Sunday's Speedlite Session: Mix Light

Generally speaking, you want only your added lights to illuminate the subject. However, there are times when it’s a good idea to mix light sources, either using daylight or room lights.

In this photograph, I mixed the light from a Westcott Apollo 28-inch softbox (in which I placed my Canon 580EX II) with the room light. This technique can be tricky.

Here is a link for info on the softbox:

Westcott 2331 28-Inch Apollo Flash Kit

Following is what I do in this kind of situation.

First, I set my camera to the Manual metering mode and set my exposure for the room light. Here, I wanted the room to be fairly dark. If I had wanted it brighter, I would either increase my aperture or reduced the shutter speed to let more light into the camera.

Then I take a test flash shot. If the light from the flash is too bright, I reduce my flash exposure, and vice versa.

Mixing the light is all about experimenting.

You can see that the original shot is a bit flat. My enhancements on the final image included enhancing the saturation, contrast and sharpness in Photoshop.

Above is a diagram of my lighting set up. Please note that the diagram is not to scale and not 100 percent accurate.

For more lighting tips, see my apps, Rick Sammon 24/7 Photo Buffet and Rick Sammon's Light It!

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. Thanks, Peter!

I added the two above photos after receiving a comment from reader Peter Kremzar. Peter, thanks for your comment. I could not use that particular photo, but if you'd like to comment again with another photo, I'd be glad to share.

Basically, Peter, who has a good eye and a good understanding of speedlites, suggested using more lights to light up the background. Good idea, but this was a one-light workshop. :-)

Also, above you see how one can lighten or darken the background in Photoshop.

Thank you again, Peter. Good idea!

Saturday's Business Session: Follow Your Heart - and not the number of someone's twitter followers

Want to impress your friends/sponsors/associates with your number of twitter followers? That's easy!

Do a Web search on "Buy Twitter Followers." You'll find many sites that let you buy thousands of twitter followers for a few bucks. In a flash, you can have thousands of followers!

I'm not making this stuff up. Getting fake twitter followers happens all the time. For example, check out this link. 

Of course, there are other techniques to get "followers." I'll address those in a future post.

So my friends, follow your heart - and don't get sucked into the numbers game of followers on twitter. Follow photographers you know are up front 100 percent.

If you want some solid business advice, especially when it comes to social media marketing, tune into my creativeLive three-day class in Oct. You'll be able to tweet in questions and comments not only about your business, but about your photography. The class is mostly about photography. The business session is about one hour long.

Speaking of social media, you gotta get into Google+. Why? Well, as illustrated by the above screen grab of the Referring Site section of my blog stats, it's way more powerful than twitter in sending folks to my blog. Get on the G+ band wagon.

Explore the light,

Rick

P.S. Speaking of business, I suggest to photographers to look at their business as they should look at their investment: diversify. Apply your photo skills to different types of photography. For example, if you specialize in portraits, you would also be good at pet portraits and even "portraits" of food.

Speaking of food and business.....

Get a Free Gourmet Meal In Your Neighborhood

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 50mm Macro Lens, Canon MR-14 EX Ringlite.

I am the first to admit it: I am not a professional food photographer, as any food photographer reading this post will quickly realize. :-)

However, I can take a good enough food photo for a local restaurant's web site and menu.

That's what I did this afternoon. I took a few food photos at the local Japanese restaurant, Samurai, here in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. Best of all, the meal was free: I traded the owner my photographs for 10 great - and beautiful – dishes!

Previously, the owner, knowing that I'm a photographer, asked about the trade off. I said, "Sure!" I was on my way to a great sushi meal, and he was on his way to some fresh photos.

So here's the message of this short homily: Why not ask the local restaurants in your area if you can do a trade-off: your photos for their best dishes? It never hurts to ask , you know. What's more, the next time they need some photos they may contact your and actually pay you... in cash, rather than in sushi.


Here are a few quick tips for very basic food photography:

• You'll need a macro lens for close-up shots. However, bring your wide-angle lens for wider shots.

• Carefully watch your aperture. Although pro food photographers often like to use shallow depth-of-field, the restaurant owner may like a more traditional shot, with everything in focus.

• A ring light is helpful for even lighting.

