Clone Stamp To The Rescue

If I was a perfect photographer, I wouldn't need Photoshop, but I'm not perfect, so I'm glad I have it around to save my shots. Photoshop's clone stamp tool is great for hiding/removing/obscuring things. On the left, there is a light hanging annoyingly above Herie, so I removed it.

On the left, the sun shone too brightly on the sidewalk near Gene's left hand, so I "extended" the shaded portion of the sidewalk.

If you want to learn more about this tool, take a look at this post. If you're viewing this on a browser other than Safari, you might notice that the photos on the right look more warm. This is a color space issue. The photos on the left were saved in the ProPhoto RGB color space, while the ones on the right were saved in Adobe RGB. Check out this post for more details.

Panning, Part 5

Herie wanted Basile and I to take a series of shots of her running towards Gene. I knew Basile could easily handle her request, so I used this as another opportunity to try a panning shot. I like how she's actually in focus (more or less), especially in light of my focus issues. I also like how she's framed by the arch in the background.

Lesson Learned: Be A Better Director

I regret that I didn't do a better job directing Herie and Gene throughout the photo shoot. Having never shot these types of photos before, I didn't really know how to pose them. Thankfully Herie and Gene felt comfortable around the camera and didn't have to pretend to like each other. :-) The pose in the photo above (as well as in most of the other shots) was all Herie's idea. Looking at all the photos I took, it was probably better that I didn't do much directing, because Herie came up with ideas that were much better than ones I would have devised. As a counterpoint, Basile took a photo of me seemingly directing Herie and Gene, so maybe I'm not too far behind where I want to be.

Lesson Learned: Always Check The Focus

Exposure: 129mm focal length, 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 2:02pm. I've mentioned this before: focus is very important. This is especially true when testing a new lens on an important shoot. For Herie and Gene's engagement photos, I rented a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for the first time. I wanted a great portrait lens: one that didn't distort facial features and one that had great bokeh. Unfortunately, I didn't really know how to use it before unleashing it on Herie and Gene, because I rented it just before meeting them for breakfast. I nearly panicked when I saw the results on the computer, because Herie and Gene were out of focus and blurry in many of the shots. I think these were the possible reasons: 1. Exposure time was too short for the focal length of the lens: The general rule for avoiding blurry photos is to keep the exposure time shorter than the focal length of the lens. This can be a confusing concept to understand, but it's fairly simple to figure out how to apply the rule by looking at an example. If the focal length is 100mm, then the exposure time must be at or under 1/100 sec. When I did the rough calculation in my head while shooting, I forgot to take into account that on my DSLR's cropped sensor, the EFFECTIVE focal length is 50% longer than the focal length indicated on the lens. That means that if the lens says 100mm, the effective focal length is actually 150mm. So when I shot at 1/100 sec, I really should have shot at 1/150 sec! Some of you may know that the lens has vibration reduction (VR) built into it. This means that I can shoot at a longer exposure time, but unfortunately it doesn't help me when the subjects move (see #3). 2. Aperture was wide open at f/2.8: The depth of field was at its shallowest, so it was difficult to get everything in focus: even if Herie or Gene's face was in focus, the other was not. I was so concerned with getting great bokeh, that I never thought to experiment and stop down the aperture. 3. Subjects moved too quickly for me: This would have also caused blurriness. 4. Autofocus point was incorrectly aimed: I relied on a tiny single-point on the viewfinder to determine focus. If my aim was off, then the shot was ruined. At first glance I thought I totally screwed up the photo above, but upon closer inspection, I saw that Gene was in focus, while Herie was not. That means that I wasn't a complete failure! If I had stopped down the aperture to maybe around f/5.6 then both their faces would have been in focus. Oh well, I'll do better next time! Here are some more examples of Herie and/or Gene out of focus:

Exposure: 112mm focal length, 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 11:43pm. Reasons 1 & 2

Exposure: 105mm focal length, 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 12:14pm. Reason 4 (focused on tree on the right...weird!)

Exposure: 105mm focal length, 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 12:19pm. Reason 3

Exposure: 105mm focal length, 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 12:20pm. Reason 2

Exposure: 105mm focal length, 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 12:42pm. Reasons 1, 3 & 4 (focused on her scarf)

Exposure: 123mm focal length, 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 12:59pm. Reasons 1 & 4 (focused on the tree in the background)

Thank goodness for Lightroom's sharpening tool. It isn't perfect, but it did help a little bit. Looking back, I should have continuously checked the focus of my subjects by magnifying them on my camera's LCD screen. I didn't have to do it after every shot, but if I had done it more often, perhaps I would have remembered to decrease the exposure time and stop down the aperture. I threw a lot of concepts and principles into this post. If you're confused, don't worry. In the upcoming weeks, I will revisit them individually and add more detail.

Lesson Learned: Carry A Clif Bar

After an hour into the engagement shoot, I felt a pang of hunger. This was strange since Herie and Gene had just treated Basile and me to a hearty breakfast. It must have been the running around, the crawling, the squatting, and all the physical aspects of trying to capture fleeting moments. Next time, I'm keeping a Clif bar or two in my bag!

Save-The-Date/Engagement Photo Shoot

A few weekends ago, my friend Basile asked me to accompany him on a save-the-date/engagement photo shoot with his friends Herie and Gene. Of course I jumped at the chance! Though both Basile and I are Cal Bears, we sucked it up and shot on location at Stanfurd University as Herie requested. I learned a lot during this three-hour shoot and I'm still digesting it all. In the next week, I'll share all the tidbits I picked up. You can Basile's untouched photos here. You can see Basile's polished photos here. You can see mine here.

Creamy Creamy Bokeh

Exposure: 255mm focal length, 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200, 12:09pm. I just want to take a moment and write about bokeh. According to Wikipedia, bokeh refers

to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field. Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

This is one area where equipment really matters. No matter how hard I try, the bokeh produced by my wide 35mm lens will never be as "creamy" as a more telephoto lens like the 70-200mm lens I rented. The next time I have my hands on a lens that produces great bokeh, I'll compare it with my trusty 35mm and post the results. Exposure: 240mm focal length, 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200, 12:12pm.