TIPS and TRICKS: FALL COLORS PHOTOGRAPHY - Part 1 of 2

I see a lot of over processed nature photography from just being over saturated, to the most egregious HDR work, where all the shadows are processed out creating a flat two dimensional scene. Yuck!

Now I’m no purist naturalist that says we should mirror nature making photos that only show it in it’s natural state. No, I think then we would merely be technicians reproducing the scene in front of us.  An artist interprets his subject often idealizing a natural scene as the classic painters did and, in the photographic arts, the way Ansel Adams and W. Eugene Smith did with their extensive post capture negative and print manipulations.

So, I’m not going for the totally natural look-I never have. I prefer the interpretation of nature that I used to get with Kodachrome 64 slide film. To that end I think I’ve achieved that look with my digital raw files processed in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw).

Before I go on to how I process my RAW files, It’s very important to discuss the lighting you choose when capturing fall colors, because the lighting determines the method and the degree (or strength) of your processing.

There are three ways, using natural light, to do fall colors…in my opinion:

OVERCAST SKY - Soft Light

 f11.0 @ 1/200 sec., ISO 800; Lens @ 200mm

The image above was done in this light. Overcast sky is like a giant soft-box as we use in the studio to soften the harshness of studio flash.  It’s very easy to use the outdoor version of this light because it’s so soft and diffuse. Overcast sky is the best way to reduce the dynamic range of a scene enabling you to capture a full range of colors very easily.  The biggest problem with this light is that you have a lower level of light to work with so you may be on a tripod and/or you’ll have to bump-up your ISO. I’m usually at ISO 800 in this light, especially if I’m hand holding.

BACK LIGHT - Hard Light

f6.3 @ 1320 sec., ISO 800; Lens @ 85mm

Backlight can be stunning. You’ll get very dramatic colors, but if you have multiple leaf colors—say from yellow to deep red in the same image—you may have trouble getting detail in that range of colors because of the difference in the transmissive nature of those leaves.

It’s all about the dynamic range (exposure latitude) that your camera’s sensor can handle.  In addition if you properly expose those leaves and have something in the foreground that is opaque it will usually under expose. And, sometimes that’s OK. So, go for it…you’ll learn a lot about exposure with backlight.

With many subjects this is the lighting I start with; then I may do that same subject again in overcast sky-light.

FRONT LIGHT - Very Hard Light

 f5.6 @ 1/1250 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 135mm

Sunlight falling directly from the front should always be avoided in most photography.  It’s way too easy to blow out the high lights (again, exceeding your camera’s dynamic range) with harsh sunlight.  You should at least place your camera in a position where the sunlight is falling across your subject from one side. It’s also best to use morning or evening sunlight.

So, with this light it’s all about timing and direction of the light.

Next week, in Part 2, I’ll move on to how I process each of these types of lighting.

Don’t hesitate to leave comments or questions…’Till next week…

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

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

FINDING NEW LOCATIONS FOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

We’ve been doing portraits at this park for over 6 years now and never used this spot.  Why?  We were comfortable with “our location” (our usual spots), within the park, until one day we drove in for a scheduled session, to find the parking lot full; there was a soccer game going on for little tots. So, we had to park at the business complex across the street and walking into the park from a different end….As I was headed to our normal starting spot and my wife yelled “Jerry turn around!”…and this is what I discovered on the perimeter—outside the park. Damn!

f5.0 @1/250 sec., ISO 800, lens @ 120mm

This spot full-fills ALL my location criteria:

1. Directional light from ONE side
2. Gobo effect (subtracting light) by trees on left
3. Great backlight from setting sun, also giving the kids some hair light.
4. The cool split rail fence tying the scene together.

Goes to show ‘ya (me, that is!) that even a 25+year portrait veteran with a bunch of degrees and many awards can get too comfortable “doing the job”.

It’s easy for us to fall into this state since, as full time professional portrait photographers we must deliver stunning portraits of our clients on every session—failure is not an option!  Because of this we tend to use and reuse our favorite spots within each location.  (We have eight different locations on our list within, at most, a half-hour’s drive). So, after a few years, we run the risk of getting stale, of going into safe routine, and finally creating a portfolio where many of the portraits look the same.

Part of this is due to regional geography—especially here in Idaho, where we have less scenic diversity being land-locked. I really miss those beach sessions we did a couple times a week when we were in California….along with our kids, of course.  

I’m reminded about one of my teachers, a well known PPA Master, Craftsman, who told us he had been posing high school seniors inside the “V” shaped branches of a particular tree for over 20 years!  The portraits were great, but I made a note-to-self…avoid that rut and continue to scout for new locations!  And I do look for new locations…I just forgot to look for new spots within my usual locations! Lesson learned.

