Regina and Franco – Film & Digital

Regina has an exotic look owing to her background:  She’s Nicaraguan with an ancestry that includes Chinese, Swedish and English roots.  The shoot was scheduled to coincide with a visit by our good friend Gary of GPhotoDesign.com.  We both shot with film and digital, the film I used was Portra 160 VC.

I enjoy shooting with Gary because he sees things differently than I do.  It’s not better or worse, it’s just different and that’s a good thing.  It’s good to get different perspectives from the same location, it challenges you and makes you think a little more.  That’s how you grow.

We shot both in a warehouse area and in the Miami Design District.  These were my favorite film shots:

The images below were captured digitally.  With digital, one of the major advantages over film is the ability to adjust your ISO.  This is an obvious but often overlooked ability.  With my old Nikon FM with a manual film wind, I could note what frame I was at, wind back the film slowly, put in another roll at another ISO, shoot it, then re-load the old film and reshoot all the previously shot frames with the lens cap on and get back to where I was at.  With the F100 and it’s auto-rewind, you’re married to a roll of film until I’ve shot the entire roll.  With digital, you have tremendous flexibility in what you want to do.

Yes, we could break out lights (which we did have with us) but unless you have a dedicated lighting assistant and have time, it’s not always the most feasible option.  For instance, the first image below was shot by me standing in the middle of the street.  I didn’t have the luxury to work with OCF while avoiding being run over.

One thing about each shoot is that there are opportunities where you can do something unplanned that adds to the shoot.  Regina brought along Franco and Franco was a hip, cool guy who didn’t try to be cool and hip, he just was himself.  So we had him in some of the shoots too and he was great.  Often, men don’t want to be “bothered” with photoshoots because it’s “not cool” but he was great and really enjoyed the process. Here’s some of them together:

I was going for this “I love you honey” from her while Franco is acting all “you’re just one of the harem baby”.

Inadvertently, I got some insight into the whole “film vs. digital” argument. In my opinion, they’re both good, it just depends on the situation. I think that saying that one is definitely better than the other is short-sighted.  It’s not the gear it’s what you do with it that matters. But not all tools serve all purposes. The important thing is that, regardless of whether you use film, digital or a homemade camera obscura is that you know what the heck you’re doing.

South Beach at Night

Though this is different from the portrait/event/wedding work we do, Ray shot these long exposure images at South Beach recently and we though we would share them.  Not much else to say but enjoy!

We Finally Got That Roll Developed

After finding the only lab in Miami that does non C-41 film processing, I had an old roll of B&W film developed.  Honestly, I forgot what was on it and wasn’t even sure if it would come out decent.  Among the images included some street photography I recently did.  This reminded me about one truth when shooting film:  If you don’t get a roll developed fairly soon, you’ll eventually forget what you shot to begin with.  The interesting thing is that, in this time of instant results and gratification, the experience of having an unknown product (when you’re used to it being instant) was different.

I also confirmed one thing: No matter how good the software (and Silver Efex Pro is pretty good) and all things being equal, a film B&W image will always look better than a digitally converted image.  Maybe it’s the latitude, the grain, I don’t know.  But it has more to it.

As always, let us know if you have any comments and thanks for reading!

Ray

iPad 2 for Photographers

I have to thank Laura Radniecki (who I know through Twitter & Facebook) for this idea because she will ask me questions that have longer answers and I’ve used them as blog posts.  This time is no exception.

I recently commented on how someone recently related to me all of the unique ways they’ve incorporated the iPad 2 into their photography business and while I was listening, I kept wanting to say “Dude, I was the one who told you to use an iPad 2 for your business months ago!” but I was polite and bit my tongue.    Laura saw this post, asked me how it could help her and figured if I’m going to type a thorough explanation,  I may as well do it via blog.

Disclaimer: I’m going to mention specific gear in this post.  I do not benefit in any way from mentioning said gear, this is just based on my experiences.  And, no, I don’t get an iPad for talking about it.  I wouldn’t mind one but it’s not going to happen.

