At the Movies

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/100 second, f/5.6, ISO 100

RSS: Be a Friend, Subscribe!

Through the spring and now into summer the number of readers of LeggNet's Digital Capture that subscribe through RSS has been steadily in the mid-600's. On today's post I'm asking for more.

On the many blogs, photography and otherwise, that I follow I rarely visit the site proper. Instead, I read their posts in Google's RSS reader. It is much more convenient for me to have a one-stop-shopping solution than going to each individual website. I encourage the same thing on my blog, which is the reason I include full web posts in my RSS feed instead of just a headline or snippet.

If you are at least a semi-regular reader of my photography ramblings, then please take a moment and subscribe to my RSS feed. Here's the subscription link:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/LeggnetsDigitalCapture

Additionally, if you want up-to-the-minute ramblings rather than daily updates, you can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/leggnet.

Now maybe I can at least crack 700 subscribers :)

Stock Photos: Part of a Bigger Picture

One hurdle that photographers often encounter when selling stock photos is that (in many cases) their image will become part of a bigger project. Unlike portrait and fine-art photography where the photographer creates a final product, stock photos are frequently incorporated into a larger design.

One change I had to make to my workflow was to minimize the post-processing I did on images that would be included in my stock portfolios. Initially this was difficult, since I felt the images needed a bit more punch. I am now comfortable with the process and always think about the "bigger design picture" when processing my stock images.

Todays image is a perfect example of this. Designer John Kicksee uses stock images in his designs of book covers. For the cover of Aces High, John incorporated my image of a crime scene victim into the design.



When looking at the original image, you can see the vast amount of changes he made to it for inclusion into the final piece. In addition to a crop and horizontal flip, John took a lot of effort to transform the photo into pseudo-artwork. The final product is incredibly better than it would have been if he had used my photo un-edited.

This is just one more thing to consider when shooting, editing and ultimately selling stock photos.

Rocker

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/9, ISO 100

'In the Park' Photo Shoot

Last night we did an "In the Park" photo shoot to create images for my stock portfolio. In this example from the series we used a single silver reflector to light Kylee as she sat with her back to the evening sun.

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/200 second, f/4, ISO 100

On the Rocks

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/100 second, f/4, ISO 100

Photowalking the Great Salt Lake

Saturday evening's Photowalking Utah event at the Great Salt Lake was a lot of fun. We had over 40 photographers join us for a few hours of capturing the lake at dusk. It was especially great to see so many first-timers among the shooters.



The group met at Saltair for a short welcome session before following the evening's guide Charles Uibel out to the lake. Charles has been photographing the lake for quite some time and has an impressive body of work. He knew the place and time to be at to capture some great shots and really made this outing a success.



The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly our model, Heidi. She's a friend of David Terry who graciously volunteered to do a Trash-the-Dress session with an old wedding gown. She literally spent over two hours in and around the water being photographed.



The recap wouldn't be complete without mentioning the fatalities from the evening. I had the embarrassing misfortune of slipping into the water in front of 25 photographers. While I saved my camera gear, my Blackberry is down for the count. David Terry, in search of the perfect light placement, had a Speedlight (along with a new Radio Popper) fall into the lake. And lastly, I didn't see it happen, but Mike Calanan's phone took a swim as well and last night I saw him on Twitter looking for anyone with an extra Verizon phone.

As I write this there are over 225 images in the Photowalking Utah Flickr group. It's amazing to see the different variations of the same subject that the photographers captured.

The details for the July Photowalking Utah event are still being gathered, but the plan right now involves blue sky and hot air balloons. It promises to be an event that you won't want to miss. Stay tuned to here (and photowalkingutah.com) for details.

Sisterhood

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/160 second, f/10, ISO 100

Rock Climbing Redux

Today's low-effort blog post: another image from yesterday's Rock Climbing Shoot.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/4, ISO 250

Rock Climbing Photography

We (Michelle and I) spent this morning photographing rock climbers on some sport routes near town. The purpose of the shoot was to add to the climbing images in my stock portfolio. I've photographed climbers a few times and the challenge for me is to capture the feel of the sport.

