How to Make Unique Portraits Using Light Painting

 Tags: Photography for beginners, Photography, Light Painting

 

By: Lea Hawkins 

Using the surprisingly simple technique of light painting you can create a wide variety of portrait styles using only a small flashlight as your light source. I should warn you though, light painting of all kinds can be highly addictive. Once you start, you may not be able to stop.

Light painted portrait

One of the main things to understand with light painting is that the camera sensor only reads light, if there isn’t any light hitting the person shining the flashlight, they simply do not show up in the image. This allows you to move around in front of the camera while the shutter is open, and gives you ultimate control of what areas of your subject are lit. This is great for portraiture, especially in situations where you might have a complicated background, or one where you only want to light certain sections.

Below is a list of what you will need for any light painting, and a guide on how to use the technique specifically for portraiture. For a more detailed information on light painting have a look at this two part tutorial .

What you will need:

A hand held light source. Any cheap flashlight or LED light will do, you can even use your mobile phone.

Any small LED or flashlight will do, even your mobile phone.

For light painting a portrait subject a directional beam of light is best, non-directional (or diffused) light will illuminate you as well. Different flashlights give off different types of light. Some have blue cast, which isn’t great for portraiture so you might want to experiment with your white balance, or add a warming filter in post-processing. You can also add color to your light source with cellophane (colored gels) or colored sheer fabric.

Tripod and camera settings

Light painting needs a long exposure, so you will need your camera set up on a tripod. Setting your shutter speed somewhere between 10 and 30 seconds is a good place to start, then play around from there. Your ISO should be at its lowest to avoid the grain (noise) caused by a long exposure.

The cover of darkness

You’ll need a completely dark room or studio, or you can shoot outside at night. If shooting outside, you’ll have to be careful of incidental light, such as street or car lights, overexposing your image. But these things can be used to your advantage in creating interesting backgrounds for your portrait subject.

Light painting a portrait outdoors

Ready, set, light paint

Have your portrait subject in position and turn all lights out. Shine your light source on your portrait subject to help you get focus. You’ll want to focus on the face, so it’s possibly best to have your subject close their eyes before you shine your light directly into their face.

Note: to keep the focus locked when you press the shutter button, you will either need to switch it to Manual Focus or use back button focus.

Then click the shutter, and try not to trip over anything in the dark as you move in toward your subject. How close you get to your subject depends on your light source strength, how fast you move it, and the effect you are after. You’ll have to experiment, but for a small LED, a few inches from your subject is a good starting point. Keep the torch (flashlight) moving constantly, and pointed away from the lens.

Getting sharp images of people when you are using long exposures usually doesn’t work so well due to people’s inability to sit perfectly still. With light painting, you are only exposing a small part of them at a time, and only for a brief moment, so while it can be a bit tricky with fidgety subjects, for the most part you will be able to get sharp images. Sometimes a bit of motion blur can also be effective.

Making the most of motion blur

Help your subject stay still during the exposure by letting them know when you release the shutter, and when you are about to shine your light on them. They’ll be in the dark, literally, so they won’t know what you are doing.

Have them take a deep breath in and out just as, or after, you release the shutter. Don’t have them hold their breath, you don’t want them to look strained. Start your light painting with the face so they don’t have to hold their head still for your entire exposure.

Letting your portrait subject have a look at your camera preview can help them to understand what you are trying to do. If they are unfamiliar with the technique, it can seem a bit odd, all this waving a torch in their face in the dark.

You can set a flash to a slow sync so it fires off at the beginning of the exposure (or you can just set your flash to manual mode and fire it using the Test button), sharply lighting your subject, and then move in with your light source or have your model wave it around. Alternatively you can give a quick burst from a studio light.

While still technically a light painting portrait this method is more of portrait with some light painting added in as opposed to light painting the portrait subject themselves.

It will probably take you and your portrait subject a few attempts to get the hang of it, but once you’ve got the general idea, and have tested out how your light source plays on your subject, you can then experiment. Below are some ideas to try out.

Creating light trails

Adding light trails

To get trails of light, shine the torch directly at the lens as you move it. You can move it anywhere, including in front of your subject.

