Gotcha!

Tags

35mm f2, child, D700, gotcha, netted, PowerSnoot, SB-600, smiling, Snoot, trapped, tulle scarf

A teacher colleague drove in from Wales to see her parents and flew by me with her little girl for a quick photoshoot first. Such fun we had. We covered Minnie with a tulle scarf and she found the whole thing delightful even though it meant she had trouble eating her apple!

One snooted SB-600 on 1/4 power, camera left, aimed directly at Minnie.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/14.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200

(Minnie got Explored, too. Yay.)

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Rosie Before & After

Tags

35mm, D700, delicate, doll, fairy, florabella textures, little girl, Muse Actions, porcelain, portrait, Pure Milk, SB-600, softbox, textured portrait, White Linen

How to change your granddaughter into a wax doll.

I used a softbox for this one, Camera Left, with an SB-600 inside + a little window light from the same side. Still not quite enough, hence an added ‘sun flare’ via Florabella. You can always add light afterwards, if you haven’t used enough to begin with.

For processing, I used Color Efex Pro – tonal effect filter, initially. Then I overlay the shot with some wallpaper I found on the net afterwards, rubbing out the model with a 7% eraser. Then I added some Florabella textures (Pure White and White Linen) and tried a few Muse actions until l found something I liked. Et Voila. (Half the people who see this say they prefer the original. I’m an unsung prophet.)

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture f/6.3
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 400

The Walking Dead

Tags

35mm, D700, halloween, SB-600, Snoot, trick or treat, zombie

Very polite zombie who came trick-or-treating and didn’t mind being photographed.

I had a snooted SB-600 on a light stand to the right of the front door, set to quarter power and aimed down at ‘kid’ height although I had to raise it a bit for her. She was a very patient zombie.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200

The Littlest Pirate

Tags

35mm, costume, D700, little pirate, pirate, SB-600, scared, Snoot, trick or treat, trick or treater

Another scared little trick-or-treater. So sweet.
Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200

I had a snooted SB-600 on a light stand to the right of the front door, set to quarter power and aimed down at ‘kid’ height. Poor trick-or-treaters, they didn’t know what hit them! I did give them sweeties, though.

First time….

Tags

35mm 2, D700, first time, halloween, little boy, SB-600, scared, Snoot, trick or treat

Little trick-or-treater who looked very unsure about the whole process. (The price they pay for their little pack of sweeties is to let me take their photograph. How I love Halloween!)

I had a snooted SB-600 set up on a lightstand to the right of the front door, believe it or not. Quarter power.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/4.5
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200

Intensity

Tags

35mm, 35mm f2, b&w, D700, direct stare, freckles, grandson, intensity, portrait, PowerSnoot, SB-600, Snoot, stare, strobe

Littlest grandson, Sebbie, looking so much more intense in b&w. This is a crop of a half-portrait. I always end up cropping portraits, for some reason.

I used one snooted SB-600 on half power, aimed more directly at his face, rather than angled down from the top left as is my wont.

Camera D700
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias +2/3 EV

Sebastian James

Tags

35mm, 35mm f2, child portrait, D700, direct stare, formal portrait, portrait, PowerSnoot, SB-600, serious, serious child, Snoot, stare, strobe

My littlest grandson, over for a visit and willing to model for a few shots. Such a sweetie. His curls are finally growing back after he was so ruthlessly shorn a few weeks ago.

Used one snooted SB-600 on half power, camera left. Should have used another aimed at his hands, but too late now. Story of my life.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias +2/3 EV

Draped

Tags

35mm, 35mm f2, covered, D700, draped, light and shadow, PowerSnoot, SB-600, Snoot, veil, veiled child, why do I do these things

Thought I’d post something recent for a change. Just took this a few hours ago. It’s my nine-year-old grandson Appomattox letting me drape him in a black veil. Not quite sure why I felt impelled to cover him up, but he was a good sport about it, as usual.

