Mike just recently graduated from BYU (go Cougars!) and he is looking into some modeling and acting opportunities. And of course one needs headshots and some portrait photographs for their portfolio. Mike found me via the Googles and we had a great photo shoot both outside and inside. The weather was sort of cooperative. Watch for the rest of the photos I’ll post in a future blog entry.
Mike's Portrait
Finding new locations downtown is always fun – and Zeb and I tackled a street named Edison which is between 200 South and 300 South. And most all of these photographs were taken with a snoot on my off camera flash. Snoots control the light and try to direct it almost like a spot light in a theater. Always fun to try new techniques.
Zeb
Zeb
Zeb
Zeb
Zeb
Zeb
Zeb
Zeb
Yep, here is proof that I will and do photograph female models.
Kristin is working to build her modeling portfolio and we started in studio and then moved outdoors. With all this craptacular weather we have been enjoying we were lucky to have a break in the snow and rain and have weather that cooperated. And we finished out on the Great Salt Lake for some portraits.
If anyone has suggestions for different locations I would love to know – I am hoping to go exploring. So I am open to bribery.
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Kristin Ridges Portrait
Julio was a trooper for this photo shoot. We drove out to the Utah Salt Flats and when we arrived most of the salt flats were covered in water – and in many areas it just looked like a giant puddle and other areas almost like a lake. I don’t know if this means that summer is the best time to visit the salt flats. But we did find an area that was drier – not as salty as I would have liked but we made it work and we created some amazing photos. And it wasn’t as warm as I was hoping it would be. Spring is fighting for survival in Utah this year.
And we photographed for about 2 hours – the Vagabond II battery pack that I was using to power my 3 Alien Bees started to give out at about 150 photos. Which is to be expected. If I was powering just one light then I could get about 300+ shots on that one light. Fortunately I have my Nikon speedlights and my Canon speedlites – which run on AA batteries. And I can fire them wirelessly as well. So I was able to mix one Alien Bee with 2 speedlights and keep shooting. Always pays to have a back up lighting solution. And usually one light is going to be enough – but sometimes it is fun to go overkill and have 3-6 lights.
Julio models on the Utah Salt Flats
I will have more photos soon from the shoot – I want to do some fun editing first.
I have a new photograph of myself on the Utah Salt Flats – although the shirt was borrowed – I didn’t bring a change our outfits and I was wearing my own “fat shirts” (shirts designed to hide my fat rolls. So I am wearing a size small in this photograph! Act – the buttons were about to pop off. But I like this photo.
As for the photograph I had the lights and camera ready and then just handed it over to Julio or Morgan and they would take a few photographs. I am still working on losing weight so hopefully in a few months I can have another photo shoot for myself on the Utah Salt Flats and be more worthy. And it was fun to bring out all my studio lights to the Salt Flats.
dav.d on the Utah Salt Flats
It has been a while since I have posted the behind the scenes of a photo shoot. This photo shoot was a practice shoot so I could try out the Canon 135mm f/2 and the Canon 50mm f/1.2 lenses. I hadn’t photographed a portrait session with either of these two lenses and so I love to practice before I unleash the power on a paid photo shoot.
Brenda was kind enough to volunteer and I will be posting some portraits soon – she was awesome to work with.
For lighting I am using the Canon 580ex II speedlite on a Manfrotto light stand. The softbox is my favorite – the Lastolite Ezybox. Although this won’t over power the sun – it does give me enough power to create some cool portraits. And I can shoot at f/1.2!
And I am using my backpack and her purse to weigh down the light stand – it was windy that day.
Behind the scenes with a Canon Speedlite
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
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.
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
Jhonathan Lange
Jhonathan Lange
Jhonathan Lange
Jhonathan Lange
Jhonathan Lange
Jhonathan Lange
Jhonathan Lange
Jhonathan Lange
Jhonathan Lange
Jhonathan Lange