Flash/Light Meter simplifies lighting

I think anyone using studio strobes will greatly benefit from a flash meter. Here is the older Sekonic Meter I use most of the time. 

The primary thing I use the flash meter for is getting the exposure for my subject. I always start here when shooting. The light I am measuring is the main light, because it is lighting my subject, not because of how bright it is.

Once you have this reading you can then take other readings. If you have two lights hitting the subject as in this photo below I wanted to control the contrast in the photo and using a flash meter was very helpful.

This is Masha, one of the School of Photography 1 students I was teaching in Hawaii a couple weeks ago. She was my model as I taught the class how to ratio lights.

In a very classic lighting setup like this the main light is 45º to the axis of the camera and subject. The second light is one the same axis as the camera, which is perpendicular to the background.

I took a reading first of the main light that is 45º to the right of the camera. ƒ/8 was the reading for the main light on ISO 100 and sync speed of 1/250.  I turned this light off and then worked at setting the second (fill light) behind the camera to ƒ/5.6, which is 1/2 the power of the first light.

Once this was set I turned both the lights on and took another reading and the combined ƒ-stop was ƒ/9.

Taking reading of the background for the top photo of the soldier

When I made the photo of the soldier I knew I wanted the background which was white to be two stops brighter than the subject. The subject was ƒ/16 and therefore background is ƒ/32.

Some people prefer to getting a reflective reading off the background, but either way the reading needs to be two stops greater than the subject.

Many photographer will measure the background with the lights on it at full power and then set the main light on the subject by under exposing by 2 ƒ-stops.

For the portrait of Masha, I had a black background and put a blue gel over the flash and metered the background to be 2 ƒ-stops under exposed as compared to the subject. In the photo of Masha the background was just a tad brighter than ƒ/4, which was 2 ƒ-stops darker than the ƒ/9 of the two lights combined hitting her face.

You can do all this using your histogram, but lets just say the explanation of how to do it is a lot more complex than this for using the flash meter.

Tiare Nuualiitia (foreground) and Maile Powell listen to some of Stanley’s instructions for lighting project for School of Photography 1 in Kona, Hawaii. Photo by Dennis Fahringer

Having your work reviewed can be a real nail biter for sure. While I was teaching in Kona, Hawaii Dennis Fahringer took this photo of the students listening to me. 

Each one of the students would be talking to me later about how difficult the assignments were, but now on the other side of them are grateful for the assignment.

Joanna Pinneo (center) reviews portfolios during the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference

During the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference students, pros and amateurs all wanted some time to have their work reviewed.  Here Joanna Pinneo is reviewing a photographers work.

You can even see in the guys body language how interested he is in her opinion.

Ayssa Fleming has her work reviewed by Bill Bangham during the School of Photography 1 in Kona, Hawaii.

Masha Shulgina has her work reviewed by Bill Bangham during the School of Photography 1 in Kona, Hawaii.

Franziska Escher has her work reviewed by Bill Bangham during the School of Photography 1 in Kona, Hawaii.

Stanley’s Tips for a Portfolio Review

• Let your work speak for itself. Please don’t tell people all about the photos, if the photo doesn’t do a good job of that on it’s own then maybe it shouldn’t be in the portfolio. If the person looking at the photos wants to know more they will ask.
• Listen for what is not said as much as what is said. Often when reviewing a new photographer’s work I am looking desperately for something good in the midst of snapshots. I want to encourage you, but I don’t want you to think everything is great either. If I don’t say anything about a photo, believe me it is because I am not impressed. If you ask me I might try to find something good to say, however, if you are fishing for compliments your work isn’t that good.
• Portfolio review isn’t about praise of your work. If your work is the greatest of all time then maybe you will get a WOW and I wish I had your portfolio comment. You should be looking for pointers on what to do next time to make the photo better. 
• Millimeters are critical for great photos. One example of how a millimeter can make or break a photo is just the difference in the camera’s point of view and the subject’s eyes. Just tad bit high and you look down at the subject. Eye level with the subject is something quite different than just a little lower and looking up. As you get better this is what you are looking for the little things to improve your work.
• There are stages of growth in photography. Early in your career you may need some really basic tips to help improve your photography. At this point someone talking to you about a millimeter of difference will not help you. You have a lot of work to do before they can talk to you about those differences.
• Establish a relationship if possible. You need to pick people to review your work that you can go back to later and show them again. They will be able to then see your growth and frankly if you paid attention.
• Ask always if you can follow up and how. Plan to go out and shoot as soon as you can after your review. Work on the tips they pointed out to you and then somehow get them to see your revisions in that portfolio. You might just need to show them one project you are working on and get their feedback.
• You never arrive at the top. There is always room for growth. Always seek out feedback on your work for the rest of your career. If you are not growing then you are dying. 

Justin and Ashley Veneman (on right) review a students work during the student workshop at the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference in Fort Worth, TX.

Dave Black, center, reviews a students work while other students look on and learn from the critique. In the back is Patrick Murphy-Racey (Tennessee hat) and Bob Carey who are also leaders in the workshop.

