portraits

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Photo of the day. Portraits with Canon 7D

Yesterday I took some pictures of my little one and I ended up including my self for a few as well. I used a Canon 7D mounted on a tripod and a remote release to shoot it. The lens was a Canon 50 mm f1.4 I set the lens to manual and to aid me with the focusing I placed a stand where I was going to be sitting. The camera setting where at ISO 200 f7.1 (to allow some depth of field since I was not behind the camera to focus) and speed at 250th to keep the background black.

The lighting was done primarily with one flash and later I added a second one. The main light was a Lastolite Eazy Box 24″x24″ with a Canon 580EXII set at half Power. The soft box was on a boom hanging right above my forehead pointing down at 45 Deg and when added the second light this one was on an umbrella (reflecting) right in front of me. It was set low to the ground pointing up 45deg to my face. The second light was a Canon 580EX set at 1/8th power. The light were triggered with Pocket Wizards Mini TT1 and Flex TT5.

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Portrait and lighting effects.

 

I received my mew model on the mail a few days ago (a $29 female head and shoulders plus $15 brunette wig) her name is Niky and today I shot a series of pictures showing the effects of light placing.

First I took a picture of the whole set up showing where the light was in relation to Niky and then photographed her 3 times using that set up.  The first picture shows only the light with a gold reflector, next image is with a silver reflector  and no reflector on the last picture. Then repeated the process every time I changed the location of the light. This will show what one can do with just one light. I might do the same later with 2 and 3 lights but I figure this can be useful for someone starting out in a budget.

  This post is not a lighting class by any means, it’s more like an aid. The first pictures are taken at 90 Deg to the left of Niky (our right ) and then I worked my way around to be right in front of  her face and also one series of pictures is right from up above her head. The pictures taken wtih the second flash as a hair light should be taken with either a grid or snoot or some modifier since they are to harsh for my taste, also the one with the flash on the camera lower right is perhaps not the best location (hight wise) I like the ones with the flash on camera top left corner better. 

To keep things consistent the camera ( Canon 7D ) was sitting on a tripod, and shot with a cable release, the lens ( Canon EF 24-70 f2.8 L ) set to manual focus. White balance was fixed at 6200K. The flash ( Canon 580 EXII ) was set to manual as well and kept at the same distance on the different lighting settings. The soft box used is a 24″x24″ Lastolite Eazy box mounted on a Manfroto stand and an avenger boom, the flash was trigger with a Pocket wizard mini and a Flex. Last, to be kind with the flash I set the ISO to 800, f4 and 250 speed.

I sure hope this could assist someone, I wanted to do this for a while not only to share some experience with others but of course to learn more and practice. So far I can see that Niky has no chance against a person but you can’t beat it for staying still and not blinking while shooting. It is a great tool to practice a number of lighting effects, best $50 I spent in a while.

Regards

Alex Elias

 PS: Comments, questions or thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

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Picture of the day. Avatar self portrait

I came accross a picture of Avatar in a photo magazine and decided to emulate it. I made few different ones and this is the one that I kept.

There were quite a few layers to make this image and it was pretty fun. I’m talking my wife into it now.

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Picture of the day. Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and Flex

Back in December 2009 Pocket Wizard run a US meet up tour hosted by Mark Wallace. First of all, thanks to Pocket Wizard for showing firsthand how capable this devises are; it was great being able to use them in real life scenarios. As expected this little creatures did not disappoint anyone within the over 100 photographers that were there.

Mark Wallace is a top-notch instructor. His demonstration was outstanding, with plenty of information and knowledge not only about the use of Pocket Wizards but lighting and other techniques in general. The 6 or so hours of the class went by really fast shooting live models in a great studio location. The lay out was nothing but perfect, there were 5 stations with models and different lighting and backgrounds.

Pocket Wizards are not Pocket Change, but are worth the investment. I just got one Mini TT1 and two Flex’s and I’m looking to buy a third Flex as soon as budget allows it to end up with a 3 light set up. It is great being able to set  stands with light modifiers in a matter of minutes without the need of plugs or wires, indoor or outdoor and maintain E-TTL, the freedom and features that this system allows keeps on going on and on.

Here is a link to some highlight from the class http://www.youtube.com/snapfactory#p/a/u/1/Ea2PLp74b6E

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Canon 7D self portrait

I just got a Canon 7D and put the 40D to rest as a back up body. My first impression of the camera is that it’s worth every dime. It truly is an improvement over the 40D, needless to say I think it was worth waiting for it as supposed of going with the 50D  when it first came out. 

One aspect the I really like about the new body is that I can use the flash detached from the body allowing me a lot of freedom. I have not tried it outdoor jet but indoor is doing a pretty good job so far. The other thing that is a big leap forward is the focusing system, it is faster and more accurate so far and it has a lot more choices (which I’m learning still) and although it has tons of extra features those 2 are the ones that caught my attention the most so far.

This few pictures I took are with the wireless flash function. @ canon 580 EX as main and fill one to the left and one to the right and a Canon 430EXII on the back top left all worked just fine.

The last picture of my daughter was done with available light  at a higher ISO Canon 7D and Canon EF 24-70  2.8L

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Photo of the day. Pregnancy pictures.

A few weeks back I was asked by a co-worker to take her pregnancy pictures. It was a fun session, I guess the fact that we work together made it easier on both of us, besides  she is easy to photograph and was not be afraid of the camera. Her idea was to keep it simple; we used a pretty basic black and white back grounds and 2 lights ( Canon 580 EX as a main Canon 430 EXII as a fill and a Canon 580 EXII as the master) 2 umbrellas and that was about it. The lense used was 90% a Canon EF  24-70 mm 2.8 and for the rest the Canon EFS 10-22 mm 4-5.6 and Canon EF 70-200 mm 2.8 IS.

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Photo of the day. Family portraits

Last weekend we gather at the house and took a few family pictures. The set up was pretty simplistic 2 Canon Speedlights with umbrellas (left and right) with a third speedlight on the camera shoe as the master. Plan good old black background and the lens was a Canon 24-70 F2.8 .

Here are some of the pictures.