I'm Mad at the Fat Man
He sees me when I'm sleeping!? How creepy is that? And you say people are okay with him breaking and entering just because he leaves presents? This is unaccepta...
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He sees me when I'm sleeping!? How creepy is that? And you say people are okay with him breaking and entering just because he leaves presents? This is unacceptable…
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Aug, 2013Views
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Staff Winter Selection 2015
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo a couple weeks before my son's first Christmas as he sat in his highchair at the kitchen table. I was taking a course on photographic lighting to brush up on my skills. When I was in college I was not a fan of being cooped up in a studio and preferred to make the best of whatever lighting situation I was presented with (I was studying to be a *photojournalist* after all.) Fast forward to a decade or so later and digital cameras have become so much more affordable and accessible that everybody is a "natural light, photojournalistic style shooter," I decided that it was worth it to swallow my (ill-informed) ego and learn how to use built light.Time
Our instructor, Bill Lusk (http://www.billlusk.com), wanted us to use a loose theme for all of our work so, being a stay at home dad, I chose to use children (more specifically, my son) because that was my most readily available subject. For this particular assignment, we were supposed to include a light source in the photo and since it was early December, Christmas tree lights seemed like an obvious choice. Our living room and kitchen open into each other with light spilling in from outside on both sides and unfortunately, all of the hours during which my son was awake were during the day (and now that I think about, that's actually pretty fortunate.) Anyway, I ended up choosing mid-morning when the light produced by position of the sun in relation to the windows was at its dimmest and just adjusting my exposure value down to make the scene appear darker than it actually was.Lighting
Originally, I had envisioned the tree lights providing enough glow for a subtle rim light but they were nowhere near bright enough. Fortunately, though, there was enough light coming from the living room window was just enough to separate the head and the tree. My key light was a 30 watt incandescent bulb in a $15 aluminum reflector clamp that was clipped to a spare tripod; I put foil around the bowl of the reflector so that I could direct the light. The light was approximately 2' from my son. I set up and began shooting as he was eating his snack and this particular shot came about 10 minutes in just after he finished his crackers. He was not interested in further modeling.Equipment
I handheld a Nikon D3s with a 28-70mm f/2.8 lens. That is my favorite lens/body combination out of everything that I have ever owned or shot with. I love that lens; I got it in 2000 and I've used it with 2 film cameras and 3 DSLRs and it's still going strong. Technically, I guess I used a tripod but it was just something to clip the aluminum reflector to.Inspiration
I knew that I wanted the background to be dark except for the lights on the christmas tree (due to circumstances, I was unable to get the background to appear as dark as I wanted but it's not as distracting as I was afraid it would be.) I also wanted the light on his face to be soft and warm as if it was emanating from a fireplace. Every Christmas as I was a kid, we would turn off everything except for the christmas tree and sing carols. I always wished that we had a fireplace so that is the type of scene I wanted to portray. His odd expression was totally unplanned and was purely quick reflexes and, as in with much of photography, great luck.Editing
I really only made a few small contrast and exposure adjustments in Lightroom. This photo doesn't look significantly different than it did straight out of the camera.In my camera bag
I *love* my Nikon D3s outfitted with my Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 lens; that's my default setup for 85% of my shooting time so I typically just store it that way too. The other pieces of kit that I always keep in my bag are an SB-900 flash, a Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 lens, a Nikon 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye lens, a Circular Polarizer filter, fully charged spare batteries, two or three lens/eyeglass cleaning clothes and one of the most useful bits in my bag: a roll of 1" gaffer's tapeFeedback
One of my college professors gave us some great advice specifically for basketball photography but I think it applies to all photographic subjects. Basically, he said shots of players dunking the ball can be very impressive, if you go to the game too focused on getting those shots (which may or may not even happen) then you are likely to miss even better photos of action on the floor between the players. That really resonated with me, in that I don't want to miss all of the amazing shots in front of me because they are not exactly what I pictured in my head. That is not to say that I don't try to pre-visualize anything, I just don't want to get blinders because I am too married to a specific idea. Always plan out your shots but leave enough room for the unexpected and be ready to shoot; timing is key with all photography.
