Techniques – Page 18 – Peter Oshkai photography

November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

Time management for photo projects

Sometimes, when a photo shoot results in a couple of thousands images that need to be sorted through, post-processed and deliver to the client, time management becomes an issue. For me, photography is a part-time pursuit, so finding time to move the large projects along is an issue, which I continuously deal with. Lately, I found it effective to adopt an approach that I’ve been using in my work as a professor – working in brief regular sessions.

This concept applies to so-called “deep work” – something that needs to be done and is fundamentally important (such as doing research and reading technical literature), but that is not urgent and “in your face” (such as answering email and attending meetings). I first learned about it from a book called “Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for Careers in Science and Engineering” by Richard M. Reis. He describes that people, who are productive academically (read: publish many research papers) trend to work in brief, regular sessions. There is nothing surprising in this (it’s kind of eating an elephant one bite at a time), but in Reis’ observation, both words “brief” and “regular” are important. Brief work periods help avoiding burnout, and regular sessions ensure that progress is being made (otherwise, lots of time would be wasted to re-start the project at the beginning of every session).

For my photo projects, I try to adapt the same principle, particularly when some creative image editing is required. I work on a couple of images every day, as a way of taking a break from other tasks. This way, I can engage and have fun with the photos, and it doesn’t feel like work. After all, someone said that starting a photo business is a sure way to kill a perfect hobby, and I am determined to avoid that.

November 22, 2014November 23, 2014

Shooting hockey: dealing with low contrast

At yesterday’s ice hockey game, I used Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens to shoot the action through transparent plastic panels that surrounded the rink for safety of the fans. The panels were covered with scuff marks from the puck hits, which did not interfere with focussing, since the lens hood was, practically, touching the panels. However, the resulting photos showed significant loss of contrast.

I corrected the images in Lightroom by moving “Blacks” slider to the left until the black levels are clipped (around -75 in most of my images). To compensate for the large amount of light reflected from the ice surface, the “Highlights” slider also has be moved to the left (my typical values were around -50).

Generally, I found that the 300mm f/2.8L lens worked well on a full-frame camera (Canon EOS-1D X). A friend of mine was shooting with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens on his Canon EOS 7D Mark II (with a crop sensor), which gave him more flexibility of a range of focal lengths without sacrificing the reach at the long end of the zoom range.

November 21, 2014November 22, 2014

Retouching portraits of children

Retouching children’s portraits requires a surprising amount of skin smoothing. Baby’s skin is a proverbial reference for smoothness. This is why it is expected that skin in a child’d portrait would be impeccably smooth. In reality, children have very thin, quite translucent skin, so an unretouched portrait shows variations of colour, as well as small blood vessels under the skin. While this image is technically accurate, it appears unnatural, because of our expectations of smooth baby skin.

I have just finished post-processing a series of photos that my associate Armando and I took last week for an advertisement campaign of a dance school. I used Portrait Pro Studio 12 – a retouching software that can be called as an add-on from Photoshop. I found that the default settings for a “girl under 12 years old” result in too much processing for my taste. Through some trial and error, I found that these global tweaks give more reasonable results:

Turn off face sculpting and lighting effects. Children’s faces are rather round and flat; the Portrait Pro algorithms for enhancing the shape of the face detract from these features.
Reduce the default amount of skin smoothing (controlled by the Master Fade slider under Skin Smoothing Controls) by half.

Before applying the Portrait Pro filter, which appear on a separate layer, I make a stamp visible layer underneath it (create new layer, then press Shift-Option-Command-E). This way, if at a later point I decide that the retouching effects are too strong, I can reduce the opacity of the layer containing them to tone them down.

