William Beem » Event

Cheap Trick

William — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:00:53 +0000

I think this qualifies as my first concert photo opportunity. Back in 2006 at Orlando Harley-Davidson, Cheap Trick was playing for Bike Week crowds. Yes, I am a biker and I love free concerts. My boss at the time was not a biker, but he loves concerts. I didn’t realize it, but he ended up in one of my shots over the crowd – talking on his Blackberry. That just isn’t right. You can’t go to a concert and talk on a cell phone. If there’s a law against writing on the sidewalk in chalk, there should be a law against using cell phones at concerts.

There was no photo pit or special access. I was just a guy in the crowd with a Nikon D70 and a cheap Nikon 70-300mm lens that I bought for $150 years ago, trying to shoot over the crowd. No glamourous stage lights or explosions, but a bit of nice light coming from the sunset. Most of my shots didn’t come out because I honestly didn’t know a thing about concert photography.

Music Photography

If you ever wanted to get photos of your favorite musicians, it may have seemed impossible. The good news is that it’s not impossible. People are doing it all the time. You just need to know what they know. That’s where you’re in luck. Alan Hess just published his book on concert photography – All Access: Your Backstage Pass to Concert Photography (Amazon URL). If you’re curious what you get, check out my review of his book. I wish I’d known then what I know now – particularly at an open even like that one! The good news is that I can try again. Only a little over a month until Bike Week comes back.

Shrek the Halls

William — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0000

I went to the Gaylord Palms resort near Disney yesterday to check out ICE! It’s an annual event with some amazing ice carving scenes. This year (and perhaps last year, too), they went with a Shrek theme. The place is pretty dark, and also cold. They keep the temperature at 9 degrees. It seems an odd change when you consider it was almost 90 degrees outside today. I dressed warmly for ICE! and I was actually quite comfortable with the temp inside. That’s good, because this was another one of those places filled with visitors milling about and it required a lot of patience on my part to get a shot without a bunch of people in parkas taking snapshots in front of the various scenes.

They did a pretty good job on the Shrek scenes, but I kind of miss some of the previous show carving scenes – they were a bit more original. Gaylord Palms brings master artisans from Harbin, China to create these scenes each year. Their creativity and attention to detail is outstanding.

Pintura Project Returns in Orlando

William — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:00:50 +0000

Today’s post is rather short, but I wanted to pass this along. I received a comment today on one of my other blogs that the Pintura Project is returning this weekend, October 8th. I went to this when it started and was blown away by the talent of the artists and the friendly, community vibe of the event. This is the fourth event and it just seems to keep getting better.

For $10, you can spend a day from Noon until 9PM hanging out with great artists, dancers and music. Cameras are welcome. Parking is free. Most important to me, it’s just a fun group of friendly, passionate people.

The theme this year is “The Four Elements of Hip Hop.” Trust me, I’m as far away from Hip Hop as you can get, but I still have fun here. It’s interesting to see what comes out of the artist’s imagination. I love seeing their talent and pride in their work. Go check out their web site to get more details. In the mean time, I’ll post a few of my old shots of their artwork.

Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photo Walk 2011 at EPCOT

William — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 07:00:18 +0000

Yesterday, I participated in Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photo Walk at EPCOT. It’s an annual event where a group of photographers get together, go walk through an area, and take some shots. However, the photography is really secondary. It’s a social event. You may get some nice shots or perhaps not, but the idea is to gather around folks and have a nice time. That’s exactly how my day went – it was great.

The first year I did this, it was in the dead of summer. I joined a group in Mount Dora, FL and we had a reasonably nice time. We also melted in the heat & humidity. For that reason, I skipped the event for the last couple of years. This year, Scott announced a change of timing to October (expanded over a weekend, rather than a single day). That made all the difference in the world. Those of us in Central Florida woke up to nearly perfect weather for an event like this. Our standard heat & humidity was gone – the high temps were about 80 degrees and very comfortable. A front with dry air moved in the area to provide comfortable walking weather. Granted, it eliminated the clouds, but that’s OK. It was more important to have nice weather for the event. I read that some folks in the Philippines showed up at their walk despite a typhoon. Now that’s dedication.

Our Fearless Leader

Our fearless leader, Kevin Graham, organized everything nicely. In the shot above, he picked a very poorly lit place to give us our initial instructions, but it was comfortable in the shade with a cool morning breeze. Then we trucked over to the front of EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth to have our group photo made by one of the Disney Photo Pass photographers. Got some great shots, and then a late entry came and we gathered to do it all again to have a complete group photo.

So who was this latecomer to our party? Keith Barrett!

Update! Keith was not late, he was early. He was just early somewhere else and had a hard time finding us.

For those of you who are active on Google+, you may already have Keith in your Circles. If not, go find him. Keith is a prolific participant there who shares a lot of wonderful material, but he’s also one of those “glue” people who attracts interesting folks from different circles and brings them together. He also records and broadcasts Google+ Hangouts with Trey Ratcliff, which are on his site if you’ve never been in one before.

A Fine Group of Walkers

A fine group of walkers – that title sounds like an aging group of punk rockers.

As you can see, nothing prevented our EPCOT team from getting their shot. People got on the ground, they climbed on things. One man went inside a British phone booth (for entirely too long, if you ask me) to get shots from the inside looking out, up, down, and who knows what else. Our team would not be deterred from getting their photographs.

