Ian Murray Photography

Hunting Your Snark

(Why Wordsworth Would make a lousy photographer)

 

I  Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

 

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

 

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

 

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

 

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

 

*************************************************

 

We’ve all picked up our cameras and gone “wandering lonely as a cloud” in the hope of stumbling across a potential killer shot.  Let’s face it, it rarely produces that kind of shot.  In fact it’s  probably one of the best ways to NOT get  that killer shot. 

What do I mean by this?  Well, great photographs are rarely, if ever stumbled upon by accident.  If we are honest,  we surely can’t believe that our best chance of getting that WOW image is just  a product of some happy accident.  If it’s  down to nothing more than chance, then there are a handful of  exceptional photographers who are consistently very lucky indeed, enough luck, it appears, to guarantee that they should easily be able to pick the winning lottery numbers on a weekly basis.  

 

Of course, when you put it this way, it seems ridiculous to believe that great photographers have way more luck than the rest of us.    

 

I suspect they don’t just “wander lonely as a cloud, floating on high o’er vales and hills” just hoping and praying to accidentally come upon a host of golden daffodils that they will capture in a stunning composition.  If that was their approach to photography thay would produce far fewer exceptional images.

 

So if merely wandering around and hoping for a chane discovery is not the answer, what is? 

Wordsworth gave us a clue in the later  verses of the poem.

 

“I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:”

 

It is  only much later,  while lying on his couch in “blissful solitude” that he begins to appreciate the “wealth” of what he had seen. 

 

It’s not uncommon for us to fail to notice the potential for a great photograph.  We glance at things rather than really look.   We wander around , and our eyes are pulled in every direction because we have no particular purpose in mind:  we are wandering and wondering without knowing what we are looking for.  We should rather be hunting for a specific prey. 

 

It’s only when we have it clear in our mind, just what it is that we are seeking, will we begin to increase our chances of seeing it. 

 

We have to work hard to find the shot that WOWS. 

 We need to search with every tool at our disposal  to find the shot we have in mind.  We need to be like  the ten men hunting the snark in Lewis Caroll’s epic  poem:

 

“They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;

They pursued it with forks and hope;

They threatened its life with a railway-share;”

They charmed it with smiles and soap

  You don’t need to be clever or posses a substantial IQ to be a great photographer - you just need to focus your brain.  It’s remarkable how quickly your brain can lock onto things, things such as patterns, shapes and specific types of object.  Just consider what happens when you buy a new car;  without trying you begin to notice all the  instances of that model that cross your path. You never noticed them before.  What you did by focusing on your new car, was to you trigger  you brain to lock onto the idea of the make and model. 

 

Imagine how this will work if you can deliberately trigger your brain into lo locking  on to a specific object, shape, color or pattern.

 

Its not difficult.  You just need to imagine that you are hunting the  snark rather than just aimlessly wandering,  like Wordsworth. 

 

Your “snark” can be anything, but its best to start simple with easily identifiable things, such as a single color or a compositional building block such as diagonal lines.

 

 Alternatively you can pick  simple objects like a  window, door or fences.  You simply head outside with your camera and focus on your chosen “snark”. And hunt it to the exclusion of everything else.

 

 You’ll be amazed at how swiftly your brain locks on to your “snark” and you begin to find them everywhere.   I guarantee  that if you adopt this approach you will begin to massively improve the  rate at which you discover potential WOW shots.

 

You can improve your success  rate even more, by focusing on a single “snark” for an extended period of time, such as a month or even longer! 

 

 

You’re Blind! How can you create portraits?

How can you shoot portraits.. you’re blind?

Its a question I have been asked several times in the past few weeks. The simple answer is, I point the camera at my subject and press the shutter, just like anyone else would.  The difference is that I don’t see what is in the viewfinder as clearly as as a fully sighted person.  I see light and shadow, shapes and outlines, but no real detail.  I have only one working eye so depth perception is also an issue.  Both eyes have retinal damage and the lenses were removed from both eyes during surgery so I rely on what you might call “bottle bottom glasses” for what little clarity of vision I can eke out of my right eye. 

The process of using the camera is very straightforward.  I can see enough light and shadow in the resulting image to ascertain whether the exposure is close enough to what I am looking for.   Working in manual mode all the time I can adjust speed and aperture, on their separate dials,  by turning each in turn,  and then  seeing the effect on the resulting image in terms of its brightness.  The wider I make the aperture, the brighter the image. I use a similar process with the shutter speed. 

 

Adjusting ISO is a little more tricky but again I rely on trial and error.

 

The result of this is that I am never cquite certain of the shutter speed, so until I blow up the image on a large monitor, I am never sure whether I have frozen a sharp image,  or whether I have inadvertently introduced movement blur.  Its a much slower process than when I was fully sighted,  and it has become somewhat of a hit and miss affair.                                      It’s a hit and miss affair! 

  Once I have what looks like my desired exposure however, I can keep that setting and shoot several or more images.

 

So why if its this hit and miss do I create portraits?

 

I prefer portrait photography to any other kind.  I love interacting with people.  Having limits on my vision results in fascinating experiences, where I can’t see enough detail to read a person’s expression. It’s also practically impossible for me to asses the age of a person with any degree of accuracy.  I have learned  that the tone and timbre of a person’s speaking voice gives little indication of their actual age.  I have often thought that the  person speaking with me,  was in her twenties, only to be told she was closer to sixty.   Its amusing and confusing at the same time.

