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

Manfrotto School of Excellence

Manfrotto is honored to launch the Manfrotto School of Xcellence, with two great webinars from two top mentors: Bill Frakes and Joe McNally. These two great events will have these masters of photography sharing their amazing imaging experiences and techniques with you. Check out the information below and don't miss your chance to attend this Xcellent experience. Register today!

Pics and text copied from manfrottoschoolofexcellence.com

Link: http://www.manfrottoschoolofxcellence.com/

Cheers, Bjarne

The Prez

Shot with D3, at ISO 1600 and available light.

Learned a valuable lesson, never try to engage a Secret Service Agent in a conversation.

Hope every one is well!

Gerd Parkholt

Gerd Parkholt is the Grand Old Lady of the Skagen Folk Music Festival in Denmark. 40 years ago she invited some friends and a couple of folk musicians to her home and the rest is history. Skagen Festival is the oldest existing music festival in Denmark.

Last year Gerd held her 90th birthdayparty and she is still going strong.

The portraits are made for a book by journalist Joergen Pyndt, TV2 Nord. It will be published this summer to celebrate the jubilee. I have made pictures for the festival for 10 years and many of the pics will be in the book.

Gerd has decorated the walls in the hall room with newspaper cuttings and pictures of musicians, friends and family. Friends like Tom Paxton, Donovan, Allan Taylor, Arlo Guthrie, The Dubliners and many more.

In her bathroom friends, musicians and family has made poetry, greetings and jokes on the tile walls.

Enjoy the spring!

Bjarne

I need a new head ...

Just bought a Manfrotto 420B boom stand. Used for a couple of portraits of a friend, Henriette Goethgen, at NOVI Science Park in Aalborg.

Still need a kind of a "ball head" for the boom arm, so I can adjust the softbox. Do anyone know what to buy?

D3, 24-70 mm. f. 2,8 at 44 mm, 1/100 sec., f. 4,5, ISO 200 manuel mode, SB800 + Ezybox + Manfrotto 420B boom arm + SU800.

D3, 24-70 mm. f. 2,8 at 70 mm, 1/100 sec., f. 4,5, ISO 200 manuel mode, SB800 + Ezybox + Manfrotto 420B boom arm + SU800.

MV-22

I was in Jacksonville, NC a couple weeks ago helping a fellow Boeing photographer with a shoot for our annual report. We were on the flight ramp for some night-op shots when this happened. I had just put my 400mm away so I'm a little disappointed that it's not closer but still like the shot. Take care and keep blogging!

Fred

The real world

Fred reminded me just today that we are coming up on our year mark from Joe's class

and it got me thinking about the take away and what I've applied. Last year I photographed about 120 jobs and those were anything from weddings to kids to Ad campaigns. I'm making my living strictly from photography and the grace of God. So what did I get, I think for me it was simply the idea to get my self out of the comfort zone and into a place where I can discover something. Where what has been learned combines with what is instinctual. So yes, I have improvements to make and I realize that I'm no Joe Mcnally but I am a Chris Keels and this year I've come to a point where that means even more. My very best you all and may 2010 be a year of greatness for us all.

I've attached two images from a portrait session I did the one was a direct application of skills I learned from the class and the other from simply enjoying the light I was given.