Tamron Blog: Angle of View

Passing the Camera

By André Costantini

I can remember one of the first times I handed my professional camera to a 3 year old and the reaction on the parents face. As many times as I have done this over the years (knock on wood) none has ever been dropped. Children usually understand the value of what they are holding and seem to be quite careful.

There are two things that consistently happen when letting kids use "adult cameras". First, they feel a sense of empowerment and secondly they become part of the process, which is especially helpful if part of your goal is to photograph them. Here are a few pictures from a recent brunch where we passed the camera around the table and everyone got a chance to take some pictures. These were all shot with the Nikon 7000 and the Tamron SP 17-50 f2.8 taking advantage of the available light and f2.8 aperture. I bet you can guess who shot who.

Diptych: Nature vs. Industry

by Jillian Bell

I took a photograph this summer of a plant eaten away by an insect of some sort. I was drawn to the repetition of shape, and how precise the wear marks were. I was curious what made the marks, and why there were spaces, creating the letter "i". Recently, while at a sale day at Dodd Camera in Ohio, I looked up and saw a similar pattern. If you can believe it, the second photo is taken of a fluorescent light fixture hanging above the counter. I cannot say if I was entirely successful, but I tried taking the second photo to mimic the first one. I did not have the first photograph in front of me, but my first thought was how similar these two objects are even though their makeup and purposes are completely different. The photograph of the plant leaf was taken with the Tamron SP 180mm F3.5 Macro at F/4 and 1/30^th of a second. I like it better in color but decided to show in B&W to relate both images better. The fluorescent light photograph was taken with the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD at F/6.3 and 1/2500^th of a second. Exposure was set +0.05 to allow the whites to really pop. This is a true testament in keeping your eyes open. I have learned to always keep my camera on me. I never know when I will find something interesting to photograph. Thank you for reading.

The Unexpected Guest

by André Costantini

This year the Christmas tree came from the backyard and on the evening that we put it up I noticed a gigantic spider or rather a gigantic shadow from a tiny spider as it walked over the tree lights. But with so many lights trying to find the actual spider became an exercise in futility. And I went to bed knowing that at least the spider was tiny. The next morning I heard some rustling towards the top of the tree and my mind immediately drifted to those urban myths of cactuses exploding with thousands of spiders. So I was somewhat surprised to see a butterfly, who apparently found it warm enough to emerge and thus our Christmas butterfly was born or maybe more accurately had arisen.

My internet detective work led me to believe that the butterfly is an Eastern Comma, on account of the comma like slit in the wings and the coloration. He or she, as I am not in the business of distinguishing the gender of butterflies, was quite cooperative as a subject landing on the finger of my fiance and exposing the innards of it's wings. The butterfly has taken a liking to the bedroom window in the afternoons and the outside of the window curtain in the evenings. She has been with us for four weeks now and seems quite content, especially when some birds unsuccessfully attempted to eat her through the window. But I digress, on the first day of our acquaintance, I was compelled to photograph my new friend. And of the 120 or so images I shot, came a collage, a portrait and an abstract of the butterfly in the tree.

All images were taken with the Tamron SP 60mm F/2.0 macro lens. The collage images were taken at 1/100-125th of a second at 1600 ISO f3.3. The images themselves are not manipulated other then erasing the edges to soften them and laying them out together. Because of the depth of field and the movement of the butterfly with respect to the shutter speed, some blur occurred, resulting in an image that resembles painting. The portrait was 1/125 ISO 800 f3.3 and is two images combined together to increase the depth of field and create more planes of sharpness. Butters in the tree was 1/80th ISO 8000 f4.0. I focused the lens to its closest focus point to get the tree lights to blur into nice round circles and then moved around to get the butterfly silhouette in the foreground.

Sometimes the unexpected guest can become the center of attention, especially when it is a butterfly in your living room in mid December in the northeast of America.

