Visual Storytelling

A little modification to an older project

2012-02-27T16:01:00.001-05:00

Stanley,

"Is there any any any chance you can take out - remove the 1 slide at the very beginning that the slide show starts with that says... petting farm....- am just trying to remove petting farm any where i can find it on the website."

I was thrilled to see something I did a few years ago can be modified and help my friend's business. She just wanted to change the focus of her business.

Many businesses will add new things and drop other things and the cool thing with that slide show that I produced I just had to make one modification.

It wasn't too difficult to make the change due to the format. Had I shot this all in video I could still make the change, but the time would have been a lot more.

Have you visited your website lately? Should you change your focus for your business?

I recommend looking every once and a while at what you offer and what you could offer. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is to stop doing some things. Some of those things may look like they are keeping you in business, but they could be consuming the time you could put into something more profitable.

Some photos are more timeless than others. Look through your website, blog and other materials and see do the people in the photos look like how people dress and style their hair today? If not you may need to create some new content.

One of my new clients is putting a new photo every day of the year up on their website. It doesn't rotate. Guess what? They now have increased their traffic to the website. People don't want to miss the photo since if they skip a day they miss out on some content.

By the way if you want to have fun at my friends farm then go here for information http://www.theartbarn.com/.

SWPJC Student Workshop Moments

2012-02-24T08:47:00.000-05:00

I am at the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference where we are holding a Student Workshop prior to the regular program.

I just wanted to share some moments from our time going out to a Cowboy church last night where they gave use horseback rides, fed us and sang some songs with us.

2 bags I don't leave home without

2012-02-22T10:04:00.000-05:00

ThinkTank Urban Disguise 60 V2.0 is the main bag I use everyday.

When I travel I use the ThinkTank bags to help protect my gear and carry all my camera and computer gear.

I use the ThinkTank Urban Disguise 60 everyday. I always carry my Apple Macbook Pro and iPad with me. I enjoy the fast response of the iPad to just see content and prefer to do work on my Macbook pro.

I always have a camera with me but it isn't the Nikon D3S I am carrying all the time. I prefer to carry my Nikon P7000 because it is light and pretty versatile if I just want a photo of something I came upon.

When I travel with my pro cameras and am flying I use the ThinkTank Airport Security™ V 2.0. It is quite common to be stuck on a small plane and have to check my cameras at the door of the plane. I have had good results with nothing ever breaking when flying with the roller bag.

ThinkTank Airport Security V2.0

I think it is important to carry what you need to a job and I find that I need a lot more than just a camera. I need backup gear so I need two of almost everything. That becomes a lot of gear.

In this example you can see 2 cameras, four flashes and numerous lenses and other gear. I too carry a lot and need not only to be able to carry the gear, but work out of the bag once on location. I find I can easily get what I need without having to empty the bag to find that piece of gear I am reaching for.

I recommend these two bags in tandem to get your gear on airplanes and to your location to shoot for your client.

Improve your Flash photos by not lighting everything

2012-02-20T16:41:00.000-05:00

How do you get this result? [Figure 1]

When this is where you started? [Figure 2] Nikon D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 200, 1/500 on Matrix metering.

Maybe you want the light on even less of the face like this. [Figure 3]

I started this photo shoot with figure 2. I started with a back lighted subject. Most all the light is on the background and the subject is in the shade.

This is the setup. I used a fill flash on my Nikon P7000 to take this photo. If you look behind the model you can see the shadow from the house and see how all the sunlight is hitting the background. Nikon SB900 on light stand with Radio Poppers PX helping be sure the signal from the Nikon SU800 is not lost outside in all the sunlight.

I suggest doing this assignment yourself and take some notes just to be sure you are remembering all your settings. While the Nikon will capture the camera settings it doesn't show the SB900 settings in the embedded information, only that it was used.

Shoot all these combinations and you will have 16 different photos to compare the results. Add + series and you would have 28 total different ones to look through and compare.

As you can see in these shots the background is consistent through each series and the skin tone gets brighter and darker due to the flash changing while the Camera setting stays the same. You then change the camera setting and re-shoot the series with the flash.

Here you can see me changing just the camera settings on the Nikon D3. The ISO stays the same. The aperture stays the same and by dialing this under the shutter speed will change automatically because I am using the exposure compensation to change it. Had I chosen to shoot this in Shutter Priority and not Aperture Priority the Aperture would change from each setting instead of the Shutter Speed.

Since the flash is off camera and I am using the Nikon SU-800 to control the flash, I am changing the SU-800 and not the SB-900. Here is what those changes will look like.

You can continue to go through to the -1, -2, -3 respectfully to get more combinations. The reason I am only changing A and not B or C is the Nikon SB-900 is set to Channel 1 Letter A.

Camera setting at 0 and the flash is set to -3. Also the Flash is zoomed to 200 so I am just lighting her face and not the outfit. [Nikon D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 200, 1/1000]

Camera -1, Flash 0 [Nikon D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 200, 1/2000]

Camera -3, Flash +3 [Nikon D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 200, 1/8000]

Now let's back up and talk about the Zoom on the Nikon SB-900 flash. The next three images are all shot with the Camera at 0 and the Flash at 0, but I am zooming the flash all the way as wide as it will go at 17mm to 35mm and finally at 85mm.

Zoom at 17mm [Nikon D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 200, 1/1000]

Zoom 35mm [Nikon D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 200, 1/800]

Zoom 85mm [Nikon D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 200, 1/800]

When you push the shutter you can never see it happen, but the Nikon Speed light system fires a pre-flash to set the exposure and then fires the flash. Now remember the camera is set to Aperture priority and the camera is in matrix metering mode trying to figure all this out for you. When the flash was at 17mm the light from the flash is falling on the model's black robe and the camera wants to make it darker and thus shortens the shutter speed to 1/1000. When the flash is just hitting the face with the 35mm and the 85mm zoom setting then it is at 1/800 shutter speed.

I mention this to say when you are in TTL mode shooting in some form of auto there are variances due to each scene. This is why you want to shoot this type of test before you shoot a real job. Just change the model's shirt to white and everything will change again.

Let's mix it up a little more by adding a snoot to the SB900.

I am using the LumiQuest snoot on the Nikon SB-900. This narrows down the light to an even smaller spotlight.

I didn't move the flash or camera, but the model moved ever so slightly in these two examples. This is where you can use the Depth-of-Field preview button to have the flash fire a continuous light that you can see where it is hitting the subject. I can tell you from experience that you don't want to do this a lot without letting the flash cool down between doing this. I burned out the tube and had to have Nikon repair it. Use this sparingly. [Nikon D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 200, 1/5000]

I pushed the depth-of-field preview button and then had the model stay still to get the light where I wanted it. [Nikon D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 200, 1/5000]

As you can see everything is the same as without the snoot in the setup. By using the snoot the exposure changed a great deal even tho I am only having the Camera at -3 and the Flash at +3

SWPJC 2-Minute Show

2012-02-19T19:11:00.000-05:00

This is the 20th Annual Southwestern Photojournalism Conference this week in Fort Worth, Texas. You can read more about it here www.SWPJC.org

One of the highlights through the years is the "2-minute shows."

Everyone's got something to say, but can you say it in two minutes? We'd like to give you the chance to take the stage and share your vision in 120 seconds. That's right, you've got just 2 minutes be it in photos (limit of six) or multimedia.

This year I am using my 2-Minute Show to invite folks to Tibet with me. I would love some feedback. Give me your comments below.

We normally start at Billy Bob's at the Fort Worth Stockyards on Thursday night with the students shooting the dancers.

I enjoy seeing my good friend Morris Abernathy each year.

Anke Leuschner enjoys her friend Ashley Veneman

Louis Deluca and Garret Hubbard. This year Garret is a keynote speaker.

Bill Bangham as you can see is a CLOSE personal friend. He has a show hanging in Richmond, Virginia.

Jim Veneman is the driver of the SWPJC Bus. He helps keep us on time.

Louis Deluca, Morris Abernathy and Jim Morris are up to something as always here in the Stockyards.

OK this was the moment I decided I wanted a Nikon P7000. Jim Veneman looked like he had left his cameras at home and then out of no where he pulls this out.

Gary & Vivian Chapman talk with Kevin Vandivier

Garrett Hubbard is just a great guy and loves to help others by reviewing their work at the conference.

This was one of my past slide shows at the conference. I liked it enough to keep it on my website.

You may not be coming to Fort Worth, but take the time to create your 2-Minute Show and see if you can WOW us with your work and tell a story in the process.

Vacation spot?

2012-02-17T12:13:00.000-05:00

Do you want to go here and take a horseback ride? If you do then I succeeded.

Telling stories sometimes is about capturing an essence of the place and creating a mood that triggers the soul of the audience.

I think the best storytellers are those who can take a present moment and capture a nostalgic moment. The moment is so timeless that people are taken to their own memories.

Does this photo trigger memories for you from your summer camps?

I find that many of the memories from our past that we tap into from time to time are not moments of extreme exaggeration with camera angles. The compositions are more simple and straight forward, but yet they are very timeless.

