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I haven't done a Behind the Image post in ages and I hear that you guys like them. SO. Here's another edition.
The image I've chosen to share about today was shot at Jade & Amy's wedding in St. George, Utah in June of this year. It's a portrait shot in full sun. My favorite type of lighting is backlighting where the background is full shade. But sometimes, like when you're in the middle of the desert, there is no shade to speak of. So this is a great trick for getting beautiful close-up portraits in full sun.
In Camera:
This image was shot in RAW with my Canon 5D Mark II, on manual, with a Canon 50mm 1.2 lens, at f1.2, 1/4000 of a second & ISO 100. This trick only really works if the sun is somewhat low in the sky. That's because you have to block it partially with the subjects' heads. I usually squat down a bit so that their bodies are fully blocking the sun. I lock focus and then move a bit (I probably look weird moving my upper body randomly from side to side) to get a variety of shots with the sun partially blocked by the subjects' heads. If you don't block the sun adequately, you'll get too much flare in your lens. But it's fun to have a little peeking through, like in this shot where the sun is coming through the veil giving it a soft, etherial feel. Another key to this shot is to overexpose slightly. If you properly expose according to your in camera meter, your subject will be drastically underexposed. As you can see in this shot, the subjects are the darkest part of the image. So I generally overexpose by 2/3 of a stop or so. I do the same thing when shooting in my favorite lighting situation -- backlighting with the background in full shade. In that instance, I don't care if the hair light isn't properly exposed, I want the faces exposed correctly.
This is the image straight out of the camera: |
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As you can see, the subjects are still slightly underexposed. In this instance, I'm ok with that because I need some detail in the veil. Because I don't want to lose any more detail in the veil, I'm going to convert this image to a .jpg and just do some selective dodging to lighten only the bride and groom's faces rather than brightening up the image as a whole.
So I basically don't make any adjustments in camera RAW. Here's the shot right before processing it to a .jpg: |
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| After converting it to a .jpg I used the clone tool to get rid of the distracting hair over the bride & groom's faces. I don't always do this, I just knew this was one of my favorite photos, so I wanted to make it perfect. I then used Kevin Kubota's digital fill flash tool at around 18% opacity to selectively lighten Amy & Jade's faces. I love this tool. It's a lot like the dodge tool in Photoshop but much more natural looking. Then I ran a Kevin Kubota action -- X-Process Combo -- customized to around 18%. I use this customized action on all of my color images. This is the final result: |
| Let me know if you have any questions or if there are any other images you'd like to know more about! |
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Today I'm continuing a new series on my blog for photographers called "Behind the Image." In addition to the topics that I get questions about and address on my F.A.Q.s posts, I often get asked about what went into creating specific images. As you know, I love to share info and so that's exactly what I'm going to do in this series. So as you browse through my blog, if an image catches your eye, feel free to ask me to feature it in an upcoming "Behind the Image" post.
The image I've chosen to share about today was shot at David & Katie's wedding in Kauai in June of 2009. Whenever possible I like to take a scene setting shot like this that shows the bigger picture of where the reception took place. This type of shot really helps to tell the story and is great for inclusion in a couple's album.
In Camera:
This image was shot in RAW with my Canon 5D, on manual, with a Canon 16-35mm 2.8 lens, at a focal length of 16mm, f2.8, 1/6 of a second & ISO 1600. The key to getting this kind of blue sky is to take the photo half an hour after sunset. If you take it any earlier, the sky is too bright (In fact, I probably did take this photo a little too early but was still able to compensate by underexposing in camera and post-production). If you wait later the sky goes black. I always have my assistant set an alarm on their phone so they can remind me when the time comes to take this shot because I'm usually busy with a million other tasks at the time. As mentioned, the shutter speed I used for this particular shot was 1/6 second. In order to capture this effect at this time of day, you need to use longer shutter speeds that make hand holding the camera difficult. I used my in camera meter to determine what my shutter speed should be and then set it two stops faster in order to underexpose and make the colors in the sky even deeper and richer. Then I set the camera on the ground and proped the lens up on my foot or a rock or the lens hood -- whatever I had available at the time to get the composition I was wanting.
This is the image straight out of the camera: |
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Post-production:
I opened the image in Camera Raw in Photoshop and made a number of adjustments including lowering the exposure even more, lowering the temperature a touch and upping the tint quite a bit to get this effect: |
| Then I converted it to a .jpg and used the clone tool to take out the distracting red spot in the grass. I also used Kevin Kubota's X-process Combo at around 18% opacity. I use this customized action on all of my color images. This is the final result: |
| Let me know if you have any questions! |
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Today I'm continuing a new series on my blog for photographers call "Behind the Image." In addition to the topics that I get questions about and address on my F.A.Q.s posts, I often get asked about what went into creating specific images. As you know, I love to share info and so that's exactly what I'm going to do in this series. So as you browse through my blog, if an image catches your eye, feel free to ask me to feature it in an upcoming "Behind the Image" post.
