Photo365-20100131 – A First Time for Everything, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/250 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 400, 70mm (EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM)
Today I can say I had my first real gig as a photographer. My friend asked if I could help him out by taking a corporate head shot for his boss’ web site. Of course I told him it would not be a problem and that it was perfect timing as I am heading to my company’s winter meeting to do head shots of all my coworkers later in the week. The setup for this shot was three small strobes. One in a soft box at camera right as the key, one in a reflective umbrella on camera left as the fill and a third gridded and pointed up at the background from behind the subject. It turns out that the intended fill light became the key. I guess I am still learning the ETTL and ratios functions in the Canon system. However, even though they got switched on me, I like the overall picture. The lighting is clean and there is good separation from the background. Maybe next time I will leave just a bit more head room in the shot to allow for future clients to be able to frame their images.
Photo365-20100130 – Back to the 80′s, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/100 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 800, 35mm (EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS)
Our friends had an 80′s party tonight to celebrate a thirtieth birthday. We decided to take some high-key galmor shots to help remember the event. I broke out the white seamless paper and set up three flashes to achieve the almost completely blanked out background, a.k.a. high-key, photograph. Two flashes were used to light the subjects, one high and camera right and one high and camera left. Both flashes were equipped with a reflective umbrella and tilted down at forty five degrees to get complete coverage. The third flash was behind the subjects at camera right. It was only a few inches away from the background and aimed in such a way so the light was feathered across the background. I did this to avoid a hot-spot from appearing on the seamless papear close to the where the flash head was on the right side of the frame. To prevent any of the light from the background flash from getting on the subjects or into the camera lens, I used a gobo on it. While not a perfect high-key photograph, I think it is not bad at all for a first attempt at this type of shoot.
Photo365-20091216 – Mug for the Ages, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/8 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 800, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)
Yesterday I had some new gear delivered. The new gear consisted of a gray background, thirty inch reflector disc and a reflector disc light stand holder. I wanted to play around with the light disc tonight and thought that using it in the basement to control the light from the recessed lighting would be a good exercise. I set the mug up on the dry bar and played around with the reflector disc until I liked the lighting.
In post production, I used Nik Silver Efex Pro to apply an antiqued look to the photograph. I felt it was appropriate due to the age of the mug.
Photo365-20091213 – Go on Punk, Make My Day., originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/250 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)
While putting together our Christmas photo cards this year, I realized that I did not have many recent photos of our dogs. I have taken several photographs of the “girls” during the project, but none of the more recent ones demonstrated everything that I have learned over the last couple of months. I decided to change this tonight.
I set up a reflective umbrella in the basement where my fiancee and I were watching television. I sat right at the base of the light stand and tested for the proper flash power and exposure by shooting the back of my hand where I anticipated the dogs to be. Once I found my proper settings, I called Mela and Leila over to play some fetch. After a few tosses, I started to take pictures in between throws.
This is one of my favorite shots of the night. I cropped the photo only slightly to remove a light stand leg tip on the bottom right corner. I then applied some sharpening to the whole image and exported to Flickr.
A self-proclaimed tech-geek, I enjoy anything powered by batteries or electricity. I'm not happy until I understand the full potential of any new gadget I get my hands on....