I remember going to camp as a young boy and having fun playing in the pool and as well remembering finding a girl friend. For me this photo triggers those memories. Does it trigger your memories?

Some photos we take can be big picture like the photo of the horses near the lake. Sometimes the photos can be much closer and help bring us into those moments we remember of a horse ride through the woods.

I used a flash to be sure you see the person on horseback. I think her expression captures the relaxation and joy of horseback riding in the woods.

Many times photographers are communicating moments that do not trigger memories, because the audience has never had a similar experience. I believe if the photographer is truly in touch with their emotions when they are photographing and understand how to use light, composition, expressions of subjects and those defining moments they can communicate even to those who have never experienced these moments a desire to want them.

This is truly a snapshot of my daughter when she was 3 years old. That is some 10 years ago. While I know this is mainly a memory jogger for me of my daughter, I know on some level it will connect with many people because they too have made similar photos like this. I think the photo works only because I think you can tell my daughter is connecting with me in the photo. Would I use this photo in a communication package--I don't think so.

You need to start with the snapshot as I did with my daughter. What in this photo makes me like it so much? It is my daughter and it means something on this level for me. I like the expression of Chelle in the photo as well. I think on one level many people would like the photo.

What is missing for me is that she is a little too far away for me in the photo. I wanted to get closer and make it work better. Do I have one showing that I did that, no I don't. I made this photo for me. That is perfectly OK to do even for a professional photographer.

I do make a lot of snapshots for me. These are my nostalgic moments. I have learned they don't connect as well as those photos that have taken a little more thought and time to make.

Are you in touch enough with how you feel about a place to capture it? Good communication photos help your audience connect to a location using visual stimulants that make a moment nostalgic and inviting. Hire a photographer who consistently shows this in their portfolio the next time you want to get folks to come to your event.

Use a secondary light to improve photos

2012-02-16T17:15:00.001-05:00

Great communication products leave you hanging

2012-02-15T07:46:00.000-05:00

“Mommy, why is the sky blue?” is one of the many questions we start out asking our parents.

It is when we are about two we ask a lot of why questions. It really helped us get our bearings and understanding of how the world works.

A few years ago while studying theology in seminary I heard more questions coming from everywhere for the professors. Surprisingly the response to these questions was met by questions.

Over time I started to see that the more you knew about a topic really meant you knew how to ask a better question, rather than you having all the answers.

When you hire a creative to produce something for you, the best creative will ask many questions. One of the core questions should be why are you wanting this product? What do you want to accomplish?

If your creative isn’t asking these questions I am pretty sure you are getting mediocre work at best. What I do know is you are not accomplishing your goals most likely. How do I know, well if the creative doesn’t know the answers to these questions then how can they meet the objectives. Even if you outlined everything perfect for them, the creative will often ask questions even more targeted and helping you refine the product.

I believe the best question asked is the one we all started asking and never gets old—Why?

I believe the question why is the question of the heart and the answer to this is the motivating factor for an audience.

Funny thing about great photos is they ask questions. Yes the best photos have your audience asking questions. Who is that person? The photo was strong enough to make you want to know.

Where is this place? This is what a successful travel photo will do because your audience will want to go there if it is successful.

Great communicator understands that the key to great communications is questions. Answers seldom demand a response from your audience, but a question does require response.

Trust your creative like you do your mechanic

2012-02-11T19:43:00.002-05:00

Keeping the Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech running all these years requires tender care by mechanics. The car has been rebuilt completely a couples times.

If we worked with creative the way we get our cars fixed we probably would be more successful. The key is to find a great mechanic and when you do, you most likely will do everything to keep them--they are hard to find.

You have a problem with your car and you articulate your problem to the service person. They listen and write down the symptoms and let you know they will check on it. How many times do they come back and the problem is caused by something that surprised you.

You may think your transmission needs to be replaced because the gears are just slipping out. They look at it and for about $50 they replace a sensor. Other times you think it is something simple and they find a major problem.

To win races the car has to be pushing all the limits possible. To make this happen a mechanic must know more than the minimum, they must know enough to help think of possibilities to get the most out of the performance of the car.

What often are missing in the creative process are two steps I see every time I have my car serviced. First, I articulate what I think is the problem. Second, they take the car without me over their shoulder and pop the hood and get a good look with computers hooked up to the car for diagnosis and much more sophisticated analysis than I can do.

If we did car repairs like we handle many creative projects we would just tell the mechanic to switch out those spark plugs and then just before they are finished we may say can you go ahead and give me a valve job.

We seldom have that first conversation where we are articulating our problem that needs solving.

We need more people calling us wanting our services. Then the creative knows they need to make the phone ring. However, this often is stated as I want a brochure or I need a website.

After the client and the creative person have the sit down meeting to go over all the issues they need addressed the creative should have time to go away from the client, without distractions and come up with some solutions.

At this point the client can do just like they do with the repair shop. Still get whatever they want, but now they have had the expert give them some of their advice.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Guest Conductor Arild Remmereit and Sergei Krylov, guest violin soloist, answer the questions from middle school orchestra students after the concert. The students are listening to the creative experts and want to learn.

You have probably had someone ask you for something and it is much easier just to give it to them. However, if you ask some questions like what are you trying to accomplish this can help both of you get better results.

The earlier you bring a creative person in on a project the more information they are privy to and this can increase the quality and improve the impact of accomplishing your goal.

Light brings life to a photo

2012-02-10T08:32:00.002-05:00

When you look at portfolios of photographers pay close attention to the subjects eyes.We have heard it said over and over the eyes are the windows to the soul.

I had an earlier post talking about genuine smiles and that the place to see if they were genuine was not the mouth, but rather the eyes. Here is that post.

Professional model Tyra Banks said the mistake with many models is smiling with their mouth and not their eyes.

This is available light. Look at the eyes and how even with a good expression they just don't pop.

Now if the model is doing everything right the photo can still fall apart. Why? You must be able to see someone's eyes to really connect with them. A good photographer will know this and do all they can to be sure your audience is connecting with the subject.

There are many photographers who are not storytellers. They just see your subjects as objects. They may even be really strong graphic images with great color, but the audience is not identifying with the subject.

Here the only difference with the photo above is a fill light was used which helped give a catchlight in the eyes and softened the shadows.

Take the time and look to see if the photos you are being shown have life in the eyes. A “catchlight’ is simply the highlight of a light source reflected off the surface of the eye. This highlight adds depth and dimension to the eye, and gives the eyes life in a portrait or snapshot.

Now not having catchlight is not required and sometimes actually hurts the photo. If you are telling a story and you need the subject to look sinister or like a vampire, be sure not to have catchlight and you will create that negative tension that you want.

As long as you know you are not using catchlights for some reason that is OK, it is when you are not making a conscious decision that you diminish your message without knowing.

While the exposure is OK notice how difficult it is to see the eyes.

There are times when the process of adding a catchlight is not possible. There maybe a technical reason it cannot be done without actually creating other problems. In photography and communications there are often trade-offs.

While it takes more effort to introduce the fill light, notice the black skirt now has some detail as well as the eyes having that catchlight.

After looking at these photos maybe you are now more aware of what to look for when evaluating photos.

These tips are the differences that can take your storytelling to the next level. Not being aware of them and having your audience know the difference can make you look amateurish and we don't won't that do we.

Good exposure as well as a good expression on the subject. Can you see his eyes?

Notice again how the photographer has added a fill light that opened up the face and helps you see the eyes.

Creating a Sights & Sound Package

2012-02-08T09:41:00.000-05:00

When you hire a photographer to cover an event for you, do they ever suprise you with a multimedia package or do they just give you a few images?

You need to hire a photographer that goes beyond what you ask for and gives you surprises. You will most likely need to pay more to the photographer to use a multimedia package, but having a option like this to use on your website is better than just an image alone.

I have discovered that many of the events I cover don't always have a storyline, but putting some images together with some sound from the event is a great way for people to enjoy seeing the images.

It is the packaging and presentation that is what makes the same images a little more enjoyable.

This is one of my favorite images from last night's performance by the Elkins Pointe Middle School 6th, 7th & 8th grade orchestras. Why? Because I think music has a powerful way of joining us together and I think this photo captures the friendships made through music. (Nikon D3s, ISO 5000, f/5.3, 1/100 Nikkor 28-300mm)

I put together a gallery of images for parents and created a DVD to send to the school for them to use in their yearbook. They seem to like this and continue to ask if I will photograph the concerts all the time.

This time another parent, Chuck Huels, was recording the concert with the proper sound gear. I asked if he could send me one song to use with a slide show. I also recorded the music with my shotgun microphone on the Nikon P7000, but didn't get the quality of sound that he attained using multiple microphones.

What really made the difference in the Sights and Sounds package was the quality of the sound recording.

Please click on this to watch the Sights and Sounds multimedia package.

I want you to pay close attention to some of the images. So here I have pulled some out to explain why I shot them and put them into the show.