Of course, I did the absolute wrong thing. I brought my ThinkTank Sling-O-Matic camera bag and a tripod. The best advice for a photo walk is to go lightweight – carry a camera and a versatile lens. Well, I don’t have a versatile lens. I have heavy glass, which is what I lugged along. I also knew there were some HDR shots I wanted to get on this visit, even if not part of the photo walk event. On the positive side, I used everything I brought, except for my flash. I think I could’ve used that, too.

We Met Interesting People

Yes, there was a genuine cranberry farmer (or is it herder?) in the middle of EPCOT. He was suddenly surrounded by dozens of photographers who had never seen a cranberry ~~herder~~ farmer before. A nice lady from Ocean Spray came over and asked me if we were with the media, because we descended on them like locust. Once she learned about the photo walk, she gave me her card and mentioned that they’re asking guests to feel free to share their photos on the Ocean Spray Facebook page. I redirected her to our Fearless Leader, but in the end, no cranberries were injured.

A number of other folks came up asking me why we were all there, so I shared info with them. One of them turned out to be a gentleman who attended a swimsuit workshop with me a year ago and was looking for others who shared his passion for photography. Well, there we were.

The Photos

The timing of the photo walk this year coincided with opening weekend of the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. Naïvely, I planned ahead that I’d take photos of food & wine. Nope. Didn’t get a single shot of anything edible. We wound up the walk at the Chinese Pavilion for lunch and I noticed one of my table-mates took a moment to photograph his meal before eating it. Yeah, not me. Although I don’t care for most Asian foods (I’m a finicky eater), I was hungry and dug into it right away. My quick review is that I still don’t like Chinese food, but it doesn’t taste bad. It’s just not my preference. At any rate, there are no photos of food or wine here.

Part of the event is a bit of a photo competition. Folks from each walk upload their shots and the leader gets to pick a winner who, I think, gets a copy of Scott Kelby’s most recent book. That’s a LOT of books when you consider all of the different places around the world that participated. Kevin mentioned that he’s looking for something OTHER than the typical postcard shot of EPCOT. That meant I had to spend time looking at the place very differently than I have in the past. It’s a bit of a challenge to look at a familiar place and see what you’ve never seen before.

From the group winners, I think there’s another level of competition for more prizes. Damn if I know what prizes, as I don’t think I have anything prize-worthy here at all. Although I tried to look at EPCOT differently, I don’t think I really got much that was interesting. I even had to fall back and do the post card shot of the monorail. I can’t help it. It doesn’t matter, though. I had a very pleasant day meeting people, hanging out and shooting some photos. With that in mind, I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Photoshop World 2011 Vegas in Review

William — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:00:48 +0000

As I write this, it’s Sunday night after I spent a full week in Las Vegas to attend the latest Photoshop World. My body aches in places I never knew had any nerve endings. Trips are nice, but it’s good to be home to relax. Of course, I wasn’t smart enough to relax, as I booked a model shoot for this evening (more on that another day).

Overall, I had a wonderful time. Photoshop World is more than just a conference with training opportunities. It’s a place where I connect with a community of people who understand and share my interest and passion for creating images. Many of us keep in touch online over the year, but this conference is our time to get together. As good as the training is, I think the community of people is truly the biggest draw to keep me coming back to Photoshop World.

The Thrill of Photography

As a photographer, Photoshop World is a great place to explore new ideas. I’ve recently developed an interest in combining my HDR scenes with portraits via compositing. The idea never occurred to me until I saw Joel Grimes on an episode of The Grid. He showed his images and I was blown away. At the risk of being a copycat, it appealed to me because it combines two of my favorite aspects of photography to create something I can envision, but may not be able to create in one click. With that in mind, it was extremely gratifying to see that Joel was an instructor this year and he shared his insights and a bit of technique on how he creates his images. Furthermore, he explained the economic advantages. Compare the cost of paying for a photo permit for a site, bringing out a truckload of people with catering to perform a shoot (and hoping the weather cooperates) vs. showing up there one day with a camera & tripod and shooting the subject at another time on white seamless paper. The money he doesn’t have to spend on a crew may go in his pocket, or allow him to remain competitive in an age when budgets are being slashed.

Access to instructors who work daily with photography is great, but so is the opportunity to see the latest tools of the trade. Both Nik Software and OnOne were able to demonstrate updates to their software. I think they both really raised the bar on already impressive products. I particularly wanted to speak with OnOne to better understand their software on this trip, because I really haven’t been using it. The names of the filters seemed to be evocative of scenes or emotions, rather than just telling me what the hell it did. As a result, I didn’t use the software that I owned. With this latest release, OnOne has changed its user interface and, to some extent, naming convention, to address almost every question that I wanted to ask. They’ve combined the full suite of products into one interface using Perfect Layers as a base. Although it still works with Aperture, Lightroom and Photoshop, it also operates as a stand-alone product now. I won’t go over all of the changes here, but I’d recommend taking a look at OnOne Software’s suite to judge for yourself. It’s an impressive update.

Nik Software updated Color Efex Pro, which is my most used filter, and it now takes some cues from OnOne in that you can stack filters inside the interface before committing them to Photoshop. It doesn’t have the blend modes available in OnOne’s tools, but you still have access to use them in Photoshop.

