1st Snow of the Season, Snowflakes on Pink Background

I always get excited when it snows. I feel like a little kid, rushing to put on my snow boots, hat, mittens, coat and scarf so I can go outside and play.

Today I decided to photograph individual snowflakes. I've never done this before, but since I have a set of close up filters I decided it was a good time to get started.

At the end of this post, I will show you my set-up and give tech details. 

Here is my favorite image of the day:

 I love how fluffy yet defined this snowflake looks. It is pure perfection.

Settings:
ISO 2500
1/60
F 10

 This is my second favorite from today. It appears grainier because I was losing the light. I turned on the tungsten porch light, and I think it only added color noise. No discernable difference in the light quality otherwise.

Settings:
ISO 2500
1/60 sec
F 6.3



This third image is to show you that you must work quickly with snowflakes, even though the temperature may be at freezing or below.

I set this self-healing mat outside for a couple of hours to become acclimatized before I went out to shoot today, and when I had to touch the board, I always touched the same area to keep my body heat from affecting the snowflakes.

Even so, the snowflakes began melting almost immediately when they landed on the board. It may have been partially due to me wiping the board on my clothes between shots when I wanted to catch fresh snowflakes.

A quick shot of me from my cell phone. 
I had a good time working outside this afternoon, even if it was freezing cold!

As promised, here is the info on my setup:

Items used;

Tripod with pistol grip (mount is a quick release plate)

Canon 60D

Canon 18-55mm image stabilizing lens

Vivitar filter set, I used ALL of the filters stacked (close up+4, close up+2, close up+1, and 10x macro.)

Xacto self healing mat (pink)


What do you think? Do you like the results?

I'd like to see sharper images. I need to work in better light next time so I can set my f-stops higher to increase my depth of field.

Self Portrait Project Day 5

Day 5 is the first composite image for my Self Portrait Project.

Take a look at "Tangled in My Thoughts"

I combined three different images to create this finished image.

First I photographed myself against a leafy green background outside. I made sure to use a shallow depth of field so it would be soft behind me. When layering in Photoshop, I cropped in and tilted the image to get the look I wanted.

Next I found some bare branches on trees, and photographed several areas, making sure to focus on various parts to create a few different focus points. 

This gave the branches an interesting look and forces the viewer to linger among them to figure out what is happening there, as multiple focus points are not what the eye is accustomed to seeing in a photograph with shallow depth of field.

I layered the branches over my profile and proceeded to add in and subtract areas to create the look I wanted.

Then I adjusted the density, color, hue and saturation, along with minimal retouching to slightly brighten my eye and smooth a spot on my forehead.

The final result is interesting, and is exactly what I imagined.

Portraits don't always have to be smiley, looking into the lens shots. Sometimes the mood is more important.

What do you think?

What emotion do you think this image conveys?

Tech Info:

Canon 60D

Tamron 28-300mm lens

ISO 200 for face image

ISO 400 for branches images

Both at

1/60th second

F 5

Flash was not used for these images.

Self Portrait Project Day 6 (Preempting Day 5)

Hi, and welcome back to my Self Portrait Project.

I decided to preempt Day 5 which needs a bit more work in compositing, and show today's session first.

If I had to choose a title for this, it would simply be called "Depression."  

I chose to crop the image on the left above my lips because when I am struggling in the darkness, I feel like I have no voice. 

I used a higher camera angle for the image on the right to show that I feel beaten down in this emotional state.

The dark black and white images relate to how I feel inside.

No make-up.

No retouching.

Just my bare skin and emotion.

Tech details:

ISO 2500

F 4.5

1/40th sec

Focal length 33mm

Canon 60D

Canon 18-55mm Image Stabilizing Lens

No flash.

Lighting was tungsten 40 watt bulb with standard 

lamp shade for diffusion.

Self Portrait Project Day 4 The 3/4 body crop.

In all of the years that I've been a professional photographer, I have never met anyone who didn't have some concern about their body and how they would look in a photograph.

I wouldn't call it vanity so much as I would call it anxiety. It is no wonder we feel inadequate with our looks.We are bombarded every day with images of the 'beautiful people' that have been airbrushed and Photoshopped to perfection, and sometimes beyond. How can the average person measure up to that standard when even the models and actors are not perfect enough?

Each culture and each period in history has its own standard of beauty. Did you know that? During the late 1800's and early 1900's, fatter women were considered more attractive. 

