A Cup of Tea with Amarisse

It has been a while since my last post, but we’re back in business and ready to spread the love a little more!

As some of you may know, I have been (very slowly) working on a project that I hope to get finished up in the next six months. Entitled “A Cup of Tea in Seoul,” the project is exactly what it says it is: busting out our tea cups in Seoul. From the streets of Jongno, to a back alley and the middle of a highway, the project has been rolling along and the table has been giving Popeye a run for his money. (Check the bottom of the post for some of the other shots!)

This time around I took the next step and went for a full ‘bokehrama’ or Bokeh Panorama. This involves shooting your subject in clean focus and filling the frame with them to give yourself as much resolution as possible, and then letting them take a break while you shoot a panorama to stitch around them. The result?

So back to the beginning, I contacted lovely Amarisse, who graciously gave up a couple of hours from her tight schedule before she leaves Korea (we’ll miss you!) to help out with the next frame. I wanted a frame that would print in huge size and still have detail, so I needed to stitch a panorama. This is something I’ve done before, but never quite on this scale. The final image is nearly 80 megapixles in size.

 

Before the shoot there were still a couple of other decisions to be made.

Sharp, yet with beautiful out of focus elements? 85mm f/1.4 @ f/2 for extra contrast and sharpness.

Separate her from the background? Flash.

Can’t get a decent sync speed at f/2? ND8.

Need all the shots to line up so I can stitch the panorama automatically? Tripod.

 

The exceptional J.D. Lord came out to be my lighting assistant and table lugger extraordinaire for the evening, and you can see him below holding the Einstein on Mr. Monopod. This was chosen purely because of its recycle speed. I could have done this shot with speedlites, but I’d have been waiting 6 seconds after every frame I took. We could have finished reading War and Peace by the end of the photoshoot that way. With the Einstein at 1/8 power, I could just keep shooting from start to finish.

We shot through about 40 frames in various poses, with some collaborative idea development, and ended up on this one as our final choice. Then it was a case of having both of these lovely people move out of the frame, locking my focus point and shooting the rest of the out of focus background to stitch together later. In this case, I shot 27 extra images in a carpet bomb fashion, shooting everything with large overlaps just to make sure I wouldn’t have to do it all again!

After getting home, it was just a matter of giving CS5 about 30 minutes to stitch it all together using the ‘photomerge’ option and then manually cloning and masking the ‘mistakes’ made by the algorithm. This is an easy but effective technique for adding a little extra wow to a portrait.

 

Here are a few extras from past shoots. If you’re interested in being a part of this project please contact me through my website at http://www.welkinlight.com.

Warming the Wine

One would think that making a warm, summery picnic photograph with some wine in the middle of summer would be an easy task… So we thought when wine journalist, blogger, and general aficionado Joshua Hall from WineKorea contacted me about making such an image back in July. Summer is the season of torrential rain here in Korea.

As a result we ended up with a little studio time and a little Photoshop time to bring together his vision for the image to lead into his summer wines article. We arrived at the studio, slightly sodden but in good spirits. While Joshua set up the table just the way he wanted it, I set about constructing a four light setup. To beat a dead horse, the key to making this work is setting up your lights one at a time.

First, as I knew I wanted the final image to be merged with a backlit scene of greenery or a park, I decided to blow the background completely to white and let a little splash back onto the table itself. As space was at a premium, this also made for a good choice.

Two lights out of six in the rental studio were identical 400W units, so for the sake of simplicity in matching power levels, I used both of these on the background. Both had small softboxes attached, which I aimed diagonally across the background from opposite sides to provide even illumination. Both of these were set to 1/4 power to provide enough light to just blow the background to pure white, but not enough to cause significant flare (I was shooting my Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 AI-s, which has horrific flare should the light source be in the frame).

I then added my key light to illuminate the food and wines from high rear camera left, which was adjusted until everything was looking bright and colourful, approximately 1/8 power through a large softbox. I decided this was causing too much contrast, and this picture wasn’t about the light, it was about the food. So, I added a fourth flash to camera right at approximately 50 centimetres higher than the table to fill shadows and bring the darker portions of the image out a little (especially the kimbab at the front). This was set about two stops under the key.