As for training, there seem to be two types. One is demonstration and the other I’ve labeled as “show & tell.” Both are valid and useful. For demonstration, I particularly enjoyed Scott Kelby’s Travel Photography, Joe McNally’s Small Flash and Joel Grimes compositing (I also meant to get to Matt Kloskowski’s course on compositing, but got my schedule crossed up and missed it). On the “show & tell side”, I’d include Greg Heisler’s session titled Appropriate Response. It was an interesting insight to portrait photography and how he adapts his approach to tailor his subject. Dave Black showed some outstanding sports photography, including some very dramatic action portraits. However, he also combined that session with practical information on how he got those shots. It wasn’t demonstration, but it was still informative if you wanted to try his technique.

The Agony of Design

One thing I heard repeatedly from my friends who are designers was that Photoshop World is appealing to them much less than it has in the past. So much so that they didn’t think they’d come back in the future. I found the same sentiment in another person’s blog who reviewed Photoshop World. It was his first time and he found himself on the Expo Floor much more the in classrooms. Some designers who were there on a company account were happy to peek into some photography classes, but those who are self-employed seemed to find little value in the conference.

I’ve been told that it was quite the opposite in the past, where photographers lamented that Photoshop World was too design-oriented. My guess is that NAPP and the Kelby crew are responding to the feedback and market. Photographers asked for courses and we’re getting them. Designers, if you find this conference is lacking content that appeals to you, I can only encourage you to provide some feedback to NAPP and the Kelby folks who run the show.

My Happy Moments

Having gone to every Photoshop World conference since attending my first one – both east & west coast – it’s fair to say that I really enjoy it. Connecting with my friends is my happiest part of Photoshop World. Learning some new technique that I can bring to my own images is always a happy moment for me. I love learning, particularly when it changes the way I create.

That said, Friday turned into a really great day for me because I won prizes. Everyone loves prizes. It’s almost more fun to win something than it is to know what you won, but I won some really cool shit!

It started Friday morning. I had breakfast with my friend Michelle (after skipping the first class of the day because we’re tired) and then we headed for the Expo floor. Michelle is outstanding at networking. She knows everyone and she knows what’s happening. As a result, she paid attention to Twitter messages and won two prizes on the Expo floor the day before. Hell, I couldn’t even get a network signal to access Twitter down there, but that’s another matter. While we were waiting for the Expo to open, she saw another note about a give-away from Adorama & ThinkTank. Having just one a Domke bag the day before, she tipped me off about this one. The first person to reach their booth and shout “I love ThinkTank Bags!” wins the prize.

It was such a surreal moment. I’m far too big and fat to be running, particularly with a camera bag strapped to my back. However, run I did! The first booth I passed was the Adobe booth. Every single one of them stopped and looked at me. All I could do was tell them that this was my silly moment of the day. Had any other person been there to race me to the Adorama booth, they would’ve won. Fortunately, most everyone seemed to be more intent on racing to the Westcott shootout booths. Fine with me. I got there, proclaimed my love for ThinkTank bags (which is true, as I have two of them) and won the prize – a ThinkTank Airport Ultimate 2.5. That’s great with me, as it wasn’t one that I already owned. I thanked them, posed with the bag for a few pictures, and ambled my way over to the Westcott Booth for my own shots.

The next prize came at the closing ceremonies. The shot I posted on Friday was my entry into a contest for 4+ conference alumni. I also entered in Orlando earlier this year, but didn’t win. In fact, I almost didn’t submit my entry this year, but Michelle urged me to do so. Once again, thanks to her, I won! It’s a bit of a shot in the dark to figure out what will or won’t win a competition like this one. I made shots of each runway model and other aspects of the show. Some of them were probably technically better than this one, but I went with my gut to find a shot that conveyed the runway aspect of the show. I wanted motion, not just a shot of the model as she strikes her pose. Ultimately, the shot I chose had that motion. One model had this great flowing material and I shot her as she walked away from me, straight down the runway. Honestly, I didn’t have any idea if it would appeal to the judges or not. I made my edits in Photoshop and, as a last minute call, I slathered it with more Glamour Glow from Color Exex than I’ve ever used on an image. I didn’t even know what the contest winner would get as a prize. When Larry Becker called my name, I’m not sure it registered. My head snapped a bit and I finally made my way up to the stage to receive a new iPad 2. Now that’s a VERY cool prize for taking a quick snap at a fashion show.

Not long after, Larry started going through the conference evaluations to pick winners for the prizes donated from the vendors. I’ve never had my name pulled out of a box for anything good, so I didn’t expect it to happen this time. Besides, I’d already won two prizes. What were the odds of getting picked again? I remember lusting after some of the prizes other folks received (like a Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead). Sometime after that, Larry called my name. Again! I won a $150 gift certificate from Image Wizards for an AluminArte print. Once again, it’s an outstanding prize. I lusted after the beautiful images on display in their booth, but I didn’t know if I’d ever try it or not. Well, now I will.

There was a bonus win on Saturday, too. During my entire week in Las Vegas, I hadn’t gambled a penny. I decided to play a little video poker after breakfast before heading to the airport, just to say I tried. Mind you, my experiences typically aren’t really gambling. I put in money and it stays there. This time, I dropped a pair of Twenties in the machine and started getting little hits – a pair of face cards, two pair. Basically, not winning, but not losing. After a couple of minutes, I hit a full house and was up to $60. I paused a moment considering my options. I could play the extra twenty and leave with my original bet, or I could just stop now. I chose the latter. Instead of thinking about it as an extra $20, I prefer to consider it a 50% increase on my investment.