I think it's time we stopped being so freaked out about our appearance. Let's love our own bodies. Let's embrace our differences and celebrate our uniqueness. Sure, we have things we'd like to emphasize or de-emphasize in our portraits so we can look our best, but let's remember that each of us has our own beauty. 

I know, that's easier said than done, but I can help you look your best. Lots of people have told me that they don't photograph well. My answer is always the same, "You just haven't had the right photographer yet." 

Let's look at today's images. They are all cropped at or near

mid-thigh. This is known as the 3/4 length crop. 

First my favorite

There is lots to like about this image. I like my expression, the way my hair is covering my double chin, the light filtering through the leaves and highlighting my hair,

the 'good' side of my face is showing, and the way I'm standing is pretty flattering for most women.(Hip pushed back away from the camera, torso twisted. 

In addition, I've utilized the shoot-through technique that I adore. Having something leafy in the foreground adds depth and dimension, and can cover critical areas that we don't want showing, like my plus-sized hiney for example.

Are there improvements that could be made to the background and my pose? Sure, but I still like this image. 

I did do a few quick Photoshop changes to this picture; I created a slight vignette, blurred the edges a little, and increased the contrast. If I were preparing this for a client, I'd spend more time perfecting the image, but this is good for a quick edit.

Next let's look at another pose in this series that shows what NOT to do.

 My torso isn't angled away from the camera as much as the first image, and my hip is pointing toward the camera. This pose adds the appearance of weight rather than subtracting as in the first image. This pose isn't as flattering for my breasts, my stomach, or my face. I do like the way my left eye looks, my hand, and my smile.

No Photoshop changes were made to this image.

Finally, let's look at the third image from today:

The tummy pose is flattering for just about everyone. Sure, you can still tell that I'm a larger woman. However, the camera perspective, the light adding definition to the shape of my back, and the relaxing nature of this pose make it a favorite.

I like my smile, the light in my hair, and how happy and relaxed I look here.

As we've previously discussed, my hair is helping to disguise my weaker left jawline, and my smaller left eye.
I could have brushed my hair away from my eyes and still looked good though. This camera angle forces the subject to look up, and that opens up the eyes very nicely in most cases.

I could make a few changes to the hand posing for a more graceful look, and could slim myself a bit with Photoshop if I wanted to. Overall though, the pose is flattering and the image is pleasing.

What do you think?

Do you agree with my comments?

Tech info:

Canon EOS 60D

F9

1/250

ISO 200

Lens

Sigma 28-300mm zoom

Flash

Canon Speedlight 430EXII

1/1 power

Flash modifier Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce

Self Portrait Project Day 3. The Wet Hair Look.

Have I told you that Herb Ritts is my all time favorite photographer? I have always been inspired by his use of light and shadow, his ability to utilize water to add interest to his work, and his mastery of black and white photography. He had a way of capturing the human form with such grace and beauty, sometimes it makes my heart ache when I look at his images.

When I started thinking about what I wanted to do for today's photo session, I decided to pay homage to Herb Ritts and do a black and white, wet hair look.

I wanted very strong features for this session since I knew that I would be doing high contrast black and white photography.

I used my Cover Girl foundation to even out my skintone, 

bronzer to darken areas of my face that I wanted to minimize; the sides of my forehead and temples, my cheeks and neck,

Mauve lip color on the sides of my nose to minimize my wide-ish nostrils and contour the sides of my nose.  You can see that I didn't get the line exactly straight on the right side of my nose, and it shows up in the finished images. Do'h! (Good thing I don't claim to be a make-up artist, eh? LOL )


white cream make-up to add highlights under my eyebrows, in the inner corners of my eyes, my cheekbones (I didn't do the greatest job on this part, unfortunately), the bridge of my nose, and my cupid's bow. 

dark bronze eye shadow on my lips to really darken them (made a boo boo by putting some vaseline lip balm to make them softer and it smudged the color all to heck and I had to reapply the bronze.

and
mascara on my eyelashes, as a smudger under my lower lashes, and on my eyebrows.

Not pictured: mauve lip color

As you can see in this picture, the results are a nightmare for color photography. Really hideous!

Next I wet down my hair. In this first shot, my hair was very wet. I  like everything about this image except that I'm not smiling very much, just a tease at the corners of my mouth. A bit more would have been perfect. Oh well.

