June 2012 - Storyteller

Multimedia coverage of a middle school service project

by Stanley LearyJune 28, 2012multimedia

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-0FPmaH_-4]
I drove up to Chattanooga, Tennessee yesterday to cover Roswell Presbyterian’s Middle School Youth Group on their summer mission trip. They partnered with SonServents on their Work Projects that also partnered with Widows Harvest Ministry to include: building wheelchair ramps and landings, scraping and painting houses, putting new roofs on homes, or landscaping and yard work.

Technical difficulties

Two lighting problems are: 1) under porch in middle of the day the youth were in some major shadows and 2) when they are painting the house they are facing the house and are always majorly back lit. While the house maybe white and act as a reflector, it is still a major light fall off. (photo by: Knolan Benfield)

My solution for this problem was to put two hot shoe flashes up on light stands to light under the porch and even out the light.

There is a Nikon SB-900 on the far left on a light stand with the PocketWizard TT5 to control the TTL output of the light. On the far right is a Nikon SB-800 on light stand using the same setup for TTL. I have on my Nikon D4 the PocketWizard Mini TT1 and AC3 to trigger and control the output of the flashes. They output is set to 0.

This is my daughter being interviewed by me for the project. (photo by: Knolan Benfield)

You can see the two camera setup here for the video interview. (Photo by: Knolan Benfield)

Video setup

I have a Nikon D4 with 28-300mm lens as the primary camera. I have the Zacuto’s Optical Viewfinder on the back of the camera to help with focusing. The microphone on the D4 is the Rode Video Pro. My second camera is the Nikon P7000 and I have the Rode Video microphone on it.

To help with lighting I have the LitePanel Micro Pro that helps with the shadows. The house behind her is in the sun and she is in the shade of the trees. The light helps fill her face and by having her in the shade she is able to talk without squinting.

Editing

All the photos are edited using Adobe Lightroom 4. I love this software because I can easily edit all the photos from a similar situation together.

For video editing I used Final Cut Pro X. I enjoy the simplicity of this software to help do things like synchronizing two cameras. I don’t have to convert the files from the different cameras when I import them.

I really enjoy combining the still photos with the video interviews. I think the stills help the audience have a visual pause to absorb a moment, whereas a video blows right through these moments too quickly.

Start to finish on this project

Got in our van at 7:30 a.m. and drove up to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Was at the first location by 9:15 a.m.

We wrapped up shooting all three locations by 12:30 p.m. Drove back to Roswell and stopped by a Barbeque place for lunch. Was home by 3:30 p.m.

Finished editing all the still photos by 5:00 p.m. and finished the combined project by 11:00 p.m.

Took a dinner break for about an hour.

I had Final Cut to crash and lost about an hour of time.

There you have a quick one day multimedia project.

Lighting a conference room

by Stanley LearyJune 26, 2012October 5, 2022Off Camera Flash / studio strobes

I will often light a conference room when the ISO needs to stay low. A few years ago, I owned the Nikon D2X camera. With this camera, most people felt comfortable shooting up to ISO 800 with little noise, but above that was a concern.

While I could have shot these photos with the room light, you would have to consider a few things. First of all, mixed lighting. While the lights in the room with fluorescent, the room also had a large window where some daylight was spilling in.

The easiest solution for me was to overpower the room lights just a little and clean up the color.

I put the lights down to 1/8 power to ensure the flashes would make all fire. I didn’t want to put a radio remote on every morning. So I have a PocketWizard Plus II receiver on one light while triggering it with the PocketWizard Plus II transmitter. If I put the lights to the lowest setting, they do not always fire.

I was pleased overall with the results with g d skins tones and colors throughout the photo. The s was important because I wanted to show the diversity in the classroom, and if not careful, some of the people would have been just a silhouette rather than seeing the skin tones we do here.

Lighting African American on black background

by Stanley LearyJune 26, 2012April 22, 2020lighting / studio strobes

This is one of my favorite photos that I have ever made. I think the model brought as much to this session as I did lighting her.

I love her hair, the turtle neck and her wonderful skin and smile.

Simplicity is what makes this work so well. You need to have the background far away from the soft boxes. There is easily 10 feet from the model to the background. So the amount of light hitting the subject drops off pretty quickly and what little light is hitting the background isn’t enough to register in the photo.

She is around f/8 on the Mamiya RZ 6×7 camera system. I was using a 100-200mm zoom lens and shooting with Provia 100 transparency film. I didn’t know how good it was until I got the film back from the lab a day or so later.

Sure I shot a test shot. I shot that with a Polaroid back using Fuji’s Polaroid film.

Lighting a science lab

by Stanley LearyJune 25, 2012lighting / studio strobes

I love shooting in science labs. I enjoy learning what the scientists and engineers are working on and creating that will impact our lives in the years ahead.