Of course, my cab trip to the airport and tip took away all my winnings. In the end, Vegas gets your money.

The Thing I Noticed Most

When you fill out the conference evaluation form, there’s a line that asks what made the biggest impact on you (or words to that effect). I really gave this some thought and was disappointed to provide my answer. Despite having a great time myself, I’d say the thing that made the biggest impression upon me was an undercurrent of negativity. People were whining and complaining about the slightest little things and it was infectious.

It started with the old man who snapped at me on Wednesday morning. I was talking to a friend trying to answer he questions on how to approach the fashion runway shoot and he was trying to listen to someone speaking. It’s understandable that he was a tad frustrated, though I didn’t think we were talking loudly. What I don’t understand was that his FIRST instinct was to snap at me in an angry tone. Try to understand, I wasn’t raised that way. Even if I’m frustrated or annoyed with a stranger, the first words I use to let them know about it will include some variation of “please”, “may I”, or “thank you.” Polite words in a reasonable tone. Not only is there no need to snap at anyone, but it’s really not a good strategy to get what you want. Perhaps the person is unaware that they’re frustrating or upsetting you, so give them a chance. Now mind you, if they persist after that polite request or don’t return the behavior in kind, I’m perfectly OK with unleashing a stream of vile profanities to educate them in clear terms as to why they should make some adjustments. You just don’t do that right off the bat.

People were complaining about everything. People were forgetting their manners. In short, people were childish and selfish. To some extent, this affected the instructors and staff, too. That’s not to say that they were behaving that way, but rather that instructors who were engaging at previous Photoshop World conferences were more stand-offish at this one. Not all of them, of course. RC was as warm and friendly as I’ve always known him to be. Brad Moore had a smile every time I saw him. Dave Black just seemed happy every time I saw him. A few other instructors, though, you could see looking out of the corner of their eye and they just had an expression that indicated (to me) that they didn’t want to be bothered. Perhaps it’s because they’ve been bothered a bit too much already.

My group of friends discussed this and we noted that this trend hasn’t started at the conference. It shows in the Kelby podcasts and some of the blog posts. They’re getting much more defensive. I don’t doubt it, because people are whining so much more these days. I traded a note with Nancy Masse and she let me know about the unbelievable backlash because the new magazine – Light It – was only available on the iPad. Well, no kidding! If you’re in business, you go where the market exists and the iPad is leaving other tablets in the dust.

The examples of this kind of petty behavior are too numerous to mention. Lest you think I’m holier than thou, I caught myself doing it on occasion. Like I said, it’s infectious. I try to contain my whining to my friends, since they weren’t the object of my scorn. Everyone needs to vent now and then. Gathering a couple thousand people together with different tastes and preferences is bound to cause some friction. I get it. How you behave under stress says much about your character. Some folks, I’m sad to say, are making things worse for everyone because they just can’t accept that the universe doesn’t revolve around them. It’s not that you were left behind, but maybe it’s just not your turn yet.

The Conference Wrap-Up

With all of that negativity in mind, I have to say that the Kelby crew does an absolutely brilliant job of closing its conferences. It’s a celebration of the past few days, with presentations from some of the instructors, outstanding video from the conference team who captured almost every moment and stayed up all night to edit it for this last show. Dave Black may have a past in gymnastics, but he has the soul of a cheerleader. During one of the presentations, he was literally running around the conference room cheering, clapping, inspiring the audience to join him. Fortunately, that spirit was also infectious.

The final presentations, give-aways and closing remarks put an uplifting and positive spin on a week that was, when you think about it, pretty damn cool.

Closing Suggestions

If I were smart, I would stop now. However, I have some thoughts about things I’d like to see happen to improve Photoshop World in the future. It’s not much, but since this is my blog, I figure I can put down whatever I want.

What I want, quite simply, is to provide my class feedback online. It would be nice if the Photoshop App had some form to fill out that let me submit my comments, as opposed to remembering to bring the forms from the back of the show Workbook. There were a couple of courses where I didn’t provide feedback because I ran out of those forms. I realize that connectivity was spotty in the conference center, but it worked fine in other areas. You’d get the feedback once we got to a place with better coverage.

Another issue is to ensure that the presentation matches the course description. For the first time, I marked an instructor down with the lowest possible rating because he completely missed the mark. It was supposed to be a course on how to be effective in business. That’s great! Many of us have provided feedback that we want this kind of info. What we got, however, was a show & tell on “here’s what I’ve done”, rather than a “here’s how I did it” presentation. Show & Tell is fine, but please don’t mislead us with the descriptions. I know we can leave to go to another session, but some instructors give a bit of background before they get into the meat. By the time I was 30 minutes into this course, I realized there was no meat. It was a bit late to join another session. His presentation, if accurately described, was fine. It just didn’t match the course description.

With those thoughts in mind, I’d like to say that I’m still impressed with the product and the people who serve it. A few technical difficulties happened here or there, but so what. Think of all the moving parts involved in producing a show like this twice each year. When something happens, they address it immediately. The people who run the show are friendly and approachable. I spend two weeks of my vacation on this show every year. It’s that meaningful to me.

