USING MONOCHROME TO REMOVE DISTRACTIONS IN PHOTOGRAPHY

Some subjects must be rendered in B&W or Monochrome because they simply lack color to begin with and they have excellent texture as well—such as old barn wood—then it’s a slam dunk. When color helps the center of interest or IS the center of interest than a B&W conversion will probably weaken the image. But, how many colors and where should they be within the frame? I’ve found in my studies of art that simplifying your color composition and placing powerful colors in one of the “crash points” by using “the Rule of Thirds” can make an image very powerful and not overwhelm the viewer. The point is when using color you must design the color composition into the image before you trip the shutter. If that not possible and you have a compelling subject, as in my example below, know that you will have some editing to do in “post”.

My Criteria to Convert Images to Black and White:

My basic philosophy on converting color images to B&W or monochrome has not changed since I was “shooting” film; the best B&W images have:

1. Directional Light; that makes Shadows
2. Good Blacks and Whites
3. Texture and or Details
4. A Strong Center of Interest

I think today’s example image meets my criteria….

f6.3 @ 1/500 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 73mm

This image was converted to monochrome using NIK’s Silver Efex Pro-2. NIK is one of my favorite methods of conversion because it offers a lot of choices and styles as well as emulations; and it has 38 preset styles and 18 film emulation modes. 

My Process for this image:

• Brought down the highlights in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) and made a jpeg.
• In NIK Silver Efex I selected the Antique Plate1 preset because I wanted a warm-tone monochrome not just B&W.
• Lastly I put a vignette on the image to darken the corners.

Here’s my original color version….

Original color version

This is a great example of color chaos! With this much uncoordinated color in a scene the viewer’s attention just bounces around all over the frame. In addition his lime green cowboy shirt was just not the classic, old time, cowboy style of image I was looking for!

That’s it for this week…Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask…’Til next week…

Author: Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

A PRO’S TIPS TO PHOTOGRAPHY AT LOCKHEED’S BLACKBIRD AIRPARK

The biggest problem photographing aircraft at any museum is isolating particular planes for a clean, uncluttered, image. Indoor museums are the worst because in that confined space you have to deal with a ceiling, walls, and often poor light. So, my preference is doing photography of aircraft at airshows or in this case the outdoor museum at Lockheed’s Blackbird Airpark in Palmdale, California, and the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark right next door.

The Blackbird airpark gives photographers good access to an SR-71A an A12 and a U-2. There’s also one of the J58 jet engines that powered the SR-71 and one of the D-21 supersonic reconnaissance drones.  We first heard about the Blackbird Airpark from our son who lives in Palmdale with his wife who is an engineer employed at the famous Lockheed Skunk Works; the top secret unit under the legendary Kelly Johnson that designed and built the famous SR-71 and the U-2 spy planes among other things! So, when we visited them last year they drove us over to see Plant 42, which houses the skunk works at site 10, with the Blackbird Airpark near by. 

Here’s my isolation of the SR-71A…

f22.0 @ 1/160 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 50mm

The first step was framing the Blackbird in tight; filling the frame and omitting its surroundings. The second step was in “post” with NIK’s Silver Efex Pro2 using their Antique Plate-2, which created a high contrast B&W effect and a white vignette that clearly isolated the jet engine nacelles from the dark background as seen in the original image here…

Original Image

The original image has a lot of dark ground clutter that hid the plane’s details. I don’t think the color version here was helping either; after all the SR-71 is a mostly monochrome subject.

How about a foreground blocking isolation…

f11.0 @ 1/500 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 88mm

Ducking under the wing of the SR-71 for a tight view of the nearby A-12 created a nice composition and showed some interesting detail on the underside of the SR-71’s wing. This “foreground blocking” technique was mostly an effort to block out a sky with a lot of power poles and high-tension power lines messing up the scene. The unexpected bonus was the nice curving shape (and that detail) of the underside of the SR-71’s wing.

And a “powerful” detail image…

f8.0 @ 1/250 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 24mm

With one of its huge Pratt & Whitney J58 jet engines in the background and where it’s supposed to be, as the foreground center-of-interest, I like the storytelling juxtaposition of elements in this image.

And just one more of the SR-71A…

f11.0 @ 1/640 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 142mm

Backing off and going to telephoto for some compression of the plane and engine nacelle…. This thing looks like some bizarre hydroplane! Its unique “chined” fuselage looks like the hull of a hydro racing boat.

