by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography
Sound Bites Grill keeps bringing new acts to the Sedona area. The latest is Andrea Marie and the Magnolias Band from Austin, Texas. Andrea has one sweet yet powerful voice. You can check out their latest CD sound here.
Here’s the artwork for the Wall of Fame at Sound Bites.
You can follow and like the band on their FaceBook page.
The images to put this together were captured with a Lumix GH4 and the 35-100mm f2.8 Leica Lens. The GH4 has a great density range to capture the full range of tones even under LED lighting. ISO 3200 f2.8 approx 1/50 sec.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | charity photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, people photography, photography
While on vacation in Sararsota, Florida I was asked by my buddy Skip to help create an image for an ad campaign for the Friendship Centers. The look of the requested image was based on previous photos from the campaign. The speaker would be in the foreground and sharp with the secondary person in the back slightly out of focus. Here’s the resulting ad that will run full page and on their web site…
Photographed with Lumix GH4 & Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm f1.2 lens
Settings – f1.2 ISO 200 1/250 sec Window light from 4×6 ft window with shear curtains camera right
MeFoto Backpacker tripod for support (because I was traveling – came in quite handy because it’s small for packing)
It was a pleasure making the image. I just happened to have the proper tools with me. The Nocticron lens is sweet and allowed me to get just the right fall-off of focus that was needed for the photo. If the MeFoto wasn’t so small and easy to pack I wouldn’t have had a tripod with me on vacation.
Small light and powerful tools are amazing to work with and I’m enjoying photography more every day.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | lighting, Lumix GH4, Lumix GX7, photography, photography education, photography lighting resources
We all use social media to promote our photography business. But, I ask how do you show up? Do your have a professional portrait that shows that you value professional photography? Or, have you posted a snapshot, or worse, a cellphone selfie?
I’ve made many self portraits with the camera mounted on a a tripod and triggering the camera with a remote or worse yet using the timer and running back to get the photo. It takes lots of effort. And, while it has a professional look I haven’t always ended up with the ideal expression.
I have an idea for you. Get together with a fellow professional photographer and take each others head shot. I guarantee you’ll have a good time, learn something new, (‘cuase we all lend to light a bit different) and end up with a portrait you’ll be proud to use for the next year…*
Here are some results from working with my friend Silvio of Silvio Portrait Design.
This was photographed using a wide open garage door as the light source. A black fill was used camera right to add some dimension. Captured with the Lumix GH4 and the 35-100mm Lumix Vario f 2.8 lens
Here’s a different look clothing and pose same lighting.
And here’s one that has a totally different lighting scheme. This was done with three Pro Photo B1 lights ** and a white reflector. The main light was camera left and encased with a 36 inch Octobox. The fill light was an umbrella bounced into the white ceiling of the 8 foot garage. A third light was used to add a background light. You can see when you craft the light you can get lots more depth to the photo.
* Notice I said next year, not the rest of your life. If there’s one thing that’s worse than a crappy selfie it would be one that is out of date…
** The Pro Photo B1 lights were pretty sweet to work with. Very powerful and versatile. They are battery powered heads meaning no cords to be tripping over and these were matched to the TTL of the canon camera that Silvio uses.
by successfulbob | Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, people photography, photography, photography education, photography gear
“Turn your face toward me please.”
I was talking to my friend Silvio from the back seat of the car. I had just noticed the rim light that was skimming one side of his face. I was shooting into the shadow side of his face AKA ‘short light’ which will tend to have more drama and slim down a person’s features. Here is what I saw…
Portrait grab of Silvio in a car.
It’s a great exercise to constantly be looking for lighting patterns in everyday lighting situations. Once you learn to recognize them it becomes A – easier to put people in the proper place when lighting in the field and B – to replicate the light in the studio because you have become more familiar with it.
In this particular case the lens I was using also had the added benefit of very shallow depth of field. Which allowed the background to fall off quickly. This was the LEICA DG NOCTICRON 42.5/F1.2 on the Lumix GH4. 1/400 sec; f/1.4; ISO 800 Aperture Priority
A – Rim light that highlights the edge of the face
B – Shadow side of the face is the larger side meaning this is a short light portrait
C – Bit of a kicker light adds interest and more form
D – Focus fall off AKA Bokeh. Even though the ‘background’ is pretty close it goes quite soft
By the way Silvio is a portrait photographer based in Scottsdale, Arizona you can check out his work here at Silvio Portrait Design.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, people photography, photography, photography education, photography gear
Had the pleasure of working with Benji Santana who works at Snap Fitness in Sedona and Cottonwood as a trainer. He’s looking to pick up a bit of modeling work and asked me to shoot a some images. Looks like the camera likes him…
Benji is pretty well cut. Those abs look strong. That chain weighs about 30 pounds…
Benji fills out clothing pretty well too.
I used the Lumix GH4 for capture with the 35-100mm 2.8 lens. Shooting more toward the telephoto end of the lens compresses the scene and features. For the body builder images I took a lower angle to give Benji a more powerful feel as in the photo he is looking down at the viewer of the image. For the clothing shot I wanted a more friendly feel so moved the camera up so we were looking at eye level with the viewer. Bodybuilder lighting was with Paul C Buff Ultra Zap with a shoot through umbrella placed high to camera right just out of the frame to accentuate the abs but still give some slightly soft shadow edge transitions. A 4×6 silver reflector was added camera left to add some fill to the shadows. An unmodified second light was placed camera left and slightly behind to open up the shadows and give some separation from the background and add some interest.
Here is a ZED card I designed for the shoot as self-assignment and as an add-on possible sale…
Model Zed card design.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
