Spring Means JD’s Garden #2

Here I was captivated by the way the light was falling on the two leaves.  I tried to figure out what was causing it but never could.  I really like how much contrast there was between the two leaves in the front compared to the rest of the photo.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, ISO 800, f/22 and 1/20^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and adjusted hue and saturation of certain colors.

Photoshop CS5—dodged and burned areas of the photo.

Spring Means JD’s Garden #1

It’s spring so that means I spend many hours walking about JD’s plants looking for something that catches my eye.  I was photographing the leaves a plant when I looked across the driveway and noticed how the water from the sprinkler system spayed across the leaves of the plant that was backlit.

I  tried various shutter speeds and finally settled on 1/90^th of second.  I thought that gave the best streaking effect.

Enjoy.
Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, ISO 800, f/13 and 1/90^th of a second.
Post Processing:  
Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and vignetting.

Walking around Downtown Houston #5

Today’s photo is different from most street photos that I present—it is in color.  I must admit when I think of street photography, I think black and white.

This man was cleaning the rails downtown for the train.  I have no idea as to why they need to clean the rails, but they evidently do.  Here I was attracted by the colors reflecting off the buildings.

Enjoy.

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

Post Processing:  

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

Walking around Downtown Houston #4

Vacation is over.  No, I have not really been on vacation, but I did take a little sabbatical from my blog.  Yes, I had lots of work however I could have found time to do a few posting during the month.  Just lazy, I guess.

To me, today’s photo is a classical street photo—it depicts a classical human topic:  husband and wife “debating” over something with each doing his/her thing without regard to the other. 

I kept the composition simple.  I wanted the two people be the focal point of the image.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6, shot at 300mm, ISO 800, f/8 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

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

  nik Silver Efex Pro 2—converted image to black and white, added orange filter and vignetting.

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.

Walking around Downtown Houston #2

This is the old Texaco Building.  I always liked the architecture of this building.  It has very classical lines.  It is now abandoned.  Not sure what will happen to it but I am hoping that someone will see what a great old building it is and saves it.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 shot at 80mm, ISO 1,400, f/8, 1/180^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.

Walking around Downtown Houston #1

I had a job in downtown Houston last week.  After the job was over, I decided to wait and let the rush hour traffic subside (as if you can in any big city in America).  I put my lights, etc in the car, armed my camera with my Nikon 70-300 lens (one of my favorites for street photography) and started walking around downtown Houston.

For 40 years, my old firm had offices in downtown Houston and I spent a lot of hours, days, weeks, months and years in downtown Houston.  But, I must admit, I had NEVER just walked around looking at buildings, streets and the “going-on” until the other day.

The shapes and distorted reflections of these two buildings caught my eye.  I converted the image to black and white in Lightroom 3.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 shot at 80mm, ISO 360, f/11, 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set white and black point and adjusted luminosity of orange, yellow, blue and cyan to effect contrast of black and white image, and added a strong curves adjustment.

A Little Street Photography

I know that I am getting old when I see a pair of tight blue jeans, filled with a lovely young lady walk past me and all I could think of is: "boy, I bet those blue jeans are really uncomfortable."  Yep, getting old!

Enjoy.

Assemble the Skyline #6

This is my final posting of the band.  I submitted this photo for Bay Area Photo Club’s March assignment of blur.  The blur is totally achieved in the camera.  In fact the only things done in Photoshop was sharpening all the eyes and converting the photo to black and white.

The blur was caused by the band swaying back and forth while using a slow shutter speed and two Elinchrom strobes that were fired in rear-synch mode.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3 on a tripod, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 70mm, ISO 100, f/19, 1/6^th of a second with two Elinchrom strobes with a silver umbrellas.

Post Processing:  

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

Photoshop CS5—sharpened the eyes of all the band members and used nik Silver Efex Pro to convert photo 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 #4

Austin was really into the song that the band was playing.  I tried several different angles and finally settled on this one.  What I like about this one is:  Austin’s expression, the lighting and the angle.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 48mm, ISO 800, f/4.8, 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

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

Assemble the Skyline #3

Sometimes, I like a photo but do not know why I like it.  That’s the case with this photo of Luke.  It is a very simple photo, yet I find myself studying it.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 60mm, ISO 800, f/8 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—set white and black point and added mid tone contrast.

