dav.d photography

Posts Tagged ‘portrait photography’

1st March 2010

Example Portrait from the Canon 50mm f/1.2 Lens

written by dav.d

If you have been reading my blog you know I have been lusting for the Canon 50mm f/1.2 lens for sometime and I finally bought it about a week ago. And here is a sample headshot taken with that lens. Is it worth the $1500 price tag? I think so.

Why is that lens magical? The lens gives an extremely shallow depth of field – that means there is only a small part of the photo that will be in focus – everything else will blur into what has been called bokeh. So you will see that the eye is in focus – and the eye is the most important thing in a photograph. And you will see that the ear, hair, and even the tip of the nose it blurry.

What happens with the Canon 50mm f/1.2

What happens with the Canon 50mm f/1.2

This photograph also benefits from being taken will a full frame camera – the Canon 5D Mark II. Right now my brand new Canon camera is being sent to be repaired – the LCD screen was bumped and cracked which SUCKS! I have only had the camera for 10 days and it is gone for repairs.

Once I get my camera back I will create some photos that will compare the different apertures. These will appear on my NEW website – dav.d photography tips. I will also be demonstrating the difference between a full frame digital camera vs. a cropped digital camera.

And you might notice I am starting to advertise products on my website. I have never done that before – but I will be advertising products using amazon.com’s affiliate program. And I will only be advertising products I use or recommend or lust for in my heart.

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4th February 2010

Jhonathan Lange Male Model Headshots

written by dav.d

I am still catching up on blogging some older photo shoots. These photo shoots have been from Christmas and January and I had given the photos to the clients a while ago just never blogged the dang photos. And I sometimes like to edit the photos a little bit more – but more and more I don’t think I need to claw through photographs in Photoshop. More and more I am able to photograph and they photos are ready right out of camera – which is cool.

And this was my first photo shoot with my Lastolite Ezybox softbox – and I really like the light it creates for portraits. This is also proof that I can photograph outdoors in the middle of winter. We can’t go for too long because the nose will turn red but we get some great shots in the time we have.

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

Jhonathan Lange, Male Model's headshot photography

Jhonathan Lange

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1st February 2010

Bradley Portrait Photography

written by dav.d

I am playing catch up with my bloggy blog – and finally posting some portrait sessions from the past month. This photo shoot was with Bradley. He turned out to be a natural in front of the camera – and I will say that when someone is a natural I end up taking a hell of a lot of photos. But in any case I will do my best to whittle the photos down to the best of the best. I don’t want to overwhelm people with hundreds of photos and I personally get overwhelmed if I have to sort through hundreds of photos.

And the best photographers show their best work – don’t settle or bother with mediocrity. There just isn’t time in life to bother with a mediocre photo. And as I improve as a photographer I really want to show off 3-4 photos tops in a blog. But I still like showing 8-15 photographs. Maybe for weddings I will show a ton.

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

For Bradley we started photographing outside with my Lastolite portable softbox and my Nikon SB-800s. And then we moved indoors to photograph a white seamless and black seamless. I used my Alien Bees studio lights for the indoor photography. It really pays to have two sets of lights. Woo hoo!

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

Bradley's portrait photo shoot in Studio

Bradley's portrait photo shoot in Studio

Bradley's portrait photo shoot in Studio

Bradley's portrait photo shoot in Studio

Bradley's portrait photo shoot in Studio

Bradley's portrait photo shoot in Studio

Bradley's portrait photo shoot in Studio

Bradley's portrait photo shoot in Studio

Bradley's portrait photo shoot in Studio

Bradley's portrait photo shoot in Studio

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

Bradley's portrait photo shoot

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16th December 2009

Portrait photography for Austin

written by dav.d

Here is another photo shoot from this past weekend! Salt Lake was the place to be – well at least in the studio. I had lined up portraits sessions in about 4 hours – and it worked like clock work. As one person was wrapping up their photo shoot the next person was arriving.

