It's Been a While

Yes, I've neglected this mini-blog for the past year. To make up for it, I will post 2, rather large blogs. 

The first is about making the most of a 9 cents COSTCO 4x6 print (on sale!). This is one response to David Ziser's problem of making a good, cheap print from COSTCO. He did everything but use COSTCO profiled printers. So here's a solution that can be placed in a preset for his (and my) favorite image software, LightRoom 3.

The second focuses on non-Nikon (but Nikon compatible) flashes that work with RadioPopper JrX wireless flash.

Starting later tonight I'll post the first INSIGHTS for 2012.

Wei Chong

Matron of Char Hung Sut - October 2010

No need to know that Char Hung Sut's owner kept track of her booming business in Honolulu's Chinatown. A constant stream of customers entered the dingy entrance. Orders were quickly filled, and no sooner than a minute or two, the server would fetch the char siu bau and other delicacies, ready to be packed in the ubiquitous square boxes. This is not a place for the meek. You had to know what you wanted, although her son was helpful and courteous.

All customers seemed to be old-timers. Or at least long-time clients who knew the drill. The matron filled large, phone-in orders, and made sure suppliers kept their delivery times in order.

I found that I had no time or place for flash photography. All was available light, with the camera pointed in the general direction of the action. Just like the old days, shooting black and white Tri-X film, pushed a stop. That's what made this digital shot come out well as a portrait. Just for a moment she lifted her keen eyes up, and that was what I captured.

Photographing Pets - July 2010

I planned and practiced for the shoot of these adorable pets. Two were Maltise, and one Pekinese. The Maltise realizing they were white and Maltise very light yellow. I didn't expect they would stay in place for very long, so I decided to use 1 umbrella on a stand. The purpose of the shoot was to gather many poses of Gin-Gin, Jett & Angel for composites the owner (an artist) would later paint; it was not necessarily to get pictures of the trio together.

D200 on manual ~f5.0 @ 1/250 (to kill ambient) ISO 250, flash on manual with “Hobby meter” & Minolta. They calibrated! I was pleased with the pictures. I could even adjust when we went outdoors with the dogs & their owners.

The next time I need to include more shadow (like 3:1 or 4:1) lighting ratio. This means I should take multiple types of pictures. Don’t rest on short successes; go after upping to the next notch. Some sure (umbrella) and other different (grid or snoot or diffuser-covered).

Outdoor Family Portraits - June 2010

I found the background for pictures in the backyard. Problematic were light spots in the background and the sunlight coming through the leaves. Problems that could not be fixed with flash, but the best compromise. The front yard was too complicated for the young children & older people.
 
I found the time and the help to move the bench in position for the sitting. I tested the exposure & used 2 flashes (camera right) for faster recyling, at ~¼ power, 35mm spread. D200 on Aperture Priority (didn’t have time for Manual, as I was arranging the group) f7.1 @ 1/60 ISO 200. 
 
The flashes were in the sun, and after a while they started to fire randomly, as they must have overheated. I should use more care on flash placement, or have a Plan B for covering the flashes' backsides with a white cloth. 
 
If I had to do it over again, I would use a huge background cloth to cover the sun-speckled background. That would have reduce post-processing work. Or move to to camera left (but the owner didn’t like that background, so that might not be a good area). I would also aim the second flash to the back row, which is darker than the front row. 

The 4-generation B/W portrait below is my favorite:
 

 

Going to Work - June 2010

He didn’t want to have the picture taken, even though I asked him in advance. After all, he was  rushing to work. I should be more cognizant about not forcing a picture.

I first setup the picture with the D200 on Manual, f10.0 @ 1/250 ISO 100. Flash was probably on ¼ or ⅛ power. First shot was too dark, so I merely opened the aperture ⅔ stop to f8.0. I did not have the room to increase the shutter speed, as it was already at the max for flash, so the only option would have been to increase the flash power by 1 stop, decrease the aperture to f11.0 and decrease the speed to 1/125. I wasn’t fast enough to do that, as my subject had to leave. I could have thought it through beforehand, because I was on CLS on Manual, so that would have been easy to do. Something to walkthru in my head the next time.

