Week 2 setup…

Here is week 2 setup. This is a very simple setup and a setup that a lot of automotive photographers use. Despite this being a shot with a person in it, I did not really have a way to soften the light on him. One thing to note about this setup is that I did not align one of the strobes right, so there’s a big shadow on the wall in this week’s photo. Anyway, this is a cross lighting setup. 2 strobes were used with no light modifiers. On the right, I have an Alienbee B800 set to 1/2 power about 15ft away. On the left, I have a Vivitar 285hv set to full power about 10ft away. The tripod was 30ft away and shot with my 85mm lens. The camera settings were 1/6th, f/2.5, iso100. The reason for the 1/6th of a shutter was to bring some of the natural light that was being cast onto the wall in the background to the left. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Week 2 of 52: Strobist Photography

Into the second week of this new 52 project, and so far, so good! This was a pretty random shoot, and a small one at that. I did not even really know where to take the photo at first, but I remembered that there are a few art pieces on walls in the arts district at downtown Las Vegas. So, we took a few portrait photos at first. I was not too pleased on the outcome I was getting with the portraits. Later on, he wanted a photo with him beside his car, which ended up being this week’s photo. The guy pictured in the photo is Addie Fridy. He is one of the best skaters in the Vegas valley. Google his name and plenty of results will show up. As always, click the photo below to view a bigger version on my flickr.

Week 1 setup…

Here it is, the first setup for this year’s 52 week project. This is not a complex setup at all and is probably the single setup that beginning strobist photographers start out with. I did not want anything more for this first photo as I intend for it to be the intro for this project. Anyway, the setup goes as follows. For the main lighting, I used my Vivitar 285hv, high right about 3ft away, set to 1/2 power with a reflective umbrella. For rim lighting, I used my Alienbee B800, about 12ft away to the back left, and set to 1/2 power as well. For this week’s photo, I used my 17-40L lens at 21mm with camera settings 1/200th, f/6.3, and iso 50. The camera was about 5ft away.

Week 1 of 52: Strobist Photography

So, a new year, a new project to attempt. To many of my followers, you may know that last year I have attempted to do this same project. Which would be 52 weeks of strobist photography. This year, I am attempting it again, except this time I am going to try to take a photo of a new person every week for the whole year. This will help push my photography, as a means of getting better at what I do, as well as networking with people to get my photography noticed. As usual, I will post the photo of the week one day, and have a photo of the lighting setup, as well as a description of the setup, the following day. Anyway, here is week 1′s photo. Hopefully this will be my only self portrait used throughout the whole year for this project. No more after this. Click the photo to view a larger version on my flickr…

So…

I think my mind has changed…

Closing of 2010!

Well, it has definitely been a fast year! I remember starting my first week of my 52 weeks of strobist project, sort of like it was yesterday. Although I failed at completing it, along the way I produced some good results, and it lasted about half of the year. It was a whole year with my new camera, my Canon 5d. I can most assuredly say that I will not move to crop sensors anymore after dealing with the 5d. Years ago it was released and it is still one of the most popular cameras out there on a relatively cheap price. The 5d has helped me develop a better style and I can’t wait to upgrade to the next 5d. With the beginning of 2011, I plan to push my photography more and actually earn income for what I love to do! I do not wish to start a photography project this year, like I have been trying to accomplish these past 2 years. It is time for me to concentrate on the next level of what I have to offer. So with this small, brief statement, I give you a photo I took of the last sunset of 2010! Happy new years, make 2011 your own!

Ohh, and I almost forgot, I didn’t realize wordpress sends data back to your email regarding your year in blogging. Here’s some of what it said…

Your blog is on fire

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2010. That’s about 31 full 747s.

In 2010, you wrote 108 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 561 posts. You uploaded 2 pictures, taking up a total of 94kb.

Your busiest day of the year was February 26th with 212 views. The most popular post that day was This day, 2 years ago….