Last night I spoke to a group of photographers at the Phoenix PUG about lighting. I shared a quick tutorial on off-camera lighting at receptions and talked about my set-up. So in honor of how fun that was, I thought I'd pick an image today that was taken with off-camera flash at a reception. This image comes from Shane & Tatum's wedding all the way back in September of 2007. It was taken at Trilogy at Vistancia in their ballroom during the father/daughter dance.
I love the three-dimensional feel that off-camera flash gives an image. This is an incredibly touching moment between Tatum and her dad and while it would still be a great capture with on-camera flash, the image would look flat and not be nearly as powerful. I'm going to share with you what I did in camera and in post-production that resulted in the above image as the final product.
In Camera:
This image was shot in RAW with my Canon 5D, on manual, hand held, with a Canon 70-200mm 2.8 lens, at a focal length of 125mm, f4.5, 1/30 of a second & ISO 200.
While I oftentimes shoot with both an off-camera flash and an on-camera flash for fill, in this instance I only fired the off-camera flash. The off-camera flash was set up on a light stand about 20-30 feet away from the subject and about 100-120 degrees clockwise from where I was standing. I had the flash set manually to 1/32 power and pointed at a 90 degree angle directly at the dance floor. I used pocket wizards to trigger the off-camera flash.
This is the image straight out of camera: |
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Post-production:
I opened the image in Camera Raw in Photoshop and took the saturation completely out to change it to black and white: |
| Then I converted it to a .jpg and used the clone tool to take out the distracting light on the left side. I also used Kevin Kubota's Smokeless Burn action to darken dad's hands and Tatum's hair just a bit. I love this action as well as Kevin's Digital Fill Flash to lighten and darken specific areas of my images. They work like the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop but much more realistically. Then I used Kevin Kubota's BW warm + snappy 1 action that I have customized to around 18% opacity. I use it on all of my black and white images just to give them a little bit of warmth and pop. I chose to crop in just a bit to put dad's face a little off-center and WA-LA! This is the final result: |
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Today I'm continuing a new series on my blog for photographers call "Behind the Image." In addition to the topics that I get questions about and address on my F.A.Q.s posts, I often get asked about what went into creating specific images. As you know, I love to share info and so that's exactly what I'm going to do in this series. So as you browse through my blog, if an image catches your eye, feel free to ask me to feature it in an upcoming "Behind the Image" post.
Today's image comes from the wedding day of Greg & Megan in February. This shot was taken at the Desert Botanical Gardens during the bride & groom's portrait time.
I love the effect that flare can have on an image. This one worked out quite nicely and gave the image a really dreamy feel that I love. There's a number of ways to shoot flare but I'm just going to talk today about what I did to create this particular image both in camera and in post-processing.
In Camera:
This image was shot in RAW with my Canon 5D, on manual, hand held, with a Canon 16-35mm 2.8 lens, at a focal length of 20mm, f22, 1/50 of a second & ISO 640.
Sometimes I shoot flare with a wide open aperture for a different effect (generally when I'm shooting tighter shots with a longer focal length) but in this instance I wanted to have definition in the sun rays that streamed down over the building and the couple. The KEY to getting the sun defined as a star shape and being able to see the rays of light is the aperture setting. You need to close down your aperture as small as possible. It was a bright day and in order to be able to shoot at f22 I had to raise my ISO to 640.
You'll notice that I used the building to block part of the sun. If I didn't do so the entire frame would be obscured by sun flare. It's useful to use a building, tree, or the subject's body to block some of the flare so you get just the right amount to create the desired effect. Two more keys to shooting flare are that you have to take a lot of shots and move around the subject. I'm sure Greg & Megan wondered if I had sampled the cocktails as I squatted to get the building to cover part of the sun then moved left and right to take various shots to make sure the colored sun spots didn't land on their faces. I spent longer in this setting than I normally do for a portrait because it's hard to tell what you're getting when shooting with the sun in your eyes. What you see through the viewfinder at the time isn't necessarily what you're going to see when you look at the image later. That's why I take a lot of frames and move around the subject quite a bit when shooting flare.
