February 23rd, 2009 by Calvin Jung
Last weekend I attended AMA Supercross at Qualcomm Statium here in San Diego. It was definitely a change of scenery for me. I was surrounded by “bro’s” and “bro hoes.” But I digress. While we were tailgating and waiting for the event to start, we hopped on my friend Brandon’s super heavy duty pogostick and gave it a whirl. Most of us fell hard, but the great thing about photography is that it can capture any one moment in time and make you look like a pro. That is, I could shoot anyone while they were in the air before they fell, making them look like they’ve been pogosticking all their lives!
My 580EX II played an essential role this day. I’d never really had the chance or need to use it for fill flash, but I did that day and I’m glad I decided to bring my 580 with me. For those that are unfamiliar with fill flash, I will briefly explain what it is and when it’s used. I’d say the majority of people think that flash is to be used as the main source of light when the situation is too dark to take a picture otherwise. And when there is enough light, such as from the sun, people tend to put away their flashes and forget about them. This often results in shadows under the eyes and hats (if the person is wearing one) and other various parts of the facial region that we’d typically like to see. So we use what photographers call fill flash to help light up these dark areas without overexposing, or blowing, the background. Most simply put, aperture and shutter are set to expose for the background and flash is fired to light up the foreground. Without fill flash, you have two options: 1) expose for the background and have a severely underexposed subject 2) expose for the subject and have a blown (overexposed) background. With either option you only get to enjoy one of the two, and most people choose option (2), completely disregarding what may be a beautiful background. With fill flash, we can capture both.
Without fill flash.
With fill flash.
All of the EXIF data should be intact for your convenience.
*Equipment used:
EOS 40D
EF-S 10-22 3.5-4.5
580EX II
February 8th, 2009 by Calvin Jung
Using Photoshop to give your image a Polaroid appearance!
1) Crop your image so that it’s shaped like that of a Polaroid
2) Filter > Noise < Add Noise…
a) I add ~10% noise w/ a Uniform Distribution
3) Filter > Brushstrokes > Crosshatch…
4) Image > Canvas Size…
a) *Note: Make sure your background color is white, so that when you extend the canvas it is white
b) Set to Relative
c) I do ~0.2″ Width and 0.85″ Height
5) Crop the top section off so that it is relatively even with the sides
You should get something like this:
This next technique was shared with me by a fellow photographer by the name of Cosmin.
*Note: All done in ACR
1) Crank Recover, Fill Light, and Clarity to ~+100
2) Set Blacks to ~+50
3) Contrast ~+75
4) Vibrance ~+40
4) Saturation ~-70
You should get an image similar to this:
Quick and fun technique that drastically changes the mood of the image!
Nothing more than using the Threshold tool.
1) Image > Adjustments > Threshold…
Cool Polaroid collage technique: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/polaroids/
February 8th, 2009 by Calvin Jung
The guidelines for project one were to shoot a graphic adult in broad daylight against a white wall or light backdrop. Unfortunately, the weather has been overcast and raining since the day the assignment was assigned. Luckily, the sun decided to peak out every few minutes this morning. So I packed my gear into my car and drove over to the closest location I could think of that fit the description in fear that if I spent too much time searching for the “perfect” location that the sun would disappear.
I’m pretty sure that this project was intended for me to be behind the camera during the shots, but no one else was available to shoot on such short notice. Therefore, I’m turning this into a self portrait project. Typically, I hate shooting in direct sunlight without any other light sources and/or modifiers. However, those are the guidelines for this project. Professor Carlson is interested in the contrast between light and shadows, so that’s what I gave him.
And since he wanted “graphic” people…
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On another note, I’ve decided it is finally time to take my lighting off camera! After a couple hours of research on POTN I have decided to go with Vivitar 285HV’s and Alien Bees’ CyberSync’s.
The Vivitars appear to be fantastic strobes, especially for the price. At $80-$90 each, you can’t beat them. A thorough review of the 285HV can be found here. It may not be the fanciest piece of equipment, but it certainly gets the job done if you know how to use it.
To get my lighting off camera I need some sort of wireless control system, and this is where it gets tricky. Some people swear by Pocket Wizards while others think they are overpriced. People that want something that works but don’t require the consistency and aren’t willing to pay hundreds of dollars go the Cactus route. And there are several other options in betweem, from Elinchrom’s Skyports to Alien Bees’ CyberSync’s. Radio Poppers seem to be another populat option. If I were using strobes that supported ETTL, then I would probably shell out the extra cash for something like the Radio Poppers. With that said, I narrowed it down to Skyports and CyberSync’s. Ultimately, I chose the CyberSync’s based on several reccomendations from fellow photogs, but it seems that either would be a good choice. Here is what Strobist has to say about them.
But to get the CyberSync’s to work with the 285HV’s, an extra cable (per strobe/receiver) is needed. For these I will be going to Lon @ FlashZebra. I was unsure of exactly which cables I needed to make the CyberSync’s fully compatible with my current 580EX II and my soon to be 285HV’s so I e-mailed Lon for his advice. Lon responded in a very timely manner (a few hours), especially for a weekend. He told me exactly what I wanted to know and didn’t try to sell me on some extra crap I don’t need. I’d highly recommened Lon and FlashZebra for your off camera flash cable needs, based on my experience and the several positive reviews I have read.