The SR-71 still looks futuristic even though it was designed in 1959; truly remarkable. 

In next week’s Blog we’ll walk next door to the Jose Davies Heritage Airpark.  As usual should you have questions don’t hesitate to ask…

Author: Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

MY FIRST FINE ART IMAGES OF THE GHOST TOWN BODIE--Part 1

It was 1978 that I decided to do a weekend photo-excursion to the ghost town of Bodie. Mind you this was pre-internet, pre-cell phones and with only a general idea of weather conditions—and no idea of the specific weather there in Bodie—I took off in early December in my ’73 AMC Hornet hatchback for a photo-adventure! I was a brash 28 year old that always took my solo vacations in November or December to avoid pesky tourists getting in my way. 

I got a late start and did not expect my car to be affected by the altitude (8400 feet), so I did not get to the entrance road to Bodie until dark. Not to be deterred I forged ahead on the unimproved dirt road, but not without incident. I mean that road was bad… It was not the usual dirt road—you know graded and such! Nope, it was very rutted and rocky and my AMC Hornet was a low slung sedan—not exactly an off-road vehicle.Slowing to a crawl did not save me when one front wheel dropped into a rut and the front end slammed down causing the engine to impact a big rock. The racket my engine made after that sounded like a giant chain saw was attacking my car! I kept going; nothing was going to stop me. I finally reached a parking lot, of sorts, eager to stop the horrendous racket my car was making, I stopped for the night. It was so dark I couldn’t tell if I had actually reached Bodie. So, I unrolled my sleeping bag in the back of my hatchback and camped-out. You should also know that I am 6’2” and yes, Now I know that camping is not allowed in Bodie, but back then—who knew?

I woke up to bitter cold—there was ice on the inside of my windows and the glass hatch back. Hey, it’s 8400 feet in December—I was lucky I wasn’t snowed-in! 

So, on to my photographic goals here. I did not want to do the usual Black & White thing so many fine-art photographers do. I planned on only using Kodachrome 64 slide film and to experiment with my new Spiratone, Colorflow, filter.

And this was my primary subject…

The Outhouse

I had seen another photographer’s work at this area of Bodie and I wanted to photograph these building before they fell down. Note:  Since then the park service propped these structures with timbers trying to maintain them in what they call a “state of arrested decay”!

My style back then was: If I’m going to use color go all-in (Kodachrome or Ektachrome Infared) and produce something different even if it goes surreal. I guess I was ahead of my time; that’s why I like digital, Photoshop ACR, and NIK so much—there are no longer any limits!

The Evolution of this image:

• Exposed on Kodachrome 64 with the Spratone, Colorflow, filter. That filter was a red/blue gel coupled to a rotating Polarizer. As you rotated the polarizer it would vary the intensity of the colors.
• Cropped the image to a tight vertical. The original was a horizontal showing a line of buildings.
• Now, forty years later, I decided to tone down the effect by putting the original image into NIK’s Color Efex Pro 4 to alter my colors making the buildings a little more realistic, but with a really surreal sky!

Here’s the original image…

The Outhouse Original

The original here was a winner in the PPC (Professional Photographers of California) State Competition. I titled it: California Fixer-Upper. It went on to the PPA (Professional Photographers of America) International Competition winning a merit in the General Collection in 1999. It was one of the final merits I needed to earn my PPA Masters Degree.

In Part 2 I’ll show and talk about the digital edits I’ve made on other old film images from Bodie and about what happed to my car….’Til next week…

Author:  Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client site:  http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

PROFESSIONAL STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY—A BALLERINA

When doing photography of three-dimensional subjects, in the studio, it’s our job as professionals to use lighting that does not destroy that three-dimensionality. That means we must avoid Flat Lighting in most situations. One of the few exceptions I’ve encountered is in small product photography but, by and large, shadows should be created by our lighting set-up otherwise we just aren’t doing our job. I learned this the hard way and after 10-years of doing it like most other studio photographers did I discovered that I was simply using Too Many Lights! I was doing the usual Five or Six Light set-up and it just ended-up flashing all of the drama out of my images!  There were also Too Many Catch-Lights in my subjects eyes; it looked very unnatural. I learned that the offending culprit was using a studio Fill-Light; it flattened out my lighting ratio and created those secondary—ice pick like—catch lights in my subjects eyes. I, however, found that I couldn’t merely eliminate the fill light alone. It was demonstrated to me by Two Great photographers that I really respect, Will Crockett and Fred Hinegardner, that I also had to increase the Size of my Main Light significantly in order for the “wrapping effect” to eliminate the “need” of any type of fill.