Multiple sources of light

In the first image above I’ve used a small LED light to paint the face, and a laser pointer for the red patterns. The laser pointer shines in very short bursts creating the broken lines. In the second image on the right, I put fairy lights in the model’s hair. The subtle movement as I light painted the rest of the model caused the fairy lights to take on the wiggly forms.

Using an iPad or tablet

For this effect I downloaded an app for my tablet that lit the screen with a solid block of bright color. The colors could be changed with a slider, so with a few attempts I managed to get coordinated enough to change the colors as I moved the tablet around the subject.

Have fun with movement

For both these images I shone the light over the model in one position, then had her move to the side and lit her again. As you can see, two fairly different effects using exactly the same process.

I confess I am thoroughly addicted to light painting portraits. I love that no two shots are alike, there’s plenty of room for getting creative and having happy accidents. You can use it for many styles of portraiture, and it costs basically nothing in lighting gear. So what are you waiting for? Grab a flashlight and get started! Share your results in the comments below.  Share this article.

 

A terrible grainy image but my friend was having so much fun she needed to take a quick selfie.

How to Make a Dramatic Portrait with Light Painting Using Items Found in Your Home

 Tags: Photography for beginners, Photography, Light Painting, models, Eric Pare  

 

By: Erin Fitzgibbon  

In this article, I’ll show you how to do a fun project you can do with friends and a little light painting. You can do this, using things you likely already have in the house.

It’s always fun to experiment with different and creative ways of using light in photographs. It’s also a lot of fun to take some risks and experiment with a technique that may or may not produce good results. The reality is you can learn from every photographic experience. It doesn’t matter if the results are perfect or not. Each time you pull out a camera you create something that adds to your knowledge base and helps you to grow as a photographer.

Learning lessons

In the case of a project I did recently with light painting and live models, several lessons were learned. The first was the importance of finding enthusiastic people to assist with my projects. The second was the importance of a reflector in adding light to a photograph.

Lastly, the third lesson involved pushing the limits of human abilities. I asked my friends to hold very still for these images, sometimes in some slightly awkward poses. How much was too much for my models?

This was our final image of the evening. It took a lot of trial and error to reach this point.

 

The light painting project

The whole concept for the photo project was inspired by the light painting of Eric Pare. He creates dramatic images in stunning locations with the help of dancer Kim Henry. Eric uses an easily created light tube and a strong flashlight. It’s winter here in Canada, and at -30c it’s not reasonable to ask a friend to pose outside in a landscape while wearing skimpy clothing.

So using his idea of long shutter speeds, it was time to craft a different project. The goal was to create dramatic images that you could easily reproduce within your home at a fairly low cost.

The following images were created in my kitchen using a large piece of black velvet (a black sheet will also work) draped across my portable backdrop stand, a reflector, an extension cord, and a string of Christmas lights. Of course, three friends were also recruited to assist with the project. They were more than willing to participate in the fun. In the end, there were a lot of laughs, and everyone was quite dedicated to the effort to get the images correct.

The Setup

Setting up was very easy. A backdrop was attached to the narrow walls of my kitchen. Black velvet is a lovely fabric for absorbing light and creating true black in photographs. I love black velvet and I’ve used it to create some very dramatic still life images and portraits in the past.

Wait until the fabric is on sale or pick remnants. The only trick to black velvet is to use a lint brush to remove white fuzzy bits. These show up quite easily in images, and it’s a pain to clone out all those little white spots.

Here we set the lights and the background. The kitchen is pretty narrow so it was a challenge to set up the backdrop. In the end, part of the backdrop was taped to the wall.

A shot from above. My friend stood on the countertop to spin the lights. As you can see they were loosely draped over the fan.

The reflector was placed just below the model’s belly button and the light was directed up towards the face.

After setting up the backdrop using tape and the cross piece from my backdrop kit, we then hung the Christmas lights from the ceiling fan.

In the original plan, we intended to turn on the fan and let it spin. It’s a good thing we realized that the lights would tangle around the fan and cause an issue. So it then became the job of one person to spin the fan 340 degrees during the exposure manually.

