Group Portrait - The Beats and Bytes Dancers

To those who do not know, the Beats and Bytes Dancers are celebrities in the Filipino community in Qatar.  They are regular performers to almost every Filipino community event including celebrations, grand opening of restaurants and even major concerts of Filipino singers.  One the dancers, Leah, organized this photoshoot with a specific concept.  She happened to be a good friend of mine.

The concept required that a telephoto lens be used to compress perspective and make each one of them appear pretty much of the same size.  That's something unachievable with the usual wide-angle lens we use where people closer to the lens appear bigger than those who are farther.  Not a problem since I've got a dependable Sigma APO 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM II  - currently my favorite lens for portraiture.  However, I am shooting a big group and that means I will have to shoot from a great distance to fit them all in one frame.  A big venue is now necessary to execute the photoshoot.

Fortunately, Beats and Bytes have got some connections at the American School Doha so they were able to secure the school's gymnasium for a one-hour photoshoot.  I used 2 Speedlights, both with umbrellas and one on each side.  There was sufficient ambient coming in from the windows so instead of using them as main lights, I just used them as supplements - to boost ambient light power and fill-in the shadows.

Me in the center holding the Certificate of Appreciation they awarded me after the photoshoot.

They were all pleased with the results.

Cheers,

alexdpx

How Do You Photograph Rain?

I don't know how many of you have tried photographing rain, rain drops in particular.  But if you have, I'm sure that in your first attempts, you were wondering why it did not appeared in the picture.  And then you thought, maybe you need rain to pour harder so you waited for a heavier downpour and tried one more time - without much luck. 

So why doesn't rain appear in pictures? 

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An All Red Affair

The ability to solve problems on the spot will help you go through difficult photoshoot sets.  At this early stage of this blog it is probably worth mentioning that we did not worked in a fully equipped studio and we only had Canon Speedlite.  We did the photoshoot in a private residence, in a rearranged living room just to get enough plain background wall, and our lighting was nothing but Canon Speedlites with various modifiers.

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Same Place, Different Look

For the second time in just over a week, we did a second photoshoot at the beach in Jumailiyah Ruins - this time with Lizie.  But the weather was not as clear as the previous week - there was a slight haze or perhaps sand storm.  Doha was covered with sand on the same day so what we saw is probably from the same sandstorm but because we were on water, we did not felt dust on our skin.

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Light Dance

"A light-emitting diode (LED) (pronounced /ˌɛl iː ˈdiː/[1]) is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices, and are increasingly used for lighting. Introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962,[2] early LEDs emitted low-intensity red light, but modern versions are available across the visible, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths, with very high brightness."

I could almost feel her excitement when she sent me that email from Osaka, Japan.  Air couldn't wait to get back to Doha to tell me about a new photoshoot concept.  She said she won't be able to sleep.  I thought, Wow!! - this concept must be really something to loose sleep.  Along with the email was a link to a  YouTube video of a rave dance routine, but it was too dark to really appreciate how this would look good in pictures - except for the moving blue lights, you could not see anything at all.  But I did got the idea of what she wanted to do. 

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Hard Lighting

Here's another photoshoot where I have broken 2 rules:

1. Do not shoot under direct sunlight to avoid hard shadows.

2. Soft, diffused light looks better on female subject.

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Why Flash Sync Speed Matters

I don't usually bother with camera settings.  Knowing the principles behind each control in my camera and how they work together is often enough for me and I just try to make adjustments on a case by case basis.  Every lighting condition is different and therefore requires different lighting strategies and adjustments.  Getting stuck to a formula or set of numbers is a very rigid way of working - you'll find it hard to adapt to situations most particularly when shooting outdoors.

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Shutter Speed Controls Ambient

First, a short review on the purpose of shutter speed and aperture to better understand what I am trying to say in this article.  Aperture controls how much light your sensor will be exposed to.  On the other hand, shutter speed controls how long you want your sensor to be exposed to that amount of light.

