100Portraits

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28mm: ISO 400: f7.1 1/6th sec, (Tripod)
Sigma 28 f1.8

John: Photographer, Mountaineer and Pheonix Centre Founder

This was also taken in the Pheonix Centre in Drumchapel where the Drumchapel Camera Club meet. Just as was the case with George in the previous picture, I was trying to avoid the distracting background of the walls in the hall. Where George got the ceiling, John got the floor. We swung out the bench to make some interesting lines along with the wooden flooring. It’s a simple picture, but I find John’s expression really appealing and likeable. A brolly/flash was set up almost straight out to John’s left side and slightly above (the extreme angle minimised flash reflection in John’s glasses). All other lighting was striplighting. I used a white paper card in another picture to adjust white balance in Lightroom.

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50mm: ISO 400: f2 1/250th sec, (Handheld)
Canon 50 f1.4

George: Photographer, Traveller and Military Man

George kindly offered to have me meet him at his camera club in Drumchapel in Glasgow. The Drumchapel camera club were about as welcoming and pleasant a bunch of guys as you will ever meet. I’ll admit to being a little nervous beforehand in case they were critical of my amateur technique and imagined raised eyebrows and “mmm, f8, a little too much depth of field in my opinion” type quotes; I needn’t have worried, they were just helpful and fun to compare notes with. The background in the hall was full of tinsel decorations and fire exit signs, and so I chose a field of view that looked into the top corner of the hall from a surrounding balcony/gallery; the ceiling beams had the cleanest lines in the hall. Since it was very dark outside it seemed the best option. One flash with diffusing brolly was set up to George’s right and we took about 15 pictures over around 5 minutes. This was my favourite because of George’s enigmatic expression and intriguing raised eyebrow.

www.monapics.com

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12mm: ISO 800: f11 1/100th sec, (External flash)
Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6

Wendy: One Day Chief Constable, Beach Lover and Devoted Devourer of the Tartan Literati

I’m not certain how many people have been photographed outside Glasgow in this project, but there aren’t many. Wendy chose Lunderston Bay on the Clyde just outside Gourock. The day was grey and cloudy but at least not yet raining although it did rain heavily a few hours later! Wendy’s red/strawberry blonde hair was really nice against the characteristic sandstone rock of the area and so when I saw the line of sandstone rocks running down to the Clyde I suggested lying on them to accentuate the line in the seascape. Usually these slightly quirky ideas are fun but don’t quite make it. Today, this was my favourite. Wendy’s relaxed confidence and slightly appraising look mixed with the landscape she is so fond of are a winner. The wide angle zoom makes a rare debut here, don’t expect to see it for many portraits, but sometimes we have to break our patterns.

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28mm: ISO 400: f3.2 1/20th sec, (Tripod and remote flash)
Sigma 28 f1.8

Sheryl: Accountant, Bookworm and Future “Grand Designer”

Taken in the amazing “Strachan Antiques” warehouse/shop in Darnley Street in Glasgow’s south side. The light was mainly overhead striplights with only a tiny amount of diffuse windowlight. I set up a flash with diffusing umbrella to the left of the camera and a second flash on the ground lighting the shelves to Sheryl’s left. This flash was only 1/8th of the power of the main flash but just lifted an annoying shadowy appearance in the lower shelf which distracted the eyes from Sheryl. The white balance was adjusted in lightroom to cool the picture and a little green striplight cast was removed with the tint slider. Slight vignetting finally to reduce the distraction of the outer edges of the lovely bookshelves.

You can buy the shelves at Strachan Antiques and I have it on the best authority that Sheryl is currently reading Christopher Brookmyre.

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28mm: ISO 400: f2.8 1/5th sec, (External flash)
Sigma 28 f1.8

Lisa: Future Florentian, Wine Aficionado and Photographer to be.

Again in the Transport Museum Lisa chose the extremely dark but wonderful reproduction street with it’s old cars and shop windows. As a lover of photography she had one shop in mind. The primary light was the Canon 430 with an umbrella handheld for me by Lisa’s friend just to Lisa’s left at about 30 degrees. I desperately wanted to use a tripod to cope with the low light but being in a museum meant that I couldn’t. (They are very tolerant of photographers, but people tripping over your tripod is a step too far for most public places!) The old feel of the street just demanded black and white, as none of the cameras in the background would ever have photographed in anything but black and white it seemed doubly appropriate!

A little vignetting added in Lightroom finishes the antique feel.

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People Stuff:

As I have taken more portraits I have started to evolve some habits. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is open of course to debate. One habit is that once I have identified a location that works well or that my subject wants to use, I go through a similar procedure.

1. I take a couple of positioning pictures with little regard to finessing of poses or facial expressions. These shots are just to check position and general composition and often to decide on my desired “depth of field” to include more or less background detail. I will usually share these decisions with my subject to involve them.

2. I will then do some pictures, for real and try to get something good but encouraging the subject to try a few different expressions, positions, direction of looking etc. Sometimes I will use one of these, but just as often I would then ask my subject to relax and look over these to get feedback for both of us on what is working well and what isn’t so good. I often allow my subjects to delete any they strongly dislike at this stage to help them feel secure and in control of the session.