So, I went from a typical 2 ft x 4 ft. Main Light to a 7-Foot OctoDome by Photoflex.

The results were stunning…

f13.0 @ 1/200 sec, ISO 200; Lens @ 70mm

There are only TWO Lights on my ballerina—the Main and the Hair Light; there are two lights on the background and that’s it.  I’m not even using a reflector.

Here’s my studio set-up for her…

Lighting Set-up

As you can see my large main light is placed to the side--just far enough so we maintain light in her far eye--creating a nice shadow on her face. The two background lights have grids and cine-foil shades to keep their light off my subject and ONLY on the background.

Here’s the only other Light in my set-up…

Hair Light

That 9”x24” strip light (also a soft box) does double duty here as the hair light and it puts highlights on her foot or hands when they’re above her head.

And Lighting from the opposite side…

Opposite side lighting

I’ve got my main light on Wheels so it’s easy to move to either side of the set.

Other advantages using a Large Soft Box:

• Nice Large (round with mine) catchlights.
• In close to subject wrapping effect with very soft shadows.
• Pulled back (as shown) gives crisp details with pronounced shadows.
• Covers large subjects or groups with ease.

Note on First Photo in the Blog:

The Lighting set-up in all these images is exactly the same. For the first photo I created a nice soft look in post by merely using Negative Clarity and Reduced Saturation.

That’s it for this week…Don’t hesitate to ask questions…

Author:  Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training Site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client Site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

PHOTOGRAPHERS, LOOK BEHIND YOU—IT MAY BE THE BEST VIEW!

Even after 50 years doing fine art photography I still remind myself, when I’m outside on a session, of that simple old adage some photographer said, “Look Behind YOU, when you’re walking, it may be the best angle!” And it’s so true—I can’t tell you how any times I’ve walked down a trail at a national or state park not being jazzed about what was in front of me and then I turned around to see a stunning scene. It’s the same basic subject—I just walked by it! But, from the reverse angle now the Lighting is Magical!

There are those photographers that look but don’t see the best view or angle of a subject. Many times they just use the “scenic turnout” and Lemming-like they copy the view that thousands of tourists have photographed before. 

Then there are those (way too many I might add!) photographers that just don’t see the light, and by that I mean the Good Light—Directional Light. All light isn’t equal in fine art photography (or any art). We as photographic artists must know not only from where, but when to capture the image.

Here’s an image of mine that illustrates ALL these points….

f11.0 @ 1/320 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 75mm

One of my passions, here in Idaho, is the photography of old, derelict, tractors. So, when I came upon this old tractor, on the side of the road, one morning, I pulled over and got to work.  Walking up to the tractor (the view you see here) I looked behind me to find a spectacular sky and clouds that had to be the background for the tractor! Then I turned around again to compose this view and did a bunch of images and because I was so fixated on my tractor I had missed what was right in front of me in the background!  That old door was Great—but what attracted me to it was the shadow of the Lamp over the door—that’s my kind of Lighting!

f11.0 @ 1/500 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 50mm

I started with this full view of the doorway and that great overhead lamp and shadow being created by nice Directional Light at 8:30 in the morning—a time I’m rarely up for photography! I tend to do most of my outdoor photography at the other (evening) magic hour.

Here’s a Black & White crop of the same image….

B&W Crop

My Black & White conversion was done with NIK’s Silver Efex Pro II using the “wet rocks” preset that I modified to MY B&W tastes.

This crop makes the lamp and shadow really stand out as the primary center of interest. I guess I’ll have to do a Blog on the main reason I stopped to Photography the tractor.

’Til next time…and none of us forget, Look Behind YOU, but also pay attention to what’s right in front of you too!

Author: Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

WEDDING CAKE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FROM A MASTER - PART 1 - UNMIXED LIGHTING

Over our 25+ years doing weddings, my wife Kathi and I always tried to create wedding cake images just like they were commercial product assignments for a magazine ad. We thought that any photography we did at the cake table, just as we did the bride’s trousseau, was important enough that we took the photography to a dramatic level beyond the reception record-shot—like most photographers did—and still do today.

The bottom line in my philosophy of photography is creating drama and drama is all about LIGHTING. However, all lighting isn’t equal—the best lighting for things is directional light that comes from some other direction than camera position.