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Survivors - Weatherproof, Whenever, Whatever

 Survivor - this concept was the main reason for returning to Fuwairit.  We were hoping for a sunny day but rain clouds and natural breeze provided an even more dramatic effect. 

Bad weather, for most people, is bad news.  But bad weather never really stopped me from taking pictures, especially if it's something planned for some time.  All it does is present new lighting challenges.  Remember the first trip to Fuwairit, when the day was gloomy and ambient lighting was generally flat?  I solved that with off-camera flash.

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Brighten Up A Gloomy Day

Example 1 Photo 1.  A little blast of flash will turn dull daylight into a warm and wonderful picture.  Unmodified flash lighting positioned at a distance to the model and at minimal power rendered it barely noticeable in this shot yet revealed considerable details and warm color saturation.  I used a wide throw to illuminate the model' from head to toe.  Whatever light spills onto the rocks is not much of a concern since I'm shooting from a low angle.  See related photo below without flash and compare.

"Learn to light at any light."  That's the motto I learned from being a regular visitor at David Hobby's http://www.strobist.com/.  Since then, no lighting (or weather) condition is too dull or too harsh for me to take pictures.  All I need is 1 (sometimes 2) speedlite.  These little babies help transform what is otherwise a gloomy scene into a dramatic one - high in contrast and rich in colors.  I have taken pictures this way countless times - under the rain, a cloudy day, a foggy day, a dusty day . . . you name it.

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Tips on "The Blue Hour" Photography

Doha Corniche, Qatar. Taken just after sunset. The twisted building shines and stands out from the rest as it reflects the remaining daylight. Luckily for me, a bus, with high-mounted tail lights, passed by during the 10 seconds exposure providing added interest to the picture.

Blue Hour - This happens just after the "golden hour".  To those who are not familiar what I'm talking about, twilight is what photographers now call as the blue hour.  It is that time just after sunset (golden hour) when daylight fades and darkness takes over.  At this time, the sky turns into a deep dark blue and artificial lights  - building lights, street lights, etc. - gets turned on. 

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"AVAILABLE" Light

Cove lighting down to the floor in one of the museum's corners to highlight the texture of this feature wall made for a nice background - and lighting, of course.  The pose was Leah's idea.

Common knowledge tells us that available light is synonymous to ambient light.  While ambient light is beautiful, it is not always perfect and for this reason I chose to redefine the meaning of "available" light.  To me it is whatever light is at your disposal - including speedlites in my hands.

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Big Lights with Tiny Strobes

That MasterCard slogan has been permanently etched in my mind, you know, "There are things in life that money just can't buy. But for everything else, there's MasterCard." I find an analogy of it with lighting that would go like tnis --> "There are lighting situations when only big lights will do. But for everything else, small strobes will definitely do."

However, it's true. Sometimes a big light is what you really need to illuminate, say, a full body shot. 1 strobe and an umbrella is usually all I need to light a head shot - even a half body shot.  But a full body shot, especially that of a leggy model, will require to light up those lean long legs as well. Otherwise, what's the point of her showing off those legs if they're gonna be in the dark?

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Event Well-Covered . . . With A Point-And-Shoot

Well, it's actually more than a point-and-shoot.  It was my ageing Canon Powershot G7 that I chose to bring to our club's (Doha Pinoy Shooters Club) 2nd Anniversary Party.  Much have been written and said about that so I will not tell the story again.  Instead, I will concentrate on sharing the experience of photo-covering an event without my precious DSLR.

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What You Are Not Lighting

For someone who's just starting to learn about lighting, it is a common objective to pay much attention on how to light his photographic subject.  Much attention is given to where the light - or lights - should be positioned.  For this reason, a would-be strobist will typically have an umbrella or a softbox on top of his shopping list of lighting accessories - that's what I did.  Why?  Because we are so focused on achieving what on-camera flash cannot do - soft light.  It's simply amazing how much a person could be so beautifully photographed with soft light coming from an angle that is not the same as your camera's point of view.

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