August was a busy month for photographers at the Rockford Register Star. We were brainstorming and shooting our annual Gridiron preview section. This special section releases on the day of the first high school game each season. Each team in the NIC-10 conference has a page featuring a portrait, a story and other related information. Each year has a theme. Two years ago, the portraits mimicked famous album covers. The layout was reminiscent of the Billboard Top 100 chart. Last […]
As a photojournalist, I have to be flexible to photograph anything at any time. That can be anything from breaking news to sports and even the occasional environmental portrait. My weakness is portraiture. I think it is fair to say that most shooters have strengths and weaknesses. At a spot news event, I feel at home. I’m there to capture the scene. I play a background role as an observer. With portraiture, I’m in charge. I set the lighting, the […]
Let’s just say I was bored the other night. I decided to shoot a self portrait. The idea was to capture an image of myself off the ground glass in my Hasselblad 500 C/M. I had done something similar when I was testing the Hasselblad. So, I began to setup. I sat the Hasselblad on the table and aimed it at my recliner. It was important to have both the focus of the Hasselblad and the capturing camera, my Canon […]
If there was one valuable thing about photography that I learned in college, it was the science behind lighting. Understanding the inverse square law and how multiple lights can affect an image proved to be invaluable to me. While I was at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I had an editor give me the idea of shooting a food set with multi-point lighting. The basic multi-point setup includes three lights. One each to the left and right and one from behind. […]
Ever since I discovered what a beauty dish was, I’ve wanted one. The problem is that I don’t have any strobes to use one on. My lighting is limited to a single Canon Speedlight (shoe mounted flash). How could I produce the look of a beauty dish with my one Speedlight? Simple. Build a beauty dish to fit. I’m not the most handy of the handymen. Therefore, instead of designing the dish on my own, I Googled other peoples designs […]