Cate—No. 3

Today’s photo uses the same lighting and camera settings as the one last week.

In this photo, I wanted to bring –out the green in Cate’s eyes so I had her change into a green blouse and very bright red lipstick.  The complementary colors work well and get the job done. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 50mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 200, f/6.7 at 1/125^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon portrait preset, set white and black points.

Cate—No. 2

 

First, let’s get the technical stuff out of the way.  The background was simply a sheet on the wall and was lighted with two Elinchrom Quadra set at f/11 (about 1½ stops over the setting for Cate).  Cate was lighted with a single Elinchrom Quadra shot through a white umbrella at about eye level and to her left—I wanted a slight shadow on the right side of her face.   I used my Nikon D800 and 50mm f/1.8 lens at f/6.7.  The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 is especially sharp at f/5.6 through f/13; this f-stop also makes sure that when I focus on her eye, her entire face will be in focus. 

To me, Cate’s best features are her eyes and her mouth—and that is what I tried to emphasize in the photo.  I wanted this image to be straight-on to show off those features. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 50mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 200, f/6.7 at 1/125^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon portrait preset, set white and black points, added vibrance.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 5

Last week, I ripped-off Joe McNally, so I thought it would only be fitting that I rip-off a lady this week.   It’s your turn, Lindsay Adler.  Lindsay is a very talented fashion photographer who does some outstanding how-to photography videos.  She recently took place in the GPP Shootout with John Keatley and Zack Arias.  You can watch a video of the shootout here.

Lindsay’s idea is to create flare by placing a plastic decoration very close to your lens and shoot through it.  You must set your lens to a relatively wide opening such as f/2.8 or wider.  This technique can produce some spectacular results, however, it is a hit-and-miss proposition because you are never really sure what you are going to get.

In this photo, I placed half of a clear Christmas ball in front of my lens.  I had a Nikon SB 800 behind and slightly to the side of Emili and an Elinchrom Quadra in front of her.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 100, f/2.8 at 1/180^th of a second on a tripod with a Nikon SB 800 behind her and an Elinchrom Quadra in front of her.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Portrait preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance.

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.