Maine is beautiful, but winters can be a bit…tiresome. Spring in Maine usually just means heavier and wetter snow. Of course, that makes this season a perfect time to stay in the studio and play with light a bit. The following images are just a few I really like from a recent shoot with local model Ivett Toth (styling and makeup by Brianna Rothman). Ivett was amazing to work with and I love the ethereal look to her final images.
Photo gear and marketing hype go hand in hand. But there are just a couple of factors that determine which shape of modifier I’ll choose for a shoot. Number one is the effect of the catchlight in my subject’s eyes. I prefer a round catchlight—maybe just a subconscious preference for a light source shaped like the sun. If I were simulating an open doorway or the light from a window, a softbox would be my choice instead.
There are a bunch of other considerations when choosing a modifier that are partly determined by the shape of the modifier but also by the material and construction of the modifier itself. I may decide I want directional lighting, with harsh, defined areas of light and shadow. Or, I may opt for a soft, diffuse, enveloping quality of light that wraps around my subject. This has less to do with the shape of the modifier than by the size of the modifier relative to the subject (larger=softer light).
For me, the shape only becomes a deciding factor when I want to control the light precisely and thus I might use a square softbox rather than an umbrella because I want the light to have a more defined fall-off or edge.
You can find many descriptions elsewhere of the effects of different light modifiers, but I like this resource from light manufacturer Paul C. Buff that clearly shows the effects of various different light mods.
Back in the film days, a light meter was the most ubiquitous piece of equipment found in the bag of any respectable photographer. For years I carried a Gossen Luna Star Pro, which measured ambient and strobe light as well. It served me faithfully until finally, a duct-tape-covered horror with parts hastily soldered back together, it gave up the ghost.
I never replaced it.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve used (or really needed to use) a light meter. Plenty of professionals use them still—in particular in situations where proper exposure is critical, such as studio and product shoots. There are times when having one would make my life easier, perhaps…..But I’ll admit it: I don’t use hand-held light meters. The closest I get is using the built-in meter in my DSLR camera. It serves me well as a starting point when measuring light in reflected light situations.
The built-in meter of a DSLR camera does the best job when the subject is uniformly lit and comprised of tones with a medium reflective value. But let’s be honest—how often is that the case? More likely, you’re photographing someone in a dark coat in the snow, or someone in a white T-shirt with dark woods or a shadowy doorway behind them. These are situations that will seriously fool with your built-in sensor and give incorrect exposure readings.
That’s why so many photographers use a gray card to determine exposure. A gray card is nothing more than a piece of fabric or cardboard that has a gray surface on one side and usually a white surface on the other. The gray side reflects 18% of the light that hits it. Your camera’s meter is calibrated to view a gray card as a neutral (middle) tone, halfway been white and black. Thus if you take a meter reading while pointing your camera at a gray card, you’ll get a reading that you can then apply to your real subject under the same lighting conditions. Next time you’re shooting a person standing in the middle of a snowy field, whip out your gray card, point your lens at the card (filling the frame with the card) and take a reading. Then manually set your camera to match those same settings, recompose your shot with your actual subject, and fire away. You may not get a perfect exposure, but you’ll be close in most situations.
What do you do if you don’t have a gray card, or if you’re in the middle of a location where it’s difficult to use one? Easy. That’s when I use my tried-and-true photojournalist trick: I stick out my hand, palm upturned and fingers together, and use that as my gray card. The skin on your hand isn’t gray, but it will provide a reading close to the proper exposure. I’ve found that opening up my exposure by a half or full stop produces great results.
A few months ago I had the fun duty of shooting a series of images for an ad campaign for the Portland Pirates hockey club. The campaign, “A Pirate’s Life for Me”, features former Pirates players and current junior Pirates in split-view, in street clothes and in their hockey gear, game faces on. I worked with the crew at Pulp & Wire to create the images, which I photographed in my downtown Portland photo studio. I love how completely the demeanor and look of each player changed so dramatically once the pads and helmets went on. I asked Pirates CEO and former player Brad Church, bottom, to show his game face during the session and he clearly had no problems doing that. I’m just glad I wasn’t a player on the opposing team.
I’ve worked with the fine folks at BNN, a full-service accounting firm based in Portland, ME, for a few years now. In honor of their 20th anniversary, they just relaunched their refreshed website look this week with a new logo and a few of the environmental portraits we’ve done featuring their principals within their beautiful downtown Portland office space. They wanted to emphasize the personal, human component of their services, and I think the new web design and images work well to do that.
I’m proud to announce the dates for my first-ever Main(e) Light Workshops . This workshop series is focused on an area that many photographers struggle with: using electronic flash on location. It’s my attempt to cut through the hype around specific gear and to teach the skills that photographers can put to immediate use when creating portfolio work or meeting a deadline for a paying client. It’s practical, it’s hands-on and it’s set up to allow (encourage) tangential topics—how best to approach assignments for clients, how to organize and optimize your workflow, etc.— as they come up in relation to the work. But let’s not kid ourselves: the work is first and foremost.
The first workshop, Speedlight Bootcamp, is built around the off-camera flashes that today can cost as much as a decent studio head. The second is on location (in a very cool Maine setting) and combines a variety of studio and off-camera flashes with ambient (mostly sun) light to create spectacular effects. For that one, we’ll roll with the weather and take a studied, and at times seat-of-the-pants approach to lighting to produce amazing images.