N

Most portrait photographers will tell you that your subject’s eyes play a major role. They are often considered to be the “window to the soul”.  They are  the feature which best expresses a person’s character, mood, life energy and more.  Portrait photographers go to great lengths  to make the eyes appear sharp,  even striving to ensure that each eye contains a catchlight,  that small dot of bright light reflected in the iris.

 

Success in this area is usually achieved by having the camera focus on the person’s eye that is closest to the camera.  Setting the camera to display a single, rather than multiple, focus points, is often the easiest way to achieve this.. just point the focus point at the eye and “hey presto!”, the magic of autofocus will take care of it for you.

 

This is great if you can see the single focus point in the viewfinder, or have any sense of exactly where the person’s eye is, whether its open or closed, screwed up or off looking in another  direction!   Me? I can just make out the shape of the head. 

 

So, how do I make it work?  Well, I use a lot of memory and some very careful handling of the camera controls, i.e.  I try to have the single focus point fixed in the  dead center of  the viewfinder. i imagine it’s there, even though I can’t see it. I am  extra careful about not touching the controller  on the camera that will move it to another position.   Remembering that it should be in the center allows me to set my aim to try to place it  where I think the person’s eye is, or rather I try to guess the likely position of the persons Ieye and place the  imagined focus point in the center of the frame.   Then? I just then press the shutter and hope for the best.  

 

Of course it is somewhat easier if the person is not moving. It is  certainly  more of  a matter of chance when the person is moving.  I shot around seventy images of a street musician in Boston a few weeks ago. She wvas a very active violinist,  who was constantly jumping around and moving very expressively to her music.   Out of all those shots, only two or three were even  close to being sharp.  

Having spent years teaching photographers to reduce the number of shots they take. To think before  pressing the shutter. To spend more time envisioning the shot and less time making multiple trial and error attempts,, here I am taking many  more shots to get just one that comes even  close to what I want it to be. 

 

Thats the shooting process.  There is however much more  than the camera involved  when creating portraits that magically capture a person’s character.  Even the most technically adept photographer won’t  det  the best portrait of a person if she hasn’t taken the time and effort,  to build a connection and comfortable rapport with her subject.    For me, this is essential. I want the person I am photographing to give me their full and undivided attention. I  need them to connect with me and be fully present, so that when I point my lens I have a chance to place my unseen focus point on their open eye, a  better-possibility that   they are giving me an expressive look, one that says something about their personality, character or mood.  Without that well established rapport  it literally becomes  a shot in the dark. 

 

 

Beyond the shooting process there is post-processing,  of course, and here too there is a substantial element of chance. 

 

With retinal damage and no lens in either eye I have a different sense of color.  In fact, on screen images tend towards black and white rather than exhibiting their true color. Shadow areas show little or no visible detail. This all results in my images being processed in a way that often  makes them garishly vivid and overly colorful  or processed with highlights emphasised in a way that makes them appear overexposed.. Add to that the lack of ability to see any degree of sharpness in the deTail and I can end up producing images which look odd and fover processed.  They do, however, look fine to me, and when all is said and done that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? 

What was once fast, you could even say intuitive and slick, is now very different.  What was a sure and practiced art, is now a stumbling effort, riddled with chance and unexpected results.  It depends on both  my passion and my  patience, which by no means make comfortable bedfellows.   I often get frustrated with my inability to produce the kind of consistent quality I previously found  possible.  It’s the passion I have for people, for  this glorious and precious endeavor , craft, art, call it what you will, that keeps me creating  portraits. Portraits that I put out into the world in full knowledge that they are probably odd, quirky, out of focus, weirdly  colored and which probably lean heavily towards the highlight end of the histogram . Its just how I see it, or rather, its how differently I see it.  Is it a problem?  Will I stop doing it out of embarrassment at the results?   Hell No!

  I’m just getting started! 

 

 

 

location, Location, Location...

Creating outdoor portraits in the middle of a City on a hot sunny day, packed with tourists can be a challenge.  As soon as you find a space and start shooting you invariably attract an audience, all of whom appear to have cameras and are finding it hard to resist using them to grab a surreptitious or shot or two, or three or more.

 

Its best if you can work fast, get the shots and get out of there as soon as possible, but when you stop to consider all the variables and decisions that you need to juggle, then “fast” is completely off the menu.

 

You can, however arm yourself with a simple technique that has rarely failed to produce great results in double quick time, and it requires  nothing more than your camera and lens.  no need for fill-flash, reflectors or additional equipment of any kind.  All you need is your camera and lens and an eye for a very  specific type of locatio and some sunshine.

 

 

What you need to find is a boundary between light and shade.  The more sharply defined that boundary is, the better. Ideal boundaries are entrances to buildings where there is a large doorway, arch or structure in which the sun doesn’t enter, placing it in deep shadow in direct contrast with the bright sunshine that is outside.  

The 

Placing the person you are photographing directly in the bright sunshine immediately in front of such a structure will result in an area of deep, dark shadow behind them. 

 

Exposing your shot for the face of your subject will result in the appearing to opo out of an area of complete blackness.

 

Its simple fast and highly effective.  

The portrait of model, Karina Lagstrom, was created by placing her on the edge of the dark rectangular structure that is just above and to the left of the seated man in the photograph. 

She was lit by direct sunlight, while the area directly remained deep in shadow. 

