Dad’s birthday.

5DII w 35mm f/2 @ f/2.2, 1/200, ISO 1600

Everything done with 135mm (except #5&6, those were with a 35mm), lowish ISO, usually wide open.

Dad took some pictures…

In all of these I was trying out my new 28″ soft box, so I was doubly excited: taking pictures + playing with photo new toys.

The first picture below was never meant to be an actual counseling candidate, but it turned out to be one of my favorites.

Here are the final four. That’s not a basketball reference. Really, I’m actually impressed with myself that I even thought to clarify that point.

Never mind.

Some tips… I used clean backgrounds. So many times when you’re shooting inside of a house where real people live, normal decorative things can become cluttered when compressed down to your camera’s 2D point of view. Even the last picture, we chose the bookshelf for the counseling theme but purposely blurred it enough to not be distracting, yet still recognizable.

Subtile props. In all but the green background image, there were props. They’re each used a little differently and for different reasons, but I think they all helped drive home the picture we were going for.

TECH STUFF: 5DII + 70-200 mm (f/2.8, ISO 100-200, 1/15-200), 580exII (1/8 power) inside a Westcott Apollo 28″ softbox, triggered by RadioPopper JrX’s.

P.S. Did you have a favorite?  Which one do you think would make the best profile picture for a counselor?

Here’s a short interview I did with my Granddad, Hiram Campbell:

For smoothest viewing, watch it at 480p.

This is my first real attempt at doing video. Although I miked the audio separately, I decided to go with the 5D’s built in audio since I was inside (no wind) and tripodding (no handling noises).  I was very impressed with the audio quality, and the work to sync of the external mic (which was a condensor–having it’s own “problems”) was too much. Next time, this is the way I’ll do it.

For the main lighting I diffused window light from immediate camera-right. Also from this same direction had a Home Depot clamp-light ($10) on the back of a chair acting as fill (to get rid of some of the strong shadows from the window light).

On camera-left, from slightly behind I had another continuous light (not Home Depot, but close enough) to act as a rim light.  This not only helped separate him from the background, but it gave some texture to the shape of his face.

Everything post I did in iMovie, which comes bundled with a Mac.  Maybe I’ll do a tutorial on that later, but it is pretty self explanatory.  Not very powerful, but definitely got me going.

I actually had a second camera, my Canon G12 filming a different angle, but it didn’t mix as well (video quality was only so-so compared to the 5D). So, I edited it all out.

In my next video interview, if done inside, I’ll probably only use the 5D on a tripod, no mic, no second camera. The simple set-up’s really working for me.

Another note on why I prefer using the Canon 5D over the Canon G12 for video. Since the 5D is an SLR, I can put a super-fast prime lens on it to get very thin depth of field.  In this case it was a 50mm f/1.4.  I had to let my Granddad know not to move or he’d immediately fall out of focus.

This was also filmed in 24 frames per second, which gives it a “movie” feel.

If you have questions or are interested in doing a video project with me, let me know!

I started with hanging a 6′x5′ white muslin. But you can use anything in it’s place. This is probably the smallest size I’d recommend, but I can do a close crop portrait with no problem. And as you’ll see, even if there’s wrinkles or a slight design (a la bed sheet), it won’t show up in the final product. Here it is with only ambient. During this part Caroline wasn’t really paying attention too much, because I was only using her as a stand-in until I had all the lights in place. After, I lit the backdrop from behind.  That’s important because if it’s wrinkled, and you light it from the front, it will more or less accentuate the wrinkles (a couple pictures down).  After lighting just the backdrop in this way, it has the effect of shooting into a bright light source.  Because… it is. By the way, these set-up shots are straight out of the camera which explains the color-inconsistencies.  I’ve adjusted the exposures on a few, just for the sake of illustration.

In the above, you can see two things that don’t belong in the final image: Sam’s thumbs-up. And my umbrella for the flash. Here I turned off the back light, and used only the flash in front. I did this to show the light on Care has pretty good potential, as is, but really makes the backdrop look bad. And then below, with both lights on.  The flash illuminating the backdrop was at either 1/4 or 1/8 power.  The flash on Care was around 1/4 (give or take 2/3rds of a stop). After I had the light levels about right, I started working on the color of the lights.  For fun (and a little bit of diversity), I put a blue gel on the background light, and for a little bit of warmth, I put a full CTO (color temp. orange) on the key (main) light. In the end I got some good shots, but the blue gave me a Saved By The Bell vibe that I’ll be sure to stay away from next time. A caveat. In illuminating my backdrop from behind, I created a hot spot centering on the flash. You can see it above. I noticed this during shooting but decided not to worry about it this time (I try to keep my shoots short, otherwise they begin to get stale). And as a workaround, I had whoever was in the picture stand in front of the spot to cover it up.

But if I wanted to get rid of the spot I could have put another layer of difusion between the flash and the backdrop by hanging a second muslin, or just having someone hold something translucent (a difusion panel or the muslin or whatever). The downside to doing this is having to up the power of my flash. Which makes recycling time slower, meaning I couldn’t shoot as fast.

Here are a couple quick, wide shots showing what the set-up looked like.

Gear

After the camera-lens situation, I had two flashes: Canon 580 EX II on the main light, and my Dad’s Pentax AF 360 FGZ gelled blue for the backlight (normally I use a Vivitar 285 here).  I used simple cheap light stands / umbrella brackets (about $45 together), with one $20 Westcott shoot-through umbrella. The white muslin came free with something-or-other, and the big roll of gaffers tape was about $15. After that I used my new RadioPopper JrX’s to trigger the flashes.

If you’re looking to get into lighting, you can go to MidWest Photo Exchange, scroll down to the “Strobist” section, and they have all-in packages at really good prices. You can also get big sheets of gels to cut your own (that’s what I did), or get individual ones.