One short product review with no random thoughts.

Fotodiox Two Color LED panel with 312 LEDS.

When I wrote my book on LED lighting the two color panels were scarce. Recently, cost effective panels with a mix of tungsten balanced and daylight balanced bulbs have become more readily available.  I bought one of the Fotodiox 312AS panels recently from Amazon.com for $158.  It came in a soft case along with a diffuser panel that attaches magnetically to the front of the light, two lithium batteries that are generic copies of popular Sony camcorder batteries, and a two bay battery charger.

The panel has two rotary knobs on the back.  The one on the left controls the balance between the daylight bulbs and the tungsten bulbs.  Rotate all the way counterclockwise and you have 3200K light.  Rotate all the way in the other direction and you have 5600K lighting.  Somewhere in the middle you have full brightness from both sets of LEDs and a color temperature somewhere in the mid-4000K region.  Be aware that while the color temperatures very accurate the hue is still somewhat green.  Nearly every LED light, even the costly ones, require a little bit of help to cancel out the green color cast.  A simple plus 1/4 magenta filter works wonders.

I used this panel and two smaller single color panels (daylight) to do an assignment this past week.  We needed to shoot a portrait of a key executive for one of the world's largest manufacturers of semiconductor fabrication equipment.  The assignment was a two part project.  We would be setting up two different areas and taking the person's portrait in each of the areas.  The brief called for a standard formal portrait and an environmental portrait in their very large server farm.  Think thousands of square feet of server racks, each filled with blade servers....

We would have the executive for a very limited amount of time so we scouted the location several weeks earlier and came equipped to handle two very different lighting situations.  I arrived two hours before our start time in order to set up and test both locations.  Then, when we started making portraits we would be able to move quickly from our first set to our second set and maximize the time we would have with our subject.

We set up the formal portrait in a very large, windowless training room.  It was perfect.  High ceilings and lots of uncluttered, linear space.  I lit this set up with three Elinchrom monolights and various lighting modifiers.  I shot with a Sony a77 camera and a 70 to 200mm f2.8 G lens.  While it's a fairly new camera system for me the lighting is old hat and fell into place quickly.  I was happy to have 60 feet of front-to-back space available; it let me light the background totally separate from the foreground and that gave me more control.  

The second set up was in the server room.  When I scouted the location I saw that the entire room was lit by ceiling mounted florescent light tubes.  At the time I took a test shot with my small Olympus EP3 set at daylight and when I got back to the studio I took a good, hard look at the lighting spectrum.  An approximate light temperature of 4200 with about 16 points of green.  The green spike wasn't much different than the green spike in the new Fotodiox light and I knew that if I used it without any filtration my only task to get a good match for the actual color temperature of all the light bouncing around that room from the florescents fixtures.

I used the Fotodiox as my main light and diffused it through a Westcott Fast Flag 24 by 36 inch collapsible flag/panel.  The final step was to rotate the color temperature knob and find the sweet spot with a person standing in at the same spot as our executive would stand in.  With the main lights locked down I added two kicker lights by using 160 LED fixtures with  no  correction.  I didn't mind if the small amount of accent was bluer as long as it didn't introduce a different color spectrum.

The main benefits of using the new LED panel as a main light were the ability to use it without a power cord and an extension cord in the server room,  with the quick twist of a knob it was a nearly perfect color match for the acres of existing lighting, and I could increase or decrease the intensity of the light with the second knob.  I used another Sony a77 camera, this time with a 50mm 1.4 lens on the front, to shoot all the portraits in this location.  I settled on ISO 400 as a good compromise  between being able to go handheld if I wanted to and still provide a noise free file.  The "teardown" in the server room took only a few minutes after the shoot.  Then I headed back to the training room to disassemble and pack the flash gear.  

Now we have an executive photo gallery with two totally different looks.  The global color correction (all that was required)  is right on the money and the clients are happy.  These multiple set up jobs happen more often than you might think making it a good idea to have enough light stands, lighting units and support hardware in inventory to pre-set two or three locations for near simultaneous use.

