Like I said before, I was lucky enough for a mate to volunteer to model for me. I’ve taken plenty of pictures of friends, and Kevin isn’t the first to let me take a photo of them. However, he was the first mate I specifically set out to take photos off rather than just shot as part of a days activities.

The difference is, this time the sole objective of the evening was to get some good photos, not to play poker and have a laugh.

I also got myself worked into a bit of a tizzy coming up this this as I really wanted to impress.

Looking at the photos from the night, I don’t think I did.

So, where’d it go wrong?

I think my first mistake was not planning the shots more carefully. I knew I wanted the lighting effect in the third picture above and I wanted a sort of head on B&W pose, but I never considered what sort of approach to actually take to achieve that. I also never considered that taking 60 pictures of Kevin with similar looks on his face would become problematic – the expressions are not his fault!

I think I got the gear a little wrong to. I obsessed over using a single light for the subject and a reflector, but because there were just the two of us I couldn’t get the reflector to set up how I wanted. In retrospect I should have just set up a second strobe on low power and lived with the impact.

One interesting thing which I’d been told and tried but really only became convinced off during the session was the power of F/11. These are all taken at F/11 around 80 - 100mm and they give a nice feel. Possibly helped by the nice plain wall, but it’s nice to see peoples heads in focus…

When all is said and done though, I did have a great time doing this. I’ll be hassling more mates to volunteer in the future.

This isn’t the mate who offered to pose for me a week or so ago. I’m still working up the courage to check he’s happy with the pictures I took of him (though at least one is on his facebook page, so…)

I’m finding that models aren’t like your mates or your family. Sure, they’re motivated to help you get the best picture you can and they’ll follow instruction really well, but they also know what to expect and know what you’re doing. Unlike friends and family, there isn’t that natural history and experience that lets them and you be comfortable in each others presence and if you’re shooting in a crowd there’s a lot of distraction going on.

Strikes me that you need to build something of a rapport with the model, good or bad. I’ve read about photographers in the 60’s who’d be almost confrontational to get the “angry young man” shot. Not sure I’m up to getting people to hate me on purpose (I do well enough with that by accident).

Certainly, when I look back on the shots I took of Christine, the better pictures are later in the session when I’d given up trying to act like I knew what I was doing and was just chatting with her and taking pictures.

Funnily enough,  I noticed a similar effect when taking pictures of my mate. The more I tried to take“modelesque” pictures of him, the worse they became. Indeed one of his favourite shots was when we were goofing around and I was trying to explain what the lights were doing. I think my stress at trying to get things “just so” and look knowledgeable was translating into awkwardness and tension in the pictures.

Maybe for me, that’s the most valuable thing I got out of taking pictures of people recently. Have fun and enjoy the experience and it’ll translate into your pictures.

This was an experiment with light from a few weeks back. The objects were set on a table on top of and in front of a black cloth.the camera was tripod mounted and pre-focused then the lights were turned out. On a 30 second exposure in the dark, individual objects were lit for a few seconds with an old torch.

Nice neat way to get interesting lighting.

Happy Halloween…

Way back in February I mentioned that I’d had a look at Stock Photography. To be honest I’d quickly lost interest in it, and apart from adding a couple of pictures of the summer I hadn’t given it a huge deal of thought.

Yes, if you’re asking, I’ve sold some photos – probably making to the tune of $250 over the year. Hardly rocking my world…

However, gratification comes in many forms and I’ve grown to love showing people my photographs and getting feedback when people like them. I can even cope with the feedback I get when people don’t like them.

I got a new form of gratification today when surfing the local ferry operators site…

Yup. That’s my photo.

This picture has been on sale for a while from the stock sites, and it is quite popular compared to other images I’ve submitted.

But, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a photograph of mine used on professional site or publication where someone has paid money to do it.

I know it’s a little thing, but it made me smile.

If you want to practice portrait photography, the only realistic option is to have someone model for you. Self portraits are fun, but you’ll always be a little out of sorts with the process.

I’ve lined up a few friends for the next few weeks, but the club had a session on Tuesday which was a great place to start.

Gordon offered up a theme a few days ago, but I’ve held posting it for a little while to give people some time to do other things.

This rounds theme: Unusual

I asked Gordon to give a little more information and he said anything which is “unusual” or unconventional, weird, bizarre, strange, odd, different, wacky, alternative, outside the box.

