Using Flash Creatively—No. 9

Today’s photo is another one demonstrating repeating flash.

In my last post, I showed a photo of the how the master and remote flash was set however I did not explain the various settings.  Everything is controlled on the master flash.  On the master, I set Group A to RPT (repeating), Channel 3, the power setting at 1/8^th, number of flashes 8 and the Hz (the number of flashes per second) at 8.  I then set the remote flash to be on Channel 3 and in Group A.

In today’s photo, I had a dancer moving across the stage with three remote flashes hanging from a rod above the dancer’s path.  Again, the hard part of the photo was timing and making sure that the camera did not pick-up too much of the light build-up on the floor.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 100, f/8 at two seconds on a tripod.

Post Processing:

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

Photoshop CS5—cloned-out some of the light build-up on the floor.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 6

I have been fascinated by stroboscopic or repeating flash ever since I saw Joe McNally demonstrate it on video.  You can see the video here.

Overall, sitting-up the flash is relatively easy.  In today’s photo, I used a Nikon SB 800 as the master and two SB 800s as the flashes that provided the light for the photo.

In doing this shot, I soon discovered that the difficult part of getting the shot was timing.  Trying to get the number of flashes over a specific time element was extremely difficult and required many tries before I got what I wanted.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 100, f/8 at one second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

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

Photoshop CS5—cloned-out a hand in the top left and one in the top right to make the photo more symmetric and cloned-out some places in the photo that showed some light build-up.

Photoshop CS5—cloned-out a hand in the top left and one in the top right to make the photo more symmetric and cloned-out some places in the photo that showed some light build-up.

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.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 4

 

I must admit two things right from the start:  (1) this is a rip-off of a Joe McNally idea; and, (2) Joe did it better.  You can see Joe’s photo on page 234 of his book “The Hot Shoe Diaries.”  Joe, if you read this, I hope that by me giving you credit for the idea and promotion of your book is sufficient payment for me ripping off your idea.

Why is Joe’s better?  First, he picked a better time of day (night) and a better location to shoot the photo.  Both added to creating a real “Greepy-Guy-in-the-Alley Shot.”  The lighting of Joe’s heron was to make her look “normal” while I wanted to tie the two elements of the shot together—heron and ax murder—by the introduction of a Steve King novel and eerie green light coming from the novel.

My photograph was taken at about 3:30 PM (before we went to day-light-saving time) so there was a lot of ambient light even in the shade of the building.  The ambient light reduced the greepy effect of the shadow.  It also reduced the effect of the light coming from the book.

I also made a mistake of where I placed my camera.  I purposely selected a Steven King book that had a scary cover, but then, I placed my camera on the side that would not show the scary cover.  Very rookie mistake.

Final score:  Joe 10, Larry 5.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 44mm, ISO 100, f/8 at 1/180^th of a second on a tripod with a Nikon SB 800 with a green gel in Emili’s book and an Elinchrom Quadra with a green gel at 5.4 power setting and pointed at Ax Murder to create shadow on wall.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points, added vibrance and clarity and adjusted white balance.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 3

I wanted today’s photo to look like something out of a women’s clothing catalog—photo being a stylish woman in a rustic background at sunset.

This shot was taken later in the day when the overcast sky was darker.  Because I was using no light on her or the barn surrounding her, I had to increase my ISO to 1600 in order to get sufficient ambient light into the scene.

Again, I warmed my white balance so that I would have a more golden look on her.  I used a Nikon SB 800 with an orange gel on it and set at 1/8^th power to simulate the sun setting behind her.

Again, I refer you to the image on last week’s post to show you how the overall scene appeared.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 85mm f/1.4, ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/45^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Photoshop CS5—applied nik Color Efex Pro soft focus and pro contrast.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 2

Before I go into today’s photo, I would like to discuss what the blank pallet on which Steve and I were working.  This photo was taken by one of the other photographers at the meet-up.  In the photo, you can see that the sky has virtually no color in it.  You can also see where Christine was standing in relation to the barn.  You can see the gate that we positioned to create the shadow cast on the wall.  And, finally, you can see how dark it was within the barn.

In today’s photo, I wanted to simulate a sunset shot.  The first thing I did was to select an aperture of f/6.7 which would make sure that I would have sufficient depth of field.  I then, dialed in my shutter speed so that the ambient light in the door at the rear of the barn would more-or-less match what the light would look like at sunset.  I then set the power settings on the flashes so that the light would simulate sunset.

In post processing, I did warm-up and decrease the intensity of the light in the door to better match the overall scene.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 44mm, ISO 100, f/6.7 at 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Portrait preset during import, set white and black points, decreased shadows and increased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

 Photoshop CS5—applied nik Color Efex Pro glamour glow and pro contrast to image and warmed and decreased intensity of light in door.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 1

On March 21^st, I am teaching a class at Bay Area Photo Club on “Using Flash Creatively” so I thought I might try to learn something about it before I try to teach the class!