Before they started to play many of the parents followed my lead and started to take photos of them warming up. Hey this is almost the only way to get a good shot of your child, because once you are sitting down the child maybe on the back row and it is hard to see them. I also wanted to show that when it is important in our society, people show up with their cameras. Next time you are in a situation like this, take photos while they warm up, you can get closer and not be obnoxious as it will be if you did this during the live performance. (Nikon D3s, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/60 Nikkor 28-300mm)

This parent is making a video of the performance on her iPad. I guess she might have even posted it shortly afterwards to her social network. The cool thing about this and smartphones is the immediate ability to connect to others in the world. Maybe she could have even been using FaceTime or Skype to let someone who couldn't get to the performance see it live. I just love how the world is getting flatter and we are more connected. (Nikon D3s, ISO 12,800, f/8, 1/60 Nikkor 28-300mm)

I like this photo because it just gives you context to the venue. Here you can see the 6th Grade orchestra in the foreground and if you look closely you can see the other 7th and 8th grade orchestras in place ready to perform to the left. Three stages really made the performance move along well. Also, the students behaved better when they stayed on stage and just listened to each other perform. (Nikon D3, ISO 4500, f/6.3, 1/100 Nikkor 14-24mm)

This is my daughter Chelle, playing the viola. This is the #1 reason I was there last night. Be sure and see her playing. (Nikon D3s, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/100 Nikkor 28-300mm)

I love to capture the moment where I can show the engagement of a person in an activity. Here the boy is looking to Seth Gamba the conductor for cues. (Nikon D3s, ISO 12,800, f/8, 1/100 Nikkor 28-300mm)

Seth Gamba, the orchestra teacher, took time to explain to the audience of primarily parents and siblings what each piece of music was helping the students learn. Here you can see a sibling and parent trying to do the finger combinations their orchestra student will be doing. (Nikon D3s, ISO 12,800, f/8, 1/80 Nikkor 28-300mm)

This is Seth Gamba being sure everyone is learning about music. I cannot say enough about how excellent of a teacher he is, but winning first place in judging says a lot about his leadership and teaching skills. (Nikon D3s, ISO 9000, f/8, 1/100 Nikkor 28-300mm)

While the pictures and the slide show do not tell a storyline, they do tell about moments that are stories in themselves. When you listen to the music listen for how they play in unison. Listen for how they are all playing in pitch. Stringed instruments are much more difficult to play in tune than say a piano where when you hit the note it is what it is. Your finger can be just a millimeter off and the note is off with stringed instruments.

Questions for you

What do you think of the Sights and Sounds format for presenting images? What do you think you would change?

Tips to produce a package like this

Get the best possible recording you can. The microphone you choose is critical. Surprisingly sometimes depending on the room your smartphone will do just fine. But remember it is sound that drives this more than the images.
Custom white balance. Be sure and set the camera to the room light and not just to a preset. In this case my custom white balance gave me a Kelvin 3150º with +24 magenta on the tint. As you can see this is not close to those preset.
Use high ISO setting. I am fortunate to own a Nikon D3S that lets me shoot at ISO 12,800 but the idea is to get sharp and in focus images. ISO 100 will be making you shoot at very slow shutter speeds and even with a tripod the musicians would be blurry do to them moving. Keep the ISO as high as you can to be sure you have good shutter speed.
Use an appropriate shutter speed. Why didn't I shoot these photos at 1/500 or faster? I was shooting under fluorescent or sodium vapor lights. Not 100% which it was, but under either of these lights the lights are actually flashing and not a constant light as with incandescent lights. Any shutter speed above 1/100 will be prone to color shifts from frame to frame and/or a stripe through the image of a different color. You know it when you see it.
Shoot RAW. While you can save a step by shooting in JPEG if you need to do any post processing to lighten, darken or tweak the color the RAW will give you better results.
Shoot for variety and lots of images. When you put a Sights and Sounds package together, it will most likely be in a 2 minute range. That will require a lot more images than many parents ever typically shoot of their child's concert. Fill in with closeup shots, overall shots and most of all look for "moments."
Software for iPads and iPhones. When you produce something today, be sure it works on all devices. The one I did here will work on many different devices. It also works really well with quality of the image and takes up less bandwidth than a typical video. I want you to enjoy the package and not be waiting on it to download.

I would love to hear your thoughts so please leave your comments below.

Where does your eye go first?

2012-02-06T18:20:00.003-05:00

Turn your photos upside down and this will help you see where your eye goes first. After seeing where your eye goes first, is this where you want you audience to look? Nikon D2Xs, ISO 400, f/7.1, Nikkor 24-120mm

Light values are one of the biggest factors in influencing where someone looks. Nikon D2Xs, ISO 400, f/7.1, Nikkor 24-120mm

Start upside down
One of the ways I was first taught to look at a photo is to turn it upside down. This way you are seeing how the composition and light values of the photo will direct someone to what is important or away.

The light values alone have tremendous affect on the viewer. If you put a black dot on a white paper with nothing else or a white dot on a black piece of paper your eye is drawn to the dot.

With more stuff on the paper the principle is still the same the contrast of the light value to the rest of the scene will draw you to a spot.

Now that you know this you should then be able to help create a photo that directs the viewer just based on light values to the subject.

The ceiling helps to add some graphic qualities to the photo. Nikon D3, ISO 400, f/7.1, Nikkor 24-120mm

Graphics

Sign manufactures have used big arrows to direct you to a store location. You could use a huge arrow to show people where to look, or you can use this same principle in a more subtle way to direct the viewer.

Leading lines and perspective can help pull you into a photo and give the photo some depth.

While straight lines hit you over the head directing your eye the S-curve is a classic way to draw a viewer eye. One of the most common uses in scenic photo is the river winding through a scene.

Framing

Here I am using the tree and the people in the shadows as framing at The Citadel. Nikon D3S, ISO 200, 1/1250, Nikkor 24-120mm

While a photo might look good in different frames you can buy at a frame shop you can also use elements in a photo to help frame the photo. This framing helps often create a sense of depth to a photo and not just border like a physical frame. Looking through a doorway to the subject in a room helps create some context.

Using the flowers to fill in what could be an empty space. Nikon D3, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/5000 Nikkor 14-24mm

Flowers in the foreground and the subject like a house in the background help fill what would often be dead space in the photo.

Hey there’s more

While your eye may go to the young man first setting the table and it is telling a story, your eye most likely will drift to the woman at the stove cooking and then to the people in the back room. If I did it right then your eye will drift around looking at the smaller details because I got your eye moving and once it is it will explore. Nikon D3S ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/40, Nikkor 14-24mm

You can make a nice composed photo of a subject and do a great job of creating a pleasing photo of the subject. You can also make a photo that is more storytelling and not just a pretty picture. These are photos that you may be drawn immediately to the main subject, but your eye continues to be moved around the scene and in so doing you are learning more and more about the story.

Some photographers have you looking only at the subject and not much more. The seasoned story teller will have you looking all around and absorbed into the content.

Multi-layered compositions take time and really help tell the story in its context much more. It also is more entertaining, but requires the time for the audience to absorb. Photos like this need a longer pause in the slide show or video. Sometimes in magazine story spread you let them run over two pages to let the audience see all the action going on. Nikon D3S ISO 5600, f/5.6, 1/250 Nikkor 14-24mm

Some things to look for in a photographers portfolio before you hire them

2012-02-05T14:42:00.002-05:00

When you are looking to hire a photographer there are a few things I recommend to look for in the work they show you. If you pay attention to these little things then your storytelling will improve.

Exposure

When you look from photo to photo is there a consistency in the exposure? Amateur photographers often have inconsistent exposure values.

Skin Tones

When you look at the subjects does the skin tone look the right color and exposure? How often are you seeing photos that were shot under fluorescent lights having a green tint to the skin tones. If they have good skin tones on the main subject but the background is green this might be due to using their on camera flash.

Another color shift in skin tones is orange from shooting under tungsten lights. Again if they used their on camera flash the skin tone might look OK and the background is orange.

If the photos are outside and the subjects are under trees, is the skin tone natural or green cast. The leaves on the trees are filtering the light and giving it a green tinge.

Where does your eye go first?

When you look at the photo quickly, where do you look first? Is it at the subject or is there something distracting in the background or off to the side. Many photographers are just not able to understand how the photograph is about front to back and not just the subject. Good composition will have your eye going first to the subject and then if they do a great job it will want to wonder around at all the subtle complementary areas that give more context to the photograph.

Light value on faces

Can you easily see the people's faces in the photos? It is much easier to just point a camera and shoot existing light. Some photographers will even talk about how it makes it real. Great photographers can shoot using often just available light, but the light on the face has to be right.

Here it is much easier to see the Fencer's face due to the style of helmet used here.

While normally it is difficult to see a fencer's face, I chose to make it show up by lighting them in a special way.

Can you see how the face helps bring more life to the photo?

When you are trying to sell something you need to be sure the faces are the best they can be and looking natural as possible. Skilled photographers know how to introduce light on faces so it looks natural, but most important the person's face is not in a shadow and difficult to see.

Catchlights in the eyes

Often the difference in a good and great portrait is just a catchlight. A catchlight is a photographic term used to describe light reflected in the subject's eyes. The lack of a catchlight, even in an animal's picture, can make the subject seem comatose.

Catch light in action photos is just as appealing as in a portrait.

