I know a few of you might have gotten some new toys over Christmas, and inevitably, some of those toys are bound to be DSLR cameras or new Flash guns or perhaps a fancy radio trigger set that you always wanted.  Or maybe you got some new strobes with beauty dishes that you’re dying to try out, but not sure how to use them appropriately or what modifiers to get.

FRET NO MORE!

For starters, I’ll teach you these things:

Camera Modes: What are they for, and what do they do? What do those numbers and letters and ISO mean on my LCD screen? What the heck is a histogram?!

Secondly, I’ll teach you how to use your flashgun, and if you don’t have one, I’ll tell you WHY getting one is probably the best thing you can do for your photography.  Seriously.  Demystifying the numbers, letters, distance, f-stop, modes… that’s why you got me .

Maybe you want to learn how to do fancy stuff with off camera lighting, or perhaps learn how to use a strobe, decide which wireless triggers to purchase, or which modifier to buy – I can help you with all of that too – using equipment like this:

To create images like THIS:

Right now, the cost for the mentoring is $150.00/2 hours – but given this is the introductory course and the first time I’ve EVER done anything like this, I’m offering a 50% discount on the course to the first 5 people to contact me – info@innerlightcreations.com.

What are you waiting for? You got a fancy new DSLR.  Isn’t it time you found your inner light?

Author’s note:  The young man in the photos (Cristof) did NOT ride with his father Brad on the Harley.  He rode in the safety of his own car seat with his mom G in her Mini Cooper S.  I do not in any way condone children riding on motorcycles before they are physically ready.)

That being said, let’s get on to the fun!  Brad and I are good friends, and we share a  similar like for a lot of things – Longhorns Football, good beer (none of that silly Miller Lite or Budweiser crap), motorcycles, and both of us live in close proximity in the town of Manor, TX.   We’ve been talking (over a few pints of Guiness) about possibly doing this kind of photoshoot for Brad, as I’ve been wanting to test out a different way of lighting high contrast and highly reflective surfaces – like the Harley.

First, there are a couple of challenges here.  The chrome and the metal on the Harley pose a challenge in terms of lighting – trying to get a reflective surface to not overexpose too much while still keeping the quality of the light is difficult.  I’ve tried several times to attempt this, but I saw an idea using a scrim of sorts in a studio to work with highly reflective stuff, and it hit me – just make a scrim the size of a motorcycle, and place a light to light directly behind it!  This will diffuse the light enough so that it doesn’t create big highlights, while still providing a way to illuminate the motorcycle’s engine, pipes, and crash bars.

Here’s the setup shot!

This is the result from the shot :

While I like the image, I felt it needed some work.  First of all, the power lines, towers, and sky ALL have to go.  I set about doing the edits, and removing all of these things.  The spokes on the tires did prove a bit bothersome, but I got it all done masking it out and replacing the sky with one I shot this morning.

Here’s the edit results!

HMM.  A bit better.  It’s really amazing what masking can do, as well as some well placed clone stamps and healing tools.  I still think it’s missing something, so I change it to black and white, and make the whole thing look like a scene out of the “Watchmen.” Black and white, yo!

Enjoy! I had a blast photographing these – and this was a lot of fun in a technical exercise, as well as photoshop work.

It’s not very often I get an opportunity to photograph something out of my comfort zone – I’m mainly known as a wedding/portrait photographer, and while I am generally good at photographing people, fitness (read, super buff!) models is something new!

Yesterday, I was actually supposed to photograph a maternity shoot, but there was some kind of snafu on the client’s end, and they had to cancel.  So what do I do with the studio time? I started calling around, and my colleague, friend and former classmate at ACCPHTC Nicole Delcuze introduced me to her friend Jillian Hernandez, who worked herself into shape to participate in a fitness competition!

Jillian, when we first met, completely surprised me.  I must confess, I was expecting an entirely different kind of person – I think I have an unfair stereotype in my mind about fitness models, that they’re all “RAAARRWWWRR! I’M STRONG AND I SMASH!” types, and Jillian is anything but!  She’s smart, has a quick wit, and is absolutely charming with a megawatt smile that lights up her face!  She and I hit it right off the bat, and I knew we were in for some amazing images!

The challenge here for me, is to show muscle definition, and tonality, in addition to depth.  Most photographers I know who do portrait type stuff generally fall back on a tried and true method – the use of a softbox.  I knew that wouldn’t work here, and instead, I used a high output beauty dish with a 30 degree grid spot to bring out some hard shadows and light Jillian’s muscles in a more convincing manner.

