Class Tonight

Nikon D700, 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR lens @180mm, f/5.0, 1/40s, ISO 3200. This is one we did last week during class. 3200 is a very high ISO; I used noise reduction in Lightroom to smooth the grain out a bit.

This is a bit more like what we'll making tomorrow night. Bring a tripod if you have one. Anyone have colored hair spray?

Monday's Class

Man, what a good time we had last week with our models! And thanks to everyone who brought pictures back to Emily--she's been thrilled.

For Monday evening we will be working at the University. So, if you're in the 5:00 class, please be on time so that we can get up to the school quickly.

If you're in the 7:00 class, please meet us on the east side of Old Main at 7:00.

We have some models again, and we will explore natural light in more modern looking locations, as well as more natural looking. Hmmm...quixotic, no?

Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens @98mm, f/3.5, 1/80s, ISO 320.

Nikon d700, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens @ 200mm, f/2.8, 1/160s, ISO 800.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 lens @ 180mm, f/2.8, 1/640s, ISO 400.

On the Spot Portraits

Little E. gives his pops a hug when he gets home from work. It's cute, ya know? Plus, I'm still vetting one of my lenses, deciding whether I want to keep it. It's fast (f/1.8 maximum aperture), which makes for sharper images at wider apertures, but sometimes I feel like it's not as sharp as I'd like. I'm beginning to see, however, that it looks great for portraits, but perhaps not as good for landscape distances. This one was made at f/3.5, and E. has nice crisp eyes, but pops is out of focus. This brings the viewers' eye right to E.'s eyes and smile, right where the focus should be. This shallow depth of field sets this sort of snapshot appart from the kind that has everything in focus--this type feels more composed even though pops just walked in the house. But hey, with kids this cute you can't make a bad exposure.

The trick with kids is just being ready. I shoot in Aperture Priority modes ("A" on Nikons, "Av" on Canons). This mode allows me to control the depth of field and not worry about the other settings. This is optimal for me because nothing looks more professional than portraits with a controlled depth of field. 

Also, start coaching your spouse, kids, or whomever might be holding the little guys to turn toward the light automatically when you point the camera their way--that makes it much easier to get nice images. Remind your...mature mother-in-law that she is not the subject, and that she will look flatteringly out of focus; she'll begin to trust you, and she'll appear more relaxed and natural in pictures. Finally, show her the pictures on the computer or in print after you have finished them off with processing when she looks good--don't just show her raw on your tiny camera screen!

Nikon D90, 85mm lens, f/3.5, 1/160s, ISO 800, east facing window light in the afternoon (see the square catchlights in the eyes?).

Man, I love airplanes

Let me know if you ever hear of an airliner for sale--it'd make a great studio. The bright light from the near window with the opposite windows for fill light...it's excellent. Throw in a willing seat mate, and you've got the start to a great trip.

See you at the Studio--if they get their homework done, we may have some great models to work with.

Nikon D90, 50mm lens, f/4.0, 1/50s, ISO 200

Studio Tonight

See you tonight at the Studio! With luck, we'll be able to shoot outdoors a bit...

Portraits, tonight!

Last week you got off easy, and no one had their own portrait made. Well, be ready tonight--but don't be scared! No one has to see the images we make tonight, you don't have to blow them up to 30x40, and you don't even have to tell your mother that you made them ('cause, you know, then she'll want a copy and you'll protest that it doesn't look nice, and she'll say, 'I'm sure it's fine,' and then she'll get it and comment that you could have at least combed your hair...). Anyway, we're students, and we have to practice our craft. If we get comfortable in front of the lens ourselves, then maybe I'll invite some models to come and work for us!

So, photography class is at the Studio again tonight, and then I'll be back at campus for the Photoshop session. See you soon.

Wednesday's Portraits

These are full size jpgs, so feel free to download and work on them yourself. All my adjustments here were doing using Lightroom 3.

Monday's Landscapes...Psych!

We went out to shoot landscapes for class tonight...as if I could stay away from portraits for very long!

How's it Done?

Days are getting short, and pretty soon our day jobs will keep us indoors until the sun is already set: we're going to have to get creative through the winter.

See, if you let your language skills get rusty over the winter then you're going to have to relearn a whole lot of stuff and that's demotivating and frustrating. Keep your Langauge of Light skills up! Keep on conversing!

So, here's an attempt tonight to keep my inner creative going even though I couldn't get out for a walk with the sun. How's it done? Leave comments with your answer--camera settings, creation process, etc.--and extra credit to everyone who gets it right...don't think too long about the credit thing, just figure out the picture...