This Directional Light Creates:

1. Three dimensionality; because the camera converts the 3-D world into a two-dimensional recording of reality is up to us as professional photographers to create the illusion within that two dimensional capture with a directional light that makes shadows.
2. Texture/Detail; directional light that sweeps across the subject from one side or the other (or the top) accentuates detail because of the shadows. We use this directional light on wedding dresses as well to show the detail of the gown.
3. Drama; dramatic lighting = Shadows!

I don’t care how you do it; you can use outdoor natural light, indoor window light, continuous artificial lights, or flash, but YOU as the director of photography, at each of your bride’s weddings, should be in charge of the lighting.

So, here are some of my favorite lighting techniques….

f8.0 @ 1/30th sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 36mm

This image was done at a wedding fair of a cake by one of my favorite wedding cake designers, Bijan of San Jose, California. The lights were quartz halogen desk lamps that produce a very hard “cutting” light that really enhances detail and makes dramatic shadows.

However, you must be careful with your exposure to avoid clipping those highlights on white wedding cakes. It’s essential to maintain detail in your whites on a wedding cake—not to mention your bride’s dress!

My favorite light source is Window Light….

f5.0 @ 1/50 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 46mm

If I have a wedding reception site that has great windows (provided it’s NOT a night reception!) I will actually have the reception staff move the cake table to take advantage of that light. You don’t want reception staff to be in charge of anything that affects your photography—especially lighting!

NOTE: This is something that is part of your research at each wedding. When you visit all the photography locations, in advance of the wedding, you should be looking at lighting and locations for your set-ups. Ask the manager where they usually put the cake table—they usually put it somewhere that’s merely convenient for them…and almost always under an EXIT sign. If it’s not where you want it politely ask the manager to have it set-up where “the bride wants it”; works every time!

More Window Light….

f13.0 @ 1/4 sec. ISO 4000; Lens @ 50mm

Nothing creates this nice soft light, wrapping to a gradient shadow, like a large window. This is something that a speed light just can’t do well because being a point light source makes them too hard.

Most of the time we arrive at the reception site early—before they let the guests in—so we can photograph the whole room and then get locked-down on a tripod at the cake table for the cake portraits.

In Part 2, I’ll talk about cake photography using “Mixed Lighting” and Natural Light Outside. ’Til next week…

Author: Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training Site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client Site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

LIGHT PAINTING A STILL LIFE: A KNIFE IN THE STUDIO; PART 2

Last week’s blog was about how I light painted two black pistols. That was challenging, but after I narrowed the light’s angle it was surprisingly easy because that modification gave me the precision needed to realize the old studio lighting maxim: “put light where you want it and don’t put light where you don’t want it”!

In this studio light paining blog I picked something more difficult—a very reflective knife. It’s a polished, stainless steel, dive knife that I paired with a vintage, stainless steel, Casio diver’s watch. To complete the set-up and enhance the dive theme I added a bunch of sea shells and a piece of white coral. Yeah, it’s complicated and a bit busy and after messing with the composition of all these elements I decided that the knife should be the center of interest because of its size and the powerful color of its handle. I had intended to make the watch the center of interest until I saw that it didn’t have the impact to lead in this set.

Here’s the final edited image….

f16.0 @ 30 sec., ISO 125; Lens @ 200mm

How I got the shot:

Lighting: In Part 1 I told you that I had to make a snoot (made of Cinefoil) for my flashlight to reduce the beam size for more accurate placement of highlights on my subjects. Well, because my subjects here are smaller and with all those tiny sea shells needing precise lighting I reduced the size of my snoot’s opening to about pencil size.

Painting:  You may be asking, “How did he get the blade of that knife without reflections from the flashlight?” that was my intent from the start—I wanted it to look almost black because I wanted the inscription on that, chrome like, polished blade to really stand out. 

So, when painting I swept my flashlight over the top edges of my set pieces (especially on the knife’s handle) without creating any forward angle that would front light the blade. Then I swept the light from each side working on all those shells.

Eliminating blade reflection:  You’ve probably heard the term, “angle of incidence equals angle of reflectance”, this just means that if the angle of your light matches your angle of observation you will see a reflection.

Family of Angles:  This refers to the Angles of view from a light source that a reflective surface will direct light back into the lens. For a flat surface the family of angles are the same as the lens’ angle of view—but coming back toward the camera.

The Solution:  Change your angle of view (lens focal length) so that the cone of light misses the lens.  So, I used a longer focal length (200mm) from a greater distance to reduce the family of angles (the cone of light). Now that the light is outside the family of angels light will not reflect back into the lens, thus eliminating direct reflections.

