Case 1:  cloudy day, natural light, indoor

Melissa and I had scheduled that shoot in Malibu a while back and even though sun was expected (well, it’s California after all, isn’t it supposed to be sunny?!?), it barely showed up so after we tried to use umbrellas and speed-lights indoor, we chose to use only natural light, so I asked her to sit in front of the window. The result is nothing short of spectacular, the clouds and windows acted as a giant softbox and gave the most flattering light, softening the skin perfectly.

Case 2: Sunny day, natural light, outdoor:

After we were done shooting inside the studio, we decided to head out and take photos of JP with just natural light.  It was a beautiful day and there were just a few clouds in the sky, but there were enough of them so when one of the clouds covered the sun, I took this photo. The difference with previous case is that there is a bit more contrast and saturation due to the fact that it was a brighter day.

Case 3: cloudy day, natural light bounced off building, outdoor

As we were going down the stairs, I just noticed the pattern of light on Olivier’s face and asked him to sit down. That Rembrandt lighting was remarkable. Light was bounced from the nearby wall of a building. Light falloff was pretty quick due to the fact we were in the stairways. This made for a great headshot!

Case 4: Sunny day, natural light + fill flash, outdoor

One of the setup I like to use when I want to travel light is a single flash on-camera with a Gary Fong diffuser. Most of the time, I use the sun as a hairlight/backlight and I use the flash with a diffuser as a fill to take care of shadows. Most of the time, it gives a really interesting result and it’s easy to work with like here with Andrea. I love the expression of happiness and spitiruality and how the light falls on the left side of her face. The flash here barely lits this photo as the light is diffused also through the leaves of the nearby trees.

Case 5 Golden hour, natural light: At sunset, there are two ways of handling the light, using it as a backlight or use it as a main light. In that example, Haylie is in front of the setting sun, which also lits the grass perfectly. There is a reason why this moment of the day is referred as the golden hour. This light is magical, especially during fall season, like on this example.

Case 6: Studio, one beauty dish, butterfly lighting

In some situations, there is no need for complex light setups. One light can be more than enough. Butterfly setup is one of the lighting I prefer and to take advantage of it, using a boom is mandatory so that the light is in front of the subject, slightly over outside of the image. In that example, the light also reaches the background and allows for separation between the subject and the background to create a strong portrait of Victoria.

Case 7: Studio, one beauty dish, Rembrandt lighting

Another type of simple lighting is Rembrandt lighting, with the flash mounted with a beauty dish to camera right and up. There is some feathering here to lit the background. The proximity of the light allowed for a strong contrast and made it a really strong portrait of Olivier.

Case 8: Studio, one softbox + golden reflector

For this portrait of Scott James, DJ, the main light is a softbox at camera right and the light is bounced back on the other side of the face using a golden reflector (which gives a warm tone to the skin).

Case 9: Studio, 3 lights with grids

For this particular portrait, I used 3 lights with 3 grids (10, 20 and 30 degrees) to recreate lighting from the 1940s and 50s. Even if the sources of lights are not especially soft, the fact that all the face is lit from all angle gives a soft look to this portrait of Robyn.

Case 10: Studio, 3 lights (2 softboxes and 1 beauty dish)

For that last example, two softboxes were used to the left and right of the subject, slightly behind and a beauty dish in front and slightly above camera was used as a main light. This lighting gives a 3 dimensional aspect to this portrait of Ze’ev.

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I met Haylie during Don Giannatti Lighting Essentials workshop in November 2009. She is a cheerleader for the Toronto Argonauts CFL football team and it was a great experience shooting with her.

First series of photos were taken inside the studio (William Ainsley Photography Studio in Bowmanville, Ontario in the GTA area)  and we used an orange background and single flash equiped with a Speedlight Pro Kit softbox diffuser.

It was a beautiful afternoon of November, the day had been overcast for most of the day, but as the sun was about to set, the sky cleared and the light was nothing short of amazing. Taking advantage of the studio surroundings was easy and matching the colour of Haylie’s hair with the background made for stunning images.

Finally, using the last bit of light available, we went on the nearby street and shot some photos using the vanishing point. We asked her to walk away and turn back as she would be leaving.

