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Friday, October 26, 2007

backlit dessert


backlit dessert
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
I did a shoot at a restaurant recently, and they wanted us to take some food shots. Softboxes didn't work at all, so I just used 2 bare strobes, one as a backlight, and the other in front filling the shadows. Seems you can't have dark parts or deep shadows in food shots. It has to be bright, and a little overexposed to look fresh. Bare strobes contribute to the specular highlights, like in jewellery cabinets. I checked out the histogram on some food shots I really liked, and there was practically no detail at all in the darks. So I did the same.

Tilting and shifting


cait & tys
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
I ordered a new Canon 45mm tilt shift lens on a Monday morning from an online New York store, and by Thursday afternoon it had arrived here in Australia and I was using it on a job. Now that's service! There are stores here in Melbourne
that take longer than that to return a phone call. But I love this lens. The kids are six or seven feet apart, but their eyes are in focus. I tilted the lens to it's max, and everything is totally out of focus except a very narrow plane. Depth of field at 2.8 is very small, so it takes some skill to focus, especially when you're trying to focus on two points at once. This is a manual focus lens, and when you've got it tilted or shifted, auto exposure doesn't work, so there's going to be quite a few bad shots over the next few weeks while I get the hang of it, and hopefully some very unique ones.

Monday, October 22, 2007

polarized recording studio


recording studio
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
After spending half an hour moving the camera fractions of an inch to avoid reflections from the lights in the recording studio, I thought I'd try my polarizer. Instantly I got that hi-tech look that I see in the glossy mags. And no reflections. I always figured a polarizer was good for making skies bluer, and that's about it, but they're actually a very handy filter to have around. I was trying to figure out the lighting on a studio car shot that looked very hi-tech, and I figured there must be a hell of a lot of photoshop going on. Then I noticed a checkerboard pattern on some of the windows. I've seen the same thing while driving around with my polarized sunglasses. At certain angles laminated windows have this pattern.
Try a polarizer when shooting highly reflective metal or glass objects. People wearing glasses. People with shiny skin. Shoot an LCD computer screen and you can dial it down to totally black.
If you want to get experimental, put a polarizer on your lighting as well.
I shot this using ambient light only. No Photoshop.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Band Who Knew Too Much


The Band Who Knew Too Much
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
I spent a couple of hours with these guys and did some shots at the bar, some at a boxing gym, and a couple of these more formal shots for a promo poster. This was a challenge to light because of the cramped room we were in and the low dark ceiling. But I still wanted a more dramatic backlit look. I ended sticking a couple of Sunpak 383's in the back corners just out of shot, firing into the group, and a brollied 430EX filling in front. The classic problems with this shot are:

1: keeping everyone in the frame evenly lit

2: with the lights in such close proximity to the subject, light falloff was a major problem. The guys closest to the light were in danger of blowing out, while the ones further away were potentially in darkness.

Ordinarily I'd have the lights much further out to prevent that, but the room was way too small.
(I'm kinda surprised the shot worked out actually.)

Thursday, October 4, 2007

quarters jump


quarters jump
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
This looks like a composite, but is actually a single shot. It's for the cover of the Quarter's new CD. If I had a bigger studio I would have been able to blow out the background to avoid the shadows, but I'll get rid of some of the more troublesome ones in Photoshop later.
This the first session with Pocket Wizards instead of my trusty Skyports. Lighting was 2 Sunpak 383's either side and slightly behind the band fired into brollys. Front light was a bare Canon 430EX.
I had a fair idea of how Chris was going to jump, so I got Ivan (on the left) to lean over a little so he'd be peeking through the gap.
This was like the second take and it worked out pretty good. Working with musicians is pretty good sometimes because when I count them in for the shot, they're on it. For some people it's like "1-2-3...blink!"

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Marc Collis


Marc Collis
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
Marc is ex-frontman for Melbourne band Whiteroom. We spent a couple of hours getting promo shots for his new projects. Very talented guy. Check him out playing live with Whiteroom. Just go to Youtube and type in Marc Collis.
Lighting was a couple of Sunpak 383 Supers triggered by Elinchrom Skyports. The one on camera right was fired through a 2ft x 2ft softbox with the softbox slightly above head height. This puts more emphasis on the face with some nice subtle falloff below that. You can see the softbox creeping into shot top right. I've since photoshopped it out. A bare 383 fired from camera left lit the background. The post production technique is pretty much the same as I've documented on a couple of my other shots.

Friday, September 21, 2007

furniture after retouching


furniture after
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
I took a job doing an office furniture catalog, and it was a lot tougher than I thought. It took at least an hour to get the lighting right for this shot, taking care not to get any hotspots and making sure there were no distracting shadows. I ended up hanging a large white scrim (What's the old sheet for? Watcha doin'.. hangin' out your laundry? etc...etc...) to the camera left and firing a couple of sunpak 383's through it at full power.
Light falloff was a problem inasmuch as the desk was blown out, but the shelves were underexposed. I had to have the scrim some distance away to reduce this falloff effect. Shadows were reduced further by a Canon 430EX fired into an umbrella camera right. You can see the stand in the "before" photo.

