Dramatic Lighting Using the HONL Grids and Nikon's CLS

Imagine if you came home and this was the scene waiting for you. You don't know who this person is, but he clearly knows who you are, and took the time to carefully break into your apartment, and now is waiting for you at your table.



The idea here is simple, the dramatic mood of the scene is provided courtesy of some dramatic lighting, which was created with the help of HONL's Speed Grids. I had both Speedlights (SB-900 and SB-800) placed at camera left. The SB-900 had the 1/8 speed grid on and was pointed down at the subject, and set to -1.7EV via the on-camera SB-800. The SB-800 had the 1/4 speed grid on and was pointed at the table, set to -2.3EV, just enough to see a bit of the table. You can see the setup shot here:



The RAW file was converted to TIF via Capture NX, with additional use of Nik's Color Efex Pro 3.0.

Beauty and Fashion Photography Setups on Video

Fred Miranda Wedding Photogs Meetup - Toronto

As the wedding season has come to an end for most of us, it was time to relax and take a few pictures just for the fun of it. Sam Obeid rallied the troops on the FM Wedding Photographer Forum, and at least 12 of us answered the call for a chance to network and share stories with fellow wedding photographers.

Oddly enough, the waitress that worked our table last night was the same waitress we had back at our Nikon meetup at the beginning of the year.

Here are some shots from the evening at The Duke of Richmond

1. Sandra and Lauren


2. Lauren


2b. Lauren post processed via Capture NX with some Curves added within the program, and then brought into PS CS4 for some dodging and Nik Filters: Pro Contrast and a toned down version of one of the Cross-Processing filters.



3. Sam


4. Mark and Paul


5. Spencer


6. Aron and Sam



7. The Bill!



8. Our waitress last night


9. Our waitress from the Nikon meet up 11 months ago :-)


Enjoy the holidays and I'll see you all at the next meet up.

ASID CEU Toronto - Chris Hodges on dealing with facility manager clients and green building.

The last event of the Tayco sponsored educational series for 2009 took place at The Gladstone hotel this past Tuesday (December 1, 2009). Chris Hodges presented on evolution of the role of the Facility Manager, and how important it is to understand the needs and objectives of these key decision makers when presenting a project. Here are a few shots from the evening at The Gladstone Hotel.

Chris Hodges addressing the audience




Very trendy ornaments made out of recycled paper, magazines and posters


The audience


Signing certificates for attendees

Black Creek Pioneer Village - For the love of photography

As the wedding season is coming to an end, and all I have booked now are family portraits for the holidays, I realized I hadn't shot anything personal for a very long time. Well, I shouldn't say that, because thanks to Chase Jarvis and his Best Camera project I can now roam the streets with my iPhone and be confident that any photo opp won't be missed. However, now that my DSLR camera is part of a money-generating venture in wedding and portrait photography, I think twice about taking it out "just to take pictures". I became a photographer out of pure love for the raw power of images, be it a landscape, a portrait or any other image. That kind of thinking got me worried, so last Sunday I decided to bring my camera along for a little trip my wife an I took to Black Creek Pioneer Village. It was great to break from the wedding mindset and just capture whatever felt right to me. Here are a few shots from the trip:

Using the Lumiquest Softbox III and HONL grids for wedding photography

As much a I love my Alien Bees strobes, when it comes to weddings I always try to pack light. Don't get me wrong, I always bring the ABs with me, just in case, it's just not practical at all to carry them around with you. For that reason, I try to resolve most of my lighting situations with SB-800/900s. In addition, if I can get away with not using an umbrella, I will and the Lumiquest Softbox III has become a permanent resident in my camera bag for those occasions. Another item that has found a permanent spot in my camera bag is David Honl's Speed Grid. I have both versions, the 1/4 and the 1/8. If you want to add a new level of dramatic lighting to your photography, then you definitely need to get these and keep them in your bag!

In this particular example below, I used an SB-800 with a HONL 1/4 speed grid behind the couple and pointing at the wall to get some detail on the brick wall. I lit the couple using an SB-900 with the diffuser cap on and the Lumiquest Softbox III attached to it. I triggered both lights with an on-camera SB-800.

Street Photography by Clay Enos - A different style

I couldn't resist posting this here, enjoy: