I spent one of my few remaining days being 66 working over at one of my favorite client's offices. It was a reminder that the business of photography can be fun.

 

Photographer standing in for his own tests. At the same time sadly ruminating that

he will very soon be 67 years of age. Tragic. At least the client-folk were kind and 

welcoming....and careful not to make jokes about the youth-deprived...

nor did they leap up to help me carry things ---- which is always embarrassing

no matter how well intentioned.

I actually had a blast photographing yesterday. It felt so nice. I was working at an accounting firm. One for which I've made portraits each year over the past ten years. They office just across the lake from downtown and are a quick 5-7 minute drive for the Visual Science World H.Q. The atmosphere was light and stress free and the food, all day long, was wonderful.

For the first nine years of portraitizing their various associates we were locked into using a gray, seamless background and very traditional lighting. Some of these constraints came from the company's headquarters located outside Austin. This year was a giant sea change. The marcom people at some far off office decided to refresh the images of all their hundreds and hundreds of employees, spread over most of the USA. They sent out guidance for local offices which warmed my heart. 

Now they are looking for "authenticity" and a glimpse of people in their environments. No more tight "head&shoulders" crops. Now they want to see both shoulders and and not too tight a crop on top. And happy days! They like the idea of a horizontal (landscape) aspect ratio. One that more or less conforms to the classic 4:3. 

Since the company offices here are close to home I dropped by on Monday to do a quick scouting mission. The marcom folks wanted the backgrounds to feel "office-y" but to be pretty much uncluttered, out of focus and denuded of knick-knacks. I needed to make sure there were four or five locations on their floor that would work so we could cycle through and get some visual diversity across about 20 portraits. The scouting was quick and pleasant. My direct contact as sweet and welcoming as ever. 

I had an urge to go totally minimal on this adventure, just a camera and a tripod, but my business brain talked my hippie, sandal wearing alter-ego out of it and insisted that I bring along a couple of lights and one big, pop-up diffusion disk that could reduce the savage glare and odd specular highlights of the ceiling mounted fluorescent lights that criss-crossed the ceilings. 

My basic plan was to position each person with an appropriate background in the right position, put the big diffuser directly over the subject's head and then fill in with an umbrella equipped LED light to give the light some nice direction and also to smooth out the flow of the existing light. Otherwise it would have all been top to bottom, too much contrast, with no side angle to sculpt faces. The horror! 

Everything fit into a large, Manfrotto rolling case and I tossed in a 50 foot extension cord which also came in handy.

My first impulse was to shoot everything with a Leica SL and the 24-90mm Leica zoom but at the last minute I tossed the little, bare Sigma fp into a corner of the case along with five extra batteries. When I left the office to head over to the client site I was thinking of the fp as a backup camera. Just included in case the SL went belly up and became electronically comatose. But by the time I arrived, no doubt influenced by VSL reader Greg H. and prolific blogger, Michael Johnston, I was ready to go all in with the little fp instead. And when I say, "bare" I really mean it. I didn't bring along the big chimney finder nor have I gotten around to buying the EVF that's now available for the fp and the fpL. I spent the day looking at the screen on the back of the camera. 

Funny thing is, by the end of the day I was totally acclimated to this very rudimentary way of composing and working. All rear screen. No eye level viewing --- well, unless I held the camera at eye level and did "dirty baby diaper hold" --- which I did not!!! 

The nature of shooting basically available light portraits in an office environment means you'll want to use a tripod. Which I did. 

Since I got the Novoflex tripod adapter for the Leica 24-90mm lens I seem to be using that lens for more and more portrait work like this. And why not? The lens is amazing good and the only reservations I had were about its use in a vertical mode on a tripod. It's so heavy the lens and camera package starts to droop no matter how tightly I screw in the tripod screw. All that's over now that I have the tripod adapter! I'm so happy to be able to use the lens unfettered now. 