Here is another image at our newly discovered location.

 f4.5 @ 1/160 sec., ISO 400, Lens @ 200mm

For this high school senior portrait we pushed her down to the end of that same split rail fence.  In addition you can see behind her that there’s plenty of grass where we can do family portraits as well.

I’m going to have to go back out now and re-scout my old locations for different spots on the edges of those locations.

Don’t hesitate to leave a comment or ask a question…’Til next week…

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

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

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY: THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT F-STOPS AND DEPTH-OF-FIELD - Part 3 of 3

One of my guiding principles in portrait photography is to create the least depth-of-field I can while still keeping my subject(s) sharp. So, the f-stop is my most important variable.  All the other variables, shutter speed and especially ISO, are used to get me to my preferred lens aperture to give me the depth-of-field I want.

Most professional photographers have preferred working lens apertures for each type of photography we do.  Why? We must deliver the goods on EVERY session we do so we must know what f-stop, lens focal length, distance from your subject, sensor size, combination that will create the depth-of-field required for any type of subject(s) set-up.

In portrait photography my subject depth-of-field (DOF for ease of reference) is mostly determined by how many people and the pose we place them in.  The following image shows a family we posed in a single row group (our “walking pose”) that does not require much DOF—Super Simple!

 f5.0 @ 1/125 sec., ISO 400

The DOF data for this image is: Camera - Canon 5D MKII with 70-200mm f2.8 lens:

• Focal length:  200 mm
• Distance from subject:  40 feet
• Aperture: f5.0
• DOF = 3.63 feet

This next image with a larger family group that needed to be compressed into THREE Layers, so the group didn’t get too wide, needed much more DOF.

f7.1 @ 1/125 sec., ISO 400

The DOF data for this image is: Camera - Fuji S-5 Pro with 80-200 mm f2.8 lens:

• Focal length:  112 mm
• Distance from subject:  30 feet
• Aperture: f7.1
• DOF = 6.34 feet

When doing individual portraits the pose (the angle of view of the face) determines my aperture.  In the portrait of the boy below I didn’t need much DOF because he was in Profile.

f2.8 @ 1.250 sec., ISO 800

The DOF data for this image is: Camera - Fuji S-5 Pro with 80-200mm f2.8 lens:

• Focal length:  200 mm
• Distance from subject:  15 feet
• Aperture: f2.8
• DOF = 0.19 feet (2.4 inches)

Since we only see one eye you can get away with very little DOF and being at 200mm gives you great bokeh as well!

This next image of the young lady is typical of a pose when you see Both Eyes. We have her body turned away from the camera and her nose is not pointed directly at the camera.  In this pose I can’t take any chances with DOF being so shallow that I lose focus on the far eye so, f4.5 is generally where I am for this pose.

f4.5 @ 1/250 sec., ISO 400

The DOF data for this image is: Camera - Canon 5D MKII with 70-200mm f2.8 lens:

• Focal length:  160 mm
• Distance from subject:  10 feet
• Aperture: f4.5
• DOF = 0.3 feet (3.6 inches)

In summary these are MY favorite working apertures:

• f7.1 …. for groups 3 or 4 deep
• f6.3 …. for single families up to 3 deep
• f5.0 to 5.6 …. for a single row group
• f4.5 …. for a individual in most poses
• f2.8 …. for an individual in profile

All of the DOF data was gleaned from fttp://www.DOFMaster.com .  It’s a great website where you can quickly get your camera specific depth-of-field information for most camera-lens combinations.  All you need to do is plug in your typical “shooting” distance and favorite f-stop to instantly get your depth-of-field.  When you go on the site simply scroll down to their “On-Line Depth of Field Calculator” to get more than you thought you never needed to know about Depth-of-Field!

If you are having trouble with sharpness in your portraits I hope this information will give you an insight on how to make corrections and greatly improve your photography.  Let me know if you have any questions or comments….”Till next week…

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

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

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY - THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LENS CHOICE AND SUBJECT DISTORTION Part 2 of 3

This is Huge!  Your lens choice, and how you use it for portraits, is far more important than any other piece of equipment—including the camera.

The two types of distortion that affect our subjects the most are extension distortion and compression distortion. 

Here’s what these distortions do:

Extension Distortion happens with ALL lenses. It’s the effect where the closest part of your subject to the camera appears larger than normal; for example:

1. The subject’s hand or foot is larger than his head.
2. In a group portrait, with multiple rows, the head and body mass of people in the front row are much larger than those of the people behind them.
3. In an individual portrait your subject’s nose appears larger than it actually is.