Achieving that Selective Focus

By André Costantini

If you are looking to achieve selective focus there are three things to know that effect the depth of field in your images. They are aperture or f-stop (interchangeable terms), focal length and the distance of focus to your subject. Wider apertures like f2.8 or f2.0 let in more light but provide less depth of field. With longer telephoto lenses there is less depth of field. And the closer your focusing point, or to generalize the closer the subject to the lens, the less of your image will be in focus. This becomes especially apparent with true macro photography. So combining all of these principles will then create the most exaggerated effect. This image was taken with the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 at 75mm at f2.8 at just under 2 feet away.

This image was made in Brazil one afternoon when I was working on assignment down there. As you can see the eyebrows and mustache are in focus but everything else quickly falls out. When using this technique it is critical that you get your focus exactly right. The good news is that when you look through your camera's viewfinder on your SLR, you are seeing what the camera will record at the lenses widest aperture. So you will always get exactly what you see in the viewfinder when the aperture of your camera is set to the wide open setting. Sometimes when working this close to people I will switch the focus mode to Manual. A slight physical movement on the part of the subject or the photographer is enough to make a critical last minute decision and can be the easiest way to achieve the best focus. Be careful not to get "off axis" of the plane of your subjects face, otherwise you can wind up with one eye in focus and the other one out. Also if you tilt up or down you may wind up with the eyes in focus and the lips out. If you are looking to avoid that, make sure that the back of the camera is parallel to the subjects face.

Using a wide open aperture close to your subject can create nice portraits because the effect of something very sharp next to something very soft is often pleasing for our eyes as an audience to see. Speaking of seeing, even though his eyes are dark, I had him face the sky on an overcast day. That creates the soft highlights in his eyes which give the image more depth. Our eyes are drawn to contrast and where light meets dark creates this. He is standing on a balcony with an overhead covering, which is helping to give direction to the light and shadow on the top of his head and cheek.

So if you want to maximize the effect of the selective focus remember to open wide, go long and get close.

You Can Tell ‘Em I Said It!

By Hernan Rodriguez

I recently did a shoot with the famous Eddie Griffin! Eddie needed some promotion images. So I put together a Blog featuring my shoot with Eddie. Why the title of this blog? That’s the name of Eddie Griffin’s latest DVD comedy special release flying off shelves. www.eddiegriffin.com

Griffin co-starred opposite Malcolm Jamal in the successful sitcom, Malcolm & Eddie, branching out into roles in such films:

•  2007: Norbit alongside Eddie Murphy

•  2002: John Q with Denzel Washington earning him respect as a dramatic actor

•  2002: Undercover Brother his lead role as Anton Jackson Griffin most recently

•  2001: Double Take alongside Orlando Jones

Eddie Griffin has conquered not only the stage! He is currently listed on Comedy Central’s Top 100 Greatest Stand-ups of all time. In addition to his comedic skills, Griffin is also a gifted Dancer, Choreographer and Singer.

Eddie brought such a fun atmosphere and was very approachable which made this photo shoot one of the most exciting and memorable shoots I have ever had! What I admired the most was his readiness to collaborate on making these images the best they can be. He truly is a class act! You can also see more of his photo session at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eddie-Griffin/73107530966

The shoot was a great success due in part to the proper planning and attention to all details of the shoot months beforehand.

All specifics were laid out and approved by Griffin’s manager, Ann Flagella. During this process, our team put together a series of sketches, diagramming our light schematics, props, backgrounds and wardrobe.

During this time we also planned on which lenses we would be using. When shooting celebrities, time becomes a huge part of the equation. We decided to use two Canon bodies equipped with a Tamron SP 90mm macro 2.8 on one, and a Tamron SP 70-200 2.8 on the second body. This helped to prevent any loss of time and attention, and keeping on schedule with Griffin’s shoot. In celebrity portraiture, all setups should be pre-lit, metered, white balanced, where the talent just walks in to the scene and you shoot away.

On high-end shoots, it’s always best to work with a stylist. Stylists Nataly and Marquita put together an amazing collection, pulling from Prada and Calvin Klein – just to name a few. With the notoriety of Eddie Griffin, it was quite easy for them to pull from many “high end” designers.

