Category Archives: Workshops

2022 Shoots, Models, natural light, Workshops

Portrait workshop at Gear Homestead

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Mumtaz 1/200s f2 80mm (63mm equivalent) ISO100

In May 2022 my camera club was hosting a one day portrait workshop being run by Wellington commercial photographer Lindsay Keats. They were having problems getting models for the session so I offered to help them find some.

I posted a casting call on Wellington Facebook group and subsequently two models Devon and Mumtaz agreed to come along. Devon had experience as an actress and Mumtaz had modeled before.

The workshop was based out of the clubrooms which are in the grounds of the Gear Homestead in Porirua.

Devon 1/125s f2 80mm (63mm equivalent) ISO100

I had not planned on shooting but rather helping the others and assisting Lindsay. I had packed a portable backdrop and some lights which were set up in the clubrooms.

Lindsay is a Fuijifilm ambassador and when I got there I discovered that Sam from Fujifilm had also come along. He had brought with him some gear to play with. I immediately grabbed a GFX50s which is a medium format camera.

While we were waiting for everybody to arrive I noticed that Devon was standing in a pool of light. So I tested the ability of the camera to shoot indoors without flash. It was fitted with a f2 lens set at 80mm.

Devon 1/200s f2 80mm (63mm equivalent) ISO2000

With full medium format cameras, the crop factor works on reverse. The 80mm lens was the equivalent of 63mm lens on a full frame camera. I did have to crank the ISO up to 2000 but that did not present a problem.

When everyone had arrived Lindsay decided that we would actually outside and shoot under natural light. I only had to adjust the ISO on the camera.

1/200s f2 80mm (63mm equivalent) ISO100

Most of the participants stayed with Lindsay and one model. So I was able to take the other one away and capture them. This was also to guarantee them that they would get usable images.

I did have to share the camera so my final shots with Devon were back with my Lumix G9.

1/80s 24mm (48mm equivalent) ISO400

It was a fun afternoon and all of the participants enjoyed themselves. Devon and Mumtaz were excellent models and I arranged other shoots with them later in the year.

2021 Shoots, dance, Workshops

Dance workshop – Showing motion

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4s f10 ISO200

The third lighting set up was designed to create images that showed the movement of the dancers. The technique is both simple to understand and difficult to execute perfectly. Using long exposures, it uses a combination of flash (to freeze action) and a continuous light to allow the shutter to record the movement. Depending on whether you set the flash to fire at the start or the end of the shutter time determines where the image will be sharp.

We used the stage area as it gave us plenty of space for the dances to move we could utilise the dark curtains and it was well away from the other lighting stations so that the images would not be affected by those stripes.

This type of photography is quite tricky for the dancer as they need to a key point on the stage at exactly the right time that the flash fires. Therefore it takes a lot of shots and a good deal of luck to nail the perfect image.

As can be seen below a lot of the early images were not up to par.

2.5s f9 ISO200

With the second dancer I tried a slightly different approach and then relying on the flash firing automatically, I brought in my speed light light and manually fired several times while the shutter was open. this has the result of freezing the action at several points in the capture.

4s f10 ISO200

This type of photography is both fun and frustrating. You never know exactly what you were going to end up with. each image can be a surprise or let down. But it is in that not knowing that the real enjoyment comes.

2021 Shoots, dance, Workshops

Dance workshop – Creating mood

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1/125s f7.1 ISO200

The second lighting set up was designed to create low-key moody portraits of the dancers. It used a single light in a 1.5m octobox that was covered with a grid to ensure that there was control of where the light went.

The background was a dark muslin fabric. Furthermore to enhance the shadows a black reflector was placed opposite the main light. This ensured that they was no bounce light coming on that side.

1/125s f9 ISO200

For my first shot I had the model sit on the floor which further feathered the light hitting them. For the second shot I had another dancer join in order to ensure focus I increased the aperture up to f9.

I was really pleased how these images came out. The key to the shot was really the use of the grid as this really enabled the light to be focused

2021 Shoots, dance, Workshops

Dance workshop – Freezing Action

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1/125s f5.6 ISO200

As I mentioned in a previous post, in July 2021 I travelled down to Invercargill to be the host and assist at a Photographic Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) dance workshop. The workshop was being run by Auckland fashion photographer AaronKey and was held in a large hall that had very limited natural light.

We set up three very different lighting setups and the participants rotated through them. As each station was designed to produce a different look I am going to cover them in three separate posts.

I was expecting to only be helping with the session but we had a participant pull out so I ended up taking part as well so that the rotations worked properly.

Aaron works for sunny and through its connections borrowed a whole lot of lighting that he bought to the venue. It took us nearly 2 hours to set up the three lighting positions.

