If you like to garden or just want to know more about plumerias you can visit their website at http://www.socalplumeriasociety.com/      Meetings are once a month at Balboa Park

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2. Choose the right time of day and have a backup date in case of bad weather.

3. Use an assistant especially when shooting kids and dogs. Have treats and squeakers on hand.

4. Bring hair spray, a comb or brush and powder. A little hairspray can save the day if there is wind.

5. Check the tides before making the appt when shooting on the beach. A high tide can mean no beach.

6. Check your equipment the night before the shoot.

7. Bring a back-up camera, flash and at least one extra memory card.

8. Make sure all batteries are fully charged and bring extras of each.

9. Discuss clothing options with the customer at least a week before the shoot.

10. Carry a viewing hood or a dark cloth to view pictures outside.

Test Shot with no Additional Lighting

In the final shot pictured below I used a Canon 16mm ultra wide angle lens which was wide enough to include everything i needed in the shot including the awning above. I was able to light the interior with only 4 strobes placed in strategic locations – one of which was aimed at the white ceiling. In addition, I made sure all the room lights were on full power and used a slow shutter speed of 1/20th of a second to make sure that the interior lights would show. My strobes have a built in sensor that insures they all fire at once. The only light that did not fire was a light that had been placed in another room. Because that light was so far away I used a radio transmitter/receiver to insure that it fired properly. The entire job took just under 2 hours – much thanks to Claudia Siefert for her styling ability which allowed me to focus more on the technical. I later added the blue sky and cloud reflections in the windows above from a stock photo I had in my library. All editing was done in Photoshop.

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Final Image using 4 Interior strobes. Captured with Canon 16mm Lens on Bogan Tripod.

Grouping shot from slightly above looking down

A few weeks ago I got a request to shoot four OB/GYN physicians for their website. They had originally wanted the doctors shot against a green screen but once I understood how the shots were going to be used we decided to go with a 12 foot wide white seamless background. The doctors wanted a number of looks which included white lab coats so I knew that shooting white against white could be a problem. In reality white lab coats are in very light grey so I knew that as long as I lit my background to a true white, the white coats would separate well from the background. I did this by putting i stop more light on the background. Another important consideration was to make sure I had even illumination all the way across and from top to bottom. Since both ceiling and walls were white I used 4 lights with reflectors and aimed them at the walls – 2 lights on each side of the seamless, one about 3 feet off the ground and the other was 3 feet below the ceiling. By bouncing light off the white walls and ceiling I was able to get a nice even light all the way across. I set my background to read f-16 with a light meter ( yes, i still use a light meter ! ) For those of you that have never used a light meter you can use the histogram on your camera to check how white your background actually is. For my subjects I used two 3 foot soft boxes positioned on my left as key lights which I set at f-11 and I added one additional light with a reflector in back and slightly to my right to act as a fill light. That light i aimed up at the ceiling being careful not to allow the light from the strobe to hit my subjects directly. So all together I used 7 lights and it worked perfectly.

The light that was in back illuminating the white seamless was also giving me the added benefit of some very nice highlights.  If you look, especially at the faces you will see. This ads shape and tonality to the subjects and gives the shot some extra “pop”.

I captured about 200 images in 2 1/2 hours which was pretty fast considering all the clothing changes and combinations we made. You can see how the images were used by going to the website http://www.encinitasobgyn.com/index.html. The designer did an excellent job clipping and dropping the images onto various backgrounds for the website and promo material.

A white board was placed on a table for a quick lab shot

This shot was superimposed onto a winter snow scene and sent out as a mailer

I could not resist trying out the IPhone on fresh organic produce that I picked up at the farmers market yesterday. The direct morning light was very dramatically streaming in through the kitchen window which produces a very contrasty lighting situation for any camera. I could have softened the sunlight by placing a sheer peice of fabric over the window but i wanted to see just how much information the IPhone would capture under direct sunlight. As you can see on the shot above some of the highlights are blown out, rendering those areas pure white with no detail. Had I been using my traditional SLR I might have been able to retain at least some detail my processing the RAW file and restoring some of the highlights. 

On the Image above (squash) I was able to lower the contrast ratio a little in Photoshop by using the ole trusty Shadow/Highlight tool. The fruit in the background has a few blown out areas but it’s far enough back where it does not bother me. The nutmeg and tumeric we seasoned the squash with toned down the highlights really well. And yes, it was damn tasty- we also dribbled gee (purified butter) over the squash for flavor and to keep it from drying out in the oven. Yummy!    

Same thing going on here with the contrasty light and blown out highlights. Softer light would have helped but still a nice composition. Notice the geometry – nothing but circlesand ovals in the composition. Compare this with the image below – The knife with it’s string horizantal line becomes a strong element in the composition.

So, all in all – lighting was the main issue here which could have been remedied with a light diffuser over the window such as a sheer peice of fabric like silk or even nylon. Because this is a cell phone – I am not able to make any adjustments to select my focus. The IPhone wants EVERYTHING in focus whether I like it or not. It “Is what it is”. Get used to it and have fun! Think I’ll go down to the kitchen and get something to eat.

Original Image of San Diego Sunset as shot with I Phone 4s

Final Enhanced Image Using Shadow/Highlight, Saturation and Blur Tools in Photoshop Elements.

These two Shots , actually one shot was capture an hour ago from a friend’s back deck in San Elijo Hills. Can you believe this is the view from his office window ! It’s amazing he gets any work done at all with this kind of distraction. As I mentioned in my previuos post, I had to aim the camera high in order to tell the camera to expose for the clouds and not the ground. Damn – next time I will take 2 shots showing you the same view with the horizon line higher to see what happens to exposure. You can also see the results of enhancing the imige using 3 tools in Photoshop Elements. I will be teaching another Elements class in Jan or Feb, who wants to sign up, raise your hands !

Dexter on a bunny trail

The I-Phone 4S continues to impress me – it has it’s limitations for sure but it’s not a bad little camera to have around.  I don’t know if I would use it for product shots or a family portrait but who knows what i might end up doing with it.

What I do like :  of course the obvious is it’s portability. Great color and resolution is big enough to print a high quality 8×10 @ 300 ppi – (that’s pixels per square inch)

What I don’t like is also obvious – it has no controls for exposure, at least none that I am aware of. Also, the screen is very hard to see in daylight. I may start bringing a viewing hood with me or a small piece of black fabric i can put over my head to block the sunlight.

The three photos below were taken at dusk in the hills right in back of my house. The I-Phone’s auto exposure take a little getting used to – point it up, it exposes for the sky and the landscape gets dark. point it down and the hills lighten with more detail but the sky washes out. I have not yet played with the HDR feature, maybe this will help.

This is the original as it was shot with no processing

I enhanced the image in Photoshop using the Shadow/Highlight tool and added color saturation.

Even more Photoshop using layer masks for added drama.

So I continue to experiment to see what this little camera is capable of. I like the fact that I can walk my dog and stop at any time i get inspired without having any additional weight. More to come …..  oh yes, one more taken this morning on my way to yoga. I was late for class but it was worth it!

Looking west towards the ocean with our famous marine layer still lingering. Not a bad place to call home