Not only is there a small catchlight in the subject's eyes I have picked a somewhat neutral background for the photo. This was shot at the same time as the tennis shot above. We wanted to show how a gym helps local business people. So we needed in the gym and them in their other environment. For time reasons we shot them just at the tennis court with a change of clothes.

Without a catch light you can look a little more sinister.

For the most part a catchlight will add more life to the person than without it. Not having a catchlight can help communicate as well. The point isn't they need to be in every photo, but you need to be aware if you never see them in the photographers work.

Series

When the photographer shows you some photos do you see a series? You really need to have overall, medium and some closeup shots sometimes for visual storytelling. Your designers want to have some graphics for a background or things to compliment the layout of the webpage, printed piece or to use in a series in a multimedia package for the web.

Citadel Cadet prepares the Sparkling Cider for the seniors who are now getting their rings.

I chose to add a little variety shot here to show it waiting for the seniors.

The seniors all run in under the sword arch after getting their rings into the quad.

All the seniors grab a glass and toast their success of making it this far at The Citadel.

After toasting they all toss their glasses at their company's letter. Here they are all in Bravo and smash the glasses on the B.

I just like how I caught the glass just before being smashed.

Without the other photos this doesn't make sense, but in the series it helps to tell the story.

Variety

Do all the photos look like the photographer took them from the same perspective? It is amazing how many photographers shoot everything at their standing height or even a similar distance to the subject. They may use their zoom lens to get closer, but they never get close to the subject.

Giving out door prizes at a college alumni event.

Same alumni event but now the audience is listening to the development office talk about the future of the institution. The variety is not just in closeup and far away, but in the tone of the moment as well.

You should feel like your photographer has some visual surprises and give you some safe as well as some on the edge compositions.

Focus and sharpness

I hate to even have to mention this, but many photographers just do not have razor sharp photos. This does not mean that everything is in focus, but rather whatever place that is suppose to be in focus is and is extremely sharp. Many photographers have camera shake and the photos just are not tack sharp.

Moments

Family enjoys working out at the gym together.

This is where many elements come together to help make the moment, but you have to catch all the subjects in the "moment" which is often their face expression as well as they are all in step together.

You will find many technically proficient photographers who meet most everything I have mentioned up to now and still after looking at the photo you are not moved emotionally. Great storytellers will have moments that bring joy to your heart or maybe even sadness.

What will be apparent is that you felt something when looking at the photos.

The photo makes you ask questions

If your photographer does a great job you will want to know more about the photos. However, the photographer should be waiting for you to ask questions more than jumping in to tell you everything. The photos should for the most part do the communicating.

I can see the cool angle and what they are doing, but I want to know why and who are they doing it for. This photo causes me to want to read the caption. By the way it is a middle school group helping widows with repairs on their houses during the summer.

Pass the Pen + Walk and Talk

2012-02-05T01:09:00.001-05:00

Getting people doing something gives you better expressions. I have two techniques for keeping people engaged when I have to set up a situation and then help it to become a real moment.

Pass the Pen

Many schools love to show the seminar setting for a class. When you photograph in a room with everyone around the table Murphy's Law states the action will be when their back are to you if you are photographing.

I have a few moments with everyone and explain my dilema. If I shot this naturally it will take ten times longer due to I am on the wrong side of the table when someone starts to talk. By the time I shift then the conversation has shifted.

I ask everyone to listen with their eyes and not just with their ears. This really speeds up the number of usable images.

Typical conference table for a seminar class.

I then ask to borrow a pen and then give it to someone and tell everyone this person will talk. I ask them to tell us what they did the other day or what they are planning to do that is exciting. No one can interrupt them and they need to continue to talk until I say pass the pen.

Even if you do not see the pen the person holds the attention of the group and lets me get the photos catching their various expressions. Usually we get some laughs and good stories in the process.

Even in small groups I use the pen to help the subjects relax.

This teacher used a similar technique for classroom discussions. He had a ball of tape that he would toss to a student who raised their hand to answer a question. He tossed it to the student and when they were done they tossed it back to him. He was quite impressive with his tosses and catches.

You can see as this student tosses the ball back he is engaged in the class.

Walk and Talk

When you get people walking and talking they forget about you and engage quickly. If it is just 2 people I have them walk close enough to feel each other bump occasionally. I have one person talk and the other listen. I stress the importance of looking at each other and not the ground. It is amazing when people are in a normal conversation they might look at the ground or off somewhere rather than looking at a person. However, for a photo to communicate they are interested in each other they must have eye contact.

Again in the group situation I designate who is talking and ask everyone to give them their eye attention and not just their ears. Off to the left my assistant is walking along with them out of camera range pointing a flash to them. I normally use the Nikon SB900 with the Radio Poppers PX system to be sure the signal from the Nikon SU800 triggers the flash consistently. The flash is zoomed out to about 28 setting to light the entire group.

Here you can see the tour guide helping tell the student about the campus. Now for this photo I am using a Pocket Wizard Plus II to trigger the Alien Bees B1600 being fired off to the right of the group. They are walking towards me as my VALS (Voice Activated Light Stand: AKA assistant) is carrying the light on a light stand and staying with the group out of the frame.

The couple is walking and talking to each other a good 50 yards from me. I like using the zoom lens so as they walk closer I just zoom out. My VALS is carrying the Nikon SB900 with the Radio Poppers PX system being triggered by the Nikon SU800 on the camera. I am shooting with the flash at normal setting and zoomed to 200.

The flash off camera really helps clean up the photo. Often you will have a shadow on one or more of the people. The other advantage of the flash winking in is it helps draw the audiences attention to the subjects.

Helping keep the dark skin tones with detail is really improved outside with the off camera flash. I can power the flash up or down on the Nikon SU800. Sometimes I make it +1 or -1 as compared to the exposure of the camera. Only takes a second to look at the histogram and the LCD and see what might need adjusting. By shooting RAW I still have lots of control in post processing, but being sure shadows have detail is really important when the dark areas can be the subjects face in a photo like this one here.

Take notice that we have details in the white shirt and the dark skin of the subjects in the photo. This is will work in a printed piece easily. Remember I have one person talking and the others listening with their eyes.

TTL hot shoe Flash vs Manual Studio Strobe

As your VALS is walking along with the Nikon SB900 as they vary their distance from the subject the camera still compensates being sure the power stays the same. Of course the assistant has to remain pretty close with a hotshoe flash like the Nikon SB900 because it is not powerful enough to be much more than 10 to 15 feet away.

Now when you VALS is carrying a studio flash that means as they change the distance to the subject the exposure will change. As they get closer the flash will get brighter and when they move away it will get darker. However, with a studio strobe they can stay further away, since the strobes are much more powerful than a hot shoe flash. I seldom am shooting with my Alienbees B1600 much more than 1/4 power. I am usually at 1/8 power. I do like to use a grid spot so I am not lighting up the ground leading up to the subjects. I like to hit the faces and let it drop off a little.

How I am marketing our Tibet Workshop

2012-02-03T16:45:00.002-05:00

How do you break through all the information bombarding folks today? Maybe a little old school can work.

Front of 4x6 Postcard

Back of 4x6 Postcard

I have used postcards for promotion for years. When I started I just had 1 photo on the cover and just my return address on the back.

Today I put photos on the back. This started because my friend Tony Messano, creative director, pointed out that everyone has at least one good photo. By putting more photos on the back helps communicate you are not just a one shot wonder.

Just the other day I was on Facebook and saw this cartoon being shared over and over.

I think if you were like me you were laughing.

I have found that for a while email blasts were more effective until they became viewed as spam. Now the difference is that the email is being intercepted more and more by filters. This is for legitimate correspondence.

I am finding you need to find some resources to help you with your marketing.

www.PPRPix.com

Meet my friend Pete Casabonne, manager of www.PPRPix.com has been my go to guy for film processing, prints, books and other things that I need to turn my photos into for my clients.

Pete's new startup PPRPix.com is a very nimble operation. He has a printer that takes the days orders and prints most everything from 4x6 prints to 20 x 30 prints. In the older style labs you had to convert a machine to do each size. The only thing they do that requires them to stop and make adjustments is to change the type of paper.

PPRPix does much more than prints. I just tested today having them handle my postcards. There specialty is helping the person who has small runs. They set this up with 4x6 postcards for example at $14.16 for 24 printed 4 color on front and back of the post card.

Once you get into large runs of 5,000 or more postcards the prices start to standardize in the industry, but it is the short runs that have been out of the reach of many.

Carlton Williams cuts the postcards to size using a computer automated machine.

What is important for marketing is not to do just one thing, but to approach potential customers in many different ways.

This was exciting for me because this was the first time I had ever since a press run on my postcards.

I am working with Pete just like I have always done. Pete is someone that tells me of new products and price points that make them very appealing. Then I not only think of how to use these to promote my business, but I also bring my clients to PPRPix.com to help them promote using my work for their business.

We have done large prints for many years for clients to put up in their buildings. Pete introduced me to self book publishing. Now Pete showed me today an very cool new book design.

I think I am going to work with Pete on the book in the next month and then blog more about that process later.

