Week 2 of my new feature here on the blog where I post an image and talk through how it was made. Quite a simple one this week, with the main technique being keeping still!
This was taken at Santa Pod during a display by the UKFMX freestyle motocross team. I was inside the safety fencing and resting the camera on one of the big concrete blocks as I didn’t have a tripod with me. I hand my left hand wedged under the barrel of the lens to keep it propped at the right angle.
I flipped the camera into manual mode and set my exposure based upon a couple of test shots. Focusing was also set to manual so the lens didn’t hunt for focus as the bike moved across the frame. This was taken on a Canon 5D MkII on high speed continuous drive which is 3.9 frames per second – perfect in this case as it gave nice even spacing of the bike with no over-lapping.
That made post production a lot easier. Simply a case of layering all the images in Photoshop and adding a layer mask to all but the bottom layer to hide everything but the bike in each image.
Anyone aspiring to be a successful photographer needs to invest 16 minutes of their life and watch this video shot at Gulf Photo Plus. Then rewind and watch it again.
Welcome to Photo Of The Week! This is a new idea I am trying out so I’d really like to hear your feedback. The plan is to post an image every Tuesday afternoon with a little bit of text about how it was shot.
Let’s start off with this image of Georgia. It was shot in a multi-storey car park in Birmingham – I am all about the glamourous locations! The blobs in the background are actually traffic lights and a few lamp posts on a junction about a mile away.
I shot this with a 70-200mm f4 lens, zoomed to 200mm (to compress the background and bring the lights as close as possible) and wide open at f4 (to blur them into nice large blobs of colour). If you check the EXIF data, you’ll see I was a quite a high ISO at 1/100th of a second. I needed to give the traffic lights in the background time to burn in but shooting hand held at 200mm stopped me going below 1/100th for my shutter speed. This meant I had to drive the ISO up to 1250. Luckily my Elinchrom Quadra packs can be adjusted down as low as 25 watt seconds and the 70cm Deep Octa softbox it was in (off to camera right) was soaking up about another stop of light, leaving Georgia perfectly exposed.
When everything goes exactly to plan it’s easy to get the shot, but what if your ducks aren’t in the same pond, let alone in a row? That’s when you’ve got to work harder to pull something out of the bag. It tests your mettle and pushes your ability to make the best of what you have to work with.
I came up against this sort of situation again recently at Santa Pod. The Fast Show is the first show of the modified season in the UK and being March, the weather can be is bit hit or miss. In this case, it missed. In the first few hours we had rain, then sleet and finally some snow – none of which is conducive to running cars down a drag strip!
Trying to dry the track as the sleet comes down
But… everyone was there and trying to make the best of it, including one of my clients who now sponsor a lane on the strip and needed some publicity photos. The Performance Direct girls Faye and Hayley were brave enough to come out from under cover so it was time to get planning. Here’s the thought process:
A closed drag strip is bad for all the people wanting to see how fast their daily driver can do a 1/4 mile but good for me as it means I can use the freshly resurfaced start line as my location. The wet surface will also give a nice reflection of the girls red wellies.
With my 70-200mm racked out to 200mm I can compress the scene and bring the famous Santa Pod sign closer.
The sky is a very flat, dull grey so to get some interest in the clouds I will under expose by 2 stops.
Underexposing will mean Faye and Hayley are dark, so I need a flash. It’ll make the red and white outfits pop nicely against the grey background too.
It’s pouring with rain so I’m using one of my old Nikon SB24’s. I’m not risking one of my Quadras.
I’ve got limited power with the flash so I’m going to have to crank it quite high and use it bare. Too windy for a softbox anyway.
I’ll fly it on a boom as I need to get quite a way back at 200mm and I don’t want to have to Photoshop the stand out in post.
A quick check with the light meter tells me im at f/11 at 1/160th. Test shot of the back of my hand to double check.
Time to get the girls on “set”!
Finessing the pose: The ancient art of Brolly Tweaking
It was wet, windy and cold so I had to work fast but with everything thought through and dialed in while they were in the warmth of the media centre I could concentrate on getting a good pose and composition and be done in a few minutes.
Here’s the final set up. Shot from a low angle, zoomed to 200mm, flash high, to camera left, client looking on and Fay and Hayley doing what they do best.
The final set up
And here’s the resulting image, used by Performance Direct across their various channels. Big thanks to Faye & Hayley, Matt at PD, Suze at Santa Pod for her hospitality and Darren for the behind the scenes shots.
No this isn’t a post about financial planning but it might just save you a few hundred quid!
I don’t know how or when I developed this habit, but every time I drop something, I instinctively stick my foot out to come between it and the floor. I’ve heard this called the Barman’s Catch and the principle is when you drop something, you interrupt the fall with your foot just above ground level, effectively meaning the dropped item stops, then just rolls off your foot and falls the last few inches. Far preferable to a full 4 foot plummet!
It’s a good habit to get into as I am far happier to have had a few bruised shins than a hefty repair bill!
I love photography. I care about the the craft and I appreciate those that came before me and pushed the art form forwards. That’s why I get annoyed by some of the things I see and read online.
Thou shalt not buy a piece of gear because a celebrity photographer (being paid by the manufacturer) tells you to.
Thou shalt not buy into any “programs” or “systems” that promise to make you rich and successful. They make the people behind them rich and successful.
Thou shalt not waste time watermarking images no-one would ever steal and you have no intention of licensing. Just enjoy sharing.
Thou shalt not be afraid to ask a question because you think you’ll look foolish in the eyes of your peers. They might not know either.
Thou shalt not use any Photoshop plugin/action/filter at 100%. Photoshop is not a blunt instrument.
Thou shalt not post poor photographs of every media pass you get to impress people. Impress them with the images you take whilst your are there.
Thou shalt not share any of those ridiculous “this is what your are really paying for” memes on Facebook. It just makes you, and the rest of the photography profession, look whiney and amateurish.
Thou shalt not buy any piece of gear or software without knowing exactly what it will do for your photography or business.
Thou shalt not think you know everything. You don’t and you never will.
Thou shalt not buy anything with the word Fong stamped on it.
Thou shalt not believe that gear has anything to do with other photographers creating better photographs than you.
Thou shalt not say to yourself “That’ll do” or “I’ll fix that later in Photoshop”.
Thou shalt not share your entire memory card after an event or shoot.
Thou shalt not share “unedited” photos on Facebook as if it’s some sort of badge of honour. Especially when they are under exposed and on a dirty length of seamless.
Thou shalt not take a backpack stuffed with every bit of gear you own to a trade show.
You might not agree with all of these or you might have some gems I have missed. If so, hit the comments below.
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