Who Can You Talk To About Photography? Ten Good Ideas...

We all need to talk to someone. In my house they do it when I am in the john - no end of conversations seem to be vital to the other members of the family whilst one is sitting down. The only way I can think of breaking of this habit is to open the door but this involves some loss of dignity...

For photographers, talking to someone is essential. Around your birthday you talk to the family about how you really, really need the new 12-2500mm zoom lens that has just been announced at Photokina and how much better it will make their lives. Sometimes this works.

Of course there are different divisions of photography and it occurred to me that each one has a different form of conversation:

1. Family photographers talk to the family. Initially in soft sweet words and eventually in parade ground tones.

2. Good portrait photographers talk to their subjects. Bad portrait photographers talk to their assistants.

3. Landscape photographers talk to themselves.

4. Food photographers talk to themselves but in different voices. Sometimes the voices talk back.

5. Sports photographers talk to the St. John's Ambulance  attendants.

6. Fashion photographers talk to the models. Slowly, and with little words.

7. Leica photographers talk to the Almighty. Once, in the morning, to give orders for the day.

8. Camera collectors talk to their cameras.

9. Darkroom workers never talk.

10. Photography Art collectors talk to their brokers.

If you wish to add any to this list please pop it onto our comments section or onto the Facebook page attached to this blog.

Uncle Dick

The Ball O Light - Gary Fong In The Steampunk Era

I am glad that the neighbours can't see me in my little studio. They would ring the department, the men in the white coats would come, and that would be the end of it. As it is, I close the curtains and put on my Mad Doctor outfit and start experimenting...

The current line of research revolves around a steampunk event that will be run in May. I've decided to run a portrait set-up and have been assembling the equipment and the lighting. The get-up is no problem - I've been wearing steampunk outfits for the last twenty years at various events and it has stopped being costume long ago - it is clothing now, and old clothing at that...

The camera is the new Moriarty Portrait camera - supplied innocently by Justin Moriarty and the Fujifilm company. Not that they knew it at the time, mind, but I'm sure they will be charmed by the results in the end. Hey, any company that deliberately gives me a sepia setting in the menu of their digital camera ( the X-E2) must expect me to grab the idea and run with it. If they will kindly put a daguerreotype, ambrotype, and tintype setting in as well I will send them a bouquet of chrysanthemums.

Camera sorted, I have turned to lighting. As tempting as it is to devise a lighting system that incorporates a miniature steam engine ( Saito Mfg.. from Japan), a motorcycle generator, and antique light fittings, the work and oily mess involved would make photography impossible. So I have chickened out and  opted for electronic flash.

The Elinchrom Quadra system would do it on a professional basis - two light stands, two heads, battery controller, Skyport trigger and such, but I don't own one and I don't want to borrow one of the Rental Department's kits. The idea of steampunk is you think it up and make it yourself.

I do own some Nikon SB 700 speed lights so I turned to one of them and the Gary Fong collapsible Lightsphere. In the top the sphere I dropped one of the silver diffusers - up until now I have never been able to make this chrome accessory do anything. Now it is brilliant. It fires the light out into a flat annular pattern while still allowing some of it to exit the top of the Fong going toward the ceiling.

The result is absolutely even lighting and some degree of reverse fill in the shadows to the back of the portrait subject. No hot spot on the frontal planes of the face and no burn-out on bald heads. ( I have found my own pate useful for test purposes...)

I've got the light on a standard light stand and  have found that the legs of it can stand within the compass of my tripod legs - thus reducing the chances for people stumbling over them in the dark of a ballroom. I am thinking of decorating the legs of the tripod to further warn off the punters.

Next experiment will be to reduce the output from the Fong and do a hand-held SB 700 with a snoot or grip for spot lighting. Steam on!

In The Portrait Studio No.1 - Where To Put The Hands

Newcomers to the world of photography often ask for hints and tips on how to do a really professional job. In some cases this concerns camera handling, lighting, or posing. Or billing, self promotion, and court procedures, as the case may be...

In the first of this series of helpful posts from Camera Electronic, we call upon Uncle Dick from the Hazel Leaf Studio to tell us how to deal with the hands.

" Well, the first thing to decide is whether they will be required. If the image is being taken for a passport application, you needn't concern yourself with them at all. Getting the client to keep their eyes open and their head still while you try to size the image to satisfy the Department of Bureaucracy will be difficult enough.

Secondly, if you feel that the hands will improve the portrait, ask yourself if this is because you need them to support the face, distract from it, or hide it completely.

The sitter can chuck themselves under the chin, place their finger alongside their cheek, or curl it around their upper lip. This will look lame, but at least it will be traditionally lame. They can go for the Johnny Rotten look by sticking the finger up their nose. This also works for federal politicians, but for different reasons...

If they insist on covering their eyes with their hand just go ahead and shoot. Eventually the Department of Corrections will get a clear picture.

Photographs of legal practitioners and real estate salesmen will also present the problem that their hands may not be in their own pockets.

Dancers and artist's models are really the easiest to pose in respect to their hands as they have a good body sense and know where their arms end. They can generally accept direction except when a squirrel runs through the studio, and then all hell breaks loose.

In the end, as long as the only hands appearing in the portrait belong to the sitter, things generally work out. If you add gloves, gauntlets, jewellery, or handcuffs it takes the image into a different category. "

Hold That Pose. Bwa-hahaha...