Sadly, I don’t know if I’ll be at the next one in D.C. I most certainly want to go, but my employer is laying off people and my future is uncertain. Time will tell.

Trash the Dress

William — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:00:56 +0000

I ended up taking another workshop this past weekend. My friends John & Susan had a guest instructor for this one on a popular trend in wedding photography – Trash the Dress. Personally, I’m never planning on getting into wedding photography and thought this wouldn’t appeal to me when John first suggested I attend. I mulled it over for a while and came to the realization that this was essentially an upscale wet t-shirt contest. Sign me up!

We were told to expect to get wet, but you didn’t have to venture in the water if you truly didn’t want to do so. I figured I’d give it a try. As I was taking the photo you see above, a wave rolled rather forcefully up the crack of dawn. I suffer for my art.

The workshop started off well before sunset, so there was quite a bit of natural light shooting. If you know me, you know I hate natural light shooting. We were advised to bring a flash for when the sun went down and I was damn happy to use it. This shot of Lindsey was the start. John brought out his Quantum flash and mounted on a light stand, where upon I immediately realized that I didn’t bring a light stand. That’s very annoying.

The quantum kicks out a nice punch, but it was a bit more than I wanted. Lindsey was blown out in my first few shots, as was that white sand on the right side of the image. Since the flash was on a boardwalk above the rocks, it also cast a hard shadow of the railings on that sand. There’s a little of it still there, but I was able to reduce it in Photoshop by using the Clone Stamp tool in a Lighten mode, set about 40%.

I broke out my new Nikon SB-900 with Elinchrom Skyport triggers and started working on another model. Honestly, I wasn’t really knocking myself out with the results. Although it’s hard to see accurately on the camera display, it looked like I was doing nothing more than increasing the amount of flat light on my subject. It was better once I got home to see it on the computer, but I had to make a decision while I was there. You see, I didn’t want light all over the place. I wanted it where I wanted it. That meant breaking out the Honl grid.

About this time, Susan came along with her paint pole and offered to be my VAL. From there, we set forth and I got much happier than I was during the natural light shots.

I wanted light on my subject’s face and then to have it taper off. It’s rather difficult to aim a gridded flash on the end of a paint pole, so I had to guide Susan with each shot until we got it dialed-in right.

Susan: How’s that?

Me: Her feet look great!

Susan: Better now?

Me: She’s got a nice waistline!

Susan: How about now?

Me: Right on her boobs!

Susan: Ugh!

Me: Perfect, don’t move!

Of course, I couldn’t ignore my subject, either. Rebecca kept wandering out to sea, getting out of the range of my light. I had to tell her there were sharks in the water (undoubtedly true) to get her to come back in closer. We also did some really nice shots of her spinning around in the dress or kicking up the water. However, her expression didn’t match the mood of those scenes, so I felt it was up to me to provide some direction.

Me: Rebecca, you look sad. This is supposed to be your wedding day. Act like you’re gonna get laid tonight.

That did the trick. Hey, I’m here to help.

So now I’m happy. I’ve got low ambient light, got a gridded flash on a stick, and minion to carry it for me. This is working out great. All it takes is a little communication to get the light positioned right and then I can snap away.

By the time we got to this scene, it was just about over. The lifeguards were announcing that the park was closing (this is Lighthouse Park, but there is no lighthouse in the park). I filled up my 16 GB card and decided not to bother tossing in another for a few more shots.

It seems obvious to say, but there’s a lot of sand at the beach. It’s all over the place – fine, coarse sand on my fingers, toes, legs, etc. My shoulders are sore from lugging around my camera bag (ThinkTank Sling-O-Matic 30) and a messenger bag. My shorts are soggy from waves crashing up from behind. I’m a bit pinker from the sun. I’m hungry. Basically, those are all good reasons to call it a day.

Once again, I had a nice time with my fellow workshop participants, models and instructors. Everyone had a good attitude during the day. A couple of times, someone would come up to me and ask, “Are you William Beem?” When that happens, I usually want to just say that I didn’t know she was your daughter and I promise never to do it again. Fortunately, that response wasn’t necessary. A few of us talked about getting together on our own for some model shoots, so I hope that will happen. Group shoots like this one offer some interesting opportunities, but it’s much more satisfying when you have more control over your lighting and communication with your subject.

I have a few other thoughts that came up from this workshop, but I’ll save those for later.

Portraits with One Small Flash

William — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 07:00:26 +0000

I’ve really been wanting to get back into portraiture lately. That’s why I went to the Scott Kelby Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It – Hands On workshop a couple of Fridays ago, and to his LSR seminar in Orlando last Friday. I bought a beauty dish and diffuser to go with my Elinchrom BXRi strobes, and I just really want to use this gear. With all of that in mind, I found it somewhat ironic that I went out to shoot portraits on Saturday with a single SB-800 flash.

The Orlando community on Model Mayhem has held quarterly Meet & Greets for about five years now. I think I attended the first one or two, but that was about it. This seemed like the logical place to start getting back in touch with the local community. The idea is for photographers, models and make-up artists to get together and network. It’s not necessarily a photoshoot. However, the organizers are smart enough to know that photographers want to shoot and they hire a few models for a limited VIP shoot ahead of the meet & greet. I bought in and had a nice time experimenting.

