This week, Ken Lee kicked things off by talking with Mike Cooper about lighting locations by the moon, stars and handheld light. Then, Scott Wyden Kivowitz showed us the Oben GH-30C gimbal head for panoramas.
Julie Powell walked us through the Xpozer Prints Presets Pack, perfect for preparing your prints before you send them off, while Mason Foster told us how to deliver value at a distance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, Nate Torres told us why we might want to rethink our love for bokeh.
Under a bayou moon with night photographer Mike Cooper, part one - Southern-based night photographer Mike Cooper has covered broad expanses of the Midwest and Southern United States, offering fantastic glimpses of abandoned places lit by the moon, stars and handheld light. Mike illuminates these mysterious, forgotten locations with often colorful lighting, creating the image in-camera. The results are otherworldly. He has two upcoming books that will showcase these worlds. Active creativity Light painting is a key component of the night photos Mike creates, illuminating the subject in creative ways. “I feel like I’m a participant in the making of the image, not just pushing the button and having an image appear,” says Mike. “When you light a subject in a certain way, you have the opportunity to give it a different feel or highlight something that might not otherwise be noticed. “You can set your camera up in the exact same spot as someone else, aimed in the exact same direction, and end up with two completely different photographs. It is also very relaxing to stand behind the camera while waiting for the exposure to finish and enjoy the quiet of the night surrounded by stars and maybe a distant coyote.” Illuminating the night Mike approaches interiors and exteriors differently. “When I am lighting interiors of buildings I tend to try to light them evenly instead of having one part of the room well lit with the light tapering off into a more shadowy area on the other side of the room/building. When I do exterior shots, I usually focus most of my lighting on one area and allow the light to fade away on the sides to allow for more shadows.” A bold, vivid palette of colors Mike elaborated on how he lights the inside of structures. “I really like to use a lot of light and bright colors on my interior shots so that they really pop from the rest of the scene. Being able to add some color and use an unexpected shade in order can make someone see a subject differently.” Embracing the lime Like many of us night photographers who illuminate our subjects, Mike has his favorite colors. “I almost always find myself defaulting toward green or lime and I need to really push myself toward using other colors. I then try to make color choices based on what colors I haven’t used recently, unless, of course, the subject in front of me is begging for a shade of green! Sometimes I will take a picture using one color and then try it again with green … because why not?” Mike elaborated further about his approach to lighting interior and exterior settings differently. ”When the front of a subject needs some light to fill in some of the shadows, I tend to use either a natural white or gold. The white tends to look similar to the color given off by the moon and gold will tend to give a little color to the shadowed area while not being too overpowering.” Gold also imparts warmth. Many night photographers choose warm lights for this very purpose. Early influences Mike was inspired by night photographer Troy Paiva’s vividly lit photos, noticing that their more exotic appearance than his day photos of the same locations. “My biggest and earliest influence would definitely be Troy Paiva, followed by Mark O’Neill.” “I had also found some photographs that Mark had taken in Europe that were incredible. Even though I was just a beginner with a lot to learn, he was very supportive of my efforts to learn and was quite approachable when I had questions. He even invited me to join him on a trip to Bulgaria to photograph Communist-era ruins in the former Soviet bloc country.” Il-loo-mination Mike has a favorite subject for his photos: Outhouses. His reason is particularly touching. “I have been fascinated with outhouses since I was a little kid and my grandfather used his WPA outhouse every morning even though the house had a modern bathroom. There are so few of them still around that if I find one, I can’t help but want to photograph it as some sort of connection to my grandpa.” Finding locations Mike excels at finding fascinating locations hiding in Texas, Louisiana and Kansas. He begins with finding subjects that have an interesting history, looking for a unique perspective from these places. Mike explains, “I belong to a number of Facebook and other social media groups for abandoned sites. I regularly search photos posted in these groups to identify potentially interesting locations and then I use Google maps to determine if the buildings are still standing and, if so, how they can be accessed.” Accessibility to locations Accessibility is always a challenge among night photographers, especially in the dark. “Some locations are difficult to access because they require a long hike to reach the site. It can get more challenging on especially remote areas if you have to identify a new route when you encounter unexpected road closures or, worse yet, places where the road that you had found on Google maps is now simply gone.” Mike will also drive long hours to the locations he finds. Bucket list destinations with radiation, alligators and Soviet monuments “The top position on my night photography bucket list is Chernobyl, although I don’t think my wife would ever agree.” Given that one cannot touch anything or put anything down there, Mike’s wife is probably right. Unfortunately. “The next location — one that doesn’t require a Geiger counter for safety purposes — would be the former Six Flags Jazzland in New Orleans.” Mike spoke of rampant vandalism, also noting, “It is reported to have a high alligator population, therefore lessening my interest somewhat.” Mike also mentioned the Buzludzha monument in Bulgaria. “There are some really interesting Communist-era statues and buildings I would love to shoot.” He also wants to photograph the Northern Lights. Handy phone apps Night photographers like to determine where the moon and stars will be at specific hours to aid in