 

The secret to success is to ensure that your subject remains in the bright sunlight, with the shadow area behind her. All you need to do is to expose for the light on her face. Spot metering works really well when you want to expose correctly. just take the reading from the cheek just below the eye on the brightest side of the face. 

 

 

There are many such locations available to you on sunny days and with little or no additional equipment required you can work fast and get out of there before a crowd gathers.

 

this technique will work anywhere there is aboundary between a brightly lit area and a region of shadow, such as a boundary formed by shadows dast by a line of trees. 

If you want to learn techniques and tricks like these, check out ian’s workshops at https://www.meetup.com/photoworks

The muse makes lemonade

The Muse Makes Lemonade

Finding your muse, getting creative, producing important work - it's a struggle and often here's no rhyme or reason to when it happens or doesn't, but there's one thing that's for certain - the act of creativity never happens by just sitting and thinking about it. You need to be working at it in Ryder for the Joyce's to truly flow.

For a number of years I have had the honor of working with a fabulous model, Karina Lagstrom, who regularly graces my studios, most often to perform as a subject for my lighting and portrait workshops. However, I do occasionally have the joy of photographing her myself and it's usually during these personal shoots that the muse kicks in and pushes me in a truly unexpected direction.

Karina, it seems, has boundless energy; she can pose in front of the lights for several hours at a time, but she often has a pressing need to release the tension at regular intervals, and she does this by leaping around for a few seconds and throwing her head almost violently from side to side and up and down. It's a sudden break in the routine which has little to do with the theme of the shoot but It's a remarkable sight to see her long hair flying everywhere whenever she does this.

I used to dismiss it as Karina, just being Karina and I just sat back and let it happen. My shutter finger would occasionally be unable to stay still during these bouts and would take the odd photograph, but as they were not that relevant to the shoot, they would be later ignored or deleted during post-processing. That is, until a snowy day in early December when I was hunkered down with my iPad trolling through several Lightroom Mobile collections of past shoots. I began to notice these "hair" images and suddenly, there it was! The muse had kicked in and I saw a potential for making a themed series out of these otherwise discarded hair shots.

Thus was born the "windswept" series which has developed into a totally unexpected departure from my usual style of image making. The images in "windswept" have a strong graphic element that moves them out of the traditional mold and presents them more in the style of a storybook image of a person on a windswept moor.

The post-processing was done very roughly using apps on an iPad. To begin with the image was transferred from Lightroom Mobile directly into Snapseed where the detail slider were used to give s more graphic look to the image. Nest the image was cropped and saved and then opened in the DistreesedFX app.

The distreesedFX app is simple yet powerful and offers a myriad of presets from which to create a combination to modify your image. Essentially you pick two elements, (a style and a separate texture) and adjust the levels of each to achieve a unique look.

After much experimenting I settled on two combinations that gave me an interesting result.

1- Storybook coupled with Absentia texture
2. Jupiter coupled with Pith texture

I had to play with the sliders to get the combined look I was envisioning but you can see from the results that the simple two minute processing effort produced some interesting results.

If there is a moral to this story it's that the muse can take over at the most unexpected moment, but it's usually when you are already in the process of doing something, rarely when you are siting and waiting. She can certainly make lemonade from your lemons. 

 

Photographic Lighting- Back to Front!

I am primarily a portrait and studio photographer who loves to teach lighting but I often get very puzzled looks when I stress the importance of taking care of the light on the background before doing anything else.

What do I mean by this? Well, as a good example,  let's take a look at a common situation that beginners face:

There you are,  all set to go. You have your ice-white seamless paper backdrop in place and your subject is standing well in front of it,  with a great lighting set up over which you have sweat blood.

The  "key light" is doing most of the work but you have added a fill light to lift the shadow areas and the hair is beautifully highlighted by your  delicate placement of a third light fired through a carefully angled snoot.

Click! 

And there you have it, a stunning portrait ... or do you?

You take a look at the image and check the white background! Suddenly it is anything but white. The vindictive paper roll has turned a nasty shade of grey. So what is going on?

Let's go back to basic exposure theory.   Put simply, light passes through a hole and hits a piece of sensitive material to make an image.  The more light that hits the sensitive material, the brighter becomes the resulting image. Too much light and the resulting image is over -exposed. Way too much light and the resulting image becomes so over-exposed that we say it is "blown-out",  (pure white).

Of course,  the opposite is also true. Too little light and the resulting image is underexposed (dark).  With hardly any light,  the image is completely under-exposed, i.e. black.

What has happened in the beginner's image is that the balance between the subject and the background has become skewed.  There is more light on the subject than the background,  the consequence of which is the background becoming  underexposed because we have exposed only for the light on the subject and have forgotten about the exposure difference between the subject and the background.

This sounds like a disaster in the making but fear not, once you understand what is going on  you can easily tame the  beast and make it work for you.

To do this you must work back-to-front, in other words you have to address  your lighting

 bass-ackwards. 

Knowing the correct exposure for the background before you light your subject is essential if you want to control the end result. 

This is true whether you are in a studio or shooting portaits outdoors.  You don't want to waste that stunning azure blue sky behind your subject when in your haste to get great looking light on your subject you forget about it and don't expose for it.

The traditional F-Stop chart

So let's think carefully about what is going on.  If there is less light on the subject than on the background when we expose for the subject, the background will come out brighter than the subject.

If there is less light on the background than on the subject, when we expose for the subject,  the background will come out darker than the subject.