Since this event took place in a small bar, the organizers asked that we not bring a bunch of studio equipment, but rather limit ourselves to one flash. The night before, we received an e-mail saying it would be OK to bring a light stand or perhaps an umbrella. A few folks did that, though I think the majority of photographers there were using a Gary Fong diffuser on top of their flash.

My own choice was a bit different. I brought two flashes – SB-800 & SB-900, an Alzo Digital soft box, and a monopod. I also brought a Lastolite reflector. I didn’t get to use it on Many of my own images, and I offered it to assist a couple of other photographers. I’ll be honest, holding a flash on top of a monopod with a soft box in one hand and my Nikon D700 in the other was a pain in the ass. When possible, I asked other photographers to assist holding the light.

That Alzo soft box is pretty rigid, but it’s connection to the speed ring is rather flimsy. However, it helped me create a larger source of light than a Gary Fong diffuser and it let me control the direction of the light. More importantly, it let me control the source location of light. Many people were shooting straight flash, or pointing their Gary Fong to the side. A few folks bounced flash off the ceiling or wall, but I was a bit dubious of that decision. The walls were red, and the reflected light picks up the color of the bounce source. I held the light high and angled it down about 45 degrees. Rather than tossing off a light bomb (ala Gary Fong), the result gave some interesting shadows.

Of course, it took my a while to get into a groove. I had some shots that were at a bad angle and too far away from the subject, so the light was harsh and all over the place. I started that way because these group shoots can turn into a bit of a cluster-fuck. The poor models don’t know which way to look and there’s a plethora of photographers in each other’s way. Fortunately for me, many of them seemed to want to shoot in the same area. That left me open to find a different model and sneak off to a different corner. Once that spot became popular, I could move somewhere else. Don’t expect that I didn’t grab a shot or two when I saw someone had a good thing going, though. I think most of us would prefer to work one-on-one with our subjects, but group shoots move quickly and sometimes an opportunity is gone before you know it. That’s why I grabbed this shot, even though I didn’t have the eye contact I wanted.

I brought two flashes because I wanted to get some rim lighting on my subjects. That would require some cooperation with other photographers there. A few folks were very helpful and I tried to help them in return. However, I’d say that most of the day was everyone out for themselves. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, and I didn’t really press the issue. It’s just that I think we could’ve all gotten some better lighting with more cooperation, but it’s not that much of a big deal. As I said, the point here was to meet and network with folks.

The reason I wanted my Elinchrom strobe was because of the light modifiers that I have for them – the beauty dish, the Deep Octa, a couple of reflectors with grids. After having used these tools at the workshop, I’m somewhat eager to use them on more subjects. On the other hand, using a small flash gave me a different kind of flexibility. With all the people around and the sudden changes, I decided to go with TTL for my exposure. My flash-to-subject distance was constantly changing and TTL adapted wonderfully during the day. I think all I had to do was drop my EV by 1/3rd of a stop and occasionally check my shutter speed because of the changing ambient light – depending upon which part of the bar was the location.

LLest you think it was all about scantily clad women, I got a few nice shots of Justin. There was also a nice group shot with him and a few oof the female models doing a bit of “Dean Martin and the Gold Diggers” vibe.

SSarah wasn’t part of the VIP session, but she came with a friend for the Meet & Greet. This shot uses the SB-800 through the soft box above her, angled down at 45 degrees. She’s holding the reflector for fill light.

Overall, I feel like the event was a success for me. I made some connections, got a few images, and discovered that I can adapt in a challenging (re: crowded and very dark bar) scenario. Now it’s just a matter of getting more processing done to share the images with the models. If you look around your own community, you can probably find a similar networking group on Model Mayhem, Facebook, or maybe through a camera club. My thanks to the organizers and I’ll look forward to the next event.

Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It – Hands On

William — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:00:26 +0000

I spent Friday at Dave Cross Workshops for a hands-on version of Scott Kelby’s Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It (hereafter known as LSR) workshop. Rather than demonstrating his techniques to a conference hall filled with nearly a thousand people, this was a workshop for less than 16 people. We had three models (two female, one male) and went through five lighting scenarios, just like the tour. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if we would get through all of the scenarios. At the end of the day, Scott mentioned that he also wasn’t sure if we’d get through.

Fortunately, we had an excellent group of people in the course who kept things moving along and didn’t get bogged down with shooting a hundred frames when we only needed one to retouch. In fact, the friendliness of everyone involved is a major reason this was a great day for me. Dave, Scott, & Brad kept everything running with a friendly tone, all of the attendees were friendly – it was just a fun workshop because of the people.

The Facility

Dave’s studio is really versatile. He has photos and a walk-through video on his web site. We had plenty of room, water & soda in the fridge, Subway delivered for lunch and a little chocolate fix in the afternoon. If you’re in the Tampa area, he also rents the studio out – for much less than I could rent a place in the Orlando area. Makes me a bit jealous, actually. Since I had such a good time at this workshop, I won’t have any problems going back if he gets another one that catches my eye.

The Workshop

The day starts with the handouts. Dave has brochures and discounts from his sponsors. Scott passed out copies of his recent book – Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers, as well as the same workbook used on the LSR Tour. The latter comes with a free download of OnOne Software’s PhotoTools 2 and the Goodies Digital Downoads.

