The Photo Journey » 17-85mm

Confetti Cleanup – BTS Video

Scott — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 02:37:42 +0000

Here is the 3rd in a series of videos on how I took my photos for this years Canon Photo5 Competition. Check out the other photo5 blog posts here. For more information on the competition check out the website.

Brief 3 was to incorporate confetti in motion. This was going to be 1 messy shoot

I wanted to capture the cleanup after the party. I put together a short video of the setup explaining the lights used and the way I rigged up the vacuum cleaner. Over a month after the shoot I have still managed to find confetti all around the house.

Once again it was recorded and edited all on my iPhone 4. Interesting exercise. Love to hear your comments.

Maternity Shoot – Call to Action

Scott — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:28:53 +0000

Last week I shot, processed and delivered my first ever maternity shoot. It was partly due to a friend recommending me and the other part a kick in the bum from Zack Arias and his recent post – Call to Action. Zack has been inspiring us photographers that have been sitting on the dock to make the jump and push ourselves photographically.

Our friends Jayne and Simon are expecting the birth of their first child this Friday, September 11th 2009. And before its a little too late we headed out for a maternity shoot. Not only was it my first maternity shoot but it was also my first non family shoot and well my first ever outdoor strobist attempt.

Zack Arias has challenged us to Serve someone with our cameras, in such a way that we as photographers will break free from our self criticism of “ I’m not good enough yet.”

So after a little research online at flickr looking at maternity photos and sending links to Jayne to gauge the style she was after, I needed a location. My wife and I had spent the previous weekend scoping out general landscape photography locations at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mount Cootha. Turns out its also a great free and very diverse location for such a shoot.

I decided to go with a 1 light setup. A Vivitar 285 with a 43 inch shoot through umbrella setup on my monopod. Anna my wife helped out as a voice activated light-stand and more importantly she continued to encourage me throughout the whole process. I doubt I could have pulled it all off without her support.

We had 6 distinct locations selected at the gardens and we started in the Japanese Gardens. It had great natural light that I wanted to make good use of first. To tell you the truth I was absolutely terrified and didn’t know where to start. once we reached the gardens. Where should I sit them? Should they sit? What angle will I shoot from? How do I make them feel comfortable? So I just sat them on some open grass and just began shooting. I just asked them to sit and talk and ignore me. About 30 frames latter my brain clicked, I was checking my backgrounds, composing frames with the rule of 3rds in mind, making sure they didn’t have trees or other objects jutting out their heads. The months of reading about what to look out for while shooting just became 2nd nature. Then I found myself conversing with them encouraging them and hopefully making them feel comfortable. I guess its just like Joe McNally says “The Moment it Clicks”. That book has been a great resource of mine since August. Well recommended no matter what your level of ability.

Here is a small slide-show of shots from the afternoon. I ended up presenting them with just over 100 processed image. All post processing done in Adobe Lightroom and a few minor edits in Photoshop.

Stay tuned for a blog on my voice activated light-stand monopod rig.

Viva Le Tour & DIYPhotography.net

Scott — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:57:18 +0000

Well one of my favorite blogs DIYPhotography.net has just launched a competition series about setting yourself up a cheap but professional studio at home. DIYPhotography.net has been bringing interesting projects to us hacks for years now and Udi has decided its time for us to make a background and take a photo that will remind us the photographer of the things we love.

Its been a month of late nights for me watching the Tour De France. So I wanted to pay tribute to the great race. Bike in the pictures is actually my brothers GT single speed that we are looking after currently. Its not a light bike I would like to add.

Canon 40D,17-85mm, ISO 800, 17mm, f5, 1/200th

For the above shot I basically used my garage as a massive light tent. Its actually much easier then it at first looks.

After a nice new coat of white paint to the brick wall we were ready to go. The wall will now allow me to make it a brillient white or what ever colour I gel my flash for.

To get the whole wall and roof illuminated I setup my Canon 430ex and set it to full power for the bike shots, and 1/4 power for my profile shots. I had it resting about 2 foot up on my esky as i don’t yet have a light stand let alone an umbrella. (Its my birthday in like 5 days so that will be rectified soon).

Attached was my DIY Yogurt Diffuser. I went for this as it will spread the light in all directions like a gary fong. However this mod is alot cheaper and tastes better too. If I had just used the flash without the mod only the back wall would get a proper covering of light. Flash was fired with my Cactus remotes. All shots were on a 10sec timer. Trust me 10 seconds flys when you are trying to pop-a-mono.

The below shot was the portrait version of the leading photo on this post. Not sure which one I like the most.

Canon 40D,17-85mm, ISO 800, 17mm, f5, 1/200th

Below are 2 shots taken with my nifty fifty. I didn’t need as much illumination as by background was much smaller. Flash was set yo around 1/4 power.

Canon 40D,50mm, ISO 800, 50mm, f3.2, 1/250th

After a few edits in Lightroom 2.0 and adjusting to the white space like removing a few objects in the side of the frame I recon its come out ok for a first attempt. Next time I think I would snoot a 2nd lighton my tyre tread.

Next upgrades to the studio setup will be some sort of white flooring and a curved board where the wall meets the floor. Then I can do head to feet shots. I can also do a shoot longways down the garage once I clean it up a little more.

Viva Le Tour & DIYPhotography.net.

Smokin…Tutorial

Scott — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:20:30 +0000

In the last week I have had a few people ask me how I photography and process my smoke photography. So I have recorded a tutorial on how I process the images. Some of the audio is a little messy in parts, its the first time I have tried the software and will be working on better results next time.

Firstly I will explain my setup.

Canon 40D
17-85mm f4-5.6 lens
Snooted Vivitar 285 flash @ 1/2 power
Poverty Wizards for flash
Cable remote shutter
Black sheet for a backdrop
Chair to prop setup up
Tripod in Portrait position
Incense sticks on plate
Matches

The Vivitar 285 has to be snooted so that the light does not spill onto the black backdrop and so that we don’t have any light hitting the lens. In the past I have used a Pringles chips tube and that worked well. However I have destroyed it so this weekend it was spare paper and foam core wrapped around flash head. I have angled the flash below at about 45° to capture the most smoke possible.

Manual focus is the only way to go as we are working in a dark environment. Place the box of matches or something on the plate as a marker to focus on. Let the Autofocus do its bit. Then you want to switch the lens to MF (Manual Focus).

In manual mode set your exposure to 1/250th and your aperture to around say f9. ISO of something around 400. Connect you remote shutter button and light one incense stick. Using your remote shutter button start firing away.

Lightly blow on the smoke or intersect the smoke path with different objects like a spoon to get different patterns.

Also try different apertures and see what works best for you. You are looking for something like this straight out of camera.

So once you have a few nice shots its time for the fun bit, the post processing. Below is a video tutorial by me about how I process my smoke shots in Photoshop CS2. If you use CS3 or higher there should be no issue in replicating the steps.

So whats everyone think of the video? I plan on doing more of them on other post processing I do and any input would be great.

Here are a couple more smoke images from the weekends shoot.