Last week I got the news that a much loved member of Salt Lake City’s dance music community passed away. This news was particularly troubling for me, not because I first met him over ten years ago, and his music and passion helped to shape the foundations of what I consider to be my second family, but because Stephen Santoro took his own life. For the first couple days I felt confused, guilty, angry with myself. I struggled with the memories of similar events in the past. I felt helpless.

Mostly, I was shocked.

I didn’t know Bam Bam as well as I would have liked. I saw him mostly in the clubs, and never got to spend a lot of time with him away from the decks. Stephen and I shared a love of music which drew us together for a few hours at a time. What I did know about him was his sincere friendliness and generosity. His spirit of love and celebration that he shared freely behind the turntables and on the dance floor. I have many photos of him, and in every one of them, his infectious smile lights up the frame.

Those few hours we spent celebrating life together are some of my fondest memories. I never knew Stephen was troubled, because every time I saw him, he was listening to the music he loved.

Music heals. Music keeps us sane. Thank you all for sharing your love of music with us. RIP, Bam Bam. I will miss you.

For friends of Stephen “Bam Bam” Santoro, here are some resources you might find helpful:

• ‘Stephen “Bam Bam” Santoro, My Friend.’ – by Jodi
• ‘Stephen “Bam Bam” Santoro – A Legacy Of Dance Music’ – by Jesse Walker
• Stephen Hoyt Bam Bam Santoro memorial page on Facebook

Get Your Flash off Your Camera

There are many ways to do that. For the basics, head over to the Strobist.com. Nikon shooters can use Nikon CLS. You’ll need SB-600, 800, 900 flashes and a D80 or better. Check your manual for “commander mode”.

Canon and other shooters, there are a range of external solutions, ranging from Cactus V2 triggers to PocketWizards. Each solution really needs its own tutorial, so I won’t go into setup details here.

Shoot With An Assistant

Many wedding photographers employ assistants who do everything from help keep track of important guests to holding reflectors for posed portraits. Why shouldn’t you have an assistant at a nightlife event? I am very grateful for the dedicated help of Tania on this shoot. She held the second flash, which let me capture multiple light angles. Most of the edge highlights above were lit by Tania, standing behind and to one side of the subject. In some cases, she provided the off-axis key light that helped me light part of the subject’s face, instead of even all-over lighting you get from the camera angle. The band photos are good examples of that technique. Tania lit most of those from camera left while I shot from the right side of the stage.

Use Multiple Light Sources

In most of these shots, I used two flashes – a key light (a flash that I held in my left hand), and a second flash held by an assistant (see above). In several shots, the ambient light also contributed in some ways to the subject exposure. You can see hints of that in some of the blurrier photos. I was using long shutter speeds to let some of the ambient light into the exposure. Employing multiple light angles serves to create more three dimensional images, which is why these photos tend to pop a little more than the average point-and-shoot shot. Multiple light angles sculpt and define curves, angles, and dimensions, adding loads of depth to a photograph.

When you drag the shutter long enough to create a color wash in the background, you can even flatten the background while your flashes sculpt the image in the foreground. This creates separation by placing your 3d-looking subject on a flat-looking backdrop. Talk about POP…

Drag the Shutter

I’ve said it many times before – when you’re out in a club, it’s fun to capture the colored lighting all around you. In these shots, the washes of red, orange, yellow, and blue are only visible because of the slow shutter speeds, ranging anywhere from 1/25th to a full second in length. This technique is called dragging the shutter. When you’re shooting with flash, think of the flash as the key light – your primary exposure. You control that with the flash power and aperture. Your background exposure comes from ambient light, and you control that with shutter speed.

With really long shutter speeds, you can even create light paintings by dragging the shutter and moving the camera while there are light sources in the frame. See the light streaks in a few of the DJ photos here for examples.

Drown out Ambient Light

Set your shutter speed to at least 1/250. For most indoor lighting, 1/250 will do the trick. However, you may have to shoot faster if the light is bright, or there is sunlight coming through windows. Most flashes will finish firing before your shutter closes, so you can use your shutter speed to control the ambient exposure without interfering too much with your flash exposure settings.

Here are the settings used for some of these photos:

Shutter Speed: 1/250
Aperture: f/13.0
ISO: 100

Set up External Flashes

On-camera flash will not work, because no matter what you do, it’s always going to be pointed directly at the background. The key to this trick is to keep the light off the background. Aim your flashes so that they point either parallel with the background, or angled slightly toward the camera position. In this example, I used flashes set close to the toy, creating light mostly from the sides.