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This week article features the first of several “secret” places in Paris I want all of you to discover. Photos were taken in 2007 and 2010 with a Nikon D200 or a Nikon D300 and a Sigma 10-20mm F/4.5-5.6. Some photos are HDR or DRI, but not all of them, find out which ones!

Located in the 6th district of Paris, close to Odeon Metro station in the Saint-Germain-Des-Prés neighbourhood, the passage “cours du commerce Saint-André” (Saint-Andre’s Trade Courtyard in english) was opened in 1735. The reason behind this name is the fact that many picturesque boutiques are present alongside the passage.

This passage features several interesting places to visit:
- Bistrot 1900: This place is also called Relais Odeon. It is a great restaurant with a beautiful facade and an amazing decor and ambiance from the start of 1900s.

- Restaurant Procope: founded in 1686 by Francesco Procopio del Coltelli, this prestigious place is the most ancient restaurant of Paris and was one of the first places to offer coffee to his customers. It was a very popular place among intellectuals and personalities such as Voltaire, Danton, Robespierre, Marat or Benjamin Franklin used to frequent the café. Nowadays, it’s a great place to be surprised by some of the culinary delights offered here such as the “coq au vin ivre de Juliénas” or the “Colbert” whiting in a tartare sauce in a beautiful wooden decor.

- Secret courtyards:  When you visit this passage, make sure to look for any opened door, it could very well be the entrance to a private courtyard, an oasis of silence in the middle of one the busiest cities of the world. Here are a few of them.

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Agrandir le plan

As you have read in my previous post, this type of location is perfect to shoot at the blue hour, because you have more than enough to shoot before the night falls.

Because it’s the tallest building and it looks a bit like a monolith, the “tour de la Bourse” skyscraper is definitively the most important landmark there:

At its feet and near the metro entrance, you will find a cute little flower shop:

If you venture a little to the north near the Hotel W, you will find beautiful water fountains and a Statue of the Queen Victoria (from 1872) and a classic Parisian Metro Entrance by Henri Guimard, offered by the city of Paris in the 1970s.

Then at the north end of the square, you will find a sculpture from Ju Ming called “Taichi Single Whip”. The two buildings at the background are the Bell and Banque Nationale towers and were built in the 1970s.

I hope you enjoy the visit!

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Now first,what is the BLUE HOUR??? Well according to wikipedia:

The blue hour comes from a French expression, l’heure bleue, which refers to the period of twilight each morning and evening where there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. The time is considered special because of the quality of the light at this time of day. The blue hour is considered especially flattering for people with blond hair in photography and is often also when the smell of the flowers is at its strongest during the summertime.

Pretty simple, though if you want a more precise and technical definition, the blue hour happens usually starts 30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise. The duration of the blue hour is generally around 30 minutes. For a better experience, it’s best to go shooting just after it has stopped raining. Also, the quality of light at the blue hour is usually at its best during fall season. At this time of the year, it looks almost like the sky is glowing.

Blue Hour on Old Montreal Skyline - Fall 2007

• SCOUT: Because you don’t have much time to shoot at the blue hour, you MUST plan for it and the first step is finding locations where you’ll be able to shoot different angles in 30-45min! Scouting will also help you frame the photos in your head when the sun is up and get a good feeling of distances. Squares and waterfronts or look-outs are usually the best places to achieve this rather easily. Oh one more thing, the blue hour starts to the east and progresses to the west, plan accordingly.

• USE GOOGLE MAPS and FLICKR: Well, if you can’t scout because you’re only be going there on vacation, use Google Maps to view the orientation of the locations photographed and check flickr for the best shooting locations (not doing so would be idiotic, finding new locations of places you don’t know is pretty challenging and remember that the clock is ticking… 30 minutes of good shooting!)

Blue Hour on Portland Skyline, Oregon, USA - FALL 2009

• WEATHER: If you want to get the best results, pick a day without smog. Shoot a day after it has stopped raining, The sky will be clean of most particles and impurities.