It follows that if we increase or decrease the stops of exposure between the two pieces of the puzzle (the subject and the background) we can radically change the look of the background.

A six stop difference in exposure between the subject and the background is generally enough to turn the background either totally black or totally white.

Say the exposure reading on your white background is f.2.8  then getting enough light on your subject to get an exposure of f22 will make the subject appear against a black background.  The six stop difference will render the subject perfectly lit but leave the background six stops underexposed therefore turning it black in the resulting  image.

Say the exposure on your subject is f.4 and you have a black background, then getting enough light on the  background to make the exposure f32,  will turn the background totally white if you shoot at the correct exposure for the subject (f4).

Of course with a mid-grey background the difference doesn't need to be as great as six stops to turn black into white and white into black. 

Let's look at that again,: If you always set your exposure for the subject then  start with exactly the same amount of light on the subject and the background,  and  increase the light you place on the subject by one stop, the background will look one stop darker in the resulting image.

Conversely for every increased stop of light you place on the background,  the background will get one stop brighter.

 

The two images opposite were taken with the same grey background. In the topmost image the background was lit and the exposure difference between the subject and the background was four stops (i.e. the background was four full stops of light brighter). Because of this,  the grey background came out white in the resulting image.

  

In the second image the background was not lit separately so it was 4 full stops darker than the subject. As you can see the grey backdrop came out black.

  

The backdrop was the same in both cases. - a grey seamless paper.

In order to achieve these results you need to be able to measure the difference. in exposure between the background  and the light on your subject.  Measuring the light is easy if you are using continuous lighting but once you start using flash (or studio strobes) it becomes necessary to use a flash meter. Flash meters are specifically made to wait for the flash before they measure the light,  and then having measured it they stop to display that reading. A regular light meter will continue to measure and display the light reading of whatever is currently in front of it, long after the flash has ended and so it is useless when measuring flash.

 

Working Outdoors

I mentioned an  azure blue sky earlier - trust me Spring is not far away and those warm sunny days will return and when they do you will want to take full advantage of them and start shooting outdoor portraits.

Shooting outdoors is not much different from shooting in the studio if you discount the bugs, the sunscreen and the stiff breezes that topple your light stands.. OK so it is somewhat different but do you know what?  The lighting issues between the background and the subject are the same.

Here is a great technique for shooting outdoor portraits on a sunny day.

1. Take a meter reading for the background (use your camera's spot meter ability if you don't have a light meter)  and set this to be your exposure for the shot.  Dial it into your camera's manual setting so you can keep the exposure the same for every shot.

2. Put your subject in place and then shine  exactly the right amount  of light on your subject to make them fit with the background.  (sounds too easy?)

e.g You are exposing for the background in order to keep that azure blue sky I mentioned earlier,  and then you are adjusting the lighting on the subject to make the shot work.

This can involve some measuring of the light on the subject with a meter (flash meter if you are using flash) but it can also be achieved quite simply with your eyes (bless the little LCD screen and the histogram).

This shot was taken by exposing for the greenery in the background.  A meter reading of the greenery was used to set the exposure on the camera  (camera in manual mode.).

A bare speedlight was then placed on a light stand about eight feet from the model and triggered in flash manual mode at 1/32 power to put just enough fill light onto her.   The first shot taken this way left the background fine,  but the subject was slightly too bright.  By moving the flash a few inches further back the intensity of the flash  was lessened enough to make the subject  perfectly lit.   If the light had been insufficient then the flash could have been moved closer to intensify it.

By moving the flash closer or further away you can change the amount of light that is falling on the model and affect the difference in exposure between the background and the subject.

You can also adjust the shutter speed to lighten or darken the background. A slower shutter speed will brighten the background without affecting the amount of flash that hits the subject.  A faster shutter speed will darken the background,  and so long as the shutter speed is within the camera's flash sync range it will not affect the amount of flash hitting the subject, it will only affect the amount of ambient light (the surrounding and background) that is hitting the sensor.

So long as you are firing the camera at a shutter speed that is below the camera's maximum sync speed then the shutter speed change will mainly affect the background exposure;  so if it becomes necessary you should use the aperture setting to control the flash exposure.   Just moving the flash closer or further away from the subject however, is a simpler way to increase or decrease the exposure on the subject.

Be aware though that the further back you move the light,  it will make it  a relatively smaller light source and therefore it will produce a harder light on the subject.  If you want soft light on the subject then you need to keep it close,  or use  a modifier that will make it  a larger light source. (an umbrella, orb, softbox or something as handy as a XL Rogue FLash Bender).    

 

Ian Murray is Professional Photographer and teacher who runs and organizes a Meetup group in the New Engalnd area that currently has around  900 members. He teaches two to three classes a week and shoots full time. You can check out the group and his workshops at: http://www.meetup.com/photoworks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Steps to a Hollywood Noir Portrait

The classic Hollywood Noir Portrait is contrasty with rich blacks and glowing whites.  It also helps if you have a sultry looking female to pose for you,

Producing such an image is not only fun, it is fairly straightforward if you follow some simple steps.

Step 1. Keep it dark!

A black background is a great option. I tend to use seamless paper rolls but a dark cloth backdrop works just fine too!.

Step 2.  Keep the light simple!

Start simple with just one key light coming from above the model and slightly to one side of the camera,  In the example here, the light ( a Profoto D1 Air 500 strobe) was a positioned about one foot higher than  the model and about 60 degrees 4 feet away to her left - it lit her left side and produced deep shadow on  her right side .