November 20, 2014November 20, 2014

Photo backdrop materials

A good background can greatly enhance a studio photo, whether it is a portrait or a still life. Generally, I try to select a background that ether complements or contrasts with the subject in terms of colour, tone and texture. In terms of material, here are the typical choices, with their advantages and limitations:

Paper

Paper is the least expensive material. It is available in many colours and is a better choice than fabric if you want a smooth background. It is definitely the most versatile material, particularly white paper, because it can be made grey, by limiting the amount of light shining on it, or any other colour by illuminating it with a spot light with a coloured gel on it. On the other hand, black paper is not as good as fabric for creating a solid black background, since it is more reflective.

The disadvantage is that paper gets dirty and wears out relatively quickly (from models standing on it). It can be argued that considering the cost of replacement, paper is the most expensive choice over a long time. However, the dirty part of the paper would be only under the models’ feet, where it is typically not very noticeable in the photos. Also, I have learned about a hack (is it the new work for “trick”?) of using a 4′ x 8′ of glossy white wallboard from a home improvement store as the surface for the models to stand on (the paper would be underneath the plastic). The line where the paper and the plastic meet would not be visible in the photo, since the paper curves under the plastic sheet.

Fabric

Cloth backgrounds are slightly more expensive than paper. They can be changed very easily, and are more durable than paper, but it’s not recommended to stand on them.

Fabric is the material of choice for the black background. Conversely, it does not work well for solid white background – you would need ridiculous amounts of light to blow out the shadows on the tiny wrinkles. With white or grey fabric, any colour, except for very saturated colours, can be created by using spotlights with gels. I also like mottled cloth backgrounds: I have one in cool grey and one in warm brown colour. I find that it’s almost necessary to blur the fabric background by using shallow depth of field.

Another feature to consider is the amount of storage space the background requires when not in use. If you don’t have a dedicated studio space that is set up for photography all the time, then fabric backgrounds take the least amount of space when folded for storage.

Vinyl

Vinyl backgrounds are heavier and more durable, but also more expensive. They crease easily and slippery to walk on.

A support stand is needed for any type of background, and in case of fabric, some clamps are very handy.

Note: While green or backgrounds are commonly used for composite video, it is much better to use a grey background for composite photos. The reason is that a green background would cast a very unnatural reflected light on the edge of the model (e.g. the tiny hairs on the skin), and it would be very difficult to make a selection in Photoshop to get rid of this green edge light.

November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

My iPhone camera apps

Here are the camera apps I currently have on my iPhone 5, which has been my pocket camera for the last couple of years. While I would not want to shoot a serious project with it, it is invaluable for capturing fleeting family moments and quickly sharing them with friends on social media. There is a great number of third -party camera apps for the iPhone, but to me personally, the deciding factors for choosing a particular one to use are

easy access to my most used features, and
intuitive interface (because I want to use the phone camera to capture the moments, not fumble through menus and settings).

For those reasons, I have these thee apps on my front screen.

Camera (native iOS app)

The native iOS app for controlling the camera (intuitively called “Camera”) has been greatly improved in iOS 8.x. I particularly like the integration of the image editing tools, which makes basic, high-impact adjustments, such as cropping, easy and intuitive.

In terms of managing of the photos, everything captured by Camera automatically goes to the Photo Stream in the iCloud, which I look through every month or so and pull the best shots in to my Lightroom library, which serves as the reference for my archives.

Camera+ ($1.99)

This is my go-to app, primarily because of its ability to set the focus and exposure points separately by dragging their icons on the screen. There is also an on-screen exposure compensation slider that lets you adjust the overall exposure. However, this is just a software feature, rather than an aperture/shutter speed/ISO adjustment found on a DSLR camera. Thus, I prefer to leave the exposure correction to the post-processing step in order to keep things simple and quick during shooting.

ProCamera ($4.99)

This app also has the separate exposure and focus settings, which is the must for my style of shooting. In addition, it has an ISO Boost mode, which raises the maximum ISO from 800 to 3200, allowing faster shutter speeds. Also, if the lash of the phone is set to torch mode, the intensity of the light can be adjusted. Note that the torch mode is a huge drain on the iPhone’s battery. In addition, there is a Night Camera mode, which allows exposures as slow as 1 sec. One really needs a tripod for this kind of shooting, which kind of defeats the purpose of a super-compact, pocket camera. In ProCamera, you can specify the level of JPEG compression (or save the photos in TIFF format), and the volume buttons of the phone can be used to trigger the shutter.

