portrait – Page 6 – Gavtrain.com

Day to night in a flash

Shoots at night can yield some stunning photos but the lack of light has a bunch of problems that can easily trip you up… literately. However if you have a little bit of flash know how, it is possible to do a portrait shoot and make day turn to night in just a few steps. Here’s how I did it in four steps

Step 1 – Underexpose the ambient

Unless you live in the Polar regions night time is usually associated with a lack of light, so the first thing I had needed to do was convince my camera to see less light. One way to do this is by using exposure compensation and dialing in a negative amount but because I was going to use flash to light the model I took a different route.

Flash and Manual mode go hand in glove, so switching to manual is the way to go. After setting the aperture to f/4 and the ISO to 200 the correct shutter speed turned out to be a feeble 1/10^th second. By halving the shutter speed to 1/20^th I underexposed the ambient light by 1 stop. 1/40^th second gave me another stop and finally 1/80^th second underexposed by three stops and gave a shot that was dark but not black.

Step 2 – Set the flash

1/80^th second gave a nice dark background but also underexposed the model, that’s where flash comes in. With the key light in place all I had to do was set my flash meter to match my camera (1/80^th sec, 200 ISO) and adjust the flash power until I hit f/4 on the meter.

So now I’ve got the flash power to match my camera setting and giving a perfect exposure on the model, however the same camera settings are under exposing the background keeping it dark.

Once the key light was in I added a second light to separate the unlit side of the model from the dark background.

Step 3 – Moon light

Thanks to Hollywood we assume that the moon always comes out at night and it produces blue light. Of course neither is true but let the dream live I say. Turning the warm afternoon light blue is as simple as setting the wrong white balance. Switching to Tungsten or Incandescent white balance will do the job in camera or it can be changed in Lightroom / Photoshop Camera RAW.

The blue looks great on the background but a bit odd on the model, so to warm her up I added an orange gel to the main flash. There are gels marked as CTO (Colour Temperature Orange) which should perfectly balance out the white balance but I don’t have one. Luckily Lightroom / Photoshop Camera RAW can easily fine tune the colours, especially if you do the same as me and shoot a gray card in the same light.

Step 4 – Moody Mist

This is the fun bit. Again I’ve got the movies to thank for this but adding a little bit of mist seems to sell us the whole night feeling. It also helps to cover up anything distracting in the background and by adding a third light right behind the model (and the smoke) adds a splash of light to an otherwise dark scene.

There are many ways to make smoke. Being a long way from a power supply I opted for smoke grenades. You’ll find them at your local paintball / airsoft park and whilst they’re not cheap, they do offer a safe and reliable source of smoke. I used two Enola Gaye smoke grenades which gave around 90 seconds of smoke each. Yes after all that setting up the whole shoot was over and done in under three minutes!

So there you have it, day to night is perfectly possible and whilst the results are very different from really shooting after dark, they look pretty darn good to me.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGsQxXUEvc4[/youtube]

Smoke on location

It’s amazing how adding a little bit of smoke can completely alter the look of a portrait shoot and a few months back I made a little video showing how I use a smoke machine in my studio.

But with the long summer days and warm weather I love to get out of my home photo studio and into the great outdoors. Of course shooting portraits in the woods makes using an electric smoke machine a real challenge but I found an alternative that’s even better.

The smoke in the photo above comes from a small smoke bomb. Also called smoke grenades, it’s basically a firework without the explosion. I used smoke bombs from Enola Gaye which is a UK company that sells their non-toxic smoke granades around the world. You can get them online but if you head along to your nearest paint ball or airsoft park you should be able to pick them up fairly inexpensively and in smaller quantities.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f064pZ41Fz4[/youtube]

If you’re going to use smoke bombs in your photography, do so responsibly. I cover most of the important stuff in the video above but read the instructions on the smoke bombs before use. If nothing else follow the final bit of advice written on the side of every Enola Gaye smoke bomb… Don’t be a dick with this product.

How Focal Length Affects Your Background

There are many reasons for choosing one lens over another and which one you shoot with can have a massive impact on the final photo. Like many photographers I love the flexibility of zoom lenses and often have to make the choice of shooting with a wide angle and short telephoto lens. At first glance the choice of lens is pretty obvious… if I want to go close I shoot with a telephoto focal length and if I want to see more I zoom out with a wide angle focal length.

Look around on the internet or ask your photography peers and you’ll find that the general consensus is that wide angle lenses increase perspective distortion and telephoto lenses compress background. It’s common knowledge but sadly, it’s also not true… although I completely understand why so many photographer think it is.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbESqYkodmQ[/youtube]

In the video above I explain and show how changing focal length alone doesn’t affect compression or distortion but moving your feet does

Google focal length compression and you’ll see photos like the one below and as you can clearly see the more I zoom in the more the background appears to grow in relation to the model. We call it background compression and it’s a really handy trick to learn.