Here I used two color gels to help communicated “science.” I used blue on the background and red on the foreground.

To get a gel to be the same color it is in the shot it needs to to -2 stops darker than the main light on the subject. So here the main is f/11 and the background blue is metering at f/5.6. The same for the foreground red at f/5.6.

You will notice the power for the blue is full power. The reason for this is the blue gel absorbs more of the light than red does.

The main light is a 30º grid on a monobloc. This is the keep the light from spilling over onto the red or blue and watering down the light.

When window light isn’t enough

by Stanley LearyJune 24, 2012Off Camera Flash / umbrella modifier / window light

This was shot on a rainy day and to make the window light work, I added lighting.

Many times I am caught in a room on a cloudy or overcast day. The light from the window is just not enough.

To make the above photograph I put an Alienbees B1600 monobloc light with a white shoot through large umbrella just outside the professor’s window. To trigger the light I used the PocketWizard Plus II reciever and the PocketWizard Plus II Transmitter.

Inside the light needed just a little help to keep the shadows from going too dark. To soften the shadows I put another Alienbees B1600 with just a bare-bulb on a light stand and put it as close to the ceiling as I could.

The outside light was on full power and the bare-bulb light inside was at 1/8 – 1/16th power.

Below is the lighting diagram for the setup.

Next time you need sunlight through a window and you don’t have a sunny day to help, use off camera flash to create it for you.

Shaping the light is how you light metal

by Stanley LearyJune 20, 2012Off Camera Flash / studio photography / studio strobes / tent lighting

Just throwing light on a metal object

This is what you see a lot of on ebay and other websites of people selling metal objects. My examples are using my Yamaha YTR-734 Silver Trumpet, which I pulled out and started playing again.

After cleaning it up I didn’t want to waste not preserving this for myself.

You would think just putting a metal object like this Silver Trumpet on a blue background and using two off the camera flashes at 45º angles (like copy stand) would give you perfect light. This is how this is lighted.

Here is the setup for the photo above.

I have two hotshoe Nikon Speedlights (1 SB900 & 1 SB800) lighting the trumpet. They are setup like a typical copy stand photo shoot. Works great for objects other than metal. Perfect for copying flat art work and books.

This is the same photo as above with just the room light and no flash.

This is the available light without the blue background

By removing the blue fabric the white table wrap the light around the metal and give it more shape.

Two flashes

My recommendation is Tent Lighting

Here I am using tent lighting. I pulled back the front panel so you could see inside.

When you wrap an object with light all around it you get much better results.

There are four flashes lighting this setup. Two Alienbees B1600 up in the ceiling pointing towards the back and two on umbrellas as you see here.

This is the setup with white seamless background.

I think you might do a better job of selling this trumpet on ebay with lighting like this than the light above.

Notice how in the bell the blue fabric is reflected. if you look really close you will see just a little black spec. This is the camera peaking thought the front panel.

Here the only difference in the above photo is using a blue fabric.

Somewhere in between?

Maybe you want something in between the top photo and light wrapped all around the object. Instead of tent lighting just use white foam board and cut it into different shapes. You can then put a black sheet out of the photo but blocking light. Then just place the strips of white foam board to place you want to add white verses the black. Slowly you can give different looks. Use different color foam board and you can add color to the reflections like the blue fabric is doing here, but just put it outside the view of the camera but in the reflection of the metal.

Rather than me showing you everything, go photograph something yourself and see what you come up with.

3 Light Modifiers for Flash

by Stanley LearyJune 19, 2012Nikon D4 / Off Camera Flash

Bounced Light into Umbrella Silver/White

These examples show using a bounced light into an umbrella outside and everything stays the same except the shutter is slowed down to allow more of the ambient light of the outdoors to light the background for us.

Using an Alien Bee B1600 on 1/32 with bound sliver/white umbrella

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/200

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/100

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/50

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/25

Shooting the light through a white umbrella

Everything is the same in the example above but we changed the light modifier to shooting through the umbrella verses bouncing. See if you can see a difference.

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/25

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/50

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/100

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/200

Shooting with a 10º Spot Grid

This is going to another extreme of not lighting everything but mainly just the model’s face. Other than the light not lighting the shirt can you see any other differences?

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/200

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/100

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/50

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/25

These are just wider shot of the same thing above so you can see the light fall off from the grid light.

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/25

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/50

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/100

Nikon D4, Nikkor 28-30mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/200

I used the PocketWizard Mini TT1 to trigger the flash

I used the PocketWizard Plus receiver on the flash to trigger the flash

Try this yourself and see what kind of results you get. Maybe try a large white bed sheet to shoot your flash through and bounce to see if you get different results using it over your umbrella or soft box.

