Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 14, ISO 100, HDR, 27 Exposures, Pano

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I figured we could extend our stay in Holyoke for another day. Yesterday, I wrote about that cold deck that gets dealt to you every now and then. You know what I mean. You’re kickin’ the tires hoping to make something of the day but it just isn’t jiving. I tell myself, if I can get one shot that I am really excited about processing when I get home, the rest is gravy. This shot was it for me.

In a way, this is your ‘gimme’ shot. It’s a lob ball… it follows mamma’s secret recipe where you mix in a nice sunset, an armada of crazy clouds, and a body of still water to reflect it into a nice inverse. You just have to shoot it. And, make no mistake, you should shoot it. No one is going to give you flack for it. But, the key is to try and shoot in a way that makes the shot your own.

For this shot, I decided to add some touch by using my 17mm Tilt Shift lens to create a pano of the scene. There were a few comps that I was happy with at first, but when I saw the potential of displaying this scene in letterbox, I decided to go with it. Is it a shot that I am terribly excited about? Nah. But I can guarantee you that I’m glad I got it. Remember: the only bad picture is the one that you don’t take. Sorta.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 16, ISO 100, HDR, 27 Exposures, Pano

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It’s funny, actually.  I usually go to great lengths to ensure that that I reduce/remove as much distortion from my shots as possible.  By distortion, I am usually referring to the curving or bending of vertical lines, typically found in architecture and is most often visible as the lines of buildings reach the far ends and corners of the frame.  This effect is called Barrel or Pincushion Distortion and becomes more prominent as you go wider with your lenses.  Throw on a 14mm or a 16-35mm lens and you’ll see what I mean.

To combat this, I use Tilt Shift Rectilinear lenses to help provide straight lines.  However, when I was standing in this pretty massive alley, I knew that I wanted to turn this into an HDR T/S Pano.  It had all of the right elements: a wide expanse, cool visual elements, and a dramatic sky.  When I looked through my Live View, I noticed that the buildings on either side of me were going to struggle with distortion.  At first, I started playing around with my positioning and the shift of the lens, but then I looked again and really liked what I saw.

In this situation, the over-exaggerated distortion lent something to the image.  It was one of those times where I actually used my Tilt Shift lens in the complete contrary way that it was intended to be used.  I’m going to have to remember to try doing that more often.

Oh, what’s that?  You really want to get a closer look at that sweet Buick station wagon?  Well, my good buddy, Bob, is happy to oblige!

This is the Santuario della Madonna del Carmine in Sorrento, Italy.  It is an absolutely exquisite church.  It’s long and narrow and has the most fantastic acoustics.  I know because I was the source of a lot of the sound carrying throughout the room.  It’s very easy to get lost in the moment when you find yourself in a new place that is so visually stunning.  It’s easy to forget that there may be others who are not there to revel in the photographic opportunities, but rather, they are there to get lost in their own thoughts and prayers and wishes.  Like that man in the far left pew, who was actually extremely understanding.

You see, the slap of the camera mirror jumping up and down over the series of 27 brackets that I took to make this HDR pano creates a lot of noise when you have such optimal acoustics.  Even with mirror lockup, it still was pretty loud.  And from that point on, I was much more cognizant of my surroundings in context.  Had the church been occupied by a bunch of tourists, like myself, I wouldn’t have been as self-conscious.  But, the man turned to me, graciously gave me a nod and a smile, and indicated that it was ok to fire away.  Gotta love the niceties of people.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 22, ISO 100, HDR, 27 Exposures

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All in all, I try to stick to plans that I make for myself.  I have intentions and I try to keep them well-kept.  For instance, the other night, I was assisting my buddy, Doug, on a ballerina shoot down by the Navy Yard in Charlestown.  There was a perfectly clear view of the Boston Skyline.  But, I told myself that I had enough skyline shots and resolved to find other things to focus on while we were waiting for the right light.

