Photography Thread

[ThePhilosopher]

Phil,

Those are some cool shots, tattoo shops really have come a long way from the dingy/dark places I used to visit in the 90's/00's.

A little late to the party but congratulations on the baby body

Thanks, he's doing well - almost up to 1800g so he can get out of the Isolette (enclosed warming bed) and into an open crib. We're hoping he can come home by his due date (14/6).

I really dug your post about the B&W weddings.

 

[Whammy]

I obviously meant baby boy. Not baby body
It obviously can be quite stressful and worrying when your newborn has to stay in the hospital. Hopefully you'll have him home soon

 

[Azyiu]

Hotei Tomoyasu, whose career spread over 35 years, is one of the most influential and famous guitarists in Japan, playing Hong Kong for the first time ever! Great show!

 

[Tang]

firstly some shots from an event I shot for work..

IMGP8309 by Scott Jones, on Flickr

IMGP8313 by Scott Jones, on Flickr

IMGP8317 by Scott Jones, on Flickr

and one from today... it's amazing how quickly everything turned green here.

IMGP8331 by Scott Jones, on Flickr

 

[ThePhilosopher]

I really like that first shot. You've got to watch those yellows on the flowers, I feel like they blow out of gamut faster than whites do.

 

[Chuck]

So I'm really just getting into taking portraits for other people but here's a couple from my latest attempt.

Once I was finished and had gotten the photos onto my computer I realized bringing a speedlight to set off camera to help with lighting up the subjects and smoothing out those shadows really would have made things easier. We started shooting about 4:30pm and shadows were abundant at the time.

Adams 2 by Chuck Haller, on Flickr

Adams 4 by Chuck Haller, on Flickr

Not sure which of these of the little girl alone I prefer.

Adams 11-3 by Chuck Haller, on Flickr

I feel this was the strongest of the three together.

CC would be much appreciated. I'm really trying to improve in the portraiture department.

 

[UnderTheSign]

A speedlight or even built in flash with plastiv diffuser already works magic in cases like that, just for fill flash. Or a reflector but forget about that if you're shooting solo and it's windy

 

[Whammy]

Philosopher has lots of experience with using lights under bright sunlight so he's best to answer that.
For me personally, if the sun is a little too much I look for shade for a soft diffused light.
A reflecter would have done the job to lift the shadows. I always carry a reflector with me but never use it as I just prefer shooting under shade.

Framing, posing and processing is nice. It's more the weather that's against you. As a result you can't really see their eyes. Mainly because of the shadows and because they are probably closing their eyes a little due to the bright sun.

 

[Chuck]

Yeah it was pretty windy outside(I spent so much time editing fly away hair strands and such ) and I was indeed solo. I'll have to take a test subject out so I can practice using a speedlight in this kind of scenario. Anything else you guys see that I could have done better? I *really* appreciate the feedback.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Adams 4 by Chuck Haller, on Flickr

Not sure which of these of the little girl alone I prefer.

This one is stronger; the background is cleaner and doesn't need as much post to clean it up. I would have moved her away from the clump of grass that's near her feet at camera left.

A tip I've learned is that if you're going to shoot infants outdoors then invest in a grey or white blanket. While the colored ones are cute (if you can get them to not blow out) they really alter the skin tone when they reflect back on the baby. Check out the skin tone near the baby's arm (very pink/magenta) and compared to her cheek that is illuminated (much more yellow).

A speedlight might have been fairly useless in this situation, a scrim would have been a much better option to create some open shade to avoid blowing out various parts of the subject. Without a modifier, I would have shot this a stop or two darker and selectively brought back up some of the highlight areas and used luminosity masks to blend the two exposures seamlessly. I think this shot could be more interesting with more negative space above her - going with the one-two stops underexposure idea, you'd probably have room in post to then also bring in the sky some more (a grad ND would be great for this).

I feel this was the strongest of the three together.

CC would be much appreciated. I'm really trying to improve in the portraiture department.

