Golden Hour Photography

There's a reason they call the hours near dawn and dusk the "Golden Hours" - the natural light during these times just makes shooting so pleasurable. The light is soft, rich and it allows for longer exposures, which I really enjoy. While landscape shots look amazing in this light, I can't wait to shoot some portraits in it. I've offered to shoot folks for free at sunrise on the beach, but apparently none of my friends are early risers (I've become one because of our kid).

I took the shot below at Cross Farm Park in Lincroft at around 8PM. I took a number of shots that evening, but I feel this one is the best. As I sat in the tall grass of the park with my camera on a tripod, I kept thinking of the famous tabloid photographer, Weegee, whose motto was, "F8 and be there!" This was his answer when questioned how he was able to capture so many great shots. While I understand the utility of using a safe aperture setting like F8, it's the "be there" part that really resonates with me. If you want a good shot, you need to get out there and endure some discomfort sometimes, like being eaten alive by mosquitoes in this case. I also kept thinking about photojournalists in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and the precarious situations they navigate to "get the shot." Makes mosquito bites seem pretty trivial, really.

CAMERA: Nikon D80

LENS: AF-S DX Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G

APERTURE: 13
SHUTTER: 3 seconds
LIGHTING: Natural with fill flash (TTL)
ISO: 100
RETOUCHING: Pushed the contrast a little in the RAW file.
SELF-CRITIQUE: I don't have much to say about this shot. I really love the colors and the way the flash made the street sign pop against the sky.

Available Light

While I have always taken pictures for as long as I can remember, this summer I feel like my Nikon has been virtually glued to my face. I actually feel guilty if I have missed a day of shooting. Every time I pick up the camera, I am learning more about the craft and about myself as a shooter. While I do enjoy some aspects of shooting with artificial light (Strobes and/or hot lights), I do think some of my strongest shots to date have been made possible by good, natural light, in situations where the subjects aren't consciously posing. Case in point, the shot below was taken around 6PM at the Triumph Brewery in New Hope, PA. The light was hitting a huge, frosted window pane that acted like a giant soft box. I love the way it gently outlines my son's features.

CAMERA: Nikon D80

LENS: AF-S DX Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G

APERTURE: 2.8
SHUTTER: 1/125
LIGHTING: Natural
ISO: 200
RETOUCHING: Pushed the contrast a little in the RAW file.
SELF-CRITIQUE: I'm not really sure how to critique this shot. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I like it from both an emotional and a technical standpoint.

The pic below is of my wife and son facing that same big, frosted window. I like how the incandescant lights in the background almost suggest stars and the quality of natural light warms up an already sweet, personal moment.

CAMERA: Nikon D80

LENS: AF-S DX Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G

APERTURE: 2.8
SHUTTER: 1/125
LIGHTING: Natural
ISO: 200
RETOUCHING: Pushed the contrast a little in the RAW file, burned in the t-shirt
SELF-CRITIQUE: Her T-shirt was a little overexposed, so I burned it in a bit in Photoshop. It could probably stand a little more, actually. Color balance could stand a slight correction, perhaps pushing the vibrance/saturation a little.

One more utilizing that amazing window. I really love how it exaggerates the depth of the room:

CAMERA: Nikon D80

LENS: AF-S DX Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G

APERTURE: 2.8
SHUTTER: 1/180
LIGHTING: Natural
ISO: 200
RETOUCHING: Pushed the contrast/brightness a little in the RAW file.
SELF-CRITIQUE: I love it from a technical angle, but emotionally, it's a little flat.

The shot below presented some problems as we were on moving train, which bumped and swayed quite a bit (it was a hot train, too, as evidenced by my sweating subject). I didn't want to use the flash, so I had to keep the shutter open a bit longer, risking tack sharp focus.

CAMERA: Nikon D80

LENS: AF-S DX Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G

APERTURE: 2.0
SHUTTER: 1/125
LIGHTING: Natural
ISO: 200
RETOUCHING: Pushed the contrast/brightness a little in the RAW file. Sharpened the image in Photoshop.
SELF-CRITIQUE: I love it for its emotional content and I think I did a decent job technically considering the conditions, but I could have punched up the ISO a bit while shooting.

