Details of the Mike Palmer shoot...

I received a few comments (and even more emails) asking for more details regarding how I shot the images in yesterdays post, so here goes.

There were 4 flashes used, all set on manual, and all fired by Pocket Wizards.

#1 - This flash was setup at (about) the 8 o'clock position, was mounted on the table top stand that came with it so it sat directly on the street about 3-4 feet away, was "bare bulb" and was set at 1/32 power. It was tilted high to provided fill light on Mike & Julia's face. You can see the shadow on the wall behind them that was cast by this flash.

#2 - This flash was at (about) the 4 o'clock position, was hand held at about face level of the children was 2 feet away, was also "bare bulb" and set at 1/32 power. This flash was positioned to provide full head to toe light on the children. You can see their shadow on the curb is sharper than the one on the wall behind their parents because of the closeness of the flash.

#3 - This flash is on a paint pole using a Kacey Pole Adapter (you can get it @ Midwest Photo for $18.99), had a snoot on it (the only flash with a light modifier), set at 1/8 power, and was held about 2 feet overhead and slightly to the front of Mike. I wanted this flash to have an effect of looking like a street light. You can see the sharp shadow on the sidewalk under Mike and Julia that was cast by this light.

#4 - This flash was literally in Mike's back pocket pointing directly back at the wall and was set @ 1/64 power. I wanted this light to throw just a "whisper" of light on the wall that would "rim" Mike and Julia provided separation and depth.

There was no magic formula for the settings, I have been using my flashes in manual since watching the Strobist DVD's last December, after awhile you start getting a "feel" for what the power settings should be. Take a practice shot, then move (or adjust) the flash until you get the lighting effect you are looking for. That's why I have the shot of Mike alone, it was a shot to test the setup.

Regarding the Strobist DVD's, they are also available @ Midwest Photo for $139 and should be considered an educational must.

I marked up the images below to provide visual cues to go with the text above (click on either image to view larger and in a new windows).

All of the images were processed in Lightroom, with the exception of the one below, I used Topaz Adjust to give that gritty "Dave Hill" look.

Lastly, I want say "thanks" to Mike for letting me use his family portraits on the blog,

Photographer Mike Palmer was in town...

My friend (fellow photographer and blogger) Mike Palmer was in Maine on vacation with his family all of last week.

While he was here Mike asked if I would do a family portrait for him. I really hate taking pictures for friends, what if they hate it? And to make it worse, a friend who is a photographer, they'll surely find out I really suck!

Mike gave me just two bits of instruction, he wanted the portrait to be done in front of a brick wall, and he wanted it "edgy". I would consider myself a "traditional" kinda photographer, so "edgy" was taking me a bit out of my comfort zone.

So I took him to main street here in Biddeford and shot in front of one of the (many) old factory buildings.

I used 4 Nikon SB800's, two sitting on the street, one held on a boom with a snoot (similar to this) to make it look like they were standing under a streetlight (even though it was broad daylight), and the final flash was in Mike's back pocket pointing towards the brick wall (to give some depth to the image and separation from the wall).

So there was the Palmer family, my lighting setup (two of which were actually in the street), and my two to "VAL's" (voice activated light stands - AKA assistants) on one side of main street and me shooting from the other side, you can just imagine how traffic slowed down to "rubber neck".

It was fun, Mike was very happy with the results (or because he is a good friend he lied to me), and I was happy to have been taken out of my comfort zone to shoot something different.

The shot above was a "practice shot" to check the lighting (my wife thought it looked like and album cover).

Lightroom & Camera RAW updates released...

Adobe has release updates for both Lightroom and Camera RAW.

You can download the Lightroom 2.4 update for Windows here, and the MAC update is here.

The Adobe Camera RAW 5.4 download for Windows is available here, and the MAC can be found here.

Have a great weekend folks!

Weekly Photo Tips Update...

During the last two years we have done a bunch of product reviews, over 35 so far, and we have a bunch more in the pipeline.

To make the blog a bit more user friendly, and so folks did not have to search through 2 years of blog posts looking for a review, we have listed them all on the menu bar to the right.

As we do (and post) new reviews they will be added to the "Our Product Reviews" menu.

Subscribers will need to actually visit the blog to view the list as the reviews (and other menu options) do not get "pushed" through to subscribers.

Sorry about that, but actually stopping by the blog isn't like getting poked in the eye with a stick, or having to eat a bug.

What format do you shoot?...

Here are the results of the reader poll we have been running, "what format do you shoot?".

I was a little surprised at how few people shoot JPG.

It would interesting to hear from the folks who took the time to participate in the poll why they shoot the format they do.

Engagement Shoot...

Here are some images from an engagement shoot done on the lone sunny day last week.

This is Carolyn and Zack, a wonderful couple who are getting married next month.

They wanted their engagement portraits shot at the beach and whenever I shoot there I try to do so during the "golden hour", because the light is phenomenal, eliminating the need to drag supplemental lighting (and other equipment) to the beach.

Which is a good thing, because as much as I like shooting at the beach, I do not like the effect sand has on photography gear (I try to NEVER change lenses at the beach).

I was happy with the images, but more importantly Carolyn and Zack were happy with them.

My only problem was there was obviously a problem with my assistants camera, because there is just no way that I am that gray, or that wide!

;)

(click on any image to view larger and in a new window)

From lemons to lemonade...

Or, how rainy weather turned into a lens review.

Here in Maine the last 2 weeks have seen some very wet weather, during one 24 hour period last week we had 4 inches of rain, and in total we've received over 8 inches.

And it's supposed to keep raining for at least 4 more days!

Once I finish this post I'm going to put the finishing touches on the materials list for my ark.

;)

But enough about the weather.

During a lull in the (rain) action I grabbed a new lens I bought a few months back but hadn't used all that much, it's a Nikon 60mm f/2.8G AF-S Micro.

You can get this lens at places like Adorama for just over $500.

I bought it for a few reasons, it's highly rated quality glass, it's fast, and it's a macro lens (what Nikon calls "Micro"). Being a macro lens was a big factor as I did not have a macro in my bag.

So I put it on my camera and headed out I go to grab some shots of water droplets. While I was shooting I was surprised at how quiet it was (important when shooting events like weddings and you don't want to be intrusive), and just how close I could get to my subject, within a few inches.

Now I could bore you with technical blah, blah, blah about this lens, but the most important thing to most photographers is, "what do the images look like?"

The five samples below are straight out of the camera, no filter was on the lens while I shot, no post-processing of any kind was done, the only thing I did to these images was reduce their size for posting.

I am extremely happy with the quality of the images and looking forward to using this lens more in the future.

(click on any image to view larger and in a new window)