Plan B 3.0

Today is Thanksgiving - I  hope you all have a wonderful day and have the opportunity to spend it with your family as I am.  I chose the photograph for today because of the juxtaposition of our national day of turkey indulgence to this fellow engaged in a hunger strike to end carbon emissions in 2012 (or so his sign says).

I took this shot moments before sunrise as I was walking to the Occupy DC camp at McPherson Square.  It was the day after Halloween which accounts for the interesting lighting on the Whitehouse.  The West entrance and drive was decorated for Halloween with webs and other scary stuff along with the lighting which cast spooky shadows on the Whitehouse.

If the first shot is a Thanksgiving photograph, the next version is more aligned with the Halloween motif.  After processing in color, I decided to try another version in B/W to set a darker mood.

If you happen to be meandering around the Whitehouse today, hand this guy a turkey leg or some leftover Halloween candy.  You can also let him know that while dramatically limiting carbon emissions is a good idea, it is not likely to happen in 2012 – so have some turkey.

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig

Two Concept Photographs for the “Messenger”–The J.O.B.

After a good night’s sleep aided by my last culinary adventure (see Craig’s Grape Adventure tomorrow when I post Trinidad Doubles with Cucumber Chutney and Trinidad Pepper Sauce Paired with 2010 Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc), I set out before sunrise to work on some photography for the new single “Messenger” to be recorded by The J.O.B. (The Jim O’Ferrell Band).

The photos featured here represent several of the concepts I have discussed with Jason Crawford (electric guitar extraordinaire) including the ghostly images of the subjects evoking an unconscious connection among them.  The purpose of this post is to discuss how I captured the images.

The first component is that of capturing the subjects in motion – leaving them with a ghostly blur.  This requires a long enough shutter speed to allow the blur to develop.  This is why I was out the door early.  I do not have neutral density filters (dark filters that limit light arriving at the sensor), so I had to rely on taking the photos under low light conditions to maintain exposure and achieve a sufficiently long exposure to capture the motion.

The second challenge was getting enough bodies in the photo to achieve the crowded bustle and energy I desired.  To do this, I composited 10 to 15 shots for each photograph.  More precisely, I set the camera on a tripod to maintain a constant composition, then took a bunch of shots as I saw people in the positions I envisioned.  In post processing I started with a base photograph, overlayed the other 15 or so shots, and then masked in the subjects to get all the bodies in the same shot.

Stay tuned for further updates on this project.

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig

Washington Nationals Park During Construction

Although I live in Washington DC, just a over a mile from Nationals Park, I have to admit to not being a baseball fan.  It is not that I don’t have affection for the home team, but I simply don’t have the patience for baseball.  For me, baseball is somewhat like the NBA and NHL that suffer from too many games in a season for anything less than fully dedicated fans to get their heads around.  I generally reengage with these sports when playoff time comes – when every game is significant.  The idea of every game being important is what makes the NFL more appealing to me.  With fewer games in the NFL (and all college sports), each game takes on greater significance.

However, my views on baseball and other sports are not the subject of this post.  The purpose is to share some photography of Nationals Park during construction.  Nationals Park opened in 2008.  These photographs are all stitched panoramas taken during the late spring of 2007.

I have not shared these photographs previously because they do not show well in this format.  But being the middle of baseball season, I decided to go ahead and share these with my baseball loving friends.  From a photographic perspective, there are two characteristics of these photographs of note.  First, the photographs are composed of 5 to 7 individual photographs stitched together to form a single panoramic photograph.  Second, my choice to process the photos as black and white.

I chose black and white because it enhances the industrial feel of the composition, and because most of the color information in the photos came from construction and safety equipment.  Neither of these components added anything to the composition.

At the writing of this post, the Washington Nationals are in next to last place in the National League East with a record of 49 wins and 52 losses.  Lets hope they improve their season before the playoffs come, and I tune back in to baseball.

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig

Pouring Wine Sideways–Defying Gravity

The first photograph in this post is the title photograph from my other blog – Craig’s Grape Adventure.  If you have not visited yet, I encourage you to do so.  On Craig’s Grape Adventure I share my experiences with food, wine, and pairing along with some phenomenal recipes and plenty of food photography.  There are thousands of food blogs, wine blogs, and pairing blogs meandering about the internet galaxy.  Craig’s Grape Adventure is distinct among this large group because each pairing comes with a story, the “why” of the pairing, extensive photography, and I discuss the failures as well as the successes.

Several people have asked that I talk about how I made this shot, so here we go.  The setup was pretty simple.  First I set up a light stand with a crossbar and clam to hold the glass upside down as shown in the next photograph.  I used a large white reflector as the background which also served to bounce light back through the glass and pouring wine.  I used an Elinchrom 250 light (modeling light and strobe) at the 8 o’clock position with a bounce off the rear reflector and a second reflector at the 4 o’clock position.  The light was triggered wirelessly using the Elinchrom wireless system.