Speaking of: very, very happy, I'm thrilled when clients have state of the art coffee and espresso machines in abundance. At my client's offices coffee is encouraged, elevated to an art form, and one could maintain a vibrant caffeine buzz all day long. Easily. For no reason whatsoever one of the office managers swung by a favorite donut shop and bought gourmet donuts for the staff. There's a place in Austin called "The Salty Donut" and they make amazing (but way, way too sweet) donuts. At nearly $5 USD per donut they better be good and the quarter sample I tried was. Did they buy enough? Yes, they had a dozen left over at the end of the day. They asked if I wanted to take some home but I demurred. I need to be able to fit in my pants from day to day...

So, cappuccinos and donuts first thing. Then they catered in box lunches for everyone. Great sandwiches on artisanal bread. They also ordered a few Cobb salads in case anyone wanted to cut down on the gluten and eat more green stuff. For a photographer used to bringing along a lunch in a paper sack, or taking a lunch break out to fight the traffic and lines just to stave off hunger, this was starting to feel a bit... heavenly. 

Around 3:30 the HR staff started setting up a buffet line, a cooler full of exotic beers and a table with some sort of wine-based cocktails. The catering arrived and it was full scale Indian food from one of the city's favorite Indian restaurants. I asked "why?" and the staff smiled at my lack of worldly cultural knowledge and then informed me that it was for the Diwali celebration. The lobby got decorated with posters and twinkly lights and the party started ramping up around 4:00 pm. I guess there were 30 or 40 employees left in the offices by then and they had a wonderful time. I also got invited to come back for the monthly book club meeting. There will be prizes, lots of fun food and an open bar. Something tells me they are taking employee retention quite seriously. 

The offshoot was that everyone I photographed was happy to be there, engaged in the picture taking and very happy to see what we'd shot on the little screen each time we finished with someone's photo. 

For all the odd review crap on various camera review sites one might be amazed to hear that the Sigma fp is able to autofocus at all. In the real world where non-brand-ambassadors take off their advertising blinders to shoot, the Sigma nailed AF on all 750+ shots using face and eye detection throughout. Gee, I didn't think that was possible except ---- I knew it was. That's a benefit of actually using a camera for a couple years. You really find out what it can do.

I packed up my one rolling case and headed out of the company's parking garage hoping I got good stuff. I transferred everything to Lightroom Classic this morning and breathed a sigh of relief. Everything is usable and most of it is very good. With some global corrections here and there it could be great. I envision separating the people from the backgrounds with the powerful new selection tools in LR and doing color corrections to each part of each chosen frame separately. Doing this will also give me the opportunity to introduce a bit more blur if I decide to toss caution to the wind...

The Sigma fp shot through nearly 800 images over the course of the day and did so on only two batteries. The second battery still had about 20% charge remaining. But I ran out of subjects. 

This was my last shoot as a 66 year old photographer. 67 looks bright. This is a good way to end work this birthday month. 

Today has been a relaxed, get things done day. We're trying to wrap up casting for a medical device advertising campaign that's scheduled for the third week of November. We've got front-runners for the two talents our clients originally requested and now they are adding one more. It's always something. 

But I did take time to go to Torchy's this morning for a breakfast taco, to the bank for buckets of cash to spend on my trip, and then to the pool for the noon workout with coach Jane. Swam 3,000 yards before lunch. Now heading out with a camera to enjoy the cool weather and bright sun. Thanks!  KT

Portrait of Rebecca L. An actor I met while photographing "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert." This image done for fun, after the rehearsal shoots.

 

I loved watching Rebecca perform on stage. She had this really great energy that the very best performers seem to be able to channel into the roles they play. I asked her to pose for me one afternoon near the end of the run of the show.

We used one of the reception spaces at the Topfer Theater. I used several LED lights in big modifiers and mixed their light with the soft light coming in through a bank of windows. 

The session only lasted fifteen or twenty minutes but it was enough to get a dozen or so "keepers" that we both liked. I reworked the post processing a little today, dropping the original saturation down a bit and adding some shadow contrast. I finally got the image exactly where I wanted it.

Camera: Sony A7RII

Lens: 135mm f2.0

Observation: Generally, the photographs you capture before or after the "official" or "assignment" images are the ones you want to keep. There's a different energy. It's a shared thing. And it's critical, if you can, to eliminate any other audience at your session.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good English to Canadian phrase book?