1.  Portable portfolio.  The most obvious use of an iPad 2 is as a mobile portfolio and with its beautiful screen and ease of use potential clients can quickly scan your images.  Is it as good as a true printed portfolio? Doubtful.  There is something about an image printed on quality paper that the best digital screen cannot capture.  But it’s portable and you can include a large number of images and that screen displays images beautifully.

2. Proof Book.  Back in the “old days” before laptops, photographers would print out 4×6 proofs, put them in an album and create a proof book and then hand it to said client so they could review their pictures.  Along the way with digital photography came the laptop which is useful but everyone is staring at a screen.  With the iPad, you can set up an album and hand it to them, spend about 1 minutes showing them how to navigate it (if they aren’t familiar with one) and they can hold the iPad in their hands and go through their images.  If you don’t know, images look awesome on the iPad.  They can go through and “flip” the pages and review the images their way.  It’s a much nicer and more intimate experience, in my opinion.  One negative that people have brought up about this is that you can’t see the images in a large size and, therefore, you are limiting your large print sales.  There is a solution for that (see 3. below) but, in the old days before digital, people sold large images without a projector and a .jpg file.  So, take that for what you will.

3.  HD TV connectivity.  The iPad 2 has the ability (with the optional  $30 adapter) to connect directly to any HDTV and output images at 720p.  With the iPad 2, all of the screen movements, apps, whatever, are shown on the HDTV.  You can hand the iPad 2 to a client, connect it to an HDTV and they can scan their images in a larger size in HD quality.  This is one area where the iPad 2 is an huge improvement to the original iPad.

4.  Portable tethering solution.  Using the Eye-fi Pro X2 card, and iPad (original or 2) and the IOS app Shuttersnitch you can shoot images from an SD card and have them wirelessly transmit to your iPad.  This is a link to an article that explains more about it (http://photographyforrealestate.net/2011/04/21/eye-fi-pro-x2-can-now-transfer-directly-to-your-ipadba/) but if you are out in the field, studio, wherever, you can see how your images are appearing as you shoot them and adjust if needed.  No, I do not recommend this for a commercial shoot but if you’re shooting a high school senior and you give her the iPad and she’s seeing the images, you can gauge from her response if you’re on the right track or not (that’s a tip I got from Kirk Volclain).  Now, showing images to a subject can be a bag of hurt because the subject may or may not like the images, but if you think they need a little encouragement, this is a nice way to go without needing a lot of infrastructure.

So, if you’re looking for a portable solution on showing images, the iPad 2 may be a great option for you.

Take care,

Ray

Learning from Jay Maisel

I recently began reading the book “Chasing the Light” by Ibarionex Perello and found that he also hosts and produces  a podcast that was previously unknown to me titled “The Candid Frame” available at either http://www.thecandidframe.com/ or on iTunes.  Mr. Perello interviews photographers from various fields and what I like about the format is that Mr. Perello let’s the subject talk and doesn’t try to dominate the podcast and he’s not interjecting products from sponsors throughout the show.  If you can, please check it out, I think it’s definitely worth listening to.

One of the first episodes I listened to was an interview in late 2009 with Jay Maisel.  I’ve heard of Jay Maisel, know he’s an icon but never have studied the man and I have definitely missed out.  You can look up his images on Google but one of his most famous ones is the cover to the Jazz classic (and one of my favorite albums) “Kind of Blue”.  He’s had a career that has spanned over 55 years and I really enjoyed listening to someone with his perspective and career embrace new technology (he currently shoots with a D3s) yet have the perspective of decades to draw upon. cc

This was great to listen to because I’m at one of those points that I’m not sure what to focus on.  After a few years of hard work I feel that Lisa and I are at the point where we do decent to good work that’s technically competent.  Our clients have been happy with our work (and IMO clients are the ultimate judge) and we’ve gotten good feedback from some of the photographers we know and whose work we enjoy.  We know where we want to be (and talk about climbing mountains)  but don’t think we absolutely stink.  However, the thing that has been in the back of my mind is what do I focus on?  Technically we have a good idea of where we want to improve but time is limited.  So, what do I focus on so that I don’t go off on a path that really doesn’t provide much in the way of benefits for us or our clients?  Listening to this interview really cleared my mind and gave me an idea of what is important to me and what to focus on.  It’s a personal thing and it may not be the same for anyone else but that’s true of all art.  It’s more about the journey than the destination and it’s more about developing what you see vs. what other people do.

