I really appreciate the patience of Janna while I took more than 15 minutes to find the right position for the lights to achieve the right color coverage on the wall behind her. She did great by keeping her concentration and giving me a great pose to work with. It made the effort worthwhile!
(Lights: used a green and a blue gel on 2 speedlites placed on the ground. The model was lighted with a single speedlite in a Exybox 80 high above her)
Britt
For this beauty portrait of Britt, only a Ezybox 60 with a speedlite 580EXII was used, high on top of her head, pointing at her face. Click. Done.
I think I like simple.
This image illustrates the use of the technique called “dragging the shutter”, combining ambient light with flash to have the “diamond” frozen in the air leaving a trail of movement going upwards that gives the impression of a magic levitation trick.
(tech info: 2 speedlites in softboxes at both sides and behind the subject, 1 speedlite on the background. Synchronized using a voice-activated shutter release. Canned mist for the mystery ambient)
I bought a nice pre-cut gel pack from at www.photogels.com
Since I got them, I’ve been looking to do some creative effects with them. I had the opportunity the other day, when I visited a fellow photographer Pablo Vicente and his girlfriend Stefanie. She was very patient with us while we tried and shared many different flash techniques.
It was a good opportunity to try a cross-color technique, using complementary colors on the lens and flash to achieve a radical result.
This image was made using the CTO gel on the flash and a blue cokin filter on the lens.
Thanks to Pablo and Stefanie for the good day.
-Gerard . (more…)
MLU or Mirrror Lock Up is a ‘legendary’ function present in many SLR camera bodies, that is supposed to eliminate the effects of mirror vibrations by letting the mirror open some time before the exposure. Actually, it waits until the vibrations caused by the mirror get attenuated and the system of camera, lens and tripod go back to a stable state before opening the shutter.
The question I had is: Does it really works? For starters, I had never seen vibrations caused by the mirror, although you can feel the clap in your hand if you’re hand holding.
Therefore I figured out a way to visualize the vibrations and compare the effect of MLU:
I used a macro lens with a very high magnification (MP-e65, set at 5X), sothat any little vibration would become very evident (such an effect can also be seen with long tele lenses). I used a tripod, and extended the central column to the max height to decrease its stability and make it more prone to the vibrations caused by the camera.
The tricky part was how to really capture the effect. Stroboscopic flash offered me a solution. Several flash bursts at high speed would capture any movement in the setup. If the setup was totally stable, the stroboscopic effect would not show at all. Here is the result of this little experiment:
| taken with no Mirror Lock Up (MLU) | with MLU |
Of course, MLU makes only sense with your camera is fixed on a stable supporting surface, such as a tripod, bean bag or wall/table. If you are hand holding, MLU makes no sense at all.
It seems logical to think about freezing during the winter, but fact is that we haven’t seen the first temperature under 0oC. Freezing time seems as appropriate.
Achieving great photos using flash is not an area where only professionals are allowed. Using simple techniques to control and enhance the quality of light produced by your speedlite will allow you to create great images, far from the red eyes and washed out look usually associated with flash photography.
To create this image, we used a Lastolite Ezybox fitted with a speedlite and we masked the middle of it with black velvet cardboard. The composition was placed in the blacked out area. The diffused light coming from the sides of the softbox enter the transparent surfaces at an angle, creating an outline effect on the coloured water and glass jars.
The speedlite was used in E-TTL mode, and was triggered using a ST-E2 on the EOS10D. We used a EF 100 f/2.8 Macro lens to take the image. For this technique, it’s very important to use a hood, to avoid flare from the side light.
To achieve a great backlight effect, the light source will be behind or almost behind the lens. In this case, it’s the natural light from the sun is enhancing the colours of this cactus rose leaf and flowers. We include here an image made with the same setup, but removed the hood from the EF 100f/2.8 macro lens to show the effect of flare on the image.
Certainly one critical decision point in any photography is the lens to be used. While it’s actually distance which determines the perspective on a subject, a focal lenght of a lens will allow you to play with that distance to achieve the desired perspective and composition.
This is a small comparison of four focal lenghts on a portrait of Anne Sophie.
Thanks to Anne Sophie for being such a great model!
| 17mm [EF 17-40 f/4L] | 50mm [EF 50mm f/1.8 MK1] |
| 100mm [EF 100 f/2.8 Macro] | 200mm [EF 70-200 f/4 L] |
All images were exposed: 160/f5.6 ISO 200 using the quite unstable natural light (fast passing clouds) combined with a very reliable speedlite 580EX diffused with a portable Lastolite Ezybox
A new feature in the latests EOS Digital SLR’s. The Picture Styles allows you to tune the response of the sensor for specifical rendition of tonalities. It’s the digital equivalent of choosing different films like de saturated Velvia or the subtle Portra.
| Standard | Neutral | Portrait |
An inside view of the optoelectronis of an EOS lens on a digital body. (the lens is an old EF 35-80).