The Camera Gear

We used a Canon 5D Mark III mounted on a tripod and the 2-second self-timer. That allowed the person manning the fan to begin spinning the lights.

This image is getting better. It’s still soft. My exposure time wasn’t quite correct yet here.

The Procedure

It was time to establish the proper exposure for the whole project.  The trick here was to balance the exposure so that there was a long enough shutter speed (exposure time) to blur the lights but we also needed to keep the models in focus.

It’s awfully hard to stay still for even just a few seconds. In fact, it’s almost impossible. After several experiments and through trial and error the final exposure used was 0.8 of a second at f/3.2 with an ISO of 100. We also used a large reflector to bounce the light back up towards the models face.

This one is a little better. I ran it through a sharpening editor to help. It’s not perfect but I love the way 

the lights curved around their hair.

The whole experiment required us to use two people to create the photo and one or two people as models in each shot. The photographer triggered the camera timer as well as held the reflector, while the fan operator stood on the countertop and spun the fan at the proper moment.

This image didn’t turn out as planned. You can see how important timing and communication are to this kind of project.

The Keys to Success

The keys to a successful photograph were quite simply communication and timing. The lights had to be spun at exactly the right moment, and the photographer needed to communicate timing to everyone else.

It took a lot of tries to get the whole thing correct, but in the end, we were able to produce the desired images.

The creative person in me is able to ignore the slight ghosting from motion because I love how the lights spin above and below her eyes.

The goal was to create dramatic images with a neat light painting effect. I wanted to encircle the model with light, almost as if she were standing within a light tube. There were many failed attempts.

Sometimes our timing was off, and the lights did not spin around the model or got caught in her hair. Other times the lights moved too slowly and didn’t make it all the way through the image. Other times the issue was the lights themselves. Sometimes the lights spun right across the model’s eyes. I like a few of these images, but at the same time, some ran across the face in a way that was not attractive.

Have fun with it

The whole experiment was a lot of fun. It made for a great night out and some fun pics to post on social media. My friends were happy to post the pics to show their friends. As an artist and a professional photographer I also wanted to see if I could use the technique for other purposes.

Is it possible to use this technique to create some interesting fine art images or perhaps for some interesting portraits? The answer is yes! There’s a lot that can be done with this technique. It’s well worth experimenting with and seeing what kind of results can be created.

In this one, we achieved exactly what I was hoping to do. She is standing in a circle of lights.

 

The Pros and Cons of Using Teleconverters (Extenders) on your DSLR

 Tags: Photography for beginners, Photography, Teleconverters

 

By: Darren Rowse 

Have you ever been out and about with your DSLR and wished that the lens that you had fitted could zoom in just a little more? That extra reach can be handy in many situations – but for most of us a new lens is out of our budget – so what’s a photographer to do?

One solution to the problem is to consider getting yourself a teleconverter for your lens. Teleconverters (sometimes called extenders or multipliers) are generally much cheaper than a new lens and can multiply the focal length of your lens by anything from 1.4 times to 2 times.

In this tutorial I’ll explore some of the pros and cons of teleconverters.

Last year I took a trip to the Australian Open Tennis and in preparation for it I treated myself to a Canon 1.4x (L) Teleconverter EF (also called extenders) to use with my 70-200mm f/4 lens.

I’d previously used this lens at similar events and while it produced some wonderful results it left me thirsting for more focal length to get even more closely framed shots of players.

Canon make two teleconverters for DSLRs – the 1.4x and 2x versions (and other manufacturers make similar models – for example Nikon’s 2x, 1.7x and 1.4x). Keep in mind that extenders don’t work with all lenses. You should check with your manufacturer before purchasing to see if you own compatible lenses. I’ll profile a few more teleconverters below.

The Pros of Tele-converters/Extenders

Focal Length – The obvious benefit of using a teleconverter on your camera is that it extends the effective focal length of whatever lens you use it with. A 1.4x converter will give you an extra 40% (extending my 200mm maximum to 280mm) and a 2x converter will give you a 100% boost (effectively giving me a 140-400mm zoom.

