From a regular snapshot to a decent one

Recently I was enjoying a party together with a group of friends. And there was a moment when they asked for the photos. It was evening, in a quite dark room, so there was not much options for lighting: I had to use flash or I had to crank the ISO up to 6400. So I have chosen for flash.

I started with one flash with omnibouncer, placed on the camera, directed 45 degrees towards the ceiling. iTTL mode did the job well, the only thing I had to do was to reduce the flash power by 1,5 stop, to balance a little bit with the background lighting. The result was, well, as expected:

The faces are well exposed, but the effect is rather disappointing: the scene is flat, shadows on the faces rather uniteresting.
But then I saw the possibilities to redo the scene with another lighting setup. Since I had 2 flash lights I decided to place them in the room according to the scheme shown below:

The light sources were SB-900 and SB-910 speedlight flashes, with omnibouncers, directed 45 degrees towards the ceiling, slightly above the model, both in the iTTL remote mode. They were triggered by the built-in flash of my camera. As previously, I adjusted the power of the flash by -1,5 stops - to show a little bit more background. I knew that the photo would be slightly underexposed, but I would be able to easily correct it in the post processing. The result was (in my opinion) much better:

Now I have separated the model from the background (look at the left shoulder of her and the top of the hair). Next to that, thanks to the light source on the left side of the camera I got the interesting shadow on her face, giving much more shape to it than on the first photo.
Of course, there is still a dozen of things to be improved (composition, background, white balance of the flash, just to mention some) - it is still a snapshot, after all.
But the learning is that it is always worth trying something else than on the camera flash. The setup cost me about 5 minutes but opened plenty of new possibilities of exposing the scene.

My humble attempt to product photography

Last couple of weeks I was not very busy with photography. Instead I was doing some renovation works in my house. But at the end I thought it would be fun to take a good shot of the result of my activities. My 'product' are the stairs in my living room.
First of all one can ask: are stairs a good item for product photography excercise? Believe me, after couple of weekends spent on sanding, milling, painting, drilling, all done with your own hands - you want to show off! So for me it is a fantastic item. Here one of the final shots:

To get there I applied the process described later in this post.

Setting up the scene

First I wanted to choose 2-3 compositions to work with and to enhance these scenes during the session. In my opinion a good product shot should reveal all most important features of the product, showing the material it is made from, its shape, texture, etc. On the other hand it should attract viewer's attention and make the product appear attractively. After playing around with my camera I finally chosen three compositions to work further with:

Scene 1

Scene 2 

Scene 3

 The three pictures show different aspects of the 'product'. The first shows a generic form and a little bit of positioning of the stairs. Second shows the slope as seen from top. Third is a view showing some details of the construction.
All three pictures were takes as the 'pre visualisation' of the actual shots. The composition of all of them needs to be refined.
Second important aspect is the light to be used.

Lighting

The light used for pre visualisation photos was just ambient light, in the middle of the day. Nothing spectacular, causing the images (especially the first one) looking flat. I wanted to create the situation where the light source would cast the harsh shadows on the wall behind the stairs, making the first image looking less flat and making the background more interesting.

To achieve that I have put a SB-900 strobe on the stand, left to the picture and increase the zoom to focus the light a bit. It would give me enough harshness of the cast shadows.

Another aspect was the colour of the main light.

From the beginning I wanted to emphasize the fact that new staircases are made out of wood. One of the most forthcoming associations with wood is warmth: wood is perceived warm when making physical contact with it, it is used to produce warmth, its colours are also warm. To strenghten this association I decided to use warm light for all the shots. I have put a CTO gel on the strobes I have used. 

So the first picture was enhanced by using the light left to the camera from the SB-900 strobe, positioned on the light stand. The strobe was about the 2m height from the ground, pointing the stairs. Zoom of the flash was set to 70mm, Light intensity in manual mode to 1/4th of maximum power:

Comparing to the initial picture I took it with slightly lower angle of view, mainly to show some more floor on the foreground. 

Moving on

Next shots show the different aspects of the stairs. First the shot from top, showing the slope of the stairs:

Comparing to the first version I have used slightly different angle of view, letting the stairs be positioned diagonally on the frame. I simply liked this composition more than the initial version.

Scene number 3:

This one deviates most from the initial concept. First of all it shows the whole construction instead of the only part of it. Again, I included some part of the floor on the foreground. In this case to create leading lines and emphasize the perspective.

This picture required also a special treatment with respect to lighting. To ensure that the top part of the stairs is properly exposed, I put 2nd strobe (SB-900) on top of the stairs and difussed the light by a white shoot-through umbrella. Of course, the 2nd strobe was equipped with the CTO gel as well.