Lightweight, stable panoramas with the Oben GH-30C - As someone who wrote a book about panoramic photography, I often get questions about multi-row panos. But the funny thing is, until now I never paid much attention to them, mainly because I didn’t have a gimbal head. I’ve always used my Really Right Stuff ball head, panning plate and nodal slide to make my parallax-free panos. Thanks to B&H Photo, I was given the opportunity to get my hands on a gimbal and now I cannot wait to dig into multi-row panos and maybe even do an update to my eBook. At $349.95, the Oben GH-30C is not a cheap gimbal head. But at the same time, it’s not the most expensive — see the Wimberley WH-200 as an example. For the most part, every gimbal head does the same thing. They all have one purpose; to keep your heavy camera and lens set up, evenly balanced for fast or precise changes to the horizontal or vertical planes. Typically you see gimbal heads used for wildlife, airplane or sports photography in addition to creating panoramic photos. At first glance, the Oben GH-30C is well built. The product is fairly light at 2.7 pounds, but definitely heavier than a typical ball head. The only area of concern I had was the plastic knobs to control each axis. The entire product is made of carbon fiber and aluminum alloys, but for whatever reason, they went with plastic for knobs. With that said, the knobs hold strong, so I’m not too concerned. The gimbal head is compatible with most lenses you would think you’d use on it. 70-200mm f/2.8 and f/4 100-400mm 150-600mm 300mm f/4 400mm f/5.6 200-500mm Of course, you could always use smaller lenses too, but why would you? It can hold equipment up to 44 pounds and maintain smooth movement even at its limits. You’ll get full 360-degree panning and can lock panning from tilting if you want. I love that Oben went with the Arca-Swiss mount, which means if your tripod foot already uses the Arca system then you might not have to use the plate the gimbal shipped with. But it’s there if you need it. Lastly, if you plan on using multiple cameras and lenses with the gimbal, it does come with numbered scales which provide an easy way to mark the position of your setup so you can quickly rebalance the next time you go to use it. All in all, I’m very pleased with the Oben GH-30C. It fits perfectly on each of my tripods and I feel safe enough to use it with my heaviest camera and lens combinations. As you see in the video above, it balanced perfectly with the Nikon D850, 70-200 f/4 and 2X extension. I can’t wait to dig into multi-row panoramas more, and hopefully catch some air shows once their return. This will also be perfect for the next solar or lunar eclipse!
Quick and easy ready for print presets with Xpozer and Luminar - Getting your images ready for print with Xpozer has never been quicker or easier in Luminar (and Lightroom) with the new FREE Xpozer Prints Presets Pack. Follow the link and register your email; they will send you a download link. Load them into Luminar 4 and have a quick play. If you don’t love the editing part of getting your images ready for print, these are super quick and easy. Installing the presets Once you have downloaded the presets, unpack the ZIP file and you will find both the Lightroom and Luminar folder. Then, go to File > Show Luminar Looks Folder and then copy and paste the Xpozer looks into the folder. Using them is easy, too. Just import and select the image you wish to work on and press the preset. You will find it in the User Luminar Looks section. Of course, once the preset is applied, you can still make any changes as you wish before export. Landscapes So there is a Color and Black & White preset, as well a Print Essential. I quite liked the B&W preset, it dropped the overall exposure but boosted the contrast, giving it a nice overall look. The Color I felt was a little over-saturated, but that is easily tamed by going to the Adjustable Gradient panel and dropping the warmth a little. I also lost a little detail in the blacks, again you can fix by bringing the shadows up. Portraits There is three dedicated Portrait Presets as well. I felt the B&W was a little flat and could have used a little more contrast, but easily adjusted. That boils down to personal preference. I did quite like the Bright Portraits, dropping the highlights and bringing up the shadows, but softening the skin and slightly desaturating the image, just a touch. It also brightened up the whole image. The basic Portraits preset brightened things up just a touch and removed a little of the shine, but didn’t seem to do much else. Now you’re ready to head over to Xpozer and load your images up. If you still aren’t 100% sure, you can always get the team at Xpozer to double-check your images for you too, with their Photo Check service.
