on Overcoming the Creative Block, Patience and Portrait #38

It has been awhile...

I am back from almost three months away from blogging. My day job got a lion's share of my time and sapped all the enthusiasm away from me. There were times when I found myself lost and devoid of creativity. Even taking photos became a chore of sorts.

Getting over the creative block meant taking time away and doing other things. I rescued my guitar from the back of the closet, bought a pen and a sketch pad, and did some experimenting in the kitchen. Focusing on other things helped me ease myself back into doing what I love to do. I am sure a lot of the people I know who share this hobby with me have their own stories to tell about how they fell out and back in love with photography.

The first thing I did when I felt I got my mojo back was to finish editing a set done two months ago for my friend's makeup portfolio. Paulyn invited me to shoot Hanna, who was on vacation in the country, for her blog. It was such a blast working with the two of them. Paulyn did a splendid job with the makeup and Hanna was very easy to work with. I'm glad I took this shoot even on short notice since this will probably be my only chance to get to have Hanna as my model.

I would probably avoid using my macro lens the next time I shoot portraits in a studio(ish) environment next time. Post processing is such a pain when using the macro lens; too many unwanted fine detail. It took me hours to finish cleaning things up.

It took a while for me to publish the set but in the end it was worth it. One thing I learned during this shoot is that I should always be patient and not be in a hurry when I am shooting or retouching. Patience is not a part of my vocabulary but I learned that you cannot rush things when you seek aesthetic satisfaction. Creativity will come in waves. Sometimes it consumes you until you run out of energy and other times it dries up even when you desperately need it. What matters is that know when you have it and that you make the most out of it when it's there.

Portrait #38: Johanna

Well, there you have it. Another set published and another portrait to add to my project. I will hopefully write another blog in the next couple of days. 

PS: A big thanks to Paulyn Dy for always trusting me to shoot her portfolio and to Hanna for being an awesome model!

PPS: Hanna's portrait just went popular in 500px.com an hour after I uploaded it. Oh happy day!

on Shooting Orb Weavers

I often shoot macro during the daytime in shaded places where I often find Jumping Spiders and winged insects. But there are times that I go out at dusk to find orb weavers. It is very interesting to shoot orb weavers at dusk while they build their webs. These are busy like critters who are masters at creating their masterpiece webs.

Most of the orb weavers I find near our house are found in the tall grass or shrubs. They usually build webs in between two branches or two plants. Finding them is easier that finding those fast moving or well camouflaged jumpers. Bringing a flashlight will help in locating webs. A fresh web is usually a good sign of spiders. If you do not see them in the center, they are lurking on the sides in leaves. Tapping the web lightly will also stir them from their hiding places.

Here are two photos of orb weavers I found during the Holy Week. I had some lucky shots as it was really dark when I found them and the wind did not help either. These were shot using a single strobe mounted on-cam with an omni-bounce diffuser.

I would like to shoot more of these spiders. If only the grounds keeper would leave the grass tall in front of our house, I'd be having a field day. But sadly, they trim it from time to time, which destroys the habitat. I hope to find more of these before summer ends.

on Return to Macro

And so I came back to the genre that interests me the most.

On a gloomy sunday, I went about seeking jumping spiders. My usual shooting areas were either wet from the rain the previous night or flattened by my neighbors to make parking areas. It was a bummer but then again, the intrepid soul in me went seeking new grounds to shoot. And by doing so, I found new critters too. For this shoot, I used a stacked setup with my 90mm macro and a reversed 50mm. The reproduction ratio of my setup is about 2:1.Shot with one on-cam flash with an omnibounce diffuser.

I got about 10 keepers and here are the 3 best photos from that session.