The human aspect

I do believe that adding people to the scene can make the picture much more interesting. For this assigment I have also tried to do this trick, showing the main puprose of the stairs:

To remember in the future:

1. Work with few scenes keeping in mind how to emphasize product's feature in the best way
2. Ensure that the product is absolutely clean. I was not paying much attention to this and in case of the 2nd photo (stairs seen from the top) I had to do quite some spot removal in Photoshop

Make your own Easter greeting card

Easter is coming and it is a good habit to send the greetings to the friends or relatives on a greeting card. Since couple of years I make such cards by myself, which is a lot of fun and gives the cards uniqueness and personal touch.
Last year I described some techniques useful for this kind of photography. In this post I am going to describe the whole process of making such card, from the basic concept, to the publication.

Easter theme

All starts by selecting the basic theme. The symbolic of Eastern is focused on the symbols of new life: eggs, chickens, green and yellow colors, hare. So it is almost unavoidable to have at least some of them on the card. In my first attempt I have chosen for eggs and chickens. 

The composition

I like postcards that have a 3D-look. So I wanted to compose a picture that would give strong impression of depth. To achieve that I set up the scene in three planes: foreground, with the eggs, middle part with the chickens, and the background with the hanging eggs:

The perceived depth of field can be manipulated by different aperture settings.

The light

The above picture was taken in the ambient light, coming from the window located right to the scene. I wanted to give the chickens some warm punch as key light. To do so, I have used two speedlights with the CTO filter placed left and right to the chickens:

To avoid light spilling both strobes were equipped with a snoot to focus the light beam. Both strobes were controlled from the camera build-in flash via the iTTL system of Nikon. First attempt:

The chickens are warmly lit, but the rest of the scene is dark. Too dark. Time to put the fill light. Fill light was been created by third flash and a golden reflector bouncing the light from the flash on the scene. After applying fill light the scene looked like that:

That is better. The scene still have a warm look and all elements on the foreground are properly lit. Last step is to improve the light in the background. To do so another flash was used, equipped with the yellow filter. I have experimented with several positions of the background flash:

Manipulating the background light was easy, I just held the flash light in my hand during shooting in the different places of the scene.
Finally I have chosen the middle image for further processing.

Post processing

For post processing I have used combination of Lightroom, Nik software suite and Photoshop.

In Lightroom I have applied lens profile and camera corrections.

In Nik software I have pre-sharpened the image (with RAW sharpener), applied the golden reflector filter, blur vignette (in Efex Pro), added some local brightness to the eggs in the background (with Viveza)

In Photoshop I have removed some distracting spots. There is the final picture:

Some technicalities

Reuse the setup

The whole 'production' took me about 3 hours. Since a lot of effort has been put in the light setup once the chickens were ready I decided to create another card, with a hare in the main role:

As one can see, the scene is very similar to those with chickens, yet different. Taking this picture took me just couple of minutes thanks to reuse of the existing setup.

Try different gels

When I was done with my basic setup I have tried to light the scene with flashes without gels:

It hasn't been chosen eventually but it is always worth experimenting with different settings and sometimes it can result in a new, inspiring scene.

Hanging eggs

To hang the eggs I have used a combination of the flash light stand and a piece of other pipe mounted on the light stand:

Extend multiple flash setup applications - cheap and efficient

Sometimes (well, probably more often than I would like to) I experience the situation when the system that I thought and use during my photography assignments doesn't work as I expected. This happened during my last portrait shooting.

The problem I had was manifestated with the close-up portraits:

Since I was using the iTTL system of Nikon, it was required that all three light sources needed to be in the line of sight of the master flash, placed on the camera. The problem was with the rim light source (C). Since it was a strip softbox (30x100 cm) and it was quite deep (30 cm), the flash unit placed at the rear side of the softbox was not always reachable by the master flash. There are several options to solve it (at least that I came with in the first instance):

1. Put the omnibouncer on the master unit to create the broader light bundle used for controlling other flashes
2. Use a radio frequency wireless trigger
3. Don't come so close to the subject (for example by using a lens with a longer focal length)

The first option helped a bit, but didn't solve the problem completely. To be honest, it was required anyway, to control the base light (A) in a reliable way.
The second option is nice, but I don't have a wireless trigger and my budget for photography is for this year really, really up.
Third option is the probably something I'd love to try, if I had a proper lens. I was shooting with the 24-70mm lens. If I had a lens with a longer focal lenght (e.g. 70-200) that would solve my problem. And I think it would also create a lot of new opportunities for the composition of a close up portrait, but alas - something for the future.

