A vacation of vistas

Moraine Lake near Lake Louise Alberta

This post is very late but better late than never I guess. Last summer I took a road trip from Saskatoon to Victoria with stops along the way and visiting friends and family, nearly 4000km (~2500mi) round trip. I managed to get some photos that I really liked, some in infrared using my converted 10D and some using my 5D MK II.

My first stop between here and Victoria was in Banff, actually Two Jack Lake to be more precise which is across the highway from Banff. I met up with a few friends there and camped for a few days with them. Below is a photo that is pretty much from the edge of my campsite, despite being only 3 degrees Celsius the one night it was great waking up to this incredible view.

Two Jack Lake, Alberta

Since we were right across the highway from Banff we did a few day trips into town, luckily my friends were very tolerant of my photo taking addiction and were ok waiting around here and there while I happily snapped away.

We did another day trip to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake the latter being the lake that used to grace the back of the Canadian $20 bill.





Almost all of the photos I took on my trip are actually stitched composites of multiple photos, with the 5D this lead to some incredibly large photos, in the neighborhood of 150 Mega Pixels. The shot below shows a 100% crop of the water and you can actually make out the people in the canoe!

I didn't wind up taking many more photos as I moved on to Vernon BC and finally Victoria, spent more time visiting and really after the stunning scenery around Banff most of the other locations paled in comparison. I did stop in Horseshoe Canyon near Drumheller on my way back.

That's it for this post, hopefully more to follow in the coming weeks as I try to catch up.

Chiseled Light - Fitness Photoshoot

The new year started off busy for my photography. I had 3 photoshoots within 3 weeks, two were pretty run of the mill portrait shoots. The last was a fitness photoshoot and this was the one I was really looking forward to, it would give me a chance to get more creative with my lighting. Sure you might argue that spending a few hours shooting a beautiful lady doesn't hurt either and you'd be right :)

Initially the woman contacted me through my website inquiring about how much I would charge. After thinking about it for awhile I decided to call her and tell her I would shoot it for free with the caveat that I have creative control and use of the images after (ie "time for cd" essentially). She told me she had started training really hard and even though she was a shy person she wanted to get some photos for herself while she was in peak shape. There is also a magazine called Oxygen in which people can submit photos along with a story of their journey which she was thinking of submitting some photos to. I knew right away that if I was going to do this shoot to the level I wanted to then it would be way above most sane people's budgets. My city isn't exactly flooded with jobs that interest me, a few years ago I decided that if it means shooting for free every once in a while so I can work on shoots I actually like doing then so be it.

Enough about the background, let's talk about the shoot. I had the option to shoot either at her gym or my friend's mixed martial arts gym "Way of the Dragon". Since I'd already shot there before and I knew the owner David Mah would be pretty flexible when it came to shooting times I opted to go there.

The gym is quite large with a lot of open space to work with so I decided I'd setup a roll of white seamless along one wall and then setup later in the middle so the light would fall off and give me a black background. The fitness model had also explained to me that for people who compete there are multiple classes (bodybuilding, figure, fitness, and bikini) and that she would fall into the fitness and bikini classes. In light of this we opted for two wardrobes, one being simple "Under Armour" style workout clothes and the other being a bikini. She had shown me reader submitted images in Oxygen magazine as an example of what she was after, these shots while OK were very even lighting and I didn't feel they were highlighting the toned muscles. I told her we'd start with those and make sure we got some she liked and then venture into more dramatic lighting.

Simple even lighting, two softbox umbrellas at 45° with 1:1 ratio

 We were quickly able to get a variety of shots that looked like they'd be quite at home with the photos she showed me from the magazine. She was quite photogenic so this was easy.

As I eased into more dramatic lighting I simply moved both softbox umbrellas so that each one was on either side of her and shooting directly at her. This starts to highlight the muscles much more clearly, having her turn her head to face one of the softboxes kept the nice soft light on her face.

 Side lighting starts to reveal definition, still at a 1:1 ratio

Next I opted to remove one of the softboxes (camera left) and replace it with a gridded snoot. This yields much more contrast, harsh light coming in from the left and soft light from the right. I cannot remember exact power levels but due to the modifiers it's apples and oranges anyway, since I already had the one softbox dialed in I simply had to tweak the gridded snoot to achieve the light I wanted.

 Gridded snoot on camera left, softbox camera right

As we shot I'd show her a few of the shots and explain what I was trying to accomplish with each lighting change. She was quite amazed at just how drastically a few minor changes could shape and change the resulting image.

