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.

Something New and Very Different Part 2

Today’s photo is another from my shoot last Sunday.  If I had to title this photo, I might call it “Portrait of Motorcyclists.”   As you can see, most of the motorcycle is not included in the frame.  This photo is all about Eric and Crystal and their relations to each other and the motorcycle.  Motion blur is present, but here I was not trying to make it a primary part of the story.  In this photo, I wanted Eric and Crystal to be tack sharp and provide only a hint that the motorcycle was moving.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3X, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 70mm, ISO 200, f/13 and with shutter speeds 1/180^th of second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—set white and black points, added clarity and vibrance, and adjusted hue and saturation of various colors.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast to the bring-out details in the subject and did some basic dodging and burning.

Something New and Very Different

Sunday, I met up with four of my buddies from Bay Area Photo Club to photograph something totally different from anything that I have previous photographed—a moving motorcycle from a moving truck. My friend, Neal Kelsoe, invited his nephew and his girl friend to be our subjects for the photo shoot.

I had no idea what I was doing and it showed in about 98% of the photos that I took.  I knew that I wanted a blurred background and tack sharp subjects.  Little did I know that was going to be extremely hard to do.

The truck and motorcycle were generally moving at about the same speed—50 MPH.   However, the road did not cooperate and as a result, both the subjects and me were bouncing up and down.  Studying my bad frames I noticed that a most of the blur on my subjects was more up-and-down blur as opposed to side-to-side blur.  This of course presents my dilemma how do you eliminate the up-and-down blur while still shooting a slow enough shutter speed to get the desired motion blur.

Any and all suggestions regarding how I might improve on my hit rate would be most welcomed!

Thanks Neal for this humbling experience.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3X, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 36mm, ISO 50, f/22 and with shutter speeds 1/30^th of second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—set white and black points, added clarity and vibrance, and adjusted hue and saturation of various colors.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast to the bring-out details in the subject, removed some telephone lines and pole and did some basic dodging and burning.

Oilfield Worker

I am fascinated with ordinary working people.  I am currently working on a body of work of such people.  Based upon my start, this may be a very long venture.

In November, I was hired to photograph men working on a workover drilling rig for an oilfield equipment company.  After the shoot, I asked a few of the men to pose for me.

I was really impressed with this young man during the shoot.  When he was not working, his nose was in a school book.  I asked him about it and he said:  “I screwed up in school.  Didn’t work at it.  Didn’t learn much.  Don’t want to work like this the rest of my life, so, I got to learn what they were trying to teach me in school if I want to have a better life.”

Well said.

Enjoy 

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, ISO 200, Nikon 85mm f/1.4, f/8 and 1/125^th of a second with Elinchrom Ranger Quadra head with 17” beauty dish attached.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3: Set black point, and added contrast with a mild curve.

Photoshop CS5: Used nik Color Efex filters Detail Enhancer, Tonal Contrast and B&W to bring out details within subjects hair and clothing and dodged and burned various areas of photo.

Jay Maisel Workshop #15

Jay did not officially critic this photo.  He did, however, look at it on my computer while I was reviewing my shots from the day.  Jay wanted to know why I did not include this one in my selection for the day.  I told him that I was not sure that people would see what I saw in the image.  At which, he said “%@#*! them” !  Jay liked how the image raised questions:  what is going-on? why so much white? who are these guys? 
Anybody have any answers to his question? 
Enjoy. 
Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 170mm, ISO 1,600, f/8 and 1/90^th of a second. 
Post Processing:  None!

Jay Maisel Workshop #14

Jay:  OK, what’s the story here?

Me:  Again, this is at Bryant Park.  I saw this man sitting there lost in his thoughts.  He looked so dignified that I wanted to have a portrait of him lost in his thoughts.  So, I asked if I could take his photo.  I took a couple shots but was not happy with what I was getting.  The background was very distracting.  I moved to my left in order to minimize the distractions.  His expression did not change throughout my ventures.

Jay:  That’s what you did but you did not answer the question “what’s the story here?”

Me:  His name is Lucas.  He has three grown daughters that he reared by himself—his wife died in childbirth with the youngest.  He has worked two to three jobs most of his life.  He is 77 years old and his daughters have told him that he has to stop working and start living.  He said that he thought that he had been living for 77 years.  He did not know what to do.

Jay:  Even though you do not know what the story is, you know that there is a story.  You also want to know the story.  Did you offer him any of your thoughts?

Me:  No.  I think he knows what to do.  He just needed someone to listen to him for a few minutes.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 150mm, ISO 2,200, f/5.6 and 1/350^th of a second.

Post Processing:  None!

