Fun times with off-camera flash

I took these yesterday with my little canon camera flash, with a diffuser on it, mounted off camera on a stand to camera right, and a large white reflector to camera left.

I did not mount the flash to point directly at her. Instead, I pointed it at the reflector so to feather the light onto her. The sky was overcast, providing very soft light which was nice but it was still too much overhead, causing "raccoon eyes" (shadows in the eyes). It did provide some highlight on her hair and shoulders, however, so my off-camera flash provided the main light (and the catch lights visible in the upper left side of her eyes). I always tell people to turn off their camera flash and use light from off the camera. When you use the flash on the camera, it flattens your subject (producing almost no visible shadows), and causes the catch lights to be dead center in the pupil (the cause of red-eye - not to mention just not looking great).

When photographing a two or three year old, you have to engage them. She was willing to pose initially, but quickly got bored. I wanted genuine expressions and smiles. I talked with her about her upcoming trip to her grandparents' house and that initiated the excitement in the third picture.

Albums

I had the opportunity to try out an album from Loktah. I love the materials they use to create their packaging, prints, and book covers. This was a mini album labeled "Earth" with a cover of homemade paper. The mini album has only six spreads which I designed, while a full album has options for more or less. This is not your typical press printed book. These are quality, archival prints on lay flat pages, preserved in a unique cover.

I think this is a great product for families to have or give as keepsakes.

Night View From My Window

High-school Senior Photos

We traveled over Thanksgiving, arriving back in town Monday night. The weekend before Thanksgiving I was given the opportunity to do a photo session for this sweet senior. She is a musician as well as an actress, and she is home-schooled. She wanted to take photos outdoors and she specified she loves green - the green of grass and trees. She picked a location and we met despite the chilly wind and had fun with it. Here are just a few of the images we created.

Reflectors

I want to briefly discuss the use of reflectors: some sort of object used to reflect light on to what you are photographing. There are 5-in-1 reflectors on the market that are a diffuser covered by a reversible case. Each side of the case is a different color for a total of four once you've turned the case inside out and re-inserted the diffuser on the round frame. These are relatively inexpensive, and very handy to carry along. But you can also use many other types. There are expensive ones on large collapsible frames (scrim jims) that are useful for providing a larger area of light. You can use a piece of white foam board for a nice white (diffuse) reflection, or even the bottom of a large white box.

So here are some examples. First is an example of using a reflector to bounce extra light onto the already lit side of the subject. I had my husband standing to my right holding a white reflector to lighten the shadows under the eyes, add extra light to the side where the main light came from (the sky) and therefore a bit of contrast (difference between the lit side and dark side), and also add catch lights to the eyes. He had to stand so as to catch the light from the sun and bounce it back onto the subject who was sitting in the shade:

Here she is without the reflector. I had to brighten it more in post processing.

Here is another example. Again in the first, my husband is holding a reflector to my right (adding light to the lighter side, adding catch lights, and lightening the shadows under her eyes):

Here she is without the reflector. The "catch-lights" in the eyes are actually reflections of sunny patches on the sidewalk in front of her. It required a little more editing on my part to brighten up her face.

Here is an example of a photo I took a few years ago with window light. I was following around my two children with a reflector, looking for an opportunity. Here they wanted me to use the reflector as a "roof" and willingly snuggled together to wait. I grabbed the shot and then did as they were expecting. I actually took the photo upside down looking straight down on them, then flipped the photo around later. The window light is lighting them from below, and my gold reflector is reflecting light onto the tops of their heads:

This last shot I also took several years ago with one studio light. A large white foam core (you can pick up at art supply stores) is to my left reflecting light onto the shadow side of their faces. This is called the "fill". The catch light in the upper left of their eyes is from my large softbox.

Texture

I've been working with adding textures to photos. Here are five I've worked with. The first three are recent photos. The last two I took several months ago.

 

Portrait of a Two Year Old Princess

California Coast

We just returned from a family vacation, driving out to the Redwoods of northern California. While we were there my kids got to experience the Pacific coast for the first time. While we took many many pictures, I chose a few from one beach adventure to share here.

The sun was low in the southwest so for many photos I went down the beach to shoot back at my children so the light would illuminate them and sky would not be washed out behind. Several photos I allowed to be silhouettes in order to catch the action as well as the rolling water.

Here again I exposed for the water and like how I capture the expectancy then the wild run as the wave came in, then the return.

A simple study of light

I took several photos of some flowers we picked in our backyard yesterday with my iPhone. I just took them for a record so I could possibly work on identifying them with my children. I think they do a good job of demonstrating the effect of light direction.

This first was taken with the camera flash on (coming directly from the iPhone). Notice how it effectively flattens the appearance of the flowers in the water. This might be the look you are after or it might not.
I find it very interesting.

In the next two I simply turned the flash off so that the flowers were lit by the light coming in from the windows to my left. Notice how the flowers appear more dimensional.
But in the first, the large flower is turned away from the light. Notice where your eye is drawn.

In this last one, I turned the large flower to open toward the light.

Family Photos in Abuquerque

I took a few photos for this neat family last Friday evening. They wanted photos of everyone while the grandmother was here visiting. We planned it to be shortly before sunset to use the shade behind their house for a more diffused light and take advantage of the pretty sky in the background for another setting on their back deck area. Everyone was patient and cooperative - quite a feat for any group of children!

In the first shot we used pure natural light, as they were in the shadow cast by the house, on the hill right behind their house. I used aperture priority mode, with an aperture of f/10 so as to keep everyone in focus. I had to overexpose as the sky was bright, with evaluative exposure bias of 2/3 of a stop. This brought my shutter speed to 1/160 of a second. Since I was using a focal length of 50mm, this shutter speed was just ok as long as no one was really moving. In order to get at least this I bumped the ISO to 1250.

In this second shot, I used my studio lights. I used two right next to each other for the main light in order to get enough light on everyone.  I had go to complete manual on my camera for this. I wanted the background to be darker than in the previous photo, so first I set the camera to expose for the background and then adjusted the lights so the family would be properly exposed.
 

Headshots!

I took photos of this family for the sole purpose of creating headshots for each of them. These they can then print in a large quantity for their agent to use in promoting them for acting. They are such sweet  and beautiful kids. The little girl has already been acting, including a part in a recent Hallmark movie. I had my husband alongside to either hold a reflector or diffuser (depending on lighting conditions). All were taken outdoors. Here are a few of my favorites.