Focus with Groups

When shooting photos for a debate tournament, I had to shoot many groups. The prime issue I encountered dealt with focus in group photos. Shooting with my 50mm, I had a short DoF (Depth of Field) of only a few inches. That means it was easy to have this out of focus. I needed wide apertures to avoid high ISOs inside and found it very awkward to ask people to get on the same plane of view relative to the lens (in other words, equal distance from my lens) so they would be all in focus. Here are two shots showing the issue.

A Good Photoshop Job

 

Can you guess which is the original? Can you guess how this was done? Well, it was a good Photoshop job.

Credit goes to Aknacer from Flickr. He is really a pro at Photoshop and I admire his skills and abilities.

Dank Detail

Taken at f/4 on my shiny new 7D, this photo was super sharp. I have gotten really obsessed with getting my images really sharp, especially with the new auto focus system in my new Canon EOS 7D.

Issues with Photos

While editing I noticed something out of the ordinary in one of my photos. In this screen shot, you can see the unusual thing I discovered. The photo looks great big, but when zoomed in not so much. If you view the smaller version of photo on left of my screen which is the full size photo (the big one in the center is a cropped view), you will see it’s a wonderfully composed and nice looking shot. Now, I don’t know if this was a flaw with the actual photo or rather an unusual umm thing coming out of this girl’s nose. Anyway, I have never seen my camera pull a stunt like that so perhaps she has some strange thing coming out of her nose, but who really knows? Anyway, I has to manually remove it from the photo. This was a shoot I did a month ago or so but this photo still puzzles me.

More strobist stuff

Now I have four strobes (flashes) and I’m totally ready to do any kind of storbist photography (almost). Here is my setup for photographing one of my cameras. You can see, it’s very makeshift. That said, it still works very well. I am just experimenting at this point in time.

100 Strangers… part 1 (of 100)

I really love this capture. Shot with my 70-200, I was able to get just the right amount of DoF to make the main focus of the photo the subject rather than some sign behind him. When I look at the full res copies of my photos (MUCH larger than what your seeing) and I see the crispness of my shots, it makes me fell better that the camera and lens alone (own many cameras and lenses) used to shoot this is over $2500. The lighting was perfect (about 5:45 during fall), but more importantly, the subject was perfect. I caught him as he was walking back to his car from a days work. I don’t know where he works but I’d assume it’s something professional judging by his his suit. The best part of this photo is that he has a slightly melancholy look on his face. In my mind, I assume it’s from the depressing and taxing work he does. Perhaps he does not appreciate his job. Or maybe, he just got laid off. In the second photo he is holding a lunch box. I like to put this story together in my head: he is a child in a man’s suit (get the pun). Or perhaps the juxtaposition of the professionalism derived from his suit and his facial expressional combined with his little red lunch box is profound enough to just make my mind attempt to justify his demeanor. Anyway, he was a very interesting stranger to meet and photograph.

 

 

100 Strangers

I have decided to take on a new project. It’s called “100 Strangers” and it’s awesome! The objective is simple: photograph 100 random people. I think it will be fun so invited a friend and will be downtown with my cameras shooting away. I debating between which of the two lenses I will bring out of these three – 17-70mm 70-200mm and 50mm. I really can’t decide. All of them are good and I’m torn between having a wide angle lens, having a telephoto lens and having the ability to blur the backrounds of the photos as much as the photo of the girl below (taken from the 100 strangers Flickr group). Atleast I get to take since I’m bring two DSLR bodies.

Speaking of having two cameras – I got a new piece of gear. It’s a harness (pictures below). It’s pretty sweet because now I can have both DSLRS very accessible to use on the fly. Both cameras remain exactly where I want them to be so I can take a shot with one and switch to the other in about a second. I don’t know if it will look extreme or anything to others but I like it. Sometimes photographers have to look bad to take good photos.

 

Two Cameras

I got a Canon 40D as a second body. I don’t know why I did not a long time ago (except that its expensive and I found an awesome deal). Now I don’t have to switch lenses. It’s pretty sweet. My usual setup is to keep either a 50mm or 70-200mm on my main body and then a 17-70mm on my 40D. It works out really well. And for low light, I put my 580EX II speedlite on the 40D since it’s NR is worse.

Good and Bad Sports Photography

As many of my peers know, I photograph sports for my school yearbook. At games, there are usually 2-4 serious photographers (I’ll define that as anyone with a DSLR and lens of 100mm +.

Here is an example of the WRONG way to take sports photos. 

I have seen here at a few sporting events now. She uses what I is either a Canon Rebel XS or XSi. The max ISO on it is 1600. The lens is a 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6. This is a very slow lens. Overall, this is terrible for shooting sports in low light. I was shooting at f/2.8 at 3200-6400 ISO later in the night. That shot of this photographer is even shot at 5000 ISO. Here is what is wrong – slow camera, slow lens, but most of all…. Flash! With a full size football field, there is no way an on camera flash will reach players 25 yards away let along across the field. In addition to that, the Rebel cameras only have a flash sync of 1/200th or 1/250th, thus making impossible to get sharp action shots.

Here is an example to the RIGHT way to take sports photos.

I don’t know her name, but I had a few words with her. She takes photos for the Citizen Times, a local newspaper of Asheville. I did not see exactly what camera it was but I think it’s a Nikon D700, D300 or D300s. She told me the lens is a 300mm f/2.8 (just over $5500 new). Of course, only those on a professional budget can get that kind of lens. The monopod is a good choice, and even a must with larger lenses like that one.

