Lighting round faces — baldness — blemishes — Photography podcast #36

Pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast #36 focuses on think­ing about how dif­fer­ent types of light suit dif­fer­ent types of faces. We talk about how both short light­ing and side light­ing are good for rounder faces. We also talk about blem­ishes and baldness.

Many thanks to Mark McCall for allow­ing me to use this image (and expla­na­tion below the image) clearly show­ing the the slim­ming effect of short light­ing and the broad­en­ing effect of broad light­ing on a model’s face.

Broad Light­ing vs. Short Light­ing
Broad light­ing refers to light­ing up the face from the “broad” side, (widest part of the face from nose to ear from the cam­era angle).
Short light­ing refers to light­ing up the face from the “short” side, (side of the face turned away from the camera)

Short light­ing makes the face appear thin­ner in the image, and is the best choice for most sub­jects. Broad light­ing works best for thin faces.

Thanks as always for the com­ments by Yves Janse and Mikael. We LOVE com­ments and sug­ges­tions so please send more.

Clamps, stands, arms and adapters — Photography podcast #35

Pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast #35 is all about using sim­ple acces­sories to make your photo shoots go smoother. In par­tic­u­lar, we dis­cuss clamps, magic arms, flash adapters and light stands. All of the acces­sories can be used in mul­ti­ple ways mak­ing them extremely ver­sa­tile in a vari­ety of shoot­ing situations.

Manfrotto superclamp 035
Man­frotto Super­clamp #035

Manfrotto spring clamp 175F
Man­frotto spring clamp #175 with threaded adapter (088)

Manfrotto spring clamp with flash mount
Man­frotto spring clamp‚#175F with flash mount

Manfrotto magic arm 237HD
Man­frotto flex­i­ble magic arm #237 HD

Opus umbrella mount OPL-SW0316
Opus umbrella mount OPL-SW0316

Opus umbrella mount on manfrotto master stand 004
Opus umbrella mount on man­frotto mas­ter stand #004

Superclamp 035 attached to magic arm attached to springclamp 175
Super­clamp with arm attached to spring clamp

master light stand 004 with arm and superclamp holding a reflector
Extendible arm on man­frotto mas­ter stand #004
attached to super­clamp hold­ing a 32.5 inch reflector

Pur­chas­ing these items through these links helps sup­port this site:

Man­frotto super clamp at B&H
Man­frotto super clamp at Amazon

Man­frotto spring clamp with flash shoe at B&H
Man­frotto spring clamp with flash shoe at Amazon

Manfrotto‚flexible arm‚at B&H
Man­frotto flex­i­ble arm at Amazon

Manfrotto‚master light stand‚at B&H
Man­frotto mas­ter light stand at Amazon

Photoflex (sim­i­lar to‚Opus) umbrella flash mount‚at B&H
Photoflex (sim­i­lar to Opus) umbrella flash mount at Amazon

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing the pre­ced­ing link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below this set of images.

Photo of the week
This week, the pho­to­graph is by Arkady Renko and I com­ment in the pod­cast on why I think this pho­to­graph is fantastic.

Arkady Renko - Stranger

Thanks as always for the com­ments by‚Samirah,‚ Carl­son Chu and Yves Janse. We LOVE com­ments and sug­ges­tions so please send more. Spe­cial thanks to Nico Pin who has helped make this blog more user friendly and look funkier.

Christmas tree photography — Photo podcast #34

Pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast #34 talks about how to pho­to­graph Christ­mas tree lights or just Christ­mas lights. We focus on 2 tech­niques, using JUST the Christ­mas lights them­selves, or using on cam­era flash.

No flash christmas tree photograph
Christ­mas tree with only the lights themselves

christmas tree with flash
Christ­mas tree with on cam­era flash


PHOTO OF THE WEEK
This week, the pho­to­graph by John Gladdy and I com­ment in the pod­cast on why I think this pho­to­graph is fantastic.


– Thanks as always for the sug­ges­tion of this very pod­cast by Chris Smith. Thanks as well to Pierre B. for his com­ments on our last pod­cast on Stu­dio pho­tog­ra­phy for begin­ners. We LOVE com­ments and sug­ges­tions so please send more.

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing first link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below the photographs.