And that give me my dark blade!

The Background:  With so many more elements to paint I used up my 30 seconds on my subjects, so I had to do a separate exposure for the background.

f16.0 @ 30 se.c, ISO 125; Lens @ 200mm

Note on Color:  One of the problems when painting with an LED flashlight is that the LED light quality (its color temperature) can vary wildly between manufacturers. This is called its CRI—Color Rendering Index—which ideally should be 100 or 5500°K, the color temperature of daylight. Most LED flashlights are not even close to a CRI of 100 (I often saw a very blue shift in color in my painted set-ups using cheap LED flashlights) and most sellers or manufacturers won’t even tell you in the specs anything about its CRI! When I did find some LED flashlights with color temperatures at 5500°K (CRI100) they were really expensive ($100 to $350) and there was little variety in configuration compared to the cheap LED lights—such as multi-LED wands and such.

My Solution for Color: I simply started doing a custom white balance for each LED light. You just light paint a grey card exactly the same as painting your subject (same exposure) and you’re done.

That’s it for this week.  On to something new for next week… “Til then…

If you would like to check out the video I did on Light Painting go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPng2IwX6Zg&t=20s

Author: Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training Site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client Site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

LIGHT PAINTING A STILL LIFE; GUNS IN THE STUDIO; PART 1

With over 30 years in the photography business it’s still sobering to discover that there are still things in this art/science to learn.

It’s interesting that this discovery seems to happen the most in studio photography—where we have control of ALL the variables. This just means that there are more things for us to screw-up on when we choose among the myriad of decisions that go into the photography of any subject! Just some of those decisions include: size of the light(s), type of lights, placement relative to subject and to each other, how to light the background, how to control each light source—volumes have been written about just these variables.

So, with decades of experience, education from some of the legends in photography, having earned my P.P.A. (Professional Photographers of America)  Masters and Craftsman’s degrees for International print competitions and teaching, I had approached the incredibly simple concept of light painting as beneath my involvement.  After all this experience and training I’m about to abandon my huge multi-thousand dollar investment in studio equipment….for a flashlight! 

The concept of light painting is so simple and yet like most art it’s all in the execution.  I’m reminded of what one sage photographer wrote decades ago…”it’s simple, you just put light where you want it and don’t put light where you don’t want it.” Simple!

So, here’s my second attempt at light painting….

f16.0 @ 30sec., ISO 125; Lens @ 168mm

Making it even harder this time I chose Two Black Pistols! Hey, it’s more interesting compositionally with two guns and by using two I can show both sides at the same time.

Even though the lighting is literally in-my-hands, now, all the standard lighting rules still apply, to wit:

• Black objects (just like glass objects) are defined by their specular highlights.
• Those specular highlights are created with the light source(s) striking the subject from the top and/or the sides—the light source never comes from camera position (that would create flat light).

What is very different about light painting is the precision that can be obtained in putting light exactly where you want it.  Because we mostly use large light sources in studio flash photography especially in portraiture—pin point precision is not needed.

When painting these guns I found that my little LED flashlight’s beam was too large and I over lit the muslin material around the gun in front. I carefully tried to just paint the gun.

Here is the set-up and my lighting solution….

The set-up

I did two things….I reduced the size of my beam (I made a snoot out of good-‘ol Cinefoil) and I brought the flashlight in closer to my subjects.

I’m happy with the final result and I did it all within my 30 second exposure (including the background).

In Part 2 I’ll continue with a more difficult subject set-up using a knife and some small support objects.

’Til next week….

Author:  Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

PHOTOGRAPHY OF A JAPANESE GARDEN IN BLOOM

I’ve been documenting the beauty of the Hakone Japanese Gardens in Saratoga, California, for over 20 years. As one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s premier sites and 100 years old Hakone is one of the oldest Japanese gardens in the Western Hemisphere. In 2004 It was selected as one of 12 national sites to receive funding under the Save America’s Treasures Program. In 2013 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

I’ve been supplying the Hakone Foundation images for their publicity and funding campaigns for the past 15 years. I’m proud that my images helped the Hakone Foundation to win the funding grant in the Save America’s Treasures program.

