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LIGHT Photographic Workshops blog discusses everything photography related. Adobe updates, computer suggestions, accessories that can save your life and more!
Proof of why I should not quit my day job. With the cost of fishing licenses and a really small catch, our prawns were effectively $600 per pound. Tasty, tasty spotted prawns but somewhat pricey.
This was onboard the Alaskan Legend last month during a killer photo tour.
Thanks to Dr. Kevin Keating for shooting this embarrassing image.
Fiat Lux!
This weekend is our Speedlite Intensive workshop with Hal Schmitt. Yesterday, after a great morning of instruction on the ins and outs of speedlite photography, we headed out to Sweet Springs Nature Preserve to put theory into practice.
Victoria and Becky were good sports and stood in as the models and they were very creative with their costumes. This just shows how dedicated we here at LIGHT are to helping our students learn!
Today, we will be using these powerful little lights to create beautifully soft light as well as edgy and dramatic light for their images.
If you missed this course and want to improve your lighting skills we have another speedlite workshop coming up this September 22-25 with instructor Jeff Greene. Jeff's workshop "Small Flash, Big Light!" will be a great opportunity to learn small strobes and enhance your lighting skills.
We are very excited to have Rob Sheppard back again for the 2nd annual California Photo Festival!
Rob will be teaching a number of techniques including Lightroom workflow, Basics of Digital Video, and Landscape Photography.
Get a sneak peak of what you can learn from Rob by checking out this great video and tip on shooting video with your DSLR.
Connecting with Nature from Rob Sheppard
A lot of photographers are interested in shooting video because most new cameras include this capability. Good video needs good sound, which is not something a photographer has usually paid attention to.
First off, you need to be close to your subject, or find a way to get a microphone close. No DSLR with video capabilities has a quality microphone built into it. In addition, built-in mics tend to pick up a lot of camera noise.
For a simple, easy to work with solution, try a small shotgun mic that fits into the camera's hotshoe and plugs into the camera's mic jack (your camera has to have such a jack). I use a Sennheiser MKE-400 microphone that gives great quality at a reasonable price and is compact enough to fit any camera bag. This video was shot with that mic and a Canon EOS 60D.
Courses are filling up for the 2nd annual California Photo Festival! Get your pass today by visiting
CaliforniaPhotoFestival.com
Early bird pricing ends August 30th, save $50 off your pass!
Hal will be speaking in New York on the 28th of August. He will deliver the new and improved Lessons from a Fighter Pilot that Will Make You a Better Photographer at the B&H Manhattan Event Space. The Event Space is located on the second floor above the Super Store.
I am biased but it should be a great time! Click the link below for more info and to register for the discussion. Details and Registration
Fiat Lux!
This moonrise capped an amazing day of photography on a recent trip. We were shooting all day with subjects varied from glaciers to brown bears to crazy, trumpeting whales and everyone was tired. Needless to say the moon rising over the high peaks and snow/ice fields invigorated our group and we shot a little bit longer.
I used a Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L mounted to a 7D body. A Really Right Stuff PG-02 and Induro CT314 provided the stability. Stability was incredibly important as I was on an anchored yacht in calm water but it was still rocking as a result of six whales lunging, diving, and surging. Turns out 200+ tons of whale makes a ripple or two.
The dynamic range was fairly large and in order to get enough detail in the moon I sacrificed a little in the shadows. I shot a bracketed sequence for HDR as well but did not prefer the image to the one you see above. Since the shadows were a bit dark I used Photoshop to bring up the tonality in the lower portions of the image.
When I want to brighten an area I often use a curves adjustment layer. Instead of moving the curve though, I switch the layer blend mode to Screen. This brightens the image by approximately one stop. I liked the result everywhere but the moon so I masked it out and kept the original tone.
Fiat Lux!
A little video we shot of Tim Grey donning a cold water survival suit. The standard is to get into the suit and be ready to get into the water in under a minute. Take a look and see how Tim does.