Step 3    Don't spill the light!

Try not to let any light spill onto the background.  Use a flag (something to block the light) between the light and the background.  A soft-box has sides specifically to prevent light from spreading.  Here I wanted more directional control over the light so I used a regular 7" zoom reflector with a 10 degree grid . A piece of black foamcore board was used to the right of the light to prtevent spillage.  I  have also been known to use black aluminum foil (Rosco Cinefoil is my favorite)  to achieve the same result.

Step 4   Get in close! 

When shooting with a single light there is a lot of shadow area that adds little or nothing to the shot if you include it. I much prefer to get close. You  should not be afraid to crop and perform photographic amputations with the frame.  

 

Step 5  Choose the right lens

A 50mm lens is ideal for this kind of shot. Getting in close with a wide aperture will narrow the depth of field and cause the background to become blurred out.  Use a ens that is wider then 50mm and you risk introducing some major distortion to the shot (great if that's what you like}. 

  

Lighting Diagram showing simple set-up with one light.

 

Additional information and alternative approaches.

My model for this shoot, (Delphi) has wonderful hair that easily picks up the light from a strobe, If your model's hair isn't quite as obliging you could add a second light to act as a hair ligh. Place it above and to one side of your model to add some extra highlights. Make sure that the beam is narrow (use a snoot) or if you don't have one wrap some black foil around the head and create a makeshift snoot.

If you are using speedlights instead of studio lights then you may weant to invest in a Rogue Flash Bender to wrap around the head of your flash or better still buy the Rogue Grid - a small honeycomb grid attachment that allows you to realyl direct your speedlight (it also comes with clor correction and creative gels).

Equipment and Technicals

Lights:   A single Profoto  D1 Air 500 Strobe

Modifiers:  One 3' by 2' piece of black foamcore

Background: Black seamless paper

Triggers:  Phottix Ares manual trigger system (great value at around $60 for a set)

Camera:  Canon 5d Mark II

Lens:  Sigma 50mm f1.4 Prime

 

Classes available

Check out Ian's regular photography workshops at

http://www.meetup.com/photoworks

  

Links

Ian uses:

Profoto Lighting Equipment       http://www.profoto.com/us

Rosco gels and foil                        http://www.rosco.com

Rogue Grids and Flash Benders http://www.expoimaging.com/

Phottix triggers                               http://www.phottix.com

 

 

If you are in the Boston area you can get great deals on all of these products at

E.P. Levine 

219 Bear HIll Road

Waltham MA 02451

Tel: 617-921-5767

http://www.eplevine.com

 

Please Note:  Occasionally the  equipment mentioned  in this review is loaned and/or provided to me by E.P. Levine, ExpoImaging and Phottix. 

 

True Grit !- A simple two light Gritty Portrait

Simple steps to a gritty portrait using  2 Profoto D1 Air Strobes.

Before you accuse me – I am not that narcissistic it’ s just that  I regularly test the set- up in my studio by photographing
myself as part of the process.   Today I
had a client who wanted a gritty portrait of himself  so how better to get prepared  than by practicing on myself?   Fortunately he was late in arriving so I had more time to play and perfect the lighting setup.  Here’s how it went….

 

 

I began with a single key light – a Profoto D1 Air 500 fired
through a vertical Wescott 3’x1’ strip soft-box placed slightly above and to my
right about 45 degrees. The kind of location you would use if you were seeking
the traditional Rembrandt lighting look. 

I regularly shoot at 1/160 sec at ISO 100 – I find that this
enables my black cloth background to stay fairly black. I then try to crank up
the lights enough to produce at least f6.3,  if not higher, while trying to avoid any light
spilling onto the background.

I measured the flash from the key ;ight at f7.1 but wanted
to achieve a brighter highlight effect while getting some detail into the
shadow side of my face so I shot at f6.3 using a 50mm prime f1.4 Sigma lens held
on a tripod about three feet away from my face.

The initial shot still lacked some detail in the shadows so
I introduced white reflector about 18 inches to the left to bounce some of the
light from the Profoto strobe back into the left side of my face.  I used white rather than silver as I wasn’t
looking for  a massive amount to be
bounced back just enough to lift the shadows.

I then took a couple more test shots and saw that the top of
the cap was not getting emough light and there was no separation from the
background. 

A second Profoto D1 was fired from the right angled upwards into a white reflector placed directly above my head to bounce light back down and light the cap. I had to play with the angle and employ a sheet of black aluminum foil to stop any light from this second Profoto from spilling onto the background.

This second Profoto Strobe ( a D1 250 Air)  was set at its lowest power setting of 4.

This two light and two reflector set-up took just a few
minutes and hardly any tweaking to produce the

First gritty self  portrait
below. 

 

 

 

 

The Technicals

 

Equipment used and technicals.  

Key Light: - Profoto D1 Air 500  set at 9.0 
F7.1 from 8 feet 45 degrees to right and fired from slightly above through
a Wescott 3’x1’ strip soft-box.

Fill Light: – Profoto D1 Air 250 set at 4.0 fired upwards
into a white circular reflector paced directly above the subject.

White circular reflector placed 18 inches to the left of the subject’s
face

Camera: – Canon 5d Mk11

Lens:  - Sigma 50mm
f1.4

Exposure: ISO 100 – F.6.3 1/160 second set in Manual mode.