I once spent a long week with a photographer from Wales (which I know is not in Canada...) and when he tried to speak English I could not understand a work he spoke. He insisted he was speaking English. I wished, at the time, that I had access to a Welsh phrase book. Even a glossary of nicknames for things like coffee, beer and cameras would have been helpful. Thankfully we had a few German friends along who were adept at translating...

Just curious which is the recommended phrase book for Americans heading to Canada? Eh?

Or perhaps this isn't an issue on the west coast.

(kidding. just kidding... ). 

 

I updated Adobe Lightroom Classic to version 12.0 on Friday and I've been playing with it ever since. The new features are great.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/whats-new/2023.html

That's a link the "what's new?" It's all good. 

SL2+Lumix 50mm.

 

SL2+45mm

SL2+45mm

We are in the middle of a weather change here. After two hot days (again...) we've got wind gusts moving through and rain on the way. Tomorrow evening we were scheduled to make an outdoor portrait of 16 surgeons with the downtown skyline in the background. You know, a classic sunset shot. But the strong prediction is for thunderstorms in the late afternoon. That's too bad because 5 or 5:30 p.m. would have been the perfect time to shoot. Now cancelled (or rescheduled). 

The recompense is water for the aquifer and water for my parched lawn.

After the weather front plows through it will be back to sunshine, rainbows and unicorns until at least Thursday. Ah, the drama of weather in my birthday week. Seems appropriate.

All of the images here were done with a Leica SL2. Additionally they were done with either the Lumix 50mm lens or the Sigma 45mm lens. Sadly, I like both lenses equally. No clear front runner even though the Sigma lens looks cooler. 

This will be the first birthday in many years that I have not celebrated by buying a new (to me) camera!!! I guess that turning 67 means I am becoming more mature and responsible. Just don't tell my friends. 

But as regards the absent camera purchase....the deadline has not yet expired....

Auditioning camera and lens choices with travel in mind. I came across this particular atmospheric environmental expression this afternoon...

I'm doing some vacation traveling early next month and I'm auditioning single camera and lens combinations with an eye to only taking the most pared down kit with me. The way I'm distilling the choices is by taking the camera and lens under consideration with me for an afternoon long romp through the city. 

The important parameters I'm testing for are:

1. Image quality

2. Ease of use

3. Best focal length for my eccentric vision

4. Overall portability

5. Weight and size (I'll be carrying the package across one shoulder and will NOT bring a camera bag).

6. Battery life and, subsequently, battery size and weight

7. Degree of sadness entailed should the camera get lost, stolen, destroyed or otherwise rendered null

8. The handling happiness quotient

9. Replaceability should either camera or lens or both die unexpectedly. Could I acquire a replacement SL2 or similar on the same day if something tragic befalls the initial camera?

10. Will most people ignore the camera?

Today's package candidate was the Leica SL2 combined with the 45mm Sigma f2.8 i-Series. I give it passing grades for most of my point above but it's only C+ for portability. It's a solid A+ for image quality. It's a C- for battery life and a C+ for battery size and weight. Strangely it only earned a solid B for HHQ (handling happiness quotient).  It's still in the running. 

In the course of walking around I noticed that the sky was in transition from "generic sunny sky" type to "windy, wispy cloud sky". I thought the image above nicely reflected the moodiness of the atmosphere. 

Another candidate that I'll be auditioning this week will be a Leica CL paired up with either the 30mm f1.4 Sigma or the 18-50mm f2.8 Sigma zoom. We'll see how well it fares.

That's all for now.

We are so "blessed" to have an additional 400,000 people in town this weekend for Formula One.

 A whole different set of folks from the 140,000 or so that were here on the last two weekends for the Austin City Limits music festival. 

What fresh hell awaits us next?

I have attended the F1 in Austin on two different years in the service of clients. Loud cars go around and around on a track. Some are faster than others. No matter where you sit you only see, at any one time, about 4% of each lap. About 12 seconds of car viewing per circuit.

Insanity is said to be doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This is obviously a text book case. 

Did I mention the noise? I cannot imagine what possesses people to come from all over the globe for something like this. But just because I think car races are stupid doesn't mean it has no value for other people. To each their own.