I did most of my research way before hand in regards to studying his facial analysis, personality and natural expressions which included a recent interview on the George Lopez show. This gave me an idea of the angles I wanted to shoot from.

POLISHED LOOK: This was a very polished commercial look for Griffin’s publicity shots. We chose to go with a classic Thunder Grey seamless to give these images a more versatile appeal. When I shoot celebrities, I like to start my setup with the background. I determine what the image use is for, and I build my light setup from that point. This setup starts as a classic portrait lighting setup but with a few added variations I might add.

LIGHTING: My Key Light was a Westcott Master Brush with the inner baffle in place. This diffuses the “hot spot” that might normally be on the face. I like to place this light right on my subjects face. No more than two feet away at times. I get a very nice soft wrap around light but still with some specularity. I added a one stop lavender Rosco gel to this main light which added a nice hint of color. It metered F8. The fill light was a large Westcott 60” White Satin Umbrella with Removeable Black Cover placed directly behind me for an open non-directional fill. This light metered at F5.6. For added fill under Griffin’s face,  a silver reflector was added which also added that extra sparkle to the eyes. Another light with a 20 degree grid was placed behind my subject and to camera left as an accent light. This edge light created nice highlights alongside Griffin’s face. This light was one stop over the Key Light. A variation I played with was adding a 72”x72” Silver Scrim Jim (large reflector) on the opposite side of the accent light and used as more fill. I also added a strobe directly in front of the Scrim Jim which added an extra accent on that side of the face. This light was powered to a stop over the Key Light as well. This gave me the option of pulling in that large reflector and playing around with the highlights.

TIP: You can experiment by placing the light closer and high in front of the scrim. It follows the principle of Angle of Incidence / Angle of Reflection Rule. It gives you a different effect than placing the accent directly on the subject. Do not be scared to experiment. Just make sure it’s not on your subject’s dime.

For these types of shoots, you want to make sure the talent is the most important focus in the image; nonetheless, you still want to add some mood and energy to the shot. This was just the right balance.

At the end of the day, I had a nice collection from both cameras with completely different compositions. The Tamron SP 90mm gave me my standard shots, which is more on the three quarter side. Shots that are a must for publicity purposes. Jumping onto the Tamron SP 70-200mm kit, I was able to recompose shots more freely without leaving my spot. I also covered more intimate close-ups which can be used for commercial headshot purposes.

THE SHOT I STOLE.

On a last note: Eddie Griffin came in with his grandfather who was 100 years young. This man was a charmer full of life. This shot I want to share with you, was completely in the moment and had I asked for him to pose, would not have been the same. He sat on the chair waiting for Eddie to enter the room. In the meanwhile, he called my son over to share with him his viewpoints on having good character and how it can carry over to the stage. In his time, he managed Richard Pryor.

Thank God I had my 70-200mm lens. In just the right instance, I was able to record a moment in time that is very precious to me. It reminded me why I became a photographer in the first place.

Anatomy of a CD cover design and shoot: step by step.

By John VanSteenberg

 

I’ve been photographing musicians forever. Recently, I was asked to design and produce artwork and the cover for a CD for a very talented emerging artist and soundscape designer. I always spend time listening to the music before I meet an artist, to make the cover fit the artistic style of the music and to discuss how to approach it visually.

In this case, musically, the work turned out to be an extraordinary spiritual album from a powerful artist named Emmanuel. The music was so unique and different that I had to ask him what genre HE thought it belonged in. “The closest I can come is that it is Christian ‘soul’ music. It’s so different with flavors of soul, gospel, rock and rap that I can only let people tell me what to call it.” When asked where he thought he wanted to go with his music, he said that his goal is to become a pastor and minister to kids and others in need on the streets where he grew up. So, the cover had to be attractive to young people.