The Main(e) Light Workshop has been in the works for a year or more. In a way, I’ve been preparing for it my whole career. I learned from a great many others in my field when I started out in journalism. From Tim Rogers to Paul O’Neill to Brad Armstrong (to many others), I’ve learned about being patient, how to really connect with people and how to read light. This workshop is my chance to help others succeed and grow in much the same way. I’ve taught other seminars over the years, but never an intensive set of workshops quite like the Main(e) Light Workshop. My plan is for each photographer to leave with the tools they need to create interesting portraits with the gear they can afford. It may take years to master electronic light, but this workshop will give anyone a big boost in the right direction.
So please check out the lineup. Tell me what you think, ask me questions. And if you sign up, welcome. It’s going to be a great ride.
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Note: the above images are mostly outtakes from my time embedded with troops from the 737th Transportation Company from January-March 2004. All images © Yakima Herald-Republic.
CORRECTION: I mentioned “bulletproof” vests in my article. The troops at the time had fragmentary resistant vests, later upgraded to the type of vest I wore–a ballistic vest with ceramic plates in the front and back. Also, a soldier with the 737th pointed out that he had never heard a mortar ‘whistle’. While the sound is clear in my memory, I’d have to describe it more accurately as a loud hissing noise, increasing in intensity to a roar. In any case, terrifying.
Like many of my journalist friends I’ve followed with fascination the controversy over NBC anchor Brian Williams’ misrepresentation of his role during an incident in Iraq in 2003. As someone who spent 16 years as a photojournalist and photo editor, I’m particularly sensitive to the topic. Just a few months after Williams’ incident, I was also an embedded journalist, living with and reporting on troops in Kuwait and Iraq.
Way back in 2011 I launched Inspire Portland, a project showcasing (through portraits and interviews) inspiring and interesting people who choose to call Portland, ME home. I planned it to last a year and so I closed it down in 2012–temporarily glad to move on to other things but sad to see it go. When you get down to it, Inspire was a killer way to meet and spend time with all sorts of interesting people that I found fascinating. The photos and the website? Like icing on the cake.
Fast forward to 2014, just a short year ago now. I had been getting occasional emails from people suggesting those they felt would make a good profile. In my travels around Maine I realized that there were many more interesting people all over the state that I’d like to meet. Inspire Maine was born.
This week I relaunched the project, albeit with a slightly different name. My first victim is John Lee Dumas, who runs the crazy-popular EntrepreneurOnFire podcast and who, according to his website, generated income in November of $307,504.50. Dollars. I hate to be a numbers guy, but that’s pretty astounding. Even more incredible is that he has more than 800 podcast episodes to date, broadcasting seven days a week. Not bad for a commercial broker from Portland.
I’ll be posting other episodes on Inspire on a semi-regular schedule from here on out–most with a behind-the-scenes story to go with them here on this blog. As fun as these shoots are to do, there’s always a bunch of stuff that happens during the shoot (much of it unanticipated) that you don’t see. Take John’s shoot, last January. We’d intended to take his photo months later but John ended up coming to Maine for a short trip during the coldest time of year. Our initial idea was to photograph John in a typical Maine coast setting, but with a twist: we wanted to try a complicated procedure with steel wool, sparklers and flame. I mean, EntrepreneurOnFire. What could go wrong? We didn’t have time to practice much beforehand, and then we ended up outside in 10 degrees with the temperature falling fast. Lights, steel wool and my brain do funny things in such situations. The result was not exactly a great image (saving this technique for another time) and John looks….well, freezing. My assistant, Charlie, still points out that he has a burn hole through one of his jackets as a result. We definitely suffered, but sometimes things don’t come up like you planned. At least we have a new story to tell…..
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I’m a bit of an information-gatherer: equal parts useful data and interesting trivia, with a dash of inspiration. It’s easy to get distracted on the web that I like having my handful of go-to sources of information.
This changes a lot, as one might imagine. I tend to like websites that offer unique content, or organize content in such a way that it makes it more useful or easier to get to. Bonus for strong and defined points of view.
Right now, here are some of the sites I got to daily for my never-ending quest to understand the worlds I inhabit.
Josh Linkner’s blog – Author, entrepreneur
Altucher Confidential – The blog of entrepreneur and investor James Altucher. I love that James questions many of the assumptions I (and we) take for granted. Like, should you spend money on a home? Is the expense of a college education actually worth it? Worth a read.
Seth Godin’s blog – Short but thoughtful insights delivered daily.
The Daily Beast – The Cheat Sheet is a quick rundown on the day’s top stories.
Vox – When you want to dive deep and explore analysis of current events.
Quora – Always entertaining and often informative. The tagline says it all: Your Best Source for Knowledge. I spend way too much time on this network, but I always seem to get more value than I end up putting in. Gotta work on that.
Strictly Business blog – This is an aggregator of sorts, full of ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) member blogs along with original content. It helps me greatly to hear the stories of others deep in the professional photography trenches with me. It’s not coincidental that this is the only photo-related source of information listed here; at that, Strictly Business has more to do with the business nitty-gritty of photography than it does about photo technique.
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It’s surprising to realize just how many amazing, world-class companies we have in Maine that fly under the radar. Maine Standards Company is one of those. Based in Southern Maine, Maine Standards develops and provides kits for the precise testing and calibration of medical diagnostic equipment. They’re doing cutting-edge stuff using some pretty cool tools. My job was to spend the day photographing their lab, testing kits and analyzers for use in trade show materials. It was a jam-packed day of setting up and breaking down gear, gelling lights and blocking light from reflecting everywhere in those shiny lab surfaces. I love, love this stuff! Check out some of our results.
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