Here’s the entrance to the gardens....

f11.0 @ 1/160 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 58mm

The main gate, with its large double doors, constructed using bamboo, has always been a favorite feature of mine. One of the best times to photograph the gardens is in early April when the most colorful blooms appear. This view shows off one of the garden’s most well know features—the bridge over the Koi pond with that old gnarled tree at its entrance.

f11.0 @ 1/125sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 50mm

I waited for backlight for this image to really make the blossoms and the tree’s foliage glow. 

The wisteria covered gazebo, on the pond, is one of my favorite spots at Hakone…

f13.0 @ 1/60 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 24mm

This was done April 10th at 3pm; I photograph the wisteria either under overcast sky or I wait until its not in direct sunlight to avoid over exposure of its highlights.

Then there’s the marvelous waterfall…

f22.0 @ 1 sec., ISO 100; Lens @ 35mm

This waterfall cascades down three tiers in a span of about 12 feet. It was taken the day after the last image, but I came back at nearly 7pm so that this side of the mountain would be in total shade to control the highlights and lower the overall light level.  Then I could use a 1-second time exposure to get the smooth effect on the falling water.   I still had to lower my ISO and use an aperture of f22.0 but that was by design because I wanted lots of depth-of-field too!

At the end of February my favorite tree blooms….

 f8.0 @ 1/160 sec., ISO 800; Lens @ 44mm

This is a Japanese weeping cherry tree. I really like the dramatic color contrast of its blossoms against the greenery in the background.

I did this image at noon on an overcast day to, again, control the highlights. With blossoms like this you must do close-ups…

f8.0 @ 1/250 sec., ISO 800; Lens @ 126mm

• TECHNICAL NOTE:
• I used a relatively small aperture on this image (f8.0) because I wanted that row of blossoms to be sharp. I see many photographers, when doing close-up images, using really wide apertures—say f2.8 or even wider—thinking that if they didn’t their backgrounds would be too sharp thus loosing the isolation they want between the subject and the background. What’s important is the distance between the subject and the background. I made sure that the vine of blossoms I picked to photograph was far enough away from its background that even at f8.0, coupled with mild telephoto, the blossoms would be sharp yet the background would be nice and blurry. If I had used say f2.8 the depth-of-field would have been so shallow that only the leading edge of the blossom’s petals would have been in focus. 

Next week we’ll go into Hakone’s secret bamboo garden and see what few tourists get to witness—the genesis of bamboo. ’Til next week…

Author:  Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training Site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client Site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

PHOTOGRAPHY OF HOT AIR BALLOONS USING PROFESSIONAL TECHNIQUES

I treat hot air balloons like very large, colorful, sculptures. So, I apply my usual rules of composition and lighting to create visual interest and three dimensionality. The challenge is that these things are very dynamic and offer several stages in the process from their initial inflation with fans, then the ignition of the big gas burners, bringing the balloon to vertical, followed by lift-off and then the jostling for position as 20 or 30 balloons spring into the air in very quick succession

It’s all very hectic and chaotic and in that first hour, as the balloons launch all around me, I’m constantly turning and shooting as I capture the action unfolding 360 degrees around me. In that first hour I make at least 300 images.

Yeah, some of you are saying, that’s all he takes! Well, all I can say is that I’m very picky about when and where I click the shutter. I rarely do the single balloon image, especially in the air, as I find those rather boring. My favorite photographic challenge is creating compositional layers of multiple balloons. So, I’m always looking for interesting juxtapositional combinations….

f6.3 @ 1/400 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 45mm

These two balloons, visiting from Belgium, at our annual Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic, are sculptures in cloth! Since they were parked next to each other I circled around them to layer one against the other stopping when I got the nice directional light (when the shadow side of the subject’s face is nearest to the camera…this is called “Short Lighting”) on Yoda’s face.

Here’s another layered composition….

f6.3 @ 1/320 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 24mm

Here I circled around to get the, back, side light and captured four balloons! I’ve got the foreground, mid ground and background composition with two balloons in the air; Nice!

I love the duality of hot air balloons.  When going aloft they fly in silence like a kite on the wind and then the gas burner roars to life, breathing fire into it, giving the balloon its primal source of lift.

f7.1 @ 1/250 sec., ISO 800; Lens @ 24mm

When doing the balloon’s initial heat-up I usually pick a dark colored balloon for this image so the fire will really stand out.

I’m a sucker for backlight…

f9.0 @ 1/640 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 70mm

These two balloons were coming back for their landing so I moved towards some trees, for some foreground interest, waited for them to overlap and got them both glowing in backlight. 