The benefits of this extra reach are obvious – it could turn the framing of a tennis player shot from court side from a full body shot to a tightly framed upper body shot which reveals rippling muscles, dripping sweat and the grimace of their face as they strike the ball….

Cost – In comparison to the cost of buying a 400mm lens a teleconverter is a much more economical way to go.

Weight – I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the longer lenses going around but they can be quite huge. Add a 2x extender to a smaller lens instead of getting one of the larger ones and you’ll save your back some hardship.

Minimum Focus Distance – using an extender means you can keep the minimum focus length of your lens. This can be handy when you don’t have a macro lens handy and want to get close in on a subject that isn’t far away. It won’t really compare to a dedicated macro lens – but can be handy.

The Cons of Tele-converters/Extenders

So why wouldn’t you rush out and buy a teleconverter?

There are a couple of costs (in addition to the monetary one) associated with them.

Lens Speed – The first thing to consider when using a teleconverter is the impact it has upon how much light gets into your camera.

Using teleconverters means less light gets in which means your maximum aperture will be decreased. When using a 1.4x converter this means you’ll lose one stop and when using a 2x converter you’ll lose two stops (It was for this reason that I went for a 1.4x teleconverter instead of the 2x one as I didn’t want to slow my lens down any further than f/5.6).

So last year at the tennis, instead of being able to shoot at f/4 with my camera I had a maximum aperture of f/5.6.

I was lucky that the weather was excellent on the day and there was plenty of light so this didn’t really impact my shots too much – however if you’re shooting in low light or indoors you’ll notice the impact of this more.

Camera Shake – As you extend the focal length of a lens – any movement of your camera will become more noticeable.

Using a teleconverter magnifies both your subject and any movement in your camera so you’ll want to think carefully about how to reduce it, either by increasing your shutter speed and/or using a tripod/monopod or some other technique to secure your camera.

Focusing Speed – Another consideration with tele-converters is that they slow down the speed at which your camera will focus. This will vary from lens to lens but is particularly an issue in lower light. Some lower end DSLRs will not be able to use Auto focusing at all with some teleconverters at certain aperture settings (or at all) – so do check your camera’s compatibility before buying. To get around slow focusing switch to manual focus mode and learn how to use it – you’ll be surprised how quickly you get the hang of doing it yourself – it’s a useful skill to have.

Image Degradation – Extenders multiply not only the focal length but also any aberrations of the lens you pair it with. As a result you’ll notice on many lenses that image quality suffers – I’m told this is particularly the case with longer extenders (x2) where sharpness and contrast suffer – particularly when shooting into light (where flare and ghosting can be a problem). Using the best quality lens possible will help keep such degradation to a minimum.

Overall Verdict

Using extenders/tele-converters is a more affordable way to extend your focal length than to purchase a longer lens – however the cost can be to your image quality and camera performance if you are not working with a high quality lens in decent light.

I think they are well worth using if you need the extra reach but wouldn’t use them for every shot. I definitely travel with my 1.4x extender at all times when shooting with my 70-200mm lens.

When using one try not to use them at the maximum aperture that your camera will allow – but stop it down at least one stop and you’ll find the results are significantly better. Also keep in mind that longer focal lengths will leave you with less depth of field to play with – so your focusing needs to be spot on!

Teleconverters vs Cropping

Of course the alternative to using a teleconverter or extender is to take your images with what ever lens you have and then to crop those images later in your post production phase. This is definitely the cheaper option – however in my own testing I’ve seen better results with a teleconverter. You can get away with cropping – but if you want to really blow up your images a lot the converter will be an option to consider.

Teleconverters to Consider

Canon Extender EX 1.4x II – the one I use and love. It’s not cheap when compared to some other manufacturers but does a good job. Works best when you don’t push it to the maximum aperture (pull back a stop and it produces some nice results).

Canon Extender EX 2x II – double your lens focal length with this one. Doesn’t work with all lenses and I’ve heard it can produce slightly ‘soft’ results.

Nikon AF-S TC-14E II 1.4x – I have friends with this one and the results they get are excellent. Not compatible with all Nikon lenses – but where it is it’s a great little extender – although not cheap!