So, as part of this post I wanted to quote directly from the podcast in hopes that maybe someone else could gleam some insight into their own work.  Mr. Perello granted us permission to directly quote from this episode (#87 – Jay Maisel) and for that Lisa and I thank him.  So, from an hour interview, these are a few gems that hit home:

“Over the years, as you stay in the  business longer, you realize there is no one way to do it.  You may like doing it the way you like to do it but that doesn’t mean that’s the only way to do it.”

“Go out as empty as possible and not have any preconceptions about what you’re going to do”

“Try to make the image as specific as possible about the thing that you’re photographing.”

“Nobody gets attracted to being a painter because they’re interested in the quality of the brushes.  Nobody gets interested in being a painter because they like canvas.”

“Guys will say ‘well, you may be able to shoot at 1600 ISO but I’m shooting at 100 ASA and I have the best quality’…yeah, you have the best quality on a blurry picture.  You have the best quality on a picture that’s not sharp…your pixels are good, your pictures suck.”

“A lot of people say ‘I’d really rather shoot at a lower ISO because the quality is better’.  The quality of the pixels may be better but the quality of your pictures won’t be better.”

Thanks for reading and, as always, I like comments.

Regards,

Ray Carcases

First Wedding – Part 2

Hi,

OK, here’s a few fun things & things that we were reminded of from shooting our first wedding (part 1 was posted here: http://wp.me/p1k75K-4K):

1.  Go with the flow.  After I shot formals of the groom and his party, the bride’s stepfather thinks it would be funny to have Yancarlo (the groom) pose with his 9mm handgun.  I’m not big on guns and the only reason I didn’t freak out was Yancarlo served eight years in the Cuban military so he knows gun safety.  But I didn’t want to look like a punk so I just casually said something like “as long as you don’t point it at me I’m good” and we took a series of images.  Monique (the bride) told us “these are not going into the album” but Yancarlo likes them and he’s going to purchase a couple of prints.  Here’s one of that series:

2.  If you don’t have the gear you love, love the gear you’re with.  We had worked out everything as to who was going to shoot which angles using specific lenses.  One of our keys was to shoot the ceremony using our 85 1.8.  This is probably Nikon’s best lens for the money and since it’s razor-sharp at 2.8 we were going to use this to avoid using flash during the ceremony.  Everything was good until Lisa sends a text saying “I left the 85mm at her aunt’s house.  Sorry.”  So, I pulled out the 80-200 2.8.  Now, I love this lens but it has two drawbacks:  (a) it’s heavy so you have to shoot it at a high shutter speed because (b) it does not have VR.  So, I worked at setting up my shots slowly, as if I were shooting film (or maybe I should say FILM), bracing myself and gently pressing the trigger.  I got a lot of good shots, I like this one in particular:

3.  Everybody’s a critic.  During the first dance of the B&G at the reception, one of the guests came up to me and said “I think you should shoot from a different angle because you’re shooting into the living room and you’re going to get that in the shot”.  She didn’t know that we had set the shutter speed high enough to kill the ambient light to prevent this from happening.  The immediate thought that came through my mind was “how can I defuse this situation quickly?”  I simply showed her the image from my viewscreen and asked her “is this okay?” without the slightest shred of smart-alickiness and she said “oh, that’s fine” and walked away.  Yeah, I could have been arrogant, cute, sarcastic or whatever, but I just wanted to defuse the situation quickly so I could get back to shooting.  I’m there to take images, not get into a verbal sparring session with a guest.  A few minutes later she was conversing with the DJ (who did a good job) so I didn’t feel too bad. Here’s one of the images:

4.  Try to get a shot they’re not expecting.  We always bring our 10.5 mm fisheye lens to each shoot because, though it’s uniqueness limits its application, it does provide interesting images on occasion.  Before the bride arrived, I went to the back of the church and took this one and gave it a HDR-like effect to draw some interest.  The ironic thing is that while many photographers hate anything HDR-related (and I will admit because a lot of it is badly done), clients always select these images.

