All these years I said to myself: “Buy 'L’ type lenses (the most expensive, professional lenses available) and you’re covered from the optics perspective”.
Well, last week I cheated on myself by buying a new non-L type lens. I bought a new 100mm Macro lens that I have fell in love with in 1 day.
Here’s one of the first pictures taken with the new lens:
Note: This image has undergone minimal post-processing.
So many cameras these days generate high quality color pictures that b&w photographs are now almost extinct. Is death the future of b&w?
There are several occasions where you actually would want to use b&w conversion. For one, if the colors are off and it’s impossible to correct them – convert to b&w. Another case for b&w is blending of shades (highlights and shadows).
In the image below, the father’s shirt was a different color than the sons, the hands were also of a slightly different shade. By leveling the colors we bring out the shapes … and sometimes - that’s what makes an image stand out.
P.S. You are the artist, you create the image, you have the power to exclude details that diminish its strength. Crop.
Why, why would you use a flash in the middle of a bright day? One answer would be to use the flash to fill the subject especially if the model (in this case) is located in the shade but that isn’t the case here (that case will be covered in my next post).
This post is dedicated to creating interesting and vivid effect that force the viewer to engage the picture as one would engage a puzzle. I wanted to create a setting where the eye is capturing a scene that the brain doesn’t consider as ‘normal’ or ‘usual’. As my programmer friends would say “something doesn’t compile”
This picture has the quality I’m describing above. As the model is looking up at the sun (presumably) her face is evenly lit. The unusual element is the shadow inside the umbrella. Read below the image for a technical explanation.
To achieve the following shadow control I chose to use an external flash unit with a remote trigger. The modification I’ve made to my EX580 really came in handy. I’ve positioned the flash about 2 feet of the ground (standing on tripod), pointing at the model from the left. Once the flash was in place, the challenge arouse around getting the correct exposure. I don’t own a light meter hence I had to resort to trial and error. Thankfully, after working with a wonderful photographer Mark Tselner of PhotoFXStudio.com, I’ve learned a thing or two about light control. The trick is to shoot in manual mode (M) and underexpose the subject by about 2 f stops. This will create the drastic shadows behind the model and give us room to create secular highlights to create that 3D effect we aspire to have. Once the exposure was set correctly on the camera, I’ve played around with the power setting on the flash to get the proper light conditions. I ended up using 1/16th power with a head diffuser.
Let me know what you think. Your comments are always welcome.