But in order to keep my model (The amazing model Fern Meave ) the same size I had to increase my shooting distance as I zoomed in and it’s that increase in distance that causes the background to compress. Let me say that again…
Increasing your focal length does NOT compress your shot, increasing your distance from the subject does. Unless you want your subject to be small, once backed up you have to zoom in to maintain the composition and that’s why so many photographers will tell you telephone lenses compress your shot.

To prove the point. Take a look at the photos below. For the one on the right I used a 200mm lens, the one on the left is a from a shot taken with my 24mm lens and the middle image is a tight crop from the centre.

The distance from myself and the model was the same in each shot, only the focal length changed. Spot the difference? Ignore the the depth of field difference between the two shots, that’s a side effect of the different focal lengths and I’ll save that for a future blog post. There really is no difference in compression and perspective distortion when you change lens focal length.

So if background compression isn’t caused simply by zooming in, do wide angle lenses increase perspective distortion? No they don’t (excluding exotic lenses such as fisheye’s). With a wide angle lens you often go close to fill the frame and that increases the distortion. In theory you could take a wide angle shot using a 200mm lens, you’d just need to take lots and lots of images and join them together like a jigsaw puzzle. Search Google for Gigapans to see this in action.

Still not convinced? Here’s a simple test to try, no camera required… next time you’re in front of the bathroom mirror, get your head really, REALLY close. Close one eye and look around at your refection. Your nose will look huge, your ears will look small and all because you’re close to the mirror. Step back and your face will appear as normal as it was before.

Making The Most of Motivated Lighting

Motivated light is a term that’s more normally used in the world of the movies but there’s no reason for us stills photographers not to be aware of it and use it to create some great effects.

So what is motivated light? Put simply if you can see (or think you can see) the source of the light that’s illuminating the scene, you’re looking at a motivated light. But there’s a bit more to it than that.

Usually I go to great lengths to avoid seeing my lights in the shot, especially if the light is directed towards the camera lens. Even a tiny edge of light in the frame can play havoc with contrast and flare. If I have to see a light I can minimise flare by turning the power right down but then it doesn’t produce the light needed to get the exposure right. So how can I have the motivated light source in the scene and keep control of the exposure?

The answer is… I cheat!

In the video below I’ll look at two ways to create motivated light. The first way is in camera by teaming a low powered flash with a high powered flash that’s out of shot but in the same direction. The second way is by creating the effect in Photoshop.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sZlhhe3h4[/youtube]

Of course motivated light doesn’t have to be done like this and by definition motivated light can be something as simple as a window or room light that’s in the shot. So the chances are you have used motivated light in the past without even knowing it.

Model: Kerry Allingham
Make-Up: Anna Matos

Gear used in this video

Canon 5D Mark III www.adorama.com/ICA5DM3.html?KBID=67338

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens www.adorama.com/CA24105AFUC.html?KBID=67338

Flashpoint Light Stand www.adorama.com/FPLS9.html?KBID=67338

Black Rapid RS-7 Strap www.adorama.com/BRRS7.html?KBID=67338

Flashpoint StreakLight 360 Ws Creative Collection www.adorama.com/FPLFSL360K2.html?KBID=67338

Sekonic L-308S Flashmate www.adorama.com/SKL308S.html?KBID=67338

Flashpoint Zoom Li-on Manual On-Camera Flash http://www.adorama.com/FPLFSMZL.html?KBID=67338

Smoke Machine Background

One of the draw backs of working in any studio is the finite nature of the backgrounds you can work with during a shoot. Of course if you’re handy at a bit of DIY you can build your own sets and create some amazing backgrounds but that takes time and besides, carpentry isn’t one of my strongest skills as you’ll see when I made my current studio background.

So what can you do to quickly change the background? Well I have a bunch of different fabrics which work really well but as you’ll see in this video, nothing beats the smoke machine for effect and downright fun!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvLjiahVBrs[/youtube]

That shoot was part of a series I shot with a Fortune Teller theme and the smoke machine was perfect for the background, as the smoke builds up, the effect changes from a slight haze to thick fog.

The smoke is a whitish/blueish colour so to get the full effect of the smoke you’ll need a dark background and ideally a light to illuminate the smoke from either the side or back.

Adding a splash of colour to the fog is as easy as popping a coloured gel on the flash that illuminating the fog. In this case I added a red gel to the flash on the right and increased the saturation of the natural blue colour of the fog in Photoshop.

