A Photographer’s Journey

In Joe McNally’s CLS video it showed him using a ballhead to align the flashhead along the umbrella stem axis. Made sense that it would distribute the light more evenly; so I bought the rig. Here’s the test results – you decide.

As pointed out in the note above, I forgot the diffuser.

Single SB800 set to TTL into Wescott 42″ shoot through umbrella.

The ballhead is the Manfrotto Lite Tite Swivel+Umbrella Adapter 26
The coldshoe is the Stroboframe Shoe-type Flash Mount Cat. No 300-SHO

I consider this as a ‘nice to know’ experiment only. With the inherent spill associated with shoot through umbrellas and with the difusser on the speedlight the coverage appears to be good. One additional advantage I found with the ballhead set is the ability to quickly rotate the flash body to align the IR sensor to face the camera.

I’ll know better after I field test it.

Sideview

Before and after: Too much?

Sometimes I like to play with a photograph that doesn’t appeal to me in it’s original form. I see other’s work and like the processing or like the concept of it. I tend to get fixated trying new filter effects, crops or plug ins while trying to produce an artistic version that is like a gossamer thread in my mind’s eye.

Sometimes I get to the ‘ah ha’ moment – sometimes I don’t. I do however enjoy the journey to artistic expression.

Want to completely change the mood, refocus attention or perspective within your photograph? Try cropping in tightly. Near 100% crop to highlight the gull here.

Truth be known, although it is the same gull as in the taking flight picture, I did not notice its presence until post processing.

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I was blown away by the creativity.

The girl at the party

I shot a corporate annual conference dinner the other evening, then posted the images on-line for the attendees to download. We used flash at the start of the event. In an attempt to capture the feel of the evening I switched to my Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 IF-D and shot wide open at f/1.4 in the dimly lit rooms.

I love the lens for it’s sharpness and speed. It works amazingly well with the high ISO capabilities of the D700 which I had set to ISO 1000.

Nearly all of the feedback I have received were on the photographs with the heaviest bohek.

“Bokeh (derived from Japanese, a noun boke 暈け, meaning “blurred or fuzzy”) is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field.”

I like the bokeh too but the comments got me to thinking about why. I will hazard a guess that it most closely mimics the human eye’s ability to sharply focus and isolate upon a single subject within a busy field of view.

Pay attention to your vision the next time your gaze is fixed on just about anything. Notice the ‘bokeh’ effect of the background when concentrating on your morning coffee cup; the sharpness of the person across the room while all else seems to disappear.

Let me know.

I have been both pleasantly surprised and left speechless by the way some of the folks I have photographed show up for their portrait session.

‘Models’ show up with only the street clothes they have on. Personal hygiene, chipped and mismatched finger and toe nail colors, dirty feet, makeup, hair weren’t a consideration. When I’ve mentioned it they have done everything from just shrugging their shoulders to suggesting I ‘could’ have had an MUA and hair dresser for them to telling me to ‘fix’ it in Photoshop. And yes, I do mention the above to any model I shoot TFP – doesn’t seem to matter.

Others walk in just drop dead ready to go with makeup, hair, nails and wardrobe and most importantly – ideas.

Paying clients generally do better but I’m still perplexed at times by some of the by what some folks consider ‘portrait ready‘ appearance for themselves and their family.

This is a small rant only, the majority of the many people I’ve photographed are very nice, ready for their session and know what they want from it. But some of them—-

People are funny.

With every portrait session I use light, shadow and pose to portray a different mood, facet and aspect of the subject. I see it during the session, I count on it to produce the shoe-box photograph – the keeper.

During nearly every post production process I am pleasantly surprised how a single person can look so differently in a photograph. Soft, rough, hard, beautiful, thin, heavy – you name it. The human face holds a true fascination for me, the eyes – the eyes, expressing the wisdom of the ages or the delight of youth.

People are wonderful creatures.

ACR 4.5 Screen Capture

I stumbled upon an update to the Photoshop CS3 plug-in Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 yesterday. The camera profile function is very cool and recognized my Nikon D-300 NEF raw files on its own.

Not only does this update support Nikon’s Picture Control Files supplied by Nikon with the D300 ( Standard, Neutral, Vivid and Monochrome) but also the 3 D2X PCFs (D2XMODE1, D2XMODE2, D2XMODE3). It does not however come with Ken Rockwell PCF support. See my ducky Picture Control file test here.

On the few images I’ve had time to play with, the application of the Control File settings in the NEF file appears to be a close match to Nikon’s own Capture NX and NX2.

On a recent trip to Washington, DC, see Hassled by the Washington, DC Park Rangers for taking photos, I did the tourist thing early Saturday morning before heading back to Texas. I went out at 7am to avoid the heat and the crowds.

I walked from the Washington Monument, past the World War II Memorial headed for the Lincoln Memorial along the Reflecting Pool. There were a few joggers, a few Ron Paul supporters (interesting group of characters) and city workers. As I approached the Lincoln Memorial a small group of tourists were already starting to mill around. I noticed this black city worker mopping the steps, back and forth, back and forth and I knew right away I wanted to include him in the photograph.

When I got to the bottom of the steps the group of visitors were all over the steps and inside the memorial. The worker patiently continued his work, waiting when the people blocked his path.

Standing there with my Nikon D300, waiting for the moment I wanted to capture I was approached by, wait for it — a Canon shooter. He was carrying two cameras (a Rebel XT and a 5D). We had a brief discussion about the light and our shared hobby. Nice fella; other than the Canon part.

Just as we were parting ways I got this photograph. It’s the best of the three I took of this man maintaining the monument’s appearance. The fact that it is a black man working for the Federal Government at the Lincoln Memorial somehow struck a cord with me. I mean no offense to the man doing an honest job, the fact Lincoln’s eyes appear to be watching him, makes, to me anyway, this photograph sort of special.