Saving the World One Pixel at a Time

One of the things I like to do to get out of a rut is to shoot some photographs in direct monochrome mode. It doesn’t have to be all of the images in a session; just a few to see what happens. If you think that’s a bad idea because you worry about what happens if you change your mind and want that original at some later date to be in color? Many digital SLRs cameras have a RAW+JPEG option that lets you capture a monochrome (JPEG) and color (RAW) file at the same time. Some dual-slot camera, even let you simultaneously save each file type to a different card. My old but dependable Canon EOS 1D Mark II N lets me, for example, shoot RAW on the CompactFlash card and JPEG files onto the SD card.

If you prefer to capture in color and convert to monochrome later in the digital darkroom that’s not a bad idea either and throughout this book, I show before and after images (and did early in this very chapter) to show how black and white image created a completely different mood. The biggest differences is that all of my favorite retouching tools such as Imagenomic’s’ Portraiture and Anthropics’ Portrait Professional. Another great idea to prevent your photography from becoming stagnant is to make a new photograph each day. To see one example, I created an on-line gallery on my SmugMug page to give me the structure to do just that.

Caption: Here a very pregnant Tia Stoneman used the bay window in my old kitchen to anchor her right hand but (for jut this one shot) tossed me the great model cliché of the “hand behind the neck” pose and it added to what was a fun photograph for both of us. The image was shot direct in monochrome mode with a Samsung Pro 815 camera and an exposure of 1/40 second at f/8 and ISO 400 with the built-in flash fired as fill.

One of the most important elements in creating saleable portraits is knowing how to pose your subjects. You may be able to photograph a beautiful woman but if her pose is awkward, clumsy, or just unattractive, it will greatly reduce your ability to sell prints. And because often you’ll often be working with people that have not been photographed since their wedding or senior portraits, it’s also important to develop a good understanding of posing techniques and assist your subject as they move in front of your camera.

The basic glamour pose that I start with, with just a few variations, and use it as my “first pose” in a session. I ask the subject to put their weight on the foot that’s away from the camera placing them in a three-quarter pose. Here is something I’m going to repeat endlessly throughout this book:

Once you have a pose you like, refine it with a head tilt or moving hands and arms slight all the while changing your camera angle slightly and zooming (or walking around) to tighten or loosen the shot.

One of the most challenging parts of working in the studio—without a new, you might say—there’s nothing for the subject to interact with or do with their hands. In the example ( left) I talked to the subject while moving my hands around my face and head and watch how the subject mimics it. I really liked what Noelle did here. Working with the two Elinchrom Portalite lightbanks I placed on at camera left and behind me and the other Portalite was placed at camera right and close behind Noelle, who reminds of Fringe’s Anna Torv. Photo was shot with a Canon EOS 5D and EF 135mm f/2.8 SF lens.

Joe is the author of the forthcoming book “Posing for Portrait & Glamour Photography.” Look for it in 2013 from Amherst Media.

The key part of determining any flash exposure is the lens’ aperture but shutter speed plays an important role too. The duration of electronic flash units is quite short— 1/1000th of a second is not uncommon. The exposure is made while the shutter is open but the actual shutter speed will be slower because there is a maximum synchronization speed that varies with each camera and is the time when the shutter open, the flash fires, and the shutter closes. What happens when you shoot at a higher shutter speed than your flash will synch? You get just part of a picture! What part is missing depends on which way the shutter travels and how much you get—if anything—is determined by the shutter speed. Nowadays, many cameras have a high-speed synch mode that works with specific speedlights. Check your users’ manual and see if your camera offers this feature.

Caption: The above portrait was made with a Pentax 6×7 and 75 f/4.5 SMC lens. Flash exposure was 1/60 sec at f/11 but clearly I needed to shoot it at the 6×7’s correct synch speed of 1/30 sec

On the other hand, slower shutter speeds allow more of the ambient light to influence the overall exposure, mostly the background because the aperture you select determines the main subject’s exposure. Using a slow shutter speed can open up the background allowing more ambient light to affect the exposure and show more separation between subject and backdrop. But beware the color temperature of any artificial lights that are part of that ambient light. Depending on how bright they may be using slower shutter speeds can add colors that can pollute the skin tones in your shot. The solution? Increase shutter speed but not too much! On the other hand, warmer light sources can add a pleasant warmth to the photographs with makes the camera’s LCD preview screen your new best friend.

