On Progress

As some of you may know I am currently undergoing a sort of mini renovation of the way I approach holding a camera in my hands. So far things have been going good. I haven't actually shot anything yet, but with drection will come better results, I hope.

A selection of my photos (including this one) made the shortlist at the recent USyd PALM awards. The level of competition was strange...most were landscape shots and few had human subjects. After looking at these photos I have decided that it is indeed people I want to take photos of. Stories I want to show, whether I've just met you for a promo or a friend who I'm asking for a technique tryout session. I look forward to picking up that camera again. The rest here...

New Beginnings pt 1.

I've recently had a couple of epiphanies which all center around the purpose of photography. The reason I haven't posted much in the last couple of months is because I've been struggling with one of the most fundamental questions someone moving along the road eventually must deal with. Find out what I'm rambling about after the hyperlink.

Lately I have been dealing with the issue of photos which are technically okay but artistically boring and unattractive. Yes they're exposed properly, yes the lighting on the subject is adequate. The people still don't like my photos. Why?

You always read when the pros go on and on about how it's never the equipment but the photographer. Or how technique doesn't necessarily play a part in the final vision. Or for that matter how vision is all that's required in photography. And I used to think that, owing to my extension one English training, that the middle ground was always the better option. But drawing from my cross industry experiences, I now can see that is no longer true.

And here's the revelation. It doesn't matter what the equipment is. You can't fill a stadium with two 400 W speakers, but at the same time you wouldn't power an acoustic choir with multiple line arrays. Yes equipment will make your job easier, faster, more pleasant. Yes it could free up your creative expression. But beyond the very few basics you need to know, anything more than whatever it takes to get the job done is just overkill. Or an ego. The rest here...

When the going gets tough...

...other photographers cop the fuck out and direct flash like a bitch. See why I think photographers working these event scenes don't deserve to get paid any more than they do, and why they will never get paid more after the jump.

Generally when photographers encounter this situation, as I did at a dance competition not too long ago, they would just cop out and and pray that they find a blank wall that has enough space to pose the crews in front of. These types of mediocre skills are precisely photographers in this arena are doomed to not earn money. They simply do not show clientele any reason why the should be paid more.



The previous setup shot displays how I managed to find a little space somewhere and place a simple lighting setup that was quick and dirty enough so that the crews wouldn't feel pressured into waiting for a long time after their rehearsals to shoot, and impressive enough so that it would still have the "wooooow" factor that I get when i show them the LCD on the back of my camera.

You can see the finished product here.



Note that the low hard light camera right will cast some bad shadows across faces. Here positioning is important as you don't want dancers to get hit with shadow across the face in bad ways. The rest here...

Production Video!

With the arrival of the Chinese New Year comes a new video. Credits go to Thomas Pranadjaja for the videography, and 4 out of the 5 Devilicious girls for standing in as models. Video and description after the jump.



The astute should notice the progression from a simple one light setup to a two light setup. Description and breakdown of shots will happen next post, but for now, just try and reverse-engineer what I've done yourself and try to point out a few flaws.

Happy viewing!



The rest here...

Portraiture Style

So lately I've been working on my portraiture skills in a manner of different environments. That is my good friend Greg taking uh...portraits. Check out some of the ideas I've come up with, starting with this first picture after the jump.






So basically what's been happening lately is I've taken a break from the pure candid nature of photography and tried to steal emulate some styles which have caught my fancy lately. And I've been developing them as such:

The first exhibit here is my much touted portraiture picture that I feel hearkens to a more traditional approach. That involves the usual wide-lens-is-better approach along with a a full scale directing of the shot ("Okay, walk this way and look there with this sort of mindset, and when you cross this stone on the ground I'll take a shot").



This was coupled with all the usual strobist tricks - trial and error full manual, shoot through umbrella, small aperture, and then some fluky photoshop jacking around to get that sort of wonderful tonality I've not yet had a chance to replicate.

The problem with this sort of shoot however, is that most often it doesn't let the subject express themselves, and it doesn't really go more along the lines of a better picture. It was a fun thing to do for my friend and I no doubt, but both my creativity and her expression ("It was fun but I prefer this....") were not exactly given much slack so it really does look like a very posed and traditional sort of posed shoot.

Here we come to my other style of portraiture, which is a hybrid between directed and candid. Of course, as anyone will tell you, the exact mix varies depending on shot, but here it was really up to the couple here and they were such characters a wonderful couple that it was defintely worth it to give them the freedom to express their relationship in their own way, but with a touch of direction to give the photo more sense and meaning.

Of course, spontaneity requires a quick trigger finger to capture those moments that you've encouraged them to show, such as this one. My personal opinion is that the people you shoot with this approach have to be rather expressive themselves, and for this to work the subject must have confidence. Once you coax them out of their "omg this is a pro shoot shell" I've found the images come a lot more freely and then it's solely on the photographer to make the shot.

And last but not least we come to the full candid stuff, the paparazzi-esque "whack the biggest lens you can on your camera body and shoot from afar" apprach. In practice this is probably the the best way to get candid shots, as having a camera up close to many people's faces is daunting for them (especially if they're cooped up schoolkids who've never been to an event where there was an event photographer present). If they're not aware of you, they ditch the canned smiles.

So three different styles, for three different results, in many different applications. I've only just started working on these myself and so I'd share my thoughts with you. One thing in common is that to achieve decent images in these three styles I've found you need to work HARD.



The rest here...

OT - Camera shy people

When you're on a tight schedule, how do you find the time and subject to take time out of their possibly busy schedule?

One of these days I am going to have to work on a shoot video, where I get an assistant who records the whole thing from start to finish on camera. If you want to model or shoot the video drop me a line at my email or on Facebook.

So basically I asked Amanda who should have been studying was relaxing from exam week to take some time out of her schedule.

O_O

It is important to remember that while the word "model" usually brings up connotations of an inanimate object, they are still people, and most likely at this level of photography, your friends. Careful manners will possibly get you more than satisfactory results and a model base on which you can experi- practice on.

Instead of the canned smile most people usually give I try and use my familiarity with my friends and say carefully thought out random sh*t that elicits some kind of response. And when that response arrives it's up to me be to quick on the shutter release.

I do realise that some people would much rather prefer candid photography but remember - not everyone can produce expressions or feel comfortable enough. Maybe when i hit a higher level of photography that would be possible, but for now, just gently prodding my friends into creating a few images is something that I should work on. It's almost like a doctor's bedside manners for photographers. The rest here...

Gelling on Lighting

Strobist.com tells us that gelling to change colour balance is something that is always worth considering, as it often drastically alters the mood of your image. Here's a little something before an assignment I had that evening to see just how effective that can be.

The place was the Graffiti Tunnel at University of Sydney and I had asked Melody (what a name) to stand in as a model while I practiced some more with the Nikon CLS system. With a kinda rubbish ambient light I killed it with 1/250 shutter speed AND a low ISO.

Then I adjusted those two settings in addition to key and fill light power. Key was a shoot through and fill was a snooted flash. That was how the rest of the series went.

But I want to draw your attention to the title shot where the key and fill was reversed. Here the camera was set to Incandescent (Tungsten for the yanks) and then gelled with a FULL CTO plus a 1/2 CTO to bring colour back up. Full CTO alone would have only made the subject white, and not a warm orange.

The snoot directed an even but hard light onto her face and the fill light filled in the graffiti behind her where the key light would have been blocked by the subject. The choice of 1/2 or 1/4 CTO is to taste, and I would have prefered 1/4 but the 1/2 here is not bad either.

This is certainly something I will look into as I get time.

The rest here...