What you need to do as far as marketing

You need to have many different ways to present your work. Here are some I recommend:

Large Prints (give your present clients large prints to hang on their walls)
Self Published Books. You can have multiple books published for very little because you only need a few to show people.
Postcards
email Newsletters
Blogging
Phone Calls
Networking events

Can you find your photos? I can and here's how

2012-02-01T16:28:00.000-05:00

Finding a photograph is more important than making a photograph. Why? Because putting your hands on photos when you need them is how you make money.

Now where did I put that?

Years ago when you bought the Nikon scanner a software came with the scanner called Image Access. This was 1993 when I was introduced to what would later become Cumulus.

Today the company that produces this image database software is Canto. I now own the Cumulus Single User 8.5 version that sells for $399. It works on PC as well as the Mac.

This software is like buying PhotoShop or Adobe Premier products. This will do 100 times more stuff than you will probably every use it for, but the good thing is it is a scalable software. You can buy versions that are multi-user and web based if you like. But starting small with something that can grow is important for me.

I want to revisit my workflow and more specifically the text that is embedded into each photo. This is called the metadata.

Adobe's Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) is a labeling technology that allows you to embed data about a file, known as metadata, into the file itself. With XMP, desktop applications and back-end publishing systems gain a common method for capturing, sharing, and leveraging this valuable metadata — opening the door for more efficient job processing, workflow automation, and rights management, among many other possibilities.

The IPTC fields are integrated into the XMP fields which also capture all the settings from the camera like f/stop, shutter speed and more.

Searchable

The key point to all this is that each of these fields is searchable on computers. If you have a photo with information in those fields and on a PC or Mac you do a search of your computer it will find that information. However without some software like PhotoShop or database software like Cumulus you cannot read all that information.

If you do not put text into the metadata you will not be able to search for them.

I print a label on a DVD and then put all the images from a shoot on it.

After burning a disc with all the images I launch Cumulus on my Mac.

Launch Cumulus

Ingest the DVD Disc of Images. You can easily ingest from hard drives. My thought is I just want to know where one of the copies is and I don't want to have everything live. I can search later for an image and it will say what disc it is on and the disc naming I use is based on date and is easy to find that disc.

If the Disc is corrupt I then can find it on other Disc or Hard Drive backups.

Cumulus looks like this for me. You can customize it to have many different looks, but you get the idea there is a thumbnail view as well as you can read the text.

When I ingest the disc this comes up. I have set the preferences to always show me High Quality Thumbnails as the first choice. The point is you can change it up if you like. I like to see a good thumbnail when I search for an image. Once I can see a bunch of thumbnails I can narrow down the search to those I want the high res file.

After the photos are ingested I remove the Disc.

I put the Disc into a binder.

The binder goes on a shelf in chronological order.

In general I am all done at this point. You can read about those steps here.

The phone call or email

Stanley do you have a copy of the Disc that you made for us? Or I get a specific request, do you have a photo of President George Bush?

I go to Cumulus and do a search.

As you can see here is the search for George Bush.

The last field here "Asset Reference" is the name of the Disc followed by the name of the folder on the disc. 031003 tells me it was shot October 3, 2003. I go to that disc and put it in and can then click on the image thumbnail and bring up the high res file. I can then email it full size or re-size it. I can then put it in a folder or create a new Disc to send to a client.

Once I had Sports Illustrated asking for a specific player that played at Georgia Tech. I had at the time one of the largest collection of images. Within minutes I was able to find the headshots and action photos of the player. Since I had thumbnails I narrowed down my pick and within 30 minutes of the request I had 10 images to them for consideration.

Find it: Make Money

There are other solutions like Filemaker Pro or Extensis Portfolio. The point of all this is if you cannot find it you cannot make money with it.

Ambient Light and Flash Combined

2012-01-30T20:07:00.000-05:00

Hey Stanley, can you back up and explain this Ambient Light and under 3 stops thing you mentioned in that last post?

Available Light only (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/40, 28-300mm)

I had a few people write to me asking similar questions. So, let's delve into this subject of ambient light and under or over exposing with a flash.

Without a flash point the camera at the subject. I have my camera set for Matrix Metering, Aperture Priority and this gives me a reading of f/3.5 with 1/10 shutter speed and ISO 200. FYI this is not what the setting was in the above photo, this just shows you where to find the reading on the camera.

Step One: Get An Ambient Reading

You need a starting place to be your base exposure. Everything else will relate to this exposure. I took a picture of the top of my Nikon D3S with a 28-300mm Nikkor lens. I just pointed across the room for this example. With ISO 200 I have a f/3.5 aperture at 1/10 shutter speed. This is my Ambient Reading with no flash.

Step Two: Use your Nikon SB900

You can use whatever hotshoe flash for your manufacturer you have, but it must be a TTL flash or this will not work as easily.

Step Three: Slow or Rear Curtain Sync

You need to set your flash setting as I have done in the above photo to Slow or Rear Curtain Sync. This tells the flash and the camera that please use the Ambient setting on the camera and then add the flash to the exposure without over exposing the photo.

Fill Flash normal setting (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/20, 28-300mm)

Take a photo with this setting as I did in the photo above here. This will basically light everything up. I am bouncing my flash with the diffusion dome on the flash for this photo. It is still getting light from the window, but the flash is filling in everything thing closest to the camera. The background is brighter, but since it is further from the flash it is not as bright as the statue.

Step Four: Adjust the flash power under 3 stops

The reason I choose to go 3 stops under is this is as low as I can go in TTL mode and the camera figuring it all out for me.

On the Nikon SB900 you push the button in the far upper left and it will cycle all the way through under and over exposures. Stop on the -3.0 EV. EV stands for Exposure Value.

With the camera not changing the setting and then telling the flash to underexpose by -3.0 stops you get the results here.

Fill Flash set -3.0 (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/30, 28-300mm)

You can also adjust the camera exposure and the flash exposure and get even more results.

Silhouette

Reveal

Silhouette and Reveal

Again I must give credit to Dave Black for coining this terminology. I have been doing this for years, but loved how he made this sound very artistic, by using a french word it really sounds artistic.

Here is how you do this photo.

Step One: Take a normal ambient reading

Very similar to the above example. Everything will look normal.

Step Two: Underexpose the photo by 2 or three stops

On the Nikon D3S the button to the right of the shutter you depress which lets you stay in Auto setting like Aperture Mode and underexpose or overexpose an image.

When you depress it should look like this if you have never done it before. If you see something else, this maybe why your photos are under or overexposed.

With it depressed turn the wheel on the back of the camera. Here it is at -1 stop. I would shoot -1 stop, one at -2 stops and even -3 stops and pick the one that the subject is best silhouetted.

Step Three: Set flash setting to just the opposite + stops

If you picked three stops under then you are going to set your flash to three stops over. You see now where the flash hits the subject will give you a perfect exposure.

[-3] + [+3] = 0

For the photo above I had the Nikon SB900 off the camera being fired by the SU800 on my camera.

Nikon SU800 triggers your SB900 off camera using infrared signal. Here you can control up to 3 different settings of multiple flashes. Here if I had three flashes and each one of them setup to work on A, B or C then I can control them from the camera individually. For the above example I used a SB900 and SB800 both going off with +3 Flash setting as compared to the -3 on the camera setting. It doesn't matter if I had 100 flashes the camera will only let them fire all together only +3 stops. I love this technology.

Silhouette

Reveal

12,800 ISO noise looks different with flash

2012-01-29T17:31:00.000-05:00

Dave Black was speaking at a seminar about using his Nikon Speedlight SB900 flashes instead of his Studio heads to light a basketball court and an ice rink.

I was on the edge of my seat absorbing what he was talking about. I didn't go out and buy more SB900 flashes and use them instead of my strobes for one reason, clients were not paying for sports coverage as in years past.

But what I was listening to was some of the reasons it was working for Dave Black.

First, by just having his strobes just a little over ambient light level he was able to get better color and avoid the problem with sodium vapor lights. Dynamic range under flash is the greatest light spectrum. Dave Black was shooting his flash just enough over the ambient to affect the color and help shift it to the 5000º Kelvin range.

Sodium vapor lights flicker and when you are shooting above 1/100 shutter speed you can get color shifts to all or just a band through a photo.

Another thing of shooting with the Nikon Speedlights was the ability to shoot at just about any shutter speed. So in ice hockey Dave was able to freeze the puck by shooting at 1/2000. The basketball was sharper as well for his basketball.

Available Light only (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/40, 28-300mm)

I began to experiment with using strobes with high ISO since then and found some things that it benefits other than just for sports.

I shot here the same photo three different ways. I have the statue lit by window light. I shot it with nothing but the window light and any bounce back fill is just from the room. I shot it at ISO 12,800.

As you can see the highlights look good and it is in the shadows that you will notice more noise.

Fill Flash set -3.0 (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/30, 28-300mm)

By putting my SB900 with the dome on the camera and just bounce flashing I was able to get a little different results. I underexposed the flash by -3 stops. I did this by adjusting the setting on the back of the flash.

As you can see the shadows are now not totally black as in the first photo.

Then I shot also one more photo with the flash at a normal setting which gave me a lot more light. This wipes out the shadow detail completely. However, since I am using it in rear sync mode it was still complementing the window light and not over powering it.