Meet Christine.  Steve and I had the pleasure of photographing her on Sunday.  She was a real joy to work with.

In today’s photo, I wanted to simulate a sunset photo at an old barn.  The sky was overcast with very little color in it.  I set my white balance in the camera to 8,600K which made the ambient light turn more golden.  I then sent light from a Nikon SB800 (with an orange gel) through an old gate with slates.  I wanted the Nikon SB800 to light-up the background and also provide some shadows on the wall behind Christine.

Christine is totally lighted by the defused light of the overcast sky.

I believe that the shadows more interest into the wall and increased the feeling of depth to the image.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 43mm, ISO 100, f/3.3 at 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Portrait preset during import, set white and black points, decreased shadows and increased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

Photoshop CS5—applied nik Color Efex Pro glamour glow and pro contrast to image.

Houston Marathon #1—Being Totally Unprepared

I have taken photos at the Houston Marathon five or six times before this last one.  Yet, for this one, I was totally unprepared.

Why?

Mainly because my purpose was different from the others and I took no action to ensure that I would be successful!

Monte (my son) and Ana (my daughter-in-law, or as I say, my special daughter) ran in this year's half marathon for the first time.  My intention was to get some really nice shots of them on the course.  Before the race, I knew that I wanted to get an early-race shot so I decided to go to the Taylor Street overpass to get and I also wanted a photo near the finish line, so I preselected Dallas street where I would have some nice building backgrounds.

Now, how was I not prepared.  Well, think about standing in the rain on the Taylor street overpass and seeing a wall of runners pass under you without knowing what your subject is wearing.  Makes it more than kinda hard to pick your subject out; it made it impossible to find either Monte or Ana.

Result:  no photo of Monte or Ana near the beginning of the race.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 135mm, ISO 2200, f/4 at 1/250^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Standard preset during import, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

My Uncle Bill

 

I have not been posting to my blog because of the death of my Uncle Bill.   Without a doubt, he was one of the most influential people in my life.  He was the second member of my family to hold me after I was born and he was always there when I needed something—whether it was a voice of encouragement or a kick in the butt.

Uncle Bill was a member of the America’s greatest generation.  A generation that grew-up seeing long soup lines; a generation that went into a war that saw 60 million people killed (20 million military and 40 million civilians); and a generation that built America into the world’s greatest super-power—militarily, economically and morally.

This generation did not judge themselves on how fat their wallets were, what titles they held, or the number of tweeter followers or Facebook friends that had.  They judged themselves based upon their service to country, community and family and their devotion to their religion.  If you try to judge Uncle Bill by today’s criteria, he was a total, abject failure, but if you judge him by his generation’s values, he was one of the most successful men I have ever know.

I will miss Uncle Bill a great deal, but in his absence, I promise to do a much better job of showing his generation the respect that they truly deserve.

Enjoy.

Paris—No 9

 

This is my last photo from our Paris trip—JD in front of Versailles Palace.  I am posting this photo for two reasons:  (1) to show off my lovely bride of 47 years; and, (2) to show that you can take a pretty darn good photo using the pop-up flash on your camera.
Enjoy. 
Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 65mm, ISO 100, f/8 at 1/60^th of a second using pop-up flash on camera 
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Portrait preset during import, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

Paris—No 8

 

I have strong political opinions, however, I try to keep any of them out of this blog.  Why?  Because this blog is about photography, not politics.

Today, I make an exception. 

I got up at my usual time (around 4:30), went to the “Y” to work out, read a number of articles and editorials in the Wall Street Journal and mailed my estimated income taxes.  In short, I am ripe to discuss politics, but since this is a photography blog and I am doing photos from Paris, how do I bridge the gap.

No matter what country you live, no matter whether you are on the right or left, or no matter what your age or sex, I think this statue, more-or-less, captures most peoples views of politicians today.

Enough said!

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 65mm, ISO 1,600, f/11 at 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Vivid preset during import, cropped image, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

Paris—No 7a

So many people commented on how the cars and the blue tarp over the building was a real distraction that I decided to have a mulligan on the color version. 
In today’s version, I de-saturated the blue tarp, removed the cars and darkened by burning the area where the cars were.  This was a quick and dirty, so please do not comment on my poor Photoshop work.
Does the B&W version still rule?
Enjoy.

Paris—No 7

Notre Dame is probably my second favorite cathedral in the world.  I have visited it every time I have been in Paris.  There is just something about it that I find amazing.  Yet, even though I have visited it so many times, I had never taken the tour to the top.  If you have never done this and are planning a trip to Paris, I highly recommend it.  But, be prepared to do a little climbing!