Before switching backgrounds I wanted to try out some LED "orbs" I'd ordered from China last year. Initially I'd picked them up for a nude bodyscape shoot I'd had planned but ultimately did not happen due to a family crisis that came up a week before the shoot was scheduled. I had no idea how much light these would provide in front of the camera but I knew I'd be pushing the ISO pretty high. The resulting light was incredibly dim and horribly blue :) Cranking the ISO took care of the first issue, white-balance in Lightroom easily handled the second. Canon is known for poor low light focusing and this was no exception but we managed alright.

No flash, just cheap Chinese LED "orbs" from ebay and ISO 1600

 Before switching wardrobes we made use of some of the gym elements that we had at our disposal. When your subject is in a painful position you have to dial in your light quickly, luckily I only had to get her to do a few takes on the pull up bars :)

 Gridded snoot on camera left, softbox camera right

Next we switched to the middle of the gym and the wardrobe changed to the bikini. My softbox umbrellas were yielding too much spill so I setup my 28" Westcott Apollo which is recessed a bit. There was still a little spill that was lighting up support pillars just faintly but that was easily removed in post.

 No backdrop at all yields a nice deep black. Gridded snoot camera left, Westcott Softbox camera right.

We switched back to the white backdrop and she used some oil to really help add to the muscle definition. In hindsight we should have been using the oil from the start because it really helped. As I was editing I started to tire of the plain white background so I started to include variations with a bit of texture as well.

 Keeping with the harsh light of the gridded snoot on the left and the softbox on the right

One of the magazines she had brought along had an image of a girl posting against a brick wall that she quite liked. I laughed because I had shot a virtually identical shot last year during my downtown "guerrilla style" photoshoot. The gym had a cinderblock wall though with an interesting texture so for fun we recreated the shot from the magazine.

 Textured walls are great when side lit. Solo softbox umbrella camera right.

 The gym we were shooting in also had a boxing ring which I initially planned on making more use of. We'd already been shooting for 2 hours though and we were both getting tired so instead we decided to shoot a few jump rope shots with the ring as the backdrop. We managed to get the timing perfect for a few shots with her up in the air as the rope passed beneath her feet.

 Gridded snoot camera left, softbox camera right

All told I wound up with about 400 images which I then pared down to ~100 for editing. In hindsight doing two backdrops and two wardrobes resulted in just too many images I liked and wanted to see how they'd look finished. Normally I try to limit myself to 30 for editing. In total I spent about 40-50 hours editing and retouching the photos, perhaps in a future post I'll walk through my process and explain that a bit more. 

The model was quite happy with the resulting images and so was I. If she winds up sending some photos into Oxygen and she gets published I'll update this post!

Gear:

Canon 5DMKII

Yong Nuo 460 MKII (x2)

Cactus V5 wireless triggers

Steve Kaiser Softbox Umbrella (x2)

28" Westcott Apollo Softbox

Gridded snoot (homemade)

Hair Salon Shoot

27 Models. 3 Days. 90 ft sq workspace on location. 20"x30" prints required.

Ad mock up showcasing some of the finished photos

I had been getting my hair cut at this place since highschool and after 6 years and countless business cards I finally landed the job. I'll admit that I was a little nervous but I new I had the technical skills and (most of) the equipment necessary to accomplish it.

Prep Work

What are the major considerations for showcasing hair and hairstyles?

• Adequate back lighting to bring out the hair
• Small apertures to ensure all the hair is tack sharp
• Low ISO to preserve sharpness in poster size enlargements
  
• Enough overall light to allow for the previously mentioned aperture and ISO

Considerations for this shoot in particular?

• Long days full of shooting, will batteries hold up (both cameras and flashes)?
• Do I need more memory cards?
• Can the 40D handle 20x30 enlargements of portraits?
  

I am a worry wart by nature, because of this I often over plan things. In this case it proved to make things much much easier. The worry over batteries: I have 3 for my 40D which should suffice. Rechargeable AA's for the flashes? I don't know since I've never shot for 8hrs straight before, to be safe I picked up an extra 4 sets of 4 and 2 chargers (bringing my total to 8 sets). Memory cards: I should be good with two 4GB, a 2GB, and two 1GB cards plus my laptop to dump them if I need to. My Canon 40D handling enlargements: At first I wasn't sure, I had done landscapes that size but portraits seem to need to retain more sharpness. I decide to do a test print from a recent shoot and am content with the results, its on the upper limits of this camera but doable. Prior to the test print I was thinking about using my Yashica 635 medium format TLR, luckily I didn't have to (the film costs would have added up).

Over the last year I've been following the Strobist blog which really helped take some of the edge off regarding the lighting since I've learned quite a bit. Also as a result of that blog I have a pretty portable setup to draw on should I need it.

