In conjunction with the post below, I wanted to make note of another tip that I think is worth mentioning. Whenever you go on a shoot, whether it's for fun, for a client, for your family, for whatever, you have to be able to adapt to and make the most of your surroundings. I am a grad student....in the sciences. I don't have access to a studio, nor do I care to rent out one (I'd rather just drop my $$ on gear). So what do we do then in order to get studio-ish shots?? One word: improvise! The shots below were simply taken in my apartment, but you'd probably never guess if you didn't know me. I just rearranged a little for the shoot, took some pictures off the wall, gave my model some props I had lying around and started shooting. Neat what you can do with an old photo frame that woulda been thrown out, one of my guitars, and my office chair. Sure, when you improvise you are also going to increase your need for photoshop....some hooks needed to taken out of the wall, a couple blemishes on the chair, etc, but Photoshop CS5's "content aware fill" makes this unbelievably simple. If that doesn't take care of it, the spot healing brush or the healing brush should do the trick. I also increased the contract a little to brighten the wall (yes I could have blown out the entire wall in photoshop but I kinda like the look of it left the way it is). From expensive cameras to lenses to studios, not all of us have access to all the stuff the big boys do, but you can make some "big boy" shots with a little creativity and making the most out of what you've got. The digital medium is great for experimenting since you don't have to buy film and pay for processing, so get out there, do a little improvisation and experimenting and see what you get!
Photography
Elinchrom Ranger Test
in Photography
So far on this blog, you've read about me talking about photography but you haven't seen me pony up any shots. I thought now would be a good time to throw some pics in the mix so to speak. I recently acquired a new toy, the Elinchrom Ranger Speed AS set with the "S" head. I ordered it from B and H because they were, well, the cheapest. It didn't come with the proper power cord which was annoying, so I couldn't charge one of the batteries. I had to wait two days before I could contact them (warning: B and H is closed on saturday) and get a replacement. Luckily, I ordered the set with two batteries so I was still able to do some shooting. When I finally got the cord, the first battery charged and then gave me an "Er" msg, which isn't good, but I charged it again and it seemed to be working. I also ordered the 53" octabox from Amazon which is a big ole softbox. First impressions....well, the 53" softbox is big and not the easiest thing to put together by yourself. It's kinda like putting a tent together, so if you've ever done that you'll probably be alright. It also came with a 33" shoot through umbrella, which I'll put to use on other shoots. When it came time to shooting, I used the supplied sync cord plugged into the pc-sync port of the D300 and fired away. I'm still relatively new to off-camera lighting, so it's gonna take me awhile to get the hang of it, but I'm pretty pleased with the shots I got. Plus, I fired off about 240 shots and it didn't even make a dent in the battery life.....and my set came with two batteries. Pretty pumped about what I can do on location with that. Nikon CLS users take note: one annoying thing about trying to use CLS and my SB900 in conjunction with the pc-sync port....doesn't work. CLS takes precedence and your pc-sync port won't fire. I wish both did, but since I'm planning on getting radio triggers in the near future, this shouldn't be a big deal. Anyway, check out the shots below....not bad for a first time with the set. Shot with a Nikon D300, Nikon 24-70 f2.8g, flash power ~ 5.3, aperture ~11-13. Enjoy!
Photo Tip #2: Nature Photography
Two of my biggest influences in terms of photography are Ansel Adams and the photographers and editors of National Geographic magazine. If you're unfamiliar, do me a favor and hit up google and search for either. Next, click on the "images" tab and you'll be amazed at what you see. Whether we're talking landscapes, animals, insects, flowers, or almost anything you'd see outside, there are several things that make for great nature-based photographs. First, lets talk preparation. Preparation is extremely important when shooting nature photography. If you want to shoot a particular animal in the wild, do a little research. Figure out it's habitat, what it eats, whatever information you can find that might help you find it in the wild. Make sure if you go out into the wild and "shoot" animals (not in the hunting sense), don't disturb anything more than you have to in order to get the shot and most importantly, as an Eagle scout I feel it's my duty to say, leave everything not like you found it, but better than you found it. If you aim to shoot landscapes, do some recon on a resource like google earth where you can view different vantage points without even physically being there. Look at flickr and google images to see what other vantage points people have taken pics from to get an idea of not only what you want to go shoot, but an idea of what people haven't shot so you can make your shots your own. When you get to the location, look around and scout it out...do some recon. Check out the trajectory of the sun and look how the light falls at different times of day. If sightseeing, not all of this is possible, so I'd recommend having a strong knowledge of how to use and get the most out of your camera before going to a location you think will be worthwhile to shoot. The second point I want to make is when you shoot nature and landscapes, 99 times out of 100 you are going to need a great deal of patience in order to get the shot you want. For example, check out this article (the inspiration for this post) about Anton Jankovoy of Ukraine shooting stairs trails in the Himalayas. Practiced and honed his skills before he got there, lived in Nepal 6 months out of the year for three years shooting, and even practiced meditation to sooth his nerves when shooting the hours-long exposures he did. That's a LOT of patience, but his shots with star trails above Mt. Everest are stunning. If you watch the behind the scenes of the videographers for BBC's Planet Earth documentary, you'll see similar stories. Sometimes you're gonna have to wait for everything to be "just right" in order to hit the shutter, and that can take time once you get to your vantage point. Not everyone has this kind of patience, but the pay off in terms of the images you can get can be worth it and then some.
Last, sometimes outdoors when you have no control over the variables involved in what you are shooting, luck can play a huge part in your shots. Sometimes you can plain just get lucky. This isn't a bad thing. As long as you are out shooting and doing something you enjoy, don't ever take "you got lucky" as an insult. Some of the best photographers out there have taken some of their best shots simply by getting lucky. That being said, get out there and shoot....when shooting nature or anything outdoors, you'd be surprised what you can find and shoot with a little preparation, patience, and luck if you just take a closer look...sometimes even in your own backyard.
As a shameless PSA, remember that shooting outdoors is a privilege. The subjects we shoot may not be around forever, and while I'm not here to extoll the virtues of "being green" (I'm certainly not the greenest in real life nor do I strive to be), it is our duty as photographers to at least minimize our impact during a shoot. Be mindful of your surroundings and when you pack your gear up, take an extra second to look around and make sure you leave everything as you found it. Simple steps like these will help ensure that our subjects will be around to shoot and will ensure our ability to shoot them for years to come.