The Official Photography Thread - Vol. 3

[dropten]

Anyone else in here shoot portraits? Ish drives me crazy at times but the more practice I get in the more I'm figuring it out. Especially off camera flash. Here's a few of my most recent shoots

 

[picasso swerve]

Arent portraits just closeups, half body even? All your shots low angled like that?

 

[Fong$tarr]

I assume you are using one light? It just makes that much of a difference if you use more. The first two can use a rim light (I think that is what it's called) from the back to separate her from the black background. Also I said this in your last photos but your light seems pretty harsh too. Not sure if you are using a defuser or light box but that would help giving some better softer light.

Check out this guys channel. He seems to have a good handle on flash/strobe photography. He shoots mostly wide open though which sometimes requires an ND filter.

 

[dropten]

I assume you are using one light? It just makes that much of a difference if you use more. The first two can use a rim light (I think that is what it's called) from the back to separate her from the black background. Also I said this in your last photos but your light seems pretty harsh too. Not sure if you are using a defuser or light box but that would help giving some better softer light.

Check out this guys channel. He seems to have a good handle on flash/strobe photography. He shoots mostly wide open though which sometimes requires an ND filter.

I follow FJ, Eli, Manny etc and they all have great advice that I follow. I understand the concept of rim lighting and I agree, It could use some separation (notice the soft blue light I added) But like I said, I just started getting good with one flash and still working on getting better and better, especially with my editing color grading. As for the ND filter, FJ uses one because he doesn't like how hss cuts flash power in half in most cases. So he uses an ND filter to get all the power out of his flash. So it's not because his flash is too harsh and he needs to tone it down is that's what you're suggesting? But I don't agree with you about my lighting being harsh, it's just my preference

 

[Fong$tarr]

I follow FJ, Eli, Manny etc and they all have great advice that I follow. I understand the concept of rim lighting and I agree, It could use some separation (notice the soft blue light I added) But like I said, I just started getting good with one flash and still working on getting better and better, especially with my editing color grading. As for the ND filter, FJ uses one because he doesn't like how hss cuts flash power in half in most cases. So he uses an ND filter to get all the power out of his flash. So it's not because his flash is too harsh and he needs to tone it down is that's what you're suggesting? But I don't agree with you about my lighting being harsh, it's just my preference

I mean to be honest, I am so bad with flash that I am not even sure how to critique your photos properly. Maybe it is how you are exposing your backgrounds? They seem a little on the dark side but that is preference anyways.

I am going to try and take some strobe shots tomorrow of my kid. See what's the deal with shooting this stuff. I'll post the results up here if they are any good.

 

[dropten]

I mean to be honest, I am so bad with flash that I am not even sure how to critique your photos properly. Maybe it is how you are exposing your backgrounds? They seem a little on the dark side but that is preference anyways.

I am going to try and take some strobe shots tomorrow of my kid. See what's the deal with shooting this stuff. I'll post the results up here if they are any good.

I see photography as an art and like most art, everyone has a style and preference. And each photo can end up different depending of what the photographer/ artist sees.

Here's one of RJs shots that you could say has very harsh lighting and doesn't make much sense given the angle of the light and it being outdoor. But its the vision he had for the shoot

 

[Fong$tarr]

Well, I brought the strobe out but my kid just doesn't sit still. I'll shoot some strobes one day.

 

[keko jones]

One light source ...

 

[Grine]

Shots from Toronto.

 

[andretti]

 

[pmtotheam]

Visited Iceland recently, probably the most photogenic country I've ever been to can't wait to go back.

 

[Fong$tarr]

^^^^Nice. How close were you to the lava? I would so love to do a helicopter ride over or even fly a drone. Some of the photos I have seen are so wild.

 

[andretti]

Anyone ever use a digital medium format slr?

 

[Grine]

pmtotheam Did you do the Golden Circle or you just stayed on one side of iceland?

 

[pmtotheam]

^^^^Nice. How close were you to the lava? I would so love to do a helicopter ride over or even fly a drone. Some of the photos I have seen are so wild.