Planning the design:

We spent time discussing the visual concept for the cover. Emmanuel is very artistic, and not just musically. We decided on something that identified him as contemplative and spiritual and even a bit mysterious, moody and beyond worldly.

CD covers are barely 4.75” in size. That means that the image elements are VERY small. So to provide impact, something about the image has to stand out and call out to a shopper or radio DJ looking for what they want to play in a crowded often chaotic store and radio studio.

Since the songs on the CD are about the real life situations that he and his friends survived growing up, we chose NOT to go with a typical “face shot” approach, but show a more serious moment and person. We also chose to deal with the theme of ‘Pain & Release’ on an additional more symbolic level, evolving from ‘pain’ to ‘release’ by bridging the physical and spiritual world by warping the worldscape.

To do that, we first posed Emmanuel by a large window in a contemplative, serious pose. The pose alone is very important in this case because it uses much of the available space on the cover to set a mood. Here, the dark almost obscure pose is naturally designed to be ambiguous: Is he in pain? Is he praying? Is he thinking? Is he just exhausted?

I used my SP 17-50 f/2.8 for the portrait. The lighting is 100% window light.

We also had to consciously plan for space for the typography, leaving some very dark areas in the upper right and lower left to contrast with the type.

Now that we had the image basis for the cover, we had to meet the additional goals of the project and produce the typography and create the extra-worldly visual impact. That took several steps. As a product, CD covers also have to have a certain visual uniqueness to be easily seen on store shelves.

First, I solarized the raw file in Bibble Labs Bibble Pro software. Doing this in the raw file state added far more color tones and exciting transitions to the final solarized image. It could not have been achieved in jpeg file format where a lot of data is discarded.

Solarization changed the window light from a conventional sensation to a fiery yellow/green light, and created the step gray shadows, the blue shadow flares on his shirt and the color swatches on the window sill and his fingers. While it also altered his skin tones to appear somewhat more green looking, I was able to minimize that shift and considering the apparent light source, it was an appropriate shift.

Then, I embedded the title and some additional typography (the “Create” logo on his shirt, and the window decal) the ‘create’ as a personal statement for Emmanuel and the window decal for commercial reasons. Finally, I did some localized retouching and dynamic range adjustments to raise the whites, give more tones and ‘pop’ to the image and the result is as shown.

Emmanuel’s CD should arrive in stores about July 20TH and I thank him for permission to use these images for the blog. Look for it online at iTunes, CD Baby, etc.. You can also look him up at www.icreateent.com and on youutube.com. Also, special thanks to Jeff and Jamie Brown of the superb “Incognito Portrait Design” studio for the use of their spectacular studio facilities

CREATING A LOGO Photo: for a creative company.

By John VanSteenberg

 

Recently, in addition to a CD cover, I was asked to create a company logo for Emmanuel’s music and custom sound production business. Let’s look at designing an image for his company logo.

Planning the design:

The design goal we agreed on is: a radical, fun and interesting image of Emmanuel and his tools, an array of keyboards.

Elements to consider:

1. Unique fun portrait of him.
2. Lots of energy and intrigue.
3. Keyboards.
4. Visually exciting.

Decisions:

To include an array of keyboards and to avoid triteness, we decided to go for something rather unique and fun rather than E just playing the keyboard. We decide to have Emmanuel ‘surfing’ the musical landscape on one of his keyboards. But, we also wanted more than one keyboard and we wanted a fun mysterious and rather exotic memorable portrait.

Implementation:

In order to accomplish this I knew we would need both careful optical selections and digital post production technologies. So, here is the step by step of how the plan unfolded:

1-Chose a very high angle, very wide angle for the portrait. (Shot from a low ladder with my SP 10-24). This accentuates the keyboard and distorts Emmanuel's head and body proportions adding intrigue and energy.

2-Chose a very unique pose with E holding the keyboard in a very unconventional manner and riding a second keyboard, like a skate or surf board. (Since standing on the instrument was not possible, we would have to do that in post).

3-Make the separate image of another of E’s keyboards for insertion later as the skate board. (This was made with the SP 17-50).