Fill Flash normal setting (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/20, 28-300mm)

You really need to zoom in to see some of the noise issues with each photo.The place the noise shows up the most is in the green in the background. You can see a lot of noise the more it is in the shadow.

Available Light only (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/40, 28-300mm)

Fill Flash set -3.0 (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/30, 28-300mm)

As you add more fill light (-3 stops) the noise diminishes a great deal.

Fill Flash normal setting (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/20, 28-300mm)

What I noticed is when you add Nikon Speedlights to high ISO photos like these shot at 12,800 ISO noise diminishes.

Less Flash output at High ISO

When you raise the ISO setting on your camera, every stop you raise it the flash only needs to put out half as much light as it did. If you leave a Nikon D3S on auto ISO and the lowest ISO is 200, then the minute you put on your flash and turn it on the ISO will drop to 200.

You will need to manually set your ISO to the high ISO you desire. Here I chose ISO 12,800.

The amount of light needed by the flash to put out at this setting is 7 stops less than at 200. This also means your flash can increase it's distance of throw by 7 times as well. This means if your flash only would work at 10 feet at f/4 and ISO 200 you can now get f/4 at 640 feet away at ISO 12,800.

Color Temperature affects noise

I have found from my experience that whenever you shoot with flash you have the greatest dynamic range. Therefore the noise is less with flash than say incandescent, fluorescent or sodium vapor light.

Slow and Rear Shutter setting

On the Nikon system, when you have the flash balance with the existing light then the flash only needs to do a little work, because it is complementing the light not being the primary light.

Why do I shoot with Nikon?

The Canon speedlight system is similar to the Nikon TTL Speedlight system. You can use Slow and Rear Shutter settings, BUT the higher you go with the shutter speed the flash gets darker and not as consistent as the Nikon system.

My point is if you want to shoot with shutter speeds of 1/8000 with your speedlights, then you better have the Nikon.

Attaining good skin tones with digital cameras

2012-01-27T16:05:00.001-05:00

Sepia Tone filter

Bleach Bypass filter

Aged Photo filter

Auto Color with camera.

The color of a photograph can take you back in time, create a mood, or make your work look amateurish.

Instagram

Instagram, in an homage to both the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, confines photos into a square shape. It lets you apply a filter and combined with edge effects and the square format can make a photo taken today look like a nostalgia piece. You can make it look like the 1920s, 1950s, or 1970s. The reason for the transformation in time is the photo triggers memories for those who lived during this time or for those people who have found a shoebox or old family albums and looked through the photos.

On the other end of creating a mood is the amateur look. This is where you have color caste to your photos. If under fluorescent light they may look green. While inside with incandescent lights you have an orange effect.

If you mix flash with the available light you may have proper light on the objects closest to the camera and then the background has a color shift.

How do you know if your color is off?

Macbeth color chart

You can see each square can then be checked to match the known numbers.

There are a few ways to know if your color is off. You can take a picture using the Macbeth Color Checker Chart as I did in the photo above. Then you can use the densitometer built into PhotoShop or Lightroom to compare each color patch the numbers for RGB.

Skin Tone: The telling sign of good color

The first giveaway to the human eye that the color is off will most likely be skin tone. Look at these photos here. I let the camera figure it out for the first one, which is acceptable on Auto White Balance. Look at the ones following.

Temp 5100, Tint +14, Camera setting Auto White Balance

Temp 4950, Tint +12, Camera setting Sunny White Balance

Temp 3100, Tint +10, Camera setting Incandescent White Balance

Temp 4700, Tint +75, Camera setting Fluorescent 1 White Balance

Temp 7250, Tint +29 Camera setting Fluorescent 2 White Balance

Temp 5250, Tint +22 Camera setting Custom White Balance off the coffee cup top

There are times when a person is surrounded by a dominate color, like a red wall. This will tell your camera that you are seeing in red light and will try an compensate giving your subject a cyan tone to their face.

I have done photo shoots where I used strobes and still needed to do a custom white balance because the ceiling, floor or walls were all creating a color cast that made the skins tones not look correct.

Skin Tone Swatch

You can find online skin tone swatches that you can compare a person's skin to an approximate ethnicity color swatch. The RGB value for caucasian skin is: R:239, G:208, B:207. Now the numbers may be darker or lighter do the the light on the skin, but the numbers will generally go up and down uniformly.

Here is a link to the Curvemeister website showing you how to use the skin swatch system to see if you are close for the right white balance in a photograph.

My recommendation is to shoot RAW but in every situation always get a custom white balance.

My favorite way for getting a custom white balance is using my ExpoDisc.

ExposDisc goes in front of the lens and then you use it to get an incident reading rather than a reflective reading of the light.

Notice the direction of the light hitting the subject. You move to the same position to get the light reading below.

Point the camera toward the direction of the light that is falling on the subject.

I have found if the subject is facing me and the light is from the side, I face the camera with the ExpoDisc on it so it is pointing towards the camera position. The chart above is to help you understand the concept, but you can modify it.

One way you can modify it is as long as the light is the same where you are standing, then you could cheat and take a reading from where you are. The problem that can arise is if they are lit by Window light and the camera position is in the shade then your color balance will be off if you do not take it from the subject's perspective.

Use the wrong color sometimes

Yes, I just said to not use the proper color sometimes.

Night scene

Most all Hollywood movies that show night time scenes are often shot during daytime. How do they achieve that look? Set the camera to incandescent which will give you a blue cast making everything look like it is lit by moon light. Next underexpose the scene. I find this is where a spotlight on the subject and underexposing the rest of the scene can help you set the mood for a night scene.

High Tech Look

If you have daylight in the scene and you light the subject with bright incandescent light and set the camera to incandescent then the subject with be the correct skin color and the area lit by daylight will be blue.

Under florescent lights if you have the camera set to incandescent they will turn blue as well, just a different blue than with daylight. If you light the subject with incandescent you get that blue affect.

CSI Miami uses the technique of letting the fluorescent light go blue by lighting the cast with incandescent and setting the camera to white balance for the incandescent. This way everything lit by the fluorescent goes blue while skin tones look natural.

Sunset

You can fake a sunset by putting a CTO filter over the camera lens making the scene look orange. Then you can use a flash and put a CTB filter over the flash which puts out a blue light. The subject looks correct with the skin tones but the rest of the scene is orange like a sunset.

Amateur Look

When you are not sure what you are going for and you just let the camera do it all, this is the surest way to have the color of your photos announce you are an amateur. Want to take your game up to the next level, learn how to get correct skin tones and when to go for an effect.

Why so many photographers choose to
shoot Black and White

One of the biggest signs for pros who don't know how to get good skin tones is to go to black and white. This is the easiest way to eliminate the sign they are still an amateur when it comes to color balance.

This is why I think so many wedding photographers shoot black and white. I think they are not using it so much for an effect or creating a mood, but they don't know how to get the color correct. Most likely they shot everything in JPEG and if you are off with the color in JPEG correcting it in post production is very difficult as compared to working with a RAW image.

Burned once not twice

2012-01-26T11:30:00.001-05:00

LSU #7 burns the UNC defense in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game.

LSU's #7 burned the defense of UNC a few times that day and that is why they defeated UNC.

Editorial Note: This is written to help photographers and I hope this helps you to learn from something I do when I am in a difficult situation.

I have just been burned again by a client. It happens and will probably happen again. I am writing about this because I have watched not just other photographers screw up in these situations, but I have as well.

Why?

In this business I have come to see that even with using solid business practices and doing everything right you can still get burned. The reason is simple you can be right and exercise that right only to burn yourself.

Micah Solomon's blog today talks about "Digging in your heels… to destroy the customer experience." I have stood up for certain principles in the past and was right and the customer was wrong. I lost some of those customers. You need to be very careful when you decide to dig in your heels.

There are times when you must think strategically. Where do you want to go in your life? How will you grow your business if you are always right?

Just like the football game photos, if you get burned once you can still win the game, get burned too many times and you loose.

My latest experience

I have a couple of agencies that call me for work. The way this works is they get a cut of the gross, because they booked the job and found the client.

The agency was courting a new client. They contacted me before they had a signed contract to see my availability.

They then sent me a terms and conditions document that outlined the Usage Rights last Friday. I agreed to these terms.

I get the contact names and time they are available Tuesday afternoon. I then shoot the assignment Wednesday morning and transmit the images on Wednesday late afternoon to my agency.

Within a few minutes of the images transfering to New York I send an email letting them know everything is there, the photos and model releases. I get this email:

hi Stanley,

You are great !!! made us look good.. here..:) I finally landed this corporate account, hoping she would give us more work, they just want to try us out to see how we do regarding our services, good photographers and professional.. !!! she is talking about a potential another round of 4 or 5, finger crossed

Re: Rights
The client couldn't do __________. . .

There was a change in the agreement after the images were delivered. I was furious and steaming mad. I had to get up from my desk and take a walk outside. I knew from past experiences like this I needed to calm down and really think this through before formulating a response, which was needed.

I let her know that the rights change needed to normally be compensated and was very disappointed. Then she responded to my email:

You are right.. this was just came to me last night before we signed the contract, we did not sign it as of yesterday, so either I pulled the plug or take the job..