5. Yes we shoot table shots, what about it?  I’ve read some interesting exchanges over whether photographers should do table shots or not, with someone saying flat-out “we don’t do them”.  Maybe we’re naive, but if the client is paying us and we have two photographers, if they want a table shot they’re getting a table shot.

6.  Appearances are deceiving.  At every event there is at least one person asking us about gear when we’re busy trying to shoot.  We like to give people a quick answer (to avoid rudeness) and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  Lisa was busy shooting and one of the female guests comes up to her and asks “Is that the 50 1.4?”.  Lisa says “yes” and the guest replied “how do you like the bokeh?”  We both chatted with her and her boyfriend and she was quite the camera enthusiast and had explained that her D40 had broken and she was trying to decide to upgrade either to a D7000 or a D300s.  This was really unexpected because most guests that ask gear questions fit into a certain demographic:  they’re male and no matter what answer you give them they’ll disagree with you 9 times out of 10.  This was a young woman who asked really good questions about gear and photography in general and wanted honest insight from us.  She could definitely teach the “gear guys” a thing or two.

Anyway, that’s it for us.  Thanks for reading, let us know what you think.

Ray and Lisa.

First Wedding – Part 1

It’s ironic that over the past 2-3 years we’ve met and gotten to know so many great wedding photographers, yet we had never shot a wedding, that is until this past May.  People always ask why we never shot a wedding before and we had two reasons why.

1.  Too much competition.  Back about three years ago when we decided to charge money for photography, we looked at the landscape and saw new photographers, established photographers and photographers who were recently laid off from newspapers go after the same event:  Weddings.  We thought that by not focusing there and rather on other areas that we could find clients, we would have a better chance at growing our business.  We thought of how Nintendo looked at the video game market several years ago.  They saw Sony and Microsoft ready to throw millions of dollars into black holes to go after the same customer.  Nintendo, knowing that they could not financially play that game decided to create a console for everybody else.  That console is the Wii.

2.  We weren’t ready.  More importantly, in the beginning we knew we weren’t ready.  We take our photography seriously and a wedding to us is serious business.  You can’t redo it, you can’t screw it up.  We had never shot a wedding and honestly felt we had no business charging for a wedding.  We always said when we decided to “go pro” that we would always work to do our best and if we felt like we couldn’t deliver, we wouldn’t take the job.

Over the past 2+ years we’ve shot just about everything relating to people photography except a wedding.  We’ve learned, grown and had help from many great photographers.  A few months ago one of our past clients was showing her sister, who was looking for a wedding photographer, our work and  she falls in love with it.  Monique (the bride) wanted good photography but her budget didn’t include $4K for a photographer and she had looked at the sites of $500 photographers and refused to hire them because, in her words, “they sucked”.  So, she approached us and wanted to hire us.  We were a little above her budget but, being our first wedding, we were able to accommodate her budget since she was hiring an unknown (when it came to weddings).  We were confident that we could do the job but we were also a bit nervous.

Having followed and gotten to know wedding photographers over the past few years has helped us out greatly. We did our homework but, as in anything, we had help to be successful.  Gary of GphotoDesign, Jeff Sipper of Sipper Photo, Corey Ann Balazowich of Corey Ann Photography, Carlos Baez of Carlos Baez and Kevin Jairaj of KJ Images all helped us out with specific questions we had and we graciously thank them for their help.  All of them are good people and professionals in every sense of the term.  And they all kick ass with a camera.

Here’s a few images that we shot.  In part two we throw in 9 mm handguns, handling guests who told us how we  should be shooting the reception, answering gear questions, table shots along with a few things learned along the way.

Thanks,

Lisa and Ray