This is how I broke my rule against images of single balloons in flight…

f13.0 @ 1/400 SEc., ISO 400; Lens @ 55mm

As the balloons drifted west towards the entrance to Ann Morrison Park (Boise, Idaho) I remembered the fountain! Fortunately, the fountain was OFF, but still full of water, giving me perfectly still water for a perfect reflection making my single balloon a two-shot!

Technical: 

All of these images were taken using my Canon 24-105mm, f4.0, Lens on either my Canon 5D MKII or Canon 70D body. I find this lens gives me the most useful focal lengths for these large subjects and the speed that only a zoom can provide.

’Til next week…Have a question?  Don’t hesitate to ask…

Author:  Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

LIGHT PAINTING vs. STUDIO FLASH

Having just done a video on Dramatic Studio Lighting: Tools and Guns, I decided to try and compare light painting the exact same subjects!  I approached this little demonstration with some anxiety because with 30+ years experience in studio flash photography I’m used to being in strict control of exactly where each light is going and its measurable amount. I really like that with my professional studio flashes each has a modeling light that allows me to see what each hight is doing. It’s hard to give up that kind of control especially for an artistic perfectionist!

To add to my anxiety—I’d never done light painting in the studio before and I’ve set up a rather complex lighting challenge with this collection of small objects surrounding one large object all very close together. So, let the demonstration begin…and let me know, once you’ve seen the results, which do YOU think is better, light painting or studio flash and why?

Author:  Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training site:  http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

STUDIO MOTORCYCLE PHOTOGRAPHY ON A BUDGET

Studio photography of motorcycles is complex and time consuming. That’s why so many photographers would rather go on location outside and use natural light—I know I prefer that alternative! But, on occasion, I really like getting in the studio to do this kind of very technical, often problem solving, photography. I think the reason many of today’s photographers do much of their photography outside is that they don’t want to invest in a studio lighting kit, backgrounds, and all the many studio support tools needed to build a studio.  Of course, then, they have to learn how to use all this equipment! That’s probably the biggest sticking point today.

What I’m going to share in this blog is how I did motorcycle studio photography back before digital (on film! ) and on a budget before I had the multiple sets of studio lights I have today.

So, flashing back to 1994….

f11.0 @ 1/250sec., ISO 100; lens: 65mm

This image was taken with my Mama RB-67 Pro-S on Kodak LPP, Lumiere 100, slide film in the 6x7cm format.  The low budget part was lighting my set with just Two Flash Heads on a Norman 500 w/s pack and just using reflectors as fill. That’s it, I didn’t own any more studio gear back then!  And, because of the then high tech., not so instant, image preview method, called Polaroid, I can show you my studio set up…

The Polaroid back on my RB-67 is what made studio photography possible before digital. 

Note:  This only applied to Technical studio work. We never “pulled Polaroids” when doing studio portraits of people—2-minutes was way too long to wait for the Polaroid to develop!

As you can see I used two relatively small soft boxes, at the ceiling, mounted on either side of the garrage door opener (I had a garage studio back then too…) That ruled-out using one large soft box, as is customary today, which was fine since I didn’t own anything else!

Now, the key to make this lighting set-up work was pointing both my main lights not directly at the motorcycle—but at my reflectors. I have the lights just skimming the top edges of the bike. Usually this meant my lights were angled at about 45 degrees towards the camera.  This meant I needed to flag my lens to prevent flare from my lights.

The only change I made from the Polaroid in my studio set-up was replacing the white drapes, on either side of the set, with black drapes to control bounce.  This next image was of MY baby…

 f11.0 @ 1/125 sec., ISO 100

This image of my favorite all time bike the Kawasaki Ninja 900 (1984) was done on Kodak, EPZ, Ektachrome, 100X Pro using my Mama, 645 format, camera.  The studio lighting was the same in this image. The most critical part here was getting my reflectors angled to reflect the lighting onto the front surface (the wheels, disk brakes and engine) of the bike.  Hooray for Polaroids! The only thing that would have improved this image would have been edging the tires with talcum powder to create separation highlights, but I didn’t learn that trick until many years later.  Another little trick I have learned along the way doing commercial photography is to dull shiny surfaces with hair spray.

So, that’s how we did it on a budget and before digital…

’Til next week…have questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Author:  Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training site:  http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

PHOTOGRAPHY FOR A MAGAZINE COVER

Idaho Humane Society Paw Prints Magazine

Every year we — The Storytellersusa.com — donate portrait photography gift certificates to about 30 charitable organizations for their silent/live auctions.  It’s our way of giving back and being introduced to new potential clients—a definite win-win!

