Archive for April, 2012
Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light and you will know the key to photography – George Eastman
When I first started photography, I was scared of artificial lighting. I didn’t understand it, so I avoided it. It was always easier just to put my subjects in the shade and call myself a “natural light shooter”. Ah, the lies we tell ourselves. Eventually, I learned how to use artificial light and light modifiers, and it opened up a whole new world. No longer was I dependent on the time of day or weather. Supplementing natural light grants me freedom on when and where I can shoot.
Good lighting is key to making your images dynamic. This means avoiding the on-camera flash which typically blasts your scene, lighting up every nook and cranny like it’s high noon. The location of this image was already dramatically lit, all that was needed was to illuminate the couple. Without additional lighting they would have been underexposed and lifeless; with an on camera flash the drama of the scene would have been washed out. So, I set up a directional Profoto head using a strip soft box with a grid that illuminated the couple with very little spill and shot the scene at 1/15th of a second on a tripod to bring in the dimmer ambient lights of the environment.
Don’t be afraid to get out and play with a strobe or a reflector. Take shots both with them, and without; direct the light in from different angles and see how the light and shadows interact to create more drama and zing. Is the image more interesting when backlit? Try it! Maybe the side works better for your shot. Pay just as much attention to where the shadows fall as to what the light illuminates, that is where the drama lies.
Want to learn more? Tune in Tuesday, April 17th on TWiT Photo to watch and learn from lighting master Joel Grimes.
Did you catch Trey Ratcliff’s last Variety Hour? He battled beautiful fireworks, yet still put on a wonderful show about the Great Aussie Photowalk. Watch it here and check out all of the beautiful photos on G+ by searching the hashtag #TheWalkDownUnder
Don’t miss a chance to watch or listen to your favorite photographers – download the TWiT Photo podcast on iTunes for free :)
The master of Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait enlightens us with in-studio demo that rebels against the traditional 3-light setup. Watch Leo get tripped up on Who’s Who of Grecco’s portfolio and hear behind the scenes stories of images of Hollywood’s elite including: Steve Martin, Lucy Liu, and Martin Scorsese.
* Bonus: Photoshop Expert Dave Cross shares tips regarding the under-discussed new sick features of Photoshop 6 beta.
Don’t miss a chance to watch or listen to your favorite photographers – download the TWiT Photo podcast on iTunes for free :)
Below are 3 of Michael’s Tips:
1. Move the light in closer than you would ever think.
2. Always use a large fill and keep it behind you.
3. Keep your light from spilling every where.
Coming up on April 17th – Photographer Joel Grimes
Find out more by watching the video here or on iTunes.
Have questions, suggestions or praises? Please connect with us on the TWiT Photo Forum.
How to Create Soft Light: Move it close! REALLY close!
Blog, Tips + Tricks 
0
Tue 04.10.2012
Tune in at 1:30 Pacific time today on TWiT TV for a live demo of this particular tip and guest of the show, Photographer Agent Frank Meo.
Here’s the deal. The softer a light source is, the more attractive it appears when lighting a subject’s face and skin. Soft does not mean flat. You can still achieve plenty of drama by changing the ratio between your fill light and your soft key light. Softness is a factor of various elements. One if these elements is size … (now here is the important part) … with respect to the subject. This means you can have a small softbox and if it is literally on top of your subject, it will achieve a softer light than large octabank that is 10 feet away.
Why does this happen? The inverse square law is why. Because of how measurements in three dimensional space work, light sources become four times smaller and less bright when they are moved twice as far away (and 9 times smaller and less bright when they are moved 3 times further away, etc.) So if you have an 8 foot diameter octabank (Big, right?) that is 10 feet from your subject and a 2ft by 3ft softbox that is 2 feet away, the small softbox will appear much bigger to your subject and therefore will be much softer.
Don’t miss a chance to watch or listen to your favorite photographers – download the TWiT Photo podcast on iTunes for free :)
TWiT Photo 49: DAM Expert Peter Krogh
TWiT Photo 1
Wed 04.04.2012
Don’t miss a chance to watch or listen to your favorite photographers – download the TWiT Photo podcast on iTunes for free :)
Peter Krogh has been a photographer for nearly thirty years, working for publications, agencies, corporations and NGOs worldwide. He loves to tell stories with words, still photos and motion imagery. He served on ASMP’s board of directors for six years, and founded its Digital Standards and Practices Committee.
A widely-recognized industry leader, Peter is the Director of the dpBestflow.org project, and the author of “The DAM Book, Digital Asset Management for Photographers” (O’Reilly, 2009), the best-selling book on digital photo management. He has created instructional material for the Library of Congress, World Press Photo, Microsoft and Adobe, to name a few. He spends much of his time spreading the gospel of good image management and effective workflow worldwide.
Peters Tips:
1. When shooting kids, get wide and get down
2. Overdrive the Fill Light in Lightroom
3. 3. Back your @#$% up! (punchline to go with image – because data loss is not picnic.)
Choosing Authenticity Over Perfection
Reflections 4
Mon 04.02.2012
Artists hold-up a looking glass to society; it is both our function and duty to reflect culture’s variegated, multivalent parts. Quite often, it’s the gnarly stuff of life on which we focus our camera lens, train our paint brush, reflect upon in a ballad, or funnel through whatever creative medium we see fit. Our work as artists is an attempt to make sense of senselessness, to rummage through the imperfect parts of our human experience and forge greatness. Imperfection is a wild and vast fount of fascination and inspiration.
In contemporary American culture, undue and unreasonable emphasis is placed instead on perfection—from child beauty queens to the prevalence of plastic surgery. Our cultural narrative includes making straight A’s before moving on to earn a six-figure income; and, for most of us, this narrative is nothing but a myth. Completely unattainable by sheer dint of its unreasonableness.
As artists, even with our boundless passion for harnessing the psychological complexity of imperfection as the subject of our work, we can be a surprisingly self-critical lot when it comes to our own craft. Which leads us to my tip of the week, and a guiding-light that helps me on a daily basis: Prioritize authenticity over perfection.
In art, the hyper-emphasis on perfection of technique or obsessing over creating a perfect final product places barriers around your process; it’s ultimately delimiting. Don’t believe me? Not buying it? Below are four of my favorite artists and creative figures who defy our cultural prioritization of perfection and instead choose authenticity.
Bob Dylan’s strange, undeniably imperfect voice changed the world
Charlize Theron’s role in Monster required the actress to pack on pounds
Leo Laporte doesn’t act like a groomed, polished news anchor; & fans love him for it
Michael Grecco (this week’s TWiT guest) is brilliantly off-the-wall and out-of-the-box