Control the Light

If there’s unwanted light spill happening, get creative. If you’re using an umbrella, make sure you’re bouncing, and aim the umbrella carefully. If you’re using a softbox, make sure there’s a good lip that extends beyond the light panel to prevent light from going wherever it wants to. Setup flags, snoots, gobos, barndoors, whatever you need to block the light from going where it’s not wanted (the background).

Control Reflections

Watch out for mirrors, white shirts, anything that might reflect light in the wrong direction.

Create Distance from the Background

It’s a lot easier to keep light off your background if your subject is several feet away from it.

Just Say NO to Photoshop!

It may be tempting when you’re just starting to play with this trick to get “almost there” and then fix the rest in Photoshop. It may seem like the “lazy” way. But believe me – when you do a shoot with 260 images, and you have to deliver a bunch of them to a client (say, for a product catalog), getting it right on camera is the easy way.

I used three flashes and a reflector for these shots. I actually took these photos in my kitchen. No black backdrop (too lazy), and no background editing in Photoshop. I used fast shutter speeds and careful light control to make the background appear black.

This is a custom art toy designed for my good friends at Mechanized. Buy yours while you still can. They don’t have many left. And don’t forget to follow @mechanized on Twitter.

Did you know that quality photography is one of the highest ROI investments for websites? If you’re a product photographer, seek out reports on the ROI of good quality photography, and then go out and pitch companies who could use a facelift. Show them the reports. If you can demonstrate that hiring you will pay for itself, you’re in the door!

I worked for two years as a nightlife photographer. When I started in Salt Lake City, nobody was getting paid to go out and shoot club events. Clubs and promoters traded access for photos. In response, I built a list of fans, and a rolodex of media contacts.

When I was able to show clubs and promoters that I could solve two business problems for them: bring in more fans, and get them press, they stopped laughing at the sticker price and started to hire me – and I earned more revenue licensing the photos to that rolodex of media contacts than I earned selling the service to the clubs and promoters.

Now there are crews of nightlife photographers covering dozens of events every week in Salt Lake City.

Whatever your specialty, somewhere there’s somebody who could use your services to solve their real-world business problems. Find them and when you pitch – don’t pitch photographs. Pitch solutions.

We interviewed DJ Skeet Skeet for some upcoming blog features while he was in Park City December 12. When we got to the hotel, a photographer from Skullcandy was already there setting up lighting for some lifestyle shots. (Skullcandy sponsors Skeet Skeet.) She was clearly planning environmental lifestyle shots (using ceiling bounce with diffuser and a bounce hood), so I went another direction and kept the focus on Skeet, rather than the environment.

Isolating your subject

• Look for sparse backdrops – not an easy thing to do in a cozy hotel room, but if you crop tight and plan the camera angle carefully, you can create isolating backgrounds almost anywhere.
• Light your subject and the background from opposite sides – In these shots, I lit Skeet Skeet and the background in reverse – that is, Skeet Skeet is lit from the left, and the background is lit from the right. This technique serves to distance the subject from the background and emphasize separation.
• Exploit background contrasts – In the top image, there is a black curtain that serves to split the background into two halves – light and dark. I placed the dividing line behind Skeet Skeet so that he would contrast with the background on both sides. Light on the dark background, and shadow on the bright background.
• Light your subject from behind – Light is bouncing off the background, creating glancing highlights on Skeet Skeet’s face, camera right. This technique is particularly important when the subject of your portrait has dark skin – which is more likely to vanish into a dark background.
• Use background elements to frame your subject – Mirrors, picture frames, windows, doorways, corners, you name it. Anywhere there are lines in the background, there is an opportunity to frame your subject with them.
• Create depth with shallow DoF – In the bottom image, there are four distinct levels of clarity visible in the shot. Skeet Skeet is in focus, the chandelier is just out of focus, the lamp is blurry, and the mirror almost looks like a watercolor smudge. The contrast between blurry and sharp is one of the most important clues your brain uses to determine the important part of the image. To achieve this effect, open your aperture wide, use a long focal length, get close to your subject, and create physical distance between your subject and the background.

Strobist Info: SB-600 bounced off umbrella camera left, SB-600 bounced from background camera right (creating right side highlights and background separation).

Check out the full set:

Learn the tricks professionals use to create balanced lighting for both indoor and outdoor photographs. We’ll cover exposing for flash; triggering off-camera flashes; balancing flash with available light; multiple lighting sources; umbrella lighting; controlling light with bounce flash, reflectors, snoots, and gels; and more.

Focus is on portrait photography, though other applications will be covered as desired. This class is designed for serious amateur and aspiring professional photographers. You will need an SLR camera and at least one external flash designed to fit in the camera hot-shoe.