One of those charitable events last year was the Idaho Humane Society’s 25th Annual Lawn Party. In that event we donated to their silent auction and their live auction. The live auction was a chance for bidders to have their pets photographed for the cover of Paw Prints Magazine—a very popular live auction item that regularly goes for thousands of dollars!

So, a year later the editor of Paw Prints Magazine calls us with contact information of the family that won one of our live auction cover sessions.  When I called to schedule the photo session of their dog I suggested that we expand the session to do portraits of their family, kids and dog—no extra charge—and they loved the idea. My vision for the cover was a portrait of the kids with the family dog—not just a portrait of the dog that the magazine usually does. Of course my vision for this cover image was far more challenging than just a picture of the dog! It all depended on the dog’s temperament…

f6.3 @ 1.250 sec., ISO 800; lens at 200mm

It turned out that I had no need to worry—their dog was a joy to work with and the kids had a great time too. 

On a technical note some amateur photographers may wonder why I used ISO 800 for a session that looked to have lots of light…

1)  ISO is a professional’s tool to get the shutter speed and f-stop we require. Of course you need a pro-grade camera that has very low noise to use the ISO’s I like; my starting point in outdoor photography is ISO 400 then 800 and when needed I go to 1000 or 1600.

2)  ISO 800 in this environment enabled me to bring my shutter speed to 1/250 sec., which is about the slowest shutter speed I’ll use when doing action of kids—and kids with a dog are always in action!

3)  The aperture I wanted— f6.3 — gave me enough depth of field in case the kids moved out of alignment.

4) And Lastly, by using my zoom lens at 200 mm the background still went nicely out of focus even at the relatively small aperture I was using to get the good depth-of-field.

Here’s one of the series of nice full figure images from their session…

f6.3 @ 1.250 sec., ISO 800

We also did the usual individual portrait of the dog, but we talked-up my idea for the cover with the editor and he said he would consider my idea when he saw what we had created.  We’ll see what he picks soon, but either way I’m very happy with the results; I captured the vision I had in my head—the ultimate goal in professional photography!

’Til next week…

Author:  Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman, Certified

Training site:  http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client stie: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com

MIXED ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING SENIOR PORTRAIT

When doing high school senior portraits it’s our job to tell their story in a way that is appropriate for their world.  If you’ve read this blog before then you know that it’s mostly about using natural light in outside portrait environments.  However, when we dive into the world of high-tech where everything is unnatural our lighting must reflect that environment.

So, when I approached this session of our son Alex, I looked at projects in his computer room to see if I could use any of them as, what we call in the filmmaking world, lighting practicals. For those of you unfamiliar with the world of home built computers and the art of “modding” PC cases there’s a whole culture out there where super computer geeks are not content with the power and speed of the computers most of us just buy off the shelf. They buy state of the art processors that they then “overclock” to the extent that extra cooling fans are needed—hence the need for larger custom cases.  Then, with all this extra real estate they started adding interior case lighting—cold cathode florescent light sticks and cooling fans with LEDs embedded in their blades—all in a variety of colors.  So, everyone could enjoy these light shows they cut openings in the sides of their computing towers and added plexiglass windows creating an art form that has grown ever more elaborate since this session was done back in 2003.

Therefore, it was a natural to use Alex’s own custom built tower not only as a prop, but one of the light sources for his portrait!

f5.6 @ 1/4 sec., ISO 1600

This portrait was done entirely by the light from Alex’s various computers and monitors that I placed around him. I really liked that blue glow cast on his face from the cold cathode florescent lights in the tower, but I wanted a more natural, warm, light on the other side of his face. So, I placed his large iMac monitor at camera left.

How do you get his nice natural light look from your iMac monitor you ask? Easy you just go into system preferences—> display and in calibrator assistant hit continue to go to “Select a target white point” and select D65 (midday sunlight). This give you proper color now for that dramatic color difference on each side of his face. Here’s the setup…

Set-up

The colors are great, but the overall light levels were pretty low as you can see by my settings; even at 1/4 sec., I had to use ISO 1600 to get f5.6 for an adequate depth of field.

I really like the cropped final version with Alex holding his optical mouse inverted pointing the LED at the camera. I also wanted something more so, we turned the iMac behind him on for that Apple screen saver image amid the faint green glow in the background.

Should you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask…’Til next week…

Author: Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman, Certified

Training site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com