Self

I think every photographer needs to do a self portrait at some time to capture how they see them self. I've been wanting to do a self portrait for some time now and finally got around to it.

This image started out as me just playing around with a single off camera speedlite (Canon 580EX II) to try and get a low key image illuminated with only the flash. This image was taken in my home office with the lights turned on, the camera mounted on a tripod with the 10 second self timer enabled and the speedlite sitting on a side table while I sat at my desk. The exposure was set to F8.0 at 1/125 of a second using ISO 160 to limit the ambient room light so the speedlite's flash would be the key light.
The color image was converted to black and white using Adobe Lightroom with some contrast, clarity and sharpening added. There was no heavy Photoshop editing used to produce the effect in this image.

So, what does this image say about me? Am I trying to hide something or expose my dark side? Maybe, but what I think it says is that I tend to see things as black and white. Not black and white photography but rather that I view the world as a contrast of black or white, good or bad, true or false. I'm typically not a "shades of grey" kind of person. I think my subconscious drove me to express this about myself through this image, plus it looks kind of cool.

Flash Your Christmas Tree

Today the wife and I gathered our three children to take our annual Christmas portrait in front of our Christmas tree. The room lighting was not very good so I setup two off camera slave flashes (580 EX II and 430 EX) on light stands and triggered them using the Canon 7D's built-in master flash. I love this feature on the 7D!

I wanted to capture the available light of the Christmas tree but after a few test shots with the children I knew I would have to go with a faster shutter speed to minimized motion blur because our youngest would not or could not stand still. This resulted in a 1/60 second shutter speed with an aperture of 4.5. to get a shallow depth of field. I setup the camera to manual mode (M) and took a few test shots to dial in the flash to get a decent exposure.

We took several images with all five us but I was not very happy with any of them because the lights on the Christmas tree just didn't show up at all. The children were becoming restless so I made the decision that what we had taken was going to have to do.

After the boys were off in their rooms playing my wife and I continued the photo session with a few images of both of us. Me being somewhat lazy on that Sunday afternoon I left the camera on the same settings as before and again I wasn't happy with the results.

What to do? I decided to slow the shutter shutter speed by a stop or two while leaving the aperture at 4.5 and I also lowered the flash output by 1 stop. Wow, what a difference it made. Now this is what I had in mind when we started.

Next year our youngest will be a little bit older and hopefully a little more able or willing to stand still so I can use the slower shutter speed and get those Christmas tree lights to really glow in our family Christmas portrait.

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

Glamour-ish

This past Saturday I asked my wife to model for me so I could practice portrait lighting and posing. I know very little about how to properly pose or light a person for a portrait, but from reading online forums, books and studying other photographer's portrait work I've picked up a few tips for posing and lighting. I wasn't trying to create "glamour" style images but they seem to have come out that way.

Our kitchen and breakfast area has excellent defused northern light streaming in through the two large windows so I decided to use that room for this shoot. We moved the breakfast table and chairs out of the room and I tacked a large 6' x 14' piece of black felt cloth about 4 feet up on the wall to act as the backdrop. The cloth hung down the wall with enough material leftover so that I could pulled in away from the wall to cover the floor. This allowed me to have the same color on the floor and the wall behind her. The use of a solid color backdrop allows the viewer of the image to focus on what's important, the person and not become distracted by the background.

The lighting for all of these images was natural sunlight coming in from two windows located to the right of the camera. I also used a 24 inch round silver reflector that was used to reflect the sunlight on to the side of her face opposite the windows. The reflected light reduces the shadows and provides even lighting across her face which helps smooth the look of the skin.

1. I like this image with the exception that you can not see her hair very well. I also don't like the way her legs are crossed, but I'm not sure how else I would have had her arranged them.

2. This was my favorite image from the day. I like the crossed legs, the color of her hair and the lighting on her face. If I had to change anything I'd have her move her legs so they are more straight up and down like in the image below this one.
3. This one is similar to the above but the crossed legs are more straight up and down which I like better. She thinks there is too much symmetry in the face, hands and hair.
4. This one was all her, she started moving her hand through her hair and I grabbed this shot. The lighting across her face and the focus is off a tad bit but I like the feel of movement in this image.