To shoot the climbers I tied myself off to an anchor about 1/4 the way up one of the routes. By being in close to the climbers on the rock, I was able to overcome the typical "looking up" rock climbing photo. We invited several members from my daughter's climbing team and some other climbing friends to model for us as they climbed.

In the featured image Andrew is straining to complete a climb (which he completed). I focused on his bleeding hand and positioned myself to have his face in the out-of-focus background. My original plan was to post this image in color, but the bright red blood on his middle finger was too distracting - so black & white it is.

For lighting I used a diffused 580EX Speedlight mounted on camera. I set the strobe to a -2/3 f/stop setting to provide fill light to the scene without making the shots look artificially lit.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/160 second, f/4.5, ISO 160

Christopher & Shekinah

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/40 second, f/6.3, ISO 400

Brittanie in Black & White

During last week's stock photo shoot with Brittanie I took a small detour and captured a few portraits for non-stock use. This is one of the images. In this shot, I wanted to shoot her in a non-classical type of pose. The goal was to have everything but her skin blend into the background. Here is a diagram of the two-light setup used.



What this diagram doesn't show is the large gobo between the key light (on the right) and the background used to eliminate light spill. Additionally, I placed a 3x4' piece of black acrylic in front of Brittanie to use as a table and to add a subtle reflection to the bottom of the shot.

I'm pleased with the result, especially the lighting on her face which converted very nicely into black & white. If I were to shoot this again, I would use one additional light as a low-power hairlight to add a slight bit of separation between her shoulders and the background.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/4.5, ISO 100

Keyword Mania

It's always fun to take a look through my website stats to see where my traffic comes from. I thought I'd share a peek under-the-hood of LeggNet.com for today's post. Here are the keywords used in search engines over the weekend that led web surfers to LeggNet.com.

I get the feeling the the person searching for "Bedroom Photography" didn't get what they were looking for.

circular polarizer 24-105 5d - mac corr - post processing techniques - istockphoto.com - great salt lake - saltair 3 inc - smoking artistic photograph - istockphoto download - how do you compare sensor sizes in digital camera - spontaneous combustion - digital capture - photography back ground set up - most secret [place on earth - photoshop muted overlay - digital camera sensor sizes - digital night and salt lake - photoshop net.com - light bulb burnout - soft skin tone - image sensor sizes explained - free online mosaic generators - photo shoot for executives - high pass sharpening - gymnastics photos - two speedlights - gymnastic photo - 2 speedlights on one kamera - splash photography setup - cross processing in photoshop - high speed splash - ttv photography - es ist wie es ist erich - private jet utah - steve richard photographer - classroom photos - post processing technique - photowalk utah - kylee sharp utah - photoshop high pass filter - missionaryshoes.com - istock download - gymnastic photo links - laboratory photo - how to get photos from istockphoto - ttv photo - left eye viewfinder - how to smoke photography - kylee - smoke prior to spontaneously combusting - couples photo shoot salt lake city - photographing paintings - photograph snow - the onion stock photo - “©istockphoto.com - i'm burned out photography - through the viewfinder digital camera - mamiya 55mm 1.8 - difference between full frame slr - leading lines in photography - soft skin photoshop - tightening levels - highlight - tone curve - post-processing technique - viewfinder layer - bedroom photography - black and white bride photoshop - smoke shots - bovine photographer

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/100 second, f/11, ISO 100

The Kiss

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/640 second, f/4, ISO 100

Friday the 13th

With today being Friday the 13th, I looked for an appropriate image to post. I thought that I might have a shot of a black cat, but the closest thing I could find was this fuzzy little kitten that belongs to the receptionist of the office next door. It'll have to do.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/9, ISO 100

Shadow Sphere

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 3/10 second, f/4, ISO 400

Keeping Busy

I've had a busy few days working on the stock photography side of the business. I have a goal of increasing my portfolio size by a minimum of 200 images a month, and this past weekend I made great progress in creating June's additions.