At various points in the day, Scott touches on his gear choices and why he made those choices. In some cases, I have the same stuff. For example, he uses Elinchrom BXRi 500 studio strobes and those are the units I have. The reasoning about strobes, flashes, etc is pretty simple. They make a big burst of light. You can spend a little or a lot, but you get something that makes a big burst of light. So, you’re left with other factors to help you decide which product will make your burst of light. Those Elinchrom’s include a radio receiver and the transmitter can move the lighting power up/down by increments of a 1/10th stop. That’s pretty handy when you compare it to going to the strobes after a shot to change the power.

More important than the burst of light is what you put in front of them – the light modifiers. I have a few of my own modifiers, but I’ve been hesitant to invest too much in new ones until I knew what I’d do with them. This workshop answered those questions for me and changed my priorities about which modifiers to buy next. Since I already have a 39″ Deep Octa soft box, along with a pair of reflectors & grids, I ordered a 17″ beauty dish & diffuser when I got home.

My reasoning was from seeing the same model under different lighting conditions and the effect it had upon her complexion. The image I have of Lauren above was retouched, but the original image looks very good by itself. As we saw Scott’s photos of her appear on the monitor, we were all impressed by her clear skin.

The next setup was the complete opposite – dramatic lighting with quick fall-off. As each of the images from this setup appeared, I saw all these little bumps and spots appearing on her face that everyone in the room would swear just wasn’t there when you looked at her. Although I’ve read different things about how to complement a person’s complexion with lighting before, I had never really seen the differences illustrated so well before. I love my Deep Octa soft box, but that Beauty Dish looks definitely cut down on the retouching necessary in the image. I’ll grant you there were other differences in the setup, but I’m satisfied enough to buy the beauty dish.

Nelly was up next for a couple of compositing shots. The key tips I learned here was what works best for extracting your subject to use in a composite. According to Scott, an 18% grey background makes things easier than using a white, black or even green screen background. That makes life MUCH simpler for me. It means I don’t have to worry about extra lighting to turn white seamless into pure white, or preventing light spill from getting on a roll of black seamless paper, much less buying a green screen background. Put up a roll of white seamless, move your subject forward and let the background go grey. Mind you, it may go a bit too grey, but that was easily solved in Aperture before I exported the image to Photoshop. Had to learn that lesson the hard way, though. When I tried working on the image with too dark of a grey background, there were areas in her hair that I just didn’t get quite right.

The other key tip was just how good Photoshop CS5′s Refine Edge feature is for masking. I’ve used OnOne software’s Mask Pro in the past. My opinion is that it’s a pain in the ass if you don’t have a ton of RAM and strong CPU. The alternative for lacking resources is to break up your masking into sections, which prolongs the time you need to use that tool. CS5 doesn’t have that problem. There were spots I still needed to tweak, but it did an excellent job right off the bat.

While we were discussing this subject, Matt Kloskowski stopped by the workshop to show Scott the first copy of his new book on compositing. It just arrived and he was kind enough to pass it around the class to take a look at it. I only flipped through the pages for a few moments, but the photos are stunning. I believe it comes out August 7th, so I’m looking forward to getting a copy of it.

Speaking of Matt, he was our male model. This image is right out of camera without any Photoshop. There’s a beauty dish above (no diffuser) and he’s being lit with grids from either side behind him. A couple of things about the raw images from this shoot struck me.

Good lighting really saves you time later in Photoshop
Moving an inch or three can put your subject out of the range of good lighting.

In this setup, I noticed Scott had to adjust a few times when Matt changed a pose and stepped forward or backward – the light was no longer falling where it needed to be. I think I should’ve made a correction in this frame to ask him to tilt his head-up just a bit and get a bit more light in his eyes.

Retouching for a male subject is a bit different, of course. Scott demonstrated a few different techniques to add a bit of texture and grit to the image, but done selectively. For example, he could put this through Nik’s Tonal Contrast filter for a gritty look, but then it seems a bit overdone on Matt’s face – actually even changing the color of his face. Masking out Matt’s face left it as shot, but still added some texture to his clothes or wrist-wraps. Another suggestion was to apply the filter and then only mask it in selectively on one area, such as the wrist straps. I do the same thing with my HDR images – put the effect only where you need it.

Breaking New Ground

There were two other things that weren’t necessarily part of the lesson plan, but made an impression upon me. The first was using my Wacom Intous 4 tablet. For about two years, I’ve regarded this thing as the worst money I ever spent on photography gear. Yes, I know. Everyone who has one loves it. Can’t say that I’ve ever been one of those people, but I brought it to see if I could get some new insight on using the thing. I’ll post about it in more detail this week.

The other aspect was tethering. I’ve never tried it before, so I was interested to see what I learned about it from Scott. When he talked about the benefits of using tethering on a shoot, he asked if everyone used Lightroom. Everyone did. Everyone except for me. I think he had a moment where he inwardly groaned and saw a Bridge/Camera RAW user who couldn’t tether. Once I told him I used Aperture, he said that’s great – you can tether with that just as well. I practiced with it a bit when I got home and I’ve noticed some differences between Lightroom & Aperture for tethering, so I’ll go over those in more detail later this week, too.

Next Stop, Orlando

The LSR tour hits Orlando this Friday. As luck would have it, I signed up for that before this workshop was announced. I’m still going, mostly because I enjoyed the session and I may yet pick up a few more tips. Also, I like this idea of having three-day weekends. I simply have to debate whether to bring my own lunch or trust the offerings of the Orange County Convention Center.