I used a Canon 24-70 f/2.8L mounted on my Canon 5D which was all mounted on a tripod and triggered using a cable release.  The cable release is an important part of this setup because this was a one man operation.  In other words I had to make the pour and take the shot at the same time…left hand operating the camera, right hand pouring.  The next shot shows that my coordination was further challenged by having to accurately aim and land the pour into a pot (rather than deal with a big mess).  For all you wine lovers, don’t worry, no wine was sacrificed in the making of this photograph.  I used water.

The final challenge to this shot was capturing an “interesting” stream of water.  Every time I poured, the stream looked a bit different.  The result is that I took a bunch of shots then settled on the exposure I liked the best.

Finally, in post processing I rotated the image 90 degrees, cropped to capture the relevant parts, and hiked up the highlights to washout the background. Voila!  Overall this was a fun and creative exercise.  Now my mind wanders to “what else can I do with spilling wine?”

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig

San Francisco Street Car Diptych

Every once in a while I am surprised by my photography.  Don’t get excited, these are not the words of an overblown ego.  The real meaning behind these words is that once in a while I am pleasantly surprised by seeing something during post processing that was not my intent when the shot was taken.

While processing some shot from a trip to San Francisco in January, I saw the two photographs (below) and instantly saw they belonged as a diptych.  This was not my intention when I was shooting the street cars parked along Fisherman’s Wharf, and therefore my pleasant surprise.

My take away from this is to be open to pleasant surprises.  Just because I did not plan a shot, does not mean it is a throw away.

Have fun and go make some great photography.

Craig

The Golden Gate Bridge–Black and White

I am doing my best to live up to my commitment to improve on the time between taking a photo and processing it.  At times during the last year, I have been behind by as much as a full year.  This photo comes from the last of the collection of photographs taken in California during a visit in January.  Only four months behind…not so bad.

One benefit of not processing my photos immediately is that once separated in time and/or space from the original photograph, I am more capable of looking at the photograph more critically, and less emotionally.  Even making a first pass of processing then returning to finish in a week or two can improve my ability to produce a better photograph.

Have fun and go make some great photography.

Craig

Washington DC Cherry Blossoms in Black and White

We are quickly coming to then end of my series of posts featuring the cherry blossoms in Washington DC.  If I am not mistaken, I have just one more shoot to process.  I’m sure there will be a few shots to share from the final group.

If you search the web, most of the shots of the cherry blossoms you will find are in color.  This makes sense because the pink of the blossoms is quite dramatic.  However, being a fan of black and white, I am convinced it is possible to get a unique perspective of the cherry blossoms by taking a slightly less trodden path.

The other contributing factor for processing these photos as black and white was the overcast sky.  Had there been blue skies with interesting cloud formations, I may have gone the color route.  However, with only the cherry blossoms filling a noteworthy color role, it was an easy decision to go black and white.

Check back later this week, and I will have the cherry blossoms wrapped up.  I have a few other things on deck you will be sure to find interesting such as some tips for food photography lighting (don’t miss the opportunity to visit my other blog, Craig’s Grape Adventure, for some great food photography, awesome recipes, and wine pairings guaranteed to please) and my recent acquisition of a new lens, the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L (I will try to get some shooting with the new lens before writing about it).

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig

National Cathedral, Washington DC, at Night

For quite some time I have had a lingering shoot on my photography work list that I just never seemed to get around to checking off.  In January I was finally able to make it happen, and made it out of the house very early on a Saturday morning to photograph the National Cathedral in Washington DC at night.

For a long time I had visualized the shots I wanted.  The key parts of the shoot included shooting at night, shooting in winter when the trees were barren, and shooting on the weekend when I could easily find a parking spot.  Combining these three prerequisites with the need to get up well before sunrise kept this shoot on my work list for much longer than most other planned shoots.

My shoot was successful, and these are a few of the photographs I was able to make.  I particularly like the way the stark trees interplay with the cathedral.  And with very little color information, it made complete sense to process them as black and white.

Each of the photographs are 5 shot HDR images taken with a Canon 17-40mm f/4.0 L at 17 mm.  I am also pleased with the HDR processing.  I am finally closing in on my goal of producing HDR images that don’t look like HDR images while still taking advantage of the real value of HDR; bringing out the details in both the highlights and shadows.

Have fun and go make some great photography.

Craig

Food Photography Tips (11-15)

This is the third and final installment of food photography tips resulting from what I have learned during my recent period of dedication to food photography.

In Food Photography Tips (1-5), I presented the first set of tips:

• Tip #1:  Shoot Low – Angle Matters
• Tip #2:  Composition Rules Work for Food Too
• Tip #3:  Fill the Frame
• Tip #4:  Find Some Action
• Tip #5:  Eat Well

In Food Photography Tips (6-10), I presented the second set of tips:

 

• Tip #6:  Shoot with a Shallow Depth of Field
• Tip #7:  Shoot with a Long Lens
• Tip #8:  DO NOT Use the Flash Installed on Your Camera
• Tip #9:  Add Color
• Tip #10:  Capture the Textures

And now for the final 5.