Going forward with this client.. this is the rights !

I can and still have the right to say they cannot use the photos, because this is not what I agreed to as the terms.

My choices and possible outcomes

I have the right to say they can not use the photos. The terms and conditions that I agreed to are still in place, but if they are not going to live up to them, then I can refuse the use of the images for their purposes.

I can say nothing and just take the deal. For many struggling photographers this is where they are often caught. They have bills to pay and don't have much room to turn down any offer--at least that is what they think.

Phone call

Robin Nelson

I picked up the phone and called my good friend Robin Nelson who is also a very talented photographer. Both of us do work for similar clients and when I am booked and someone calls for an assignment, Robin is one of the names I give to my clients.

Robin and I need each other as sounding boards. I think without someone like Robin that I can call and helps me think through the scenarios I would have screwed up even more relationships with clients than I have ever done.

This is why it is so important for photographers to join organization like American Society of Media Photographers. This is where you find colleagues who can be your sounding board and you can be theirs.

When you are called by a photographer you will soon realize you have an ability to see the solutions that when you are the one in the quandary cannot see. The reason is you have nothing usually at stake and you are not emotionally involved.

Who is to blame here?

The client isn't the real problem here it is the agency where the ball was dropped. They had time to communicate to the photographer.

This is important to understand what relationship is at stake here. The agency needs two thing to survive. They need clients and they need photographers to do the work.

I have lived long enough to now understand how negotiations take place. I have accepted terms and conditions that I normally wouldn't do because I just had a car repair I didn't expect or an unexpected medical expense.

I talked with the agency and wanted to be sure they understood I was quite upset with the change in the terms. I also let this one go because I want an ongoing relationship with the agency.

Perfection wanted--Mercy needed

The agency hires me and expects me to deliver every time, which I do for them. However, I have had cameras fail me in the past.

I had a Hasselblad camera screw up a photo shoot in the days of film. The lens had been left in a car and got so hot that the oil that lubricates the lens became like a liquid and flowed onto the aperture blades and made them stick. All of my photos using studio strobes were over exposed.

It was some portraits that we had to reschedule and shoot again, but it wasn't a pleasant experience.

Friends of mine have shot weddings and the film was dropped off on a Monday at the post office to be delivered to the lab. The semi truck of a lot of photographers weddings was on it's way to the lab that week and caught fire. Hundreds of weddings were lost that week.

Thank goodness for digital both of those scenarios can't happen now, but other things can go wrong.

If you want some mercy extended to you in the future you too need to be careful as to how you deal with forgiveness yourself.

The agency apologized and while I still am disappointed I am able to move on with my life.

"Burn me once shame on you, burn me twice shame on me" is what my good friend Tony Messano reminded me a few years ago. He too gets burned by clients. There is a certain amount of trust that you have to have in a business relationship. Tony said I will take a risk once, but not twice.

Next Time

I will have it understood that I will not allow changes in our terms without compensation. If it happens a second time and I do not take actions then I will be communicating that I can be bought at any price.

I do not believe I have sold out by letting my agency slide on this one, but if I continue to let this same behavior continue then I am a fool.

When it happens again, you will be better prepared. Football teams watch game footage of the teams they will play so they will have seen most of the plays before. It is one thing to be beaten by a new play and another thing to loose by something you have seen before.

Got to be flexible

While you can try and run your business by a set of rules, everything is not so black and white. When you are flexible you are communicating your willingness to work with someone. You are taking into account the situation and not selling out, but trying to make things work.

I hope by sharing this with you that you are now aware that negotiating is an art and not a science. You have to use your heart, mind and as I do often a community of other creatives to be my sounding board.

Roasting Coffee and Multimedia have a lot in common

2012-01-24T12:45:00.000-05:00

This is Arabica coffee on the plant just before it is picked. The pickers go through the plant picking the red berries leaving the green for later. (Nikon D3S, ISO 8000, f/8, 1/400, 28-300mm)

I went to Mexico last year to cover the coffee growers and help them tell their story. The story was to talk about how they were able to turn around the industry in their communities. Prior to Café Justo (the Coffee Cooperative group) being formed the coffee growers were going North to cross the border to look for work so they could feed their families.

Photographers I think are struggling like the coffee growers when they were not roasting their coffee but selling to intermediaries who then sold to the roasters. They were struggling.

Photographers I think are going through a similar opportunity when it comes to multimedia. I define multimedia as combining still images with audio and/or video. In the old days we had slide shows where multiple projects were being synced for conferences and workshops. With the web today the world is your audience so you no longer are restricting the audience as we did in the past.

This is the Arabica Coffee in the bushell before it has the outer shell stripped off. (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/125, 28-300mm)

The coffee growers of Just Coffee cooperative were exploited by the coyotes before they formed. They were being paid $35 a sack. Once they formed they paid themselves $130 a sack and today they pay themselves $160 that is $1.60 per pound.

You see he who roasts the coffee makes the money. The cooperative bought a roaster and due to this expense they went from only 20% of the total price that went to the farmer to 100%. Watch the video below to understand their story.

Photographers are similar in that who publishes a story is where the money rests. When photographers are putting together the complete package they can increase their income dramatically just like the coffee farmer. Multimedia is the roasting process for the journalist.

When I started putting these packages together is when I truly started to feel like a visual journalist. I no longer was handing over raw material. When you do the interviews and put the whole package together you really feel like you are telling the story on a whole different level than just producing the elements for a story.

While the learning curve is quite steep the rewards are even greater. As you start to produce packages it will influence how you shoot and make you a better photographer.

Becoming a producer made me a better photographer

You learn to shoot more. You realize you need more images to tell a story than you needed for a print piece. You need transition shots, details and sometimes more variety to help move the story visually while the audio is laying the foundation.

You listen more. For the most part it is the audio that drives the story and not the visual. You learn how important a good quote is from a person.

You ask better questions. When you realize you need good audio for the story you start to ask questions and when editing realize what you would change. This changes the next time you interview someone. You are more present and forming the story much earlier in the process.

You are aware of verticals and horizontals more. When you have a rectangle screen to fill you don't want to waste that space with nothing, so you learn to shoot even more horizontals. Since most of my material is also going to print, I still need good verticals. Now if I see a photo that I might have just shot as a vertical, I now make sure I have it as a horizontal.

The coffee growers of Café Justo. (Nikon D3, ISO 500, f/5, 1/1600, 14-24mm)

You are aware of the quality of sound. I have learned to close doors and not interview people in front of a water fountain. I hear little noises that I didn't hear before. While this helps me get better audio it also impacts how I see. When you cannot get rid of a noise you then need a visual to help the audience resolve the noise. If you hear a chicken in the background then having a photo with the chicken will help the audience not hear this as an annoying noise, but to give context because you helped with a visual.

If you are like the coffee growers looking for work somewhere else because your pay for your work is low, look to become the roaster like they did--learn a new skill. I recommend multimedia, but it could be web design and helping people put together websites.

WARNING!!!

You are not going to go and buy the software and tomorrow start charging clients for this work. I believe it takes about a year or two to master the software the sound gathering and most importantly developing the visual storytelling ability at a different level--the final product.

Website Tips for Photographers

2012-01-23T20:20:00.004-05:00

It is important to me to have the navigation always visible so people can quickly find what they need.

If a potential customer were to find your website would they hire you?

A photographer’s website is to showcase their work and help them book jobs. I have been designing my website for 17 years and I have learned a few things through those years.

Here are some tips I have for a photographer’s website.

Contact Information

Email: stanley@stanleyleary.com
LinkedIn: Stanley Leary
Skype: StanleyLeary
Twitter: Stanley Leary
Facebook: Stanley Leary

How does someone reach you? This should be all through the website and not something hidden. Remember at any point when the customer is ready to hire you after reviewing your work they need to be able to find out how to do so with ease. Sometimes people already are wanting to hire you and go to your website to find your contact information, don’t make them jump through hoops to find it.

I think there are two ways a customer wants to contact you, email and by phone. Remember you need this to be easy and not cumbersome. If you fear getting spam email and do a lot to protect yourself, but in the process make it burdensome for the potential customer—you may not have a customer.

Examples of your photography

I think people are searching for very specific needs to fill. If they need a headshot they want to see some headshots. If they need an event photographer, they want to see examples of events you have covered.

I recommend dividing your work into categories that make it easy for someone to find example of what they are looking to hire a photographer to do for them.

Tear Sheets

Having a few examples of your work being published by clients helps the potential customer know they are not the first to take a risk on you. This helps build some credibility.

Client Comments

Having a few of your past clients writing about your work also helps. There are a few things that can help make these better. When a customer talks about how you solved a problem they are helping potential clients understand something beyond your portfolio. They understand something about how you work and your customer service.

Having comments that talk about how nice your are and easy to work with are nice, but not as compelling as description of how you made their day.

The inverted pyramid is a metaphor used by journalists and other writers to illustrate the placing of the most important information first within a text. The format is valued because readers can leave the story at any point and understand it.

Inverted Pyramid

Put your strongest photos first. When they go to the next photo let is show another skill. Look at these two examples for portraits. See how I would lead with the little boy and then follow with the lady.

