Self Portrait, with Light Signature

I always wanted to take a self-portrait, with me waving a light stick to trace my signature over the picture. The last time I saw a picture like this, it was a Pablo Picasso. Lucky him--as a painter, he could trace his signature backwards. During the film era, this was too expensive for me to do. With digital, it became possible, cost-wise. But I could not do a backward signature. So I sorta had to cheat w/Photoshop. I'm documenting how I did this, so I can improve the next time.

Taking the Picture was easy. I just had to set up my flash so that I could pose as if I was at the end of my signature. At least I thought it was easy--you'll soon note I had some small mistakes, that I had to correct.



To take "the signature," I setup my Nikon D200 on a tripod in my darkened garage. It was set on a timer at 30 seconds, f6.3, manual focus. Don't try to set it on autofocus, as there's nothing to focus when you trip the shutter. At the point you trip the shutter, auto exposure and autofocus is set. So you may not get a focused picture.


Then the fun began. I traced my signature, time and time again. It just looked too scrunched up or too bright. I finally got the hang of the signature (backwards, of course) about the 15th or 16th shot. It was dark enough that not much other stuff showed, after I cleared up more space.

Then came the cheating part. I loaded "the signature" into Photoshop, then rotated the image horizonatally. Bravo! the images was now frontwards. But the background was black. So I selected the signature, with a narrow band. I didn't want to have "the signature" have too much flourescing. I transferred that to a new layer by CUT, and then inserted my picture above into the image. After placing "the signature" on top of the picture and blanking out the black background of the garage, I started to have the elements of the picture.

I had to go back and reduce the size of "the signature," as mine was too large. Notice something strange of the picture above--I'm posed to my right (where I originally drew "the signature") but it looks like my hand is at the beginning of "Wei." It is, because I forgot I rotated "the signature" horizontally! Of course I could have rotate my picture horizontally, also, but then everything would be backwards with me. There's a signature Naoki in the gyotaku, so that wouldn't have worked. I had to reposition the flash to my left, and also end my "stroke" to my left.


Next time I'll better sketch what I need to do, and plan it, step by step, rather than wing it. Luckily I had digital, so I could accomplish this in 90 minutes of trail and error.

Next Post: Self-Portrait, w/ Modifiers

Copying My Baby Picture Frame

During the past 2 years I've documented my family history, including my paternal and maternal grandparents, and their ancestors. I'm now writing about my youth in Hawaii. To do this, I've had to scan whatever pictures I could gather about my past: parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, pets, homes, and, of course, me.

One of the pictures my parents kept in their bedroom was a sequence of pictures taken by a photo house called Babyland. Back in 1947-48, my mother carted me off to the professional photographer to have my pictures taken. Four pictures were placed in a simple white frame. Despite the ravages of time, these 60 year old pictures still retain much of the charm my parents enjoyed.

I could not scan the pictures in the frame, because the frame was much larger than my scanner allowed. I did not want to scan the individual pictures, because what I will always remember is the sequence of pictures in my parents' bedroom.

So I decided to digitally photograph the pictures in the frame. That is, I would "scan" the pictures with my Nikon D200 DSLR, and then crop the frame to suit.

First I setup a comfortable place to lay the frame. I couldn't easily make it vertical, but I chose our fireplace, because it gave me a lot a working room. Putting the frame on the floor presented more problems with my tripod, so I didn't go that direction. Second, I setup 2 flashes at about 40 degrees, each from camera axis. One, on the right was a Nikon SB-800 set on SU-4 mode. I measured the light w/ a Minolta IV-F flash meter, and it read f5.6.5 with ASA 200 and at 1/16 power (this was a good guess, because I wanted f8.0 for depth of field. The second flash I hand-held, because I didn't have another stand. This flash was a Nikon SB-80DX, and it read f8.0 at 1/16 power. How did I rationalize the flashes? The SB-800 was stronger, so I made it's power 1/16 -1/3, or down 1/3 stop from 1/16 power. Now when I measured both flashes w/ the Minolta, I got an exact f8.0. This was nice and lucky. Usually there is some plus/minus in tenths from what I want.

How did I sync the flashes? I used the D200's manual mode at 1/128 power (actually, no effect on exposure). The SB-800 was on SU-4 mode (triggered by a flash, not the Nikon CLS system), and the SB-80DX was on Remote (triggerd by a flash, not on-camera). the SB-800 was set at 50mm, while the SB-80DX was at 28mm (by oversight). This really didn't matter, because the camera was at 45 mm (67mm by 35mm stds), so the extra spread of the flashes evened out to be unnoticeable.

I merely had to adjust the angle of the camera to be coincident with the angle of the frame on the fireplace. Note, the flashes were about the same height as the camera, and equidistant from the picture frame. If I had to do it again, I would put the right-hand flash on a light-stand, something I should purchase soon (think, Manfrotte 3373 (5001B) lightweight). Note that I'm holding the left-hand flash with my left hand, and I attached a remote cord, which I used to trigger the camera/built-in flash. If I had the extra lightstand, I would not have had to use the remote cord.

