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.

Thanks for viewing!

- part 1:  Paul Van Dyk

- part 2: Above and Beyond

- part 3: Misstress Barbara and DJ Kal

Second Sun – photo no 1

Second Sun – photo no 2

Second Sun – photo no 3

Photos from the crowd are available at GlobalSound.ca. Prints and licences of the photos above may be ordered at davidgiralphoto.com or by emailing me.

Thanks for viewing the series.

Misstress Barbara- photo no 1

Misstress Barbara- photo no 2

Misstress Barbara- photo no 3

Misstress Barbara- photo no 4

DJ Kal – Photo no 1

Photos from the crowd are available at GlobalSound.ca. Prints and licences of the photos above may be ordered at davidgiralphoto.com or by emailing me.

This series will end with: Photos – Resolution 2010 Montreal – DJ: Second Sun !

So after yesterday’s post about Paul Van Dyk, here are my three favourite photos of Above and Beyond performance at Resolution 2010 taken that night (wallpaper size available 1680×1050):

no 3

no 2

no 1

Photos from the crowd are available at GlobalSound.ca. Prints and licences of the photos above may be ordered at davidgiralphoto.com or by emailing me.

Stay tuned for Tomorrow: Best Photos – Resolution 2010 Montreal – Misstress Barbara and DJ Kal !

So to start the week, here are my five favourite photos of PVD perfomance at Resolution 2010  taken that night (wallpaper size available 1680×1050):

no 5

no 4

no 3

no 2

no 1

Photos from the crowd will be available at GlobalSound.ca. Prints and licences of the photos above may be ordered at davidgiralphoto.com or by emailing me.

Stay tuned for Tomorrow: Top 5 Photos – Resolution 2010 Montreal – Above and Beyond !

Before I start to explain the process used to create the above photograph, I wanted to thank Krista (an actress from Toronto whom I met during a Lighting Essentials workshop, visit her website here) for being such a good sport having endured the cold temperature of Montreal at the end of November with such grace. She is a fun and dynamic person fun to work with.

This specific photo was taken at the end of the shooting and as we were about to walk back to the coffee shop for a well deserved rest and a hot coffee, I was struck by the beauty of the stairs and the different textures of the side of this building located in the Ghetto McGill in Montreal.

I had bring my tripod and after taking a few photos, I decided to setup my Nikon D200 with a Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8. Before putting Krista into the frame, I took a few photos to make sure I was underexposed from 1.5 stops then I asked Krista to sit at the bottom at the stairs and act a little worried as if she was looking at someone upstairs, I then positionned my SB-900 with Speedlight Pro Kit diffuser and took this shot.

then, I asked her to go up the stairs and look down as if she was spying on a person downstairs and I adjusted the flash so it would lighten her a dialed it up a little in power.

For the last part, I wanted her to act as if she was intrigued by the whole scene. This time I had to move the flash.

I had to use a fourth image to cover the location where the flash was in Photoshop.

Then when all was packed and that everybody was warm at home, I started by putting each photo on a different layer and started masking so that the flash and lightstand would disappear. The lighting looks a bit surreal, but that was what I was aiming for.

Once it was done, I started adjusting contrast, tones and colours using adjustment layers (curves and black and white) and blending modes (color dodge for the door). I then went on adding some tonal contrast using high pass sharpening with a high radius. I added a few more effects after web resizing.

Here is a video showing the different steps involved:

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to check my portfolio and my stock photos at http://www.davidgiralphoto.com

This specific photo was taken on Christmas Eve 2009 on a fairly overcast weather. I used a Nikon D300 and a Sigma 10-20mm all zoomed out at 10mm to make sure I captured the whole scene. I used a tripod to be able to stay at low ISO. The exposure lasted 2.5 seconds at F/10.0 and ISO 200.

Retouching involved mainly curves and levels adjustments in order to increase contrast on the whole image as well as locally.

• Photo after retouching

• Photo before retouching

• Video showing the adjustments done on each adjustment layer in Photoshop.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to check my portfolio and my stock photos at http://www.davidgiralphoto.com