Triggers:  – Air one controller on Camera Hot-shoe. Pocket Wizard Flex TT5  receiver connected to camera remote trigger socket

Sekonic 558R Flash hand-held to remotely trigger camera
through the Pocket Wizard and to measure the flash output of the lights.

Time to set-up six minutes

Image cro edited in Photoshop CS6 and On-One Perfect
Suite 7 Plug-in to enhance contrast and texture.

________________________________________________________________

Join Ian's regular workshops at  http://www.meetup.com/photoworks

 

Get Yourself in the Picture

I learned today of a new development in camera technology and thanks to the wonderful folks at Nicanon I got to try out these features on their soon to be released  models for a full week.

 For several years we have seen great leaps in the automation of camera functions.  We have become used to automatic focusing, automatic white balance, automatic selection of aperture and/or shutter speed. We even rely on auto-exposure metering to set the camera for us.  Now however, the major manufacturers are set to offer us a huge leap in technology in two areas:

1. Composition

2. Expression and feeling

The new auto-composition modules will recognize the elements in your shot and calculate how best to frame, place and arrange them so as to create a pleasing composition.  Just select the auto-composition's dynamic tension mode and it will automatically skew the shot and place the objects within the frame so as offer maximum dynamism.  Choose the auto-composition's contrast mode and it will seek out patterns of light and shade, contrasting colors, contrasts in texture or scale and produce the best shot available.  I personally enjoyed the chiaroscuro option in the contrast module.  Also in the composition sub-menu you will be able to select options such as:

• Leading lines
• S curves
• Triangles
• Circles
• Repeating patterns
• Implied connections
• Visual Weight (balanced, unbalanced, surreal and totally disturbing)

 

Make a selection of any of the above and the wave the camera around the scene until a loud beep tells you that it has spotted the S Curve or other feature you were looking for;  just click OK and the camera will adjust its settings to best emphasize that feature.  it is a little slow however, when seeking  implied connections and a couple of times  it beeped when someone appeared to be talking to a wall.  I also encountered difficulty in getting it to beep when looking for an sfumato effect, it kept telling me I needed to have the optional smoke module installed.

 

 In the auto-composition's portrait mode it will assess the number of people within the frame and use the camera's built in speaker to encourage each person in the shot to move, left, right up or down until a pleasing grouping and alignment is achieved.  On the advanced  auto-composition portrait feature the camera will stubbornly refuse to take the shot until everyone is facing the right way and paying attention. The optional 'Eyes Open" feature can be  turned on to ensure the camera isn't fired until the module is certain that everyone in the shot has their eye's fully open.  I loaned a camera with this feature to my assistant and sent her off to get a group portrait of the local cub-scout pack,  I asked her to test the feature and not to return until she had a good shot. That was three days ago and still no word from her.

While the composition module is very useful at taking away all those tough decisions you have in creating an artistic image,  it  is the new Expression and Feeling module that will revolutionize the way you work. No  longer will you have to explore every square foot of the scene or stand for long periods to absorb the atmosphere. No  longer will you have to measure your reaction to it and dig deeply to your unique connection with the subject.  No  longer will you have to struggle with those tricky questions which say "OK, you know what this will be a photograph of, but what will it be about?".  This module will take away all the hard work and effort you put into expressing yourself in the image. In  a fully automated mode it will  measure, compose and take the shot for you  in a manner that will guarantee your  viewer will  feel  emotion, get the  message, see the  story, or be intrigued by what is left out of the image.

The Expression and Feeling  module will automatically scan the scene, electronically measure you heart-rate, pulse and brain activity and based on your socio-economic grouping, cultural background,  education,  life history and psych-evaluation which you have previously uploaded to the camera's memory,  it will recognize  how you feel  when faced with all the elements in the scene and will automatically set the camera's controls to produce a powerful image which clearly expresses that  feeling.     An optional 'story' module which  comes as a small device (which you attach to your forehead and carry with you at all times)  will, over an extended period of time, monitor your reading, TV and movie habits  and use the data it collects to identify common story lines to which  you have been drawn. When faced with a scene,  you just press the 'tell story' button on the module  and it will use a wi-fi connection to the camera to indicate the settings that will best cause an  appropriate story to be reflected in the image.  Be warned however, that if you read and watch too many murder mysteries the resulting image can at times be unsuitable for those with a nervous disposition.

After using the revolutionary features of this camera for a full week I was sad to give it back.  I managed to take several thousand more photographs in a day than I would otherwise have been able to do using the traditional 'artistic' method of firmly putting myself and my feelings into each shot.   Next year when the promised   Auto Feeling  and Expression plug-in is released for Photoshop I should be able to increase my artistic output ten-fold!

Finally, I had great fun watching my old photography mentor cry when I presented the images I created with the "abject misery" and "terrible tragedy" auto story modules. He cried too when I presented the "happy ending'  images - I'm not sure why - maybe the firmware needs an update.

If anyone is interested I am looking for a new assistant.  Key attributes include an ability to stay with the project until it's done.

 

Ian is a professional photographer, published writer, occasional blogger, and photography teacher. Check out Ian's classes on Meetup Photography Classes  and see his work at Ian Murray Photography

 

 

A Burlesque Road

Abbey Road ( A sugar Coated Production) by Babes in Boinkland , Produced and Directed by Sugar Dish (Vanessa White) played at the Oberon, Arrow Street Cambridge July 31 and Aug 4 2010.