This was the resulting chosen image.

After importing the image into Photoshop, I made a selection using the Quick Selection and Refine Edge tools for my background to drop in to. I chose a simple blurred background from another image I had made in a park earlier this year, and pasted it into the selection.

Here is the result, which looks a little disjointed and pasted together. We had lit this to appear perfect, not like a real summer’s day, but like an ideal summer’s day. It was never going to look one hundred per cent realistic, but to help the illusion along a little, I did what I often do to finalise a composite.

Oftentimes it is simply a lack of coherence in colour that makes the shot stand out as being a composite, so I added a ‘photo filter’ warming layer, and added a little contrast with curves to get the final image. It is a subtle, but necessary addition to the image.

Do something different

When we travel, it’s all to easy to photograph the things that people have photographed before. Sometimes it’s good to do this. I mean, you took the time to go out to this place, right? You might as well make a picture.

I was recently standing on the banks of Anapji, a man-made lake in Gyeongju, with about 5 or 6 other photographers. I had arrived to shoot the sunset, and although it’s a cliché shot, it was one I’d always wanted to take. I will generally avoid the big crowds of photographers at a given location like the plague, but there aren’t really too many viewpoints at this lake, as it is rather small and everyone crowds around a 20 metre long stretch of open bank.
 
I nodded my regards as I stepped into place, and gazed around at the various setups of the photographers there. There were 4 Nikon full frame bodies, all with the same 17-35mm f/2.8 lens mounted, one Canon body with the 16-35, and a few others. Only one photographer did not have a tripod, and everyone else was set up with their tripod legs fully extended and their cable releases attached. Everyone here was shooting the same thing, and had the same gear that I did.

I did exactly what everyone else had done; I mounted my camera on the tripod and attached my 17-35mm. After a couple of exposure tests, I had my basic exposure for the sky, but just like everyone else my shadows were getting lost and the reflection in the pond was a good 2-3 stops or so under the sky. It was bog standard, click and be done photography. I knew I wanted something a little more epic than what everyone else was getting. (The example below was taken after my final picture below as I didn’t keep my tests, this was taken on a fisheye lens lent to me by another photographer).

I dropped the centre-column out of the tripod and got myself as low and close to the water of the pond as I could without taking a dip, and then I started to piece together my shot. First, the rippled reflection wasn’t floating my boat, so an ND filter was added. This had the added benefit of capturing the movement of the clouds streaking across the sky, something else nobody on the pond that day was capturing. I had only one more thing that I wanted to do, and that was to even out the exposure disparity between the sky and the surface of the water. This time a grad ND.

The gear used here is not the point, the workflow is. I know I could copycat anyone’s picture that evening. I did that, and it took all of 30 seconds and no creativity at all. If I had stopped there, I would have gone home with exactly what everyone else went home with. But, I didn’t. Whether it was better or worse is a subjective question, but it was certainly different.

As amazing as someone else’s picture may be, shooting the same image makes for nothing more than multiple copies of one shot. By striving to make something different out of the same scene, you are making an effort to push your own creativity. You are also producing something that people want to see. A little extra effort put into your pictures really shows through in the final results and sets them apart from other photographers.

Do you have a special piece of gear or an exposure technique that differs from other people? Use it to make your pictures stand out.

New Workshop

Flash Light Photography Expeditions is the premiere photographic touring company for those looking to improve their photography in East, South East Asia and around the world. After our first two workshops here in Seoul, Flash Light Photography Expeditions is proud to launch one new workshop and a repeat session of each of our existing workshops here in Seoul.

Course 3: Off Camera Flash

Join FlashLight Expeditions tour leader Dylan Goldby for a seminar and practical session covering the ins and outs of getting your flash off the camera and using it to craft light in your photographs. This will be our last outdoor workshop before the winter freezes over, so come out and make the most of the great weather!

What will this workshop cover?