The light from the Fotodiox 312 AS is brighter than the previous generation of small LED panels and the artistic potential of total color temperature control is intriguing.  After the shoot, and after looking carefully at the files in post (24 megapixels at 100 %) I went online and ordered myself another unit.  In a revival of my previous Minimalist Lighting enthusiasm I can now see going out on portrait assignments with two of the 312 AS lights to use as mainlights and a handful of 160 LED units for backgrounds and accents.  Those and little bag of batteries would work well in nearly every situation short of having to shoot with sun drenched windows and exterior daylight in the frame.  In all, a win for me and my clients.

A Rolleiflex portrait of a kid on a bike.

Rolleiflex 6008i,  150mm lens. Black and white film.

I remember the day when I came to grips with the idea that a child could be too well documented.  It was the afternoon on which I took this image.  I was working in my little studio, which is just ten steps from the front of our house, when Ben came home from school on his bike.  I grabbed my tripod mounted Rollei and headed out front.  He saw me coming out the door so he waited for me near the top of the drive.  He saw the camera and figured this might take a while so he dropped his backpack on the ground and gave me his gravely-determined-to-be-patient face.

I metered the exposure and snapped a few frames.  Then I heard, "Are we done yet?"

And even though my child is very patient and undemanding of me I could hear the photo-fatigue in his voice.  Now I only document truly big milestones in his life.  Things like:

Waking up, eating oatmeal, walking the dog, playing chess, shooting video, riding away from the house, riding back to the house, swimming, running, walking, chewing, laughing, yawning, playing video games, eating snacks, etc. I think we're working toward a really healthy balance......

The gaze.

What you might be looking for in every meaningful portrait is the appearance of a connection with your subject.  Are they comfortable enough with you to stare into your camera? Can they be strong and calm?

Amy.  Hasselblad Camera. 150mm lens.  Kodak T-Max 400 CN film. Big light.

Brenda's Portrait. First Round.

Two variations on one image of Brenda.


As part of my ten days of vacation I took portraits of friends and acquaintances here in Austin.  What else would a photographer do on vacation? Brenda is an extremely good and extremely successful public relations specialist.  I see her frequently at Zach Scott Theatre where she consults and has been a board member.  I was nervous about asking her to come to the studio and sit because I believed that she would be too busy.  Or that she had so many photographer friends that she couldn't find time for one more portrait sitting.  But in the end I asked and she graciously accepted.

We worked with a digital camera (the Sony a77) and with a Hasselblad medium format film camera, and the session lasted about an hour.  This image is from a first pass edit.  It's from the Sony camera. But I just picked up the contact sheets last friday and I've already found ten frames I have to scan.  The larger format camera just looks different.

But I've very happy with the color and feel of these digital images as well.  At ISO 100 the a77 files are everything you could want in a digital camera file for portrait work.  They are color neutral, not too saturated, they have low-to-noise and they have bountiful dynamic range.  If you shoot mainly in the studio you couldn't ask for a better tool.

I used a variation of the lighting I'd set up for Carrie's photos, which I've shown this week.  The main difference is that I put a 48 by 48 inch Chimera Panel with a 3/4 stop, white diffusion cloth between the front of the Octabank and Brenda.  It's about half way in between, maybe 18 inches from Brenda.  It softened the light which also softened the skin tone and made the transitions between light and shadow gentler and more gradual.

I haven't had time to scan the black and white film images yet but they should follow this post in short order.

While you wouldn't be able to tell from a file that's displayed at 1800 pixels at its widest on the web, the lens I used here is very, very sharp.  It's a $200 Sony 55-200 mm and it's quickly becoming my favorite portrait lens because it's optically so well behaved and I like to think that it's driving its big brother, the $2000 70-200mm 2.8 lens, that's just languishing in the equipment drawer, into a rage over the indignity of having to play second fiddle to a budget product.  But I have to give credit where it's due.

The secret of getting a good portrait has nothing to do whatsoever with equipment.  Using an 85mm 1.4 or a full frame camera won't trump the superior value of just spending time with your subject.  If you let yourself get hurried or work to an artificially short schedule you'll only end up with technically perfect images of people who aren't invested in the process or outcome.  You have to build a collaboration.  You do that by asking questions and listening.  You explain what you are working toward in a portrait and recruit the sitter as a close ally.  You work together to make something you'll both love.  The time is obvious in the outcome.