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.

Assemble the Skyline

Meet the boys of the band, Assemble the Skyline.  The boys are from left to right:  Austin, Luke, Nick and Max.  Steve and I had the pleasure of shooting the band last Friday.  It was a great shoot.

Why?  Well, to begin with, the guys are really fine young men.  They were willing to do anything that Steve or I asked them to do.  So naturally, we tried all sorts of new things.  Second, I got to play with my new Pocketwizard triggers.  I was impressed with their performance, but must admit there is a learning curve with them.

This photo is all natural light.  It was behind the stage in Galveston.  I wanted the photo to have a behind the scenes look so I used the stage hangers as props to frame the band.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 shot at ISO 800, f/8 and 1/350^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, cropped photo and added a vignetting.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Silver Efex Pro to convert the photo to black and white.

My First Girl’s Softball Game

On Saturday, I attended my first girl’s softball game.  My granddaughter is playing softball this year, which, of course means that grandma and grandpa is about to get a lesson in girls’ softball.

My first lesson is one of style—the boys have none and the girls are all about style (at least six year-old are).  Note the socks.  You got to admit these socks have a lot more style than the standard red, blue, etc socks that the boys wear.   

Enjoy.

Model Shoot #5A

Anne’s comment about a sepia tone got me thinking—maybe, just maybe.  So, I deleted the photo that I intended to show today and substituted this sepia toned image of the last posting.

The conversion to sepia was made using nik Silver Efex Pro.  I used a strong curves adjustment, burned the edges of both the left and bottom of the photo and used a yellow filter to even the tones.

No matter how many years I do this, I will never stop being amazed at how black and white seems to simplify and increase the emotional impact of a photo.

Enjoy.

Model Shoot #5

Not too much to this photo.  Model is very close to a door so that the light can fill her face.  Shot the photo tight to emphasize her eyes and lips.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 shot at 200mm, ISO 1,800, f/4 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, increased mid-tone contrast and applied some noise reduction.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro glamour glow filter to add some pop to her face and greater contrast with background.

Model Shoot #4

For those of you who think modeling is easy, I have a simple question:  could you look this good while leaning against a wall in a warehouse with temperatures around 50 degrees dressed in this outfit?  Jay wanted her to lean against the wall but was concerned about how cold the wall was.  She felt the wall and said: no problem.  That is professionalism.   

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 shot at 200mm, ISO 2,200, f/6.7 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, increased mid-tone contrast, applied some noise reduction and vignettting.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro skin softer filter.

Model Shoot #3

Big hair + frilly dresses + wild make-up + albino Texas Rat + cold warehouse = HIGH FASHION.

 Yep, that’s the exact formula for high fashion that I learned in college and it seemed to be the one employed at my model shoot.

I was quite surprised at how all the models seemed to think nothing of having the snake draped over them.  The snake, on the other hand, had a different idea.  She (I was told the snake was a “she”) was in constant motion and often got completely tangled in the model’s hair—which made for some interesting moments.

 Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 shot at ISO 1,600, f/2.8 and 1/45^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, increased mid-tone contrast and applied some noise reduction.

Photoshop CS5—converted the photo to black and white using nik Silver Efex Pro.

Model Shoot #2

Although I normally have some idea as to what my final image will be in my mind as I take the photo, I must admit, this one emerged almost exactly like I imagined it.  I wanted one sharp eye and almost everything else softly focused.  I thought the darkness of her eyes versus the light colors of everything else would draw the viewers’ eyes directly to the eyes.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 50mm, ISO 900, f/2.8 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:

 

Lightroom—Set black and white points and increased mid-tone contrast.

Photoshop CS5—removed a few distracting elements within the photo and used nik Color Efex Pro skin softener filter.