Which worked perfectly so I could minimize switching the seamless paper backgrounds from black to white and then white to black in the next photo shoot. Conserves paper and done right we can avoid footprints.

Black and white portrait of Austin

Black and white portrait of Austin

And this was Austin’s first photo shoot – and any portrait session can be intimidating. But he did a great job. I want people to be themselves – if they look natural they look real. And for anyone – especially if the photo shoot is the first time I meet a subject the first number of photos are the “get to know you” photos.

Color portrait of Austin

Color portrait of Austin

And the chair was a perfect prop – it gives someone something to interact with. Props can really help out.

Black and white portrait of Austin

Black and white portrait of Austin

And these photos remind me of some of the old Gap photography. I am probably off – but that is what it reminds me of. I like the photos a lot – but then I am a big ego and it is all about ME! lol

Color portrait of Austin

Color portrait of Austin

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15th December 2009

Portrait photography for Shawn King

written by dav.d

Winter was in full swing these past few weeks – and I really don’t like to photograph in Salt Lake when it is this dang cold. Things freeze – and that is a rather unpleasant experience to thaw them out. So I had rented a studio space for Friday and Saturday for a few shoots – and in between those photo shoots I had a few practice photo shoots.

Shawn King

Shawn King

And studio lighting is pretty fun – I will say – I love shooting on location. If I have to pick between the two – location all the way. This doesn’t mean I won’t drag out my big lights – cause I will. I will light the hell out of locations. I was especially excited to be using my new Matthew’s C-stand and Matthew’s mini boom arm. These help me light from above the subject and not have a light stand in the way.

Shawn King

Shawn King

And my friend Shawn is a king at the Apple Genius Bar – I know a lot about Macs, iPhones, and iPods – but he kicks my @ss in the knowledge department. So during our photo shoot we chit chatted about various bugs I had with the iPhone or other Apple products.

Shawn King

Shawn King

And you can see that Shawn just has a fun energy – and that comes across in the photography. Models can learn from Shawn – bring an energy and a story to each photo. Dance, boxing, anger, humor even talking on the cell phone all helped in creating unique photographs.

Shawn King tap dancing

Shawn King tap dancing

Shawn King

Shawn King

Shawn King

Shawn King

Shawn King

Shawn King

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2nd November 2009

Urban Portraits of Zeb

written by dav.d

I had the opportunity to photograph Zeb recently. His dad is a pro photographer and I think that his skill has been passed on to his son. Zeb posts some really fun and creative photographs on his Facebook page and it is really inspiring. Especially when you know that he is often using a point and shoot camera.

I took the chance for this photo shoot to try a new location near 700 South and 400 West. I also wanted to try out my new medium softbox with grid and my golden reflector umbrella. I think more and more I want to shoot with gridded lights.

Sunglasses make any photograph cool

Sunglasses make any photograph cool

To often when photographing everything gets even light and nothing stands out. And I end up dodging and burning the photograph to highlight the subject. The more I can do this before the shot is taken – the better.

Hitchhiking

Hitchhiking

It is a lot of fun to try new things – in many of these photographs I used a softbox on one side and a beauty dish on the other side. It is a bit of a pain to carry 2 lights around and set them up and fiddle with the battery. But it can be sooo worth it.

Golden sunlight mixed with golden umbrella light

Golden sunlight mixed with golden umbrella light

Next project? I think I will try and replicate this with my small speedlight instead of my large Alien Bees. The small flashes are a lot easier to move around – and you can be quite creative with them. But if I really wanted to get crazy I could mix both big lights and the speedlights and get some really unique lighting. That is when I will find an assistant to carry things.

Red wall

Red wall

But I love these photographs because we are mixing the golden sunlight with the artificial from the strobes. I think this will be my standard practice down the road. Why settle for just natural light?

Sitting on the train tracks

Sitting on the train tracks

And of course editing photos is a lot of fun when you find the right plugins and photoshop actions. They are tools and often just starting points. But it almost becomes something like cooking. You don’t want too many ingredients and you don’t want every photo to be radically different.