At the highest point in the hike I'd say probably 40 - 50 feet, it felt like my face was melting when I was standing there, straight up head in an oven feeling. Tons of people were flying drones, and they probably got great shots since that day happened to be the most active of all the days we were there.

I would have stayed there for several more hours if it hadn't been getting late already, couldn't stop taking photos lol. The longer we stayed the more the lava flow increased. Definitely gonna print a few but haven't decided which, this was one of my faves though:

pmtotheam Did you do the Golden Circle or you just stayed on one side of iceland?

We did the entire Ring Road over four days, the Golden Circle is a much shorter loop (just a few hours round trip from Reykjavik) but we did that as well on the day before we flew back. In general it would be good to have a few more days on the ring road, but I mapped out our itinerary perfectly, we avoided a lot of snowfall and wind warnings around us, and we caught the northern lights at our airbnb in Myvatn though they were pretty faint.

 

[Fong$tarr]

At the highest point in the hike I'd say probably 40 - 50 feet, it felt like my face was melting when I was standing there, straight up head in an oven feeling. Tons of people were flying drones, and they probably got great shots since that day happened to be the most active of all the days we were there.

I would have stayed there for several more hours if it hadn't been getting late already, couldn't stop taking photos lol. The longer we stayed the more the lava flow increased. Definitely gonna print a few but haven't decided which, this was one of my faves though:

We did the entire Ring Road over four days, the Golden Circle is a much shorter loop (just a few hours round trip from Reykjavik) but we did that as well on the day before we flew back. In general it would be good to have a few more days on the ring road, but I mapped out our itinerary perfectly, we avoided a lot of snowfall and wind warnings around us, and we caught the northern lights at our airbnb in Myvatn though they were pretty faint.

Lucky you. I've been to Iceland twice and have yet to see the northern lights. 2nd trip I had a rental car and even went chasing it and just didn't get any clear skies during the 2 days I was hunting for it. One day, I am going to go back and spend a full week just chasing northern lights cause I heard if you are there a week that you would at least see it once.

 

[Grine]

I was lucky to see the Northern Lights the first day I got to Iceland - i was at the Blue Lagoon when it happened.

 

[pmtotheam]

Lucky you. I've been to Iceland twice and have yet to see the northern lights. 2nd trip I had a rental car and even went chasing it and just didn't get any clear skies during the 2 days I was hunting for it. One day, I am going to go back and spend a full week just chasing northern lights cause I heard if you are there a week that you would at least see it once.

What time of the year did you visit? We didn't have completely clear skies and the activity forecast was pretty low, but it seemed like everyone was seeing them in the north while we were there so we knew we had a shot. Funny enough we wouldn't even have noticed them had I not been trying to photograph the night sky, they popped up in the edge of one of my photos and that's how we knew to check/hunt them down a bit more.

 

[andretti]

 

[Fong$tarr]

What time of the year did you visit? We didn't have completely clear skies and the activity forecast was pretty low, but it seemed like everyone was seeing them in the north while we were there so we knew we had a shot. Funny enough we wouldn't even have noticed them had I not been trying to photograph the night sky, they popped up in the edge of one of my photos and that's how we knew to check/hunt them down a bit more.

I think in February. The worst thing about it too was I saw the northern lights when I was on the flight there. The pilot pointed it out and everyone on the plane sort of took turns checking it out. Still not the same as seeing it in person.

 

[keko jones]

 

[pmtotheam]

I think in February. The worst thing about it too was I saw the northern lights when I was on the flight there. The pilot pointed it out and everyone on the plane sort of took turns checking it out. Still not the same as seeing it in person.

It seems like up north is really the place to be, there were sightings almost every day during our trip, and that's where we got lucky.

 

[andretti]

 

[dvsonm]

As a photographer who just uses Lr & Ps, is the new MacBook Pro an overkill? Should I wait for the upcoming Air? That’s mainly what I use my laptop for.

 

[kilroythedon]

I like editing on desktops… I’d rather have a iMac for that stuff..