First, a few of the background elements are distracting: light pole, cell/microwave tower, bright white box, and the people in the left of the frame. I'd also try to clean up the weeds growing up between the bricks. You chopped off their feet; either crop them at a different location or make sure you get the whole foot. The bench is crooked (it goes down from left-to-right across the frame).

Composition-wise it's in no-man's land for me, I would have either gone much tighter or much wider. I didn't do much else to these, but try to show the compositions I would have tried to shoot. There is some minor skin touch up that I would do (nothing the healing brush couldn't tackle, but no need for heavy DnB work. I might have tried some different poses with them sitting up a bit straighter if they were going to engage with you and something more natural if you were trying to capture a moment with the family. Being square with the camera works for males, but not so much with females. Having her cheat the pose a little bit might help her not look as boxy (it's not too bad in this shot, I've seen much worse in this regard).

A giant softbox and a light would have helped tame the shadows, but it might not help alleviate the squinting. Though you could try the trick of having them close their eyes count out "1,2,3" then open their eyes and you snap on "4" or "4.5".

If you're not using spot metering on your camera, I'd suggest it and meter for the hot spots. There is a lot of latitude in newer sensors for bringing back data when shooting in RAW (also clipping happens in the highlights while the data is more asymptotic in the shadows with digital sensors).

Philosopher has lots of experience with using lights under bright sunlight so he's best to answer that.

While true, I also use at least a 500w/s light and huge modifiers that will at least balance the sunlight (or overpower it so that the roles are reversed and the sun is now a fill light); I don't know if a speedlight can do that with a 24x36 (or larger) softbox/octadome. A scrim can be just as useful (if you can buy a beer/coffee for a friend to pay them to hold it) or more helpful than a light in many of these situations and costs much less.

 

[Chuck]

This one is stronger; the background is cleaner and doesn't need as much post to clean it up. I would have moved her away from the clump of grass that's near her feet at camera left.

A tip I've learned is that if you're going to shoot infants outdoors then invest in a grey or white blanket. While the colored ones are cute (if you can get them to not blow out) they really alter the skin tone when they reflect back on the baby. Check out the skin tone near the baby's arm (very pink/magenta) and compared to her cheek that is illuminated (much more yellow).

A speedlight might have been fairly useless in this situation, a scrim would have been a much better option to create some open shade to avoid blowing out various parts of the subject. Without a modifier, I would have shot this a stop or two darker and selectively brought back up some of the highlight areas and used luminosity masks to blend the two exposures seamlessly. I think this shot could be more interesting with more negative space above her - going with the one-two stops underexposure idea, you'd probably have room in post to then also bring in the sky some more (a grad ND would be great for this).


First, a few of the background elements are distracting: light pole, cell/microwave tower, bright white box, and the people in the left of the frame. I'd also try to clean up the weeds growing up between the bricks. You chopped off their feet; either crop them at a different location or make sure you get the whole foot. The bench is crooked (it goes down from left-to-right across the frame).

Composition-wise it's in no-man's land for me, I would have either gone much tighter or much wider. I didn't do much else to these, but try to show the compositions I would have tried to shoot. There is some minor skin touch up that I would do (nothing the healing brush couldn't tackle, but no need for heavy DnB work. I might have tried some different poses with them sitting up a bit straighter if they were going to engage with you and something more natural if you were trying to capture a moment with the family. Being square with the camera works for males, but not so much with females. Having her cheat the pose a little bit might help her not look as boxy (it's not too bad in this shot, I've seen much worse in this regard).

A giant softbox and a light would have helped tame the shadows, but it might not help alleviate the squinting. Though you could try the trick of having them close their eyes count out "1,2,3" then open their eyes and you snap on "4" or "4.5".

If you're not using spot metering on your camera, I'd suggest it and meter for the hot spots. There is a lot of latitude in newer sensors for bringing back data when shooting in RAW (also clipping happens in the highlights while the data is more asymptotic in the shadows with digital sensors).