I would most likely lead with this photo on portraits.

I might follow the photo with this one because now this shows I can use strobes and mix it with daylight. Art directors would like to see the variety of skills.

This photo shows my ability to create a concept out of nothing and make it happen in the studio.

This photo helps to show how I can use light to photograph a very dark subject (the hand gun) and grab your attention.

This photo shows I know how to photograph lasers in a research lab. This is a skill few photographers have.

To get this photo I had to get access. This shows I can be trusted in very intimate moments. The family gave me their permission.

Remember your portfolio shows more than just that you can make pleasing photos. As you can see each of the above photos tells more about me than I can get a cool photo.

Client List

If you have been working with a variety of clients this is good to showcase. It helps to separate you from the photographer just starting out and not having much experience. It also helps clients call their friends at those companies and see what experience they had with you and would they hire you again. Don’t list a company if they are not in good standing with you.

Bio

You need to introduce yourself to your audience. This is where you help set yourself apart from other photographers in ways that your pictures cannot. This is where you may give some of the reasons why you pursue certain subjects. This is where you may want to tell everyone you have degrees in the topics that you cover regularly. This helps them understand how you are a expert on maybe what they want to hire you to photograph.

Some clients will hire you because of things you have in common in your bio. All clients that visit this page are wanting to know as much as they can about you to help them feel more comfortable about the decision to hire you. This will give them talking points when they justify to their superiors why they are hiring you.

Wait there's more

I like using that phrase. When we moved to our new house our daughter enjoyed taking some of our close friends through the house. The house is larger than our previous home, so she was excited to say after a few rooms, but wait there's more.

There is more things to do but I will stop here for now and blog about other tips later.

One Week of Studio Lighting in Kona, Hawaii

2012-01-22T19:02:00.000-05:00

YWAM School of Photography 1

Students work from 2006

In one week students go from not knowing how to turn on the strobes to doing some incredible work. My job is the take the fear out of trying new things and teaching them some basics from which they can build upon.

Take a look at each of these shows showing you some of the student's work through the years. I think you will be impressed as I was with their first time shooting with studio strobes.

This is the students work from 2006

In the studio

Mixing the strobes with available light

This is the students work from 2007

We shoot and let everyone see each others work on monitors, this way we are learning not just by doing but observing as well.

The school has a variety of lights for the students to practice with in the class. Here we have the JTL battery pack system letting you shoot outside with studio lights and radio remotes.

Students learn they can shoot at dusk and night with the strobes. Here the students mixed strobes with available light and added a flashlight to write the word "Viking" beside the subject. This was his nickname.

These are examples of my students in 2009 and what they did in one week.

Here is the students work from 2010

Photo Tips I learned from Don Rutledge

2012-01-21T10:46:00.000-05:00

Don Rutledge went to Russia a few times and this is his second trip. The reason I am using his work as an example is because in my mind his work is stellar and has majorly impacted my work and many of my colleagues work as well.

While many would wait until the lady in front walked out of the frame, Don included her. The two men look very much like Americans, but the woman looked very much like the stereo type of a Russian woman.

What is important is how Don used all the frame for his work. He also used it so well artists were complaining that they couldn't crop his photos. This usually did lead to some good discussions. When a designer crops a photo that is well composed they change the meaning.

A great designer who is working with a writer and photojournalist in a journalistic coverage will layout the story after looking through the images and selecting those that help tell the story. Laying out the spread and then finding images to fill the holes is using photography as a decoration and not as communication.

Visiting the vertical photo above again look at how the men are looking one way and the woman is going the other. Do you pick up on the tension that the composition helps to create?

Don uses all the frame to help contain the message and to draw the reader into the photo.

The photo of the crowd walking towards you take a moment and look at the far left and right of the frame. Don has meticulously had the edges hold the man to the left and the woman on the far right in the photo. Many photographers would often slice into the folks or have it too loose. The bottom of the frame is just below their feet giving extra space at the top of the frame. The top of the frame is where you have a sense of depth.

While the angle of the buildings roof line is at an angle creates depth, it is the open sky that opens the photo even more from front to back. Just cover the photo at the top and block off the open sky part and you will see how much that makes a difference in depth of the photograph.

Balance and context are achieved here in this photo of the pianist and the choir to the right.

In art class they teach about asymmetric balance. Here in the photo with the pianist Don uses this technique to create a sense of calm and tranquility. The beams in the ceiling go towards the windows which helps to create a sense of depth. Some of the ladies in the choir are looking at the pianist playing which helps connect the choir back to the pianist.

While Don would have found this composition, he would have stayed here for a while until he had enough different frames. He is looking for the pianist to be playing and the choir to have a moment where they are paying attention to her. Take out all those blinks or someone picking their nose (that happens a lot, especially during prayers) and you then are picking a moment that best captures the worship tone that Don was going for in this photograph.

Examine the edges of Don's photo. Why did he choose those edges? Then start looking for a subject. After you find the main subject look for something like a verb. After finding the verb look for secondary subjects. What about some adjectives and adverbs, do you see any?

I love the little girl singing here in church. How do you know it is church? Look at the pulpit to the right. Don left this in to help establish this as not a school play. Notice the women to the far left. Look especially at the lady on the front row. She really helps the photo because her expression really helps. You can see the lady to the right of her and closest to the girl singer and her expression also helps set a tone. The little bit of the objects at the top of the frame give a sense of even a bigger room.

As you watch the slide show look at the edges and see if you would change anything. Look to see if Don used things to help create depth and not make the photo look too flat.

While there is a primary subject look and see how the other subjects in the photo compliment the main subject. Do they create tension or just help establish a mood.

See if you see one guy laying in the background. This was the translator who was thinking he was getting out of the way, but Don included him to add a little perspective.

If any of these photos moved you, please comment on it below. Tell me why it moved you.

Creating images that recruit new students

2012-01-20T13:05:00.000-05:00

Check out the slide show

Colleges and schools hire me to help them recruit new students. There are a few reasons I hear over and over why I am chosen.

Capturing a moment

Every school I have photographed used someone before me. Many of these photographers were very competent. They had great exposures, good composition and nice light, but the photos just were boring.

To get the "moment" requires the photographer to take more than a couple of photos of any situation. You need to connect with the subject and get to where you can anticipate them. I might notice a teacher who walks over to a student and bends over to get close to hear them and see what they need. They may only do this for 20 - 30 seconds. If I miss them doing this once I can then move quickly to get into position the next time by seeing a student raise their hand. I am moving before the teacher to get to the place to capture the "moment."

I like this image because I feel like the student is engaged in the subject and enjoying their time in school. (Nikon D3s, ISO 6400, f/5.6, 1/100, 28-300mm)

Color Correct

Here is a great example of how many photographers shoot inside. See the greenish color cast in the photo.

This photo is color correct and the skin tones look more natural. The above photo is not color corrected. (Nikon D3S ISO 2500, f/5.6, 1/100, 28-300mm)

When someone has really screwed up you can see banding of color in the photo. This is when shooting under fluorescent or sodium vapor lights you get bands across your photos. I am aware of the problem and make adjustments in how I shoot to avoid color issues with my photos.

Context

You need to do more than just get closeup photos of people's faces showing them enjoying themselves.

I like including posters on the walls to help give an idea what the students are studying. It helps also communicate more than just they are in a classroom. (Nikon D3S, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/100, 28-300mm)

One-on-One

I like this because the teacher and student one-on-one time is more than just two people it is about a teacher who cares and enjoys helping the student. I like the student expression because they are serious and need help. (Nikon D3S, ISO 5000, f/5.6, 1/100, 28-300mm)

One of the most important things colleges and schools report is the teacher to student ratio. It is important to show students do interact with the teachers and not just being lectured to in the class. This requires you to wait for those moments. If you are like some people you just stick you head in take a couple snaps and leave. You would miss so much by just documenting.

Engaging

Students need to be shown challenged by the course work and not bored. However, in pre-school it can be fun to show a child yawning. Sometimes humor is cute and just as engaging. In older grades it isn't quite as cute.

The body language of the student shows deep thought and interest in the class. (Nikon D3S, ISO 4000, f/5.6, 1/100, 28-300mm)

Individualism

I look for moments where I can show the student is still independent and comfortable in being independent in their work and thoughts.

Using a very shallow depth-of-field helps to isolate this student. (Nikon D3, ISO 720, f/1.6, 1/100, 85mm f/1.4)

Using a shallow depth-of-field, I can make the student pop out from the other students. I see how this helps show they are an individual and yet also part of the class. If you just crop everyone else out you do not have the same visual communication taking place. (Nikon D3, ISO 200, f/1.4, 1/125, 85mm f/1.4)

It is about communication and not pretty pictures

Too many photographers are trying to just make art and not communicate. For a photograph to communicate the photographer had to know what they were trying to communicate or it will often fail.This doesn't mean communication photos are boring. It just means they need to communicate a message. They can do this and be just as much a fine art piece.

This is why I studied social work in my undergraduate and then did my masters in communication in the education department. I wanted to understand how to use visuals to tell a story.

When you look to hire a photographer, look for someone who understands what education is about.