Too much smoke can ruin the shot by reducing contrast, especially if you light it from the front. For that reason I keep any smoke shots until the end of the shoot.

Finally it’s worth checking that the smoke “juice” is water based to avoid leaving a residue all over your studio and is non toxic… pretty obviously. The smoke builds up pretty quickly so also keep a check on the model and anyone else in the studio. At the first sign of problems get some fresh air.

Model: Kerry Allingham
Make-Up: Anna Matos

Gear used in this video

Canon 5D Mark III www.adorama.com/ICA5DM3.html?KBID=67338

Canon 50mm f/1.8 II www.adorama.com/CA5018AFU.html?KBID=67338

Flashpoint Light Stand www.adorama.com/FPLS9.html?KBID=67338

Black Rapid RS-7 Strap www.adorama.com/BRRS7.html?KBID=67338

Flashpoint StreakLight 360 Ws Creative Collection www.adorama.com/FPLFSL360K2.html?KBID=67338

Sekonic L-308S Flashmate www.adorama.com/SKL308S.html?KBID=67338

Controlling reflections in glasses

So you’ve got the lights, you have your model and you’re ready to shoot. Then you take a test photo and all you see is huge white reflections. It’s a problem that happens all too often but fortunately there are a couple of solutions that are quick, easy and effective.

Let’s start with the simplest solution. Get your subject to remove their glasses. It sounds obvious but it’s surprising how many photographers don’t have the nerve to ask. Whilst this can work wonders with occasional spec wearers, anyone who wears glasses full time will look most weird without their specs on. It’s also not going to work with the cool crowd who wear sunglasses all year round.

If you’re using flash or continuous light the chances are the reflections are likely to be from your lights and where you position the lights will affect the reflections you see in the photo.

Light from the front (including on camera flash) will produce the biggest, brightest and least attractive reflections. Because light travels in straight lines it’s going to hit the front of the spectacle lenses and bounce right back in to the camera. This really is one lighting position to avoid.

Knowing that light travels in straight lines means that moving the light source to the side will move reflection. Here the light is at about 45 degrees and the result is a reflection that’s much reduced in size.

Taking the idea a bit further, if the light is fully 90 degrees to the glasses results in a tiny reflection but also produces a split light effect which might not be the look you’re after. If you look really close you’ll still see a slight reflection. Why? Well the surface of glasses isn’t flat like a window, it’s curved so you’re never at a 90 degree angle across the whole surface of the lens.

To minimise and remove reflections the best position for the light is up high. By elevating the light the reflections will disappear and the lighting pattern remains flattering too. Asking the model to drop their chin or slightly angle the glasses down can have a similar effect.

In the video below I go through all of the tips in this post in more detail and even give you some tips on how to add a reflection of your own choosing.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/kOzPWkkmZPE[/youtube]

Gear used in this video

Canon 5D Mark III www.adorama.com/ICA5DM3.html?KBID=67338

Canon 50mm f/1.8 II www.adorama.com/CA5018AFU.html?KBID=67338

Flashpoint Light Stand www.adorama.com/FPLS9.html?KBID=67338

Black Rapid RS-7 Strap www.adorama.com/BRRS7.html?KBID=67338

Flashpoint StreakLight 360 Ws Creative Collection www.adorama.com/FPLFSL360K2.html?KBID=67338

Sekonic L-308S Flashmate www.adorama.com/SKL308S.html?KBID=67338

Westcott Rapid Box 26″ Octa Softbox www.adorama.com/WERB26OM.html?KBID=67338

Fractured Paint Brush – Friday Freebie

Back in 2011 I made a video on how to create a fractures or shattered image using Photoshop. I’ve added it to this post in case you missed it. To create the effect I made some fractured paint brushes which I uploaded to the Adobe Exchange website and shared for free. Three and a half years is a long time in the fast moving world of the internet and the Adobe Exchange (as I remember it) is no more, so I’m sharing them again here.

Full download instructions are below but you can also
Download the Paint Spatter brushes

Once downloaded just unzip and install the brushes into Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and your ready to go. The video below should give you some ideas of how to use the brushes.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUjXJ5ZPO5M[/youtube]

If you create a photo using the Friday Freebie then let me (and everyone else) know by leaving the link in the comments below.

Usage rules
The brushes are copyright Gavin Hoey 2015. Use is limited to any personal but non-commercial purposes. Please share the Friday Freebie by linking back to this page. Do not redistribute the original image without my permission.

Download instructions
1. Click on the correct download link below (no sign up is needed)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Mmmm3K1utNcjlPYWRvekRYanc/view?usp=sharing

2. Click the Download button

3. The download should start automatically

4. No support is provided with the Friday Freebies. If you need help Google or YouTube the question and you’ll almost certainly find the answer

Softbox Size vs Soft Light

One of the primary uses of a softbox is to give soft lighting, but with so many sizes available, which one should you use?