At least, unlike ACL Fest, it's far enough away from my home not to inflict on us burdensome traffic, loud noise and crowds. If anything it has lightened traffic in my neighborhood. And local restaurants are less crowded.

Some silver linings; I guess. 

Leica introduces two cameras this week. One I am indifferent to and the other I wish I could justify ordering right away. Such is life.

 This week Leica announced that they are re-introducing the film-driven M6 camera. It's not a special edition but will be available only in limited quantities. Apparently crafting a camera by hand with expert craftspeople is not quickly scalable. Go figure. 

For a while in the 1990s I shot many, many corporate shows and events with a collection of three Leica M cameras and assorted M lenses. There was the .85 version (eyepiece magnification) which was great for 50mm and 90mm lenses. There were two of the .72 versions I used as "all arounders." The Leica M lenses were great performers and the rangefinder focusing was something I adapted to right away. But the bodies weren't without their issues. 

The rose colored glasses of memory haven't completely blocked from my memory that one brand new M6 was delivered to me with a totally uncalibrated rangefinder. Just absolutely unusable. Right out of the box. Back it went and was replaced by another unit. Over time the rangefinders in the other two cameras slowly drifted out of compliance to the point that two of my three M6 cameras became zone focusing only models. Back in the 1990s service could be okay or it could be horrible depending on what repair was needed. If it was a rangefinder calibration you might have wanted to send the lens you used most with that body to be calibrated in tandem. If it was a shutter repair you might want to pretend you'd never get the camera back and just buy another one to take up the slack.

There were other issues. I guess the most limiting for a corporate event shooter was the 1/50th of a second flash sync. If you needed any sort of fill flash outdoors you were mostly out of luck. But back then even the Nikon F3 only got to 1/90th of a second for flash sync so it didn't seem as egregious. 

Loading my M6s was a chore. I got really good at it because I shot a lot of film but that didn't make it any less time consuming. Or fraught.

I'm less inclined to glorify the M6 than some of the newer users who never got to shoot with something as glorious as the Leica M3 SS (single stroke) with a nice 50mm Summicron. That product absolutely defined the golden age of photography and I would conjecture that most of those cameras from the mid-1950s are still in use. They were actually built to last. And many a Leica shooter would tell you that their M3 was still banging out Kodachrome or Tri-X long after their newer M6 bit the dust and headed back to the repair haus.

I guess I feel the same way about the M6 film camera as I would if you showed up and replaced my fuel injection system on my Subaru with a carburetor or two. Or if I still had one of my air cooled Volkswagens that required me to crawl under the car and reset the valve clearances on a regular basis. I remember my Karmen Ghia and my Fastback with fondness but I'd never want to go back to cars that need maintenance every 1,500 miles and were bereft of air conditioning... Just not going back. 

I predict that many will buy the new M6. Users will spend a year getting to know all the ins and outs of photographing with a rangefinder film camera. Then, a year later, all those new user M6s will hit the resale market in one prolonged rush. The owners finally figuring out that we've moved on and that the advantages of digital cameras far outweigh the nostalgia of M glory. Or the nostalgia for film for that matter.

But I'm a heavy frame user so that's just my opinion from my spot on the photography spectrum. If you are a careful worker and don't shoot too many frames your affinity for the old tech might be quite different. Your balance between quantity and love of film might be much different. 

So, will I rush out and buy a new version Leica M6? No freakin way. You may have noticed that while I might change (digital) cameras systems frequently except for a Hasselblad tens years ago or so I have not acquired ANY new or used film cameras and have no intention of doing so. Too much work. Too little cheese. 

The other camera I mentioned is a different story. I've had my eye on the Leica SLS-2 mirrorless sibling to the SL2 since, well, since it was introduced. It's got features I like such as breathtaking high ISO, noise free performance. It's a great video camera and has codecs that I like. The video files don't need to be line-skipped or downsampled as much or in the same way as the video files from the SL2 so that means sharper, more detailed video imaging. And.....it's digital. Once I buy it everything I do with it comes at no additional charge. Well, except for those pesky Leica batteries...