Maybe with Halloween coming up you might get some inspiration…

I suspect we’ll get a lot of very different shots this time!

Closing date for submissions is 15th November. Usual rules apply -

1 image on the above theme which you’ll submit via “submissions<at>learningtosnap.com”. I’ll make the images submitted available to the entrants for about a week. Winner gets the kudos and the right to pick the next theme.

Go on, give it a go!

There’s a portrait round in the club coming up and I’ve been trying to come up with a different style of shot. I expect there will be an abundance of traditional portraits doing the rounds and I fully expect I’ll submit a few of those myself.

But I also wanted a few more unusual shots.

And after watching the Matrix a few months back, I couldn’t get the idea of a computer lit shot out of my mind. I lined a person up for the shot, but had no idea about lighting it. So rather than waste their time, last night I used myself as my test subject.

OK. It’s maybe a little 1999. But I kind of like the effect.

I started out by just lighting my face using the glow from a laptop monitor with a series of lines of bright green text on it. This just wasn’t generating enough light though and holding still for 30 seconds was a nightmare. So I settled on reducing the exposure time to around 15 seconds and firing a flash with a green gel from my right during the shot.

An overlay layer, a graduated filter and some curves later and the shot was done.

I’ll do the same shot again with the friend who’s volunteered, but I’ve learned some lessons along the way.

1. Long exposures are impossible to manage for the model.
2. It’s impossible to auto focus a Canon 400D in the dark, so you need to get the focus set and then stay still until the light goes off and the shot’s taken
3. Make sure the strobe is behind a diffuser otherwise you’ll get hot spots
4. The text on the monitor needs to be bigger to be legible (and will be reversed (duh) on the image
5. Even if you’re planning on having one side of the face dark, you need to be careful – no light means no detail. If I lift the image on the left side the ear is just a lump of noise
6. Straighter on to the monitor would have helped the text a little more

The latest challenge, Daily Ritual, was set by Shereen a few weeks back. Talking to those who submitted, I think this probably caught the flavour of the game perfectly. Everyone seemed to go through the same series of emotions, from “what will I take” to “I’ve loads of ideas” and ending up with “this is really tough”. The final images though are all good, and all different – it’s interesting the different take people ended up with.

Though hygiene seems important!

The entries for this round were:

Geoff -

Stuart -

Gordon -

Shereen -

Paul -

Darrell -

It’s interesting that three of us picked self portrait shots.

This months winner, able to take home plaudits and bragging rights is Gordon. The shot of the aftershave bottle really impressed me with the complimentary colours and the strong shadows leading you into the feeling that it’s a morning thing.

Gordon, you’re up – next theme when you’re ready and we’ll have another go.

I’ve been fortunate enough to get my hands on a little Marumi ring flash unit for a while. Mostly I’m planning to use it to take some Macro shots, but I’m told ring flash works well for portrait light as well.

Given my reluctance to post (and therefore take) portraiture, I’m not going to comment on this aspect. Although, for reference, Marvin had a bit of the ring flash about him. And now I think of it, he was taken with a 100mm Macro lens as well….

… Anyway.

The nice thing about Ring Flash is the ability to get light to the front of your lens. When you’re shooting at a distance of 30cm and you’re using F22, you need a lot of light in a little area. Straight on flash can be an issue. It actually makes it almost possible to shoot Macro hands free.

This is actually a bobble my daughter has for her hair.

the Marumi seems like a decent little light. It’s a lot cheaper than the others on the market and I guess you do get what you pay for. The Marumi only has one bulb so no individual side control as offered by Canon ring flash. Also, it’s fully ETTL so there’s no manual control of the light (unless you use flash compensation on your camera).

However it does come with a set of adapter rings so mounting on a selection of lenses is possible, and it’s pretty quick to charge and recharge as well.

The light it throws off is pretty consistent, certainly meeting the challenges I gave it over the last day or two.

If you’re going to be spending your life with macro, invest in the Canon or Nikon ring flash. If you want something to supplement your gear or you’re shooting on a budget, I’d suggest taking a look at the Marumi.

Oh, and there is one for you Nikonites as well.

“You make me very angry...very angry..” – Marvin the Martian.

Life. That is. How dare it get in the way of me playing with cameras.

“Oh, I'm going to blow it up, it obstructs my view of Venus.“ – Marvin the Martian