I’m happy to announce that my next lighting workshop will take place on Saturday, December 12, 2009 in New York City from 9:30am to 5pm. I’ll demonstrate the entire process of producing a photo shoot with a band from start to finish.
CLICK HERE to download a PDF with all of the information.
Registration is open at 10am (eastern) today, November 24 now. I’m only taking 15 people and I expect it to fill up quickly.
A good time will be had by all.
I recently got my hands on a Nikon D3S to use on a music video I’m producing for Taddy Porter. There’s not much info out there yet, so I wanted to point out a few things.
– There is some misinformation online stating that the camera does not allow true manual control over ISO, shutter speed, and aperture in video mode. That is absolutely not true. The feature is undocumented for some reason, but if you hit the OK button while in live view, a light meter will appear and it switches to whatever mode that you currently have set on the camera (manual, aperture priority, etc). That means if you’re on manual, then you can adjust all of your settings as you please. Push the INFO button to cycle through different display modes, including a live histogram, horizon level, grid, etc.
– The low light ability is incredible. You can literally see in the dark.
– Like the D3, the screen is gorgeous. I’m having no trouble manual focusing. Of course, I learned to shoot stills when we covered fast-moving sporting events with manual focus lenses.
A couple of things to watch out for:
– The video mode eats batteries, which is surprising because I can shoot thousands of still images before recharging. Make sure you have extras on hand.
– As expected, the camera is heavy. A tripod or other support system is highly recommended. I’m going to try and use a monopod for most of my run-and-gun shooting this week.
Overall, I’m thrilled with the camera. As happy as I’ve been with the D3, this is the one I’ve been waiting for from Nikon. The ability to shoot shallow depth-of-field, high-def video at 24p with my full arsenal of 35 mm lenses is simply awesome.
You thought my Obama Inuguration Gigapan was big?
I produced a new one last night during the first ever World Series game at the new Yankee Stadium.
The final image is stitched together from 675 photos – 45 across by 15 down. It weighs in at 104,360 X 27,836 pixels.
That’s 2,904 megapixels. The uncompressed image is over 8 gigabytes.
You can see the whole thing exclusively at MLB.com.
** UPDATE with technical info:
I’m fortunate to be part of the Gigapan beta testing program and I shot this image using a prototype of their new Epic Pro unit. To make this Gigapan, I used my Nikon D700 and the 200-400 f/4 lens. The whole setup weighs about 10 lbs and the Epic Pro had no problem with it.
I was zoomed all the way to 400 and my settings were 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. I shot JPEG FINE to a Sandisk 16GB card and found that the cool white fluorescent white balance was the most accurate. I began shooting at the top left at 8:02 pm. Working top-to-bottom and then left-to-right, it took 53 minutes to get all the way down to the bottom right corner. The white swath down the middle is a short period of time when it was raining.
Naturally, there are some places where people moved between overlapping frames, creating a handful of weird looking errors like half bodies and people with two faces. I manually went in and fixed any that may have existed with the players on the field, but didn’t touch the crowd.
And yes, Alec Baldwin is wearing a suit at his seat behind home plate while everyone else is in rain jackets and jeans. Maybe they were filming for 30 Rock?
I learned a few things while doing this and will make some minor changes next time. I’m planning on producing at least one more Gigapan before the Series is over. Stay tuned.
The light in South Florida is beautiful on it’s own, but I will supplement it when I have to.
I recently did another shoot with Kari, the wedding dress girl. For one series of images, I wanted to use the green cabana at Crandon Beach. The problem is that it was completely in shade. There was enough light to make a photo, but it just didn’t have any “pop.”
Instead of waiting around for the sun to cooperate, I brought out a Nikon SB900 flash.
I had Kari’s friend Melissa hold a palm frond about 15 feet away and then placed the SB900 another 15 feet back. Putting the strobe further away from the palm made the light source even smaller, tightening up the shadow.
It was a balancing act because if I went too far back, I would not have had enough power to reach the wall.
With the strobe zoomed to 200mm and a warming gel over the light, it made a pretty good substitute for the sun.
(Nikon D3, 400mm lens, 1/250 sec, f/4, ISO 400)
For the image below, we were again in shade so I could control the light however I wanted. I used an SB900 in a Lastolite EzyBox as my main light, bounced another one off a gold reflector on the ground for fill, and put one more behind the tree at camera left for separation.
(Nikon D3, 70-200 lens, 1/125 sec, f/4, ISO 200)
For a shot in the gym, I fired my Dynalite uni400jr through a big white panel right over my head — essentially making it a giant softbox. I bounced an SB900 off the gold reflector on the floor and added another one with a red gel and a Honl snoot for the background.
(Nikon D3, 24-70 lens, 1/250 sec, f/4, ISO 400)
I think it’s Joe McNally who says that available light is any light that’s available to you. Sunlight can be nice, but I have no problem adding lights that are “available” in my camera bag.
When photographing celebrities, a big part of my job is to make them comfortable. I need to keep the shoot fun while subliminally reassuring them that I can get the job done. Otherwise, they’ll lose interest and it’ll show in my images. Even worse, they could leave before I’m done.
Things didn’t start out too well at my recent Kerrang Magazine cover shoot.
Jared Leto, Shannon Leto, and Tomo Milicevic, otherwise known as 30 Seconds To Mars, showed up at the photo studio right on time. These guys are pros. Jared Leto has acted in major motion pictures and been photographed hundreds of times. I really wanted to win them over quickly.
I had some music playing in the studio, but I immediately took some abuse from them for my musical choice. After trying to convince them that the new Toto album is, in fact, awesome, I gave them control of my iPod. Van Halen quickly changed the mood in the room.
You never know what might put someone off during a shoot. For example, I found out in advance that Jared is a vegetarian, so bringing in ham sandwiches for lunch would have been a bad thing.
Luckily, the guys were great to work with and by the end of the hour we were all hugs and high-fives.
Here are some of my images from the shoot, including the final magazine cover.
(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/125 sec, f/4, ISO 200)
(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/125 sec, f/11, ISO 200)
(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/125 sec, f/11, ISO 200)
(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/125 sec, f/10, ISO 200)
(Nikon D3, 24-70, 1/125 sec, f/11, ISO 200)