If there is something I learned from this session it is that I want to have more energy in my portrait images. These are a little to "posed" for my liking so next time I'm going to use a fan and see if we can get her hair moving in the wind or something like that to give them more life. We are both very happy with the results and we're planning on doing more of this style later.

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

A Rainy Saturday

This has been a very dry summer in Texas but this past week has been very wet and today (Saturday) it rained almost all day long. Our three boys were content to stay in their rooms and play video games most of the day and there wasn't much on TV so I decided to experiment with portrait lighting and try out an idea I had for a portrait of my wife. As usual, she was more than happy to be my photography muse for the day.

The portrait idea I had was to use the french doors that lead from our living room out to the back patio as a prop for a portrait. I wanted to create a evening or night feel with my wife in a cocktail dress and use the window panes of the french door to break up the image. Even with the rainy overcast sky there was no way I could shoot from the darker inside of the house, through the french doors to the bright outside without turning my wife into a silhouette. The solution was to hang a 6'x6' peice of black felt cloth from the roof of the patio as a back drop and block the harsh outside light, the patio furniture and the boys go-kart, bikes and toys on the patio. I then placed a lightstand outside to the left of the door with a speedlite and reflective umbrella to illuminate her.

I like the results...

This one was taken in the same place but with the french doors open.

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography

The Heat is On

The weather here in South Texas is already hot and it isn't even officially summer yet. It must be that man made global warming causing all this or possibly just the cyclical warming and cooling trends that have been taking place for thousand of years. Anyway, I don't want to go down that political road right now.

This past Saturday we decided to take our three boys out to Cullinan park near Sugarland, Texas just southwest of Houston. This is a secluded park with a large wooden wharf and two story observation tower that extend out into a freshwater lake which is covered in lilly pads. As our three boys watched the water foul and looked for alligators it gave my wife and I a few minutes to spend some time together and she was gracious enough to allow me to use her as my muse to practice photography and lighting techniques.

Taking in Nature - The sun was setting, birds were singing and a lone alligator was making his way through the marsh. What a wonderful way to end a late spring day.
On the Boardwalk - Even though we were baking in the afternoon sun she didn't mind taking the heat and letting me take some full sun exposures. I think she looks HOT in this one and I aint talkin bout da weather!!
Hiding From the Sun - After a few minutes the sun was more than we could bear so she hid from it under a stair case leading to the parks second floor observation deck. With the sun blasting its rays of light through the deck fencing it provided a great opportunity to use the softer light to bring out the skin tones. A small amount of fill flash was used to illuminate her without giving it that all too familiar FLASH photo look.

Waiting - As I was changing lenses she was patiently waiting for more instructions. This image was taken as I was telling her I'm just taking a light meter reading and then I snapped the shutter to get a candid image. No posing here that's the real girl.

Taking a Break - Modeling for your husband is a tough job and the heat doesn't make it any easier. A short rest in the closest available shade was in order. A big glass of fresh squeezed lemon aide would have been nice too.

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

I'm enjoying learning how to shoot portraits. Lucky for me my wife is very comfortable in front of the camera and doesn't mind me practicing on her. On a recent trip back to our home state of Louisiana we were fortunate enough to get some time alone from the kids so we could go out and play photographer and model at a nearby park. The evening sun was low in the sky and the weather was perfect except for the 95% humidity which is very common is southern Louisiana. Because of the low light conditions I chose to use a 17-85mm f/4 lens with the 580EX II flash on my Canon EOS 40D DSLR. My goal that evening was to get the setting sun and sky in the background with a properly exposed facial features and correct skin tone.

Image #1 - EXIF: 1/250 Sec., F5.6, ISO 400, 66mm, Flash

Image #2 - EXIF: 1/100 Sec., F5.6, ISO 400, 85mm, Flash


Image #3 - EXIF: 1/250 Sec., F5.6, ISO 400, 75mm, Flash


While these aren't perfect, my wife likes the results from that evenings photo shoot and I learned a little bit more about how to take a portrait photo.