 

Tip #11:  Use Props Judiciously

 

Props are good if used with a bit of restraint.  All the normal things you might find on a table (silverware, glasses, linens, flowers, wine bottle/decanter, cooking utensils, kitchen gadgets, etc.) are all fair game.  The thing to remember is that the food is the star.  If you go to heavy on the props, the star will not shine so brightly.  Also be conscious of distracting colors, patterns, or shapes of props.  Props should provide context, set a mood, and support the star of the show.  They should not compete for top billing.

 

 

Tip #12:  Think About Plates and Plating

 

Bonus! Two (or maybe more) tips in one!  Selecting the right plate is an important decision that has a number of implications including how you “plate” the dish.  First, I recommend staying simple.  If your plate is too cool for school, you draw attention away from where you want the viewers attention.  Second, I recommend small rather than large.  Small plates make the food look bigger.  A lot of empty space on a big plate can be distracting.  This is where the plate affects the plating (how you setup the food on the plate).  If the plate is too small, you may be limited in staging the food attractively.  If you have too large a plate, the food can look lonely.  Somewhere there is the plate that is “just right.”  If you don’t have the “just right” plate, err on the side of small. 

 

 

Plates also very with respect to the lip height.  Higher plate lips can hide the food.  I recommend sticking with a simple plate with a low lip height as a general rule.

 

Finally, plating a dish is an art in itself.  Without getting into the realm of food styling where all the Hollywood tricks are used, there is a lot you can do to make the food look appealing.  Plate it fresh. In other words straight from the pan, onto the plate, and in front of the camera while everything is juicy, steaming, melting, bubbling, or whatever your food might be doing.  Garnishing in a restrained manner can also add a good bit of appeal (see tip #9:  Add Color).

 

Tip #13:  Don’t Forget Your Color Balance

 

When I am shooting any of the great food I write about at Craig’s Grape Adventure, I generally run up against the challenge of shooting with several different light sources.  The lighting in the kitchen is different from the lighting at the table.  And to make things worse, the light may be coming through a window, halogen lights, fluorescent lights, or incandescent lights…all at the same time.  With all these different light sources, the photograph can become cast with a blue or yellow hue.  Suddenly, your cheese cake looks more like key lime pie…not good.

 

The next photography is one that needed a good deal of color correction…still not confident I got it right.

 

 

There are plenty of options to deal with this.  On the high tech end, there are gizmos and gadgets that you can photograph and have some magical piece of software do the correction in post processing (a great example is the X-Rite Color Checker Passport).  You can rely on your camera’s auto white balance (not always reliable), you can manually adjust the white balance settings in your camera (a bit better than auto white balance), or you can just deal with it on the computer.  Personally, I take care of it on the computer.  Adobe Lightroom does a great job of handling white balance, and where it misses slightly, I can adjust it to match the tones and hues I want.  However, when I have a few spare coins, I will definitely be purchasing the  X-Rite Color Checker Passport.

 

Tip #14:  What to Shoot, and What NOT to Shoot

 

What luck!  Another two for one tip!  Here is the big secret – shoot the things you find appealing and attractive.  If it is not attractive and appealing, don’t shoot it.  It really is that simple, but let me elaborate a bit because there are a couple of important points in these simple statements.  Food photography is not photo journalism, and you shouldn’t feel compelled to shoot a disaster as it unfolds.  Just last night I photographed one of my wine pairings for  Craig’s Grape Adventure.  A wonderful 2006 Ledson Zinfandel paired with my interpretation of Shepherds Pie as an homage to Saint Patrick’s day.  I’m not saying it is impossible to make shepherds pie look good, but it is not easy.  Some food (like shepherds pie) takes a great deal of effort or creativity to make it look good.  And some dishes, while absolutely delicious, are better left to senses other than the visual.

 

 

The other category of things that fall into the “do not shoot” category are the details you may have overlooked like the spots on the wine glass, the little sticker on the decanter, the price tag on the bottle of wine, the drippings on the plate, and so on.  My point is to pay attention to the details and be conscious of not only the things you want IN the photograph, but those things you don’t want in the photograph.

 

The photograph above is a good example of not paying attention to the details.  The sticker on the flowers and the pepper grinder should not be there.  Pepper grinder!!!  Am I admitting that my food is not perfectly seasoned???

 

Tip #15:  Pay Attention to the Light

 

I saved the most important tip for last.  Unfortunately, this is the most complicated aspect of food photography (or any photography for that matter).  I intend on writing a separate post (or series) on lighting food, but for now I will talk about some generalities.  First and foremost, photography is all about light and shadows, and forming the right balance between the two.  While having sufficient light for a good exposure is important, that is only the first step.  Once you have enough light for a good exposure, you then need to think about where the light is coming from and what kind of light it is.  More so than other types of photography, lighting for food photography is more about defining shape and texture.  Proper lighting adds depth and makes an orange appear more as a sphere, a hotdog as a cylinder, and a steak as a cube with depth and dimension.  Improper lighting makes each of these shapes flat and therefore less interesting and less appealing.

 

 

I still have much to learn about lighting food.  But I promise you I am working hard at it and will pass along the benefit of my research and experimentation when I have something substantial to offer.

 

Have fun and go make some great photography.

 

Craig