And then the right light hit and my intentions went down the drain.  It’s not that I have anything against shooting the same things over and over again.  I just didn’t want to become a slave to it.  But, when you are presented with a beautiful scene, it would almost be criminal not to capitalize on it.  So, I shifted my lens in three positions (far left, center, far right) and created this 27 exposure T/S HDR Pano of Boston as the sun was starting to burn out the day and I am really thrilled with the outcome.

I guess there is value in knowing a good thing when you see it.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 22, ISO 100, HDR, 27 Exposures

I know, I know… patience is a virtue.  I’ve gotten that reminder in my fortune cookie several times already.  But sometimes, especially times when the hot sun is relentlessly beating down on you, patience gets exhausted pretty quickly.  As was the case at the Alamo, in San Antonio, TX.  I knew that I wanted to get another Tilt Shift HDR Pano of this historic site.  I just wanted to try and minimize how many people were in front of and around it.  And so I waited.  I think I stood there for about 20 minutes when I just gave up and rifled off my brackets.

I didn’t have Photoshop CS5 when I processed this image and I’m sure that the Content Aware Fill tool would have a field day here but I decided to just deal with it the way I’ve been doing for a while: with gentle mask massaging.  And so, I was happy with the end result.  A realistic depiction of the Alamo today.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 16, ISO 100, HDR, 27 Exposures

Waiting a few extra minutes at a scene can sometimes make a world of a difference between an ‘OK’ shot and one that really just sings.  Jack and I were getting ready to pack it in for the night.  It was a long day of flying out to Texas, running around in an unusually humid day, and leaving my tank on empty.  I knew that I wanted to get a shot of the skyline at dusk.  So, Jack brought me to this location and, at first, I saw the scene and just figured that it wasn’t worth it.  The light was hanging in that really odd space of in between the golden hour of sunset and the blue hour of twilight.

We ended up staying for a few more minutes and, sure enough, it made a huge difference.  In addition to getting some nice definition in the sky, the lights started turning on across the buildings of the skyline, adding to the quality of the reflection in the water.  I opted to grab another Tilt Shift Pano and you can click on it to view a larger version.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 22, ISO 100, HDR, 27 Exposures

Sometimes, you have good days.  Other times, you have bad days.  But there are a few days nestled in between that are pretty damn awesome.  This past Saturday was such a day.  I was visiting my buddy, Jack Hollingsworth, at his place in Austin, TX.  We had some places to shoot and business to discuss.  All good there.  But on top of that, we also managed to sneak in a visit with a true HDR aficionado, Trey Ratcliff.  Trey was able to meet up with us for a shoot that turned into BBQ dinner that turned into hanging at his place chatting and previewing all things new and HDR.  It was a pretty fantastic day for me.

I took this shot while rapping with Trey about how I shoot HDR and how he shoots HDR.  I showed him how I was prepping for this 27 exposure HDR Tilt Shift Pano of the famous 360 Bridge in Austin.  The weather was pretty fantastic and everything seemed to fit right in.  Overall, I’m pretty thrilled with this shot and I think it may make its way onto canvas soon.  You can click on the image for a larger view, as well.

I figured that I would also include a shot of me and Trey taken by Jack atop the vista overlooking the 360 Bridge.  Just a couple of HDR dudes, I guess.

April

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 22, ISO 100, HDR, 27 Exposures

The other week, I posted a shot based on inspiration that was provided by a friend.  In that case, it was provided by my buddy, Mike Wong.  The technique behind today’s shot is directly attributed to the oft-mentioned Bob Lussier.  A number of weeks ago, Bob rented a Nikon 24mm Tilt Shift lens and truly did wonders with it.  He seemed to traverse the learning curve of that glass with ease and produced shots with it in a week that I hadn’t ever even though about… and I own TWO different Tilt Shift lenses!

Bob showed me an HDR panoramic shot where he shifted the lens left to right to obtain his brackets to stitch together.  As soon as he explained his technique, it all made sense and I could not believe that I had gone this long without realizing the potential.