Hover Fly (Baccha Clavata)

Weaver Ant (Oecophylla Smaragdina)

Jumping Spider (Salticidae)

I spent around two hours shooting near our house. I discovered some new sites that clearly have potential as my macro field. I'm happy that I found the time to go back to shooting macro photography. There is that certain satisfaction in shooting what you love best. And time flies when you are enjoying what you do.

on Babies and High Key Strobist

I try to make the most out of every shooting assignment I get. Photography is a never ending learning process for me. No two shoots are ever alike so you have to really think and adapt to whatever is thrown at you. 

So, I was asked to do a studio-ish high key setup and shoot a few frames with Mima Tan of Mimathology. She's a highschool batchmate and a mom who turned her passion for photography and love for kids into a professional service. She doesn't do a lot of strobe work so I was called in to set it up for her because the client wanted the white high key studio look. As for me, I have a lot of experience with setting up lights but no experience whatsoever with shooting babies.

I used two huge rectangular softboxes for my key and fill lights up front and one bare flash to light up my background. And we used two silk sheets for the backdrop. Its not really white, more like cream colored.

We had to shoot pretty low and had some problems with the baby crawling away from the strobes. I managed to get a few shots of before we had to call it a day since the baby was not in the mood anymore.

It was a good first experience for me to shoot babies. I learned how patient one has to be when shooting and the creative ways to get the baby's attention. I don't think I'll start accepting baby pictorials any time soon but I would love to learn more about the craft. It is very challenging and I'd probably need a few more under my belt before I'd have the confidence to shoot on my own. Shooting portraits of adults is way easier than shooting babies. I also want to try shooting outdoors next time.

PS: Uber thanks to Mima for the opportunity to shoot and learn. And to Brian and Aimee.

on Ballerinas and Baby Powder

There are times I wish I had my own studio or just some place where I could play around with strobes and different lighting setups.

The crew organized a shoot with ballerinas and power. The emphasis was on motion and we had the powder to accentuate the motion (and break the monotony). It was a good shoot but too bad I had barely sixty frames since we had limited time and around five photographers. There were three models and I didn't get to shoot the last one. But I am glad I had two keepers from the simple setup that we had. It was also a good test for the two large softboxes I bought during the Christmas season.

The main challenge while shooting was keeping the model in the short black backdrop and also in focus. What I did was prefocus on the final position where the model would jump, setup the strobes to point in that direction and then set my camera to manual focus. It would have been easier with a tripod but I forgot to bring one. It was also challenging to time the shutter press correctly with the jump or just after the powder was thrown. It took some attempts before I got the timing right with each model. Good thing the models were easy to work with. I just wish I had more time to shoot this concept.

I learned things from this shoot especially on how to setup motion shots with fixed strobes. And I really did enjoy this even with the limited time. I promise to reshoot this concept as soon as possible.

PS: Thanks to Sarah and the Crew for the shoot. And also a big thank you to LJ, Chrizza and Shannon for being really game models.

on Headshots and Niches

In my last blog I promised to feature the last model for our "not-so-recent" studio shoot. I saw a lot of keepers from the other model since I had a lot of shooting time. In this set though, I had to limit my shooting time to give the other guys a chance to shoot.

The set features Myla, who I had the pleasure of shooting before also in a similar studio setup. The only difference is that the last time we had strobes and now we have continuous lights. I am not really a fan of continuous lights and prefer working with strobes. But continuous lighting does have its benefits especially when shooting in a group. As a preference, I like using strobes or shooting outdoors in natural light.

 

 

 

Anyways, I have been watching a lot of Peter Hurley videos in recent days, and I have come to that realization that I like doing headshots. This set in particular is a good example. I had a lot of whole or half body shots but I seem to gravitate towards headshots a lot more. I am starting to think I have found my niche in the field of portraiture. And with this direction, I think my next project will be setting up a garage studio or something of that sort.

Wish me luck...

on Work and Play

The problem with work is that it interferes with your hobby. I still have some photos from my September shoot that I need to post process but I do not have the luxury of time to do so. I had a hell of a week and now I realized I haven't even touched my camera since my last shoot.

Now that I have some breathing room, I am posting two more images from my last shoot.

