Tag Archives: umbrella

(I) Portrait Photography: The 11 month old

By Alec | Published December 2, 2009

Yesterday I had the joy of photographing my neighbor’s 11 month old daughter.  Everyone here understands what that means; constant motion, unpredictable, accidents!  With all that happening its beneficial for the photographer to be prepared.  Scout the space, decide what you want for natural light, decide what you want for key or fill light, and get it all set ahead of time.  With this type of high energy subject its paramount for the photographer to trust the lighting setup, to remain behind the camera, not checking the LCD too often. To pull back and look at the LCD is going to eliminate a lot of great photo possibilities!

My setup was simple.  I placed a Canon 580EX II on a light stand, attached an umbrella and Pocket Wizard II transceiver.  I aimed the umbrella up into a corner of the room, essentially creating three sources of soft bounce light (ceiling, two opposing walls).  I then established camera settings without flash that allowed me two things: first, shutter speed that was good for hand-held action.  I shot at 1/200 of a second and second, enough light to open up or blow out windows.  This turned out to be ISO 800, f/5 aperture, 1/200th second shutter.  My lenses for this included the 85mm fixed and the 24-70mm zoom.

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Studio Portrait Photography: Val Carpender and Hilary Duff

By Alec | Published March 9, 2009
click image

click image

This fashion look is one that’s being used a lot today.  From Maxim Magazine to Target Advertising, the black on white background with strong shadows has almost become common place.  It was used recently as the cover of Maxim, featuring Hilary Duff.  They’re using it again this month with Eliza Dushku.  One of the technical questions that can arise from this look is, “How do you get a white background to shoot white, not off white or gray?”

Short answer:  You light it seperate from your model.

Long answer: In this case the desired look is to have the background feel very close, strong shadows, impromptu style.  So, Val is lit directly by a beauty dish on a boom LightingSetupoverhead.  To each side of her and very close to the background are strobes with umbrellas.  The light from the umbrellas spills on to the background, but not so much as to fall anywhere on Val.  I first get those lights set to an exposure that gets me to a white background just about everywhere and the beauty dish does the rest.

Camera Technical Information: 1Ds MKII, 70-200mm, f/8, ISO200, 1/200th shutter speed

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Kubota-Greenburg Effect

By Alec | Published December 19, 2008
sam

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Hi Gang,

We’re in a transition here. So, here’s what’s happening…knee deep in the middle of a full custom re-design of the blog and my commercial site. The new blog site will soft launch Jan 15 with a full launch Feb. 1. It will contain new images and new video content. Until then, I’ll be posting a mix of things, including today’s post, a critique of one of my own images and perhaps a few other goodies. So, please stay tuned.

On with today’s post, in which I INVITE YOU TO COMMENT on the post-production feel of this image. Many don’t like going too far in post production while others have made a career on it. Jill Greenburg the “Manipulator” is one example. So, I’ve been working on a look and today’s subject is my studio assistant, Sam Scherf. We were working on a different shoot in the studio (all of which you’ll see soon, with the blog relaunch), and I had him stand in for a few lighting adjustments.

I’ll be producing a video tutorial on the lighting set up in this shot. But, between the lighting, my post production, and the use of a Kubota Action “Bronze God #1″, what are your thoughts on this look? I’ll leave it at that. :)

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Mason Thelen Licit Studio Shoot

By Alec | Published November 10, 2008
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Hi Gang,

A definite shift in content for this week. I’ll be showing some studio portrait work I’ve done recently and then next week I may move into some more traditional portrait work I’ve done this past year.

Mason is the subject this week. He recently launched his consulting business, Licit, and needed some marketing collateral. Suffice it to say, this image is not part of that. This was the image he let me shoot after we did the serious stuff.

Technical: Canon 1Ds Mark II, 24-70mm, 1/200th shutter speed, f/8, lit with 1 strobe and umbrella, background is a window well insert I bought from Menards.

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