If any of this is happening in your portraits you can’t blame it on your lens—it’s YOUR FAULT!  

This type of distortion is actually Perspective Distortion caused by being too close to your subject(s) because you choose to use that “nifty” 50mm or wider lens for portraits.

Short lenses will also make the background appear to recede from your subjects and simultaneously keep the background more in focus. Theses are not desirable effects especially when doing portraits outdoors when you want to include some environment.

So, what’s the cure here?  BACK-UP!  Yep, back-up and use a more telephoto lens. When doing portraits I use the MOST telephoto I can given the space I’m in, whether it’s studio or outdoors.

Lens: 200mm, f6.3 @ 1/125 sec., ISO 400

COMPRESSION DISTORTION TO THE RESCUE!

Using telephoto lenses (say 135mm to 300mm as practical focal lengths) for portraits has many benefits:

1. They equalize head sizes of those rows of people. Because you must back-up to use a telephoto lens on a group it eliminates extension distortion (you have changed your perspective by backing up) and the more telephoto you use the more it compresses the group.
2. They push your subjects INTO the background. In environmental portraiture we want to put our subjects INTO their environment.  The compression effect binds the image together.
3. You don’t need wide apertures to defocus the background; the more telephoto your use the larger the bokeh. 
4. On individual portraits, using a 200 to 300mm telephoto, you can easily minimize facial features (that large nose) and create dramatic painterly backgrounds while maintaining good depth-of-field.

Lens: 250mm, f4.5@1/320 sec., ISO 400

You want great Bokeh? More telephoto not super wide apertures is the way to go.  The Bokeh is better and you maintain good depth-of-field.

There’s no downside here, especially for our clients. using a telephoto makes them look great, creates beautiful backgrounds outside and gives our portraits a look that our clients can’t do themselves and rarely see amid the clutter of wide angle cell phone and nifty-fifty amateur pictures that are the norm.

So, what focal length telephoto do I use for portraits?  My rule of thumb for this is:

• 70-135mm for large family groups (multiple families)
• 150-170mm for one family group
• 200-300mm for individual portraits

Lens: 70mm, f6.3 @ 1/250 sec., ISO 1000

With a group this large I had to back-up a lot (about 30 feet) and go to 70mm, which is about as wide as I ever go in portraits.  Backing up that far really minimized the perspective distortion. In any given situation I use the MOST telephoto I can employ. The results speak for themselves.

In Part #3 I’ll be talking about your working f-stops, depth-of-field, and custom white balance.

‘Till next week - have any questions or comments?  Don’t hesitate to post them…

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

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

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY - THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU CLICK THE SHUTTER - Part 1 of 3

f6.3 @ 1/125th sec., ISO 800

In a recent high school senior’s photo session our 17 year old subject said she wanted to be a photographer and enthusiastically offered that she, “already know some Photoshop”!   I groaned inwardly that one so young was already so mislead about how we do, what we do, in professional photography.  My wife smiled and said, “Well, Photoshop is well down the stream from what you need to learn FIRST about photography!” I told her, “My goal, every time I pick-up my camera, no matter what the subject, is to create images that require little to NO Photoshop reworking.” 

Most of what my wife does in Photoshop is facial retouching as requested by our clients (just as in the old days-before Photoshop) or a tree lim in the wrong place, along with resizing and cropping for one of our labs to make prints.

The more you are in control of the following items the less you will need Photoshop to fix problems later on. In fact many of these things on my list have no remedy in Photoshop.

1. Know all of your outdoor locations. e.g. What time of year are they at their best? What time of day throughout the year is best?  For example, is it a sunrise or sunset location?  NEVER take a client’s photo at a location (including his home) you have not already checked out.
2. Do a clothing consultation with the client well before the session.  Simplify their clothing, e.g.  no stripes, checks, or patterns (artwork becomes nearly impossible), use solid colors, except white—no white shirts or t-shirts, no white pants or socks or shoes, etc. (unless you are at the beach) Long sleeves or some sleeve is always better than sleeveless and no shorts! That is unless you like people looking at your legs.
3. Know who you are photographing, not just how many, but their ages, sex and height/weight ratios. An elderly person that can’t walk far or someone in a wheelchair may rule out one of your locations.
4. Have things for your clients to sit on (always carry black plastic, posing rocks, small pieces of furniture) when doing groups to vary head heights.  You don’t want everybody standing, firing squad style, just because the ground is wet or muddy.  Even better, use the locations’ natural elements (rocks, logs, etc.) to supplement your things.  This is part of knowing your locations!
5. Pose your subjects to hide their flaws—our goal here is to make everybody look better than their perception of themselves!  Yes, this one is a biggie! So, why do so many photographers actually make their clients look worse by highlighting their flaws?  How? well by: Letting women wear horizontal stripes…or Posing them flat to the camera!  