It has often been said that the prime difference between a hero and a traitor lies in who he harms - his enemies or his friends. So it is with the portrait photographer, except that in some cases since he has no friends, he cannot be a traitor.

I can hear the hackles rising in a number of Perth studios as this is being read - I hasten to add that you are entirely innocent of any charges. All your images are symphonies of empathy and elegance. And well worth the money...in fact you should really double the prices to uphold the honour of the profession. It's those OTHER studios that are full of scoundrels.

For the amateur photographer the idea of faithfully and accurately portraying the appearance of their sitter should be paramount. If they have wrinkles, light the wrinkles with a strong cross strobe light. If they have a misshapen nose, show this clearly - it is dishonest to disguise it. Likewise use broad lighting on broad faces and short lighting on thin faces. Babies are small - tower over them to reinforce this in the picture. Remember that small apertures and enhanced contrast makes for clear portraits - when in doubt, sharpen it up.

Let's face it - you aren't getting paid so there is no sense pandering to them, now is there.

If you get sitter towards whom you bear a grudge the game can become altogether more fun. Bad complexions are best treated with sympathy -and monochrome rendition. A green filter and that cross lighting will make a picture worthy of a text book. If your sitter fails to cooperate with your reasonable direction in the studio, shoot anyway and be sure to  look for images with one eye closed or something dangling. It doesn't matter what dangles from where - the eyes of the viewer will never leave that portion of the photo.

Of course you are going to get complaints but this is your chance to educate the public. They may want to see themselves with smooth skin or a full head of hair or an athletic body, but you are just a photographer - not a miracle worker. Urge them to face the horrid truth. In the end if you talk fast enough you may be able to create a new art form. And that will give you time to escape.

Stool Sample

You'd think that the business of taking a portrait photograph would be easy, wouldn't you.

Pull out your $ 3500 camera with the $ 2200 lens and turn on the $ 3000 studio lights and press the button. Then feed the file into the $ 2500 computer and the $ 2000 printer and add a $ 2 sheet of paper.

$ 13,202 later and there you are - a lovely A4 picture to frame.

But wait - you have forgotten that your portrait sitter has nothing to sit on. It is discourteous to tell them to sit on the floor or an old apple crate - you need to provide some better way of supporting them. Enter the posing stool from Promaster - adjustable up and down and 5-legged so that they do not tip over if you ask them to lean to the side. Black so tat it does not intrude visually into the composition - padded so that it does not intrude anatomically into the customer.

A justifiable expense for the studio and a valuable piece of furniture. And chicken feed compared to the rest of the costs.

Morning Has Broken

Those of you skilled in photo-interpretation may be interested in the image above. It was taken by a PRU Spitfire of 103 Sqdn this morning at 0850 hours at a height of 40 cm above the counter at 230 Stirlng Street, Perth.

The girls in the unit have identified the shrouded object  and feel that it might be one of the new Fuji X100s cameras. These are rare - they are generally only sighted in the hands of lucky enthusiasts and professionals who clutch them tightly and run away laughing.

We note that B&H in New York do not have them in stock...and if they did would extract something like 1500+ Australia dollars to get it to the customer here in Perth in a week. Makes the $ 1328 price here at Camera Electronic for something that you can take home this morning look pretty attractive...

The camera has won a number of awards and plaudits - as well it might with the dedicated new sensor and superb operation. The D P Review site has just published the complete report on it and given it an extremely high rating. This is not surprising considering the 70-some tweaks and improvements that have been incorporated into it. This is possibly the reason that the New York dealer is out of stock.

Still, here's one for sale fresh in its wrapping and ready to go right now. How long will it be here? We're open to 5:30 today....

Beauty Is As Beauty Does

I thought I was committing the height of folly a decade ago when I bought a 44 cm Softlight Beauty dish for my Elinchrom studio flash heads. After all, I had three lights with 18 cm reflectors and umbrellas and a soft box and a snoot. I mean how many more looks could there possibly be in the studio...?

So when was I going to use this thing?

Luck would have it that I had a job at a costume society dinner that week. I was given a small stage area to put up a backdrop ( faithful old three-part framework and mottled muslin...the muslin gets more mottled every year. At the end of the decade I am going to boil it for soup...) and one power point. As I was to be within a metre and a half of the subjects i decided on one 250 w/s head and the beauty dish. Best decision I ever made.

The curve of the dish that close to the subjects allowed for a slightly specular light that dropped down from the crown of the head but still curved into the eye socket and under the nose. It was almost like having a main and fill in one piece. With only a very small amount of light shifting I was able to light all the different people in their different costumes and it was one of the most successful sessions for that club.

Last night I decided to put into operation a lighting scheme that Matt Koskowski recommends in one of his Photoshop books; two medium strip lights at the 10:00 and 2:00 position in relation to the subject  and a beauty dish at 6:00. He shows in his book that it will facilitate easy selection of the subject for subsequent compositing. It seemed to be contrary to what I had done before but what the heck...

The heck. It works. The heading image is one of he first off the screen, and as it was done on a double martini and late at night, it could stand a bit more care, but it is a lot easier than any thing else. Of course it helps when the subject has definite curves and a glorious costume and is heavily armed, but then doesn't that describe a lot of dates...

SALES POINT. Beauty dishes work - they make people look like cover girls - even when they are little wizened gnomes or large hairy madmen. I mention these because I shall be showing some of the other images from the shoot in future posts. In the meantime consider one for your Elinchrom or Profoto lights as the ideal solution for a one-light setup.