Model Shoot #1

A couple weeks ago, I fell into a model shoot with photographer Jay Marroquin and designer Lizzi London—both were great being around!  The reason I said that I “fell into” the shoot is because I went by a friend’s warehouse to show him my D3 and D3x and discuss what I thought were the advantages of the D3 over the D2x (which he has).  Well, Jay was using his warehouse for a shoot of Lizzi’s clothing that morning.  The three photographers (Jay, a Canon guy, Greg and I) discussed all sorts of geek camera stuff and how Jay was planning on shooting the models.

Jay planned to use a two Canon flash setup in e-TTL mode and triggered by the PocketWizard FlexTT5.   After seeing the results using the PocketWizard, I was sold—sold to the tune of buying Nikon compatible ones (more on them in a later post).  Jay asked if I wanted to shoot.  The FlexTT5’s were not compatible with my Nikon camera so all my shots were natural light only—usually at ISO of 800 to 2,200 and f-stops of 2.8 to 5.6.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at shot at 200mm ISO 1,100, f/5.6 and 1/45^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

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

Photoshop CS5—removed a few distracting elements within the photo and used nik Color Efex Pro skin softener filter.

Old Grungie Look

After a senior portrait session in Galveston last week, I decided to roam around a while and photograph anything of interest that I found.  I really liked this old building, which, I believe was a brewery at one time.  

I wanted to push the grunge look so I produced a HDR image and then further enhanced the look by using nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at shot at 35mm ISO 200, f/11 and various shutter speeds.

Post Processing:  

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

Photomatix Pro—Combined three photos to create and tone map the HDR photo.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter.

Product Composite

Originally, I prepared today’s photo for Bay Area Photo Club’s January assignment of “product shot.”  When I first saw the assignment I was not very excited.  My initial reaction was to put some product in front of two strobes and a white seamless background and then fire away until I got something I liked. 

But then, I was watching some ads during a football game and saw some really cool stuff.  So I decided to do more than just a product shot—a full ad mock-up.

Enjoy.

Street Photography No. 4

Today’s post is the last in my discussion of street photography.  It comes from Dickens on the Strand and to me demonstrates the last element that I think is needs to produce good street photography—expression.  In this photo, I believe the expression makes the viewer want to understand what she is thinking about. 

 

The simple background sets her off and allows the viewer to concentrate on her expression.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 shot at 200mm,  ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/500^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Adjusted white balance, added mid tone contrast and saturation of various colors.

Photoshop CS5—used spot healing to clean-up various spots, softened her skin slightly and then did some dodging and burning.

Street Photography No. 3

This is rare.  I have a photo that I would have normally disregarded on my first pass of reviewing what I shot  I think this demonstrates, vividly, why you need to move when doing street photography.  

This is one of the first photos that I took in the series.  The background is cluttered and does not help support or set-off the subject.  It gets in the way of what I want to convey and what I thought was important in the scene.  Definitely not a very good photograph!


Think about how much Photoshop work it would take to make this photo be on par with the original photo I posted of the Mad Hatter.  I have neither the time nor the patience to do it.  I prefer moving the five steps it took to get the original one.

Enjoy, if you can.

Street Photography No. 2

Before I discuss what I consider the most important aspect of street photography, I would like to discuss a couple of basic technical items.  I generally set my camera to aperture priority, automatic white balance, continuous focus, 51 points (3D tracking) and auto ISO sensitivity control (which varies my ISO as needed to keep the shutter speed at a certain minimum).  If the lighting has a lot of variability, I will also set auto backeting (usually three shots—0EV, +1 EV and -1EV).  I set my camera to these settings before I start shooting.  I think these setting help me get the best exposure automatically so that I can concentrate on the subject.  If your camera does not have these exact setting (either because your Nikon model does not have them or you use a different camera manufacture), I suggest that you read your camera manual (this is the strange paper booklet that the manufacturer included with the camera) to determine which settings are best for this type of shooting.

