Attention Amateur Photographers: It's Not About the Camera

I was photographing my local high school hockey team last night and there was a father of a player on the opposing team alongside me.  As photographers secretly always do, we were both sneaking peeks at the other's choice of camera and lenses.  He had a high-end Canon camera and lens, both of which are often seen in the hands of professionals.  He held the camera dearly, shooting and immediately checking the results on the camera's LCD screen, and seemed genuinely interested in why I was just standing there calmly watching the teams warm up, my camera snuggled in my bag.  Surely I couldn't know what I was doing.

During the player introductions, I pulled the camera out, took one test shot, and stood at attention during the national anthem, while he was still shooting and frowning at the results.  Once the game was about to begin, we exchanged pleasantries, and that's when the chat-fest began.  He was having trouble getting good color rendition, exposure, and asked me what I was doing.  I explained that I had previously set a custom white balance for the ice rink so that my colors were perfect, and I know the light levels in the rink, so that my exposures were always consistent.



He went on to explain that he had upgrade to this high-end Canon camera, then was upset at Canon because the lens he had been using didn't work on the camera, and he had to invest in a new professional lens.  I asked him why he felt he had to upgrade the camera in the first place.  He mumbled something about needing better photos.  I wasn't really listening because I was actually photographing the game, while he was talking about photographing the game.  I then listened to him explain...in vivid detail...about his camera purchases over the last couple of years, and was really upset that his photos were not getting any better.  He asked me what camera I was shooting, and how come I only took one shot before starting to photograph the game.

After I told him what camera I had, and how I knew exactly what I needed to do to get good photos, he drifted off, intently studying the LCD on the back of the camera to figure out what he was doing.  I'm not sure, but I really don't remember even hearing his shutter clicking at all while I was standing next to him.

As I walked away, all I could do was think about the interaction and how it has become so commonplace among amateur photographers with deep wallets.  I should have suggested that he save half of the $10,000 he spent to feed his hobby and get some lessons and go to some seminars to learn how to be a better photographer.

I have never had a camera tell me what direction the light was coming from.
I have never had a camera tell me how the light was striking my subject.
I have never had a camera tell me how to frame my subject in the viewfinder.
I have never had a camera tell me when to press the shutter to capture the best moment.

The smartest cameras on the planet will try to automatically focus on something in the viewfinder.
The smartest cameras on the planet will give you a good exposure for a neutral grey.
That's all.
The rest is up to you.

What Successful People Do On the Weekends

Mid-December paddle in the snow and ice of Hemlock Lake

Before I worked as a full-time professional photographer and opened my studio, I worked as a part-time photographer, and devoted most weeknights and many hours of the weekend on my part-time profession. My weekday hours were filled with my duties as an environmental scientist (12 yrs.) or software quality manager/engineer (12 yrs.), which were my two careers in Corporate USA.  My fellow photographers were never surprised to get e-mails from me at 2am from my home studio, then followed up by at 7:30am e-mail from my corporate job.

Three years ago when I left Corporate USA, I would spend all day in my studio, then continued to devote my evenings and weekends to my fledgling full-time business, which consumed sometimes 20 hours a day.  After one year of that I knew I needed to avoid getting burned out, so I carved out more time for my pleasure activities, which included biking, kayaking, golf, socializing, and...gasp...even napping in my hammock.

This Forbes article expands on the things that successful people do on the weekends:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/02/22/14-things-successful-people-do-on-weekends/

Sports Team Portraits a Different Way

Field hockey team that was composited from 26 individual photos of the individual athletes

Luke Photography has been working with the booster clubs at the local high school do create unique and interesting team and individual portraits of the high school athletes. Sports are really a big part of Fairport High School's environment, and they really were interested in something different than the tried-and-true standard athletic photos that most teams get.

Lighting set up: Overhead beauty dish, two gridded soft boxes left and right behind the subject, and an umbrella on the background

After arranging for use of the school's cafeteria, I set up my mobile studio using a four light setup and grey paper background.  The main light on the subject is an overhead strobe in a 24 inch beauty dish, which gives off a soft but edgy light that I love for athletic portraits. There are two strobes placed diagonally behind the subject that are outfitted with medium-sized gridded soft boxes. These lights provide nice separation light behind the subject, and are usually placed to match the digital that I plan on putting behind the subjects. Finally, there is a strobe that is bounced out of an umbrella that lights up the background.

The Fairport Modified girls' softball team ready for their Hollywood close-up.

Raw image

The raw image out of the camera looks like this. A quick pass of retouching is usually done on the face, if there are any blemishes or shadows that can easily be taken care of.

Background stripped out

I usually Topaz Remask, a Photoshop plug-in, to strip out the subject from the background.  Each player can be done in 8-10 seconds.

New background image inserted behind subject

A new digital background is placed behind the subject. I create many of my own urban backgrounds (e.g parking garages, industrial buildings, etc.), but these stadium backgrounds were purchased from StreetscapeBackgrounds.

Raw image

To create the composited team  portrait, I photograph each player facing directly towards the camera, then at a 45-degree angle to the right, then to the left. Using Adobe Lightroom to filter through the images, I pick the best image of each player, trying to get equal numbers of "lefts" and "rights", and several facing directly at the camera.

Background stripped out

Using Topaz Remask, the subject is stripped out of the background.

Using Adobe Photoshop, each player is placed into the image, row-by-row to create a pleasing arrangement.  There are multiple blank layers that are added above and below each player's layer on which I brush in shadows, which would occur naturally if the team was actually photographed all together. These shadows make all the difference in the image, and although time consuming, turns this from a run-of-the-mill fake image into one where most of the parents can't believe the athletes were not all photographed together. 