Nice Glass

Since I am now walking the walk and talking the talk of a digital photography instructor, I thought I'd briefly write about owning nice "glass," meaning a good lens. I recently purchased a prime lens (one that does not zoom, but is fixed) for my Nikon D80 - a 35mm AF-S Nikkor f/1.8. This means the lens is pretty fast - the aperture opens wide enough to capture a lot of light, even when little light is available. This wide aperture also means you can get really shallow depth of field.

I've been shooting a little with the lens and immediately I am impressed. While it only cost about $100.00, it is already leveraging more resolution out of my 10.2 megapixel camera than I knew it possessed. The lens I bought with the D80 kit is an 18-135mm zoom lens, and although it takes pics that are above and beyond the everyday point-and-shoot camera, this 35mm lens is really starting to make my Nikon behave like the dSLR that it is. I can understand why photographers salivate over quality lenses. Maybe someday I'll have enough money to buy a really good piece of glass. In the meantime, this lens suits me just fine.

In the pics below, I am finally starting to see tack sharp focus in my shots. I have also started to work with NEF/RAW files and I'm loving it. These are the images as they come directly off the camera's sensor, without compression (unlike jpegs). I open them into Adobe's Camera Raw software, which comes with Adobe CS4 and newer. With a couple minor tweaks, I am getting just the image I hoped and expected to capture.

I purchased a couple other new camera accessories - a wireless shutter release, an Alienbees ABR 800 ring flash and a newer, lightweight tripod with a ball head. I am very excited to experiment with these new toys and will be posting the best images here in coming days. Meanwhile, here are a few that I really like:

 

CAMERA: Nikon D80

LENS: AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
APERTURE: 1.8
SHUTTER: 1/90
LIGHTING: On board flash
ISO: 100
RETOUCHING: Pushed the contrast a little in the RAW file.
SELF-CRITIQUE: I love this shot for its composition, color, clarity and mood. I do think I could have closed down the aperture a bit more as the depth of field is a little too shallow.

CAMERA: Nikon D80

LENS: AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
APERTURE: 1.8
SHUTTER: 1/90
LIGHTING: Natural light from window, overcast/rainy day
ISO: 100
RETOUCHING: Pushed the contrast a little and corrected color in the RAW file, dodged the subject in Photoshop for a little visual pop.
SELF-CRITIQUE: I love this shot for its composition, color, clarity. The pie in the case behind my son is a little hot (overexposed) and probably should be toned down.

CAMERA: Nikon D80

LENS: AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
APERTURE: 1.8
SHUTTER: 1/180
LIGHTING: Natural light and on board flash
ISO: 100
RETOUCHING: Pushed the contrast a little in the RAW file, cropped image slightly in PS.
SELF-CRITIQUE: I like how illuminated the subject is and how he really stands out against the grey, rainy background. I could have done a better job of composing the shot while shooting, as the flowerpot (while colorful and attractive), is a bit of a distraction.

 

CAMERA: Nikon D80

LENS: AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
APERTURE: 2.4
SHUTTER: 1/125
LIGHTING: Natural light - Overcast sky
ISO: 100
RETOUCHING: Pushed the contrast a little in the RAW file.
SELF-CRITIQUE: Love the clarity, composition and extremeley limited depth of field (essentially only one leaf is in focus). The white flower (New Guinea Impatien?), while adding a nice visual counterpoint is a bit over exposed and needs to be toned down.

Eatontown Hip Hop, Yo!

I had the pleasure of working with students and counselors from the SPEAK program recently. SPEAK is an acronym for Summer Program Eatontown Alliance Kids and is a collaborative effort between school and community organizations to provide a positive experience for students ages 11-14. The program supports community service activities, development of positive character traits, and a strong anti-drug/alcohol message. Students participate in alternative activities that focus on community service, altruism, social skills, and conflict resolution. It encourages cooperation and teamwork, and strive to enhance resiliency and internal strengths to prevent involvement in substance abuse and violence.