One of my very favorite films of all times is the Hunchback of Notre Dame (it’s the 193? Edition).  The story is the same in all the versions but the 193? version has some great scenes at the top of the cathedral that show close-ups of the statues and the Paris cityscape in the background.  The film is in high-contrast, back and white.

Here I tried to duplicate that look.  I wanted a lot of detail in the statues, a little less in the cityscape and then virtually none in the sky. After making basic adjustments in Lightroom 4, I used nik Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast filters on the image.  I then masked off the effect—50% grey on the cityscape portion and black on the sky—thus, decreasing the effect on those two areas of the photo.

In the black and white version, I increased the contrast and darkened the black point.

Naturally, I prefer the black and white version, but which one do you prefer?

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 32mm, ISO 800, f/16 at 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Vivid preset during import, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

Photoshop CS5—see above.

Paris—No 6

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Patrick Family!

Galaeries Lafayette, Paris, France.

Paris—No 5

 

When people talk about things that are “over the top,” I think of Palace of Versailles, which is about twelve miles outside of Paris and an easy train ride.  

The court of Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution.  Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancient Regime.

According to one of the write-ups within the Versailles, at its high point, to run and maintain this palace, it took about 20% of all the taxes collected by the French government—now that is living in style.

Today’s photo is of the hall of mirrors.  I manually focused my camera about one third of the way into the scene and then held it over my head and clicked away.  My main concern was keeping the camera level.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 1600, f/8 at 1/60^th of a second. 
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Vivid preset during import, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

Paris—No 4

There are certain places in the world that no matter how good cameras get, they will no be able to capture the beauty of the scene. La Sainte-Chapelle is one of those places.

The chapel is located on Ile de la Cite and was the royal chapel for King Louis IX.  The chapel is considered among the greatest Gothic architectures.

Every time I have visited the La Sainte-Chapelle, some part of it has been under restoration; therefore, a photo of the entire chapel would include some not-so-picturesque scaffolding.  In addition, the chapel is dark but because light streaming through the stained glass windows has a high dynamic range of light—again complicating the photo taking process. 

My Paris trip allowed me to use my Nikon D800 much more than I have ever used it.  I was quite surprised and happy with two elements of the camera:  (1) its ability to produce clean photos at much higher ISOs than the Nikon D3x; and (2) a very large dynamic range of the sensor—overall, probably a stop or two more than the Nikon D3.

My post processing included some work in Photoshop CS5 because I wanted to bring out the details and Lighroom would did not produce the results that I wanted.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 2500, f/3.5 at 1/15^th of a second (braced against some scaffolding).

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Standard preset during import, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

Photoshop CS5—applied nik Color Efex Pro Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast filters and sharpened photo using high pass filter method with blending mode set to overlay.

Paris—No 3

 

In my first post, I mentioned that museums were one of my favorite things about Paris.  If you go to Paris, I recommend that you get the museum pass that is for specified number of days and allows you to get into more than 60 different museums in and around Paris.  Great way to see a lot of the museums of Paris.

I do not consider today’s photo as a great photo—it may not even be a good one.  But, it is one that I really like—for some reason!
 The photo was taken inside Musse D’Orsay.  The museum is the home of some of the best Impressionist paintings—probably my favorite school of painting.  Musse D’Orsay building was a terminal for the railways of southwestern France until 1939.  It became obsolete because of longer trains.  The architecture is great.  There are two large clocks that looks-out over the city.  I first thought that I would wait for the people to clear the room but as I stood there, I began to think that the people really added to the scene.  I wished that I could have used flash, but photographs are not allowed within the museum (even though you see everyone taking photos with their point-and-shoots) and I did not want to risk having security kick me out!
I could not decide whether I like this better in color or black and white, so I included both in this post.
Enjoy. 
Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 320, f/8 at 60^th of a second. 
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Standard preset during import, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

Paris—No 2

We stayed in small hotel in the 6^th Arrondissement.  Our hotel was about three blocks from Jardin du Luxmbourg.  About three doors down from our hotel was Le Timbre, a sixteen-seat restaurant that severs great country French cuisine.   We ate there twice and enjoyed both of the meals.

JD ordered a terrine the second time we ate at Le Timbre.  It was the best terrine that I have ever eaten.  We were seated right next to the kitchen, which was separated from our table by a simple bar.  I told the chef (also the owner) that the terrine was the best that I had ever eaten and would love to have the receipt.
About ten minutes after my request, he placed the receipt on our table.  Of course I thanked him for the receipt but really did not look at it very closely.  I decided to make the terrine for Thanksgiving so when I took it out and began to study it I noticed couple things—first, the receipt was a combination of English and French and second, all the measurements were in Metric/Celsius.  Thanks to JD, the translation was relatively easy and thanks to converters on my iPad, the conversion was also relatively simple.
The terrine?  It came out GREAT!
Enjoy. 
Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 62mm, ISO 2200, f/4.8 at 160^th of a second.
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Standard preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and clarity.