Edited with Nik Software Color Efex Pro 3

Edited with Nik Software Color Efex Pro 3

Lately I have been using Topaz Details a lot to create some cool localized contrast. It works pretty well – but can be a bit buggy under Snow Leopard. Hopefully they will have an update soon.

Using a single medium softbox with grid

Using a single medium softbox with grid

Edited with Topaz Detail

Edited with Topaz Detail

Limiting light to create drama

Limiting light to create drama

Back lighting

Back lighting

Blue shirt

Blue shirt

White shirt

White shirt

Edited with Topaz Detail and Nik Silver Efex Pro

Edited with Topaz Detail and Nik Silver Efex Pro

Edited with Kevin Kubota's 300esque photoshop action

Edited with Kevin Kubota's 300esque photoshop action

Shirtless

Shirtless

Edited with Topaz Detail

Edited with Topaz Detail

Taking off the shirt

Taking off the shirt

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29th October 2009

Stephen at Silver City & the Utah Salt Flats

written by dav.d

Warning! This is going to be a long post because we traveled 412 miles to take these photographs so I am going to show off about 21 of them. I couldn’t leave that many on the cutting room floor and not show something off. These portraits were a chance to explore new locations and use some new lighting gear. If anyone wants to get photos take out in the Utah Salt Flats let me know – it is a cool location to photograph.

We started in Silver City, Utah – outside of Eureka. We were hunting for ghost towns and didn’t find much – except we found this cool shack.

Silver City, Utah

Silver City, Utah

After photographing in Silver City we when up to the Salt Flats – it was a long day of driving. But totally worth it. Cause the salt flats are really unique. They have car races out there to try and break the land speed records. It is flat and it is solid. So if we do photograph out there again we will have to stop by Wendover for lunch or dinner. Wendover is just a few minutes away from the salt flats. And since the drive is about 1.5 – 2 hours out there we might as well eat.

Utah Salt Flats

Utah Salt Flats

Silver City, Utah

Silver City, Utah

Next time I photograph on the Salt Flats I will need to think of something to do in the way of props or something. Otherwise you are just standing there looking cool. And you might as well have something to do – maybe flying a kite, or dress up as if you are a jogger, or a bicyclist. Or if you have a really cool sports car.

Jumping on the Utah Salt Flats

Jumping on the Utah Salt Flats

Part of the goal (aside from finding new locations) was to learn to light differently. Often when I have been photographing and lighting I light up everything – everything is exposed fairly evenly and in Photoshop I would add some shadows. But this time I wanted to create some cool shadows and limit the light with gridded softboxes and a grid on my beauty dish.

Edited with 300esq in Photoshop - one of my favorite actions

Edited with 300esq in Photoshop - one of my favorite actions

Working and learning to create plenty of shadows and darkness in photographs

Working and learning to create plenty of shadows and darkness in photographs

Digital has so much more potential than film could ever dream of

Digital has so much more potential than film could ever dream of

Silver City, Utah

Silver City, Utah

This photo? No photoshop and minimal lightroom edits

This photo? No photoshop and minimal lightroom edits

Clouds really help with photographing outdoors

Clouds really help with photographing outdoors

One light and the sun behind

One light and the sun behind

Edited in Nik Software Viveza

Edited in Nik Software Viveza

Another all natural photograph - no photoshop - minimal lightroom

Another all natural photograph - no photoshop - minimal lightroom

Another all natural photograph, sans photoshop and retouching

Another all natural photograph, sans photoshop and retouching

Jumping for photography

Jumping for photography

Utah Salt Flats

Utah Salt Flats

Utah Salt Flats

Utah Salt Flats

This photograph has virtually no edits – but it looks great. This is what the photograph looks like coming out of the camera. The more I can do this the better a photographer I will become.

Editing only in Lightroom

Editing only in Lightroom

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