I took all the shots for the catalog using a Canon 24-105mm. Normally my favourite lens, but as it turns out, not so good when it comes to barrel distortion. Something I only noticed when I was trying to create a room for the furniture in Photoshop. No amount of work in lens correction could fix it entirely. I could never get the walls looking right. I'm saving up for a 45mm tilt shift lens, but in the meantime my 10-22mm has much better distortion characteristics.
The frame on the wall was made in Photoshop, and the picture is one of my shots from a visit to Bryce Canyon last year.
To see the "before" shot, click on the photo and follow it through to my flickr page.

clouds


clouds
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
There were some crazy looking clouds over my house early yesterday morning. Reminded me of War of the Worlds or something.
I've seen some photos on the intertubes like this, but always assumed they were touched up. Seems they were totally real after all.
I guess that's global warming for ya!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Carly


Carly
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
My buddy at work is always very accommodating when it comes to letting me experiment with new lighting setups.
I've always pointed the softbox or umbrella straight at the subject, but this time Carly couldn't be bothered standing up, so she just sat on the floor. The quality of light was completely different. The softbox was directed at a point just above her head, but the feathering created a very subtle aura.
Sunpak 383 Super fired into a softbox, triggered by a Skyport.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Piano player in a recording studio

I got tired of lugging my umbrella around, but I figured there's nearly always something to bounce my flash off. In this case, I had my 430EX on my shoe cord pointed at his sheet music. The bounce off the white paper lit his face just right.
One of a series of 30 photos for a Secondary College.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Tyson's billy cart team


billy cart team
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
My son Tyson and the rest of his team at the Billy cart Grand Prix last weekend.
Trying to get 9 hyperactive eight year olds in one place single handed, and then making sure they're all actually in the shot...well, I tried.
I had intended photographing a few of the 80 or so teams, but after two of them, I was so exhausted I had to go and have a little lie down.
Single sunpak 383 Super backlit by the sun.

Friday, August 24, 2007

media crew


media crew
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
Video and media crew from Dandenong High School.
Backlit by the sun, and front lit by a Sunpak 383 triggered by a Skyport through a little umbrella. I'd just blown all my lunch money on this new umbrella, and I wanted to try it on something, and these guys were very obliging!
I'm breaking a few rules of beginner photography in this one, but I guess rules are there to be ignored. This is in full direct sunlight, and I'm shooting into the sun.

Brothers In Harmony


Brothers In Harmony
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
Acapella group from Melbourne.
Great guys, very positive and very talented!
Side lighting with groups is very challenging. I'm definitely going to toplight groups from now on! If one person moves even a little, they end up blocking the light from someone else. You spend too much time on technical issues rather than expression.

Also, it's important to get some distance between light and subject to minimise falloff. Put the flash too close in, and some people in the group will be overexposed and some underexposed.
I don't know why it took me so long to figure that out!

2 Sunpak 383's on stands either side of the guys about 5 metres away.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Cait & Tys in the fog


Cait & Tys in the fog.jpg
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
I've been concentrating less on fancy lighting and more on extracting some of the personality of the subject. Nothing like dragging the kids out of bed on a foggy winter morning to make that happen! Cait's usually a little grumpy first thing, and Tys always sees this as a brilliant opportunity to annoy his sister.
Equipment:
Single Sunpak 383 into an umbrella camera left.
Canon 30D
Alarm clock set to 6am.

Tys in the fog


Tys in the fog.jpg
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
My son Tyson in the park on a foggy morning yesterday. The hardest part of this shot was getting out of bed before the fog disappeared. I like the way the flash lends the scene a surreal edge, although it's probably a little overdone. If I brought the ambient light up by a stop (reducing the shutter speed from 250 to 125) it might improve things. Single Sunpak 383 into an umbrella camera left. Background underexposed 2 stops.
I remember when Cait and Tys found a dead moth outside, and Cait asked Tys "does it hurt when you die Tys?" and Tys replied " No, but it hurts everyone else." I think he was about 4 at the time.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Girls in the alley


girls.jpg
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
I always say a good portrait is 99% expression. Well, actually, I've only started saying that recently. But I've begun to realise the truth in it. No matter how fancy your lighting setup, or how good your photoshop skills are, if you aren't capturing some of the essence of the subject, nobody is going to care. I'm not saying that's what I've done here, but I'm slowly moving away from worrying about doing "clever" lighting, and I'm beginning to think about how to make the subject feel comfortable enough to reveal some personality. Unfortunately, clever lighting and tricks have an immediate impact, and when you're early in your career, you sometimes can't afford to be subtle. Or tasteful for that matter. You need to slap the viewer in the face and say "here I am!" Annie Leibovitz said she can't look at much of her earlier work because of the overbearing lighting and contrived setups. I'd argue that without that earlier work, nobody would give a hoot about her current stuff, no matter how brilliantly subtle it is. You need to be loud to get noticed initially. Once you've got people noticing, then you can do tasteful. And hope your clientele sticks with you.
Single Sunpak 383 Super backlighting. Triggered by Elinchrom Skyport, and front lit by the sun.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The Quarters


