Give something extra

I have shoot a number of engaged couples and for the most part what they want and what works end up being the same thing. A nice close shot of the two of them so everyone knows when they get the invitation who is getting married without even having to read it. But it is also fun to get some other shots that might be used in a video. I was with this couple to downtown LA early on a Saturday (go early and the place is empty) to walk around and get some engagement pictures. With all the colors and textures to use as back drops it was easy to get some fun shots. We started at Pershing square and walked North and a bit West just following our eye to the next interesting spot. On the way back from the new Disney center I saw this empty food court. With the whole thing vacant I had the idea to fill it with the couple. I explained the shot to the couple and as I was traveling light and didn't have a tripod found a planer to rest myself on to try to get the same shot over and over. I wanted the couple to meet, talk, propose, and leave all in the same picture. I don't know that that comes through as well as it could. I dropped the color out of the back ground, then removed the food court sign and the chains that were keeping the chairs around the tables. Then it was just layering in the couple from each of the different pictures. People like to show others pictures of themselves but "normal pictures" aren't a good enough reason to walk down the hall to a coworkers cubical and disturb them. A picture that is different then they could have gotten on there own, or maybe even seen before is a good enough reason. Next time your asked to take some nice normal shots, do what your asked, but then give them something extra. They will still send out a traditional shoot for an invitation but this will get a lot of sharing that can lead to more jobs.

More lighting

I got the chance to shoot some pictures for a new album coming out soon by a great you artist named Adrina Thorpe. For more see www.adrinathorpe.com We wanted a very strong image that would be tight enough that it would help with face recognition, but still have a studio/stage feel to it. There is the picture that everyone sees and then there is the story of how you got the shoot. I believe her new is album is going to be called light and shadows. With that in mind she wanted a picture that was strong on contrast, and made use of some creative lighting. Not wanting to brake the bank it was time to get creative. We have an old piano that came to us with three coats of paint, pink, white, and yellow. After a lot of paint stripper and chemical burns I had it back to the original wood. Because I had spend a lot of time with this piano I knew the front came off without much effort. As the piano is Adrina's chief instrument, making use of a tired old piano as a backdrop seemed like a good place to start. Behind the piano is a wooden doweled room divider which I could hang a black backdrop off of. Behind all this her little one and my three are at the table thinking up ways to get into trouble. One of the things that really helps make portraits look much more professional is using light from above. It tends to outline a head so it stands out from the background. With this in mind I set up one of my SB-800's at the top of one of the wooden dowels that was also holding the backdrop with a simple clamp holding on to the foot that comes with the flash. I wanted the whole thing to have a stage look which meant that I would use some colored gels in front of the flashes. So the flash to her right was set up with a blue gel and aimed at the piano sound board. The third flash was shoot into a light umbrella to soften the light that would hit her face. I needed to be taller than I am (6'3") so I grabbed a kitchen chair and had my head up near the ceiling. I did this to keep the piano as the backdrop even though her head was above the top when she was sitting on it. The fun of this is there are four kids making noise and running around just off camera and this is just the old piano that works as a room divider, yet it looks like a studio shot. Creativity beats budget any day. To see the detail on her face http://norling.smugmug.com/gallery/4666856_tbgTP#277850248_ob7dE

Use what your given

I was asked to shoot a flooring company that needed new pictures for a web site. Part of the job involved shooting different wood samples. Not the most exciting work I have done, but it isn't all beach weddings with crazy sunsets. I set up a SB-800 speedlite with an umbrella at a low angle to the ground. The umbrella was to soften the light and the angle was to try to keep the shiny wood from reflecting the flash. So after the wood it was time for some staff head shoots. This was all at a concrete tilt up in an industrial park in town so there wasn't a lot of natural beauty around to use as a backdrop. There was a lot of boxes of wood flooring and rolls of carpet and I decided to try to use the carpet out of the depth of field. In the front of the building there were offices with nicely painted walls but all the lighting was florescent. When shooting in florescent light you need to be careful that you don't end up with a green tent to your pictures. If you move your white balance to correct but then use a full flash your flash will look wrong unless you gel them to look lile florescent light also. The back of the building had skylights and a big open door so I had more natural light. I also had bigger distances. Because I wanted the background out of focus that meant I needed a bit of space between the subject and the background and all the offices were small. When shooting head shoots I try to use a 50mm prime or keep my zoom around 50mm. On a digital camera that crops the lens this gives you a film equivalent of 75mm. That is about the right look to my eye to not compress or stretch any part of a face. For this shoot I set up one SB-800 with a yellow gel to hit the rolls of carpet about thirty feet behind the subject. I did this because I had too many colors and the background would distract. I set up another SB-800 to hit the back of his head. This was to lightly outline him. Both flashes were about 5 feet high on light weight stands. I was controlling the flashes with the command function on my Nikon D300. I grabbed a roll if paper towels that was close by and set it on the roll of carpet that was in the for ground to fired off some test shoots. Once I had my light dialed in I had him come out and sit on the carpet. His time away from his desk? Maybe two minutes. This was a good chance for me to get a custom look in a less then ideal situation with very little time.