The answer in part comes from the classic rule with soft lighting which is this. The bigger the light source (relative to the subject) the softer the light produced. In other words bigger softboxes give softer light and as long as your softbox is close to your subject that holds true. To test it out I got my 28″ Parapop softbox from Adorama, a medium sized softbox and borrowed a giant 7′ Westcott umbrella softbox.

You can see this in action in the three photos above. In each shot the distance from light to the model was 1 meter and the light was metered at f/8. Notice how the shadows blend in with the highlights as the softbox size increases and that’s soft light in action.

Now remember I said the softness of light is also relative to the subject size. Well here’s what happens if you zoom out and shoot a larger, full length portrait. Once again the distance and settings are the same in all shots.

Look at the shadow behind the model. With the small and medium sized softboxes you’ll see a sharper, harder edge to the shadow then the big softbox. You’ll also see that the smaller softbox gives a smaller spread of light compared to the more even illumination of the large softbox.

So if you want to shoot full length portraits with soft light then an oversized softbox is one answer but it has another use to. Unless you want to spend time in Photoshop cloning out the light you’ll need to back it up. Moving the light away from the subject makes it that much smaller and therefore harder. Oversized softboxes allow you to get soft light without the source being in the scene.

Take a look at this video where I cover all of this and more.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-rAnxVX9kE[/youtube]
Of course there are a few downsizes to large softboxes, one of which is the lack of directional control. In the video above I add some control using Photoshop but in the next video I’ll add it to the light.

Gear used in this video

Red Riding Hood Photo Shoots

You probably already know the story of Red Riding Hood, it’s a timeless fairy tale about a girl and a big bad wolf. It’s also a popular subject for photography and something I wanted to take on too.

Traditionally the Red Riding Hood story takes place in the woods but I’m lucky enough to have access to my own studio space and that’s where I started. I also had a can of fake falling snow, which is actually foam and a home made red velvet cape.

For my Red Riding Hood I called upon the services of local model Fern Meave who was amazingly talented and suited the role perfectly. For the lighting I went with my two Streaklights, a small beauty dish and some coloured gels.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t29AbUGJJg&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA[/youtube]

Fun as the studio shoot is it’s never going to be the same as shooting on location in the woods. So for the second video that’s exactly what we did.

Weeks of planning went into the shoot but the weather was out of our control and sure enough on the day of the shoot the sky was grey and it was freezing cold. None the less we pressed on with the shoot and in the video I also pass on plenty of tips for balancing flash with low levels of ambient light.

Fern was my model once again but this time I swapped my Streaklights for a more powerful Rovelight which I reviewed a few weeks back. As it turned out I didn’t need the extra power of the Rovelight but that’s the weather for you

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywShIOcqLBU[/youtube]

Below a few photos from the shoots which you can see in more detail by clicking.

Home Studio Essentials Episodes 1-10

If you’ve been watching my recent videos over on Adorama TV you’ll have noticed a pattern forming. Over the past months the majority of the videos have focused on shooting with flash in a small, home studio and judging by the feedback it seems to have gone down very well indeed. I think part of the reason for their popularity is the way each video builds on the previous skills learned, at least that was the idea I had when I originally planned them.

Gear is always a big part of photography but none of the videos need a specific brand of equipment to complete. I used my trusty Canon 5D2 and 24-105mm lens. My flash gear is supplied by Adorama and is their amazing Streaklight flashes. If you want to know more then you can read my review.

To save you digging through my blog / YouTube to find them all I’ve added them all here.

Episode1: One bare flash
[youtube]http://youtu.be/hR4DW7dXOsk[/youtube]
Episode 2: One flash with an umbrella
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur58XNQwMXA&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA&index=11[/youtube]
Episode 3:One flash and a softbox
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0MTQFYnvQA&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA&index=10[/youtube]
Episode 4: One flash and a reflector
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYQh9MNC3Is&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA&index=9[/youtube]
Episode 5: Adding a second light
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcQg0cBncHs&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA&index=7[/youtube]
Episode 6: Using honeycomb grids
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-C9xgTCLfM&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA&index=6[/youtube]
Episode 7: Using coloured gels
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR0wu9Sy6GM&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA&index=5[/youtube]
Episode 8: Getting a white background
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4IixDOP5M&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA&index=4[/youtube]
Episode 9: Softbox as a white background
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy0VZEhwtSU&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA&index=3[/youtube]
Episode 10: Hair / seperation light
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaDUIqdQpPM&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA&index=2[/youtube]