In the world of photography, nothing gives you more options than being able to shape and create your own light anywhere you go. This class gives you these possibilities by teaching you how to use off camera flash in a variety of situations such as portraits, food photography, and product photography. It is a theoretical and practical class covering concepts and then putting them to use.

- Reasons to use a flash

- Balancing ambient light with flash

- Manual control vs. TTL

- The gear (flashes, cameras, modifiers, gels, stands, triggers)

- Flash Setup Workflow

- Multiple light setups

When and where will it be?

This class will be held on Sunday October 23rd, 2011 at Sunyudo (Hapjeong Station). It will begin at 1:30pm and finish as the sun sets at a little before 6pm.

Who is it for?

This class is for those wanting to learn the concepts behind flash photography and take their image making to a new level by using flashes indoors and outdoors. A clear understanding of manual exposure control is required for this class as we will be building our exposures in this mode.

What does it cost?

The course will be limited to 8 students and weighs in at a mere 80,000won. A professional model, and printed/digital copies of the workshop notes are included with this cost.

Registration and Cancelation

How can I register?

Our Korea short courses can be registered directly with the workshop leader, Dylan Goldby via email or phone. Full payment is required to secure a place at this workshop. Just drop in your name, a contact number, and the name of the course you’re interested in.

What happens if I need to cancel?

Things come up, and we understand that. 14 days or more prior to the workshop, a full refund will be issued should you need to cancel. 7 days or more and a fifty per cent refund will be issued. Anything less than 7 days, and no refund will be issued.

If for some reason Flash Light Expeditions needs to cancel this course, a full refund will be issued.

 

 

Courses 1 & 2

Courses 1 & 2, DSLR Introductory and Portraits in Seoul, will be rerun in March next year. Exact dates will be announced when we know when the winter is going to thaw!

 

 

Other Things to Watch Out for

Keep your eyes on this space over the winter for our upcoming post processing classes and another special announcement by Dylan and Flash coming soon!

Rocks, Wind, and Ladies

Jeju Island is known amongst the locals to be plentiful in three things: rocks, wind, and ladies. Rocks of course refers to the volcanic rocks that abound and make up the island, wind being that which wears at the islands coasts, and ladies of course being the Haenyeo, or Lady Divers of the island. Aside from being a spectacular cultural venture, Jeju also offers seemingly never ending series of photogenic landscapes and natural history sites.

We flew into Jeju International Airport in the early afternoon and made our way straight out to the coast for a chance to catch the final rays of the sun over the ocean. The location was chosen simply by its name, Dragon Head Rock. With a name like that, who could refuse? Various stories surround the creation of this rock, including those that suggest it was once a real dragon! Although the sunset didn’t offer up a lot, some moody black and white long exposures were definitely in order!

We started our 3 day moped tour of the island in Jeju city and headed east along the coast, soaking up the sun and letting the wind ruffle our clothes before dropping in to the Manjanggul Lava Caves for a little look. Although only 1 of approximately 7 kilometres of the tube is open to the public, it is certainly enough to get a glimpse of the power that created this island. The walls are adorned with the fascinating lines and structures created by the swiftly drying lava.

Next it was on through the fading twilight to the “Sunrise Peak” for an early night and an early rise. Getting up at 4am after a day long ride along the coast may not be easy, but it is certainly rewarding. Not following the tourist crowds an getting ourselves down onto the shoreline with Jeju’s ocean maidens led to a much better view of the sunrise over this small bay.

After a quick nap we set out along the coast again. The overcast day led to photographing a lot of daytime long exposures, thank you weatherman! With the ND400 in toe, I was able to pull off 30 second daytime exposures at our next location, Jeongbang Falls. This was great as I was not only able to smooth the water and make the falls look ethereal, but I was able to all but eliminate the occasional tourist in my shots.

One of my favourite things about Korea has always been the mix of old and new. Riding or driving around Jeju island will give you an amazing insight into the way things are and were done. While some buy their groceries at mega-stores in the cities, others dry their fish on fences by the sea.

Korea is a land of contrasts. A place where seemingly never-ending metropolis cities give way to natural beauty, young women follow every trend and fad on the television while older women do it the way they always have done, western hamburger chains are filled with the same children who eat pickled cabbage with every meal, and electronics mega-corporations fade out of memory as the sun sets over volcanic peaks.