 

Take the last album recorded by Beatles, add a mature audience, a troop of very talented dancers, spice it up with a heavy dose of eroticism and you have a recipe for a very interesting night out.

 

 

Just transport yourself to a darkened night club with pulsing lights, a stage,  a large dance-floor, and scantily clad performers. Brace yourself as the first throbbing notes of "Come Together" fill the air, and you quickly discover that you are in for a very sensuous evening of dance, murder, comedy, strippers, lesbian  prison sex, an execution, an enormous jelly fish and the largest silver hammer ever wielded by Maxwell.

 

Yes, this is the Beatles Abbey road Burlesque style as  interpreted by Sugar Dish and the Babes in Boinkland.  Former ballet dancer Sugar Dish (Vanessa White) is the  founder and driving force behind the Babes and is well known as the genius behind the Slutcracker, a Burlesque version of the Nutcracker which has played to rave reviews.

In "Abbey Road" she collaborates with Abby Normal, Oliver Tryst, Pamela Passion, Pixy Dust and Rachel Stewart to tease out every nuance of sensuality and eroticism from the lyrics of Lennon and McCartney.  With fluid and hot dance moves the troop turn them into a wonderfully choreographed and cohesive ballet complete with mermaids, sailors, cops, octopus, prisoners, a prison warden dominatrix,  a priest, an electric chair, aerial acrobatics, and frequent strip-tease.

Making full use of the space availability the performance regularly moves off the stage and into the midst of the audience who get to enjoy the action close up.  There are no seats, the audience is standing, they sway back and forth as they turn and reposition themselves time and time again, stretching  to see the performance first in one corner then another, themselves becoming an integral part of the dance, providing a sea of energy across which sensuous waves of dancers move to the music. This is Burlesque, combat zone style, in your face, refreshingly up-front and honest, and in turns, highly erotic and then  tongue-in-cheek playfully comedic. The look of sheer glee in Maxwell's eyes has he brings down his silver hammer on the head of Quizzical Joan is  priceless, 

 

 while his later cavorting with her limp dead body after similarly dispatching his teacher (Samantha Bryan) provides some of the best dancing in the show.

 

Maxwell's  life however, is short lived.  Following his arrest for murder, the Warden (Pixy Dust) has her wicked way with him.  He awakes next to her as the sun comes up -  a slow and sensuous strip tease in reverse as the couple dress to "Here comes the Sun" . The priest then quickly appears and Maxwell  is unceremoniously escorted off to the electric chair were he dies to the strains of "Because".

Pixy Dust as the prison warden, Martha my Dear, plays the least threatening dominatrix imaginable, there are only brief  intimations of violence here, and she shows plenty of sweet and tender lust, first for Maxwell and then,  in a marvelously extended piece of poetic dance, for Sexy Sadie (Sugar Dish) in which the two make full use of the dance floor, the bar, mirrors, a moving plinth, and lines of toga clad fan dancers.  The wings and halo on Oliver Tryst as he makes  a fleeting appearance as the deceased dancing Maxwell  provides a  neat touch that adds a morsel of humor into this heady lesbian strip-tease which begins  with "You never give me the money" and continues building to a crescendo as the two caress and disrobe all the way through "Sun King".

 

Martha's  eventual demise at the hands of the Sexy Sadie, as she falls victim to a severe bashing from Maxwell's hammer signals the end of this remarkable interpretation and the troop gathers on stage to rapturous applause.

  This was a very professional production with the kind of choreography and dance we have come to expect from Vanessa and the Babes. The costumes and props were stunning.  The giant hammer passing from the rear of the auditorium through the audience to the stage was a touch of genius, and the jelly-fish was... well you just had to be there to see it float magically through the audience.

But just when you think it is  all over, and "The End" has been played, true to the vision of Lennon and McCartney  "Her Majesty" arrives bang on cue and for her full but brief 26 seconds shows us that she really is a "pretty nice girl".

 
(Please note that there is no full nudity in this production - the minimal dress is thongs and pasties).

 

 

All Photographs taken with Canon G11 at 3200 ISO, Aperture Priority using available light (no flash). All photographs Copyright Ian Murray, except BABES in Boinkland, Abbey Road image.

 

Oberon is located at the corner of Arrow Street and Mass Ave, Cambridge 

www.ClubOberon.com 

 

The Slutcracker (A sexy, Freaky, Holiday Zeitgeist Spectacular, can be seen in December:

www.theslutcracker.com

 

You may also wish to check out  Bent Wit Cabaret at the Oberon on Sunday August 8th, hosted by the wonderful Mary Dolan and Karin Web - with apperances by Sugar dish and Penny Candy.

 

Ian Murray can be contacted at [email protected]

 

He is available as a photographer events, musical performances, portraits and headshots

 You can view his work at http://www.ianmurrayphoto.com

 

 

 

Caroline Herring's Golden Apples of the Sun

 

There are some CDs, which over time have become as close to my heart as a good friend. I have several gems which I would hate to be without and I suspect you too can name a few of your own.  You know the ones;  ones you play when you are in need of comfort food for your ears and soul. Most of mine come from way back in the sixties and seventies, a time when my musical tastes were growing and new discoveries were a frequent pleasure. These days, although I profess to have a very eclectic taste in music, my boundaries are set more firmly than they once were and the chance of any new CD being added to that list is slim.  But, once in a very long while a CD comes along that feels like a welcome acquaintance with all the potential to become a good friend.