Just came home from two back to back cruises in Alaska. It just keeps getting better every time I go up there. Hope to have you join me on one of the cruises soon.
Tim will be back with us here for Lightroom (Tim's Lightroom) in August and in October for the California Photo Festival You can find more info about Tim at TimGrey.com
Fiat Lux!
In photography (as well as in life, of course), it's very important to set goals. If you don't set goals, how do you know where you are going?
Here is an example of what I mean.
While teaching a private workshop in Mongolia, the student and I had the opportunity to get the shot that every horse photographer wants to get: a shot of the horse with all the hooves off the ground.
To get the shot, I told the student that we had to (and you can use these tips when photographing fast-moving subjects):
1) Set our Canon 5D cameras to the AI Servo focus mode - which tracks a moving subject right up until the moment of exposure.
2) Choose the rapid frame advance mode.
3) Compose the scene (using our Canon 100-400mm IS lenses) with lots of space around the subject – so no important parts were cut off.
4) Choose a shooting position where the light was just right.
5) Carefully watch the background so that the subject was completely isolated.
6) Take several series of images to ensure at least one good shot.
7) Use a shutter speed of at least 1/000th of a second to freeze the action.
8) Shoot with both eyes open - so we could see if something was coming into the frame that would ruin our pictures.
9) Check all our camera settings (ISO, Image Quality, white balance, etc.) to get the best possible in-camera exposure.
• • •
Setting the specific goal beforehand, and going through the motions of taking the shot in our hotel rooms, we became comfortable with the process. When we got on site, we practiced the process again and again - before the show.
All our practicing made getting the shot relatively easy - again, because we set a specific goal.
So . . . I told this story to my students while teaching a workshop at the LIGHT Photographic Workshops in Los Osos, CA. The next day were were going to photograph horses running on the beach.
Guess what? They all set goals . . . and they all got the shot.
Set specific goals, and you'll have a better chance of getting the shots you envision in your mind's eye.
Explore the light,
Rick Sammon
RickSammon.info
Don't miss seeing Rick Sammon and 4 more Canon Explorers of Light at this year's California Photo Festival.
Early bird pricing ends August 30th! Register today at CaliforniaPhotoFest.com
Heading back out onto the water this afternoon for another photo tour of south east Alaska's amazing scenery and wildlife. Took a quick a break in Petersburg after the first trip. I needed a little time to catch up on sleep as we were shooting all day for over a week.
We had another incredible trip filled with amazing photography, incredible camaraderie, good food and wine, and pure fun. I look forward to sharing some of the images we made and the techniques used to capture them once I get back down to Cali.
Lion's Mane
Humpback tail and barnacles
Rolling in
Fiat Lux!
Very Old Ice with a little Topaz and Photoshop.
Hal will be presenting a webinar on the 29th of this month, noon on the West Coast, 1 PM Mountain, 2 PM Central, and 3 PM East Coast.
He will discuss using Topaz Detail and Adjust combined with Adobe Photoshop to enhance your HDR and image optimization workflow.
Register at the link below.
29 July Webinar
Hope to see you online!
Fiat Lux.
We have been approached by a local silk scarf maker who creates beautiful, one of a kind scarves. The process that you can see on her website looks very fun and very messy! She comes in with dark colored finger tips which gently caress her light fragile looking colorful scarves and says "I can't photograph the color close enough to post on my website".
She indeed came to the right place. Between listening to Kevin Ames, Jim DiVitale and, of course, master of the studio, Hal Schmitt, they have all shown me awesome tips and accurate techniques in the studio about lighting and post production for commercial purposes.
First you want to set up lights that are as balanced as you can get. We use the ProFoto D1 Air Kits along with the Creative light strip boxes. You can see in the photo I'm using 2 strips. The other softbox in the upper left is just hanging for storage purposes only.
I tried the scarves on white first and got a few good images but wanted to see if black would create a more rich color. Turns out- it didn't matter once I color balanced, set my white and black points and cropped in, but I like shooting on black better. I also prefer having the option of showcasing the entire product and for me, color seems to stand out nicer with a black background.
