Tag Archives: tutorial

Photography

Portrait with a wide angle lens 2

Artist Pat Corbin Chao–works on her landscape of the fishing pier at Lake Evans. I used just a reflector to direct the light down towards the palette and her canvas. See this picture from my student Erika Garcia taken from the  reverse angle.

Our 2nd artist Pat Corbin Chao set up to work closer to the lake but still within our immediate vicinity.

At this time of the day, about 7 pm, the sun was almost below the horizon.

But there was still a lot of light because of the mirror-like quality  from the water of Lake Evans.

The very warm and directional light gives everything a nice gold glow.
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Photography

Adding one light for more drama

If you’ve gone to the trouble of getting a model, gathering props for a location shoot, you should always ask yourself what else you can try before you call it quits.

Most of the time, you’ll work till your light is gone especially if you’re having a great time.

But it’s a good habit to ask what else you can try to push the envelope.

Look at it this way, you already have the shot you want “in the can,” why not experiment?

 

One flash about 2 feet away–I photographed my student Dan Schaefer posing with classmate Ana Pinheiro’s guitar with my Canon Powershot G3, a rangefinder, exposure was f8 @ 1/1250 sec ISO 100. My point & shoot camera has a hot shoe and it can sync at any shutter speed because it is a rangefinder. I used my Canon 580EX Speedlite on 1/8th power connected to my Cybersync radio slave. The exposure for the flash was about f8.

What do you stand to lose? Some time?

It will only take a few more minutes. After all, you already have all the elements there.

The model, the light and the equipment are already in place. Don’t get lazy.

Though the lesson for my class was about shooting silhouettes, I thought it was important that my students to see what adding one small bare flash can do their earlier silhouettes.
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Photography

Lighting can set free your vision

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Mary in flight–For the finale of my Small Flash Lighting workshop, Ed Lano had asked me about special effect flash photography, so why not attempt it instead of just talk about it. We didn’t have our tripods with us but we faked it okay.

Pictures may exist all around us, ready to be captured by our cameras or they could be a figment of our imagination.

As photographers we all start with that first kind–the ones we can see in the natural world.

Once we have mastery of our camera, it’s time to explore lighting.

When we use our own lighting, it’s not that we ever leave behind the world of available light photography.

We are just giving ourselves even more control and actually more options.

Besides, it’s not uncommon for photographers to be bored with what’s there in terms of lighting.

Knowing how to light allows photographers a way to bring out that image that is “dreamed up” in their heads.

At the end of my just concluded small flash lighting workshop I gave my students a taste of what this might feel like.
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Assignment, Tutorials

Photographing a belly dancer Part 2

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In my previous post “Photographing a belly dancer,” I mentioned how you have to make do when you don’t have control over the lighting and access to the performing/dance area.

I started wondering how much better my images could look, if I had more control, the control freak that I am.

So I got together with Hadia Habibi.

I had her undivided attention this time.

So, in the spirit of experimentation, sharing and fun, here’s our collaborative effort.

Warming up—We worked on some poses using strong side-lighting to accentuate Hadia’s svelte physique and her musculature.

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