Anacleto Rapping (far left) and Joanna Pinneo (far right) review a student’s work at the workshop.

This photo was take around 1:00 am. Dave Black stayed up until 2:00 am critiquing work of anyone who wanted his thoughts during the workshop.

Heartbridge performs at the Ohana Gathering on Thursday night in Kona, Hawaii.

When you are assigned to cover an event be careful not to focus all your attention on the center stage.

Loren Cunningham is the keynote speaker for the Ohana Gathering.

You have to get the center stage of course, but just look around and maybe even go outside and you might be surprised as to what you find.

Here I found that if I color balanced for the tungsten lighting on the stage the sky went even to a darker blue at dusk.

When I travel I always carry two external hard drives. With the Mac computer you can have a complete copy of your hard drive on an external hard drive.

Making of mirror backup

I use the SuperDuper software to create a duplicate hard drive of my computer.

There are a few benefits to having a copy of your hard drive. First of all it is a backup. If your computer hard drive fails and is not recoverable then you have everything on your backup hard drive. Well you will have almost everything, from the time you backed it up till the time you use it all that material will be lost.

When the software launches it will look like this screen to the right. The hard drive on your computer is on your left and then the hard drive you are backing up to is on the right. 

There are a few options, but I pick the full backup. The first time it backs it all up and later it will only add the changes.

For the Mac user when you have an external hard drive that has everything on it, you can borrow another person’s Mac and launch your computer.

Turn the computer off and then when you launch the computer just hold down the option key until you see your hard drive pop up as an option. Just click on your hard drive and now you are on your computer. Now it is not quite as fast as if it were built in, but it works great.

If your computer is giving you trouble then running repair permissions from your external hard drive will let you do an even better job of clearing up errors on your main hard drive.

You see your computer cannot fix something that is running. The only way to fix it is to run it from another hard drive sometimes.

To run “Repair Permissions” go to your utilities folder and click on Disk Utilities. It looks like the icon here with the stethoscope on the hard drive. Pick the hard drive you want to repair and then click on “Repair Permissions”

Now one more software I recommend buying is DiskWarrior. This software will do major repairs to your hard drive for you. However you must either use their CD or an external hard drive to run it. It really improves the performance of my computer.

I recommend running it about once a month.

It does more than just repair permissions. If your computer crashes ever, run DiskWarrior to clean up any damage done.

The reason I use an external hard drive to backup my system is to have a duplicate with me in case of emergency and to help me improve the performance of my main hard drive.

Hard Drive for Pictures and Video

My second external hard drive is where I put all the photos and video I shoot on jobs. I never put them on the main hard drive.

First of all shooting with a Nikon D4 in RAW mode creates a 24 mb file. My first hard drive was only 40 mb.  It will not take long to fill a hard drive shooting in RAW mode.  Videos are easily hundreds of megs in size as a bare minimum. Some run a few gigs and having this size file will wear out your primary drive if you put them on and off repeatedly.

Beyond Travel

I have more than one backup of my primary drive. I have at least two more of these back in my home office. I also have multiple backups of the photos on different hard drive.

My recommendation is to always carry at least two external hard drives to do at least at a bare minimum what I am doing.

This is a tip I learned today from my fellow photographer friend Nathan Fowler.

If you are covering a meeting then take photo of the schedule as the very first photo on the camera. This way you can easy reference it.

Your camera will by default show you the last photo you made and there for to start at the beginning is just a click to next photo which takes you back to your first. This way you can pull up the schedule and review it easily. 

Why do this? How often are in in a dark room in the back covering a meeting and cannot see the schedule. On the LCD on the camera it is lit up easy to see. You can zoom in and read the details.

I will be doing this for now on, how about you?

I had to share these photos of the eight point buck that was in our backyard in Roswell, GA. [Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 1250, ƒ/5.6, & 1/2000]

The old cliché “It is easier to get a job when you have a job” is like the other cliché “It is easier to get a loan when you don’t need one.”

If you are unhappy in a job there is a good chance that those around you and even your boss will notice this attitude. Once you assess your situation and eliminate the unpleasant requirements of almost any job, you may need to find a new job or even career.

Many people will plan their exit strategy. If it is a career change you may need to go to school and maybe you can do this nights or even online. If it is just the wrong workplace and not a career change then you can start right away.

[Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 1000, ƒ/5.6, & 1/2000]

It is better to be proactive than to be fired, because explaining the reason you need a job to a new employer because you lost your job is a red flag.

If you see the business struggling it is better to get out of there before you are laid off for similar reason.

The freelancer also needs to be aware that showing current project work is equivalent to having a job.

Another reason people leave companies is to increase their income. Other companies would love to hire someone away from another company that helped improve the company’s bottom line. Come and help us do what you did for your previous employer. Often this will be for better pay.

After helping the new company you may pick up a few more skills that another company will again lure you to them because of your high performance.