4-Then we would go into post production.

Here are the images as they were created and modified:

• Overhead portrait. First, I shot Emmanuel on a green screen so that I could control and easily drop out the background and add elements to the scene. I wanted the image to be visually unique and somewhat distorted in perspective for interest and to emphasize the keyboards and make E’s head quite large (implying a big brain) with very direct eye contact. Therefore, the SP 10-24mm was used with it’s extreme wide angle and huge depth of field. The scene was lit with a 6’ round soft box with checkerboard louvers and a hair (rim) light. I was about 2 feet from E’s head when I made the image.

• Shot of the keyboard. A simple straight green screen easily manipulated into the final image. (Shot with my trusty SP 17-50).

• Combined the two images:

1. In Photoshop I dropped out the green screen, cleaned up the rest of the background and retouched the selection of E and the keyboard he is holding.
2. Then I put the second keyboard under E’s feet. To do that, I:

rotated the image and

transformed the shape for perspective, remembering to distort it.

• I added drop shadows and streaking and an offset blur to add energy and imply movement.

1. Drop shadows on both the portrait and the keyboard shots.
2. Blur on E’s portrait.
3. Streaking in the drop shadows and blur to imply movement and direction.

• Wrapped everything in plastic to distort and add mystery and kind of a cocoon around E and his keys. Since I couldn’t really do this without suffocating him, I knew that I would do this in post production work to make the image unique and tie the design elements together. (The key to this step is selecting the best effect and adjusting the opacity and blending between the image and the effect.) Create a duplicate layer of E and dodge out the plastic directly over half of E’s face (somewhat randomly) so that his face is at least partially exposed and direct eye contact is enhanced.

• Retouch and clean up elements and flatten the image into one final grouped set of elements.

And this is the final result and LOGO image Emmanuel will use.

I converted my RAW files in Bibble Labs Bibble 5.0 PRO software to adjust exposure, density, contrast and color to precisely what I wanted and matched to each other. Then I used Photoshop to composite the image and add effects and typography. The lighting was a 6’ round soft box with checkerboard louvers and a hair light.

Thanks to Emmanuel for his creative ideas and the most interesting new album I have heard in years and for allowing me to use these images for the blog. Special thanks to Jeff and Jamie Brown of the superb “Incognito Portrait Design” studio for the use of their spectacular studio facilities (www.incognitoportraitdesign.com).

John

Hollywood Vintage

 By Hernan Rodriguez

I recently was featured in the Alien Skin Newsletter showcasing a collection of images shot with the 70-200mm and the 60mm F2 macro. I just love my "Sixty". On a sidebar: I am not too big of an advocate of many of these plug and play filters out in the market, but I am completely sold on Exposure 3. Whatever images I capture with any Tamron lens I use, which is the first objective, GET THE SHOT, I then have the option of adding a flavor of any film choice I desire, without the mess of chemicals or the cost of processing.

In this Vintage collection I put together, I wanted to portray images that would take you back to the Old Hollywood era. Images of Iconic Personalities such as James Dean, Judy Garland and Joan Crawford.

The lighting was set-up to project a historic period in time. I tend to use upward of eight lights on my talent, which gives me the most control over highlights. But in this case, it was a back-to-basics approach. I used a basic three-point light setup. I was very satisfied with the end result. The majority of key lighting was shot through a satin umbrella placed very close to my subject. This made that well lit Hollywood look with quick falloff. For fill I used a small 16×20 softbox and a reflector if needed. I also used either a background or accent light on my subject for separation.

One favorite of mine is the shot of the young girl with the pink hat. It was shot with very weak window light and one silver reflector on the opposite side. This is where my "Sixty" took over, that is my 60mm F2 Macro. The final exposure was 1/50^thsec @ f2 with an ISO of 600 because of the low light. This was a great starting point for the feel I was after even before any post work. I made a few adjustments in Lightroom and fine-tuned it into the 40’s and 50’s Hollywood era with Exposure 3. Pushing my exposure to the lens' maximum aperture, directed the entire focus on the front plane of the eye and the ribbon bow on top of the hat. The final image was that of a classic fashion editorial shot with the styling of the old films. When all was said and done, I was able to have the range needed for tight close ups from my 70-200mm, and the maximum aperture offered by my 60mm F2 for low light scenerios.

