Peter Oshkai photography

September 23, 2014October 5, 2014

At the restaurant: dealing with low-light conditions

Restaurant is a common setting for a group portrait, because dining out often commemorates a special occasion, as in the photo above – last Saturday we went out to celebrate my wife’s birthday. Using flash is not a good idea for several obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. In addition to disturbing other customers, a flash would completely change the character of the lighting, so capturing the ambiance would be out of the question.

Restaurants are typically dimly lit, so low light performance of the camera is very important. This characteristic cannot be narrowed down to one particular specification. It depends on the lens, the sensor and the firmware. Cell phone cameras cannot compete with DSLRs in this regard, so if you must use a cell phone, the first thing to adjust is your expectations.

If you choose to bring a DSLR, a fast lens (f2.8 or lower) is a must. Also, the lens-camera combination should ideally be relatively compact. In the Canon world, a Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM is an excellent lens for this situation. Sigma also makes a good quality 35mm f1.4 lens (Sigma 340101 35mm F1.4 DG HSM), which is quite a bit less expensive. (By the way, these are just recommendations based on my experience, and although the links are affiliated by Amazon, they are not sponsored in any other way). In fact, compactness would be a very good reason to choose a cell phone over a pro camera – after all, it is a dinner first and a photo opportunity second. Having said this, I shot this photo with a Canon EOS-1D X, which is anything but compact. My family is probably getting used to me lugging a huge camera. I’d like to think that the photos are worth it. (Still, I am waiting impatiently for my new iPhone 6 plus, with its image-stabilized camera…)

Here is a roundup of the best cameras for low-light conditions compiled by Adorama (as of Summer 2014). A colleague has recently used their top choice, the Sony Alpha a7S, to photograph a fluorescent helium jet seeded with acetone in near darkness in our lab at UVic. But that hardly qualifies as a common photography situation, so it’s a subject for another story.

As a more general resource for handling low-light situations, check out this book: Chasing the Light: Improving Your Photography with Available Light.

September 22, 2014September 23, 2014

Window light

Window light is ideal for indoor portrait photography. In fact, some light modifiers (e.g. umbrellas or soft boxes) used in studio lighting setups are designed to replicate this natural lighting condition. There are several good reasons for this.

First, a window is a very large light source, compared to the subject, which results in a diffused, flattering light with soft shadows (smooth transitions between the lighted and shaded areas). A general rule that applies here is this: large light source (e.g. cloudy sky) = soft shadows; small light source (e.g. uncovered light bulb) = harsh shadows.

Second, the colour temperature of the daylight matches that of a daylight-balanced (read: standard) flash, which makes it very easy to use a fill-in flash without having to worry about correcting the skin tones in post-processing. A caveat here is that the shoot is happening close to the middle of the day, not during the “golden hours” around sunrise and sunset that are so desirable for outdoor portraits. So, here is a tip: schedule an indoor photo shoot during the day, if there is an access to a large window.

Third, there is something “right” about the height of the light source represented by a typical window – it is neither too high nor too low to cause unnatural shadow patterns on the subject’s face.

Because of these nice features of window light, I always try to take advantage of it when my daughter is getting ready to go out and is looking out of the window in our hallway. These moments are fleeting, so here is another tip: experiment with camera setting beforehand and save them as a custom preset if your camera allows it. (Here is how to find custom functions in a Canon EOS camera.)

In the photo above, my daughter is going to Raffi‘s concert, and to a dance class in the image below.

September 6, 2014September 6, 2014

Young athletes

I was taking photos of Vikes children’s summer camps couple of weeks ago and noticed how wide is the range of athletic abilities of the kids of the same age. Boys and girls, who are about ten years old, are particularly different.

At the Boulder rock climbing gym at Stelly’s Crossroad, most of the boys noticeably struggled to climb much higher than about twice their own height. I must say, I clearly remember that I was the same at that age – any sort of climbing was not my strong suit. (Come to think of it, I might still be the same now…) However, some girls from the same age group literally walked up the climbing wall, all the way to the 50-foot-high ceiling. Clearly, girls have an advantage in terms of power-to-mass ratio!