Now the real secret of street photography, you must move.  Unfortunately, zoom lenses has taken out (or at least, reduced) the aerobic aspects of street photography.  Since I generally like shooting most subjects at focal lengths of 60mm or more, I generally rely on my zoom when I have limited space in which to move.


Dickens on the Strand #4 and #6 were part of 18 shots taken over four minutes and 22 seconds.  Below is how I moved around the subjects to get the two photos previously posted (starting at position 1 and moving to position 4), plus the photo shown above.  Posting #4 was taken from a low vantage point at position #3 and posting #6 was also taken from a low vantage point at position #4.  As I moved around, I notice that I still had a lot of clutter in the background if I photographed the subject from my normal height, so I lowered my shooting position until I got a nice clean background.  Being aware of the background is essential when photographing people.


Although today's posting does not have a clean background, I like it because it adds additional context to the photo of the Mad Hatter.  I should have taken a little more care in framing the shot to include all of the tube running from the Mad Hatter's mouth. 

Street Photography No. 1

Recently, I got a request from that famous singing group, Tina, Tyler & Ellen, to explain how I go about my street photography.

I love street photography because you never know what you are going to get (if anything) and you constantly have to adapt to changing lighting conditions, subjects and backgrounds.  If you look at the labels on my blog, you will see that street photography has 86 different posts which ties it with environmental portraits as the most posts on my blog.  If I was consistent with my labeling, I believe that street photography would have considerably more.

To me, there two essential elements to a successful street photography image:  interesting subject and separation of the subject from the background.  Interesting subjects come in all sizes, shapes, colors and ages but what I try to do with all of them is to emphasize what attracted me to them in the first place.   

A great example of how I did not do this is my December 21, 2009 post.  In the full frame version of the photo, I did not hone-in on the glasses; consequently, the photo is very ordinary.  Even the cropped version is lacking because it does not fully capture the unusual nature of the spectacles.  So, my first rule of street photography is to find a subject that interest you and make your photo about exactly what attracted you to the subject.   

Separating the subject from the background can be done several different ways:  shooting subject against a simple background, using shallow depth-of-field, under or over exposing the background while properly exposing the subject, shooting subject from an usual angle, etc.  This is one of the parts of street photography that makes you continually adapt.  Unfortunately, I cannot give you a formula as to which approach will work best in different situations.

The photo posted today is a revision of the one I posted on December 21, 2009.  If I had shot this as I should have, I would have used an f-stop of f/2.8 (rather than f/9.5) which would have completely burred the background and slightly blurred his face.  Additionally, I would used a shutter speed of 1/60^th of second which would have overexposed the background by about 1 ½ f-stops.  I tried to simulate these differences using Photoshop CS5, but I must admit, the result is a very poor substitution to shooting it right to begin with.  But, I think you can better understand what I should have done.

Next post, I will describe how I try to get this result in the camera.

Enjoy.

Dickens on the Strand #8

Today’s photo is the last one that I will present from this year’s Dickens on the Strand.  Brock noticed this young lady while the parade was going past us.  She was on the opposite side of the street, so, I approached her immediately after the parade was completed.

She was great to photograph.  She went into many different poses and displayed a great deal of personality without saying a word.  This is my favorite because it is not one that you will normally see.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 shot at 200mm,  ISO 200, f/4 and 1/500^th of a second.

Post Processing:   

Lightroom 3—Adjusted white balance, added mid tone contrast and saturation of various colors. 

Photoshop CS5—used spot healing to clean-up various spots, softened her skin slightly and then did some dodging and burning.

Dickens on the Strand #7

For some reason, the combination of cigar and the Steampunk goggles just seemed odd to me.  Naturally, I had to record it.

I wanted the image to showcase the goggles so I focused on the left three small lenses and then added a little sharpness and contrast to them in Lightroom 3.  As a result, his face is a little soft which will bother some people, but my intent was to focus the viewer's attention on what I found unusual and interesting and that was not his face.


Upon seeing the image on the computer, I felt that the soft background really set the subject off.

Enjoy.

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

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Adjusted white balance, added mid tone contrast and sharpness and contrast to the goggles.

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.