Ladies and Gentlemen, "WE ARE GOING TO HOLLYWOOD".

P.S. TAKE A LOOK AT MY FEATURED CASE STUDY PROVIDED BY JIMMY @ ALIENSKIN AND DOWNLOAD A FREE 30 TRIAL.

 
 
  
 
 

 

A Meaningful Relationship with Photoshop

 By André Costantini

Since I met Lightroom, my Photoshop has gotten really lonely. Photoshop used to visit all of my images but now only gets to see an occasional few. A lot of what I need to do to images simply doesn't need the companionship of that amazingly powerful program. But I did shoot some images recently that basked in the company of Photoshop.

I started with a relatively straightforward and clean image that I exported out of Lightroom. In Photoshop, I applied various versions of the Cross Process filter which is part of the Nik Effects 3.0 plugin. Back in the 90's, I can remember actually shooting film and cross processing it. I used to take Kodak E100S, rate it at ISO 200 and then have it processed normal in C-41 chemistry. The result was a saturated higher contrast negative that made skin washed out but maintained the shadow density. And color shifts where common, usually cyan or yellow, but it depended how you printed it. I used this mostly for shooting people because of the high contrast effect on skin.

One image was taken with hard light and the other image soft light. One image is vertical, one is horizontal. One is more blue one is more yellow. One uses a wide open aperture and the other is f8.

The horizontal image was shot with studio flash and a medium strip bank as the lighting modifier in the front and an open head behind her pointed directly to the back of her head which created the sparkle and separation. It was shot with the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 lens at f8 and zoomed to 62mm ISO 100 1/125th of a second, though it was the flash duration that becomes your effective shutter speed.

The vertical shot used available light from a modeling light plus ambient light from some windows on the other side of the room. It was taken with the Tamron 60mm f2.0 at f2.4 1/125th of a second at ISO 800. The vignette occurred naturally with the lens because it is designed for an APS-C sized sensor, not the full frame D3x that I used. I choose that lens specifically for the effect, sharpness and speed.

With it's attention to detail and discerning character, Photoshop is beyond the jealous stage and recognizes that it is only the special images that come over to spend some quality time, which obviously makes their relationship much more meaningful.

 
  

SHORT AND SWEET

 By Hernan Rodriguez

This blog actually is exactly what the title states. I quickly logged in to share a couple of thoughts on a publicity session I did which literally took just minutes. I normally like taking a lot more time and elaborating on extensive detail on lighting or portraiture, but in this occasion, due to time, I must keep it short. We as photographers are thrown into unknown arenas or must create portraits in places that are less than "ideal" for anything we might consider worthwhile. We must quickly think on our feet and make the best of what is in front of us.

That is why I always stress to learn the most you can on the technical aspect of photography so you can have the artistic freedom to create great images. Not good - Good is the enemy of Great!

On this occasion, I was covering Heidi Montag from the reality show "The Hills".

As she entered the press room, I knew I had literally just minutes to create some great shots. I was surronded by tons of people and a stage with just as much distractions as the crowd. I quickly determined to get her at the end of the entrance, using a white back wall as the background. I knew I could later add some interest in post. I made the determination of using just one lens. My Tamron 70-200mm. Tight shots was the call for the day. This lens got me in really close and I had the f2.8 option as a backup. If my flash was to give me problems, I set a small portable flash off camera left, with a small softbox around it and fired it remotely. I believe my final setting was at ISO 200 at F8.

When in doubt and without the time to change lenses, my only choice is the Tamron 70-200. It got the job done. Four minutes, and ten shots later. SHORT AND SWEET!!!