Multiple exposure in photography — Photo podcast #32

Pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast #32‚talks about mul­ti­ple expo­sure in pho­tog­ra­phy. In this pod­cast we dis­cuss the dif­fer­ent ways we can cre­ate mul­ti­ple expo­sures includ­ing in cam­era mul­ti­ple expo­sures (with dig­i­tal and tra­di­tional cam­eras) as well as cre­at­ing mul­ti­ple expo­sures using an enlarger or Pho­to­shop.


The above 2 photographs‚were taken ‘in cam­era’ by expos­ing 2 images on 1 frame of film.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK
This week, the pho­to­graph by Esther Her­nan­dez known on Flickr as‚Maguapho­tos‚ is very apros pos because it is a mul­ti­ple expo­sure cre­ated in a graph­ics pro­gram. I com­ment in the pod­cast on why I think this pho­to­graph is fantastic.

multiple exposure

Other links men­tioned in this pod­cast;
Jerry Uels­mann‚- Mas­ter com­bi­na­tion printer
Pos­ing mod­els in pho­tog­ra­phy‚- cov­ers a wee bit of tegan’s sug­ges­tion‚
‚- Mas­ter com­bi­na­tion printer‚- cov­ers a wee bit of tegan’s sug­ges­tion‚‚- Mas­ter com­bi­na­tion printer‚- cov­ers a wee bit of tegan’s sug­ges­tion‚‚

‚- Thanks as always for com­ments by‚Rob, Al, DaronJ and Cindy on our last pod­cast on pho­tog­ra­phy tele­con­vert­ers . Thanks very much to Sami­rah and Tegan, mem­bers of our pho­tog­ra­phy forum‚for their sug­ges­tions on future pod­casts. We LOVE com­ments and sug­ges­tions so please send more.

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing first link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below the pho­tographs.

Teleconverters in photography — Photography podcast #31

Pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast #31 is all about tele­con­vert­ers. Tele­con­vert­ers are an appa­ra­tus that you put between the body of your SLR or DSLR cam­era and the lens. It then increases the effec­tive focal length of the lens on the cam­era. In this pod­cast we dis­cuss their advan­tages and disadvantages.

Thanks again to Norm for his com­ment on last week’s pod­cast reflec­tors in pho­tog­ra­phy.

New seg­ment again this week — PHOTO OF THE WEEK
This week, the pho­to­graph is by Zseike and I com­ment in the pod­cast on why I think this pho­to­graph is fan­tas­tic.
Image removed at Zseike’s request.

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing first link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below the photographs.

Using a Reflector in photography — Photography podcast #30

Pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast #30 is all about how to use reflec­tors to bet­ter your pho­tog­ra­phy. We focus on com­mon types of reflec­tors, when to use them as well as why reflec­tors are an essen­tial item‚for every‚photographer’s toolkit.The fol­low­ing pho­tographs illus­trate how effec­tive a reflec­tor can be to add light to sub­jects that are in shadow or that need a lit­tle extra boost of light. Note how espe­cially the eyes of both my boy (Ziglet the cat) and my wife (pos­ing in ‘Pulp Fic­tion’ style)‚receive extra illu­mi­na­tion and become much more vibrant when a reflec­tor is used. Note that the expo­sure DID NOT change for any of the reflected/unreflected shots. I also did not do any manip­u­la­tion what­so­ever in a graph­ics pro­gram as I wanted to clearly illus­trate the effects of chang­ing only 1 vari­able. (adding a reflec­tor) You can click the pho­tographs to enlarge them.

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing the pre­ced­ing link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below this set of images.‚


Ziglet — No reflector

Ziglet — With reflec­tor — Eyes and face are vibrant

Ziglet — No reflector

Ziglet with reflec­tor doing its job in the photo

Carmy — No reflector

Carmy — With reflec­tor — Eyes and face are vibrant

Carmy with reflec­tor doing its job in the photo

New seg­ment in the pod­cast — Photography.ca — Photo of the week -
This week, the pho­to­graph is by Arkady Renko and I com­ment in the pod­cast on why I think this pho­to­graph is fantastic.