The Citadel playing North Georgia College in Rugby. [Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 900, ƒ/5.6, & 1/2000]

Self-Assignment

The freelancer’s best way to get a great gig is through the self-assignment. Just like it is easier to get a job with a job.

If you are a truly creative person you will have many ideas that you cannot get companies to buy into.

I have a theory about this problem of good idea and no companies wanting to do it. The lack of an example is why most companies do not take on these great ideas.

The self-assignment allows you the flexibility to do a job the best way you know how. To execute that idea as best you can without interference from a client. This way you have the best example possible.

Roswell Presbyterian Church middle school mission trip to Chattanooga, TN where they are helping widows with their homes. [Nikon D3s, 14-24mm, ISO 200, ƒ/3.2, 1/1250]

I have done self-assignments for my church and denomination.  One of the first things I needed for my proof of concept was access to people and places. I wanted to show that telling people’s stories using still images, video and audio together is one of the most powerful ways to communicate.

I also know that most of the stories I have done in the past for churches had emotional hooks and were not just dry factual events.

Every year I still will take some time and cover something our church is doing. This helps keep my storytelling skills sharp. I enjoy doing it because they are not paying me and therefore no one is really able to tell me what to do. I am pretty much my own client. By giving them the package to use at the end they are thrilled. Next time I show an interest in helping I get even more access and help.

After getting the final package finalized I am now able to shop around with my concept with an example.

You can do a soft sell where you send the package in an email to potential clients. You are sharing it as entertainment.  “Take a look at what my daughter did this summer with her youth group helping widows in Chattanooga,” might be what I say to them. The clients you have to enjoy seeing what you are doing. In the process they may warm up to the concept and hire you to shoot something similar for them.

There are a couple of ways to do self-assignments. You can take on a larger project that you can work on over and over until it is just right or you can take on smaller projects and just do more of them.

Refining process

One of the best things you can do for a self-assignment is to show work that is portfolio worthy. This is where it has a WOW factor. To achieve this level it may be necessary to do like they do in Hollywood for movies—many takes.

You may show up one day to work on your project and just take a point and shoot to make visual notes. You will notice what works and what needs some help. For what I do this may mean realizing the light in the room is better in the morning than the afternoon or that I need to bring some lights to light the room.

I would then take these visual notes and use them to help me storyboard the concept. After talking to people and working with their schedules I would then setup the times to start shooting. After each step I would come back to the storyboard and see how it is going.

Often what the storyboard I started with will in no way resemble the end product. I will have discovered a better storyline than what I started with and therefore I make adjustments and let the story lead me rather than me forcing my concept on the situation. [This is very important to me when I later help sell to clients. I tell them what I started with and how I changed it to make it better.]

Presentation

When I have finished the package and start sharing it, I will also blog about the process.  I may have been blogging all along. I want to tell the behind the scene story because this is what helps clients and potential clients see me as an expert.

Here is an example of a finished project I did for Chick-fil-A where they gave out sandwiches to first responders and victims of Hurricane Sandy.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxDdW7HwJQ4]

Take it slow with the self-assignment

Musicians work on difficult passage of music by slowing it down to work on playing the notes and getting the rhythm just right. Once they have that then they work on the interpretation to give it that swing, funk or melodic feel.

The top musicians are paid really well because when they see the music for the first time they do not need to practice it a few times before playing it. The reason for this is they practice for the most part 8 to 10 hours a day working on music of all styles. This means when they see a difficult passage they have already played something similar recently and are able to execute on the fly.

My mentor, Don Rutledge, was always finding stories and going and doing them all by himself. He would: find the story; write the story; and photograph the story and then send it out for syndication. Most other photographers I knew seldom picked up their cameras like Don when they were not on assignment.

One day I asked Don why he did these self-assignments. He explained how he could slow down and take his time when doing them. He could visit longer with the subjects and do everything on his time and not have a deadline speeding him up.

I remember a few times where Don would have started a story and then decide to go back another day to do more work on it.

Don said that slowing down and shooting stories like this on his own made it possible for him to shoot better for his clients when they hired him. Like the studio musicians of Hollywood Don’s self-assignments were his practice times.  One you do something over and over you are able to start to see the nuances and it is the nuances that separate your work from the pack.

Your best and worst client

I believe the best client you could ever work for is yourself. Take on a self-assignment that will get you out of the bed and fired up to do some work today. For me I look for a project that will help an organization improve people’s lives.

The worst client I have is I. I am rarely ever satisfied with my work. I could always do something to make it better. What I still get upset about is something not working out the way I wanted and I am unable to go back and do it the way I wished I had in the first place.  This is why for most everything I do I would love a second chance to do it again and better.  If it were not for deadlines and budgets I am not sure I would finish projects. I am too much of a perfectionist.

Collaboration

Today many of the projects I want to work on require collaboration. I have had people help with voice over work, help get me places and introduce me to people.

Maybe you have a self-assignment that you need some help with. Have you thought of asking me to collaborate? Give me a shout and let me know your passion and maybe I can work with you.

Did I tell you what I love doing the most? I love helping people realize their dreams.