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

12/14 Sesh

I can not even remember the last time I brought my strobes to the local skatepark to take photos of the skaters. But, my friend’s brother was leaving from his Vegas visit, so it was his last day to skate with us until a later time. I agreed to bring all of my equipment to take some photos. The setup is always simple with these skateboarding photos. I usually just cross light two strobes, by putting a strobe on each side of the skater, while lighting up the area they are skating as well. One of my Vivitar 285hv flashes broke, so I had to bring my Alienbee b800′s down to the park. For the photos below, I had one 285hv to the right, and one b800 to the left, with both on full power. I am always stoked on the results I get when I take photos of skateboarding, and it is even more rewarding when I share my photos with the skateboarders I am taking photos of…

Nollie Inward Heel

Ollie

Nollie Flip

And the two brothers…

Narcissism…

Well, hardly, haha. It has been quite a while since I actually did a self portrait for myself to put as my facebook default. I have been wanting to take a photo of myself for a bit, but I got lazy. I wanted to try out a different sort of setup. And being that I do not really incorporate reflectors into my strobing setups, I gave it a try, and I felt like the results came out great. So, I may be using my reflectors more often. Anyway, here is the finished photo, click on it and go to all sizes for a bigger view…

And, here is the setup. The camera/tripod was 6.5 ft away from the canvas, with the reflector below at 3ft away, and my b800 at 1/4th power with reflective umbrella boomed above at 3ft away. Being as I have not used my reflectors much, it was somewhat hard at first to get the light to go where I wanted to go. Such as, being too far or too close to my face, not shining where I want it to be, and just not looking right overall. It was especially hard since I was setting everything myself, taking the photo of myself, and seeing if it turned out right. Trial and error if you will. But, eventually I got the results I wanted and was pleased. Here is a photo of the setup. If you have any questions to ask, feel free to do so…

The other day…

It has been quite a bit since I have updated. Anyway, the other day, over the weekend, I did a couple of mini shoots. The first one, was with my friend Carlos. He just got on flow for a skateboard company, so he needed some photos from me for him to send to his manager. So, we ended up going to a local park that has a few spots and I took the photos. I thought I was only going to get a sequence shot in, so I did not bring my strobes to make things easier to transport. But, he ended up doing a trick on the other side of the park where I could have used strobes. I said to him that I will bring the strobes next time he needs photos for some better shots. Here are the 2 photos I got of him the other day. The lens used for these photos were my 85mm f/1.8…

Melon to Firecracker

“Rock Jam”

Also, on that same day, into the night, I took some photos of DJ Kid Conrad at a gig. I have owed this guy some photos for quite some time now, so I decided to give him time and get him his photos. At first, I did not like how the photos were coming out. The angles were bad, the lighting was not working out, and I just did not feel comfortable at all. So, I just kept on shooting in different areas, changing up settings, and seeing what worked best. Then results came out better through the night. I ended up staying there until 3am or so and went right to editing on my computer. I used a mixture of lenses from my 17-40L, 50mm, and 85mm, as well as different iso levels for use with no strobes and strobes. The lighting setup was simple. Just a b800 on both sides of the stage, mainly for rim lighting. But I also switched the power levels on those to light up more or less. Here are some of the photos from that night. The rest can be seen on my flickr…

A Best Friend Series…

So, last night, my best friend and I decided to go out to the Las Vegas strip and take photos. She has developed a small passion for photography and I am in the process of teaching her a few things. Yesterday I tried teaching aperture, shutter, and iso, which became overwhelming for me to explain, haha. Needless to say, walking down the strip to take photos did not turn out to go as planned, so we headed out to take a photo together to add to our Best Friend Series. I have not used my ringflash in a while, so I brought that out along with my two Vivitar 285hv’s for the rim lighting. We took a few photos and I decided to put up this one, being the best looking. I liked the ghosting effect I was producing, so I kept the power on my ringflash to a minimum to create it. Anyway, here is the photo below. If you would like to see her flickr and what she has produced so far, click here! Thank you