Details |
ISO 400 … 200mm .. f/4 … 1/160 sec

Intent |
Fun, freestyle.

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This was in the afternoon during a break in our shoot when Klara was standing in the staircase. The way the light softly fell across her face was just perfect. “Don’t move.” I said. Once I got the camera and started shooting, it took a few frames to get her to fully relax and get this one.

ISO 100 … 1/200 sec … f/5.6 … 17mm

Here is an example of making good use of a puddle on the shores of Lake Tahoe. What lots of people often miss is the power of tools available to us all in the natural photo studio that mother nature provides. In the last few posts, my camera was aimed in the direction of the sun, forcing me to tweak the raw file pretty hard to open up the shadows while holding down the highlights. It also requires that I go black and white. I can’t push a color image that far. It’s just not what I want. In cases of extreme contrast, my vision is better communicated with a split-toned black and white. But, as the sun got low, it was so gorgeous and I was so excited that I had to remind myself to also shoot in the other direction. Soft sunlight coming in sideways lights everything equally. It’s like having a massive soft box with a warming gel. Expose for the highlight and let the rest go to shadow. It’s much easier than shooting into the sun.

This image is a good example of how fences are coming down and lines are blurred between different areas of photography. This is my friend Kylie, at SF Lovefest, who had ridden the Pink Mammoth float during the parade and was now fanning herself with a Supperclub fan while standing on their float. It looks as though we set the whole thing up, but I had my 70-200mm and she was just having fun. I followed her with my camera and kept firing, hoping for a winner. This image was later used for promotion.

1/750
f/5.6

This was an image shot for a client that manufactures high end robes. I wanted to capture the feeling of having a luxurious robe draped over your body in the warmth of the afternoon sun; to create a sense of peace and calm to associate with the robe. To achieve this image, I had the model walking slowly on the beach directly at the sun and the ocean and used a lens hood to keep my 70-200mm lens in the shadow and prevent lens flare.

Most of the time, it’s best to keep the sun behind you or off to the side. But sometimes, shooting right at it can work. In this image of Klara, it’s over her shoulder in the top right hand part of the frame. The sunlight hitting the glass of the lens directly created a soft milky cast over the whole image, which was my goal. It’s just an effect called lens flare and it’s what hoods are designed to control, but only for sun coming in at an angle. To address direct light lens flare, I could have just moved myself a few inches to the left, putting her between me and the sun, thereby creating a shadow for my lens. Shooting into the sun during the day is a great time to manually turn your flash on. You need it to fill in the dark shadows created by the bright sunlight. This is called fill-flash and I will discuss it more in another entry.

Here is a video that highlights Megg’s journey on ANTM.

Recently, I was lucky enough to spend 3 days photographing Megg Morales, who was on cycle 7 of America’s Next Top Model. She is very sweet, loves rock and roll… and she’s one hell of a model. You would think that all you’d have to do is point the camera at her and press the button. While that’s almost true, it’s still a lot of hard work and at times very stressful. If you’ve seen an episode of The Shot on VH1, that’s exactly what it’s like. This afternoon we had 1.5 hours in the dunes with 2 models. In teams of three, 2 people assisted while the third was shooting. As a team, we got 45 minutes with each model, which meant I got 15 minutes with Megg. So I thought for a moment and asked her to sit down at the very edge of the dune and play with the sand. The late afternoon sun was hitting her just right and when I asked her to throw the sand in the air, I saw something happen. We did this over and over and I was getting 3-4 shots off with each throw. There are some other good ones, but this is my favorite. I was about 15 feet below here and maybe 35 feet away, at the bottom of the dune.

1/40
f/5.6
This is an image made this morning for a client who’s submitting images for modeling in a Safeway advertisement. In my studio, I have 6 large skylights and 7 big windows. For this image I drew the shades on 2 of the windows and one side in order to create a bit of shadow for the background. I moved her into a position where one of the skylights serves as a hair light and a glass door camera-right provides a main light that softly falls across her face sideways and puts a nice catch light in her eyes.
i am a little troubled by the amount of light on her shoulders.
you can see the 12 or so select shots here

These are the other ways I processed the image from yesterday, in Lightroom.

1/500
f/4

The sun creates unbelievable, ever changing light and shadow all day long. The key is finding the right balance of the two elements in combination with which to create an image. In terms of lighting, this is nothing more than direct, winter afternoon sun, shining on Klara’s face. She’s in a large room that has 4 big windows passing a finely sliced block of direct sunlight. I asked her to lean forward into the sun till she could feel it on her face. I must say, that she was NOT in the mood for being photographed. She was complaining how she didn’t look good, didn’t feel good and just didn’t want the camera pointed at her. But she didn’t see what I saw and I convinced her to humor me. The warmth of the sun relaxed her and she let go for just a moment. I have about 25 images, all so different. But I really like this one. There are a few others I will share in the next few days, along with the other ways I chose to process this image in Lightroom.

I recently came across this print of a very photogenic ex-girlfriend. I worked on this shot in the pool with her forever. It was in 2000 and I was just starting to get excited about photography on a pro level, shooting with a bad-ass Nikon D1. We were on vacation in absolute paradise; a little spot called Verana, in Yelapa, near Puerto Vallarta. I was learning how to balance flash with daylight all manually. She was very patient…. You should almost always use a fill flash in bright midday sunlight. Otherwise, you end up with dark shadows on people’s faces. You need to manually turn the flash ON with your small digital cameras that you think will flash whenever necessary. What most people don’t know is that your camera doesn’t know to use a flash in the daylight, because there is plenty of light. What you are doing is just filling in the dark shadows manually.

1/180
f/7.1

In keeping with the beach theme, here is a lovely example of when you might want to watch your exposure. As the sun sets, it creates long shadows which can fool a light meter and over expose your image. Here, my sister Jill, is mostly in shadow, as is the building wall in the background. What you want to do here is expose for the light, not the shadow (which is what your automatic setting will do). You need to manually adjust the settings or use your exposure compensation to drop it down 2/3 of a stop or so. At sunset, the light is much softer and warmer in tone. So the way it falls across her back here is much more flattering than it would be at midday.

1/40
f/2.8

Klara is from the Czech Republic, has a unique aura and is very comfortable in front of the camera. Her eyes are pale blue and incredibly striking set against her black hair. We’ve been working on a joint portfolio project for a little while now and it’s coming along fantastically. Here’s an image we made the other day that I think gives her bit of a 50’s movie star look.