The first is from the main model Kitty. I don't usually take this kind of upward angle shot that fills the frame. I like a bit of negative space but this one turned out nicely with the rembrant-ish lighting setup.

The second photo is from a light setup test that turned out quite nicely with Kate who was the stylist, makeup artist and talent manager for that shoot. Having the soft box so close to the model really does produce good results. This was done with a two light setup with the soft box to the right of the model and another strobe to light up the background a bit.

There are quite a number of keepers from this shoot that I'd like to publish in the coming weeks granting that I have the time to edit them. I have yet to start on the set with the second model of this shoot. But this weekend, I promise to take my camera out for a walk first because it is that time of year again that photographer from all over the world would be out on the streets for the annual Scott Kelby World Wide Photowalk. I hope I get some keepers this weekend for the contest and for content in this blog as well.

Wish me luck.

on One Light and Portrait #34

When dealing with indoor portrait shoots, I usually only need one light source. And the safest place for me to set it up is at a 45-degree angle to the side of a model and at eye level. This technique is something I learned some time ago by watching tutorial videos from the master of One Light Photography, Zack Arias. I really like the setup because it is so simple and it almost always works for portraits.

Two weeks ago, I got to use it again because while setting up I found out that we didn't have a light stand for the big studio light or the small strobe that we had. We improvised by letting the model sit on the floor while we set the light on a chair. It was technically not a one light setup but only one light was used to illuminate the model while a small strobe (used as an optical trigger for the studio light) was bounced against the wall but I think it didn't have much effect on the portrait. I added a bit of motion to the photo to make it a little better.

The second was a split light setup which was more to the side of the model to illuminate just one half of the face. I placed the small strobe behind the model to serve as rim light. I like this setup too because it adds quite a bit of drama to an otherwise plain portrait.

And of course there should always be one black and white photo.

I prefer this simple light setup because when I look at my portraits there are fewer distractions from introducing too many lights to the photo. I don't have to balance the lights or use up an entire hour just to figure out what I want to do and where to place the strobes. And as with any type of photography I do: the simpler it is to setup, the more time I can spend shooting.

And after all, going back to basics is always a good thing.

Portrait #34: Kitty

PS: Special thanks to Kate who did the makeup and styling and Richard Amora of A Photographs for lending us the studio. And to the crew as always for being there for the shoot.

PPS: This is the the first set where I used only the Nikkor AF 50mm 1.8D.

on Rain Drops and Lens Flares (Portraits #26 and #27)

I will shoot portraits at any given time as long as I have strobes; and in any weather condition as long as my models can stand it.

This particular shoot happened three weeks ago in the middle of a rubber plantation and while it was rainy. One good thing was that the overcast wasn't as bad so we still had lots of ambient light. And I had this idea of using the strobes as rim light so that the rain drops would be illuminated. Thankfully it worked.

Instant bokeh raindrops!

 

Too bad the rain didn't last the entire first set of Aubrey. When the second model, Angela, came out, there wasn't a single drop of rain; and so I settled for lens flares. Having flares is easy when you have large aperture lenses. Just place the strobes in the frame and you get flares.

 

And just to note, this isn't the first time I had a shoot with either Aubrey or Angela. But this is the first time I had output. The other shoots are buried somewhere in my archives. I'll visit those soon. It was a pleasure doing a shoot with them as they were really professional during shoots. I hope to publish some more shots from this shoot because there are other keepers that I need to look at.

Before I forget, I also have their portraits for my project.

Portrait #26: Aubrey

 

Portrait #27: Angela

 

PS: As always, thank you Kaye Garino for the MUA and the Photobombers for the shoot.

on Portrait #24 in High Key Mono

"One very important difference between color and monochromatic photography is this: in black and white you suggest; in color you state. Much can be implied by suggestion, but statement demands certainty… absolute certainty." -- Paul Outerbridge

Most of my friends say I shoot better in black and white. I don't really intend to shoot everything in black and white but it admittedly does makes my photos more interesting. I have found that I tend to process my ambient light shots in color and my strobist shots in black and white. It probably has something to do with my preference in shooting. I tend to find it easier to shoot in ambient light than with strobes. Although I get more flexiblity when I control the light, I find it much simpler to just find a steady light source. Or probably I just hate setting up the lights. Plus it is easier to balance my lighting when it is an ambient light source.