The Quarters
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
We had to dash out between traffic to get this one! we'd wait for a red light and the six of us would literally run out, take the shot, and run back to safety. The sky was overcast, and backlighting is pretty obvious in this one! Two Sunpak 383's triggered by Skyports and held by a couple of the band's friends. The sunpaks were snooted, and our helpers were sometimes too concerned about oncoming traffic to point the light accurately. Someone hit their horn and the guy with the guitar responded in typical rock star fashion! Pretty cool. Looking at this shot now, I should have worked harder on eliminating all the clutter in the background. Electrical wires, poles, parked cars. I learn something new every shot.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Sambrose Automobile


Sambrose Automobile
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
A Sunpak 383 super handheld to camera left, and another one behind the guys on a stand for backlighting. Broad daylight. Triggered by Elinchrom Skyports. It's nice to have a band that doesn't mind looking happy for a change.

Cidersweets


Cidersweets
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
These guys insisted on doing one of those multiple exposures, so I went along with it. The whole thing only took about half an hour, including the Photoshop work, thanks to a little pre-planning. The camera was on a tripod for the 4 separate shots. I made sure there was just enough overlap between the shots so that there was no obvious grouping that would ruin the illusion, but not so much that it would take too much time to complete the job. It's important to minimise the shadows and have relatively flat lighting with this sort of thing. It's really hard to paint in shadows, or eliminate them when they're not supposed to be there. I had somebody holding a Sunpak 383 Super triggered by an Elinchrom Skyport, standing directly in front of the guys for each shot, and just brushed her out later. Compositionally, the big area in the top right was intentionally left uncluttered for the typography.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Amy


Amy 1
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
Amy was kind enough to allow me to take some shots in some not so typical locations.
Sunpak 383 on a stand just to the left of the camera, firing into a shoot-through umbrella. Another Sunpak, (snooted with a toilet roll) further back down the alley, just out of shot, camera right, aimed at Amy's head. The sun also gave a little bit of backlighting.
Desaturated in Lightroom. That's it. Except for the crowd of onlookers behind me!
It was after this shoot that I finally realised that no matter how careful you are with lighting and location, if expression isn't there, it will never be a great portrait. This is almost wholly the responsibility of the photographer in my opinion. While this shot of Amy is pretty good technically, it was the first of the session, and I hadn't been concentrating on making Amy feel confident and relaxed. It took a while before I was able to make her feel comfortable and we finally got some great photos.

Masketta Fall do Harry Potter

Masketta Fall get the Harry Potter look!
You can see flare from one of the lights creeping into the shot on the right edge of the pic, about 3 metres down the alley. The other light was to camera left. Both lights were Sunpak 383's on stands triggered by Skyports, and snooted with the empty rolls from toilet paper. Snooting the light makes it appear more dramatic. The Sunpaks were set to full power to overcome the ambient light. (it was the middle of the day)
The toughest part was making sure everybody was lit by both strobes.

The Reefs


The Reefs
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
The Reefs were nice enough to do a big jump for me.
Two sunpak 383's on stands either side of the camera, triggered by Elinchrom Skyports. In the alley where I work. (I don't actually work in the alley!?) I wanted the sun to backlight the shot, but it wouldn't come out for me. Maybe next time!
I've had lots of questions about the post processing, but it's not really any great secret, but if the lighting and the exposure aren't just right, it will never look right.
I open the unsharp mask dialog box and crank up the Radius slider so that it's greater than the Amount slider. The opposite of what you'd normally do. I then desaturate slightly. Then repeat untli it stops looking good. This look is starting to become a little dated now, with photographers like Jill Greenberg and Dave Hill being much better at it than I am.

Kickers


Kickers
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
In the studio with a black backdrop.
This is a single flash setup with a slightly diffused Sunpak 383 overhead and bounced into a reflector underneath the girls. They were five or six feet from the backdrop and I made sure there was no light falling on it.

The Dudes in the studio


The Dudes in the studio
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
This is one of the shots I took in the studio for a band called The Dudes. Sam's hair looked good, and I figured I could feature it, but not in a "hey check out the hair" kinda way.
I used my trusty Sunpak 383 Supers bounced off big pieces of A2 paper taped to the wall. Triggered by Elinchrom Skyports.

Friday, July 20, 2007

me


Brendan O'Shea
Originally uploaded by brendan.oshea
The last day of my motorcycle trek around the Southwest USA on the biggest, loudest, smelliest and blackest Harley I could get. The public swimming pool at Twentynine Palms had just opened for the season, and since I hadn't seen water for about a week at this point, I made good use of their showers. Thanks guys!