Sunday, February 24, 2008

Danielle's New Haircut


Danielle's New Haircut, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Becky took Danielle to have her hair cut this week. Here she displays her new 'do'.

Taken with a Nikon D80.

* Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250) [+]
* Aperture: f/2.8 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 100 [+]

Strobist info: SB-800 at M 1/1 into 43' wescott umbrella with black backing removed and used as shoot-through. Umbrella positioned camera right at around 4:30 location. Danielle is faced into the umbrella, pointed at its edge closet the camera. SB-600 on tripod camera left and parallel with her. Pointed away and against white wall with wide angle clip down (14mm setting) shot at M 1/2 into wall to reflect back and light hair. Both SB units triggered via Nikon CLS/AWS via popup commander mode.

Processing. Initial levels, cropping and contrast in Adobe Lightroom. Then I made two versions. One with hair exposed correctly, one with it not. I processed both in Adobe Photoshop CS3 with the dark one as a layer on top. I layer masked and erased the dark hair to show the lighter version underneath. Skin corrections, black point correction, some overall levels, and other editing done in Photoshop.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Carl - me - myself - I - self portrait


Carl - me - moi - self portrait, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Taken with a Nikon D80.

* Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250) [+]
* Aperture: f/3.5 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 200 [+]

Strobist: SB-800 at M 1/2 into 43" umbrella camera right triggered via Nikon CLS. SB-600 at M 1/8 on tripod behind Carl for rim light triggered via Nikon CLS. Fluorescent strip lights camera left and right adding minimally to exposure but helped for autofocus in a dark room. 3x4' Silver reflective cloth hanging camera left for some fill.

Before I went to work I setup this photo and played around with things for a bit. My wife's - Becky's- suggestion is that I smile more for my self-portraits. I personally prefer less smiling in photos. I'll have to try her suggestion. The rim light was really hot/overexposed I think. I will have to play with that some more. Taken on 2/15/08. Editing in Adobe Photoshop CS3 with cropping in Adobe Lightroom after.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Natalie allowing her father a photo

Taken with a Nikon D80.

* Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250) [+]
* Aperture: f/1.4 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 200 [+]

Strobist info: SB-800 into 43" Wescott umbrella camera right and above slightly.

This took a bit of coaxing for her not to turn her head and cover her face. See! If only she let me photograph her more I could have results like this. One can tell this was fairly low light looking at her pupils. I got just a bit of light spill over onto the other side of her face and with Adobe Lightroom I lifted the shadows some. Shot at an aperture of f/1.4 created a razor thin range of focus with both eyes only being in focus and everything else fading out.

Natalie's normal reaction to being photographed

Taken shortly after http://www.flickr.com/photos/christensen_carl/2270294062/

Achoo!


Achoo!, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Danielle


Danielle, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Danielle on Brent's Birthday. She had just got up to help us sing and wake up Brent.

Brent and Corduroy


Brent and Corduroy, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

For his birthday, he got a build-a-bear that we named Corduroy.

Good morning and Happy Birthday Brent!

Brent's Birthday Cake


Brent's Birthday Cake, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Here is Brent's Birthday cake for his eighth birthday. German Chocolate cake.

Remembering the past


Remembering the past, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Taken in February of 2006 with my old Sony CD MAVICA. Touched up with today's Adobe Lightroom.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Professional Brent


Professional Brent, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Taken with a Nikon D80.

* Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250) [+]
* Aperture: f/2.8 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 250 [+]

Strobist Info: SB-800 at M 1/2 at camera right into 43" umbrella. SB-600 M behind and above shooting down for hair light. One 4' strip light (2 bulbs - 40 watts each at 5000k) camera left for some small highlight and eye catch light.

Brent had his hair fixed nice before we went to church and looked so nice in his sweater and tie.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Abigail - Sepia


Abigail - Sepia, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Taken with a Nikon D80.

* Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250) [+]
* Aperture: f/2.8 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 200 [+]

Becky's mom, sister, niece and nephew (Debbie, Terri, Abigail and Ethan) visited for the weekend. Sabbath morning before going to church I photographed Abigail with/and our children. She was very cooperative and intrigued with the picture taking process.

Strobist info: At camera right, SB-800 at M 1/2 into 43" Umbrella reflected to throw the swath of light slightly in front of her. Large silver reflective sheet at camera left angled to reflect light onto her right side (our left) for fill. SB-600 at M 1/2 10 feet behind and above aimed at her hair for hair light. Fluorescent 5000k Strip lights (2 bulbs in each. Each 4' long, 40watt.) One camera left, one camera right, to give enough light for camera to focus and provide some faint rim lighting.

Processing: Adobe Lightroom for cropping, sepia conversion and added vignette.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Pine Reaching for Sky


Pine Reaching for Sky, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

In the midst of the summer heat, the blue sky made a nice contrast against the green spruce and grass. Circular polarizer used.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Danielle with brown background


Danielle with brown background, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Similar to the other photo of Brent with an aperture of f/6.3 with a bit greater DOF

Monday, February 4, 2008

Follow me with your eyes


Follow me with your eyes, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Sabbath morning, while getting setup to photograph Becky and I, I had Brent sit in for a shot. I used the infrared remote and had him follow me with his eyes while I moved around.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Gazing at who knows?


Gazing at who knows?, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

Captured in a moment when he looked off at the umbrella.

Taken with a Nikon D80.

* Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250) [+]
* Aperture: f/1.4 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 100 [+]

Strobist info: SB-800 on TTL into 43" Wescott umbrella at camera left and above. SB-600 TTL -0.7EV Behind and above Brent hitting hair for hair light. Fluorescent 5000k Strip lights with 2 bulbs in each one / 4' long. One on each side of him for some side light. 2x3' white posterboard for fill camera right.

So I setup my second flash the SB-800 tonight and tried some shots of Brent. While I really liked the detail in some shot at f/8.0 This pose that I shot at f/1.4 I ended up liking the best. A more creamy/dreamy soft focus shot where only his eyes are in good focus.