Here is the latest addition to my portraits project in High Key Black and White. Simple white background, 3 lights and my model Aya. Shes still in highschool but works as a part time ramp model. Its always fun when you have a cheerful model who easily adjusts to the shoot. We had a ton of laughs while doing the shoot.

Portrait #24: Aya

   

And it is the first time that we used my house as location for a shoot. I started thinking of putting up a makeshift studio in the garage during the Christmas break. Hopefully, I find the resources and time to do it.

PS: special thanks to Karina Asetre, our MUA and Stylist for this shoot.

On Confidence, Fashion and Portrait #23

The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt. -- Henri Cartier-Bresson

I do portraits and I find interesting. Well, not as interesting as Macro Photography; but still interesting. There is that need to show the personality or the soul of the model in the shots you take.

But the hardest thing for me is doing fashion shoots. And in this set, I attempted to do just that. I wanted output that I could place on a billboard. That is something hard for a guy who doesn't really look at magazines or care about whether his shirt matches his jeans.

This shoot was done in one light, with a blank wall that was painted in a funky shade of pink. I chose to do shots with a whole lot of negative space and I used the lighting to walk the eyes towards my subject. It is kind of like those billboards with the negative space where you place the brand or the tag line for the clothing line. I'll just leave that space for my viewer to add whatever he/she wishes.

I know that I need to work on my fashion photography a bit more but this is a start. When I get better with the simple outfits, I'll try and do complicated ones. I'll watch some Zack Arias DVDs so I'd get a better idea of how to deal with fashion photoshoots. Working on my weaknesses would be a real confidence booster for me if and when I do solo shoots.

Here is the set...

Fashion Monochrome

 

Fashion in Motion

 

And before I forget, the model is Margarette Shane. Shes a nursing student at a popular university here and has a really bubbly personality. Though shes not a professional model, she does look the part in front of the camera. Outside the shoot, shes a bit boyish and simple which is a bit of a contrast to what she shows when doing shoots. One thing I do know is that her confidence is evident the moment you see her strike that pose.

Portrait #23: Margarette Shane

On Different Light Sources and Portrait #21

Always go where the light is...

Lets face it, photography is about light. And I have observed that all great photographers understand light. If you do not know how to use light sources to your advantage then you wont go far in photography.

And in this particular shoot, I had 3 different sources.

First, we were bored waiting for our co-photographers who were doing a client shoot so we decided to play around with two portable light: a battery powered LED array and a circular florescent light powered by a car battery. And we also had the headlights of the car we had with us. So we found something workable and I managed this single image. Note that there is some flaring due to the fact that I was shooting straight into the car's headlights which we used as sort of a rim light.

Stranded

Second, we were waiting for the crew to set up the lights so the model asked me to shoot her inside the coffee shop. The place had an assortment of lights. Just in the stairs they had three different warm lights. This image is what I got from that set. I changed the image to a colder tone since I wanted to accentuate her hair color.

Framed

Lastly, we played around with strobes and colored gels. We had a strobe with CTO gel (color temperature orange) and bare strobes diffused by a white reflector. I turned it into something vintage because the orange gel already played a lot in setting the tone of the shot. This is also the image I will add to my portraits project.

Portrait #21: Krizha

A little background on the model. I met Krizha through a good friend and always wanted to shoot her. When she sent me a message asking for a shoot, I instantly accepted since I wanted to add her to my project. Aside from modelling, she also sings and has a band. This is one talented girl. I promised her a reshoot and I hope that will push through. Hopefully, the next shoot will just be in ambient daylight so I can do much more as that is where I am most comfortable in.