There is actually a fourth option, coming from the observation that iTTL is a one-way control system, where the master unit sends the control signals in the form of short light pulses. So the basic light principles, like the reflection of light apply for these signals. The solution was born. I simply put a highly reflective surface ensuring the light from the control unit reaches the remote flash. Something like on the picture below:

Now the best part. The "high reflective surface" was a silver foam that is used to protect the windscreen of a car from freezing. To buy in the Netherlands for 2 or 3 Euro.

The result: 100% efficiency in the controlling of the rim light.

School portrets season is over - learnings and looking forward

The shooting of portraits for the Polish school in The Hague for 2012 is finished. Today I sent last photos for printing. As each year I try to put a new challenge on the area of photography and to experiment with something new. After all, it should be fun for everyone, including a volunteer photographer.

So this year I was using 3 light sources for the first time, building a classical setup: base light in front of the subject, left or right, background lighting to lit the background and the rim light coming from the  side, slightly behind the subject:

The light sources I have used for the setup were as follows:

- Base light (A) Lastolite's EzyBox Hotshoe 76x76cm powered with SB-900 in iTTL mode

- Background light (B): SB-600 placed on a boom arm behind a Lastolite's Tri grip diffuser. SB-600 set in manual mode on 1/4 of maximum power.

- Rim light (C): self-made 30x100 cm softbox with SB-900 set in iTTL mode.

The setup was controlled by the SB-910 flash placed on the camera.

The light setup was partially dictated by the background:

It felt more naturally to put the background light to the right letting the light travel along the lines formed by the orange clouds. So is the main light was placed also left to the photographed subject.

Before shooting I needed to decide whether to use a laptop and shoot in tethered mode or not. Finally I decided not to do so, mainly due to the number of children and the expected crowd and hectic during the session.

So what were the challenges this year? Here the list of most important ones:

1. Place the rim light efficiently to create the desired result,

2. Determine the limits of iTTL system and learn how to use it in such situations,

3. Learn how to deal with iTTL when there is no line of sight between the master flash and the remote units (and not ruin your budget),

4. Streamline the workflow during the session and during the post-processing efficiently so it doesn't take ages to come to the photos.

5. Fine tune the light setup to let children shine on a portrait (some information about it in my previous post)

6. Place the larger groups in front of the background of a limited size.

In coming posts I will take each challenge one by one and describe what I did to overcome it.

Shooting a multi-portrait session in tethered mode - the impressions

Today I was shooting another multi-portrait session of several dozens of children (from age 0.6 to 6-7).
The setup I used was quite similar to the one I used earlier and described here. For today's session I decided to introduce a new element: a laptop connected to the camera, so I was able shoot in so-called tethered mode.
This way of shooting is adviced by a lot recognized studio photographers. Obviously it gives one clear advantage, one can judge the quality of a picture taken much better than on camera LCD. But I found out that there more advantages. More on that later, now some technical stuff.

Iteration one:
Tethered mode in Lightroom is not supported for Nikon D80. So in the first approach I have installed an "intermediate" application called Camera Control from DYIPhotoBits. It's free and it recognizes my Nikon D80, so the rest was easy: I configured the destination directory of Camera Control as a directory to be monitored by Ligthroom (In Lightroom choose File->Auto Import->Auto Import Settings... and then File->Enable Auto Import to start monitoring).
Then connect the camera via USB to the laptop (don't forget to set the USB port in your camera to the PTP mode). From now on, whenever a picture is taken, it gets saved by Camera Control, recognized by Lightroom and imported to the Lightroom catalog. There is one drawback of this approach: the latency time between shooting and getting a picture in Lightroom. So it was working, but is was not smooth (in my case it took 10-11 seconds from the shot to the file available in Lightroom for preview. Go to iteration 2


Iteration two:
The Camera Control Pro from Nikon is the application that was tested as second. For Nikon 80 version 2.0 didn't work, so after installation the immediate update to 2.8 was required. Luckily the trial version works for 30 days, so I could use it for the session. The application performance was a way better comparing to the solution from iteration one (the time from shutter release to having image available on the laptop was 2-3 sec). So this was chosen as a solution for the session

Advantages of tethered mode
Indeed, looking at a photo on a 15'' screen enables much better quality control than LCD. But there is more, much more. It gives you a possibility to interact nicely with the customer (in this case parents of the photographed children). And that is win-win situation: in my case parents could easily pick up the photos they liked, I could listen to their comments and learn what they actually like. Plus, I was able to take notes about extra wishes (like required number of prints) just in place.