Used one snooted SB-600 on half power, camera left.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/22.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias +2/3 EV

Masque

Tags

50mm, 50mm 1.4, color portrait, colour portrait, D700, drama, handsome, mask, masque, portrait, PowerSnoot, rembrandt lighting, SB-600, Snoot, SpeedLight, young man

I used two SB-600 Speed-Lights for this one, both on 1/20 power. Seemed to work after a bit of trial and error in the placing. At one point, Ishaq was holding one of the SpeedLights between his knees for me, to light the mask. I’m sooooo the very opposite of a professional photographer. BTW: Ishaq is my neighbour’s son. He’s an actor/model/dancer so the mask seemed an appropriate symbol. He’s hoping to break into Bollywood films. Watch this space.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200

Jack and his Lolly-pop

Tags

35mm, big eyes, child, color efex pro, cute, D700, innocence, innocent, little boy, lolly, lolly pop, portrait, SB-600, SpeedLight, strobe, texture, textured background, two-light setup

Don’t worry – the lolly was sugarless. I find that it’s a handy way to keep children occupied during a shoot.

I think I used the same lighting setup as the shot of Jack with his daddy. Two SB-600s, one shooting backwards into an umbrella so that the light was falling directly onto his face, and the other placed camera left and angled up, to add light to his hands and body.

Camera NIKON D700
Focal Length 35mm
Shutter Speed 1/100 secs
Aperture f/5.6
ISO/Film 200

Daddy’s Boy

Tags

35mm, b&w, black and white, D700, daddy's boy, father and son, love, portrait, SB-600, SpeedLight, strobe, two-light setup

Jack and his daddy. My daughter-in-law’s brother and his little boy. Ed only sees Jack every few weeks so he wanted a shot of the two of them together. Jack just did what came naturally when he was in his daddy’s arms, and I was lucky enough to be there with a camera.

Two lights. One SB-600 shooting backwards into an umbrella so that the light was falling directly onto their faces, and one SB-600 placed camera left to add light to the side of Jack’s face and to his father’s hand. (To whom it may concern: please stop telling me that I need light behind my subjects. I like them isolated in a sea of black, and anyway, I don’t have a third SpeedLight!)

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200

Eryn Redux

Tags

35mm, beautiful girl, beautiful light, child, D700, ginger, girl, light and shadow, lovely, PowerSnoot, red hair, rembrandt lighting, renaissance face, SB-600, single light, Snoot, strobe

Eryn – the Mark II version. This was taken just before her twelfth birthday. My daughter’s delightful step-daughter.

I used a Single full-power SB-600 hand-held with a Gary Fong PowerSnoot for the shot which won through Round Two of the Photo Madness Competition on Flickr, the first year I entered. This is how the historic event was reported by Cyn:

“Jonathan Kos-Read (2) DM*U invaded courtside and brought WAR – explosions, blazing saddles and all fired up to take on DeeMac (7) Icebox and drive her back to the motherland…Our fair Dee brought peaches and cream to the battle and repelled the invasion cleanly. God Save the Queen.”

Oh – I took a collapsible black backdrop with me even though I was only at my son’s birthday dinner. They now agree to give me a half-hour photography slot at family get-togethers. Thirty minutes and no more, so I come prepared.

It took the grandchildren and me around fifteen minutes to get the stupid backdrop collapsed and back into its bag again. The contortions we went through would have made a very amusing comic film. I have now learnt to do it single-handed.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/14.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200

Underneath My Umbrella

Tags

35mm, b&w, black and white, D700, gritty, light and shadow, man, portrait, SB-600, SpeedLight, strobe, umbrella

Take one SB-600 wedged into the spokes of a photographic umbrella; add one black backdrop and a fed up son who had to be bribed to model. Et voila.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias -2/3 EV

Modes of Dress

Tags

50mm 1.4, color portrait, colour portrait, D700, light and shadow, modes of dress, Nikes, portrait, PowerSnoot, SB-600, strobe, suit

Nikes go with anything! This is what Ishaq was wearing on his feet. Well, it was an impromptu photo shoot. He’s my neighbour’s son and a part-time model who kindly agreed to let me practise on him. It was my idea to get the Nikes in shot. I love the juxtaposition of the two modes of dress.
I needed two SB-600s for this, both on 1/20 power. One for the face and one for his Nikes, naturally.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/10.0
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200

Omnia Vanitas

Tags

50mm 1.4, beautiful girl, beauty, colour portrait, D700, light and shadow, omnia vanitas, peacock feather, portrait, PowerSnoot, pretty girl, SB-600, SpeedLight, strobe, vanitas, vanity

Another trip down memory lane. A while back I took some more shots at the school where I taught Literature for twenty years. They wanted some publicity work done and it gave me a chance to hone my portraiture skills. Such fun!