When complete, there are often 45-50 layers in the Photoshop file: one for each player, at least one shadow layer per player, and several other shadow layers where their feet are touching the ground. In the photo above, several players were wearing flip flops or were in stocking feet, so the team name banner covers up the bare feet of the front row players that could not be hidden in the back row.

Everyone is still smiling when they're done.

The JV hockey team shown below was one of the first teams that I created this way.  The individual player's photos again were close ups of their faces in front of a really nice rink background.  When the hockey parents show the team photos around, I soon had baseball, field hockey, softball, football, boy's lacrosse and girl's volleyball teams on board.  

Many people ask me why I photograph team portraits this way, because it is much more a time investment than just lining a team up and photographing them all together.  First and foremost, it allows me to get great, consistent light on each and every player's face.  This is not always easy to do in a large group.  The accent lights that appear on each player's face helps define it and delineate it from the players behind them.  There is no way this accent light would get onto the player's faces at the center of the group if they were all photographed together simultaneously.  The second reason is that it looks different. Being different gets you noticed.  Executing this different vision on a consistent basis keeps you moving forward, onward and upward.

One of the first team composites that I created. Once other teams caught wind of this , they were lining up to take part

Photographing Beer

I recently started photographing various trademark beers for Fairport Brewing Company, a local microbrewery.  Although all the foods and beverages that you see in magazine and television advertisements look deliciously steamy hot or refreshingly cold, nothing could be further from the truth.  There is an art to making month-old, cold hamburgers look lip-smackingly good.  And in this post, I’ll show you what makes you want to dive into room temperature, flat beer.

With the exception of some English beers that are preferable served less than cold, most beer is served cold, so that is what advertisers want you to see and crave.  But again, what you see is rarely what it really is.

“Hero” Shot

Frosted with aerosol deoderant

To get this photo of one of this brewery’s IPA’s, I started with one of their signature logo glasses.  To make the beer seem like it sitting in a frosty glass, I masked off the very top of the glass with a piece of paper, then lightly sprayed the rest of the glass with the cheapest aerosol deodorant that I could find at my local supermarket.  You really want to “cheap out” here, because the more expensive brands go on clear, and you want the frost.  A side benefit is that the studio smelled spring fresh after each and every spray.

Glycerine and water

Next step is to spray the frosted area of the glass with a 50/50 water and glycerine mix.  You can find glycerine in your local pharmacy…it’s in the “constipation” aisle…so don’t spend a lot of time there browsing.

The glass is then placed in the lighting set-up, which included one overhead light in a gridded soft box and two side lights, each in a gridded strip box.  These side lights were placed slightly behind the glass to add to the rim light effect of the glass and show off the water droplets.

Cardboard reflector

The trouble with this lighting set-up is that there is not a lot of light going through the glass, and not matter what kind of beer you are photographing, it’s going to look dark and cloudy…and very unappetizing.  The trick is to take a cardboard cutout similar to the shape of the glass and angle it directly behind the glass, so that it won’t show from the camera’s angle.  This cardboard will reflect the light from the overhead soft box, and send it shooting through the glass, instantly elevating the status of the beer from dark and cloudy to refreshingly delicious.  Hard to remember that it’s still warm and flat.  And speaking of flat, when you are ready to photograph the beer, drop some salt in the glass.  This will produce bubbles and bring back the head of the beer.

Hero shot lighting setup

As an alternative to shooting against a dark background, I also replaced the dark background with a large soft box, and adjusted the light in it to give me a nice white background.  This produces a lot of light coming through the beer and avoids the dark, cloudy look altogether.

“Pour" Shot

I took an empty beer bottle (I had several to choose from at home) and using a glass cutter purchased from my local big box hardware store, cut off the bottom of the bottle and sanded the edges to they were smooth and would not cut my tender fingers..  I then clamped the bottomless bottle of beer…which is the ultimate fantasy….to a light stand.  Doing this allowed me to place the glass and the bottle in exactly the same position for each and every shot, and I simply just pour a cup of beer into the open part of the bottle while firing the camera. 

The logo on the glass did not show up well against the dark background in the first several shots, so I added a small snooted flash directed at the background, directly behind where the logo would appear in the photo.

Again, flat beer works best in this kind of photo.  Otherwise, all you’ll be taking a photograph of is foam on the bottom of the glass, which is less tasty than the amber-colored goodness of grain,  hops and yeast.

Curling is "Chess on Ice"

Stones in the house

The Rochester Curling Club held a free hands-on curling demonstration at the Fairport Junction ice rink in the Village of Fairport over the weekend.  I’ll admit, I’ve been intrigued by the sport…often referred to “chess on ice”…after watching it on the Olympics three years ago.  “Just how hard can it be?

I remember watching players sliding the stone down the ice, their teammates furiously sweeping the ice with brooms in front of the gliding stone, until the stone came to rest in a colored circle, closer to the center than the opponent’s stones.  Little did I know that what I was really was watching was a dramatic bonspiel with the lead delivering a 42 lb. stone on keen ice to the house, chipping the guards, not wanting to be a biter, but using the skip’s broom to land the shot rock on the button.  Whew…. 

A young fan concentrating on his delivery

The Rochester Curling Club started at RIT in 1961, eventually moving to its own facility in 1966 at 71 Deep Rock Road, Rochester. NY.  Members range in age from 5 to 85, and include members of the US National Team.  Much like golf, it’s easy to learn, but is difficult to master.  Having played golf, I can attest to that.

Each curling stone weighs 42 lbs., and the handle is used to give the stone a rotation as it is delivered down the ice, "curling" it into position

The Greatful Dead have 'deadheads", the Green Bay Packers have "cheese heads"...are curling fans called "stoneheads"?

A hogged rock that didn't make it to the house

The outdoor ice rink at the Fairport Junction parking lot in the Village of Fairport.