Wednesdays 10/21/09 – 11/18/09 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Price: Tuition: $115.00 + Special Fee: $10.00 = $125.00
Note: See Annex entrance doors for classroom location.

Sorry! The class is packed and registration is closed.

Brought to you by Euphorik Knights and The Rail.

Nikon D90

When the Nikon D300 hit the market, I was very excited – but I had just spent all my cash on a trip to Hawaii, and I had to save up for it. By the time I had the money, it was a year later and the D90 had hit the market – and despite the body downgrade, the D90 was better. The D90 sensor is 1/3rd stop better than the D300 (5 points on the DXOMark rating scale = 1/3 stop), and offers better dynamic range, self cleaning sensor, and 720p HD video – for half the price. Will you notice the 1/3 stop difference? That depends. If you’re shooting on a D80 and you think ISO 800 looks OK, maybe not. I’m picky about digital noise, and I noticed a big difference. For me, it was an obvious choice – better quality images for half the price.

Nikon D300s

The new D300s adds the video and self-cleaning sensor of the D90, along with the other sensor improvements, and if the trend holds, likely another 1/3rd stop of low-light / shadow detail performance on top of improvements made with the D90. For professionals, those new features may make an upgrade worthwhile.

Why pick the D300s over the D90? Aside from the sensor improvements, the body really is better. I thought it was more cumbersome at first, but after getting my head around the different controls – I like them better. You’ll love the improved auto-focus performance and rugged construction of the D300s body. The D300s combines all the great features from the D90 and all the great features from the D300. In short, this is the crop-sensor camera to own if you’re a Nikon shooter. No contest.

Images courtesy of Bumpershine and Eleven Eight.

Use Window Light - What’s the easiest way to get professional looking light? Simple: Pose your model next to a big window during the daytime. In this case, Jordan is standing next to a large window. Large windows act like expensive professional photography soft-boxes – but you don’t have to cart around bulky equipment, or break your wallet.

Frame Your Subject – Be on the lookout for creative ways to frame your subject. In this case, I used the lines in the background to create an attractive frame for the portrait. Simple and effective.

Use What You Have – It’s easy to get caught up in gear lust, but you can get a shot like the first with a used DSLR and a $100 lens.

Gear – Nikon D80 (my backup camera), Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens. Just window light for the top image. The second shot utilized a strip soft box bounced off a mirror behind the model, and an SB-600 shot through an umbrella for the key light.

Models: Jordan, Kali
Stylists: Kristopherson Sloan / Studio Nine, Alicia Poppinga / The Electric Chair Salon

DJ Micro is an influential trance / breakbeat DJ from New York City. Thanks to RISE for bringing him to the Elevate dance floor at the Hotel! Elevate features VIP stage access that brings VIP wristband-wearers on the stage to mingle with the performing artists. On the one hand, it lets people get close to the action – on the other, it makes shooting a bit more challenging. These tips might help you navigate similar obstacles:

Use a Zoom Lens - I love primes, and I frequently shoot with my trusty 50mm f1.8, but in crowded spaces, where it’s difficult to control the distance between you and your subject, a zoom lens is a great asset. Shooting in clubs, I prefer my 18-135mm. It gives me great range and sharp images. It’s very distorting on the wide end, but it’s pretty sharp, and easy on the neck (lightweight). Oh – and it’s cheap to replace if a drunk club kid manages to destroy it – around $420 new.

Crop Close - If there’s a lot going on, it’s often difficult to keep the frame simple and maintain a strong subject focus. For these situations, it’s often best to choose close crops – headshots, head and shoulders, etc…

Use Off-Camera Flash - If you haven’t got an external flash and you aren’t using it off camera, you’re missing the strobist revolution. You can use small strobes the same way professional photographers use studio lighting.

Use Light for Emphasis - In a dark, cluttered environment, it’s relatively easy to avoid light spill on the background so that the emphasis stays on your subject. In tho close-ups pictured, I was contending with all sorts of clutter, people, and general craziness. By aiming the light away from the background, you can keep it just where you want it – on your subject. Minimizing distraction will give your photos stronger impact.

Capture the Right Moment! - One of the most important, and easily overlooked aspects of photography is timing. I have said it before, and I’ll say it again. Knowing when NOT to click is every bit as important as choosing a great subject, or getting the light right. In any non-still life photographic situation, you’re going to encounter key moments when the stars align to create your perfect photograph. While shooting musicians and DJ’s, I pay careful attention to composition, to the performer’s expression, to the rhythm of the music (you’ll find the performers sync up to it), to the focal plane, and the ambient lighting. When they all come together, that’s when you click the shutter release. Don’t miss those magic moments while you review shots of boring expressions.

View The Full Set on PartyUtah.com