This is the head girl, Maddie, posing with a peacock feather we found in the Art Department. Vanitas, vanitatus. She’s not vain at all, but once you link the idea of a peacock with a pretty girl, you get the concept of vanitas. In my mind, anyway.

One SB-600 with PowerSnoot on quarter power, hand held by an assistant standing a few feet left of camera with her arm in the air, and angling the light downwards. Maddie was standing in front of the shiny blue door to the stock cupboard. I added a texture to cover the hideous gloss surface.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/13.0
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 400

Sharing!

Tags

50mm 1.4, bard, book, D700, girls, girls reading, light and shadow, SB-600, Shakespeare, SpeedLight, strobe, two-light set-up

Paid yet another visit to the school where I taught English for twenty years, to take a few more planned shots. I used two SpeedLights for this one: one inside the booklet and the other I held in my left hand, aiming for the cover. Took a few attempts, but we managed one we all quite liked in the end.

I’ve done this ‘light coming out of a book’ shot enough times now for it to have reached Cliché status, but hey – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. (PS: We study whole Shakespeare plays. This booklet was just being used for the pretty illustrations and because it was big enough to hide the SpeedLight inside!)

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 400

Enlightened

Tags

35mm, 35mm f2, book, boy, color, colour, culture, D700, enlightened, enlightenment, heritage, light and shadow, lighting, portrait, reading, SB-600, SpeedLight, strobe

I was trying to replicate a shot I faved the other day: Bed Time Stories. The wonderfully named Cassius Klay explained just how he’d done it, so I had a go. This is my second effort. I used two SB-600s – one in the book but without a yellow difuser this time, and one on the floor to light the cover, set on 1/16 and 1/10 respectively. I prefer the light on Appomattox’s face, but for some reason I couldn’t get the cover lit to my satisfaction. I tried three or four times, but he was getting bored and blinded, so I gave up in the end. Bless his little cotton socks!

Wright of Derby – eat your heart out!

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/18.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 400

Sebastian James and Appomattox Ahab

Tags

24mm, bff, color, colour, cousins, D700, florabella, grandsons, light and shadow, portrait, SB-600, SpeedLight, strobe

My two grandsons with the rather extraordinary names. We call them Sebbie and Maddox for every day, but I love their full names. They don’t.

As I was asked: I used two SB-600 SpeedLights for this shot. One, camera left with a Gary Fong Powersnoot, and the other camera right, shooting backwards into an umbrella, both on full power. Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 24 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias +8/3 EV

Attitude!

Tags

50mm 1.4, attitude, D700, macho man, portrait, SB-600, SpeedLight, strobe, two-light set-up

Annual ritual with my delightful son-in-law and the rest of the family. They gave me a book on portrait lighting for Christmas, called ‘Hollywood Portraits.’ It has the lighting set-up for every shot. Trouble is, most of them ask for five or six lights. There are main lights; kicker lights; boom lights; fill lights; background lights and rim lights. I have exactly two SB-600s that work and one that needs mending, so I wasn’t able to attempt many of the shots. Still, I found a few I could try to copy.

So, I used two SpeedLights, for this one, both camera left. One was angled at his face and the other at his torso. Yet again, I didn’t write down the settings, however. This blog is going to be useless as a resource, unless I start writing stuff down.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200

Now you see her…

Tags

50mm 1.4, b&w, black and white, blindfold, chiaroscuro, D700, light and shadow, portrait, PowerSnoot, SB-600, Silver Efex Pro, SpeedLight, strobe, two SpeedLights

The whole point of this blog was to make it a handy reference tool for me, as I can never remember how I got specific shots – which lens/settings/light set-up, etc. I used. Luckily, I just found another shot from this shoot where I’d made a note of what I did. Yay me.

It seems I used one SB-600 in a softbox on full power camera right- raised up and pointing downwards, and an uncovered SB-600 on about one-sixteenth power camera left, behind the model and sitting on the floor, but aiming upwards. So there you go.

Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200