Sigma 1.4x EX DG (pictured right) – I hear a lot of positive things about this 1.4x extender. Sigma make them for all the major DSLR manufacturers and they are compatible with many lenses (check first though). It works best with a smaller aperture than wide open but for it’s price it looks like one to consider. You can get it for Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Minolta and Sony lenses.

Sigma 2x EX DG – another sigma option which also gets good results by all reports. Sigma again make it for all the major manufacturers including – Canon, Minolta and Sony, Nikon, Sigma, Pentax lenses.

Feel free to leave your own recommendations and experiences of Teleconverters and extenders below.

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3 Lighting Setups for Photographing Headshots

Tags: Photography for Beginners, Children, Portrait Photography, 

 

By: Dennis Drenner 

 I do a lot of corporate and actor headshots around Washington, DC, and I wanted to share some of the simple but effective lighting setups that I use over and over, which you can easily copy and use yourself.

The One-Light Wonder

My standard setup consists of a large soft light source to the left or right of the subject, a reflector under the face, and another reflector opposite the main light source. I shoot hundreds of headshots per year using this simple setup.

I use a Paul C. Buff Einstein unit with a large octabox in my studio, but you could easily put together something similar with a cheap speedlight, an umbrella, and a couple of $20 reflectors.

You can see this setup in the photo below, with my poor wife Karen standing in as a subject. She was just coming downstairs to make some tea and got ambushed!

Reflectors and adjustments

Once my subject is in place, I do some tweaking. First I will adjust the light source so it is slightly above their eye level. For most people, I think it looks best to have the light coming from above to cast subtle shadows under the chin, accentuating the jaw and helping to hide any double chin.

Then I will adjust the reflector underneath their face and bring it up to about their mid-chest level. This reflector helps fill in shadows on the face and provides a really nice extra catch light in the eyes. Some folks will use another (powered) light source down here, but I find the reflector to be much simpler to set up, and it also has the virtue of being idiot-proof.

For example, if you have another light instead of a reflector below the subject and you accidentally overpower it (so it is more powerful than the main light), you have created some horrible Frankenstein lighting! It is physically impossible to do this with a reflector, which can save you from costly mistakes.

You can see the side reflector in my studio in the photo above (it’s just to Karen’s left).

Finally, we have the reflector opposite the light source. For this one, I will often use a black-sided panel to create a darker shadow on that side of the face. This effect can be very dramatic, and has the added benefit of slimming the face. The downside is that, if your subject is very wrinkly, you’re not filling those wrinkles with light from that side. So it doesn’t work for everyone.

Here’s an example of a headshot where I used this effect to create a nice dramatic edge:

Some additional tweaks

With this simple setup, it’s very easy to make tweaks and see what works best with a particular person’s face. Often I will leave the basic setup in place with the black reflector, but a few examples where I might make changes are:

• The subject has a double chin, so I really want to define the jaw. In this case, I may raise the light up extra high to cast more shadow under the chin (but make sure you don’t go too high and lose your catchlights), and/or lower or remove the reflector under the chin.

• The subject has long, dark hair. In this case, the dark reflector is not necessary, because we already have a dark edge there from the hair. So in this case I would go with a white reflector on the side or bring in a hair light from behind (more on that in the next section).

In the photo below, you can see a lot of detail in her hair on the shadow side. That’s because I brought my big white reflector in close.

• The subject has deep-set eyes. We want to fire more light into those sockets or our poor subject will end up looking like a serial killer or a caveman! In this case, I might lower the main/soft light so it is right at eye level.

Two Lights

You could run a whole business just using the one-light system, but if you’re anything like me you get bored and like to try new things. So let’s bring in a second light.

The second light for me is usually a “kicker” (also called a rim or accent light) coming from behind and opposite the main light. I use this to accentuate the jaw, especially in men, or to accentuate the hair in women. It’s especially nice to create a little highlight on darker hair.

In the photo below, I needed a way to separate this young man from the dark background. My kicker light did the trick!

In my studio, I use a strip softbox for this purpose, but you could also use a bare head with a grid or even an old speedlight with a paper towel roll taped to it to make a simple snoot. The important thing is that you want to control the light so it doesn’t spray into your lens and create flare or lack of contrast.