Interestingly, things were just the opposite in the soccer camp. With very few exceptions, little girls were quite unbalanced when striking the ball – from the kendo background, I could clearly see that their weight shifted to the back foot as they ran up to the ball and also during the defending drills (for the older girls). On the other hand, most of the boys could kick through the ball quite confidently, keeping their balance throughout the motion.

Correction (few days after): now after looking at the photos, I can say I was wrong about the soccer: boys and girls look about equal – most are quite clumsy. Image below is an exception – this little dude was amazing!

August 16, 2014September 23, 2014

On sharing

My daughter is three years old and has a strong sense of personal property, typical for this age. About two weeks ago, she gave us a vivid illustration of the fact that sharing, as a concept, is a two-way interaction.

On the way to the Beacon Hill park, we realized that we left our daughter’s sandbox toys at home. She was a little upset, but we told her that there were many other interesting things at the park – swings, slides, a zip line, etc. She would just need to share them with other kids. The virtue of sharing is not taken for granted at her age, to say the least, so it took quite a bit of convincing before she agreed that sharing is a good thing to do.

As we came to the playground, she saw somebody else’s plastic bucket and toys in the sandbox and immediately suggested: “Let’s share those!” How can you argue with this? After all, sharing is good!

July 29, 2014October 5, 2014

Disneyland

The ASME PVP conference in Anaheim is over. It was my first major organizing effort. Everything went well, but I must say, I am happy that it is finished. My wife and daughter came with me to the trip, and we are now enjoying a week-long vacation in Venice Beach, CA.

My daughter was talking about flying in an airplane for weeks before the trip, and she actually enjoyed the flights – a rare (I suppose) case of expectations matching the reality. At the Hyatt hotel in Anaheim, we received an upgrade to a “fireworks view” room, from where the daily fireworks shows over the Disneyland are visible. In this case, the reality proved to be too intense for a two-and-a-half-year-old. Our little one is not crazy about loud noises, to say the least. So, by popular request from the audience, curtains were drawn over the fireworks shows.

On Friday after the conference, we went to the Disneyland. It was the first visit ever for me, and the third for the ladies, who went there two times while I was at the conference. After all, apparently, it is the only attraction in Anaheim. Our daughter is a bit too young for most of the rides, but she enjoyed visiting the princesses, the Goofy’s house, a play at the Royal Theatre.

Photography-wise, I tried to follow the advice of Jim Harmer of Improve Photography to take images that have personal meaning and emotional content (he gave an example of a close-up of a child’s sweaty forehead taken while climbing the Eiffel tower over a cliché full-figure portrait with the tower in the background). I took a few pictures of my daughter, all with a Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM lens, mostly wide open. The colours in the Disneyland are so bright and open, that even when the surroundings are completely blurred out.

Each day during this trip is ending by either my wife or me reading a book on an iPad to our daughter before bed. “Varezhka”, based on an old Russian cartoon, is the current favourite.

June 22, 2014October 5, 2014

Bling

We started expanding our wedding photography portfolio by taking pictures of rings, graciously provided by Krikor and Marina of Lugaro Jewelry. My original plan was to bring the lights and the diffuser tent to the store, but it became apparent that photographing diamonds requires much more light than could be comfortably accommodated on location.

In fact, at least three lights are needed to capture the brilliant facets of a diamond in colour: a key – highly diffused light, and two additional lights of different intensity. I used an Alien Bees studio flash with a large soft box diffuser, positioned overhead, as the key light, another studio flash without a diffuser on one side and a Canon Speedlite 580EX II on the opposite side. The flashes were optically triggered by another Speedlite (camera-mounted) in a manual mode. Note that E-TTL setting cannot be used on the trigger Speedlite, as it would emit a pre-flash that would cause early triggering of the other lights.

Another point to consider when photographing jewelry or gemstones is textural contrast. Since the objects themselves are highly polished, hard and reflective, using a background that is rough, soft and light-absorbing is a good idea. Of course, rules are made to be broken, so a reflecting background, such as this hand-painted lacquer tray from Kanazawa, can complement the main object nicely.