The first set was on a plane white seamless background and employed a single light shooting into a 7 foot umbrella. This set up was designed the freeze motion with a high key look.

The first dancer tended to move across the stage or rotate in one spot so I was shooting her at f5.6. The second dancer was leaping so I changed to aperture to f8 to give me a better depth of field.

1/100s f8 ISO200

Under natural light shutter speeds of 1/100s or 1/125s would not be fast enough to freeze action. However when you are using studio lights this is not an issue as it is the duration of the flash that freezes the subject. Shutter speed only has an impact on how much of the ambient light comes into the image.

2021 Shoots, Workshops

Astrophotography on Mount Ruapehu

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Pano of nine images. 10s f2 50mm ISO3200 Nikon D600

In June 2021 I travelled up to central North Island at Horopito to be the host on a Photographic Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) Astro workshop. I had shot astro before, so I had a fundamental understanding of how to do it but the opportunity to shoot on Mount Ruapehu was too good to turn down.

I am not going into the technical details of Astra photography here as it is quite complicated and they are plenty of other articles on it but put simply you have to use the widest lines you can have the west aperture and shoot long exposures sufficient to have the stars shout. Most of the really good images that you will see are the result of stacking lots of images together in specialised programs which I do not have.

After a briefing in the afternoon followed by dinner we headed around the mountain to National Park to a car park at start of the one of the tracks on what is referred to as the Tongariro crossing. Astro is weather dependent and unfortunately the gods are not in our favour. They had been cloud coming in through the day and when we arrived at the car park light rain started to fall. Number in the party gave it after that stage but the rest of us get it up and heat it out into the dark. We had literally gone no further than five minutes down the train when the clouds cleared and the stars appeared. That gave us the first opportunity to practice everything.

Astrophotography has an almost magical element to it in that when the photo appears on the back of the camera you can see much more detail than what you are seeing with the naked eye. I think that is what makes it so appealing.

When the clouds rolled in again we continued on up the track to one of the huts on the trail. One of the tricks with astrophotography is that if you want to improve an image then have a foreground element in it. I’m not sure what the people in the hut thought of the group of photographers camping out in the dark.

30s f2.8 14mm ISO3200 Lumix G9

I had taken both my Nikon D600 and Lumix G9 with me. The Nikon. was used for the main images while I had the Lumix set up for timelapse. Unfortunately the clouds limited that and all I got was a two second clip.

Timelapse

Day two of the workshop started after lunch with a session on post processing the images. Then late in the afternoon we headed back around to National Park where we stopped for dinner. We head up to The Château and walked up the track to the Tauranga Falls. unfortunately the weather was still not playing ball and we only managed about 10 minutes at the falls before the cloud packed down once again. At that stage most people gave up and we decided to head back to our accommodation for a little social.

Pano of six images. 20s f2 50mm ISO3200 Nikon D600

When we got there we discovered that the cloud above the area was clear and so we were able to shoot for another hour. The grounds had a lake in the and David (the presenter) had brought with him some steel wall so I final shoot we created our own stars.

6s f8 50mm ISO3200 Nikon D600

It was quite an enjoyable weekend even if the weather did not play for. Most people did manage to either get some usable shots or at least improve on the techniques which ultimately is the goal of any workshop.

2021 Shoots, cosplay, Location Shoots, Workshops

Behind the Lens: Shooting Chris as Stigpool

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I met Chris at the very first Wellington Cosplay Photofest where he came in an stormtrooper outfit from Star Wars. You can read about that shoot here.

In May 2021 I organised a location shoot for my camera club at the World War 2 gun emplacements at Fort Balance on the Miramar Peninsula. I reached out to Chris and he came along in his own creation Stigpool. This is a combination of the Stig character from the Top Gear television series and Deadpool.

Chris had a fully kitted car to go along with his character so we started at the roadside with some shots there. These were all shot under natural light 1/200s at f8.

Then we moved up into the bunkers in shoot at several locations initially outside.

We then moved inside the complex and I positioned Chris and let him with a speed light in a small soft box on a light stand to the side. Positioning of this light was very important to avoid reflection within his visor. For the inside shots the settings were 1/125s f7.1 ISO 200.

The words on the floor were a complete coincidence but they worked in so well with the character.

For the final shot I had Chris climbing through a hole in the wall. The main light was again positioned to the side with a small speedlight in the room behind him to provide separation.

Shooting a character in a full face helmet is quite tricky as you cannot rely on the eye detect that modern mirrorless cameras. Fortunately my Lumix G9 switches to head and body detection when it cannot lock onto the eye.

It was a fun day and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.

2021 Shoots, Events, Workshops

Shooting sparks

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One of the benefits that comes with belonging to a camera club is that occasionally you get given the opportunity to shoot somewhere where you would not normally be able to.