Let's talk about posing for a moment. Note how my left hand is gently scrunching my hair and not pressing on the side of my face. Relaxed hands are important! My right hand is shielding my double chin and acting as an anchor for the image to balance out the use of the other hand. In a tightly cropped image such as this one, having one crazy hand or a few random fingers can ruin the shot.

Retouching: My allergies have been acting up a lot these past few days so my eye area is extra puffy. I minimized the under eye lines and puffiness, and softened my skin overall. I also brightened my right eye.

This next image is when my hair had dried somewhat but was still damp. This is a tiny bit drier than the hair should look for a session like this in my opinion, but I like this shot anyway.

Retouching: I softened my skin, minimized my under-eye lines and puffiness, and softened my lips slightly. I also brightened my right eye.  I could have chosen to remove the curl of hair on the tip of my nose, but it doesn't bother me. I actually like it.

What do you think? 
Do you like the black and white wet hair look?

Tech info:

Canon EOS 60D
ISO 100
Fstop: 22
1/250/second

Lens: Canon EFS 18-55 Image Stabilizer
Focal length: 18mm

Flash: Canon Speedlite 430EXII
ETTL
Zoom 24mm
Power 1/2
Tilt: 75º bouncing light off the (9 ft. white) ceiling as well as soft light from the front of the flash.
Flash modifier: Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce

Self Portrait Project Day 2. The Tulle Experiment.

I decided to play high fashion dress up today. Correction; I decided to create the illusion of high fashion dress up. 

I wore the same outfit I had on all day, I just added darker lip color and wrapped tulle around my head.

Below you will find today's "before" snapshot. I call it a snapshot because there was no professional thought. It was simply a light test and a quick shot to show where I'm working tonight. I'm sitting on my bed with the window behind me, and my camera is set up on a stack of totes because I left my tripod in the car and didn't feel like walking downstairs to get it. :-)  Mini lesson: don't be afraid to improvise!

OK...before...

Not very impressive, is it? LOL

As you can see, my bed is unmade and there is only about 2.5 feet between me and the wall. Small space. 


Looking at this quick test shot, I noticed that the curtains were gaping open, so I did close them before doing the next series of shots, and I shifted my position a little bit to camera right to center myself in front of the window. I also moved the camera accordingly. Other than that, I made no changes to lighting, location or clothing.

Next I put on a bunch of lip color. I really put it on thick because I wanted strong lip presence for this photo shoot. Otherwise, it was the same make up I wore all day.

Next I wrapped myself up in tulle, starting with my pony tail to make it stand straight up on my  head. Then I wound it around my face, neck, and shoulders.

The first few shots were unusable because I had the tulle too thickly wrapped around the bottom portion of my face and it was so dark, it looked like part of my face had fallen off. That made me laugh, but it wasn't the intended effect so I started again. I re-wrapped the tulle and got a better result.

Here is the finished image...

As you can see, the final image is striking. 

I used Photoshop to crop this image, as well as intensifying my eye color and lip color. I also brightened my face, and softened the edges of the image.

What do you think? Do you like it?
I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Tech info:

Canon EOS 60D
ISO 100
Fstop: 22
1/250/second

Lens: Canon EFS 18-55 Image Stabilizer
Focal length: 18mm

Flash: Canon Speedlite 430EXII
ETTL
Zoom 24mm
Power 1/1
Tilt: straight up, bouncing light off the (9 ft. white) ceiling as well as soft light from the front of the flash.
Flash modifier: Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce

Self Portrait Project Day 1 Facial Analysis

I have decided to do a project featuring me as the model. Why? Because I'm not perfect. No, really. Hear me out.

Many different kinds of people appear in front of my camera. Most people are not the so-called perfect model-types. In fact, I haven't met a perfect-model-bodied person yet, even though I have photographed a lot of models so far in my photography career.

How do models look so perfect? It's a combination of things.

Good make-up, good styling, good posing,knowing their angles, and good lighting/photography. Even after all of that, I still do skin retouching and sometimes even body slimming on models. 

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Good retouching should make the subject look more awake, more vibrant. Sure, I can make your skin as smooth and porcelain-like as you want, but in most cases, that isn't preferable because it does not look natural.

 My job is to help you look like the best version of yourself. I typically remove blemishes, minimize wrinkles, and soften fine lines. I might brighten the eyes and skin when needed, and reduce the appearance of under eye circles. I like to keep a person's moles and freckles in their pictures unless they specifically ask me to remove them in retouching. I slightly slim down certain areas, and might remove stray hairs if I feel they draw too much attention.