It's been a couple of years since Martha Scanlan's  The West Was Burning became a constant companion in the car on my early morning fishing trips. It has worked its way into my life at such a deep level that it seems sacrilegious not to slip it into the CD player as I pull out of the drive on my way to a favorite fishing hole.  Many a trip though early morning fog has been blessed with Martha's waif-like voice and her powerful banjo punctuated by the solid anchor of Levon Helms drumming.  Playing it has became such a ritual,  I suspect that the fish won't really bite until I've sung along with Seeds of the Pine.

Caroline Herring   [Photo  © Jeff Fasano]

Over the past few weeks however, when occasion demands that Martha be played, there has been a new CD in the car's player that I am finding it more and more difficult to remove. The CD is Caroline Herring's Golden Apples of the Sun.  It took me several plays to realize the power and depth inherent in this CD and now the more I listen to it, the more it begins to feel like an old friend.

Tales of the Islander, the CD's opening track transports me to the Mississippi Gulf islands in the company of a man so driven by passion that he has no time to sleep; a man who ties sheets together and escapes from his mental hospital to ride a raft across the water to an island where he is powerfully moved to render into paintings the rich expressions of nature that have taken such hold of his senses. A Turn Upon the Hill presents the cameo of a young girl hesitant at having her photograph taken by a stranger, someone of whom she wonders,  "can he see inside me".  In The Dozens I learn of a woman who grew up in a segregated white neighborhood struggling to know more about the life that was hidden from her.  

These are heartfelt and deep songs,  born from the emotion and passion of Caroline Herring,  who together with producer and musician David "Goody" Goodrich has created a musically sparse landscape that fittingly provides the fertile soil to sustain and support these masterful songs.

Throughout the CD Caroline's voice assumes an upfront role while below,  the words are subtly wrapped in the intricate dance of her fine acoustic playing and underpinned by the richly layered soundscapes of Goody's fluid musicianship.

 

 
Caroline Performing at The Green River Festival 2009  [Photo © Jake Jacobson]

Each of the six new songs Caroline has penned carry a stamp of authenticity that comes from a songwriter who goes deep within to draw on her life experience. Here she lays down lyrics that speak of her children, of her grandmother, of artists poets and friends, but these are no mere biographical stories, rather they speak loudly of Caroline's personal and often emotional connection with these characters, and carry recurring themes of strong women, freedom, and the emotional power of nature.

In addition to six new songs Caroline has provided a unique and individual approach to some well known covers.  She has been courageous and inventive,  often changing the melody and feel,  but always putting the lyrics at the forefront. In Lauper's True Colors,  Caroline has played with the melody, stripped away  the staccato beat of the original, and slowed down the pace to make it her own.  The opening bars are  played very deliberately on the bass strings of the acoustic guitar,  giving a genuine feel of the sadness and angst of the lyrics, but these deep bass sounds are almost imperceptibly replaced by lighter tones as the lyrics rise to a positive affirmation of the subject's true colors. Caroline's  version is a world away from Cindy Lauper's original or  Phil Collin's beat filled attempt, it's more akin to Eva Cassidy's gentle version but with much darker color in the tone and presentation,  eloquently echoing  the sadness and pain to which the singer is responding.

In her version of See See Rider there is a harking back to the theme of water and freedom so evident in opening track.   Unlike Ma Rainey's version though, in which  the singer is obviously presented as a victim,  Caroline's singer casts herself as a free spirit whose home is on the water. She refuses to be her lover's dog any longer and rather than singing of getting a gun to shoot him so that no-one else can have him,  she triumphantly proclaims that her leaving of him will be his loss, as  she calmly prepares  to move on.

Photo © Jeff Fasano 

On this CD Caroline has moved some distance from the country flavor of her previous albums. By stepping away from her southern home and recording this CD in an unfamiliar Connecticut studio during a blizzard,  Caroline seems to have found a new level of freedom and expression. Working with producer David  as the only additional musician has resulted in a stripped down, almost unplugged, sound that gives us the pleasure of experiencing her expressive and melodic voice uncluttered and unencumbered by the music.  Nowhere is this more evident than on The Wild Rose in which she combines elements of Wendell Berry's poem of the same name with Pablo Naruda's "The Light Wraps You" into a short but intriguing song which once again speaks of the raw and revelatory power of nature.  Accompanied only by David Goodrich on piano she shows us what an accomplished performer she has become by filling  the cleverly crafted voids between Goody's finely placed keystrokes, with a voice that has a  passion and breadth of expression that chills the spine.

Likewise the full range of her voice is let loose on her unerringly straight cover of Joni Mitchell's Cactus Tree,  where it soars and falls al la Joni as she treats us to a stunning version of this ambitious cover.

This is an intriguing album by a mature performer who has much to say and the skill and talent as songwriter to say it well.  Her voice is at once powerful, plaintive and passionate and has an undoubted ability to move the listener. Remarkably, there are very few hidden depths in this CD, everything is presented up-front and with a passion and clarity that imbues it with raw emotional power.  The collaboration with David Goodrich and Engineer Mark Thayer has produced a gem of a CD that I will be listening to in years to come.

The CD was provided for review by Signature Sounds Records PO Box 106 Whately MA 01093 USA.

More info on Signature Sounds Records can be Found Here:   Signature Sounds   

More info on Caroline Herring can be found here:  Caroline Herring

More info on David Goodrich can be found here: David Goodrich

More info on Martha Scanlan can be found here:  Martha Scanlan