Hot Shoe Flash Lighting

by Stanley LearyJune 17, 2012Nikon D4 / Off Camera Flash

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 200, f/5.0, Nikon SB900, Nikon SB800 fired using PocketWizard Mini TT1 , PocketWizard AC3 and PocketWizard Transceiver TT5.

I enjoying using our backyard as a background. First of all I don’t have to light everything and we love the trees.

For this photo I wanted to tie our daughter playing her viola to the outdoors.

This is a wide shot to show the flashes. They are on Manfrotto 5001B Nano Black Light Stands and the Manfrotto 175F Justin Spring Clamp with Flash Shoe to hold the flashes.

I am shooting in TTL mode and after I take a shot I am using the compensation dials on the camera and the PocketWizard AC3 to adjust my exposure.

In this photo of the PocketWizard AC3 A is set to a +1, B is set to +2 and C is set to a +3 compensation.

The PocketWizard AC3 sits on top of the PocketWizard Mini TT1 in it’s hot shoe. You can also use the Nikon SU-800 to do the same thing.

In the first photo I have the camera at -1 compensation and the flash on her face at 0 Compensation and the hair light at +2 compensation.

You really just have to play with this to get the results you want.

Here we are shooting more in the woods than in the first photo. Here the camera is -1 1/3 EV. The flashes are at +1 EV.

She is getting some sunshine from the left and the flashes are lighting the shadow side of her face.

We moved again around the backyard to a different background. Also changed the lighting a little here as well. The camera is set at -3 EV and the flashes are on the right set at +2 EV and the one on her left at +1 EV.

This is the actual lighting setup for the photo just above it.

I am using an -1 EV so as to not loose the background but just tone it down a bit. The flash to the right is +1 EV and the hair light flash is +2 to help separate her from the background.

The lighting setup for the above photo.

The idea with the two hot shoe flashes was to use them to compliment the lighting outside. I used one light to help separate the viola player from the background by putting the flash up high and using it as a hair light would be used in the studio. I am using the other flash as the main light and using the natural light to control the background.

Because I am outside I am using the PocketWizard radio remote system to be sure the signal is reaching the flashes.

Once you master the use of the one off camera hot shoe flash and you are ready to expand try this exercise yourself. See what results you come up with using your camera and flashes.

Father’s Day in Photos

by Stanley LearyJune 17, 2012Photography

This is my Great Grandfather Henry Leary on the far right with his family. My Grandfather James Stanley Leary is in the middle. I am named after him.

Today is Father’s Day and you are seeing many people honor their father’s this year in ways that haven’t been able to do many years ago. You are seeing people change their profile photos on Facebook to their father’s.

My wife Dorie Griggs is honoring her father on her Facebook page by making his photo her profile photo for father’s day.

This is my grandmother and grandfather (James Stanley Leary) as I remember them growing up.

Now what I am seeing as I go through our family photos is that I really like the photos where the photography was technically good, but also captured them in a way I remember them.

This is my grandfather on my mother’s side R. Knolan Benfield. I love this photo because it shows him as I remember, enjoying some down time in the family room watching golf most likely. By the way I called him Daddy B. The B was for Benfield.

While we didn’t always have professional quality photos of our family, we cherish many of the photos because they help our family remember.

My grandmother, Emma Benfield and grandfather, R. Knolan Benfield with my mother and their daughter Bonita.

On holidays like father’s day we wish our children could have known some of their relatives they never got to know. Funny thing I have noticed through the years is our families have certain characteristics that tend to be handed down. I think in a way as we live our life out for our children they are seeing parts of their relatives from the past.

My mother took this photo of my sisters with my dad and I. This is Emma, Hannah, David (my dad) and me when we were camping.

My father cherishes photos of the family and I can never remember a family gathering without him have a camera or a movie camera in his hand.

My dad doing what he loved to do, take photos to help us remember these moments.

My dad recording video of our Christmas day one year.

One of the best ways you can celebrate your father’s is to take photos to help remember them. Take photos that help capture them at their best, like a professional portrait. Also, take photos of them in everyday life.

The one thing I think most upsets families after a natural disaster destroys their home is the loss of things like their photos of the family. After Katrina some camera clubs helped families recover their family photos by scanning the ones they found and helping restore them.

For my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary we went through and scanned photos from the years and made a slide show. We also made a copy of all the images and gave them to all the kids.

Take time today and find some of the old photos of your families fathers and reminisce. Then be sure and take some photos to help preserve the memories of today for generations to come.

Am I the best photographer for my client?

by Stanley LearyJune 13, 2012Photography

Have you asked yourself this question? Am I the best photographer for my client?

If you are wanting your business to grow you need to answer this question from the client’s perspective and not yours.

So, who else can your customer use? How does your work stack up to the competition?