One more thing – I sat next to Shawn Heifert who came down from Savannah. Very nice guy with talent. Check out his great portrait images on his web site.

Update:

Dave Cross shot some video of the workshop, so I thought I’d share it here so you could get an idea of what we did in the class.

Orlando Meet & Greet – August 6th

William — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:00:54 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve participated on the Model Mayhem site, but I recently received a message there from an old friend and started to re-connect. As it happens, I’ve received a few comments and inquiries from other photographers and models during my absence. It was a reminder that I’ve missed out on some connections that could’ve been fun and productive.

The timing is a bit fortuitous for me. I have a couple of portrait workshops coming up, and it turns out that the Orlando Meet & Greet crew has its next quarterly event happening on August 6th. I’ve only attended one of these events in the past, back in October 2007. After looking at the announcement, it seems that this community has really stepped up over the years.

They selected a nice venue near Lake Eola Park in Downtown Orlando, and I signed up to participate in a photoshoot session before the meet & greet starts in earnest. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what to expect. They’ve asked us not to bring lighting, except perhaps a flash. Having looked at the venue, I’m wondering if this may also be a chance to experiment with some HDR Portraits, too. I’ll bring the tripod along, but I don’t know if that would be feasible.

If you’re in the Central Florida area, consider coming along. As of this past weekend, there were still eight more openings for the photoshoot part of the meet up. Even if you’re not interested in that part, it’s an opportunity for photographers, models and MUA’s in the area to network. It’s not a shootout, though some folks may opt to take some shots. In short, talk and make a connection with someone before you start shooting anyone.

I contacted one of the organizers to request permission to share the announcement here, but you can find the full details and some photos of past OMG events on this MM Thread.

We are halfway through our 5th year of Orlando Meet & Greets and as usual and to keep you all on your toes we are changing up the format a little bit…We are back with a fantastic location that is retro and visually stunning with excellent drinks. We also have immediate access to all the beauty and fun that is Lake Eola.We have changed the hours to make it easier for models and photographers to meet up and shoot some great photosAfter 4PM there will also be a group of us that goes out and about to shoot in Lake Eola Park, so you can join us for that as well. The lounge is literally just feet away from the park and the lake.

If you would like to reserve a spot email Jesse at jesse@walker1812.com You can purchase at the door but remember space is limited.

Models are subject to change without notice, just have to put that caveat in here in case a model has to cancel and we have to replace them.

Model 1: Alicia Love

Model 2: Nicole Hampton

Model 3: Allison Peach

Model 4: TBA

As I mentioned, there’s more info about the event on the announcement page in the Model Mayhem forum. Remember, this is first and foremost a social networking event. It’s a place for people with similar interests and skills to connect. It’s nice to put a name with a face and talk a bit before trying to arrange a photoshoot with someone.

Freedom of Expression

William — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:00:28 +0000

iStockPhoto

I had my say on the copyright infringement case between Jay Maisel & Andy Baio, and I don’t really want to go over it again. Instead, I’d like to discuss the way in which many folks expressed themselves over the issue. For most of it, I could only describe it as hateful.

Many of us are fortunate to live in a society that protects our freedom of expression, but that does not remove the obligations associated with our expression. Just because you can say something doesn’t mean that you should say it, or that you face no consequences for your actions.

Do those consequences mean anything to you? For some, clearly not. There’s this notion that what we say on the Internet is somehow separate from our true identities. We see bitter comments coming from people that, I suspect, they wouldn’t say to someone in person – they’d probably get their ass kicked in response.

While reading the responses from both sides, I noticed some common themes that appeared.

Many of the comments supporting Jay’s right to file suit were from working photographers.
Many of the comments from Baio’s supporters were emotional and profane.

Quite honestly, the people who had a stake in making their living from photographer, rather than as a hobby, made a number of excellent points about why copyright protection was important. They cited examples of when they’ve given help to charity organizations, but noted that they should have the right to decide who and when they support someone else’s effort with the results of their labors.

I was disappointed that I didn’t find any eloquent or convincing speakers for Baio’s side. They had passion, emotion and insults. They view the world in a certain way and, to my eye, just expected everyone to bend to their will. I’m sorry, but your anger doesn’t impress me. Come up with some logical and rational arguments and then we have a discussion. Many of the points I read were easily dismissed, including Baio’s original comment that his experience with a lawsuit would have a chilling impact on remix artists. As I said before, that’s nonsense. No one said you couldn’t remix other works. The point being made was that you respect the rights of the people who own the work you want to remix. Many photographers repeatedly said, “Just ask us first.”

This seems to be a sore point for Baio’s supporters. I have to admit that I don’t understand why it’s so hard, particularly if you know who is the owner of the work. Contact information is part of the Copyright registration and it’s available for anyone to look-up.

Finally, there’s another aspect of this discussion that bothered me – the lack of creativity. On both sides, many people repeated or parroted the same claims. I found very few people who came up with original expressions about the issue, though some exceptions stood out.

We’re creative people. We should have creative and thoughtful conversations. It’s true, creative people can also be very passionate people and that may lead to some outbursts. For the most part, we’re also adults. A bit of logic, reason and ability to see both sides of the issue ought to fit into our conversations. We may still disagree, but we need not demonize each other for having a different point of view.