Day 309 - Project365

Sitting at my kitchen table, head down, deep in thought, I was racking my brain trying to come up with a unique shot for today. However, ideas are progressively getting harder to come by after 309 days. After what seemed like an hour I had a dimly lit, barely functional, turn of the century lightbulb flicker in my head. Instead of trying to come up with a new idea.

Why not come up with a fresh technique. A style not often explored in the project. Thats when I had the idea to drastically adjust the light positions. I love a simple black and white portrait yet always seem to light them the same way. Why not move the beauty dish from above to directly on axis. Similar to the position of a ring flash. Not having a ring flash, I typically don't play with this style of lighting. Today seemed like the day to try. I positioned the beauty Dish directly behind the camera making sure then front bounce plate (or what ever its called) was right behind the camera. I covered the view finder with a bandana to prevent light contamination through the eye piece. I tethered the computer to the computer and started messing around. I quickly realized that focusing was going to be very difficult at f2.8 with out being able to physically look through the lens. After several attempts with both Shawn and I as subjects, I decided to stop downy the lens to f3.5 to give myself a little more breathing room when it came to focus.

Using the live view video camera feature with the EOS tethered software, I was able to manual focus on Shawn's eye. I didn't have much time between focusing and having to snap the shot because at f3.5 the difference between focused and blurry is a fraction of an inch… more like a fraction of a millimeter and shawn can't sit still for more than a fraction of a second! After stopping down the lens I was able to get a few really interesting, focused shots.

Post production was insanely minimal today as I had made damn sure my light ratios were as close to dead on as possible. I blasted out the background by over 2 stops to ensure I wouldn't have much detail left. This proved successful as you can see in the video I made of the post production process (available on Facebook). Other than a small area of detail in the corner there was nothing else wrong. I enhanced the eyes using the technique I went over earlier in a tutorial. Signed it and called it a wrap. I was very happy with the outcome of this shot and will definitely explore this style of lighting again.

So I may be planning the final road trip of Project365. Joyce is going home for Thanksgiving an fortunately but unfortunately I have 4 scheduled shoots during the time she'll be away. I can not join her on the drive there but am heavily considering buying a plane ticket to san francisco or LAX and having her pick me up so we can take a week or 2 and travel back south. This time hitting up the southern states like Arizona, New Mexico, Texas :(, Louisiana and any other state that falls on that path. That would really bring a nice end to the year and really set a precedent for next years travels. I'm thinking international next year!!

I'll see how that plays out and of course keep everyone updated as to where in the world is Michael Herb! Of course, anyone in the areas we'll be driving through are more than welcome to put us up, shoot with us or just grab a beer. I'm always up for meeting new people.

Lighting:

AB800 Beauty Dish Directly behind and on Axis with camera 1/16 power
AB800 7Inch Reflector Behind Subject aimed at background 1/2 power

To watch the video... click here