Photography by Arkady Renko

Other pho­tog­ra­phy links men­tioned in this pod­cast;
Flickr
Lead­ing lines in pho­tog­ra­phy
The rule of thirds in pho­tog­ra­phy

Thanks as always for the com­ments by‚Bekka, Al and Norm‚on our pre­vi­ous podcast‚where we Interviewed‚fine art pho­tog­ra­pher Rafael Gold­chain. We LOVE com­ments and sug­ges­tions so please send more.

Rafael Goldchain Interview — Photography podcast #29

This pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast‚fea­tures an inter­view with teacher and fine art pho­tog­ra­pher Rafael Gold­chain. In the inter­view Rafael tells us about his past work and we delve into his lat­est work called Famil­ial Ground.‚This work‚contains over 50 mas­ter­fully cre­ated self-portraits based on Rafael’s fam­ily his­tory and the influ­ences of the dif­fer­ent cultures‚that help make up his‚life. Rafael freely talks about how the project came to be, as well as all the tech­ni­cal ele­ments of the project includ­ing; light­ing, shoot­ing, print­ing and dig­i­tally post pro­cess­ing the photographs.

More of Rafael’s por­traits from this series can be seen at Lumi­nous Lint‚and Robot Fol­low.
A few of Rafael’s older images can be seen on this site, Photography.ca
For more infor­ma­tion on Rafael’s work, he‚can be con­tacted via email‚rafael (a t)rafaelgoldchain(d o t)com

Other pho­tog­ra­phy links men­tioned in this pod­cast;
The Applied Pho­tog­ra­phy pro­gram at Sheri­dan Col­lege.
Pho­tog­ra­phy at Ryer­son
Fine art pho­tog­ra­pher Susan Meise­las

Thanks as always for the com­ments by daronJ and‚Gary‚H on our pre­vi­ous pod­cast Pos­ing mod­els in pho­tog­ra­phy . We LOVE com­ments and sug­ges­tions so please send more.

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing the pre­ced­ing link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below this set of images.


Rafael Gold­chain
Self-Portrait as Naf­tuli Gold­szajn
[Famil­ial Ground] — 2000‚
Light­jet chro­mogenic print — 30 x 40 in‚
Pro­vided by the artist — Rafael Gold­chain
b. Kras­nik, Poland, early 1800’s
d. Kras­nik, Poland, late 1800’s

Rafael Gold­chain
Self-Portrait as Reizl Gold­schain
[Famil­ial Ground] — 2001‚
Light­jet chro­mogenic print — 30 x 40 in‚
Pro­vided by the artist — Rafael Gold­chain
b. Poland, 1905
d. Buenos Aires, Argentina 1975

Rafael Gold­chain
Self-Portrait as Don Moi­ses Rubin­stein Kro­n­gold — Middle-aged
[Famil­ial Ground] — 2000‚
Light­jet chro­mogenic print — 30 x 40 in‚
Pro­vided by the artist — Rafael Gold­chain
b. Ostrowiec, Poland, 1902
d. Cuer­navaca, ’‚©xico 1980

Posing models in photography — Photography podcast #28

This pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast‚focuses on how to pose mod­els. Pos­ing mod­els is a huge topic but with the help of‚Mon­treal wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pherDominic Fuiz­zotto‚we are able to pro­vide some prac­ti­cal and easy tips. We talk about poses that work well and poses that suck.

This pod­cast is the result of a sug­ges­tion from daronj‚and I WELCOME other sug­ges­tions as top­ics for future pod­casts. Feel free to send those sug­ges­tions to pho­tog­ra­phy {dot} ca @ gmail{d o t} com (please use the cor­rect email formatting).

Thanks so much to‚Gideon‚for his com­ment on our last pod­cast wide angle pho­tog­ra­phy.‚We LOVE com­ments and sug­ges­tions so please send more.

Other links men­tioned in this pod­cast;
‚- Mark Ble­vis — He cre­ated the new theme music and is a pod­cast­ing expert avail­able for con­sul­ta­tion.
‚- One model place is a great web­site fea­tur­ing mod­els and model wannabees. You can def­i­nitely check out (for free)‚poses that work well off this site. Keep in mind these are mostly good look­ing peo­ple on this site. (I’d never get in)

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing the pre­ced­ing link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below this set of images.