I realized that since I would be shooting on location I would need a suitable backdrop, initially I thought since the photos will be primarily head and shoulders I wouldn't need much for a backdrop. I figured that I'd just bring a white sheet and do the rest in post. Further thinking raised two questions: how professional is this going to look if I show up with a bedsheet backdrop and since I'm shooting at small apertures aren't all the wrinkles going to be in focus too? I could nuke it but I don't want risk to burn away the edges of the hair. OK so no bedsheet, I need a better solution. $215 later I'm a proud owner of a Cameron portable backdrop kit, with a 3 section crossbar it can accommodate a full 9ft roll or by taking a section out a half roll of seamless background paper. In addition I was pleasantly surprised to find that the two side poles were essentially lightstands, that was a bonus because I'd been wanting to pick up more. I've since found cheaper versions (i.e. less expensive, not quality) of this backdrop kit online at B&H and other places, I needed mine quick so I didn't have a choice.

Choosing a lighting setup

Now I've got the gear that I need to shoot this, I can start thinking more about the lighting configuration I will need. I've got two 400W studio strobes if I need them, however they are entry level ones and do not allow much control (full, 1/2, 1/4 that's it). I've also accumulated a number of flashes (damn strobist addiction) so I have a Canon 580EXII, 430EXII, 540EZ, and two Nikon SB-26's. For triggering I have 4 sets of YongNuo PT04TM "poverty wizards" and if I need to use it both of the Nikons have built in optical slaves.

Having not worked with the battery powered speedlights too much I really have no idea how fast the batteries drain. Because of this I start thinking it might be wise to bring in at least one of my studio strobes.

I decide to do a test shoot using one 400W strobe in a softbox directly above the camera and then a speedlight with a gridspot on it to kick up the hair. This allows nice soft lighting yet still allowing shadows to keep it interesting and three dimensional. A close friend of mine, and frequent guinea pig of mine, was nice enough to come over for a quick test shoot.

Lighting Test - Two Light Sources

Within a few attempts I managed to get the lighting roughly how I wanted it, there was nice a nice sheen to the hair and with the seamless background I could remove frizz if necessary.

At this point I can breath a little easier, I know my lighting setup now and should be ready to go.

The Shoot

A week later it was time for the main event, I was asked to come setup a day in advance. As it turned out due to a stylist going away on holidays the next day I was asked to shoot one model as well. This worked out to be a good test shoot to make sure everything was working, also since there was only one person there wasn't a rush. The shots turned out decent, I had highlights in the hair and the face was pleasantly lit. My stress level dropped significantly at this point.

That night as I was laying in bed I started to stress again for no reason. I figured I should put another speedlight on the other side to balance it out, if I found my batteries were depleting quickly I could get rid of it.

Revised setup: 1 Softbox above camera @1/2 power, 2 gridded speedlights behind model on opposite sides @1/8

This turned out to work better, the 2nd speedlight added more dimension to the photo. As you can see in the photo above I did not have much space to work with ;)

We had slated 30min per model which at first I thought was going to be pushing it, as it turned out each sitting only took 10-15min and I was getting 50-70 shots of each model. My fears regarding battery life turned out to be unwarranted. I could shoot most of the day at 1/8 power before my recycle time started to become an issue, at which point I simply tossed them in the charger and plugged in a new set. I only really needed the 4 sets I already had. Better safe than sorry. I should also point out that I had zero misfires with the cheap $20 per set wireless triggers I was using. Twice in three days I had them fire when I wasn't shooting but I'll take that over a missed trigger anyday, I highly recommend them. If you click the link it will take you to dealextreme, I should point out though I ordered my last 2 sets off ebay because dealextreme ran out. I was pleasantly suprised to find the ebay ones had pc sockets on the recievers which my earlier onese did not, these however were $30/set but worth it for the sockets.

Post Production
Minor adjustments in lightroom to correct the exposure and bring up any lost detail in the hair. The real work began in photoshop, aside from the standard "airbrushing" of blemishes etc the most challenging aspect was frizz removal. No matter how careful the hairstylist is there will always be some frizz, for these shots though I wanted them to look perfect. In the end I found going in by hand with the heal brush set to replace worked the best, it was tedious but it yielded great results. For the background I just made some arcs in white, blurred them out, then masked around the model. I actually made a variety of backgrounds but in the end the client decided to go with the "swoosh" for all of the shots. I was left to choose what background colour I thought would match the best. I tried to keep it subtle so as not to overpower the model, sticking to complimentary and analogous hues using the colour wheel.

Conclusion
When the dust finally settled I was quite happy with how everything turned out, most importantly however my client liked the photos and was happy with the outcome. The previous photos that were up in the salon I found to be a little too "safe", the background was pure white and the lighting too even. Coming into this job I wanted to set myself apart, use slightly more dramatic lighting to give dimension as well as kicking up the backgrounds a little. Hopefully in a few years I'll be asked to do it again, until then I never want to shoot 27 models in such a short period of time ;)