After Tacoma Graduation Ceremony - May 2010

Celebrations after the formal graduation ceremonies would always be chaotic. I knew 2 things going down onto the field for the celebration afterwards.

1. The sky was mostly partly cloudy and 

2. Pictures would have to be taken quickly, one after the other. 

No time for Manual settings. So Aperture Priority, CLS and TTL would just be fine. I used my standard formula D200 CLS settings at about -.3 and the SB800 at +.66. Exposures turned out mostly perfectly, with a tweak of +.25 in LR3. The duckbills/head garlands were a problem, but the light on the track reflected up nicely to partly offset the shadow.

This is when my formula A/CLS/TTL works, making sure the background, especially the Memorial Fieldhouse was exposed nicely (1 stop less than foreground).

Family Picture, Fremont - April 2010

Background was dictated by the group size. I first exposed for the background at f10.0, 1/200 @ ASA 200 on Manual. I knew about the impending crop, so I wanted ASA 100, but it wasn’t sensitive enough. Flash was on stand, camera left. Wanted to test flash power, but whatever I set it to wasn’t enough to light the group. Don’t know what the flash power was, but near ½ or full. Then I had to manage the crowd. Gotta allocate and make time to get and manage crowd together. Net-Net was an underexposure of 1.5-2.0 stops. Thank God for RAW Processing.

If I had to do it over again, I would

• move flash nearer and wider,
• open aperture to f7.1 or f6.3
• and test the new aperture. If background were too bright, set speed to 1/250.

Trudy & Pauline - January 2010

I found the perfect background for them, with the circular silver opening, dark center and muted green. I knew what I wanted, to light the people & reduce the background exposure, even though they were close to the wall. I also knew I would have near-specular reflections from the flash on the silver, because I couldn’t place the flash far enough from my camera, as I had to hold the flash.
 
D200 on Manual, flash on Remote & Manual (1/4power?).

New Beginnings

I have not posted on this blog for the past year. During this past year I used many of the techniques that I talked about previously in this blog. 

Going forward I will show you how I implemented the approach and techniques in images, supplemented with diagrams.

Cross-Lighting Near Sunset

I decided to use the setting sun and a single flash for a cross-lit situation. I've been playing around with this scenario, but this time I tried to get it right, using a Nikon d200 with an 80-200mm zoom, shot mostly at f4.0. Why not f2.8. In this instance I had 2 reasons. First, the sun would not allow f2.8 at 1/250 or less; I didn't want to use FP High Speed sync. Second, my zoom is not quite sharp at f2.8; shoot with such low depth of field is difficult in a self-portrait. I've always had problems focusing (in manual mode) then runing back to hopefully get into the picture, in focus and withing the frame!

Here's the first photo, with no flash.

Then with flash & diffuser dome, racked out to 70mm.

I decided to go with hard flash (no diffuser) and fully racked out to 105mm. I didn't do this at first, because, being a self portrait, it was not easy to get fully into the frame. This third shot was my favorite, because the setting sun nicely acted as a ring of light, separating my portrait from the background. In this third portrait I set the shutter speed to make the background -1.7 EV, darkening it.

BTW, this last portrait is looking the other way, because as the sun set my flash gave me "frog eyes." So by turning & using broad lighting, those spot of light on my glasses disappeared. I needed to be quick, as the nice sun rays were fading & my thought was to go for a quicker pose change, rather than trying to adjust the flash (which may have taken a few tries--I need a model next time, that would have reduced the # of tries).

The background has a shimmering wind chime that I saw, but decided not to change the camera position, because, again, of the setting sun left me little time for tweaking. Yeah, I need another person to become slightly faster. But notice the light warming my right shoulder and head--almost as if I had a flash there. Natural light can be really nice.

Next Time: 

I will make the exposures more like the second exposure on top. I did change things around, tweaking settings. I should  have just moved the camera. I will also experiment with CTO filters during a setting sun.