• PREPARE YOUR GEAR:

• Take your tripod: Exposures at ISO 100 and F/8.0 usually go between 4-30 seconds
• Take your remote trigger release to avoid vibrations
• Clean your lenses and put the hood to avoid flare
• Mount the lens you will most likely use ( I use a Sigma 10-20mm for architecture shoots and 17-50mm for landscapes or cityscapes)
• Set the camera to Aperture priority mode or Manual mode, ISO 200 or below (you really don’t want noise in the blue sky because of high ISO).
• Use a circular polarizer if you shoot on the shore of a river or lake (remove it once it lengthen exposures besides 30s).
• Take a bubble level

Blue Hour on Notre Dame de Paris, France

• BE ON LOCATION EARLY: I always try to be on location early (30 minutes) for two simple reasons:
  1. If I couldn’t scout, it leaves me time to check for alternate locations
  2. I’m totally relaxed. I usually bring a book with me and read while the sun is going down.

• USE A LEVEL: I always have a bubble level on my flash hotshoe to make sure the camera is levelled.

Blue Hour on Monpazier, Dordogne, Perigord, France

• BRACKET: even if you don’t plan on blending exposures in Photoshop or doing HDRs, bracketing make sure you won’t miss any exposure. Take as many possible as possible.

• EXPOSE CORRECTLY: If you use matrix metering, in aperture priority, compensate between 0.7 and 1.5ev. Otherwise shoot in manual mode and check the result at the back at the camera so that you don’t have too many dark shadows. The histogram should have a clear dome at its left (which means you haven’t clipped the shadows too much and that the image is not too dark!

Blue Hour on Seattle Skyline, Washington, USA

• INCREASE YOUR AWARENESS: You want to make great photos, relax, breathe and feel the smell in the air, the wind on your skin, the flow of water and let your intuition guide you.

• RUN!!!: Damn it does not last long so if you can, train yourself at being able to run like a crazy monkey with a big tripod looking for your next shot! LOL

Blue hour at Union Square, San Francisco, USA

Now this is not over. Taking the photos is a good thing, but processing them is key to get the best results… stay tuned for part 2!!!

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• Snowy backyard somewhere on the Plateau Mont-Royal

• Snowy alley of the Plateau Mont-Royal

I’ve always loved those lonely photo walks, listening to audio books, while trying to find secret places and different angles to what everybody has already photographed. I’ve had already come by that book store and taken a photo but never published it. On that night, it was really different, when I saw the bookstore again, with the yellow light coming from inside the store against the white snow and the blue sky, it really made an impression. It was the right moment to take a photo. After figuring out the perspective I wanted, I then set up my tripod in the middle of the road, took a look left and right to make sure no one would run me over and then took 3 different exposures (from 1.6 to 6s) with my Nikon D300 and a Sigma 10-20mm zoomed at 16mm and F/10.0.

I knew that this photo had something more than the others I took that night. When I get that feeling,  I usually like to wait a few days or months to process the photos, because I want it to reflect exactly the impressions I had that night. Like I say to my friends, it’s not about the technique, it’s about using the technique to reflect what your feelings were and just go with your intuition. Like demonstrated below, I don’t see HDR as a technique, my photomatix processing is really basic and the core of what I do is micro-contrast management using curves until I get the result that I want, without any second thoughts. This particular example mixed HDR and DRI and a bit of Photoshop. Enjoy!

• Final result:

• Baseline exposure:

• Making Of:

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It has been 3 years already that I visited what I think is one of the most beautiful little towns in the world, Locronan. This little jewel is located in the region of Brittany, Finistère, France and 15km to the north-east Quimper.

Built at the foot of a hill, the village was granted town status in 1505 by Anne of Brittany, who went there on a pilgrimage. However, the location was already  occupied as soon as the 5th century before Christ.

When I visited, it was a beautiful morning of December, the morning showers had just stopped and the village looked deserted. The old stones being still wet, the streets were shiny and reflecting the colours of the beautiful sky.

I entered the village through the main street:

Curious, I then turned into a tiny street to admire one of the most beautiful house I have seen:

and turn the other way to enjoy the view to the main street:

Going back to the main street, I then walked for no more than a couple of minutes, I looked to my right as there was another street and was just amazed by the perspective of the street leading to the valley. The light was just magical:

I then just turned back to take this photo:

The mizzle started again so I decided to enter the beautiful church built in the XIIth century:

I then finished my visit by taking a photo of the street leading to that church:

I hope you enjoyed the visit. If you plan to go there, check the town’s website.

