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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Edited with Topaz Detail
Limiting light to create drama
Back lighting
Blue shirt
White shirt
Edited with Topaz Detail and Nik Silver Efex Pro
Edited with Kevin Kubota's 300esque photoshop action
Shirtless
Edited with Topaz Detail
Taking off the shirt
