Mizz Lenz is bus'zy!

You might allready know, but I just saw this on da Internet. Mizz Lenz "rocks the boat" and is trying to keep up with Joe and David on tour. See theflashbus.com

Congrats, Karen - Joe and David deserves the best! Hope yor are well paid ...;o)

Cheers, Bjarne

Doc

Happy New Year to everybody.

Did a couple of portraits for a magazine of Mr. Christian Gudbjerg, a newly retired doctor. In DK we have free healtservice for all, and Mr. Gudbjerg used to work as a housedoctor at Soelund - a home for 220 physical and mentaly disabled people.

D3 + SU800 + one SB800 in gridded softbox + available light.

Tim the Goalie

Hi Guys, hey look a post! It's been too long. Just wanted to share a few shots I did last Sunday. A high school junior, soccer goalie. We just started out shooting some action shots but then the sky started to McNallizze and I went into panic mode. Hope you are all doing well! Take care and stay in touch. Anyone up for more assignment fun? Chris suggested perhaps something with an umbrella. Any takers?

Fred

Suzanne & Lee

It's been a while since I've posted here (or on my own blog for that matter), so here's a post I made on my blog today, so some of you may have already seen it.

Last week I had the privilege of doing a pregnancy photo-shoot with Suzanne and Lee who are expecting their first child (boy) this week. We had a fun time. Below are a few of the pictures we created together.

I like to shoot tethered/connected to a laptop during studio shooting because it allows me immediate feedback on lighting and posing. I also find that it works well with the subjects because they feel more of a participant in the whole process and as they see the results they become more at ease and more interested and willing to try out different poses. The only caution I’d give is to make sure during the shoot that it doesn’t become a distraction for the subjects and that they aren’t looking/glancing over at the screen during the actual shooting.

Using the black backdrop in this situation is very useful in helping to focus the observers gaze. Light colored skin stands out nicely against it, and you can further narrow the focus by the use of black clothing. White and bright colored clothing also stands out nicely against the black which can add to the “pop” of a picture. Of course the black of the backdrop helps to outline the subject, while at the same time the background just disappears.

For those interested here are the equipment details:
> Black backdrop held up by JTL B-1020 Background support system.
> Main Light = 40″ umbrella with two Canon 580 EX2 Flashes each with Stofen Omni-Bounces on a Wescott 8′ lightstand.
> Hair Highlight = 24″ Lastolite EZBox with an egg crate grid lighted with one Canon 580 EX Flash with a Stofen Omni-Bounce.
> Each Flash was controlled with a RadioPopper PX Receiver, triggered by a Canon ST-E2 with a RadioPopper PX Transmitter.
> Each Flash was powered by a Janco JCCFB1 External Battery Pack (equivalent of Canon CP-E4).
> Canon 1Ds Mk3 Camera.
> Canon 24-105mm lens.
> Camera was tethered/connected to an HP 17″ Laptop for immediate viewing of the images using Canon EOS Utility and Lightroom 3 software.

Night watch

One SB800

Available light

Available light

Available light

Here's some pics I made of night workers at a social emergency ward in Aalborg. They have five employees and 300 volunteers who helps people with (light/minor) mental problems. E.g. if your wife/husband/child dies, if you loose your job, if you suffer from a serious disease or maybe just need someone to talk to, you can call and they have all the time in the world to listen to you. Like most healthcare in DK it's free.

I stayed there for 6 hours and they had 27 phone calls and one who showed up in person to talk.

Knut is the manager. He is from Norway. Most pics are made with available light and a few with just one SB800 plus Honl grid.

See Soundslide - link: http://bjarnehyldgaard.dk/kunde/nattevagt/
Remember the sound.

Cheers, Bjarne

Mille B

Hey,

here's a couple of pics of a new model, Mille B, who posed for me for an hour or two. The pics was made in a parking garage down town Aalborg, where I live.

Smoking:
One SB800 in a softbox with a grid. It's a little from behind the models face to light up the smoke.

Dancing:
From camera left one SB800 in a softbox with a grid plus from camera right another SB800 from behind as rim. Both trigged with SU800 commander.

Have a great summer!

Cheers, Bjarne

mixing natural light and speedlight

Hey guys,
Here's a shot I did of a College of Charleston radio DJ the other day. To camera right is a big window... then I've got an EZ box over his right shoulder. Shot at f/3.2 and 1/80th of a sec. I liked the way the two lights came together. I ran an HD filter on it, which actually brought out too much detail in his face, so I'm going to tone it down... but all in all I was pleased. Any feedback/suggestions?

Dane Sewell

Hey friends, sorry it has taken me so long to post these. Life has been busy with the new babe and trying to keep up with my business during my "maternity leave". Here are a few photos of Dane from the last couple of months (He was born January 21, 2010). The first one is an on camera speedlight bounced off the sidewall, the rest are natural light.

A little Tonal Contrast will do ya

I did some playing around with a different technique to further finish processing pictures. It involves using the photographic software filter called “Tonal Contrast” in NIK Color Efex Pro 3. Basically the filter allows you to increase the tonal contrast (like it says) within the image as well as the color saturation. Below are “before” images processed like normal and then “after” that were further processed using the tonal contrast filter. It gives the pictures a vivid hand painted look. Without a lot of foo-fir-aaa (technical term), check them out and see what you think {click on the images to enlarge them, so you can see them better}.

My favorite is the last one of the old truck, interesting in the “before” but very dynamic in the “after”.

Some observations in trying this out, is that it works great on landscapes, objects and such, but don’t try it on people, it tends to do bad things to their skin complexion.

Hope you found this interesting, that’s it for now.

David Gralian
www.davidgralian.com
david@davidgralian.com

Holly & Sean

I haven't shot a lot of couples, so decided to make some of my friends model for me. I like how these came out. They're a bit non-traditional, but, hey... so am I. =0)

Senior Portraits

Did two Senior portraits today - I've been dying to try the David Hill lighting style so here it is with Mike, a baseball player and an available light portrait of Sarah with the beautiful eyes. I'm planning to use these for an upcoming mailer and would love some feedback.

Thanks,

Fred

Faces in Sedona

I spent 4 days last week in Sedona Arizona, in the high desert red rock country, along with my wife and one of my daughters.
Had a great time doing some site seeing and photography. Here's a few fun pictures to share with all of you.
{ you can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them }

This first picture of the little girl is from a restaurant, she was in the booth next to us, her grandmother called her "Love Bug". She kept looking over at us with those great big eyes making direct eye contact like only a child without any inhibitions will do. The light was streaming in from this window right above the booths, made for a fun picture. After I snapped a few pictures though, she decided she was afraid of the big o'l camera/lens and would hide behind her mother whenever I'd try to take her picture again. I finally put the camera down and promised her I wouldn't take anymore pictures and she was happy with that.


I also took that opportunity to catch a shot of my daughter in that same great light outlining her face and highlighting her hair.


And then there were the 'Tree People'. Outside of Sedona there are a number of wineries (who would've guessed), which we were checking out. At one of them they had put these eyes/nose/mouth figures onto some of the trees in the parking area. Got a real kick out of those, fun idea. Oh yea, the wine is actually pretty good, if you are ever in the area it's worth checking out. The 'Tree People' kinda remided me of the ones in the second Lord of the Rings movie.


Well, that's it for now.

David Gralian
www.davidgralian.com