Pho­tog­ra­phy by Dominic Fuizzotto


Pho­tog­ra­phy by Dominic Fuizzotto



Pho­tog­ra­phy by Dominic Fuizzotto

Wide angle lenses in photography — Photography podcast #27

This pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast‚focuses on wide angle lenses in pho­tog­ra­phy. We talk about the aspects of wide angle lenses includ­ing when to use them and how to use them cre­atively. The pho­tographs below are all taken using a wide angle lens. Note the obvi­ous dis­tor­tion in pho­to­graph #3. Note the rel­a­tive sharp­ness from fore­ground to back­ground of the roses shot even though I used F-11 as my aper­ture. This sharp­ness would never hap­pen using a Tele­photo lens. These are all facets of using wide angle lenses and‚we talk about them in the podcast.

Thanks so much to Kevin, ‚Saf­fron and‚daronj for their‚comments and sug­ges­tions that I am tak­ing to heart. We LOVE com­ments and sug­ges­tions so please send more.

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing the pre­ced­ing link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below this set of images.


Love In the Mud‚- Marko Kulik


In the Ice­fields‚- Marko Kulik


My Friend Dave

Creative use of shadows in photography — Photography podcast #26

This pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast‚focuses on cre­ative shadow use‚and incor­po­rat­ing actual shad­ows into your pho­tog­ra­phy using the sun‚and other light sources.‚Thanks so much to Cindy and Al for their superkind com­ments (posted in our last pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast #25) about our pod­cast­ing efforts. We LOVE com­ments and sug­ges­tions so please send more.

Links men­tioned in this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast:
‚- Ed‚Gordon and Peter Gordon’s work
‚- daronJ’s work on Flickr
‚- Bald Monk’s work on Flickr
‚- Photography.ca’s work (Marko Kulik — that’s me)‚on Flickr
‚- Flickr — Photo shar­ing web­site
‚- Google reader (great for orga­niz­ing pod­casts and blogs)

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing the pre­ced­ing link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below this set of images.


Beach Kiss — Marko Kulik

Beach Walk — Marko Kulik

Hold­ing My Own — Ed Gor­don

Heart Shadow by daronj — Tech­nique — Less com­pli­cated than I suggested‚in the pod­cast — Thanks for shar­ing daronj! — “I ended up using a sim­ple small hand held flash light at about a 45 degree angle from directly behind. That’s it.”

Rus­sia in the Spot­light — by Bald Monk

Shutter Speed in photography — Photography podcast #25

This pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast talks about using shut­ter speed in pho­tog­ra­phy for cre­ative effects. When you want to pho­to­graph some­thing that is mov­ing, you the pho­tog­ra­pher should decide on the shut­ter speed. Don’t let the cam­era decide for you.

The dig­i­tal pho­tographs below were taken at Red Rock Cross­ing in Sedona Ari­zona (ya gotta go — it’s amaz­ing!). You can see that‚the long shut­ter speed (1 sec­ond) has a blur­ring paintery effect in the water, where the fast shut­ter speed (1/500)‚practically freezes the water. You can click the pho­tos to enlarge them.

Links men­tioned in this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast:
– Nice com­ment from Andre from Brazil

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing the pre­ced­ing link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player.


Shut­ter speed‚ — 1/500 of a second

Shut­ter speed — 1/30 of a second

Shut­ter speed — 1 second

Underexposure in digital photography — Photography podcast #24

This pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast talks about DELIBERATE under­ex­po­sure in dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy. Many new dig­i­tal cam­eras have a ten­dency to blow out the high­lights when the scene is too bright. Through judi­cious use of delib­er­ate under­ex­po­sure you can get back some of those blown out highlights.

The dig­i­tal pho­tographs below were taken at the Grand Canyon in Ari­zona. You can see that even though the 2 stop under­ex­posed image is way too dark when uncor­rected, I was able to pull out quite a nice pho­to­graph with excel­lent high­light detail. You can click the pho­tos to enlarge them.

You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing the pre­ced­ing link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player.


Meter read­ing — uncorrected

1 stop under­ex­posed — uncorrected

2 stops under­ex­posed — uncorrected
Final photo from the 2 stop under­ex­posed image — color cor­rected with local dodg­ing and burning