What you should do is:

-  Turn women about 45 degrees from camera (so, their knees are pointed towards your key light), have them rotate their front foot to camera position…that will naturally hold their shoulders at 45 degrees, then bring their nose back to camera.

-  Men can be more flat to camera inside a group.

-  If standing though, turn subjects, on either side of your core group, inwards 45 degrees (like described for women).

There are many other tips and tricks we’ve learned over the past 25 years in posing peoples’ hands and feet, how to stand, how to sit, head tilts, angle of view of the face and corrective techniques, but ti’s too big a topic for a blog.

      6.  Lighting; make your subjects comfortable and look good at the same time! How? By not 

           putting them indirect sunlight. I see so called professional photographers do this a lot; creating

           amateur looking pictures of people squinting into harsh sunlight—sometimes with half the 

           group in shade creating a dynamic range nightmare!

Just as in the studio, I want the light on my groups to be a large, soft, source.  How do I find and use that outdoors? 

First, I place my group in the Open Shade; that’s a patch grass that has a large patch of blue sky (without the sun it it!) on one side and ideally a tree line on the opposite side. So, you may be asking, “What is Closed Shade and what’s wrong with it?” Closed Shade is found when you walk into the forrest. Sure it’s shady, but now with trees all around you the light is now mostly Top Light.  Since you’ve now lost the directionality of light from one side your subjects eyes go dark and you get the dreaded raccoon eyes. 

One of my first teachers, the great Leon Kennamer, taught me, over two decades ago, that, “The Light is at the Edge of the Forest!” Brilliant! So, as soon as you walk back out of the forest and stop, facing a big patch of blue sky—then turn 90 degrees away from that sky two things will happen; there will be directional, soft, light on one side of your face and a shadow on the other side being created by the tree line (acting as a Gobo). This is the subtractive natural lighting technique that Leon Kennamer pioneered long ago. The only caveat is that you must not have the sun affecting this soft light—so, the sun must be setting (one or two hours before sunset) behind your subject(s) for this to work properly. The bonus this creates, when you also have trees behind your subjects, is a nice, backlit, glowing background!  

I don’t always get the shadow side on my groups, but I do always get the nice soft sky light and the backlit glow in the background—or I don’t use that location. Without light in the background you lose the depth and color that add interest to a portrait. Without light the background is Dead—I want my backgrounds Alive! This is so important to me that if I think we are going to have a fully overcast sky, I will reschedule the session!

I’ve giving you a lot to think about here, so I will finish off my list next week…have your thinking cap on…next week will be techie. 

As usual, should you have questions or comments don’t hesitate…’till next week.

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

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

LOW LIGHT EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY — THE STATE FAIRE — HAND HELD

Digital equals artistic freedom; that’s why I never went back to film! With our high quality full-frame DSLR’s that can produce really nice images, at high ISO’s, coupled with great, fast, stabilized lenses, there isn’t much that we can’t do. 

Having covered the Western Idaho State Faire, in prior years, for the Eagle Informer Magazine, I know our fair inside and out. So, this year I decided to travel light bringing one body (Canon 5D MKII) and two lenses—no tripod or flash—and do some creative images for my self; all hand held.  

The scenes that were the most challenging were the night time images on the midway; like these…

f5.0 @ 1/30 sec., ISO 1600 Lens @ 24mm

This was one of my favorite compositions.  I like using a foreground object (the artwork of another ride) as a lead-in to another subject—giving depth and added interest to the composition.  The key here is using just enough ISO to get your camera to a shutter speed you can hand-hold at an f-stop that will give you the depth of field you need.  I stopped at ISO 1600 when I got to f5.0, because I new that with my lens at 24mm I would have adequate depth of field for both main subjects.  

