Shooting from Shade into Backlight

I am really, really looking forward to having a full time assistant- for those of you who have applied, I will be posting an update this week, but thank you so much to everyone who has sent in an application. Make no mistake, it will be an awesome job, but it will also require a lot of hustle and getting stuff done. If things pan out like I am hoping, it would be very possible that a second assistant would be hired in the near future.

Had a great shoot with Ashley this weekend for several training videos, some on more of a technical aspect, others more specifically deal with Paintballer Pro and Michael Andrew Lollipops ® which I have been really bad about creating new videos for- I use them on just about every shoot I do.

One thing I have been trying that has been working out great is shooting from shade into strong backlight, exposing for the subject and just blowing the background out- it works great in many situations.

In the past, I would often try to expose for the background and then try to light the subject with fill flash (which in some cases you still have to do). Here is an example of blowing out a sunny background when shooting from shade:I am really, really looking forward to having a full time assistant- for those of you who have applied, I will be posting an update this week, but thank you so much to everyone who has sent in an application. Make no mistake, it will be an awesome job, but it will also require a lot of hustle and getting stuff done. If things pan out like I am hoping, it would be very possible that a second assistant would be hired in the near future.

Had a great shoot with Ashley this weekend for several training videos, some on more of a technical aspect, others more specifically deal with Paintballer Pro and Michael Andrew Lollipops ® which I have been really bad about creating new videos for- I use them on just about every shoot I do.

One thing I have been trying that has been working out great is shooting from shade into strong backlight, exposing for the subject and just blowing the background out- it works great in many situations.

In the past, I would often try to expose for the background and then try to light the subject with fill flash (which in some cases you still have to do). Here is an example of blowing out a sunny background when shooting from shade:Taken at around noon, no flash, Canon 5Dii, 50mm 1.2 @ f 1.2, 1/500, ISO 50.

First processed with Michael Andrew Paintballer Pro Presets , then Michael Andrew Lollipops ® Action Set! (Orange Peel)

The processing took just a few seconds and I have some videos coming on this soon.


Grateful Memorial Day

Just wanted to give a most sincere and heartfelt thank you to all the service men and women past, present and future for the amazing sacrifices which have been paid for our freedoms. I feel very grateful and humble to know that many lives have been sacrificed for it. If you have the time, please pay a visit to my good friend Mark and his website. His Brother Thad has been keeping busy with new posts and information about Mark’s foundation and they recently had a Memorial Run.

Mark Forester’s Website

Took most of the day off today, but did get some great pictures and video clips I will be posting soon.


Blue Water Rafting – Maui

Yesterday, Ash and I decided to try the Blue Water Rafting adventure. I am always amazed at how much there more there is to see and do on Maui, even after my family has lived here for so long. I really do need to get out and enjoy it more instead of staying locked up in my editing room. 🙂

The Blue Water Rafting company takes their customers out on these HUGE zodiac like boats- They are very fast and maneuverable. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take as many pictures as I wanted because of spray and water coming over the side, but I did have my dry bag with me and I just threw my 7D + Tamron 18-270 combo in there whenever things got crazy. This was the sister boat that started the day with us:They took us to several places I had never been, we checked out the rock formations in south Maui, which were formed by the latest volcanic eruption here over 200 years ago. The textures and patterns were really interesting. I dont remember what the name of this type of rock is, but our guide says it is just below diamond on the harness scale and takes about 50 years to cool off. Ash said her favorite part of the trip was snorkeling off the backside of Molokini (the vent crater just west of Makena). The water was the clearest I have ever seen and there were plenty of fish. I had heard good things about scuba diving back here, and it is something I will definitely need to check out once I get some underwater hosings. It was one of the top snorkeling spots I have ever been to. We also got to see a pod of spinner dolphins just off La Puruse bay. They arent always around, but when they are, and if you are a good enough swimmer, you can swim out (apparently kayaking is illegal here now) and check them out. If you look carefully, you can see 3 snorkelers checking them out. Our guide also said whatever you see on the surface is about 1/10th of what is below the surface. Spinner dolphins are smaller than bottlenose dolphins. And yes, they would occasionally jump out of the water and spin around. Extremely cool. Another spot I would like to check out again with the right gear. Our guide said there are a few babies out here now, about the size of a football with fins. Would love to see one!

It was a great day!


Meet Ashley – Model for Up Coming Video

Its always great to have friends visit Maui, I understand why more arent coming out- but is sure is nice when they do. My good friend Ashley is in town for the weekend from Baltimore. I have known Ash for six years. She has been helping me with some test shoots and will be modeling for us on some new training videos I have coming shortly. Today we went kayaking and hiking and also swimming at a waterfall. I admit I need to be taking more pictures of the fun I am having here on Maui (which isnt often). Sometimes I want to leave the camera at home and just take some time off, but I always regret when I do.


Doug Knisely – Cell Phone Contest

Remember Doug Knisely- the photographer who won the Cell Phone Contest and the Canon T2i? Here is the self portrait with his Grand Prize. Doug sent it in a long time ago, it was buried in emails and I just found it today.

He writes:

Michael:

I promised you a picture with the T2i! I was trying to figure out what to do, but it only seemed appropriate for me to take a cell-phone self-portrait, which turned out to be harder than I thought! But it was fun. So, I guess this is probably in a similar vein as the daily cell-phone pictures that I take.

I have been enjoying the T2i since I finally made it back to Chicago to pick it up. I took it on a business trip to Honolulu, along with an 85/1.8 and a really fun Samyang 8mm all-manual fisheye, which was what I ended up using mostly. What a great travel combo… Here are some photos here if you are interested:

Doug Knisely Flickr Photo Stream

The T2i is a fantastic little camera. It’s not quite up to the DR of my D700 (I’m spoiled) and low-light work is challenging (AF still seems to be a bit less strong compared to Nikon), but I think I’ve really good a good feel for its strengths and limitations now.

Thanks again for sponsoring the contest, and I consider it a real honor to win. I really enjoy the cellphone photography almost as much as the more “serious” stuff. The T2i has been extremely useful to me, and I believe I’m going to include it with the fisheye even on serious shooting trips so I can avoid changing lenses. I can’t say enough positive about the cheap Samyang 8mm fish; it is really sharp! For urban shooting, that is a great combination. The Canon 85/1.8 is also a great lens, comparatively much better than the Nikon 85/1.8. I’m also interested in exploring video, which is something that Canon does so well (and for which primes are a good choice). My Nikon gear doesn’t have video at this point, and the T2i video is excellent.

Best regards in your future endeavors,

Doug Knisely

P.S. One of my unsolved challenges is how to sync off-camera flash with a cell-phone. Haven’t come up with a solution yet, but I haven’t given up. 🙂 For this one, I used a floor lamp shining into an umbrella with a white card for fill on camera left. I didn’t want too good of light else I would lose the cell-phone low-light look. 🙂

There is a way to sync off camera flash with cell phones, which I can hopefully write about soon. Thanks for the image and writing Doug! We were very honored to have you win!