Sun and Flash
August 29, 2007 | Filed Under off-camera flash | Leave a Comment
The sun is a wonderful light source — especially in the early morning or late afternoon. But if the sun is coming in from the side, you get some pretty dark shadows on the opposite side.
Inspired by the images of Brent Williamson I decided to try a bit of crosslighting this afternoon.
With the beautiful warm late afternoon sun to work with shining onto the subject from the right, I setup a 580EX off to the left about 15 feet away at 1/32 power. Triggered using pocket wizards, the direct flash put just enough light into the dark shadow areas for a pleasing photograph. The idea is to use the flash in a very subtle way as to not even look like flash was used.
This is a very simple setup. If you don’t have pocket wizards, an off-camera sync cord will work just as well.
Shallow Depth of Field
August 24, 2007 | Filed Under everyday life | Leave a Comment
The tomatoes are in high production mode and I was out picking some this afternoon. I happened to have my camera around my neck for I was taking a few pictures of my daughter and her friend as they were playing.
In looking down the fence and knowing I had my 135 f/2.0L lens on my camera, I thought I’d take a very low depth of field picture on a long fence railing — and see what sort of an image would come of it.
I focused down the fence about 4 feet away and snapped this shot. You can see very clearly what a narrow depth of field produces. The depth of field at f/2.0 from 4 feet away is only about 1/8″ in front and behind the focus point. The small area in-focus looks more like stitches rather than wood.
This narrow depth of field is really great when taking portraits, for you can focus on the eyes and have the entire background blurred out to not distract from the subject. This blurring of the image produced by the lens is called bokeh. If taking a group of people, a very narrow depth of field is not what you will want to achieve, for one person may be in focus, but the other subject will be blurry.
Bel Air’s Got Talent
August 21, 2007 | Filed Under DAVE'S WORLD | Leave a Comment
Just hours before the finale of “America’s Got Talent”, I got a call from The Baltimore Examiner to run downtown and get a photo of the banner on display at Buontempo Brothers on Main Street. They want to run an image on Page 5 in the morning.
For those that haven’t been watching the show or hearing the reports on local radio, 14-year old Bel Air native and Harford Christian student, Julienne Irwin, is one of four finalists for the $1 million first place prize.
Julienne, who has never had a singing lesson and only sang in her bedroom prior to the trying out for the show, has a phenomenal voice. If you close your eyes when listening to her, you would swear it was not coming out of the mouth of a 14-year old.
Tonight we will all learn if she is the winner. Whether she is the winner or not, there is no doubt in my mind that this girl is going to make it big in the future.
Blue Ribbon Winner
August 19, 2007 | Filed Under everyday life | Leave a Comment
On Saturday, the weather was absolutely beautiful — sunny and about 82 degrees — so I rode up to Havre de Grace to see the Art Festival. A friend of mine, Brian Krista, staff photographer for The Aegis had a booth at the show.
I just purchased a new Sigma 14mm f/2.8 lens and had it along with me, so grabbed this quick shot of Brian and his booth setup.
Brian took first place and the blue ribbon in the photographers category — Congratulations Brian!
Captain, My Captain
August 11, 2007 | Filed Under off-camera flash | Leave a Comment
A client out-of-state needed a photograph of an oil painting of Captain John Webster, which is hanging in the Harford County courthouse, for an article he is writing.
Sounds simple, right? Yes, and No.
The simple part is that your subject is very good at standing very still — for as long as you need (duh, it’s hanging on the wall)
The difficult part is lighting the oil painting without causing hotspots, reflections, etc. Other factors are that the portrait is hanging about seven feet off the ground in a dark paneled hallway with a 18-20 foot ceiling. The courthouse has a very large number of portraits hanging throughout, and I’m not sure if it is because most of these paintings are so old, or if they were originally painted this way, or if the lighting inside the building isn’t optimal for these portraits, but they are appear very dark from the naked eye. I was initially a bit concerned.
I brought my 13 foot lightstands, not knowing before I arrived exactly where and how high this portrait was hanging in the courthouse. I lit the painting with two 580EXs bounced into white umbrellas placed approximately 30 degrees to each side about 5-6 feel away. The strobes where fired wireless with Pocket Wizards.
Another challenge was getting myself high enough to shoot the portrait straight on. I’m sure it was quite a sight to see me standing on 2 reams of paper, which were on top of a step ladder (please don’t attempt this at home). I must have been slightly entertaining for I had my share of on-lookers during all of this.
I was very pleased with the results from my first effort at photographing an oil painting. The lighting I applied really brought out more detail than you can see in when viewing the painting in person. If/when I do this again, I think I will put the lights in a much lower angle, such as 10 degrees with the umbrellas almost shooting back at each other.
I really enjoyed the company of all of the folks I interacted with at the courthouse. Everyone was extremely pleasant and had a great sense of humor.
Clowning Around
August 5, 2007 | Filed Under DAVE'S WORLD | Leave a Comment
Last Sunday, I took the family to the Harford County Farm Fair. I always like to carry my camera at events like this, to of course capture the family having a good time, but to also look for some fun photos. I was finally able to get some time to actually take a look at these images I took last weekend.
That morning it was still drizzling when we arrived, and when I came upon a Boumi Temple CLOWNS sign, I could see an interesting photo coming from it. The colors and water droplets adding some texture called to me to capture it.
I kind of like it.
Launching of new website
August 2, 2007 | Filed Under business news | Leave a Comment
Today I have publicly launched DAVE HOFFMANN PHOTOGRAPHY. HARFORD SPORTS photography visitors are now being redirected here. Until all existing photo galleries over at HARFORD SPORTS expire, they will still be able to be accessed.
I have yet to get a feel for writing a Blog, so in the meantime, this will be a more personal type look into some of the things I am photographing as a business and in my family life.