You can see my kicker light in this setup shot with Karen.

Three and Four Lights

I use lights three and four to create a clean white background. You can either use one light fired at the background from just behind the subject, or two lights off to either side.

The white background is my favorite look these days for a lot of reasons. I think it looks super bright, modern, and happy. It also really pops on LinkedIn and other online profiles.

It is also a great way to go for companies because it is easy to replicate and get a consistent look from shoot to shoot (for example, when photographing a new employee months after the initial shoot, or replicating the same look with shoots done across the country by different photographers).

Whether you use one or two lights for the background depends on your budget and the space in which you are working.

Two lights can give you a larger, more even spread of light, whereas with one light you might have some fall off around the edges that you need to clean up in post-production. So I usually stick to two lights unless I’m on location somewhere and space is tight.

Conclusion

So I hope you found this article helpful, and you can use the lighting setups for your headshots.  Share this article.

 

Getting Landscapes Sharp: Hyperfocal Distances and Aperture Selection

    Tags: Photography for Beginners, Children, Portrait Photography, Travel Photography

 

By: Elliot Hook

An important element of landscape photography is ensuring that all of the key elements within your composition are sharp.  This can often include foreground objects that are a matter of meters from your camera as well as background elements that can be kilometres away.  Therefore, to achieve this, you need to ensure your depth of field is large enough to render everything of interest, suitably sharp.

In this scene it was important to capture everything from the frozen puddle in the foreground, to the hills in the background, in sharp focus

When you focus on an individual point within your landscape, you are in fact creating a plane of focus that lies parallel to the sensor.  Everything in front of, and behind, that plane is technically not in focus, however there is a region within which objects will appear acceptably sharp – that is the depth of field.  For instance, in the scene below the camera has been focussed on a rock.  Therefore, the plane of focus lies parallel to the sensor across that rock and the limits of acceptable sharpness, that form the bounds of the depth of field, lie in front of, and behind, that plane.

A theoretical example showing the depth of field for a given focal length, aperture and point of focus. The depth of field will always extend one third of the distance in front of the focal plane, and two thirds of the distance behind it.

In the diagram above, the depth of field is not sufficient to capture all of the trees within the range of acceptable sharpness, i.e. they will appear out of focus.  However, the depth of field can be easily manipulated to extend as far as you wish as it is controlled by a number of factors, namely: focal length, aperture and distance to the focal point. (I’m not going to include sensor size here as, after the purchase of your camera, it is not subject to user control; however it does not hurt to appreciate that the depth of field is inversely proportional to sensor size meaning that different cameras have different capabilities with respect to achievable depth of field).  The relationship that these factors have with depth of field is given below:

• Focal length: Up first is focal length as, typically, your focal length will be determined by your composition.  Changing your focal length will alter your field of view and therefore your composition, meaning that you don’t often adjust your focal length to alter your depth of field but generally manipulate the other factors at your chosen focal length.  A short focal length, i.e. wide-angle, will give you a greater depth of field than a long focal length, i.e. telephoto.
• Aperture: Probably the most obvious factor in depth of field control is aperture. A narrower aperture, i.e. larger f/ number, gives you a greater depth of field and vice-versa.  It is important to select the smallest, diffraction-limited aperture so to obtain the maximum depth of field without suffering from image degradation.
• Distance to focal point: In combination with a given focal length and aperture, deciding where to place that plane of focus will impact the resulting depth of field.  The depth of field increases as the distance to the focal point from the camera increases.  Therefore, once a focal length has been chosen, it is generally the combination of the selected aperture and distance to the focal point that controls the depth of field.

Hyperfocal Distance

One way to ensure that the entire frame is in focus (well, ‘acceptably sharp’) is to ensure that the depth of field extends from the foreground to infinity.  To do this, you need to focus at the ‘hyperfocal distance’: for a given focal length and aperture, there will be a distance where setting your point of focus will result in the entire scene being within the depth of field.