I watched a video where a photographer was instructing a student in the mechanics of shooting a beautiful model.  The student spent a lot of time setting up his lighting.  Way too much time working on focusing and composition.  And no time at all talking to the model.  He snapped one frame and turned around to show it, on the back of the camera, to his teacher.  He ignored the model completely.  She returned the favor and no one ended up with anything good.  Then the teacher stepped in and explained to the model what he wanted.  He shot tons for frames.  During the process he provided a steady stream of verbal feedback. He kept her in the process.  When he stopped and showed his work it was as though he and the student were working with two totally different women who just happened to be sharing the same outfit.

And as good as the photographer was the images he showed were of a surface beauty, a nod to a well done sample of the styles of the day.  But what was lacking was the bond between the subject and the artist that bridges the gulf between them and allows them both, for a slender slip of time, to share a kind of intimacy with the camera that translates into a brief insight.  An insight into what makes the subject special.  And unique.  It's time well spent.

Just another portrait.

Big light. Big camera. Black and White film.  Looking for alternate ideas of gut wrenching beauty.

Why do I bother to write when others think so well? Style? Read this !!!

http://www.fotocommunity.com/info/Helsinki_Bus_Station_Theory

It was written by a great photographer who is now, also, a great teacher.  It's about developing as a photographer.  Big thanks to VSL reader, Stan, who brought this to my attention.

On another note,  I love Robin's post today because the photos are great and the idea's he espouses match mine.  It's a good read: http://robinwong.blogspot.com/2012/04/dont-you-ever-get-bored.html


http://www.kirktuck.com/site/home.html

Comparing film and digital for the millionth time.

studio portrait of Carrie C.


I wrote earlier about photographing Carrie in the studio.  In that post I started with a portrait that had been done digitally, with a Sony a77 camera, and then post processed into the black and white image I wanted.  This image is from a roll of medium format, Fuji Acros, black and white film (ISO 100) that we shot at the very end of the session.  I used a 120mm Makro lens and shot a f5.6.  As I was photographing with flash the shutter speed is largely irrelevant.

While the focus on the background falls off much more quickly than the digital versions I think there are few major technical differences between the two images that would make either one a "pass" or a "failure" but it seems that a very strange thing happened, psychologically, on the way to pressing the mechanical shutter button.

Carrie and I had been working on making a portrait for the better part of an hour and a half.  All my work up to this point was done with a typical digital SLR camera.  When we switched to the bigger format camera, and I started loading film, Carrie immediately honed into the changed paradigm.  In fact, I think we both sensed that the larger camera signalled  a change in the balance of studio magic.  The bigger camera slowed me way down.  I couldn't depend on face detection auto focus to do my heavy lifting for me as far as keeping the image sharp went.  I had to do that work myself.  I was much more focused on looking at her face through the lens because of it.

And that meant that Carrie had to sense the longer lag for focusing and slow her global movements down to compensate. She couldn't shift position as quickly and without regard for its effect.  I think we also sensed that there was, for me at least, more skin in the game.  More opportunities to screw up. More real cost to the process.  And she seemed, instinctively, to step up her game, as a subject, in order to help me be more successful.  The larger, slower camera seemed more real and less like fiction; the industrial design and the more measured pace imparted an idiomatic majesty to the process that had been missing.  A fine dining perspective rather than a drop in to the neighborhood Chili's. 


I don't know if you can tell, when you look at this photograph and compare it to the earlier one of Carrie, but there is a more relaxed facial attitude, on her part,  coupled with a more forward and invested posture.  We're more of a temporary team.

It could be just the placebo effect of using something out of the ordinary in an ordinary time.  But most doctors will tell you that the placebo effect is a powerful force.  I won't disregard it in the future.

I ended up shooting three rolls of film with Carrie. I like everything I see on the contact sheets. Furthermore, it was a fun process for me because the performance art of shooting in short, slow bursts of 12 frames came back to me as fast as a freestyle stroke after one day out of the water.  It felt so right.

As I mentioned in my "welcome back" post I will be concentrating more on portrait work as we go forward.  Don't despair if you are only here for the "gear" though,  I have a gear post coming up tomorrow to break the monotony.