Jay Maisel Workshop #12

Jay: Really good concept, but you did not hit it out-of-the-park.  If the subject is man crawling out of a hole, then the man must be tack-sharp (which this one is not) and the background elements should be slightly out-of-focus—thus making the man the SUBJECT!  Great perspective—street level.  What the hell were you doing lying on the sidewalk. 
Me:  Yes. 
Jay:  If you are going to go to that trouble, then bring me back a real winner, not this want-to-be idea on paper! 

At this point, Jay talked at some length about working the subject.  He said that a great concept poorly executed produces another bad photo.  You must constantly refine your idea so that you distill it down to only the elements that you consider “the story.”  That may mean that you give up on it today and go back tomorrow—but, you go back until you get what you are seeing in your mind. 

While Jay was talking about refining your photo, my mind wondered to a Joe McNally seminar that I attended with Steve Schuencke.  Joe was working with a female model and the images that were flashing up on the screen were good, but, he keep working it, and finally, a photo flashed up and you hear a collective “wow” from the attendees.  On the way home from the seminar, the only think that Steve and I talked about was Joe working the image. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 1,600, f/11 and 1/180^th of a second. 

Post Processing:  None!

Jay Maisel Workshop #8

Jay did not critic this photo.

I saw this guy giving directions to two girls but could not get the shot because the girls were in my way.  After he finished, I told him that I thought his bag was really cool.  He immediately told me that it was not his but was his niche’s bag and he was taking it over to her house. 

I asked if I could take a photo of him pointing like he did when he gave the girls directions.  He was a little reluctant, but then he agreed.  After a few minutes, he really got into the scene.  I had a couple shots that I liked but it seemed that something was missing.  I saw the guy on the bike coming up the street and so I suggested that we take another shot with the bike in the background.  I think the bike helps sell the shot as street photography and helps add depth to the overall photo.

I know that some people might be concerned by the pole behind him looking like it was growing out of his head.  It does not bother me because of its size and because this is a street photo, not a portrait.  The thing that I do not like is the red sign and alarm on the pole.  To me, red is a very hard color to control in your images and I think that they take the viewer's eye away from the main subject—the bright pink bag.

One thing that I forgot to mention earlier is that I h ave presented a few photos that were in 4x5 format rather than 2x3 format.  The Nikon D3 has an option to change the format from 2x3 to 4x5.  So, this was done in camera with Jay’s permission.

Jay and I got into a big discussion as to why I wanted to do this.  I told him it was simple:  I had less real estate (i.e., distracting background) to worry about in a 4x5 format and I thought that the 4x5 format was better suited to photographing people.  Jay listened, but I do not think I made a sale. 

Jay said that he thought that all photographers look at things from a specific perspective—a wide or telephoto perspective.  He told me that he had a telephoto-perspective which meant that he zeroed-in on slices of a scene thus eliminating a lot of distracting elements.  He told me that he never thought about how people might look at scene from different aspect ratios.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 62mm, ISO 400, f/8 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:  NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #6

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Jay did like this photo.  I liked it, but have some reservations about it.

Jay:  Did you ask this guy to pose for you?

Me:   No.  I saw this neat background and then waited for people to walk in front of it.  I liked this guy because he looked at me and because his shirt was a solid, bright color that seemed to go with the background.

Jay:  Although his look is not really an inviting look, it still draws the viewer into the scene.

Me:  I am not real happy with how I have him placed in the center of the frame.

Jay:  You talking about the rule of thirds?

Me:  Yes.

Jay:  @#%#*&! the rules!  Does the photo have impact?  Yes.  Does it draw you into it?  Yes.  So, @#%#*&! the rules!

My thought:  Not sure about that!

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 1,600, f/11 and 1/250^th of a second.

Post Processing:  NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #5

Jay did not like this photo.  I liked it.

Jay:  What is this photo about?  I have no idea what you are trying to convey here.  There is nice light and an interesting shadow on the Brooklyn Bridge and then there are two homeless people.  What am I suppose to look at?  What am I suppose to think?  Did you trip your shutter by mistake?

Me:  It’s all about opposites—the largeness of the bridge versus the smallness of the men; the beautiful golden light on the top of the bridge versus the murky shadows on the bottom of the bridge; the cleanliness of the top of the bridge versus the dirt of the bottom of the bridge; and finally the dejected look of one man versus the smiling of the other man. 

Jay:  Yea, right.

You:  ?  

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 1,600, f/8 and 1/180^th of second.

Post Processing:  NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #2

Before delving into today’s photograph, I need to provide you with the ground rules of Jay’s workshop.  The basic rule is:  what you shoot is what you present.  There is no Lightroom or Photoshop work that is allowed on anything that you print.  No cropping, no setting white and black points, no sharpening.  NOTHING can be done to your images other than downloading them and resizing (maximum length and/or width) them for proper presentation.  You shoot and present your images as JPEGs.