Join Flash Light Expeditions on Jeju Island next spring to experience all this and more as you trek around the island and frame the pictures of a lifetime.

10 Magazine September Cover

A real composite job is something I have always wanted to try my hand at, and this month’s 10 Magazine cover was the perfect chance. We were setting out to create a cover for a cheesy romance novel to introduce the cover story of “Romance in Korea”. I knew I’d never be able to get permission to shoot the cover in a single image at Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, it just wouldn’t happen. I also knew that I wanted to put a spin on the usual Fabio + beautiful maiden + European castle cover formula for so many romance novels. It was going to be my chance to see if I could pull off a good composite.

What you will see below is the process of how I got to the cover image, not a guide on how to do it, or a tutorial. This is not my usual style of photography, and I do not profess to be teaching the ‘right’ way to do this, just how I achieved the final result.

Our wonderful models Cody and his wife, Ji Hee, were absolutely stunning in their performance for our studio session. They worked hard to produce stunning cut after stunning cut while wind technician Ian Phillips got to work on making their locks sway in the breeze. It was hard to choose one in the end, but I settled on this as the perfect frame for the images I had in mind.

The lighting situation was created to ensure that although it was obviously lit in a studio, the light itself would not draw attention away from the concept. To this end, we kept it simple. A strip on either side as accents and a small octa above (visible in the process shot) as key.The rim lights and good illumination on the models meant the cut-out job was simple, and the only parts that needed my attention were the edges of the hair. These were easily taken care of by Photoshop’s ‘refine edge’ tool.

The next thing to do was to crop into the 10 Magazine cover dimensions and start work on the background. I cleaned it up a little with the clone tool and slowly started to build up a painted effect using a combination of filters in Photoshop. I also added a neutral grey sky as I knew I could blend a sunset over that more easily later.

Following this, I dropped the couple into the scene and did some additional work on the mask to make sure they would fit more seamlessly into the photograph.

Next, it was adding another little dimension to the image. I wanted a foreground of the Korean national flower, but alas I didn’t have anything that would fit this image in my collection. I picked up a stock image and dropped it in on top of the models.

Now, it was time to start working on the mood. I wanted a lot more drama and warmth. My choice was to add a sunset into the background, and of course mirror its reflection in the pond. Here is the reason I added in the grey sky earlier, to give me a base on which to add the sunset. After dropping it in, I set the blend mode to multiply and masked away the parts that I didn’t want, such as those covering the models.

At this junction, we are looking at all the different parts of the image come together to make something very close to the final image. However, it still looks a little fragmented and pieced together. To make it a cohesive whole, I added a series of adjustment layers for colour and tone that essentially tied everything together. Here is the final result.

Those final few layers were really the key in bringing this composite image together. Without them it looks fragmented. From the original images, and as the image progressed, I had trouble seeing the final result. But I knew what I wanted, and a kept tweaking until I found the balance that held it together. That I feel was what made the shot possible.

Flash Light Seoul: Portrait 2

This is a follow up to my previous post.

The second portrait of the day. We used the Einstein through a Westcott 28” softbox to light Kyle from the front, and the sun as a rim. This one was less moody and more clothing ad. It was also not very thoughtfully composed. I made two images in this set, and I preferred Kyle’s expression in this one. A moment was captured, but the composition suffered because of it. I also caught the moment when the taxis sped past, meaning I didn’t want to keep the bottom of the composition.

The first things that really stick out to me are the tower on the right, the taxis, and the lamp intruding on the left of the frame. A crop removes these and brings more focus onto Kyle. Then it’s on to processing.

At once when I saw this photograph, I envisioned the kind of processing that was going to be required. A high contrast, low saturation look would be nice. So here I took the saturation down to –50 in Lightroom.

Next up was to make it a little more interesting with some contrast. I added 50 points to the contrast slider, bumping it up to 75. This just gives the image a little more punch.