So, here we are.  Back in Old Montreal.  I was presented with this extremely wide vista of the city and instead of trying to cram it into one 17mm HDR image, I broke the scene into three sections (visualize left, center, and right components) and bracketed 9 frames each.  This gave me a total of 27 brackets making up three master plates that were fused together to one rectilinear panoramic.  I linked the image to a larger version so you can click it to see some more detail.

I’m really lucky to have so many sources of inspiration.  The next Guinness is on me, Bob.

I am pretty sure (but not 100% so) that if you were walking with me during one of my jaunts around the city, you wouldn’t hear me utter phrases like “Ok, tilt your head about three inches to the left” or “That’s great, you look great” or “Give me angry”.  It’s no secret that I have an affinity for shooting the more stoically available urban landscapes and architecture.  It’s not that I don’t like shooting people (puns, you silly things), it’s more that the eye I have developed (pun, for 2!) is more apt to shooting an alleyway than a pin-up.

So, whenever I have the opportunity to break out of my shell and do some portrait/model photography, I’m all over it.  This was the case a few weeks ago when my good friend and even better photographer, Doug Levy, invited me to participate in a strobist-style shootout at the great LensProToGo.  The premise is pretty straight forward: show up at LensProToGo’s massive studio space, set your gear up to any one of the  model stations (already configured with every studio strobe, softbox, octobank, and modifier known to man), grab a model, and go get creative.

It was nice to see a few familiar faces that I had met in previous workshops, but despite not being totally the odd man out, I did feel far out of my comfort zone.  I understand the technical premise of light, I just haven’t developed a knack for sculpting it on the fly.  So, I decided that for the first few hours, I’d hang back.  Take more of an assistant role and help out with the positioning and powering of the lights.  This worked out well for me, especially because the other photographers were more than fostering and made sure to help me understand what they were doing and why.

After lunch, I felt that I had mustered enough nerve to begin my own shooting.  I started off with Amanda.  I knew that I wanted to go for a hi-key glamor shot with her so I positioned a huge softbox directly behind her so that it would blow out the background and wrap around her hair and shoulders a bit.  I also added some fill to bring back some depth in her face.  After a wardrobe change, I decided to do some more fashion-style shooting and lit it accordingly.

Next up was Casey.  Earlier on, Doug had set up a station outside in the mid-noon sun to shoot Casey on a loading dock.  I took the opportunity to fire off a few of my own shots while Doug was making his own adjustments.  It’s really nice to be able to sync up to about 1/8000 of a second if you need to drop the bright sun down a few stops.  I really like how Casey’s makeup is complimented by the colors in the background.

Finally, it was time for Artist.  Not much that I can say about Artist except that he is the man.  In terms of a photographer wanting a model who doesn’t need tons of direction and can be as versatile as you want, you do not have to look farther than Artist.  I was glad that I had the opportunity to capture a few of his different facets.  He plays each one so well.

In the end, I rotated each of these three models in front of the amazing ring light setup that was available for use.  Needless to say, having a nice ring of specular catch light adds a very unique dimension to your shot.  It also provides a very pleasing and even light on your subject.  I was really happy with how those turned out.

I finally had the opportunity to start processing the finalists from this shoot a few days after the LensPro event.  When I was done, I sent the images over to Doug for his critique.  While he was most generous with his words, he did make a point that resonated with me.  He called out the fact that just about each shot has a pretty different processing look.  He said that, while there is nothing wrong with it, when shooting people, he doesn’t deviate from the styles that he has worked hard to craft and create consistency around.  That made sense to me.  It was feedback that would surely stay with me, especially when I have the opportunity to process more portrait work.

All in all, I was really glad that I went to this shootout.  I broke out of my comfort zone, met some more amazing photographers, and came away with a few nice shots that are pretty different than what you will normally find in these parts.  I guess it further proves that you don’t have to be this type or that type of photographer.  You just have to be a photographer.

Cheers,

Brian

Technical Notes:

All of these portraits were shot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a combination of the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM and Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM.  Both provided really nice, shallow DoF and provided a nice, pleasing perspective for these models’ faces.