The biggest challenge, of course, is to come up with an original idea for a photo after seeing hundreds of highly polished, but similar, images in magazine ads. The idea to use a book emerged during the shoot. The book, incidentally is one of the volumes of Pushkin’s letters – a tribute to our heritage and, paraphrasing Obi-Wan Kenobi, a more elegant time.

The most rewarding aspect of this project for me was a chance to do it together with Svetlana, who was involved at all stages. We used to do a lot of photography side-by-side during our travels before Anya was born, but since then, I was doing most of the shooting, and my style, technique and even equipment changed. This time, Anya was in daycare, and we could both focus on the shoot. Perhaps, one day in the future, we will shoot together with Anya?

May 28, 2014September 23, 2014

Theatregoer

My daughter is looking through a window while her mother is arranging her hair before going out to see the long-awaited Raffi concert last Sunday. I have a mixed impression of this image of her: it says “childhood” to me, and at the same time I can’t help but be amazed at how fast she is growing up.

May 25, 2014May 25, 2014

Football photography: A trip to Vancouver

Continuing our sports photo project of the year, Armando and I went to Vancouver on Saturday to shoot a much anticipated soccer match of the Vancouver Whitecaps against the Seattle Sounders. Because we are located on the Island, an event like this requires full-day commitment.

Having made this kind of trip several times before, the logistics are almost routine at this point. Taking the 11 o’clock ferry from Swartz Bay to Tsawassen, we arrived at the BC Place a couple of hours before the start of the match – enough time for a stroll through the streets of Vancouver and a cup of macchiato at Cafe Artigiano by the Art Gallery for a taste of a big city after our sleepy Victoria.

Inside the stadium, we were greeted many familiar faces: the players (I have an illusion that we know each other, even though this is clearly a one-way relationship), the die-hard fans, the fellow photographers.

Shooting a game of this level is always incredibly exciting. Time flew, and the match was over almost too quickly. Armando stayed in Vancouver, and I took sky train and bus to catch a 9 o’clock ferry back to Victoria. I spent the 1.5-hour-long journey sorting through the 2,500 images on my laptop.

It turned out that Svetlana and Anya had an exciting day of their own and a very late nap (Anya did, anyway), so they were able to pick me up when I arrived on the Island.

May 23, 2014September 23, 2014

Backstage photography

Last year, I helped Gordon Lee as a second shooter with photography of a dress rehearsal of a year-end show of the Boston Dance Collective school. It was a great learning experience. Actually, the most positive aspect was not related to photography. I was quite impressed by the professionalism of the dance instructors and the production process. Later that year, we enrolled our daughter, two-year-old at the time, into a creative dance class. It is hard to believe that last week she had her first-ever performance in this year end show at the Royal Theatre.

During a dress rehearsal on Wednesday, while our daughter and her group were on stage, my wife was waiting for her in the dressing room, and I took some photos of the dancers waiting backstage. I aimed to differentiate my photos from those of Gordon, who was taking the official photos again this year, partly to avoid impinging on his commercial turf and partly because I learned that the high-volume commercial shoots were not the general direction I wanted to pursue.

When our daughter’s dance was finished, we went for dinner at the Pink Bicycle restaurant across from the theatre. To finish the exciting day, we later drove to the playground on Cook St. near the Beacon Hill park. The pink dragon with its eggs buried in the sandbox is always popular with our little one. At the playground, we met three Russian-speaking families – a sign of growing Russian community in Victoria. An idea of holding an impromptu referendum to follow in the steps of Crimea and annex the playground to Russia was floated but quickly decided against.

April 8, 2014September 23, 2014

Snails: action has been slow today

Snails are some of my daughter’s most favorite animals these days. Coming home from work/daycare today, we found these two guys in front of our front door. The rock on which they were sitting was too low to comfortably photograph them from a tripod, so I shot them hand-held, setting the ISO to “Auto” and letting it go into stratosphere. Thankfully, the noise is easily managed in post-processing.

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