I hung the scarves on a C-stand to pull them away from the black background to allow the light to fall off quickly behind the subject, making the black background darker. If you are ever getting to much light on the background pull the subject forward, back up and the background will naturally get darker.
Also, make sure your camera in not in AWB (auto white balance). This could give you varying color balance in the studio depending on what and how you're shooting (thank you Hal). I put it in flash mode, but ultimately I used my trusty X-Rite color checker- incredibly important to maintain neutral, honest color in your scene. If I changed the lights in any way I would take the photo with the color checker again in case any inconsistencies came up.
I then loaded the images into Lightroom to see how I did. Bring up the image that has the color checker into the Develop Module. In the basic tab there is a small eye dropper next to your exposure slider. Take that eye dropper and click on middle gray or 18% gray. That will help bring your color balance to a neutral state. Set your white point and your black point. Some photographers are a bit more technical than that, but I find that this method works for me.
Sync your settings to all the images with that developed image and you are color balanced and ready to crop.
I had a little fun with some "posing" and folding of the scarves to see what the client will like, but I can tell that this is going to be the main challenge. Have you ever tried folding silk? Maybe get a wind machine... I can't wait to get started on her other few hundred once we get a good system for her images worked out.
To learn more and get more detailed workflow instruction, come to our California Photo Festival and check out Jim DiVitale and Parish Kohanim for your commercial shoots as well as Rob Sheppard and Tim Grey for your Lightroom workflow.
Fiat Lux
-Victoria
This weekend we are happy to have Marc Muench here to teach Light students the latest tips and techniques in exposure blending. Last night we shot along the Bluff Trail in Montaña De Oro State Park to gather images for HDR processing.
The fog left us alone just long enough to get some great shots of the sunset.
Today we'll be using the images from last night to explore the different ways to blend multiple exposures together to create stunning High Dynamic Range images.
We hope to have Marc back soon for another awesome workshop.
There will be more HDR learning opportunities during the California Photo Festival Oct. 12-16, 2011. Check out our website LIGHTWorkshops.com to see the rest of our summer workshops.
Fiat Lux!
Lee Varis will be with LIGHT a few times this year and he has set up a carpool discussion board for those coming from SoCal.
Check out his link below for info.
If you have not experienced a Lee Varis workshop it is time. Check out his two offerings here this summer; Photoshop Fundamentals and The Digital Zone System. These will be great fun and tremendous learning opportunities. Take a look at the course description here and you might be surprised by what Lee considers "Fundamentals."
The Digital Zone System is a modern take on the original Zone System by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer. If you want to know light, exposure, and your camera this is for you. Description here.
Off to Toronto this weekend to watch Victoria's Dad and Brother play a major concert event.
Dad and brother play for Supertramp.
Fiat Lux!
Victoria's IR pano of the Midnight Cellars vineyard
Yesterday's post featured a Photoshop Lens Flare filter placed strategically on my head. If you want to use the flare in your creative process try the following technique.
Open an image in Photoshop as a Smart Object. If you are going through Adobe Camera Raw, hold down the Shift key and click on "Open Object" (the button normally says "Open Image"). If you are already in Photoshop, right click on your background thumbnail (in the Layers Panel) and choose "Convert to Smart Object". Finally, if in Lightroom, right click your image thumbnail and choose Edit In-Open as Smart Object in Photoshop.
To add the Lens Flare, go to the Menu and click Filter-Render-Lens Flare. This will bring up the Lens Flare filter dialog. The radial buttons let you choose your lens category and the brightness slider controls the intensity of the effect. Sometimes difficult to see is the third control, the small crosshair in your preview image. Drag the crosshair to place the effect.
Once you click "Ok" a smart filter is created and the flare will be visible in your image. I chose an IR image so you can easily see the filter effect.
The beautiful thing about a smart filter is you can go back and make changes at any time. To do this click on the smart filter "Lens Flare" and the dialog will reopen to adjust your filter.
