she was afraid that she would hurt my light. I assured her that it would be hard since I had dropped my flash several times with no adverse effects.

For some reason, I wanted to light the portrait to be more dramatic. Now, dramatic lighting and portrait of small girls usually does not go together, so I was not really sure how this one was going come out. I showed mom the position that I wanted the light, and she did a great job putting the light where I wanted—watch-out Steve, you may have lost your VAL job!

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 70mm, shot at ISO 200, f/11 and 1/90^th of a second with a SB-800 at 1/16^th power.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, added clarity.

Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro Monday morning filter to add a little more drama to the photo.

Light, Colors and Lines

As I watched the crowd listening to one of the firefighters talk, there were three things that hit me about this young lady—the light hitting on her face, the complementary colors of pink and blue and the dynamic lines that her body and those in the background. I wanted my photo to show each of these elements as clearly as possible.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, shot at ISO 200, f/4 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, added clarity.

Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro bleached bypass filter to de-saturate the colors and then added sharpening using the high pass filter in the soft light mode.