By focussing at the hyperfocal distance, the entire scene (and more beyond) will fall within the depth of field

So theoretically, by selecting the correct aperture and moving the point of focus to the hyperfocal distance (assuming the composition and therefore focal length remain unchanged) it would be possible to render the entire scene in focus.  A point worth noting is that when focussing at the hyperfocal distance, the near acceptable limit is always half of the hyperfocal distance.

The calculation to determine the hyperfocal distance isn’t trivial, so there are numerous sites or apps to help you when out in the field.  However by frequent application, it isn’t long until you gain an appreciation of where to set your point of focus, for a given aperture at your commonly used focal lengths.

Aperture Selection

For any focal plane, the depth of field extends 1/3^rd in front and 2/3^rd behind the point of focus.  Therefore, an easy, but potentially flawed, application of hyperfocal focussing is to select a very small aperture, e.g. f/22 or f/18, and to focus 1/3^rd of the way into the scene from the bottom of the frame.  It’s not a bad assumption, as often you will achieve the desired depth of field, however in choosing such a small aperture, you may well be losing any benefits of infinite focus due to decreased image sharpness as a result of diffraction.

For example, the image below shows a comparison of the same scene, shot at f/8 (left) and f/16 (right).

The frosty fern leaf in the centre of the frame at the bottom of the image, was an important part of the foreground interest here.  Even though both images look perfectly sharp, the 100% zoom for each image below shows the difference in sharpness for between using f/8 and f/16, even though both apertures result in a depth of field that extends from before the fern leaf to infinity:

The sharpness of the fern leaf at f/8 (left) vs. f/16 (right). Even though the lens was stopped down from f/22 to f/16, the resulting image could still be captured with greater sharpness throughout, by using a wider aperture of f/8, and focussing at the hyperfocal distance

Diffraction becomes an issue all lenses as the aperture gets smaller, especially at the edges of the image, and will be more pronounced on inexpensive lenses.  Typically, the sweet spot, in terms of lens performance, will be somewhere between f/8 and f/11.  Therefore, use of the smallest  ‘diffraction limited’ aperture that can still achieve the required depth of field becomes important.

So, hopefully, you will see that it is worth being aware of the hyperfocal distance for your commonly used focal lengths, especially for the apertures that result in optimum lens performance.  With the tools available to us today, it isn’t difficult to work it out, even when out in the field, so why not give it a go the next time you are out photographing landscapes.  Share this article.

 

How to Photograph Bands in Bars

   Tags: Photography for Beginners, Portrait Plus, Children, Portrait Photography, Travel Photography

by Music Photographer Rick Bennett.

Bars are challenging shooting environments now matter how you slice it–crappy lighting, drunk crowds, cramped spaces. Add in musicians who like to move around a lot, speakers in photographically inconvenient locations, and microphone stands that tend to bisect heads, and you’ve got an ideal situation for a photographer who likes a challenge. In Part 1, I covered the basics of equipment needed to shoot bands in bars: low-noise-at-high-iso cameras, off-camera flash, and mongo glass. In Part 2 I talked about where I’ve found success with placing my flashes, and the camera settings that have yielded the best results. Finally, in this part, I get to the shooting.

Before you start shooting, take care of your ears so that you can do this more than a couple of times–buy some ear plugs at your local hardware store (near the goggles and other protective gear) or pharmacy (near the sleep aids). I find I spend a significant amount of time standing right in front of the speakers, and my ears are ringing pretty badly by the end of a performance if I don’t use ear plugs. Even with the plugs in, you’ll be able to hear every part of the performance.

While shooting, you must be polite. Most people are accommodating if you step in front of them for a moment to make a shot, but do that too frequently or for too long, and you’ll start to irritate the fans of the band. Remember that the band is there to perform for their fans. The pictures you make are secondary to that purpose. I’ve only been in one situation where I felt like my presence as a photographer was not appreciated by one fan–I finished the shot and stepped off the dance floor. The huge majority of the time, people are very forgiving of me moving in and out of the crowd in order to get the shot I want. But I’m very careful to not obstruct any one person’s view for more than a few seconds–no more than any other fan would obstruct their view.