The Lens Flare is a great little trick to bring out every now and again.
Fiat Lux!
Never a dull moment when your friends are Photoshop experts!
Although I do thank Rick Sammon for showing everyone how angelic I really am.
Would love to hear comments on a good caption for this shot.
Fiat Lux!
Mountain goat from moving boat.
Canon 1D Mk III, EF 800mm f/5.6L, and RRS PG-02
Day five of my Lightroom "Zero to Hero" class here at LIGHT. Wanted to put up a quick blog before class.
I was looking through some of my AK shots and found these two examples of camera support working in my favor. We (and most photographers, photo magazines, blogs, etc.) speak a lot regarding capturing the sharpest images. Hands down the best techniques we have found are to shoot from a STABLE platform and use Live View when possible to compose, expose, and focus (built-in mirror lock-up too.)
A stable platform to me means good tripod and Really Right Stuff gear. I am using the PG-02 panning gimbal head these days which supports my long lenses and serves double duty as a multi-axis panorama kit.
The goat shot above is an effective 1040mm with a 1/400 shutter speed from a moving boat! That is only possible when the platform is stable. I also used Live View to focus and set my exposure. The PG-02 makes that probable but the addition of a long lens support kit makes the shot probable. There is not a gear solution for everything but having the right equipment certainly helps.
24 shot HDR pano taken from a boat with the PG-02.
For a cool writeup from Joe at Really Right Stuff about an awesome trip check out the following link.
Now back to Lightroom for me. We are learning the final workflow step today - Output. So plenty of time with export, Print, SS, and Web. Good living.
Fiat Lux!
After three minutes in Lightroom
Raw capture straight from the camera
Our Lightroom 3 course is in full swing at Light. People are often surprised we offer a five day LR course and remark "What could you possibly talk about for five days?"
Lightroom is such a powerful program it will make your workflow as effective and efficient as possible, but only if you use all of the tools, tips, tricks, and techniques. To get a full understanding of the digital workflow and how each LR module, feature, and function applies takes some time. We have found five days is the perfect amount to go from total beginner to complete master. Interestingly, the same often applies to folks who have been using LR for years.
I have always thought much of Lightroom's power is in the Library Module. Most of the photographers we meet have some inefficiency when it comes to the first three stages of the digital workflow, Import, Edit, and Organize. This is where a strong understanding of digital asset management and Library functions come together to save the day. I find it this aspect so important I normally spend two full days with the Library Module ensuring everyone has a supreme grasp of its power. Only after the required legwork can we get to the fun and sexy stuff in the Develop Module.
Man cannot live in the lab alone so we will be out shooting tomorrow morning and for the rest of the week to build some source material and hone our workflow.
We did get to experience a fun little bug in Lightroom today though. Always interesting when the big demos do not go as advertised. Not sure whether this is new in 3.4.1 or was in 3.4 but will do a bit more troubleshooting tomorrow. Fortunately, the bug is a very limited scope issue. I do a demo Import of several files and rename the files in the process. The files I use have a combination of upper and lower case file extensions. If you happen to have "Leave as Is" selected in file extension on the import dialog-File Renaming tab, LR will not rename files with an upper case extension. This only seems to occur when the import source contains files with both upper and lower case extensions. So probably only applies to me in a few demos.
Fiat Lux!
Love at Last Light by Victoria Schmitt
Barren Beauty by Kevin Cole
Last night was our 3rd monthly artist reception at the Epic Light Gallery. A big thanks to our featured artists, Kevin Cole and Amanda Valena, for putting on a beautiful display of fine local photography! We had a great group of people come out to support our artists and saw some new faces too.
We also had some new work added to our display from house artists Bob Canepa, Victoria Schmitt, and Becky Clair.
Fine cheese and tasty local wine was provided by LIGHT. As always we were pouring the 2005 Volatus; a 60/40 syrah malbec blend created by Hal Schmitt.