While true, I also use at least a 500w/s light and huge modifiers that will at least balance the sunlight (or overpower it so that the roles are reversed and the sun is now a fill light); I don't know if a speedlight can do that with a 24x36 (or larger) softbox/octadome. A scrim can be just as useful (if you can buy a beer/coffee for a friend to pay them to hold it) or more helpful than a light in many of these situations and costs much less.

Dang. Much to learn, I have.

On the shot of all three of them, I have a similar shot in landscape orientation but they had a different pose where they were all looking into the camera and I preferred the pose here in the portrait version.

I had noticed after the fact that I had cut out their feet and I definitely didn't like that. I'll play with some different cropping ideas.

Thank you so much man, I really appreciate the honest feedback.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Anytime I can help out I'll give it a go; groups are tough and I'm definitely no expert on shooting them. I can help with technical aspects of shooting a lot of the time, but sometimes the best thing to do is reshoot at a different time and/or location. I've had to bite the bullet and do that for a couple of people - it's a major time suck but sometimes well worth the effort.

It's far easier when you work with individuals and individuals that now how to position themselves in a frame so that they look best (most of my clientele).


It's been a while since I posted something not related to my new familial addition, so here's my Seiko Pepsi diver on a new custom strap:

Nikon D3 with Nikon 85mm f/1.8D+PK-13 27.5mm Extension Tube: ISO 800 1/25s ƒ/5.6

 

[Tyler]

I've been on a cross country tour with my band and have been snapping shots along the way. Seriously loving how they've turned out so far

 

[ThePhilosopher]

I'm really liking those shots, especially the Milky Way; that's on my list of must get shots.

 

[UnderTheSign]

Same here. Unfortunately we don't get to see the Milky Way often here, if at all.

Nice travel vibe.

Astro is pretty cool. I like how it's relatively easy to take a shot of a starry sky and make it look good, but once you get more in depth... Down the rabbit hole you go!

 

[Tyler]

Same here. Unfortunately we don't get to see the Milky Way often here, if at all.

Nice travel vibe.

Astro is pretty cool. I like how it's relatively easy to take a shot of a starry sky and make it look good, but once you get more in depth... Down the rabbit hole you go!

Im from VA so its almost impossible to see there depending on what area youre in. That shot was in Wyoming at some place we pulled up to camp out at, and you could see the general form of the milky way with the naked eye. Very very cool

 

[LeviathanKiller]

I've been on a cross country tour with my band and have been snapping shots along the way. Seriously loving how they've turned out so far

Those first 3...man...that's my kinda stuff right there. The entire set is great.

 

[Azyiu]

I am back! Yes, I was on vacation in Hokkaido, Japan the entire last week. Anyway, I will share some photos here later, but first, here is a little video clip I shot of Mt.Yotei on one early morning, enjoy.

Sorry for the slight movement in the video. It was all handheld with a 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS lens... it was heavy and I tried my best to eliminate movement as much as possible without a tripod.

 

[Chuck]

A couple of quick and dirty JPEG Fuji X70 shots from last week. Gotta love those Fuji colors!

Sunset563479 by Chuck Haller, on Flickr

5silhouettes by Chuck Haller, on Flickr

And also a candid shot of my dad just before my little brothers high school graduation ceremony.

PopsCandid by Chuck Haller, on Flickr

Noticing that Flickr's upload setting are seriously affecting this one...

 

[Philligan]

Those are great man, especially the silhouette.

I've been in a bit of a slump lately, not shooting as much - I figure I'm not gonna try and force it. I've been pretty steady into photography the last few years and this is my first serious dead zone (only taking my camera out once a week or so and not shooting a whole lot). It's been probably two months of this or so. I'm a little worried about getting rusty, but I wonder if forcing myself to shoot is the right idea.

I've got a solo wedding and two I'm second shooting in June, so hopefully that gets me back into the swing of things.