Next Post: Self-Portrait w/ Light Signature

Lighting Slices of Fruit -- Experiments

I tried my hand at lighting fruit this past week. We received some blood oranges from a friend. I first arrange the halved oranges on a plate and took off-camera flash pictures. The flash was at a steep angle from the camera, off-left about 70-80 degrees. I could not seem to get the right amount of "sparkle" on the fruit. Either too much glare, or too little. I still gotta work on the angle, to rake the fruit.

To experiment more I sliced a thin piece of fruit from one the the blood orange halves. Because I didn't have a sheet of clear Plexiglas, I put the slice in a whisky glass, fashioned a blank piece of paper in front of my flash, and took a picture using TTL at +0.7 with my Nikon SB-800 as main. My on-camera D200 flash merely triggered the SB-800. There was no exposure coming from the on-camera flash. You can see the deep red colors of the blood orange, as well as some reflection from the glass.

To finalize the experiment, I went outside to the bright afternoon sun. I used a huge (24x30 inch) sheet of white opaque Plexiglas. After hydrating the slice with water (I didn't want to use oil or glycerin), I place the slice on the Plexiglas. I put the sun behind the Plexiglas/slice and took some images. Using matrix metering obviously underexposed the shot, due to the strong white back lighting. I then used spot-metering, and came up with the best exposure of +2.0 EV. However, the slice looks a bit washed out.

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Next time I will better plan the shot, including using a tripod...duh....Handholding the figuring out things on-the-fly just doesn't seem to work as well as a planned shot with tripods and lightstands.

Next Shot: Copying My Baby Picture Frame

Family Get-together, Kathy Wong's in Napa - January 2007

Taking Group Pictures
Family Get-togethers are priceless. How do I remember them? Is it the food, or the conversations, or the laughter? It's all three. So I try to get the message of togetherness by having all the family/friends gathers for a group picture. Group pictures on the spur of the moment are hectic to get. Not everyone knows what to do, and yet you've got to get everyone together in 15-20 minutes, or the attention-span withers. That's after you've selected an appropriate setting in which to place everyone--and to take the exposure/make the composition beforehand.

In this case we were at Kathy Wong's home in the Napa Hills. I knew the crowd was about 40-50 people, so I needed an area that would accommodate infants to 80+ year olds. While the front of her house allowed for a warm late afternoon sun, everyone would be too crowded, and I would have to have multiple rows of people. In this situation, someone is always hiding behind another's head, and the composition is fairly stiff. So I selected her back porch and stairwell. As the kids/infants were so much smaller, I elected to place them at the bottom of the back porch, and the adults, almost single-rowed, on the porch and stairwell. It worked out as a better composition.

Technical Stuff:
I had previously set up my Nikon SB-800 Flash on a lightstand, left of the camera at an angle of 30-40 degrees. I had taken an exposure with a Minolta IV-F flash meter, and made sure the aperture was as f8.0, one stop under for my camera setting of f5.6. The flash was on the manual setting of SU-4, which allowed remote firing from a flash from my aboard flash. Because my Nikon D200 was in the shop for repair, I was using my son's Sony F-828 digital camera, set on Aperture Priority, f5.6.

There's Always Something
Just before every shoot, there's many people who want you to take a picture, or who want to take a picture themselves. Of course, they need to be in the picture! That's the reason for the groups shot. So I had to polite tell those that I would send them pictures, because they needed to be in the picture...and everyone's getting ansy about having to wait and wait. Luckily, I relented with Danny Loh's camera, because it was like my Nikon; his was a D80, which I set on ASA 400 at f8.0, aperture priority.

Shoot Came Out Fine
The picture came out fine, but I re-composed my Sony F828, without realizing I had cut off people on the left. Luckily, when I shot with Danny's D80, I included everything, because I was used to the Nikon controls and viewfinder.

Afterwards
Danny Loh came up to try to understand how my flash fired with his camera. I gave him a lesson on Nikon Commander Mode, which he really wanted--for the first time he really understood what it took to make a camera with multiple flashes, on- and off-camera.

Next Post: Lighting Slices of Fruit

Nikon USA Has Been Good To Me

I hardly ever use Nikon, because my equipment has worked in heat and rain and snow. I've grown accustomed to not worrying much about how much abuse the equipment can take, even though I sorta baby everything.

When I bot a Nikon D200, I also purchased a 2 year (additional) Warranty from Nikon. I don't know why I did it, because in general, Warranty plans don't plan out economically. But it was my first digital camera, so I plunged.

A few years later, I found dust on my camera, and the metering system tended to underexpose by about a stop. I sent the D200 back to Nikon under the Warranty. I didn't send it at the optimal time, being just before Christmas. Well, it came back 3 weeks/2 days later on January 5th. Now remember, the repair facility went through 2 major holidays, and I'm not a Nikon PRO. So given the holiday period, I was expecting the camera to be sent back in mid-late January.

Nikon exceeded my expectations.

Here's what I wanted: Dust Cleaned of my Sensor & Meter adjusted to Nikon specs.

Here's what they did for me:
Replaced Mode SW
Replaced Rewind Side rubber
Replace CF Cardholder rubber
Adjusted auto focu operation
Checked Meter Accuracy
Firmware upgraded
Replaced rubber grip
Checked image test
Checked meter operation
Adjusted exposure

The D200 was returned with all that I sent them, in much, much better shape.

Sometime is pays to pay more for exemplary service. Thanks, Nikon.

Next Post: Portrait of Family Gathering--Kathy Wong's