This image is from my first wedding back in early 2008. The boy was always looking at the camera wherever I was and no matter what I was shooting. Mum was looking at her bride daughter just before she walked down to meet her father for the walk down the aisle. It was lit by bouncing a flash on to the white wall of the stairwell mixed with the light of the big window atop the back wall.
One from the wedding archives of Tash and Andrew’s Wedding in November last year. A spontaneous moment captured for them to keep forever.
Click on the image to enlarge I made sure we wouldn’t get trapped by the tide there by checking tide and sunset times for the area.
On my usual trip down to Inverloch for Christmas I went to see one of the most photographed icons in the area, the Eagle’s Nest on Cape Paterson – Inverloch Rd, Inverloch, Victoria. It’s only a short walk from the car to view it from the look out and about a couple of hundred meters on foot to the beach. You do have to have good shoes to access the point as it is very rocky. Check the tidal patterns before attempting to get to the point as there is always a risk of being stranded.
I only took a few frames that evening as the sunset went very quickly and of course the best light was 10-15 minutes after the sun went down. The slow shutter speed captured the dusk glow on the rocks.
Shot with 2Stop Neutral Density (ND) graduated and UV filter. My Polarizer filter was all scuffed from the Kata filter pouch and I couldn’t clean it in time for the light show.
Click on a photo to view it larger. These are only very quick edits and some a straight out of camera. Fully edited versions will be posted when the clients receive their finished images.
Shooting a high key portrait of three people is difficult with just two flashes especially when you want to light up the background white. Typically a portrait is done with a key light (the main light) and a fill light to fill the shadows cast by the main light. Add the want to have a completely white back drop (which gives me the ability to do channel masking to separate the subjects from the backdrop or introduce my own backgrounds if I wanted to) and you need a third. Because i shot this before I got my two 580EX II flashes I had to figure something out.
Here is the setup (above) with my Nikon SB-28 key light on a stand with an umbrella mount. I diffused the light with a diffuser before it hits the shoot though umbrella to further soften the light. As I was shooting young ladies I needed the softest possible light. On the step you can see I used a white balance card to get all the lights colour balanced and even using CTO gels over the flashes.
You maybe wondering why I went to the trouble of gelling the lights and colour balancing for black and white photos, but there were some colour ones selected for the final print run. Above is my Nikon SB-24 clamped to a shelf in the garage facing the white wall (I thank the house’s builders for that) with my homemade snoot/flag with a silver backing to spread the light, but also to flag the light from the camera to prevent any lens flare. Both lights were triggered with my modified Gadget Infinity wireless triggers and I was happy with their reliability during the shoot as I only got a 1 in 20 misfire and I think mainly because I was working faster than the flashes recycle time.
The main reason for gelling the lights was to match the colour temperature of the halogen work lamps I used to fill the shadows. Even though the globes were rated daylight colour balance they still hovered in the 4000k range which was too warm for the flash’s 5600k. I had these reflecting of a foam core board I got from an art store clamped to a light stand to diffuse the light. I set all the flashes power to suit the output of the work lamps and resulted in a shutter speed around 1/60th of a second, just adequate for hand holding the camera with the type of lens I had mounted (Tamron 17-50mm f2.8).
Post production was relatively simple and repeatable which is important in portrait photography. I brought the clients inside to view the images on a Plasma TV with the HDMI output out my Canon 50D, which is super handy and the quality is outstanding (and surprisingly colour accurate). They made a short list of favorite images so I could make adjustments to their selections without wasting time on all of the images shot.
Next was import all the images into Adobe Lightroom to do all the RAW adjustments and create a proofing slideshow for the client to review their selections in greater detail. I always show the image file numbers on the slideshow to make print ordering as simple as possible for both the client and myself. Its simple, its fast and its cheap. The client then emails me back their final print selections after reviewing the price list and then I make any further adjustments if needed then I can further edit the images in Photoshop.
Each image has selective skin softening, selective sharpening on the eyes, nostrils, teeth & hair, teeth & eye whitening, clone out any blemishes, smooth out the tonal range to avoid harsh shadows and then finally a subtle diffusion layer to soften the entire image. The finals are then saved as an uncompressed TIF file and sent to my pro lab for printing.
Over time I’ll be developing my outdoor and environmental portraits to add a bit more of an edge. For enquires feel free to email me marcel at mvphotography dot com dot au.
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