At the 2021 Photographic Society of New Zealand National Convention in Christchurch one of the offsite options was entitled industrial photography. We were taken to a fabrication factory that was closed for the day but where a number of staff had come in to use the tools that they do every day for us to photograph the sparks that they generate.

All that was asked in return was some images that they could use in their marketing and promotion. (the final image on this page is the one that presented to them).

In many of these shots they were deliberately making more sparks than would happen in normal use. Obviously having pieces of molten metal flying around is potentially dangerous so we will given plenty of advice of where to stand and importantly not to stand.

We were also told to focus the camera without looking through the lens as some of the bright light particularly with the welding torches could damage your eyes.

This was a perfect opportunity to try long exposure to capture the sparks and flight. The images were captured on a tripod at 1/10s at f16.

I did want to capture one particular image for the set I was submitting so I took long light stand and a Lume cube so that I could light up the worker. The Lume cube is pretty indestructible so I knew that it could handle the situation.

The final image of the welder was actually a composite of three images put together so that we could maximise the effect of the sparks.

Models, Workshops

Che at fort balance

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Back before the world went crazy with Covid-19, I joined up with members of Hutt Camera Club for a Saturday field trip to Fort Balance on the Miramar Peninsula.

Fort Balance is one of a number of gun emplacements scattered around the entrance to the harbour, and unlike Palmer Head still has a lot of graffiti. I had seem in used in lots of shoots but never got there myself. It was built in 1886 as a result of fears that the Russians would invade.

Figuring that there would be areas inside the complex I packed my Godox speed light and strobe. This meant that I could shoot by myself rather than having others shooting over my shoulder.

The trip organiser also brought along Che who is one of her regular models along with quite a collection of dresses.

When we arrived at the location I dropped the gear and spent a good ten minutes looking around before even picking up the camera. This time let me sort out the types of shots I was looking for. I also spotted two areas that I thought had good possibilities.

This shot totally relied on the strobes as this room was in complete darkness.

One was a stair case that had walls on both sides covered with graffiti. I had my wide angle lens with me and I used the distortion it created to use the walls as wings.

The second was a brightly painted wall that matched the colour of the second dress Che was wearing.

Che is only 14 and therefore does occasional slip into goofy behaviour. I thought that we could capture that with the help of one of the largest pieces of art on the walls. The result is the image below


Overall it was a pleasant outing with good company. I plan on going back to Fort Balance at some stage in the future.

Concept Images, Workshops

Breaking free

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double-2 Over the weekend I attended the Central Regional Conference of the Photographic Society of New Zealand (PSNZ). While there were a number of speakers on offer, the one that I most wanted to hear from was Esther Bunning, who is an extremely talented photographer based in Greytown in the Wairarapa. Esther is a portrait specialist, and Nikon Ambassador, known for her dreamy style of shooting.

double-6 double-5 double-4 double-3In addition to speaking Esther also ran a workshop where she showed various techniques to achieve amazing looks in camera, rather than relying on photoshop. These included the use of multiple exposures, slow shutter speeds as well as placing objects between the camera and subject.

double-8 double-1

We were lucky to have four dancers from a local ballet school as our models and I got to try several of the approaches as well as having play with her Lenbaby Composer. That was quite fun although manual focus and a moving subject can be tricky. double-9double-10Esther stated that this sort of shooting was very free form as you really didn’t know what the end result would be like until you had the shots. I found that it was quite liberating to simply go with the flow and not have to worry what was being shot.

Lighting, Models, Workshops

Natural Light Session at Palmer Head

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A couple of weeks ago we had a speaker at the Hutt Camera Club, who blew eveyne away with his portraits that were taken with the bare minimum amount of gear. He had a series of low key images that were actually taken using only natural light.

Kat-11Now generally you associate low light low key images with those shot in studio, where you can control the light, but these were all shot using natural light. He mentioned that they had been shot at one of my favourite locations Palmer Head.

I thought this was a great opportunity to try something new and decided to turn it intp a workshop inviting other members of Hutt Camera club to tag along.

Kat agreed to be one model and my daughter Samantha as the other. I had been approached by a new makeup artist Wendy who wanted to add to her portfolio, so we went with a glamour look on Kat and a simple look on Samantha.

Kat-15As it typical at this time of year the sky was grey and the wind quite strong, but that did not affect us much as we were shooting inside. We based ourselves in the most sheltered location so that Wendy could work her magic.

The trick to achieving the look is to place the model by a window, then doing a meter reading of the brightest element of the highlight and then dialling in 2 stops of exposure compensation.

Samantha-2Once people has mastered that technique we then moved to another part of the structure that had larger openings and therefore more light. Here the group practises more high key images.

Despite the conditions everyone seemed to have fun.PHWS-1