As far as posing goes, all I asked Greg and Megan to do was to stand with a little distance between them and hold hands. I took many other shots that were decent of them looking at each other but I love this specific instant when Greg looked up and smiled and Megan looked down at their hands. It's so romantic. The reason they look so natural doing it is because it WAS natural for them. I didn't direct them to look a certain way. Sometimes you have to put a couple in a specific setting and give them a little direction then just wait. The money shot usually happens after they have hung out there for a bit and start to forget that you're there. So spending extra time here worked out for me in two ways--I got the flare just right and caught a great moment.
When taking this shot I relied on my in-camera meter for exposure and this is the image straight out of camera: |
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Sun flare shots tend to be VERY washed out straight out of the camera and oftentimes the blacks are not rich. Don't freak out about that. This can all be tweaked in post-processing.
Post-production:
I shoot RAW so I opened the image in Camera RAW and upped the contrast, blacks and recovery siders (to bring a little more detail into the sun flare). This is the result: |
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Then I converted the image to a .jpg. I opened the .jpg and used Kevin Kubota's Digital Fill Flash action to lighten Greg's face a bit. I love this action as well as Kevin's Smokeless Burn to lighten and darken specific areas of my images. They work like the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop but much more realistically.
Next I used the clone tool in PS to clean up the sensor dust spots that inevitably show up when you close down your aperture-- NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU CLEAN YOUR SENSOR!!! No, actually I use these handy things and they work pretty well. But inevitably you still have a few spots to clean up.
I also used the clone tool to get rid of a couple of the sun spots above their heads that were distracting to me.
Then I ran Kevin Kubota's X-process combo action at about 18%, used magic sharp (also Kevin Kubota) for sharpening and WA-LA! |
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| I had NO idea I could talk at such lengths about one single image. Craziness! Well, if you've made it this far, let me know in the comments. I don't want to keep doing these posts if they're only causing my readers to clean up drool off their keyboards once they wake up from a nice nap :). |
Today I'm starting a new series on my blog for photographers call "Behind the Image." In addition to the topics that I get questions about and address on my F.A.Q.s posts, I often get asked about what went into creating specific images. As you know, I love to share info and so that's exactly what I'm going to do in this series. So as you browse through my blog, if an image catches your eye, feel free to ask me to feature it in an upcoming "Behind the Image" post.
Today I'm going to talk about this image that I shot during Adam & Marie's ceremony last Saturday: |
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I love shooting images like this with the entire sun in the shot that really place the event within it's beautiful location. But there's a few tricks -- both in-camera and during post-production -- to doing this well.
In Camera:
This image was shot in RAW with my Canon 5D, on manual, hand held, with a Canon 16-35mm 2.8 lens, at a focal length of 16mm, f18, 1/50 of a second & ISO 100.
The KEY to getting the sun defined as a star shape and being able to see the rays of light is the aperture setting. You need to close down your aperture as small as possible. Because of how bright it was, I maxed out my settings (low ISO, low shutter-speed) and the smallest aperture I could shoot at in order to correctly expose this shot was f18. It worked great, but try to get your aperture as close to f22 as possible.
Another key is to shoot these type of images in RAW. You'll see why a little later.
When taking this shot, just rely on your in-camera meter and expose as it indicates. This is what my image looked like directly out of the camera: |
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The image is o.k. but we don't see the full tonal range that you'd like to see in an image like this. The sky is washed out and the sun is lost in it. There are a few tricks to making this image look it's best in post-production.
Post-production:
The first step of post-production on this image is a trick I picked up from Matt Nicolosi's blog last July. He has a great post on creating an HDR image. Feel free to read the full post and I'll give you a summary version here.
An HDR (High Dynamic Range) image is basically one with a lot of detail in it. Looking at the above image, we want to get more detail out of it in both the highlight and shadow areas. Because Photoshop doesn't do a great job of creating HDR images, it's well worth it to download Photomatix ($99) for this purpose. Using your image editing software (Photoshop or Lightroom) create a couple .jpgs from your RAW file that are at different exposure levels. Below are the two exposures I created. In the first I looked at the sky and underexposed the image overall so that I could get the detail in the sky that I am looking for. In the second image I looked at the lower half of the image and exposed so that I could see sufficient details there. |
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Then I used Photomatix to merge the two exposures into one HDR image. It's very easy to use and you don't even know exactly what it's doing but in the end you get a beautiful image with much more detail in the full tonal range.
Next I used the clone tool in PS to clean up the sensor dust spots that inevitably show up in the sky when you close down your aperture-- NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU CLEAN YOUR SENSOR!!! No, actually I use these handy things and they work pretty well. But inevitably you still have a few spots to clean up.
I also used the clone stamp to tone down the orange sun spot in the trees that distracted my eye as well as the sun spot in the upper right.
Then I ran Kevin Kubota's X-process combo action at about 18%, used magic sharp (also Kevin Kubota) for sharpening and WA-LA! |
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