As a portrait professional, one of my duties before we even begin the portrait session is to do a facial analysis. As I'm checking and adjusting the lights, and as we talk, even as I'm giving you direction on how to do your first pose, I am looking at your face. 

Don't worry, I'm not making a list of your flaws in my head. What I am doing is watching how the light dances across the planes of your face. I'm looking to see if your jaw line is stronger on one side of your face than the other. (Tom Hanks has famously commented about his strong side vs. his weak side.)  I'm looking at how your eyes are shaped and how your hairline looks from different angles. I'm looking at your chin, your eyebrows, everything.  I'm looking for your best angles, and making decisions about how I will pose you because no two people are exactly alike, and I want to give you a customized portrait experience.

Do I use similar poses for different people? Sure, but every pose is fine-tuned to suit that individual. Slighting turning the head, adjusting an elbow, pointing the toes, it all makes a difference.

So, what is this facial analysis?

Let's take a look at my face as our example.

I put on some make-up and took a few pictures with my pro camera, selfie-style, holding the camera a little bit above my head, using on camera flash. Tech info will be at the bottom of this post for those who are interested in that.

In picture #1 you see a straight-on shot.

The good: My double chin isn't showing and my right eye and lips look pretty good.

The not-so-good: You can tell that my eyes are two different shapes, and that the left one is not only smaller, but also more heavily hooded. My left eyebrow sits lower than my right one too. The bags under my eyes are fairly well pronounced too. All-in-all, not my best angle.

In picture #2 we see an image of my weaker side. 

The good: My left eye looks a lot better.

The not-so-good: My right eye looks crossed. I'm not too fond of that look. My cheek is a few millimeters wider on the left than on my right. Lighting the wider side makes my face look fatter than it is, and I really don't need any help in that department!

Because of my weaker jaw line on the left, my double chin looks kind of saggy, which it probably is, that's what double chins generally do, but I don't want that accentuated if I can help it.

Also, this isn't the best angle for my hairstyle, in my opinion. I don't like the way it makes my forehead look.

Now, let's look at my best angle.

The good: My right eye looks great, my left eye is more shadowed so the shape difference isn't as noticeable. 

My hair is partially obscuring my wider cheek and weaker jaw line, so I have a nice shape there.  My double chin is mostly in shadow so it isn't as prominent, and if I wanted to, I could minimize it in Photoshop without too much difficulty.

I like the way my lips look, and my stronger jaw line gives good definition to the right side of my face. 

Everything is coming together to show off my heart-shaped face, my preferred hairstyle, and my blue eyes.

The not-so-good:

My left eye still looks smaller, but that is mitigated by the other improvements already listed.

I still have a double chin of course, but again, the appearance of it is reduced by proper lighting and angle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So what do you think?

Do you agree with my analysis?



Tech info for images in this post:

Canon EOS 60D
ISO 100
Fstop: 22
1/250/second

Lens: Canon EFS 18-55 Image Stabilizer
Focal length: 18mm

Flash: Canon Speedlite 430EXII
ETTL
Zoom 24mm
Power 1/1
Tilt 90°
Flash modifier: Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce

The Aurora Borealis Was a No-Show But I Had a Great Time Anyway

A couple of weeks ago I set out to photograph the Aurora Borealis. It is rarely seen here in Oregon and I was excited at the prospect of capturing it "on film" so to speak, especially since I've never seen it in person.

I drove across the river to Goldendale, Washington and set up my gear in the midst of a wind farm. I wanted to show the hillside, the midnight sky, and the geometric shapes of the windmills with the aurora flashing across the sky. 

It was a good plan.

Unfortunately the aurora didn't happen as predicted.

I waited for several hours hoping for it to show up, but ended up photographing the area and myself, just for fun.  I might be able to use some of the windmill images for stock photography sales.  

Anyway, here are some examples of what I captured that night, including some pictures of me being silly for self portraits. Hey, a photographer has to shoot, even if the subject matter isn't exactly what was planned. LOL

Tech details for the windmill image: 

Camera: Canon 60D

Lens: Tamron 28-300 zoom

F4 @ 8 seconds

ISO: 2000

Auto White Balance

Edited in Photoshop to enhance contrast and brighten the sky.