Portraits during a pandemic: Delivering value at a distance - (Editor’s Note: We welcome this guest post from Mason Foster. Mason is a commercial photographer specializing in portraiture. He is also the co-founder of Two Dudes Photo, a full-service photography and video production company based in California. He is also a DNP ambassador. Learn more about Mason at twodudesphoto.com.) As we navigate these unprecedented times, it’s important that we take measures to keep ourselves and our clients safe during photoshoots without sacrificing the quality experiences we want to deliver. In this article, I will outline a few tools and simple adaptations you can add to your portrait business to keep you safe and provide a comfortable experience with your clients. Making your client feel comfortable Fortunately, portrait photography is a medium that is well suited for a socially distanced world. Assuming you’re shooting with a longer lens, you will generally always be able to maintain plenty of space between your client while shooting. Additionally, equipment such as lighting, reflectors and flags can be setup in advance (and wiped down afterward) to create a truly touchless experience. As areas have started to reopen, we’ve had many more clients express that they feel most comfortable with outdoor photoshoots. However, they still want the studio look that we are known for. This can be difficult in full sun, but certainly isn’t impossible. While not all of us have a medium format camera system with a leaf shutter, there are many ways to eliminate and/or overpower the sun when shooting outdoors: Use flags (or find open shade) to prevent any direct sun from falling on your subject Set your lights to full-power to shoot at a larger f-stop Use lighting with high-speed sync to shoot at a faster shutter speed Any or all of these methods should give you back control of your lighting, the way you’re used to in the studio or in an office. Of course, when shooting outdoors, you’ll always want to bring plenty of sandbags to fight the greatest outdoor enemy — the wind! Creating a touchless print experience In an effort to keep everything touchless, we have also changed the way we deliver photos to clients, both physically and digitally. When providing print proofs (which we would typically hand directly to a client), we use a remote print station — by using a DNP DS620A printer paired with the DNP WCM (Wireless Connect Module), we can deliver prints over Wi-Fi using AirPrint. The print station can be anywhere, as long as it’s on the same network! We never have to leave our shooting station. Our guests can pickup their own print proof, eliminating yet another touch point. For digital sharing, we normally have an iPad or touch screen monitor displaying our Simple Photo Share event, so that guests can email or text themselves their images. Recently, in order to remove any shared devices, we’ve started setting up a vanity URL for each client. Since Simple Photo Share galleries are essentially responsive webpages. We can simply forward the vanity URL to the gallery and guests can access their photos on their own phone, tablet or computer. This is a nice touch, since it’s an inexpensive way to provide a custom, branded experience. It also eliminates a touchpoint where guests would normally be sharing a device. It’s a difficult time to be a portrait photographer. But as businesses bounce back, the demand for portrait work will bounce back, too. By implementing a few adjustments to eliminate touch points — and making your clients feel more comfortable — we may all be able to push this timeline up some.
No, not all your images need that creamy bokeh look - Bokeh has been exploding in popularity left, right and center. Everyone wants that creamy bokeh look on their photos. What is bokeh? Why has it become so popular? Should you use bokeh too? Well, this article will answer all those questions. What is bokeh? Bokeh comes from a Japanese word that means “blur.” It is an effect loved both by professional and amateur photographers. A high quality bokeh will create soft light reflections. This effect is created by a camera lens, and not the camera itself. Meaning that not everything with a blurry light and background can be categorized as bokeh. We think that the quality of the whole “blurry” area is what truly matters in a good bokeh. The background should not distract our eyes from the actual subject, it should simply become blurred into a creamy, pleasing background. An unsuccessful bokeh does not have these smooth transitions. There will be an unclear distinction between the subject and the background. Sharp edges on the background do the exact opposite of what a good bokeh should do. So, why is bokeh popular? For some reason, humans really dig the creamy look. Along with the clear distinction from the subject to its background. Their eyes will be focused on the subject and not the background. They simply enjoy the look and the fact that it focuses on the main subject. Why all of your images don’t need that creamy bokeh look People enjoy bokeh when it is presented to them, but they also enjoy pictures that do not use bokeh. They are fine without popular bokeh, they enjoy or just do not care enough about the bokeh. Behind the scenes of every good bokeh you see, there is always a photographer carrying an expensive lens, and heavy, large equipment. Unless you are taking it from your phone — although we doubt it is a proper bokeh — it is not that worth it. This is one of the reasons that not all your photos need a bokeh look. While following the hype, people are also starting to slap the bokeh style onto every photo genre possible such as landscapes, candids and many others. You can see the problem — they just do not work together. Using a creamy bokeh for a stunning landscape photo just does not work. Landscape photos should capture the whole landscape, and how magnificent they are. The idea of adding bokeh to landscape photos just does not stick with us. Slapping bokeh onto a photo translates into sacrificing the background, composition and time. There could be less information for the audience to look at, they will only see the subject. So, you can start to see why bokeh has both good and bad sides to it. Using bokeh is like deciding when to eat at an all you can eat buffet. Yes, you could go there every day for three meals a day, but it would quickly become expensive and there would be a lack of variety. The same applies to bokeh. Although you could use it every single time, there are correct times and locations where you can effectively use it. Redundantly using bokeh on your CV or Instagram will just make it boring. Use bokeh wisely, friends.