Learnings and practical tips:

1. Tethered mode is a way to go for studio sessions. I am fully convinced.
2. Remember to secure the USB cable, especially in presence of small children. They really don't care about your stuff. So I fastened 30-40 cm of the cable to the floor with gaffer tape, so the chance of suddenly pulling it from the laptop (or dropping the laptop on the groud) by accidental stumble was minimized
3. I was using 5m long USB cable which was enough and gave enough flexibility. 

Let small object "hang" in the air (with no postprocessing and a lot of fun)

The idea described here came during preparing a set of Xmas postcards for our family and friends. I had a number of little Christmas decorations that together with other bigger subject could make a nice composition. The final product (one of several) looks like this:

So the decoration hangs in the air (which is a quite normal behavior for an angel) and candles below it lit the subject a little bit. No Photoshop (or other software) has been involved in this photo. The hanging effect is achieved purely mechanically. Here's how the concept basically works:

Scene setup in bird's view

The subject is supported by an aluminium pipe that is placed horizontally. Now if the camera lens is put at the same height as the hanging subject, the subject hides the pipe completely and we have a hanging angel (or Santa, or whatever):

Scene setup showing orientation of a camera w.r.t. the support and the  subject

The direction of the aluminium pipe doesn't need to be exactly horizontal. Important is that it matches the line of sight of the lens and the pipe remains invisible behind the subject.

When basis is done the rest is to choose a proper lighting for the subject and decide what to do with the background. If one wants to try the setup here are some practical tips:

• As a support for the pipe I have used an Lastolite umbrella stand with hotshoe swivel. The hole which is normally used for mounting an umbrella was used to hold the aluminium pipe.
• It is convenient to be able to regulate somehow the length of the pipe. I started with the length of 1.35m but then I realized that the subject is too close to the background and light doesn't drop enough with this distance to have a close to black background. A length of 2.4m worked well.
• To mount the subjects to the pipe I have used a removable adhesive from Tack-It. But any brand of course would be good as long as the subject is not too heavy.

If you are interested let me know, I can upload some more pictures showing the details of the setup.

Students meet an interesting person

I have been asked by my wife to take a couple of photos at a school she works. There was a meeting organized between a group of students and their parents (about 60 in total) and so-called 'ineteresting person' who were going to tell about last 20 years of democratic changes in Poland.
The basic idea was to take the pictures for a school chronicle (of course) and to create a kind of album for the speaker and hand it over to him as a gift.
First part of an assignment is actually not a big deal - I used to do it many times before.
The photos for an album is a different story. I knew I wouldn't have a chance to take any decent portret photo of the person, neither get any time for one-to-one interaction: his time was very limited, he is in advanced age and it was pretty sure that very soon after the meeting he'll leave. So what I took during the meeting would be the material for an album. That's it.
According to the motto: "Preparation is half of work" I visited the location two hours before the actual event. There would be a small reception before the meeting (with a coffee, cake, etc.) - which was a good news; this creates extra opportunities for interesting photos.
Bad news was the setup of the meeting place:

Crowded audience, a table of the speaker placed in the corner with the speaker back to the window and a lot of glass behind a place where the speaker was going to sit.
Two things came to my mind immediatelly:
- there should be an extra light source out of the camera and not being reflected by the glass wall and put in the front of the speaker,
- there must be a possibility for taking shots from several different angles.
So I've asked the for a possibility of re-arranging the audience sitting places to create some movement opportunities. Then placed and secured an extra light source (SB-600 at the height of about 2 m pointing towards the speaker:

This setup was a good starting point (at least creating enough various possibilities of shooting).

Then the session started. Some interesting (in my opinion) photos have been taken:

One final word about the equipment:

I have used two flashes: one SB-900 attached to the camera (Nikon D-80) and one SB-600 placed on the stand. It gave me enough flexibility. I have learned however that when the audience is really quiet, zooming motor of the SB-900 is making a lot of noise, causing some disctraction. So be careful in the future and consider not using zoom in such situations.

Summary:

- Learned to prepare some "movement space" to be able to shoot from different angles,

- Extra light even from a "typical" angle of 45 degrees can make your photos a way more interesting

- Zoom motor of SB-900 in a quiet room can create a lot of undesired distraction.

Do's:
- Inspect the place in advance, try to adapt it for your needs,
- Talk to the organizers, learn the agenda of the event
- Take different positions during shooting. It enhance the final results and increases chances of a good result

Don's:
- Get surprised by your equipment by discovering a new "feature" during a session