On Friday, I spent some time shooting a first-time model for a high school student themed series. Kylee did a great job and I look forward to working with her again in the future.

On Saturday the theme was "Women's Hands". I worked with Kattie again (she was featured in April's "Cafe" shoot). We had a great time coming up with poses for her great looking hands.

After taking Sunday off, I got busy again on Monday with a studio session with Brittanie. We shot a diverse set of images ranging from basic headshots to lifestyle images. And to answer the many questions, I have not modified her fantastic eyes - that's how they really look.

Today will be spent finishing the processing, keywording and uploading of these shoots. Then it's time to begin planning the next sessions. Simply put, that's my formula for being successful in stock photography: Plan, Shoot, Edit, Upload, Repeat...

To view these sets as they become available in my stock portfolio, visit the following links:

Kylee - High School Student
Kattie - Women's Hands
Brittanie - Young Woman

Brittanie

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/9, ISO 100

Hands, Hands, and more Hands

...or maybe a more appropriate title would be: How I Spent My Saturday Morning. A big thanks to Kattie and her beautiful hands.

The Typist

Today's image is a sample from this morning's photo shoot featuring close-ups of hands. In the session we shot over 200 images of model Kattie's hands in various scenes.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/100 second, f/11, ISO 100

Meet Kylee

I am always on the lookout for fresh faces to use in my photography. I was recently introduced to Kylee by a friend. She had never modeled before but saw my stock work and thought it would be fun.

We did our first shoot together this afternoon. It was a lot of fun and Kylee did an absolutely great job. The student series we created will be appearing in my portfolio soon.

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/160 second, f/8, ISO 100

Photowalker

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/1600 second, f/4, ISO 100

Using a Slow Shutter Speed for Effect

Back when I first began using an SLR camera, one of the first rules that I learned was to maintain a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate blur when shooting handheld. The formula that my high school photography teacher (Mr. Cresop, I wonder where he is now) taught was to use the lens focal length to determine the shutter speed (for example, for a 50mm lens the minimum shutter speed would be 1/50 second). This advice is still good to use today. Even with things like image stabilization, a fast shutter speed equates a sharper image.

On occasion though, a longer shutter speed can add an interesting blur to the image. In today's image, my friend Kenneth Linge borrowed my camera to demonstrate this recently in downtown Salt Lake City. He had the model stand very still while photographing her as a couple guys walked past. The relatively long shutter speed of 1/10 second gave a nice motion blur to the onlookers. By bracing himself on a lamp pole, he was able to minimize the camera movement and keep the model acceptably sharp.

This is another example of when breaking the "rules" of photography can work in the photographer's favor.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/10 second, f/25, ISO 160

Fortune

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/60 second, f/11, ISO 100

Traveling Light: My 2 Speedlight Portrait Setup

I have recently added a second speedlight to my out-of-the-studio kit with the plan of being able to travel a bit lighter and more efficient. In the past I would bring along a monoilght for off-camera lighting at events, but now the second speedlight negates that need.

Today's portrait of Pastor Steve at last weekend's wedding shoot was captured with this two-speedlight setup. I had a Canon 580EXII on my camera with a 430EX on a lightstand with an umbrella to the right. The two strobes communicated with each other via IR. I set the on-camera strobe at -2/3 f/stop to serve as a fill light and set the off-camera strobe at +1/3 f/stop to be my main light. I then put my camera on manual with an exposure of 1/60 second at f/5.6. The TTL (through-the-lens) function of the speedlights managed their power output.

As you can see from the image, this setup worked well. The biggest advantage over using a monolight was that I didn't have to re-meter anytime I moved the off-camera light. The TTL adjusted the power output to my exposure. I could move the off-camera light back for larger groups and in for individuals without worrying about exposure changes. And, unlike my monolights, I was able to operate cord-free since the lights are battery powered.

Even though this setup works well, I think that in the future I will add one more Speedlight to add even more versatility.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/60 second, f/5.6, ISO 100