I am looking forward to receiving my new iPhone 6 Plus, with its new and improved camera hardware. My goal is to take iPhone photography a bit more seriously and, through practice, determine a set of conditions/situations where the phone camera can reliably produce good results. I have a sense that I will be using more and more of the post-processing features of the phone. Normally, I avoid heavy processing of my photos, but for the iPhone shots, the artistic filters are half of the fun. The image quality of the original photo is often not particularly high, compared to that taken with a full-frame pro DSLR, which often releases my creativity.

Generally, looking at and reading about the work of others has been invaluable for developing my own skills. Recently, there emerged a vast body of resources on iPhone photography, such as this book that brings together variety of styles, subjects and software tools use by some of the best artists in this field.

November 17, 2014

Dressing for the weather

Dressing according to the weather when shooting outdoors may seem like an obvious thing to do, but it is easy to under-estimate how cold and/or wet it can be outside when packing for the shoot in the warmth of the house. Having appropriate clothes can definitely make a difference between an enjoyable and miserable shooting experience, but even in terms of photography itself, having an extra reserve of comfort often gives me that extra bit of patience that is necessary for waiting for the perfect shot or for trying another vantage point or focal length or exposure time.

Being able to try different types of shots or just being patient enough to wait for the perfect conditions is particularly important for night photography. The photo of the the Temple Bar at night (see above) is one of my personal favourites from my sabbatical in Ireland back in 2010. I took this long exposure shot on a very cold January night. Despite being very substantially bundled up, I waited for the lonely motionless woman to be separated from the passing crowd for such a long time, all the while experimenting with different exposure times to get the motion blur “just right”, so by the the time of this shot my fingers were in excruciating pain, and I was just about to call it a day (the knowledge that only a few steps separated me from the warmth of the pub and the comfort of a pint of Guinness was only adding to the test of my will).

Likewise, during the rowing photo shoot a few weeks ago, by the end of the rainy day, only one layer or dry clothes separated me from being quite happy with the all the action shots and probably leaving early (and likely, sick) without the best photos.

I find that the most important cold-weather clothes are:

Shoes. I find that a good pair of hiking boots works best for most situations.
Gloves. Recently, I bought a pair of HEAD Digital Sport Running Gloves, which I find excellent for photography, because they have silicone bumps on the palm side that are not too thick, but just substantial enough to really improve the grip. These gloves also work on the touchscreen of my iPhone. One note for size selection: the material is somewhat stretchable, so it’s good to err on the smaller side.
Hat. A toque works great for me.
Base layer. I like a merino wool top, because it can be worn as a turtleneck without the top layer is needed. The bottoms are also a must for me in cold weather.
Mid layer. I like mid layers without pockets, because I almost always wear a shell on top.
Jacket. I like a wind-proof shell with pockets and a hood.
Pants. Most often, I wear jeans or ski pants.

Note: The links above are affiliate links – they point directly to Amazon.

November 16, 2014November 16, 2014

Black background: controlling the light

The dance studio photoshoot this weekend took place in a large room with a black curtain on the back. Armando and I set up four strobes surrounding the subjects (a group of children), and another strobe fitted with a large softbox directly in front and overhead of the subjects, as the key light. Even though the background curtain was black, it did have folds, wrinkles, etc., so it was important to make sure that no light fell on it in order for the background to come out completely black. I set my Canon EOS-1D X in manual mode with ISO 100, f/10 and 1/200 sec, so that ambient light was not registering at all. In order to avoid spilling the light on the background, we turned the two strobes located closest to it away from the curtain, so that they faced the camera and illuminated the subjects from behind. We used parabolic reflectors with honeycomb grids on these strobes to focus their beams.