After this, I noticed that my usual cloudy white balance was a little too warm and was muting my sky too much, so I switched back to flash white balance.

Although I was still not sure if I wanted to keep the clouds in the shot or not, I used the recovery slider here to bring back some details in the white clouds and in the parts of Kyle’s face that were too bright. I also added a little in the black clipping to bring in a few more pure black areas.

I used the spot removal tool in Lightroom to remove the lamp posts in this image. These were easy enough using this tool and there was no need for Photoshop at this point.

The final piece of cloning was the buildings in the bottom right corner. I chose to use Photoshop for these as the edge of his jeans was something I wanted to keep perfectly in tact and Photoshop is able to zoom in closer for more precision cloning. The final thing was a little crop in the bottom left to remove the remaining distractions under the fence.

I chose to keep the clouds in this image just as another element. Cloning them out makes the image simpler and possibly stronger, but having them in makes it a little more natural to me.

The Fickle Beast

I read a tweet a while back that read something along the lines of “Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just get to work.” It escapes me now who wrote it, but it got me thinking.

Inspiration, the muses, brilliance, whatever you want to call it, is a fickle beast. It strikes us when we’re sleeping and in the middle of dinner with friends, never when we look for it. I keep hundreds, if not thousands, of photographs and other visual art in folders on my harddrive. I have a folder perpetually sync’d to my iPhone that goes everywhere with me. I see images all the time that I love, and feel a little more than envious of the photographer who made them. I use these images to get me in the mood to create, and also deconstruct them in order to learn new techniques for my own shoots. But I got to thinking recently about how much these images actually inspire the creation, shape and form of my own images. The answer to that question is, very little.

Time after time I have been inspired to go and make a similar photograph to one of these pieces. Really, I hoped that I would make an image as good, and do the concept justice. Imitation, as they say, is the most sincere form of flattery. Unfortunately it never works out that way. These were not my concepts, I was not in the same situation and mindset as the artist, and the conditions were never quite right for the image I was trying to emulate to take place. However, something did happen, and I began to look at inspiration in a new ways.

On each and every one of these shoots, I came back with something very different and of my own creation. It struck me that the images I had collected and pored over were not something I would ever make. Sure, I liked them, but they were not mine. One thing they gave me was the inspiration to go out and create, the drive to work hard and make the best images I could.

So, what was I creating? Was it an offshoot of someone else’s work? Again, not at all. I was creating something from my own mind, and my collection of inspirational images was just a spark for the fire. My mind was inspired by the work, the problem solving, and the process of creation in my own work. The ideas that made my own images came to me as I worked through the process of making my own images. The process was the inspiration.

The change that is wrought in the workflow is most beneficial here. No longer are hours spent plotting and planning images in my head, but instead are spent increasing the knowledge required to give the moments I see life.

By using your time to expand your toolkit and getting to work, you will produce more creative work. The need for inspiration is far surpassed by the need for the knowledge required to execute the concept when you are inspired. Keep creating, keep learning, don’t stop and wait for the muses.

Flash Light Seoul: Portrait 1

Thanks to all our participants that made Saturday’s workshop such a success, you guys were awesome! It was great to see everyone trying a few new techniques and working with our amazing model, Kyle. We worked through 5 different locations and 9 different setups, and at the beginning of each, I made a few test frames to give our participants a visual idea of the kind of frames we were trying to make. On a few of these, our participants took the shoot one step further and made some amazingly creative images. Can’t wait to see those!

So, let’s get on with a little processing. This one was done entirely in Photoshop Lightroom.

Our first shot was trying to work with lines, balancing visual mass and isolating our subject using a narrow depth of field. I decided to go with the young man, hard day, trying to get a break in the city feel, and I wanted my processing to reflect that. The scene was also full of lines, and Kyle’s clothing was much darker than the surrounding elements. Even while I was shooting, I knew I wanted this image to be black and white. So that’s what I did first.

I wanted this image to be a little more focused on Kyle, so a slight crop was in order. Despite always trying to frame well in camera, sometimes framing gets rushed, or I just change my mind about framing when I see the image larger.

I then added a little extra contrast, taking the contrast slider up to around +50.