I've been keeping an eye on the used market for one but the announcement this week of the Reporter model sure stuck a hot pin in my acquisition gland. It's just like the Q2 reporter in that it the SL2-S Reporter sports the tough, matte green paint over the (all) metal chassis. It also has the Kevlar/Aramid covering where the stock units have leather or faux leather grippy material. The Reporter SL2-S just looks so cool and is only a couple hundred dollars more than a stock unit. I love the look. But every time my finger hovers near the "Pre-Order" button at the Leica Store Miami webpage for the SL2-S Reporter I reach for one of my original Leica SL cameras, cradle it in my hands, and it seems to assuage and defuse the rampant desire for the new camera. 

But it's a dicey time. My birthday is near the end of this month and my track record of buying myself great birthday presents presages danger on the horizon. I guess I'm procrastinating to I can eventually venture back to their site and see the word's, "Sold Out" on that product thus saving me yet another bout of needless expenditure. 

But at least at its core the SL2-S is a practical and useful tool for this age. Even if you get the one in Army Fatigue Green..... 

Yes, I know. Your mileage will vary. But that doesn't make the Reporter version a bad choice for everyone.

And Just Like That We're Back Knee Deep in Video. But it was Fun.

The Red Dot has new meaning for me. It's the video record button on my GH6

and my S5. And both provide the same, fall V-Log profile in camera...

 Today's project was shooting a video for a company that uses swimming pools as part of a geothermal strategy for air conditioning. Adding in a cooling tower means you can control the temperature of the pool water as well. In the Texas Summers air conditioning systems that use water for heat transfer run more efficiently, run with less system stress, and actually get better and better at their primary function as the weather gets hotter and hotter. 

The assignment was to go to an architect's "green" home and interview him out by the pool he uses for his own home system. He's been doing green designing and building for over thirty years and he had the system installed in his own home over two decades ago. He was thrilled to talk to my clients on camera about how good the system has been for him and his clients. And about the cost savings.

We (Kirk and primary client) wanted to use two cameras for the interview so we could cut from a tight waist up shot to a wider, different angle. It's nice to shift angles during a program to prevent as much viewer boredom as possible. Since both cameras were set up and shooting 4K video we also knew we could make good use of the ability to crop or use a "Ken Burns" effect (pan and scan) if we felt the need. 

Primitive Sketching. 

I arrived at 9 am and got to work. We'd scouted the location a week earlier at around the same time so I knew pretty much what to expect. I found a GFI power box across the walk from the pool and plugged in my only light source. It was a 300 watt LED light shining at full power into a Westcott medium octa-box on a heavily sand-bagged light stand. Up about eight feet in the air and pointed down toward the interviewee. There was lots of ambient light bouncing around but the constant source kept the light on the person in the frame more consistent and helped to reduce scene contrast a bit. Behind the interviewee were trees and nice landscaping. 

I positioned my interviewer's seat directly across from the pool gate and put my subject on the other side of the gate. The gate was the perfect height for the subject to stand behind with his arms crossed in a natural way across the top of the gate. This certainly helped put him at ease through the 45 minute process of being interviewed. 

Many years ago an old video hand showed me what he thought was always the best way to position the light, the interviewer and the camera if one wants to have the subject looking off camera instead of directly into the camera. Put the interviewer in between the camera and the main light source. Have the subject look directly at the interviewer. You can move the interviewer close to the camera if you want less of an off camera look or move the interviewer further away if you are looking for a more obvious off camera look. Either way you want to put the subject off the center of the frame. The rule of thumb is to put him closer to a side than the center and you want him to space the more open side in the frame, on the side to which he is turned. In the example above I would comp the scene with the subject over to the left hand side of my frame, as I was looking at the camera image, and then have more open space to the right of the frame.

If you are using one camera you are pretty much done with the set up. If you are also using a second camera you'll want to keep it on the same side of the 180 as the primary camera. By that I mean that if you drew an imaginary line between the interviewer and the subject you would want to keep the second camera on the same side of that imaginary line as the A camera. If you put a camera on the opposite side of that imaginary line you will have crossed the 180° mark and it will confuse your audience. 