The other strobes were turned towards the background, so to avoid illuminating it, we took advantage of the large size of the room and positioned the subjects sufficiently far from the background, so that the light from the strobes would fall off and would not reach the curtain. To have more control of the light direction, we put strip banks (a rectangular grids on soft vanes) on the front to the softboxes. This way, all the lights coming from the front were soft, but still relatively focussed.

One surprising feature of the dance floor, which is basically a matt black material with a texture somewhere between plastic and rubber, is that it is not so matt, but rather quite reflective under the strobe lights. We did not want the light themselves reflecting in the floor, so we tilted the softboxes slightly upward. The reflections of the subjects, on the other hand, looked very nice, and I tried to make them part of the composition whenever possible.

The floor was also scuffed everywhere by the dancers’ shoes, and every scuff mark was prominently visible in the photos. In the past, I used to spend substantial amounts of time removing the most prominent scratches from the floor in Photoshop, but after reviewing many photos, I now think that the beaten-up floor adds authenticity to the shots. It conveys that the photos were taken not in an artificial environment of the photo studio, but in the actual dance school, where children spend a lot of time practicing their art.

November 14, 2014November 14, 2014

Shooting mode for action photography: Aperture priority vs Manual

When photographing fast action, such as sports or dance, I usually concentrate on two technical aspects – capturing the expression of the motion and isolating the subject from the surroundings.

To show motion in a still photo, I typically try to freeze it, i.e. to shoot with sufficiently fast shutter speed, so that the athletes appear sharp, but their poses and facial expressions convey movement and emotion.

An alternative to freezing the motion is to blur it, with a slow shutter speed, so that the moving subject is smudged, while the surroundings are sharp. Blurring the motion is particularly effective when combined with a flash that illuminates the subject just before the camera shutter closes, freezing that phase of the movement (so called back-curtain sync).

Yet another approach is panning, when the camera follows the moving subject, and the image is taken with a shutter speed that is short enough to freeze the motion, but long enough to blur the background. This technique requires a lot of practice, and the success rate is typically very low. Also, it can only be applied in situations when the subject is moving more or less parallel to the sensor of the camera. If the subject is moving towards or away from the camera, it cannot be followed by swinging the lens around.

To isolate the subject from the background, I shoot with a fast lens, such as Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM or Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM, wide open, so the background is blurred because of the shallow depth of field.

To freeze the motion and blur the background, I need to control both the shutter speed and the aperture at the same time. Before upgrading my camera to Canon EOS-1D X, I used to shoot sports in aperture priority mode. I would select the maximum aperture (lowest f-number) and a sufficiently high ISO value, so that the camera would choose a fast shutter speed. Occasionally, the shutter speed would drop too low, and the image would end up blurry.

With a 1D X, I shoot in manual mode, where I set both the aperture and the shutter speed. I let the camera select the ISO by setting it to “A” (auto). This way, the only aspect that is left up to the camera is the amount of noise in the photo. I find that even if ISO ends up being very high (the selectable range can be specified in the camera settings – see page 13 of the 1Dx manual), the 1D X controls the noise very well. Besides, the noise can be controlled in post-processing to some degree.

November 13, 2014November 14, 2014

Portrait retouching: skin smoothing in Photoshop

In order to make skin in portraits appear smooth, I have been learning skin painting using “sample and paint” method in Photoshop. It is, basically, sampling the colour and painting a neighbouring skin area repeatedly, while preserving the texture detail of the original image.