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It was a beautiful day of fall in California with no clouds in the sky  and the sun was starting to go down. I was driving on a beautiful scenic rout towards Klamath, Ca, meditating on the power of visualization as a way to get what I want from my life. As I was going through my memories, I realized that most of the photos that I love were the result of that (mostly) unconscious (at the time) process. I was also thinking I had never taken a photo of golden rays of light coming through the trees. I had seen these photos a few times and I had a clear image in my mind. I then decided to hold that thought and keep feeling how it would feel to take that particular photo.

As I was going through the curves of Highway 1, I was going uphill when this vision became reality, I was amazed by the beauty of the scenery, it was pure perfection, a moment of pure blissfulness, I hit the brakes immediately and did a u-turn to park so that my car would not be part of the image. I then took my time to put the camera on a tripod, select the right lens and position myself in the middle of the road and snap the 7 exposures necessary to capture the scene with as many details as possible.

The final image involved manual blending between a DRI (also manually blended) of -2,+1 and +3 exposures and an HDR of 7 exposures (-3 to +3ev) from Photomatix.

Here is the result (Nikon D300 – Tamron 17-50mm – ISO 200 – 17mm – 1/160 to 0.4s exposures):

Each time I look at this photo, I feel blissful and happy, hence the reason I named this photo  “The Blissful Road to Happiness“.

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Photoshop portrait retouching is everywhere: in blogs, newspapers, magazines. With the development of online tutorials, plug-ins and actions, access to the skill has become easier than ever.

However, like all skills, learning how to balance each adjustment is not that as easy as it may seem and experience is key. It can also depends on the context in which the portrait has been taken (one just has to look at some of these editing disasters to see that trying to cut on the quality can really hurt you) .  Each client has his/her own opinion on how the editing should be done which can make it hard for the photographer to do his/her job properly. It is the photographer’s responsibility to find the right balance in editing. A good example being that an older woman might not like to have all her wrinkles edited or smoothed out, as it creates an unrealistic and unrecognizable version of herself.

In my opinion, retouching has to look effortless and not photoshopped. Attention to details is a must-have too. As beginners, we all made the mistakes of over-whitening the teeths and eyes, overs-moothing the skin or just remove all traces of imperfections. But little things that we might removed like birthmarks are what makes an indiividual in the first place.

Now let’s come back to this portrait. The model is Robyn, independant model/makeup artist/designer and owner of the blog fashionista514.com. She will also be featuring this makeover over on her blog so go check what she has to say on the subject.  It was our first time meeting each other and we only had 10 minutes for a quick headshot session. The very classic lighting setup consisted of a Alien Bees AB800+ Beauty dish on a boom above camera (butterfly lighting). Fill was provided by a 5in1 gold reflector held at the waist level by Robyn.  Robyn makeup was close to being perfect especially with a red lipstick (MAC Ruby Woo) featuring an amazing texture.

Now, before you watch the video and the final result on bigger scale, here is the breakdown of the retouching steps:

1. Blemishes removal and exposure adjustment (Adobe Camera Raw): 7min
2. Skin repair : 11min
3. Small hair removal: 8min
4. eyes cleanup: 5min
5. Difficult small hair removal part 2: 9 min
6. Wrinkles/shadows softening: 8 min
7. Necklace removal: 3 min
8. Eyes brightening: 8 min
9. Lips contouring: 3 min
10. Face contouring: 4 min
11. Contrast adjustments: 1 min
12. Skin softening: 4 min
13. Sharpening: 6 min
14. Digital makeup: 1 min

Total time:  67 minutes

Video duration: 9min33 (short version is available here) – music by Jansen: Staring At The Sun Feat Percy-Duke Dbn Remix.

As illustrated here, creating high quality photos takes time (30min to the very least for really high quality editing) and justifies the fees most photographers charge. Next time you book a photoshoot, make sure you ask what kind of retouching is provided.

Here is the final image:

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The following photowas actually the first one taken that night afternoon using a Nikon D300 and a Sigma 10-20mm all zoomed out at 10mm. My main concern when I took this photo was to make sure I had the all shed on the right of the image along with the perspective of the alley.

• Photo after retouching

• Photo before retouching

Processing involved accentuating the lack of colors through a partial black and white conversion except for the rusted scene and make the scene feel more real and textured through contrast enhancement.

• Unedited video of the whole processing (Music by Guitar Flute and String, Moby) – real time 15 min:

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