It will take some time for you to be competitive. You must first being doing your best for you. You cannot be the best overnight. It takes time to develop.

Before you can soar you have to learn to fly

Let’s be reasonable, when you are starting out there are a lot of photographers better than you. However, you need to be sure you are at your personal best at all times.

You are building a reputation. You need to have your reputation precede you by word of mouth from your Google ranking, and from your business social media presence. What can you do now to help you have something that when people investigate you there is something for them to find.

When you go for it you need a good parachute

Preparation

Before you call on a prospect and hope they will hire you you need to have done your homework. You need to know all you can about the client. What do they need a photographer to do for them.

You need to be conveying value and not benefits and features. The only way to do this is to know enough about them to help phrase your benefits and features in ways that can be of value to them. How will this help them?

Always have two or three ideas to propose to them when you call. I like to think of stories that my customers could be doing. Most of the time these are typically best practices stories. Every company wants to feature those that are doing the very best in hopes that others can copy some of those techniques to improve their performance.

How will you back all these claims up with new clients? How about using video testimonials from your present clients?

Keep yourself focused on a goal

Keep your standards higher than your clients

It is easy to be satisfied with a certain level of work when you are getting work. What is dangerous is becoming complacent. Your competition only needs to show they are a better fit for the client than you.

If you are always growing and looking for how you can improve your competition will be behind your more often than in front of you.

Realty Check

Your clients are looking for a trusted adviser who has good ideas and thinks of of how to help them. They are not needing someone who is slick and great with a presentation. They need something solid and not about a great sales pitch.

Are you the best person for your client? Can you honestly feel that in your heart? If you can great. If not do all you can to be your best and be able to believe this about your talents.

What clothing works best for a portrait?

by Stanley LearyJune 10, 2012July 7, 2022headshot / Portraits / studio photography

Pick your clothing carefully

There are two types of photos when it comes to clothing: 1) For Portraits and 2) For Fashion.

If the photo shoot is for portrait you need to be sure that the clothing doesn’t distract, but rather compliments the person’s face. The fashion photo shoot is all about the clothing and the model is just there to make the clothing look good.

Look at these three examples of tops for a typical head shot.

Photo #1

Photo #2

Photo #3

To be sure we are concentrating on how clothing can add or distract from a portrait I shot these all the same so that the only difference is really the clothing.

First of all all three outfits look good on the model and the point isn’t about which one you like the most. The point in a portrait photo is which one makes you look more at the model’s face and less about the clothing?

Simple Tips:

Avoid busy patterns as in Photo #1
Choose a solid as in Photo #2
Avoid Stripes as in Photo #3

Each person will look best in one of the following necklines: v-neck, oval or round.

Color choices can be tricky as well. Everyone will look good in Aqua. The reason for this is this is the closest to the complementary color for the skin.

While different ethnic groups have different skin, the general rule is it is more about how light or dark the skin is more than color differences.

However the other factor is our eyes and hair color. Complimentary and the same color are generally good on a person. Complimentary colors tend to make you pop more than the same colors.

The general rule which is often the most difficult to follow is always keeping it simple.

Lighting diagram used for examples

Items:
(2) Alienbees B1600
1-stop brighter on background than lights on subject

White backdrop
I recommend not having it perpendicular to the camera. Slight angle will help avoid light flare caused by light bouncing off background

(2) Alienbees B1600 with bounce white umbrellas

Nikon D4 with 28-300mm
No description for this item.

Which photo(s) would you choose and why?

by Stanley LearyJune 10, 2012photojournalism / The Decisive Moment

This is part two of question series on which photos you would choose and why.

Again I was covering the Revive! Young Adult Track at the 2012 Eucharistic Congress put on by the Archdiocese of Atlanta. These are photos of a speaker for the evening.

Your job is to help me pick the best photo or photos that would run with an article about her speaking to the group.

Here is the write up from the Archdiocese of Atlanta website, which is all I knew about her going into the evening. http://www.archatl.com/congress/revive.html

Come back and check out the discussions about why people choose one photo over another photo. Be sure and vote below so you can see how you compare with others.

Mother Mary Assumpta

Mother M. Assumpta Long, O.P., is the prioress general of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, Mich. She was one of the four founding sisters of the community in 1997 as Pope John Paul II invited new religious communities to form and respond to the needs of the New Evangelization. The community now has over 100 sisters teaching in seven dioceses, drawing its inspiration from the rich heritage of the Dominican Order of Preachers and the vitality of the New Evangelization. The average age of the sisters is 28.

A former college president, Mother Assumpta holds a licentiate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome, Italy, and has taught at the elementary, secondary and junior college levels. In the early 1990s she was invited by Cardinal John O’Connor to assist with the initial formation of the Sisters of Life in New York. She is a well-known speaker throughout the United States.

Help me pick a photo or a series of photos