The second camera should have a different set of image parameters from the first camera. Different enough in either the subject's size in the frame or the angle of view so that cutting back and forth between the two frames makes sense and doesn't just look like a bad jump cut. My second camera was a wider shot and the angle of difference between the two cameras was about 45°. So both the angle of difference and the size of the subject in each frame are very different. It really does make a difference in the editing process...

The position of the camera was a bit precarious. My heels were right on the edge of the pool deck if I was operating directly behind the A camera. I'd advise that you have nothing plugged into the camera that uses A/C electricity. Just in case. The light over to the right side of the drawing above was anchored by two 25 pound sand bags and it was plugged into a GFI plug but I still wouldn't use it that way if anyone was supposed to be in the actual pool. A mishap of gigantic electric proportions just isn't worth it. 

The final addition to the lighting and camera mix was a 4 x 4 foot, one stop, silk diffusion panel which served to block direct light from hitting our subject. With dappled light it's too easy to make an image look like crap when blasted with both hard specular light and deep shade from over hanging branches, etc. I use sun blocking scrims of various strengths just about any time I'm shooting in daylight. It just adds more consistency to the overall light. But...over the course of our interview, I had to stop a couple of times to readjust the scrim since the sun refused to stop moving across the sky for me....

We were making this video in a busy residential neighborhood. There was construction going on a couple houses over and intermittent leaf blowing that plagued us through the whole process. Omni-directional lavaliere microphone to the rescue. I planted the microphone right in the middle of my subject's chest exactly where it was supposed to be in relation to his mouth and then I said a little prayer to the photo gods asking them to enhance the inverse square law. Just this once. Just for the sake of my client....

I used a Sennheiser wireless system and it was .... perfect. It's old school so everything is manually set but once set it's just as solid as a rock. The subject's body did a good job blocking unwanted sound from behind and the falloff over distance was so quick that it almost sounds like we shot in a studio. I used a Rode NTG4 on the B camera and got it as close as I could to the subject without getting it into the frame. 

The difference in sound quality was night and day. The shotgun microphone picked up sound and noise not just from the front of the microphone but also from the back. That's the nature of cardioid construction microphones. They don't magically zoom in on the subject and the same rules of the inverse square law apply. A shotgun mic can be a good choice but not if you are trying to subdue relentless noise. In those cases a "stick" mic (reporters handheld omni mic) or omni-directional lav are the only way to go.

That's fine though since the mic on the B camera was only there to pick up a scratch track that I can marry up the files from the two cameras with and get them synchronized for easier two camera editing. They'll work fine for that. 

I wore headphones all morning because I wanted to make sure we'd walk away with usable audio from everything we shot. I was pretty easy going about it but I did stop filming every time a Southwest Airlines flight thundered directly overhead...

We shot both cameras with V-Log profiles and when I apply the Panasonic V-Log to Rec709 LUT the frames look very good. The need a bit of added contrast and  some slight mid-tone darkening but the amount of dynamic range out of both cameras was better than expected. Perfect for this kind of strong contrast, daylight shoot.  I used the luminance spot meter and a gray card to set the exposure on both cameras and I used the gray card and the custom white balance tools for color. Seems like I hit it pretty well when I look at the vector scopes in Final Cut Pro X. 

The A camera was the Panasonic GH6 and the B camera was the Panasonic S5. Why? The color science matches up well and they both use the same V-LOG profile. Makes it easier to match stuff up in post.

Now comes the worst part of any video job....going through and matching stuff up. Figuring out what stays in and what gets trashed. I like working to a script better but this was a classic interview and the client and I will have to decide what works best for their messaging.

Under Ben's guidance, delivered Sunday over dinner, I shot more B-roll than I ever have before. And even though I feel today that I've covered everything pretty well I know Ben would have advised doubling that. 

That's how I spent most of the day today. It was fun. I like it when all the stuff works and the clients are relaxed and their interview subject is smart, relaxed and verbally agile. It's a nice mix.

Now to give "voice isolation" a spin in Final Cut Pro X. 

Nothing like overkill for audio.

But it says the Voice Isolation is powered by....Machine Learning.

We'll see about that.