HOW I GOT THE SHOT

I love the look of a softbox, don't you. Any one can do it and it looks great for males and females alike. This was done with a 2 light system but it can be modified for 1 light and softbox. You will need to replace the white v-cards with a silver bounce panel.

I placed the subject about 6-8 feet infront of the blackout cloth to make sure I do not have any light spills because of the v-card panels. Oh by the way, I am using the term v-card panels for the bounce panels because everyone knows what they are. What I really used was a couple of $1 cardboard presentation boards made by Elmer Glue. They really work pretty good and if you lose one no problems I got a case of them around here somewhere.

Anyway, after placing the subject where I wanted him, I metered the shot that I want. I was shooting ISO 100 and the metere said I should go for 1/250 at f/10. Because of his complection I opened up a little and started at 1/125. I had a medium softbox pointed directly 90 degrees to the side.

For the second light here I put up 2 v-card panels diectly to his other side that could wrap around him from front side to back side. For this one I aimed the small strobe directly at the board instead of him. This would pick up some soft spill wrap around light that would create the mood I was looking for here.

Here is the lighting diagram I used for this one.



Play around with this set up. You will be amazed at the range you can get from it. Turn the small light toward him to create the butterfly lighting effect. Turn off the small light and get that mean, don't mess with me look.

MODIFYING LIGHTS WITH UMBRELLAS

Modifying lights are fun. It takes very little to change the mood of a scene by adding or taking away umbrella’s, reflectors, white panels or any number of things you can get your hands on.

Take this shot below. Each shot was taken f/10, 1/125 at ISO 100.



The first was taken with one light with the silver dish that came with the unit. As it should, it comes across as a wide spot; throwing dramatic shadows. This can be used to show a number of things but I mainly think about evil, sadistic, terror or meanness. This lighting technique really requires the subject not to smile because of the shadows it cuts, throws or creates. It closes down the rear lighting for that extra touch. If I were to shoot a burglar outside before he breaks into your house this is the light I would choose to cast the character.

However, this could also be a good use to outline the body. Showing the curves of women or muscles of a man highlighting the form. The light will cut in and allow you to paint with it to really create a piece of beauty and art. if your going to do this please use a solid background.

Let’s add a second light in #2 (middle). The same settings were used, just metered for the two instead of one. Now lets look at this one. It has a more friendly lightings but still hard. Notice both shadows on each side of the nose. It does though still give texture to the image by hiding the folds and the curves. The same metered light is given to this shot but even the background has picked up some light to give it a snapshot look.

For the last shot, the lights did not change an inch, not one thing on the settings. What we did is put on a 60 inch umbrella for each (2) head. Look at how much more the spread of the light is compared to the second one. We can see everything behind me easily even the photos on the mantel looked metered right. It gave me more depth and a longer range into the image. This light would be good for almost any type of portraiture and will give you a large enough spread to capture the backgrounds a make them apart of the image. It works well for the backdrop portraits because it cuts down on the shadows and delivers a good even light. It will also work on things like weddings, clubs and social events where you want to get the location in it as well.

Play around with it and see what you can get, keeping the setting the same.

THIS CRACKED ME UP

I found this clip while browsing today. It made me laugh and thought that you may enjoy it. It is not for the kids and not for the workplace. So email yourself to check it at home. It is a complete satire on being a professional photographer.



Enjoy

HOW TO RESIZE AND CROP FOR THE SHOT YOU WANT

Original Image and Finished 8 x 10


From time to time I have been asked about this process. Also when I sell a CD from a photo shoot the images are often un edited for size. The process is an easy one but if you are not familiar with Photoshop or photo editing software it can be overwhelming. For this reason I put together a tutorial on how it is done (about 7 minutes long).

This video was done in Photoshop CS2 however any editing software that supports layers can do the same thing. The free programs that are available like Paint.net, Photofiltre and Gimp can all do the job but will have some limitations on controls. Others such as Photoshop Essentials, Lightroom, Painter etc. will be paid license programs but will generally have more control.

For a larger view you can find the Tutorial that will load in your browser at http://wcandersons.com/ButterflyTest.swf . It will take about 30 seconds to load the first time or if you clear your cache after every session each time providing you are using more than Dail-up, but it is larger and you can view it comfortably.



For more visual samples and text describing the process as well as some other tidbits of information on finishing a photo you can go to my CD Information page about Crop Factor at http://wcandersons.com/Crop%20Factor.html. The right grey panel will open to a full size when clicked on.

The video was made with BB Flashback Express. A great write up on ScreenCasting software can be found at DonationCoder.com. If you sign up and donate any amount to the site you get BB Flashback Express for less than $20 (save 50). This is a good buy for a really nice piecs of software. It is not strong enough to capture full length video such as TV or Movies to transfer to your hand held toys or desktop. For that I use ScreenVirtuoso Pro, which is an awsome software but to bulky (file size vs compression) for tutorial use.