I was hired to produce an anti-drug/anti-alcohol song and video with them and in the span of two (half) days last week, we did it! I arranged a basic track using Garageband and then brought my (somewhat mobile) audio studio to their space above the Eatontown firehouse. We spent a couple hours workshopping themes and lyrics, then spent another two recording the vocal takes. I was so impressed with how focused and professional the kids were. After I showed them how to run the recording session, I just stepped back and they all served as their own engineers and producers. Due to time constraints, later that night I edited the takes into a coherent song. I am confident that they could have done this, but since they only meet for four hours a day, this was not possible.

Later in the week, we met once more in their firehouse space. This time, we set up the room for video production. Dawn White-Ryan, one of the program's dedicated and talented counselors, purchased a few yards of bright green fabric, which we draped over and clamped to a chalkboard for a makeshift chroma key (green screen). We positioned the screen to take advantage of the south-facing windows behind us and I also brought along a couple hot lights with diffusers to illuminate the performers. I set up my Sony Bloggie on a tripod and we then spent a couple of hours shooting. Again, the kids directed the shoot, not me. I find this to be the most rewarding part of these kinds of projects, when the students immediately take ownership of their work.

After we "wrapped," we connected my Vaio laptop to a large screen TV in the room via HDMI and I showed students the basics of video editing using Sony's Vegas. They quickly got the hang of it and cut together the rough edit of the video you see below. I took it home and finished it up. I think it rocks and I am so proud of all the students and counselors who stepped up as brave souls and made it happen. Here's the video, entitled, "Just Say No!":

Just Say No! (So You Can Be My Bro)

Thank you to counselors Counselors Dawn Ryan, Lori Boyd, Jill Wetzel, Lindsay DeVito and Ryan Hennelly! You all rock!

In The News

Some friends recently alerted me to the fact that my Project Lead The Way program at the Red Bank Middle School had been featured in local media outlets. I did a quick search and found this link (a few months old at this point, admittedly), in case you or your school district wanted to know more about this amazing STEM program:

From "The Hub," a local Red Bank newspaper:
Red Bank’s STEM program a model for learning

Boyzilla!

As I am building an arsenal of photo gear in anticipation of my new job, I have been recruiting friends and family to be my subjects as I try out each new gadget. My son, Army is a good sport and has a lot of character, so yesterday while Mom was out, we set up all of his toy cars on the dining room table and staged a mock-Godzilla destruction scene as an excuse to use my new 35mm lens. Although he usually can remain focused on a task for longer than the average 4 year old, I could tell his patience for this experiment was wearing thin. After all, I had him up on top of our dining room table for the shoot. I love that he is shirtless, like a miniature Incedible Hulk.

I was only able to fire off a handful of shots, and the one below is the best.

CAMERA: Nikon D80

LENS: AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
APERTURE: 2.8
SHUTTER: 1/125
LIGHTING: Two halogens with white umbrella diffusers at 45 degrees, key 500 watt, fill 300 watt
ISO: 320
RETOUCHING: Some brightness, contrast and removal of nails in background wall.
SELF-CRITIQUE: I am happy with the shot, especially the clarity/focus provided by my new 35mm prime lens. It really does blow away my 18-135mm lens for this type of shooting. I have to start thinking about how to create a dedicated photo studio with the limited space (and ceiling height) in our house.

My New Gig

I recently took a new job teaching Digital Photography and Computer Art at Ocean Township High School. I am very excited about this opportunity and will be spending the summer focusing on the "A" in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math). As I recalibrate my brain, I will be posting its output here, along with any technical information regarding the photo or Photoshop project. I'd love to post one a day, but I'm not sure I can make that happen.

When I shoot, I tend to shoot a lot of frames, but only usually love (and publish) a handful of frames. The one below is the best from a recent outing with my family to the Asbury Park boardwalk. My four year old son loves pinball and I took this shot at the Silverball Museum, which is quickly becoming one of our favorite destinations, especially during oppressively hot and swampy Jersey summer days.

CAMERA: Nikon D80
LENS: Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D AF
APERTURE: 1.8
SHUTTER: 1/60
LIGHTING: Overhead flourescent
ISO: 100
RETOUCHING: Some color, brightness, contrast.
SELF-CRITIQUE: I love this shot due to its composition, emotion and colors, but I think shutter speed is a little slow and the image could be sharper. Forgot to change the ISO as well.