Portrait of an Artist

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/100 second, f/9, ISO 100

Boys Will Be Boys

Meet Lewis.

In addition to being a second grader, Lewis is an accomplished Easter Egg Crusher. He took time out of his busy academic schedule yesterday to model in some Easter shots for an upcoming stock series.

After we completed shooting, he asked if I would take "just one more shot" - and here it is. I promised him I'd post this image on the blog so the world could see his awesome skill in action.

Here's to you, Lewis. You did a great job!

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/8, ISO 100

Little Cowboy

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/9, ISO 100

Of Children and Pets

Today's image of a beautiful young woman and her dog is from an outdoor photoshoot I did yesterday afternoon of three siblings and their pet. While the children were excellent subjects, the extremely excited golden retriever added a bit of a challenge. He was so interested in everything going on it was difficult to get him to stay in the frame - let alone look at the camera.

With Michelle's assistance, I used a single silver reflector to light the scene combined with the afternoon sun as a hairlight. In addition to nicely lighting the subject's blonde hair, the sunshine created a great rimlight giving separation between the dog's face and the background.

This shot is one of my favorites from the set. I enjoy the informal feeling created by the retriever looking away from the scene combined with the young lady's wonderful smile.

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/160 second, f/4.5, ISO 100

Classroom Photo Shoot

Saturday's stock photo shoot of a simulated classroom was great. This was the most models that I have used in a single session and everyone did an awesome job.

The location of the shoot was a local private school. One of my friends (and regular reader) was able to put together the use of the facility (thanks Ricci!). The room we used wasn't a normal classroom, but a common area in the school. By using this room, we had extra space around the perimeter to place lights, equipment and such.



In lighting the scene, my goal was to have natural looking classroom light. I wanted one side of the room to be much brighter to simulate light that would normally come in through windows. To achieve this, I placed two softboxes down the side for the mainlights and then brought in fill light from the back and opposite sides of the room. Here is an overview photo (taken by our teacher's husband):



Once the lighting was put in place and adjusted for exposure, I pretty much left it sit except for the occasional fine-tuning to add or subtract light from part of the scene.

For models we had 9 children and a teacher. Michelle arranged having the children at the shoot and we ended up with a majority of 6th and 7th grade girls to go along with our teacher, Jenna. The kids were great. They were extremely patient as we set up different shots and even suggested a few things to add or take away.

Today's featured image (on the top of the page) was one of the funnest shots for everyone to do. For some reason, this group of above average students got a kick out of tying up their teacher and going nuts. Jenna was a great sport, but of course this wasn't the first time we tied her up for a shot (see here).

All in all, I classify the day a success. The photos are very close to what I sought to capture. I now have the task of weeding through the 250+ images to select and edit the keepers for a set on iStock.

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/10, ISO 100

Photographing Babies? Get Down!

Here's a quick and easy tip for photographing babies: Get Down!

By placing yourself at eye level with your subject you will create a much more natural and pleasing capture. As an added bonus, the child will likely be more interested in what you're doing and you will have a much higher chance of capturing a great expression.

Today's image of Christian is an example of this technique. During a church barbecue at a local park I noticed him crawling around in the grass and got down on his level. He immediately became curious of what I was doing and began watching every move I made. It was then fairly easy to capture a nice expression.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/200 second, f/4, ISO 100

Posing Pumpkin

Michelle and I shot a wedding on Saturday night. It wasn't a traditional ceremony, but instead a renewing of vows celebrating the couple's 10 years of marriage. This means that it included not only the (already married) bride and groom, but their five children as well.

This shot of me was made by Michelle as I was posing the youngest daughter for her portrait. While I was showing how I wanted her to hold the flowers, I asked her name. Her response: "Pumpkin". It was definitely an "awwww..." moment. She gave me a nice smile for the rest of the evening whenever I called her Pumpkin.

Canon 30D, Canon 50 f/1.8 lens - 1/30 second, f/1.8, ISO 200

Creating soft skin tone in Photoshop

In a comment on a post from a week ago, Charles wrote:

"I like too much this BW portrait. Could you tell me how you post-processed it to give this smooth and bright look?"

Thanks for the question Charles. The process I use in smoothing and brightening the skin is a relatively simple process. I use Photoshop CS2 for my editing, so I will detail the steps I take in that program. I believe you could easily use a similar process in Gimp, Elements or Paint Shop Pro though I haven't used these programs so I do not know for sure.