This brightened the corners a little too much for my taste, so I decided to add a slight vignette to pull the eyes back to Kyle a little more.

Next thing to do was add a little grain to go with the mood I was trying to convey. Nostalgic. That long day is in the past.

Finally, I noticed as I looked around that my crop wasn’t quite right. I had the remainder of one of the fence posts in the frame still. A little rotation of the crop removed that, and it was on to the final adjustments. My editing had made that car on the far left of the frame a tad too dark, so I brightened it up with the adjustment brush. I also noticed now that one of the hundreds of lamp posts on the bridge had snuck into the top left of the frame. That needed to go! A little work with the

There we have the final product from our first little session with Kyle. I look forward to seeing images from all of our participants in the coming days! Look out for the rest of my images from the day soon.

One Way to Learn Your Craft

I am a photographer of the digital age, I craft images both in an out of camera using every tool I have at my disposal. I chimp, I merge multiple exposures, I make use of every update to Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom. This is where the industry is at, these are the things we can do to stay ahead. But one day I discovered film.

The initial draw to film was for me, just shooting something different for a time. I didn’t want to walk around with 15 kilograms of gear on my back so I was prepared for everything at all times. I wanted to make photographs. So, a couple of years back I (re)discovered film. I say rediscovered because I had a handful of experiences with my mother’s old Konica-Minolta at the 70-210 “beer can” as a child.

I bit the urge to get a sophisticated camera like the Nikon F5, as I wanted something different. I wanted to feel what I was doing, I wanted a whole different experience. I didn’t want to make the same pictures in the same way I was doing with my D200 at the time. I chose the Nikon FM, not the FM2 with it’s fancy 1/4000 of a second shutter, just the plain old, simple, reliable FM.

Not being in any way a trained photographer, it put me in a place, some might say the deep-end. One metering mode, no electronic distance metering, no fast shutters for daylight, no autofocus, no instant gratification. These were things I’d never had to deal with. Everything about this camera screamed different to me. Every frame cost me money, and every accident weighed on my photographer’s soul.

So, here it is: my first frame of film (Fuji Superia 200). Manually focussed painstakingly slowly at f/1.4 with all the patience in the world from my lovely wife. I was ecstatic to get this back. I’d nailed the focus, and my exposure was good. But then I started picking at my crop, the moment I’d chosen to push the shutter, the background, the stray strands of hair. Sure, it was just a snap of my wife, but it stood out to me because I hadn’t seen all these things at the time of capture.

I won’t show much else from that roll, but let me assure you, there were worse mistakes than on this one. This was a trigger for me, though. I knew I wanted to be able to make a whole roll with pictures that were all passable, and at least a couple of good ones. That meant learning about photography, not correcting your mistakes on the next frame.

With shooting film, there are really no second chances. When you bring that viewfinder to your eye, you need to look around it, carefully compose, use your depth of field preview button, think about what type of film you’re using and what implications that has, double check your settings, focus carefully, and be confident that the frame you’re shooting is the frame you want.

Especially with a camera like the Nikon FM, you really have to learn about exposure. There is only one metering mode, a centre-weighted one. This means that, for example, backlit scenes are really hard to meter. This is alright if you’re shooting TMAX, you can be a stop or two off. But let’s say you’re shooting slides, that $10 roll of Fuji Velvia is in there and it doesn’t have a lot of give, you need that exposure to be bang on. Experience brings you this ability.

This cautiousness and forethought has translated across to digital as well, and learning my gear made wonderful changes to the way I shoot. Being able to get an ambient/flash exposure nailed down in about 2 frames, or getting within a stop of a backlit exposure every time are just a couple of the benefits I reaped. Not to mention, less cloning time. Your eyes are much more effective at cloning, let me tell you!

I wholeheartedly recommend the simplicity of a Nikon FM or a Canon AE-1. Invest in one at a garage sale or borrow one from your grandfather. These cameras are back to basics and will teach you more about photography than you could imagine. Experimenting with different films will give you a clearer understanding of how exposures, colours, shapes, and compositions work as well.