On Music, Photography and Portrait #20

A little known ritual I have before shooting portraits: I listen to random songs for inspiration.

People wonder why I always have around these huge headphones in my camera bag. It is because I need to crank up the volume before shooting. Music has long been my pick-me-up; be it work related stuff or photography. There is nothing like a bit of alternative or trance to get you going.

And I also turn to music when editing. My output is, more often than not, based on what I listen to. When the song is mellow, I tend to do cross processing or add that Indian summer like effects. When its trance, I go with loud and vivid colors. It is either I match the output to my music or the other way around when I already visualized in my head what I want to achieve. 

Last Sunday, before heading to the shoot, I went with easy Sunday music. Some Maroon 5, Jason Mraz and a compilation of John Mayer acoustics. And on my first impression on the model for Sunday, I knew I played the right songs.

So, the model is Dannica. She's fourteen but is tall enough to pass as an 18 year old. She's mature for her age and much more refined than a lot of the older models I've been in shoots with. You wouldn't really know her age until you ask. I find that younger models are harder to shoot because they lack the attention span (which probably comes with age) but with her, it was a breeze; she knows how to work with the photographer. And I was surprised that it was her first shoot.

Vintage Look

 

I'm happy with the output. I wish I had more shooting time but I was still struggling with the 90mm manual focus. But again, when it's spot on, the output is cool. I'll stick with the 90mm for now, until I get something like a 50mm f1.8.

Portrait #20: Dannica

On Shadow Play and Short Lighting

There is a sense of mystery when something is hidden in the shadows...

I've have long been a fan of drama in lighting. You elicit emotions in your viewers even when your subject doesn't show any. The move from light to shadow and how certain parts are lighted and hidden from the viewer makes a photo more interesting to look at. It seems that the subject's beauty comes out more with the lighting.

In this particular set, I did short lighting and made it low key so that I'd get a lot more shadow play. Short lighting is when you illuminate part of the subjects face that is turned away from the camera. I wanted to make it very dramatic by using shadows to hide part of the model's face or body. I got some good shots but had some problem during post processing. I guess I still need to practice on controlling light spills and other things. I'll get better as I go along.

Kaye Short Lighting

Maggie Short Lighting

 

Burger Joints, Ambient Light and Portrait #16

Simple is better...

On one rainy Saturday afternoon, I found joy in sitting inside a burger joint and shooting in ambient light. No concepts, production or complex lighting; just me and the model sitting down and waiting for the rain to stop.

My model was Luvley and we really did intend to do a shoot on that day in an open field. But the weather did not cooperate with us; it rarely does. So we sat there, patiently waiting for the rain to die down. I knew that we had to reschedule but since the store was empty, we decided to do a simple shoot just to pass the time. And boy, I was happy we did.

Its been a while since I have done something solo but I am quite pleased with my output. And my model did really live up to her name. I've done a shoot with her and covered her 18th birthday but this simple look really suits her beauty. Now I have a portrait of her to add to my project.

Portrait #16: Luvley Mae Amoguis

 

On Beauty Shots and Portraits #14 & #15

Its been a while since I last had a chance to write a blog. I've been preoccupied with all the other stuff in my life. I have had a ton of backlogs and some finished output waiting to be blogged. But since its raining outside again, I'll shoot a quick one.

We had a shoot last Friday complete with studio lights. I wanted something unique for my portraits project so I ended up processing two portraits as beauty shots. Normally, I wouldn't go for beauty shots since I am used to doing full on portraits. I'm not used to chopping off the head and shoulders so that the focus would be on the face. And I prefer a different lighting setup too. But sometimes, breaking the habit makes it all worth while. And I am happy that I have two new faces to add to my portraits.

Portrait #14: Roj

Portraits #15: Mylz

PS: Special thanks to Kaye Garino for the awesome makeup and Richard Amora for the studio lights.