If you couldn’t make it last night don’t despair, this display will be up until June 17th. Our next artist reception will be June 24th with the return of Kevin Cole and a new guest artist.
Get all the news and updates about the our gallery by liking our Epic Light Gallery page on Facebook.
The Muse by Amanda Valena
Fiat Lux!
Here is the replay of the webinar I did with Topaz Detail a few weeks ago.
The mask process I quickly describe is available here.
Please send me any of your questions or comments to hal@Lightworkshops.com
You can find other Topaz webinars here.
Fiat Lux!
Hobart Bay Pano with Northern Song bookends
An early morning fisheye pano I shot recently. I liked the effect I was getting with the boat framing the vertical edge of the image but the only way to bookend was with a pano. With the 15mm FE on my 5D Mk II, I was able to get the effect with only two shots. I knew from previous efforts though I would have a problem trying to stitch just two fisheye images together with Photoshop. In order to make the stitching process go a little simpler (or go at all) I shot an additional frame for a total of three.
I stacked all three shots, expanded my canvas, and moved each into position manually. If you ever need to do this the trick is to switch the Layer Blend Mode of the layer you are moving to Difference. This will give you a weird ghosted effect but you can easily see where to position. After everything was in place I selected all layers and clicked Edit-Auto Blend. With the Auto layout selected Photoshop did the rest.
In the end the image was just under 10K pixels wide so I almost reached a 2:1 ratio for the pano. More importantly, I got the effect I wanted. I think the main lesson is pixels are free. If you have an idea shoot away and see what can be accomplished in post. If it works, great. If not, find another way.
The video below is the final from our last trip ashore. I posted the other two already so I figured I might as well finish it. As you can see my lens is still wet and I was not microphoned up. Hopefully, it captures some of the flavor.
Send Off from AK from Hal Schmitt on Vimeo
The "sushi" bar comment in the video is when the fish rush ashore and the eagles stand in or near the water. They reach down with their beaks and snatch the fish up; just like a sushi-go-round restaurant.
A single eagle at the "sushi bar" with one on deck.
Notice the fish jumping out of the water in the foreground.
The final shot below is the yacht I reference in the video. I will admit it was kind of small in the frame so here is a closer view.
Fiat Lux!
The two images above do not really work for me separately. I thought they might look better combined so I played around with them a bit. I am not a big fan of spending a large amount of time selecting or masking unless I absolutely must. When I do mask I use either Photoshop alone or Topaz Remask. For this composite, I wanted to try a blend mode switch and see if I could avoid any selections or masks. The process I used is below.
The first step was to create a stack by layering the two images in Photoshop. I used the trees as a background and added a few Curves Adjustment Layers to fix tonal range, color cast, and add contrast (you could also do that in Lightroom first.) At the top of the layer stack is my eagle fight shot. I moved the eagles into a possible position and am now ready to try a blend mode switch.
With the eagle layer active I changed the blend mode to Darken. The Darken blend mode works by displaying only the parts of the active layer that are darker than underlying pixels (in lower layers.) I thought the eagles are darker than the sky so maybe it would work. Unfortunately, the sky in the eagle layer is darker than the background sky.
To fix this little issue, I added a Curve Adjustment Layer and set it to affect only the eagle layer. To do this click on the the click to clip to layer icon that looks like a dark circle on top of a light circle at the bottom of the Adjustments panel or hold down the Alt/Opt key and click on the line separating the eagle layer from the Curve layer (you will know you are in the right place when your cursor changes to the dark/light circle icon.) When we set up a clipped layer the adjustment will only effect the layer it is clipped to. In this case, the curve only modifies the eagle. As I drag the curve up notice less of the sky around the eagles is visible.
I continued to move the curve up until the sky on the eagle layer was lighter than the sky of the background. Now only the eagles themselves show up with the Darken blend mode.
Final step for me was a Black and White adjustment layer. Not sure I will ever use the image but I like the result better than where I started and the technique is a great tool to have in your kit. This also works in reverse using the Lighten blend mode.
The final composite
Fiat Lux!