• Try to work with natural light; bring a reflector to fill in shadows, which is what I did for this photograph.

• Bring a tripod for low-light, natural light photographs.

• Shoot each dish from different angles: from the side, top, etc.

• Use digital darkroom techniques (such as vignetting and selective sharpening) to enhance your pictures.

• Be sure to ask the owner if he/she is happy with your pictures before you leave the restaurant.

• When you are all done, post your pictures on your blog in the hope of other local restaurants finding you. Note the labels for this post :-)

Hey, let me know if you plan to try this idea. And, let me know how your shoot (and food) turns out.



P.S. Sake (hot and cold) was included, in case you were wondering. :-)

Thursday's Travel Log: St. Augustine, Florida

This is Part II in a new series here on my blog: Thursday's Travel Log.

Destination: St. Augustine, Florida

Photo Tips:

• Lots to shoot: shore birds, pier, Alligator Farm, Old Town and more. Bring lenses from wide to tele to capture it all.

• Sunrise at the pier is awesome, if it's a good sunrise :-)

• Wear sandals or aqua shoes when you go to the pier. You'll probably be walking in the water.

• Bring a flashlight for your sunrise shoot at the pier, as you'll get there when its dark.

• Shoot under the pier and on the pier.

• Shoot HDR and straight shots at the pier. Check out the heart in my HDR shot (opening shot for this post.)

• Get to Old Town early, before a million people get in your pictures. Shoot HDR. (For tips on HDR, see my app, iHDR.)

• Bring your tripod and a polarizing filter for beach shots, and bring your tripod/long lens to the Alligator Farm, which has many cool birds.

Travel Tips:

• Stay at a hotel near the beach, such as the Hilton Garden Inn on A1A.

• Dinner? Sunset Grill - next to the Hilton Garden Inn.

• Check sunrise times the night before your sunrise shoot.

• Check out the Photographer's Pass for the Alligator Farm.

• A great weekend shoot.

We shoot at all these locations on my Florida Photo Caravan. We have our welcome dinner at the Sunset Grill.

Explore the light,

Rick

P.S. The first shoot on my Florida Photo Caravan: Horses running on the beach.

Fisheye Fun on the Santa Monica Pier - and HDR Fun After

I had some fisheye fun on the Santa Monica Pier this morning - and HDR fun after.

Canon 15mm lens; Canon 5D Mark II.

A few tips:
• The name of the game is to fill the frame. Notice how the entire frame is filled with something.
• To get max depth of field, focus 1/3 into the scene, use a wide-angle lens and set a small aperture.
• Use foreground elements to frame a subject and to add a sense of depth to a scene.
• Compose for color.
• Use HDR to see into the shadows and preserve highlights.
• Learn about HDR with my iPad app: iHDR.

Explore the light,
Rick

Take 5 in HDR . . . Sometimes

Above is one of my favorite HDR images. I use it in my seminars to illustrate the importance of capturing the entire dynamic range of a scene - taking enough exposures over and under the 0 EV setting to capture that range, as well as what happens when you don't.

The image above was created with Photomatix - with a touch of Topaz Adjust. You can save 15% when you order Photomatix by using this code: ricksammon. 

Above: Adobe Bridge screen grab that shows my five images from my HDR sequence. From experience, I knew I had to take that many exposures to capture the entire dynamic range of the scene.

Above: Adobe Bridge screen grab that shows three images from another HDR sequence. From experience, I knew the results would be poor, as illustrated below.

Above:
Right (3 exposure HDR) - look what happens where the shadows meet the highlights. The contrast range is too strong for a smooth transition. Also note that the rocks on the hill in the background are overexposed.
Left (5 exposures) - look what happens where the shadows meet the highlights . . . a much smoother transition. And check out those rocks in the background.

Now don't get me wrong. Sometimes, three exposures will do the trick perfectly - if the contrast range is not extremely wide. Just remember that the wider the contrast range, the more exposures you need to take. Sometimes, six, seven, eight or even nine exposures is required. And, sometimes two exposure will be enough. It's all about contrast.

For more info on HDR, see my app: Rick Sammon's iHDR.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. For a discount on the HDR programs I use, Photomatix and HDR Efex Pro, click here.