Here is a step-by step-procedure:

Open the image in Photoshop.
Make a new layer (Shift-Option-Command-N). Let’s refer to it as Skin Painting Layer. We will be painting on this layer.
Above the Skin Painting Layer, make another layer (Shift-Option-Command-N). Let’s refer to it as the Texture Layer, since it will be used to add texture to the areas of the Skin Painting Layer that will be re-painted.
Create “Stamp visible” on the Texture Layer (Shift-Option-Command-E).
Change the blending mode of the Texture Layer from Normal to Overlay.
Desaturate the Texture Layer (Shift-Command-U or select Image > Adjustments > Desaturate from the top menu bar) because we only need to add texture to the Skin Painting Layer, not the colour.
Make the Texture Layer into high-pass layer, which will enable extracting the details. From the top menu bar, select Filter > Other> High Pass.
Select the Radius value of around 4 pixels. This can and should be adjusted later, when the Skin Painting Layer has some painting done. The goal is to match the texture of the painted-in skin areas match the texture of the rest of the skin.
Clip Texture Layer ayer to the underlying layer (Skin Painting Layer), making it visible only where the underlying layer is visible. Right-click the Texture Layer and select “Create clipping mask“. The shortcut is Option-Command-G. This will add the texture from the original image only to the areas of the Skin Painting Layer that have been re-painted.
Switch to the Skin Painting Layer by clicking on it.
Select a brush tool and choose a soft round brush.
With a brush tool selected (the shortcut is “B“), hold Option key and click the skin area to sample the colour. Release Option key and paint the neighbouring skin area (that needs smoothing) in a couple of short strokes. Repeat the sampling and painting procedure everywhere, where skin smoothing is required. I find it convenient to use the brush size that is approximately equal to the area that is being retouched (e.g. large for the forehead, smaller for the eyes, etc.) Other brush settings are as follows:
1. Mode: Normal.
2. Flow: approximately 10%. This low flow value makes each bush stroke add only a very subtle effect, making the whole process more controllable (it is very easy to inadvertently go overboard with retouching and ruin the image).

Note: I am using a Wacom Intuos Tablet; it would be very inconvenient to do this type of retouching using a mouse.

Recently, I have been using a combination of this technique and some high-level retouching using Portrait Pro plug-in, which I apply on a separate layer, with a layer mask that I can paint on to control where the effects of the plug-in are visible. Generally, I find that in order to avoid a cookie-cutter, “filtered” look, I need to touch nearly every part of the photo with a brush at some point during post-processing. Of course, this is not feasible for larger photo sets, but optimizing the workflow is a whole other story – something that I constantly keep in mind nowadays.

November 12, 2014November 12, 2014

Combining window light with strobes for portraits

A large window at midday is a great light source for portraits. During a staged wedding photo shoot at the Empress hotel last summer, I had a chance to combine window light with studio strobes. The colour matching between the natural and artificial light sources is not an issue, since “standard” studio light is daylight-balanced.

When the model is extremely close to the window, as in the photo above, the backlight provided by it is very intense, and it is easy to blend it with the strobe light. I shot this portrait at f/4.0 and 1/200 sec (ISO 200), which gave correct exposure for the window light. A single strobe fitted with a large softbox provided the light from the opposite direction. The resulting lighting arrangement is, essentially, equivalent to “cross-lighting”, when the model is located between two light sources of equal strength that are aimed at each other. The light distribution on the model is then controlled by her position relative to the imaginary line connecting the two light sources (if the model is located behind the lights, she is largely lit from the from the front; if she is mostly in front of the lights – she is backlit).

The difference between cross-lighting and the window-softbox arrangement is that in the latter case the light sources are, effectively, very large. This results in contrasty light (deep shadows, bright highlights) that, at the same time, has soft transitions between light and dark areas.

In contrast, the image below is shot with window light only. No additional strobes or reflectors were used to fill in the shadows. The dynamic range of this scene is quite high, but even when exposing for the highlights (so that they would not end up over-exposed), my Canon EOS-1D X fitted with a 85mm f1.2L II USM lens was able to capture some details in the shadows.

These two relatively easy lighting setups give completely different feels to portraits. Personally, I like the subtleness of natural light, and not having a strobe makes the shooting process more flexible and intuitive. However, without a flash to balance the window light, the range of poses that can be explored is fairly limited. Basically, the model has to be facing the window, or at least be partially turned towards it. With a flash, variety of poses is possible, including portraits with the window as a background.

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