Train tracks and graffiti - a surprisingly interesting location for portraiture

Last two weeks, I was doing a location portrait at one of the very unique locations.  At MIT, we happen to have these train tracks close to our dorm.  Behind the MIT police department, there is also this old storage that is covered with very cool graffiti.  It is one of those spots that most people won't consider their first choices for location protrait.  After passing by this spot a couple times on school shuttle, I decided that I need to give this location a try.  Thanks to my model for her willingness to experiment at this set.

While planning, I was thinking about the compositions of the pictures for this set.  Clearly, a formal dress probably won't do for such a unique place.  I remembered that I only told my model to wear 'chic' clothing and I really have to thank her for doing such a great job on choosing.  What she had was a loosy shirt, trendy skirt and a pair of hot shoes.  I think the contrast of all the garments create a casual yet sophisticated tone that  ends up playing very well with our set.  Because we had quite a brief time for the session right before sunset, I did not use as many strobes as I wanted, mainly using a big silver reflector to bounce back some light to the subject or an off-camera handheld speedlite.  I have to say that I am very pleased with the results we got at the train tracks.  When we later try to shoot some photos with graffiti wall, I was trying to make some strong, high-contrast and vivid pictures.  We tried to play with a few posture but only a few blended well enough with the background.

So, the slideshow below is what we got.  One lesson I learnt from this experiment is to never use your prime lens fully-open because it will result in unsharp images. And unfortunately for this set, I was thinking too much about composition and forgot to try a few more apertures.  Regardless of this trouble, I hope you may find a couple of these pictures interesting.  Overall, I do love this location and would highly recommend anyone to try out.  Many thanks to my model again.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens used:
- Canon 85mm f/1.8
- Canon 28mm f/1.8

"Amazing portraiture does not always require the architect"

About last year, I made a commitment to myself that I will practice to do portraiture really well. I started to buy a lot of lighting gears, reading blogs about flash photography and try to learn about how to make a photo, rather than to take a photo. I started by doing a lot of studio portrait which I can control lighting more easily. While I was quite satisfied with myself and the result I got, in looking back, I find that my experience on studio lighting was not so hard at all. You can angle the flash any way you want and the subject could prepare for nice clothing. Well, you get the picture.

This past summer when I bought my 85mm, I decided to walk around and just try to take pictures with this new lens. I certainly have walked around to take random photos before, but to me, this trip was quite a new experience.  In comparison to my studio lighting experiment, I guess what I really learnt at the end of that day was that amazing portraiture does not always require the architect. Some time, when you let the world revolve around you, you will find that there are many interesting frames everywhere (and I mean it). Kids playing in the pool, a musician playing on the street, family enjoying their time together in a mini circus, these are amazing moments that you can see if only you stop chasing with the world.

It is therefore important to keep this in mind before you begin to learn more about flash photography.  In some way, it is more challenging to do this type of candid photography.  In the GRE format, candid photography to portraiture is like engineering to science.  To be a good engineer, you need good ideas and hand skills.  To be a good scientist, you also need luck, just like the one you need for making good candid photos :D

PS. All right, I promise that next time I won't mix my nerdy junks with my artistic world :P

I hope you will enjoy my album below. For better quality images, you can just see them in my picasa web.

Getting wonderful images by combining daylight with flash fill

Most amateur photographers (including myself) are scared of creating portrait photos with harsh daylight. The results usually contain two specific unwanted features 1) strong shadow or 2) overexposed uneven area.  To compensate for such undesirable features, a photographer can get rid of the shadow by filling in some light. 

The picture on the left was captured within a very nice classy dome.  While the location is perfect, the shadow within the dome created too strong contrast within our photo, the shaded area inside the dome versus the harsh sunlight area.  When I took this photo, I placed an off-camera flash mounted with an umbrella on the camera left, pointing the flash towards the area between the heads of the subjects.  With proper choice of exposure, I was able to blend in the flash-filling light with the ambient harsh sunlight and also got rid of the unwanted shadow.