1. Select your your main layer and adjust the brightness upwards to approximately +35-45%. The image will appear washed out, but you will recover the detail in the following steps.

2. Create a copy of the main layer.

3. Select a blur option (I use Gaussian Blur) and apply it liberally to the new layer. On a large image, I use a blur radius of around 40-50 pixels.

4. On the now-blurred layer, select LAYER, LAYER STYLE, BLENDING OPTIONS (from the menu) and set the BLEND MODE. I use either MULTIPLY or OVERLAY. Now lower the OPACITY to somewhere in the 40-60% range (set it how you like the image best).

5. (Optional) Convert the image to black & white. I don't do a simple de-saturate. Instead, I create a new CHANNEL MIXER layer and check the MONOCHROME box. I can then adjust the three channels (red, green & blue) to obtain the b&w tone I desire.

6. For a final touch, I create a MASK on the top layer (the one with the blur) and mask out areas that I wish to remain crisp such as the eyes.

While I don't proclaim to be a Photoshop Guru (there are plenty of them around already), these are the steps I use in many of my black & white conversions. I find the soft tone and bright eyes create a pleasing result.

Today's image of young Christian is a good example of this process.

Canon 30D, Canon 300 f/2.8L IS - 1/50 second, f/2.8, ISO 100

Three Amigos

Canon 30D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/30 second, f/4, ISO 100

Childhood Joy

This shot makes me smile. The camera was able to catch the girls during a great moment of joy at the skating rink. Do you remember days like this in your childhood, before the stress and worries of adult life set in?

Special thanks to the fine folks over at New West Network. They selected this shot to use recently on their home page:

Canon 30D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens - 1/60 second, f/5, ISO 400

Testing the Lights

I spent some time yesterday afternoon (Valentine's Day) with my wife photographing at our daughters' school. The school was holding its annual Sixth Grade Dance and we were asked to shoot portraits of the kids in their Sunday best. My favorite shot of the day was the first one taken. I asked Elisabeth to step in for a moment so I could test the lighting, and as she did her friends were laughing at her. Her relaxed fun expression made for a great spontaneous capture.

I processed the shot in black & white with a bit of colorization applied in Photoshop (the subtle gold tone in her hair). Her outfit and the seamless background work well with a somewhat high key presentation.

Canon 30D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens - 1/30 second, f/4, ISO 100

Enough with the Birds, Smoke and Lightbulbs

Okay, I get it. In the past three weeks I've only posted one photograph with a person in it, and that was just a shot of some guy holding a sign at a basketball game. So enough with the birds, smoke, fish and lightbulbs - today I'm posting a portrait!

My family enjoyed the privilege of having this young man spend the evening with us last night while his mom and dad were out. He's quite the charmer, so I grabbed the Canon and snapped a few shots. I made this capture from across the room with a rather long lens while he was playing with my daughter.

Canon 30D, Canon 300 f/2.8L IS lens - 1/50 second, f/2.8, ISO 100

San Antonio Park, 1989

We're stepping back in time a bit today.

I made this capture of my son in the spring of 1989 as part of a portrait project in college. I have long since lost the negative of this special shot, so this is a scan of a print (partially explaining the tight crop of his foot). While I really enjoy the freedom I have with my digital camera equipment today, I occasionally miss the time spent in the darkroom working on shots such as this.

By the way, this little fellow is now a sophomore at Texas A&M University. Time sure flies.

Carefree

care▪free [kair-free] -adjective 1. without anxiety or worry.

One of those days

She was having one of those days. The earlier meltdown (her dad's word) had taken its effect and this is the only expression she was willing to show. This would not be a day for cheesy grins and fake smiles. This would be a day for sullenness. Yes, this would be one of those days.

Carousel at Light Speed

Take a slow moving carousel full of children, add a one and a half second camera exposure.

Now, that's a thrill ride!

The Eyes Have It

Nephew, originally uploaded by LeggNet.

I made this capture of my nephew at the family Thanksgiving Dinner last week. It was a spur-of-the-moment photo as he sat on his father's lap and looked my direction. The intense eyes really make this shot.

Pride

Pride, originally uploaded by LeggNet.

This was taken by Michelle at our children's school during a Veteran's Day program. Though I am not a huge fan of selective colorization of images, I felt that this one could use the effect to isolate the scout.

Buried

Buried, originally uploaded by LeggNet.