3. Finally after discussion we will try to repeat the subjects’ favourite result from stage 2, and during this stage I will be fine tuning the lighting or flash positioning. I tend not to labour this stage, but I do find that the best results often happen at this point as both my subject and I are focussing in on what we think is best.

So my point about working with people, is whenever you get to the stage of trying a promising location, it is really important to share this rough plan with them so that they don’t feel uptight about the direction the session is going. Share it all up-front and they will participate more intelligently and effectively. No one wants to be wondering what their photographer is thinking.

Techie Stuff:

This is just a small point, but quite an important one about using dedicated (Through The Lens metered flash, ETTL). When you are taking photographs and you are in the habit of using aperture priority to set the depth of field required, it can confuse you a little bit when you use flash to cope with low light situations. Although ETTL flash, (in which the camera fires a preflash and meters it before setting the brightness for the real exposure a fraction of a second later), will work, I never get good sharp results this way. If the light is low, then set your camera to Shutter priority and set a speed that is within your camera’s flash-synchronisation speed. Typically 1/125th or 1/250th of a second. If the flash is your primary light source rather than a fill in or corrective light this is the only way to avoid a long exposure that will still soften your image. A tripod might help, but your subject probably won’t be still enough for real sharpness. So 1/125th typically would give a nice sharp image, although it may use a larger aperture than you would have chosen.

This is where Manual mode is probably the best way to go. If you dictate the shutter speed and aperure you would like within reason, and providing you are using an ETTL type flash system, then the system will just kick out more light to make it happen. So in summary:

If you are doing flash portraits in dark conditions:

Use “shutter” priority not aperture priority.

Use “manual” mode to control shutter speed and get the aperture you need. This will only work within reason - f22 is unlikely to work, the flash can’t put out levels of light like the sun can! In practice I would say a couple of stops smaller aperture is as much as it will manage before the light fall of is a problem; in portraiture however the difference between f1.8 and say f3.5 is important.

So in summary, don’t fall into the trap of assuming that the mode that works brillianly for 95% of your portraiture, Aperture priority, will work with flash when the setting is really dark and the flash becomes your primary source; it wont. Use shutter priority mode or even better, use manual mode.

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28mm: ISO 400: f2.5 1/30th sec, (External flash)
Sigma 28 f1.8

Sarah-Jane: Future Yummy-Mummy, Total Traveller and Lover of Millinery

My first return to the Transport Museum since no. 2, Mac! Sarah-Jane loves the “beetle camper van” they have here. Again I found that the lighting was incredibly awkward. The only light source was fluorescent strips in this part of the museum, the green colour cast they have is unpleasant but unavoidable. To make matters worse, next to us was an olive green “Range Rover” and it was bouncing additional green into the image. In lightroom, I used a white object photographed at the same time as Sarah Jane with the same remote flash used to create a custom white balance. Next I used the “tint” slider to shift from green cast to magenta and that removed almost all of the green. Sarah Jane was great to work with here as she was so happy being around her beloved camper van; I hope she gets one soon.

Special thanks are due to the Museum with its easy policy on photographs. It’s a great place, my favourite museum in Glasgow by far.

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50mm: ISO 100: f7.1 1/60th sec, (Handheld)
Canon 50 f1.4

Laura: Cumbernauldian, Marketeer and Baker Extraordinaire

Yes folks, we’re back in Kelvingrove Park again, what a popular choice for people’s portraits. Astonishingly the sun was out and the light was lovely. I thought I’d take advantage and try a rare “Jessica Claire” (see links) style backlit photograph with just a little reflector to light Laura’s face. She was very brave as pigeons kept amassing around her and then suddenly taking off 100 at a time; all in the name of Art!

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50mm: ISO 200: f2.2 1/125th sec, (Handheld)
Canon 50 f1.4

Graeme: Cumbernauldian, Music Technologist and Psychedelic Artist

We did this under “Kelvinbridge” off Great Western Road in Glasgow. The arched walkway provided great backlighting and soft frontlighting in equal measures for this picture. The overall light levels were low so ISO 200 was needed to get a decent shutter speed. We tried some with fill flash, but those pictures all upset the natural light balance and in the end this was a totally unmodified image. Black and white conversion to suit the mood finished the job nicely. I particularly like the roadway dissapearing in the background.

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28mm: ISO 100: f3.5 1/125th sec, (Handheld)
Sigma 28 f1.8

Jaclyn: Algebraist, Equestrian Girl and Shopaholic

Taken in the lovely garden behind “Provands Lordship”, Glasgow’s oldest house. I stood on the surrounding walkway looking down on Jaclyn. Nick (from the previous portrait) had to hold a diffuser on Jaclyn’s left to soften the very direct sunlight, while I held the Canon 430EX flash in my left hand to fill-in Jaclyns eyes. The light was a bit challenging but the hedges and the garden were easier to work with!

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