You really can’t do this type of photography at f2.8 — or wider — and besides most lenses are not as sharp when used wide-open anyway.

f5.0 @ 1/50 sec., ISO 800 Lens @ 24mm

I loved this old carousel and when it stopped with the white swan where I wanted it, with that ride in the background, I just waited until the colorful pendulum was in a good position.

 f5.6 @ 1.160 sec., ISO 1600 Lens @ 135mm

The light in the stock buildings was terrible, so I concentrated on animals close to the big open doors., So, I reversed my angle for backlight and zoomed-in for this image of the cows’ point-of-view of the show!

f5.0 @ 1/60 sec., ISO 800 lens @ 24mm

The exhibit halls have notoriously poor, flat, weak lighting. So, again I looked for things closer to the open doors; in this case facing west. The setting sun was just peeping through the doors and hitting the back wall of the winning largest pumpkin’s exhibit, giving the otherwise flat lit scene some sparkle.

 f5.0 @ 1/100 sec., ISO 3200 lens @ 35mm

Back out on the midway for some night action photography this ride is a photographer’s favorite. Since it’s a spinner, I need at least 1/100 sec. to maintain detail in the top of the ride, but not quite freeze the people and to do that I had to use ISO 3200.  I think the best thing about this image is the in camera cropping—I think it’s more dynamic NOT showing the entire ride.

As I said at the beginning the artistic freedom we have with modern DSLR’s gives us the tools like variable high ISO’s with great quality! So, we can concentrate on important things like creative composition.  It’s my goal NOT to photograph things simply as they are. I want to photography things as I imagine they could be.

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

Training site:  http://LightAtTheEdge.com

AVAILABLE LIGHT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY; Part 3 of 3

Much as I dislike using flash, outside the studio, there are times I must, when doing weddings, where there is too little ambient light on my subjects.  However, I Never use direct naked, (unmodified) flash on people!  I ALWAYS have something on my flash (the Stofen cap in the past; then the Gary Fong modifiers) and I still do not point my flash directly at my subject. I start with it tilted up 45 degrees and as I get closer to my subject I tilt up more.

#3)  Flash mixed with available light; Dragging the Shutter.

This technique goes way back and at its most basic it’s just doing a slow shutter speed sync with your flash to pull in the ambient room light—to avoid a black void behind your subjects.  When doing dance images at the reception you can just put your flash in TTL, slow your shutter to something below 1/30 sec., and wing-it, but for portraits I want more precise control of the lighting. 

Most of the time I employ this technique when I want to use the room’s ambient light (to light the room), but I don’t want the room’s mixture of color temps to pollute the bride and groom’s skin tones. So, the on camera flash (diffused with a Stofen cap or Fong modifier) is used moderately just to get realistic skin tones.  Then to blend the flash with the room’s light I drag the shutter. This technique is the single most useful photographic/lighting technique you must learn for wedding photography!  It’s the ONLY way to achieve this…

f.5.6 @ 0.3 sec., ISO 800 , Lens: 8mm Fisheye

This technique is really easy if you have a incident meter (hand-held) that will measure flash in addition to ambient light; Here’s how:

1. Pick your f-stop; based on how much depth of field you need. I know that with my 8mm fisheye that f5.6 would give me lots!
2. Meter the ambient room light at your subjects and adjust your meter’s ISO to get you to the f-stop you want with a shutter speed you  can live with.  That depends on how still your subjects can be and how steady your hands are! I had to go up to ISO 800 ad use a risky 0.3 seconds! (my camera’s on a tripod for this one)
3. Now, put your flash in manual mode and make it give you f5.6 at your subject’s position. Done!

On the other hand, when you’re in a room with more light so you can hand-hold you will only be dragging the shutter a little with no need to meter the scene. In the following image I picked my        f-stop, guessed my shutter speed (check the back screen—it looked good) and went for it!

 f6.7 @ 1/30 sec., ISO 400

With the above image I was watching the light on the cake (it had overhead flood light on it) so, I was careful not to use so slow a shutter speed that I lose detail on the cake.

#4)  FLASH ONLY  —  THE HORROR!

Now we’re down to the last resort—when there’s virtually no light.  It’s night time outside where there are no other lights or you’re in a room in the same situation. In the example below they were in a gazebo with a small overhead light (at least my auto-focus could see to work!) and 5-minutes later we moved to another location for their garter/bouquet toss.  So, no time or inclination, to set-up off camera lights.

f4.0 @ 1/60 sec., ISO 800

The image has good, soft, coverage (look a the cake) because I have the Fong modifier on my flash, which is tilted up at 45 degrees with no cap on it.

Another area, where this flash modifier excels, is in close-up work at the cake table.  In the image below of the rings placed in the midst of the cake table decorations, I pointed the flash straight-up (with NO cap on it).

f8.0 @ 1/60 sec., ISO 400

So, that about covers it, from pure natural light to pure flash and everything in between.  I hope this little primer helps those photographers looking to do weddings in a more natural style, using less flash, with the goal of capturing the style, mood and ambience of each location.

“Till next week…should you have comments or questions don’t hesitate to post…

Author:  Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photog., CR., Certified

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