Experiment. Don’t go out with preconceptions of what a picture will look like. That will block you from being receptive to something new and exciting. – Mason Resnick

What my friend Mason was saying applies to all kinds of photography, including portraiture or glamour where it’s all too easy to set a subject on a posing stool and place them in “Pose A”, then move then into “Pose B,” making the whole process so mechanical even R2D2 could make this kind of portrait. But that’s now what your clients and subjects want. They want a portrait of themselves or a loved one that looks different from the last portrait you made and one that captures that subject’s individuality.

The same goes with your lighting. I once helped a friend who was sick for a few days and did sittings for of his high school senior customers. Before taking over filling in, the studio’s assistant showed me their lighting system that included strings were attached to the subject with different knots representing different subject-to-light distances that were used to maintain a consistent lighting ratio. That subject sat in (not literally) nailed down position while the lights were moved to the various with the string’s knots placed on their nose. No kidding. That way, all his subject got the same consistent lighting which made retouching much easier and faster in the sometime production line world of high volume portraiture.

Sometime you can get by with just one soft box as the above lighting set-up demonstrates. Using only a single Broncolor Litos head with 28-inch lightbank placed at camera left and aimed at the subject with no (count’em) reflectors—just the main light—as you see it here. And here the light was placed at camera left out of camera range of the EF 135mm f/2.8 SF used for the portrait. Lighting was metered with my old dependable Gossen Star F light meter and as always I typically shoot a few test shots to get one that produces the best exposure and histogram.

Caption: This is on of the images created during my one soft box shoot with Colleen was made using a Canon EOS ID Mark IIN and EF 135mm f/2.8 SF lens with an exposure of 1/60 sec at f/10 and ISO 100. ©2012 Joe Farace

Let’s start by defining what I mean by “available light.” To some photographers it means using “every light that’s available” while to others, like myself, it means using only or mostly the light that’s available within a scene. Sometimes I’ll use a reflector or supplemental light from a speedlight or a camera’s pop-up flash.

Caption: One of the most traditional forms of available light used for portraits is window light. This image was captured using only the light from a narrow window in my living room. The model was posed midway between the window at camera left and my sofa at right, a distance of less than three feet. As you will see, you can make available light portraits anywhere. Camera was a Canon EOS 10D with EF 85mm f/1.8 lens and an exposure of 1/180 sec at f/2.8 and ISO 400.

Here are a few of the things that I like about making portraits with available light:

• It’s free! There is no electronic flash or other lighting equipment to purchase, set up, plug-in, or chew through batteries. You can make photographs outdoors using natural light or indoors using window light and all you need is a camera and a subject. Of course, you can supplement the available light with inexpensive reflectors that you can buy or make one yourself using a piece of foam core board, although that style is a bit harder to fold for travel.
• It’s easy. You can see the light falling on the model and won’t have to guess about lighting ratios or worry about moving two or three lights around or dealing with accessories such as lightstands, hair lights, or booms. In this kind of setting you will find that the subject is more relaxed and instead of wasting time fussing with lighting equipment you’ll be less distracted too enabling you to make better portraits.
• It’s fast. There are no lights to set up, tear down, or pack or drag through airport security or even worse ship as checked baggage. You eliminate the expense of buying expensive shipping cases for lighting gear or the specter of damage or theft (it happens) in transit. You can also work faster with the models getting more and better photographs while allowing your subject to relax at the same time.

It doesn’t matter what person, place, or thing you’re photographing, the ultimate subject of any photograph is light. Light, whether it occurs naturally or artificially, has three basic characteristics: quality, quantity, and color and it’s the quality of the light on a subject ultimately determines the effectiveness of your portrait.

Joe is the author of the forthcoming book “Available Light Glamour Photography.” Look for it this fall from Amherst Media.