Here are our results, more to come, post Thanksgiving!

Thanks for working with me, Jillian! More images to come soon .

I had the pleasure this weekend of photographing Laura White and her fiancee’ Kevin this weekend, and Laura is one enthusiastic bride! She’s always got a smile on her face, and is always willing to do the extra thing if it will make for an amazing image!  We climbed the Pennybacker trail to get to the summit, and we had some great shots there with the morning sunrise coming up at 8AM.  It was somewhat windy that morning but we made the best of it, and this is one of the results we got!

And Kevin, is as always, Laura’s rock and steadfast pillar..

We also took some great shots elsewhere too:

Congrats to Laura and Kevin on their upcoming wedding! If you’re a guest, be sure to save the date, May 19th!

Often, I chat with other photographers in the business, and inevitably, the conversation often jumps to the discussion of equipment.  Having the latest “this,” the newest “that,” or the “next” technology that makes our job easier or more cost efficient to do, is always on the radar.

Lighting is often something that’s discussed – because quite frankly, most of the modern cameras made within the last 4-5 years are more than capable of producing professional level results in the RIGHT hands.  Yes, having more megapixesls is nice, but ask yourself – how big are you REALLY wanting to blow up that image? Most of us rarely go beyond 16×20, and unless you’re planning to go 24×30 or bigger, anything over 10 megapixels is overkill, in my opinion.  Lenses are also a topic of discussion, but for the most part, most lenses are pretty sharp at F5.6-F8, so depending on personal preference (or a specific effect you need), pretty much any lens that’s made by a reputable company will be just fine.  There are duds out there like anything else, of course, but technology and quality control have come a long way.

Anyway, back to lighting.  I use a Calumet Genesis 300B for my location kit, and I absolutely love it.  It’s very lightweight, comes with a small battery pack that can output about 150 full power flashes on a single charge (more flashes if you go lower power), AND can be plugged into a wall socket when you need to use it in the studio.  If you’re curious, you can find the actual product here: http://www.calumetphoto.com/eng/product/calumet_genesis_300b_with_power_port_battery_system/cf0506k?gdftrk=gdfV23423_a_7c1267_a_7c4147_a_7cCF0506K

Another attraction about the kit itself, is that it uses Elinchrom mount speedrings, which can be had pretty much anywhere.  So, if you’re using Elinchrom accessories, or have an Elinchrom system and want to supplement your lighting with a inexpensive location kit, the 300B is a perfect fit for that.

The accessories and light shaping tools is what helps makes an image look fantastic.  There are so many of them – Beauty dishes, softboxes, gridded snoots, barndoors, scrims, parabolic umbrellas, deep throat octas, the list goes on.  My personal favorite is the beauty dish – it produces beautiful lighting (like the name suggests) that’s very specular, and looks way different than a softbox.  Not every model out there can take a beauty dish light well, some might benefit better from the use of a softbox, but for most of the photos I shoot, I use a 22′ beauty dish.

The current beauty dish I’m using is from Fotodiox, 22 inches in diameter, with a sock provided if you need diffusion.  Very nice silver interior, which produces contrasty lighting and highlights, and is built pretty well.  Tough, durable (I dropped it once from 10 feet high, not a single dent!), and can take ANY speedring you have to fit to your strobe.  The best part? It’s only 99 bucks with a sock, 50 degree grid, speedring and the actual dish!  You can find them here:   http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Beauty-Beautydish-honeycomb-Elinchrom/dp/B0048WL1RC/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1320952873&sr=8-5

However, like anything else, there are always some kind of caveat – I don’t like the rubber screws used to hold the speedrings in place, and I wish they extended the central reflector a bit further out so it wouldn’t be so close to my modeling light on my 300B.  Small gripes, to be sure, but for the $99.00, a gripe I’m willing to live with.

Here are some photos of the actual dish:

The rubber screws that hold in the dish to the speedring.

Speedring mounted on to the rear of the dish:

Close up of the actual speedring mount – this thing is made of thick metal, and hasn’t given out on me yet! Pretty robust metal, and doesn’t feel cheap.

The dish mounted onto the strobe, front view:

Photo of the interior of the dish itself:

The dish in use – I fired this directly so you could see the coverage of the unit.

And the unit with the sock covered over it, firing:

And the actual rear view of the unit, mounted and Cybersyncs in the image.  Nice, huh?

And, last but not the least, sample shots that I took while using this EXACT kit, with the 300B battery pack on location:

Fotodiox worthwhile? Yeah, you bet!