The easiest way to stay out of the fans’ view is to crouch down for the low angle. Most big bands perform on a stage that is raised several feet above the heads of the crowd so that everyone can see. Bands who play in bars don’t generally have this advantage, but you can create that look by taking pictures from low angles. The shots look cool, and the fans will appreciate not having to look around your f/2.8 lens to see their favorite guitar solo.

I find the most challenging aspect of shooting musicians is composing shots without microphone shadows or severe instrument shadows. This isn’t a problem for guitars, but any instrument that is close to the face can be problematic, e.g. saxophone, trumpet, violin/fiddle. The shadows are easy to see if you’re shooting with ambient stage lighting and no flash. But with remote flash, it means you have to be on the same side of the instrument or microphone as your flash is. In this lighting diagram, if the left flash fires, the microphone will cast a nasty shadow across the singer’s face. If the right hand flash fires, no shadow problem. So you have to stay close to the flash, but not so close that it looks like on-camera flash.

The other major compositional challenge is getting pictures framed so that microphones and stands don’t detract from, or steal attention in, the photo. Microphones and stands are part of a performance, but I don’t like them to dominate a picture. For example, if I’m framing two musicians in the shot and the microphone from one musician is covering the face of the other, I won’t take the shot (or I’ll delete it later). I’ll change my position, or wait until the musicians change theirs if I can.

I also don’t particularly care for shots from dead-center on a signer. It will look like they’re eating their microphone, or worse, have it shoved up their nose. That’s why I tend to take pictures from the side–I get great shots when the singer pulls back from the microphone a little bit so that you can see their whole face.

If I’m shooting the gig for the band, or in the hopes that the band will hire me in the future, I’ll work through the following shot list during their performance:

• a couple of shots of every member of the band. If some play and sing, I’ll capture them doing both.
• detail shots, generally closeups of instruments during a set break. Not all of them, just those that strike me as interesting photographically.
• detail shots of instruments being played. Again, not all of them, but whatever strikes me as interesting at the time. I love shots of accordions!
• motion blur of fingers on instruments, usually a guitar or bass. No flash here, just a 1/15 to 1/60s shutter, and up close with a f/1.8 lens. The challenge here is to capture a moment where the instrument isn’t moving very much, but the fingers are.
• any time the band interacts with the fans or fans enjoying the show, e.g. clapping, dancing, rock hands, etc, with band and fans in the frame
• a group shot where a) all the band members are visible in the frame, and b) everyone is playing, and c) a little bit of audience

Finally, be sure to give the drummer some lovin’. Drummers are usually in the back, with no stage lighting whatsoever, and as such, they rarely have pictures taken of them. I’ll even change the angle and power of remote flashes if I need to in order to capture a drummer. I make it my mission to capture at least one killer image of the drummer before I go home for the evening. If the drummer has any ambient lighting hitting them at all, a slow shutter will create some great motion blur.

When taking all of these pictures, I’m looking for “music faces”–points where the musicians are clearly enjoying themselves, and “music moments” where two (or more) musicians are jamming together. These are the images I really like to see. When I look at my images in post processing, I can tell who captured my attention photographically because I’ve got a lot more images of them. And I’ve walked away from shooting some gigs (not paid, or pre-arranged by the band) because the musicians weren’t performing–they just stood there playing their instruments. Meh, that’s no fun. I could have taken five shots and have faithfully captured their performance.

Make sure the band knows how to get in touch with you by the end of the performance. They’ll definitely have noticed you (especially if you have that 70-200 f/2.8 lens) and are probably interested in seeing your work.

What you do with the images and how you processes them will depend on your purpose in taking them. If you wanted to get the band’s attention and hopefully have them hire you, then pick a handful of the best and get them on-line in a hurry. That will help solidify in their memory that you were the one taking pictures, and, holy cow, you took some great ones! If the band had already hired you, then I assume you’ve already worked out a method of payment and delivery.

As you’re going through the images from the night, don’t sweat the deletes. I typically keep only 1/4 to 1/3 of the images from a night of shooting. And the band doesn’t see those out-of-focus poorly framed shots.

Don’t wait for the band to contact you–reach out to them through whatever means possible: Facebook, Twitter, their website. Let them know where to see your work and how to contact you for more.  Share this article.