Ian Murray Photography

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.

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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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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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