I try to know how my camera works, but since I never shoot in JPEG, I knew very little about how the various JPEG setting worked within my Nikon D3.  As a result of this, I was forced to quickly learn about the various sharpening, color saturation and contrast setting available within my camera.  I must admit, it took me a couple of tries before I got the camera setting the way that I wanted them.  The final setting that I settled on were:  sharpening at 7, contrast +1, brightness at 0, color saturation at +1, and hue at 0.  With these settings I felt that my images had just enough pop to catch the viewer’s eye, but not that “over the top” look that you often get when the sharpness and color saturation are pushed to the limit.

In the spirit of the workshop, all photos presented as Jay Maisel Workshop photos are JPEG images without any adjusting or retouching in Lightrooom or Photoshop. 

Both of the photos that I am presenting today were taken in New York City's Chinatown.  I had asked permission to photograph both of the subjects before I took the photos but I waited a little time to allow them to go back to their “normal” activity before taking the shots.  I wanted the images to be about normal life in the big city.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 200mm, ISO 2,200, f/8 and with a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second.

Post Processing:  NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #1

Meet Jay Maisel.  

Last week, as part of his workshop in New York City, I spent 8:30 AM to 10:00 PM from Monday through Friday with Jay.  The workshop in a word was mind-boggling!

Every day I was completely challenged by Jay’s instructions, words, works and of course, that special Jay-look that said:  “Have you lost your #@!*& mind?”  Jay’s instruction seems so simple when he explains them and then demonstrates them through his own work.  But then, you hit the streets of New York City and you feel like someone who has lost his “#@!*& mind.”

Did I learn anything?   Probably more than I will ever know. 

Did I enjoy myself?  Unquestionably.

Will I be a better photographer?  Time will tell.

Today’s photo of Jay was taken in his studio giving one of my fellow students one of his special looks.

Enjoy.

The Expression Says It All

“Why is that damn fool taking a picture of me?”   That’s what I imagine this man was thinking as I fired a few shots off.

Here, I loved his expression—which he had on his face even before I raised my camera to my eye—and the contrast of his expression with the tag line on the sign, “A-List”.   To me, those two items make this photo.

Of course, the photo would be greatly improved if the newspaper stands were not blocking part of the subject, but in street photography, you get what’s there.  Nothing more.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 450, f/5.6 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, adjusted exposure, added clarity and removed slight red cast.

Out for a Walk

How can you tell when a woman’s jeans are not tight enough?   Easy.  When you cannot determine the make and model of her cell phone in her back pocket.

In this photo, I like the contrast between the vivid colors and details of the boy and girl walking with the blown-out, muted colors of the background. 

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 at 270mm, ISO 360, f/5.6 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

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

Street Scene

I admire street performers.  They lay it on the line.  No retakes, no Photoshop adjustments, nothing but what they have at that moment.  They just go out there and perform.  That takes courage.

I sat and listened to this folk singer for some time before I took any photos of him.  Why?  Because I was not really sure what I wanted the photo to represent.  Finally, I decided to try and show his passion while he was singing.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/350^th of a sescond.

Post Processing:  

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

Walking around Downtown Houston #3

I was studying the columns and thinking about what sort of photo I wanted to take when this guy starts walking into my frame.  I was immediately struck by the way he was holding his hands.  I thought that the rhythm of the light colored columns contrast nicely with the dark clothing of my star.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 shot at 170mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/250^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set white and black point and adjusted mid tone contrast.

Nik Silver Efex Pro 2—Converted image to black and white.

Assemble the Skyline #5

Max is the band’s lead singer and from what Steve tells me, he is really good.  Near the end of our shoot, Max sat down in front of one of the amps.   There was light from the windows on his backside.  I feathered an SB800 on his face.  I wanted the light to be just on his face.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 70mm, ISO 800, f/6.7, 1/30^th of a second with an SB800 with a small silver umbrella and triggered by Pocketwizard Maxi.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set white and black point and adjusted color.

Photoshop CS5—use nik Silver Efex Pro 2 to convert to black and white and add frame.

Assemble the Skyline #2

This is Nick, the drummer for Assemble the Skyline.  Of all the members of the band, he had the most definite ideas about how he wanted the photos to be.  Here he strikes a pose over his drums.  I like how relaxed he appeared and the overall contrast between the environment and him.

This photo was taken using my new PocketWizard Flex TT5s in iTTL mode.  I used two Nikon SB800 with umbrellas, positioned high right and left.  In addition, I had an Nikon SB800 mounted on the top of my PocketWizard Mini TT1, which was used as the master to control the other two flashes.  The flashes fired virtually every time.  However, I do believe there will be some learning curve on how best to use them.

Here, I think the flash add just enough light to bring Nick forward, add just enough light to the background to blend with the light outside of the window.  Overall, I think the lighting works.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, shot at ISO 800, f/8 and 1/90^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

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