Here is one photo I took with my 70-200mm. 

Info: 6400, ISO f/4, 1/750th

The required gear

Today I was checking out some pretty amazing photojournalistic photos on “the big picture” from the Boston Globe. I decided to make a list of the perfect gear for photojournalism.

 

 

Canon1D Mark IV

Canon 1d Mark IV

Canon G10

580EX II Speedlite

Canon 24-70mm f/2.8

Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II

Canon 50mm f/1.2

Canon 14mm f/2.8

1.4x converter

2x converter

Apple Macbook Pro

1TB portable HD

256GB in CF cards

iPhone 4

Mace

 

With this gear, you can handle pretty much any situation. No, any sutiation. You might want to add waterproof casing if going underwater, but that really covers it.

 

Strobist

I was really inspired by those pro stobists out there. For those that don’t know, a strobe is just another word for a Flash or Speedlite. So, a strobist is just someone who uses strobes to take photos. I invested some money to start my strobe setup. I bought a 580EX II ($500ish) and some cheap wireless flash receivers and a trigger. I also have a second strobe in the mail that should be at my house soon. I’m really just testing the waters, but I've realized I opened up a whole new world for myself. There are an infinite number of places each light or strobe can be placed, giving your photo different lighting.

 

 

(not done an unnamed person found on google images)

 

 

   Here I had an idea for some shots. I would show the chess pieces in two dramatic views – one from the perspective of the pawns and another from the view of the large king or queen (these indian chess sets have pieces that are really hard to tell what they are). Anyway, you can see my set up from the 3rd shot. I had a normal light (very orange with used alone) and then my 580EX II. So it was 580EX II camera left, and lamp light camera left. The way you see it in the 3rd photo is the same way I shot both shots. You can see, when I fired the shot, the 580EX II went off.

Some things go together

Just as pools and summer or Rednecks and country music go together, My 70-200mm and 580EXII go together. I have been studying techniques to get the best results from my 580EX II flash. PS: none of these photos were edited at all, in other words they are straight out of my camera. All were taken except for the first photo of the flash and lens. On my ugly self portrait, you can see the flash pointed to the wall to bounce off it and illuminate the left side of my face.  The one of my cat  was taken super close at 17mm; as with the other flash pictures, I bounced the flash off the ceiling. These shots were all taken in my house out of just being bored.

 

 

 

Water Over His Head

Water Over His Head
Originally uploaded by Oliver Sholder Photography

I have found a new type of photography. Here is how it works, a cup of water is thrown at someone while I take a photo at a fast shutter speed using a telephoto lens.

Networking

In the past few weeks I have done a massive amount of photography for a number of organizations. While there I make sure to give my business card to people I deem important to my photography – that includes people at the events whom I photographed, other photographers and just people who look like they need some pictures. Today, for some reason I had about eight or so messages from people interested in my work or saying how much they enjoy the photos I take. I give the 500 business cards I receives a few weeks ago much credit for this occurrence.

 

 

 

Photographers Galore

This is a took this photo. It’s of the Elana Kagan confirmation. As you can see there are about 20 plus photographers shooting Kagan. I would be curious who they are working for. Of course, some big publications like the New York Times, but I’m sure there will be some freelancing and just telling the photos for cash.

Shooting From the Field

It started with a friend asking me to shoot his varsity football game and ended in a new discovery – sports photography. I have focused far too much on portraits, mostly because I did not have a good lens to shoot sports. But now I have the perfect lens – the Canon 70-200mm. For those that don’t know, this is one of those long white lenses that you’ll see professional photographers use on the sidelines of games. In fact, for football, it’s the perfect sidelines lens.

When I arrived at the game, I was surprised at the number of people for a game in the summer at 10AM. I noticed two professional sports photographers on the other side of the field. I started taking some shots from the seats, then I walked down to the sidelines, about 3 feet from the bench where the football players sat who were not playing. Then I eventually took some shots from the field. Generally you’ll know which way the ball is going and can even be in the middle of the field where reffs go. This, however can be very dangerous. Two times the ball was turned around and I was almost tackled by football players. One of the times I had to make a very quick dash with my camera. That would be awful to disrupt the game and damage my gear at the same time – especially if you knew what I paid for my lens and camera.

After about 30 minutes, I found my self being where the other photographers were. One used a Nikon mount with a massive lens and the other used a Canon D30 and 70-200mm, same lens as me. We talked a little on the sidelines and sometimes would show each other our good photos. We talked about technical things like what sports at best for AI Servio and what modes to shoot in. He told me he shot for a newspaper in Brevard and I gave him my card, then I went back to shooting. Here are a few shots I got. Both were taken at f/4 at 1/1500th of a second.

More photos from the game HERE http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oliver-Sholder-Photography/106283589406299?ref=ts#!/album.php?aid=20137&id=106283589406299&ref=mf

Snowboarding + Photography = awesome

 

This is an interesting video that shows what it’s like to be a snowboarding photographer. To me it seems quite cool. Also, I can’t imagine lugging around tons of high end photography gear like strobes (fancy flashes) and stands and all sorts of other gear. Honestly, it seems like an awesome job though. I’d sure take that guy’s job in a second.

Sharpness Only the Gods Would Understand

I have been paying close attention the the sharpness of my photos. Shooting with my 50mm, my shots taken with a wider aperture than f/2 bug me because they are so soft and loose detail and sharpness. I found my self getting some amazing shots at f4. And, with an amazingly high resolution sensor like the 18MP one in my camera, the shots can be cropped like no ones business.

Good Portraits

I found a great portrait photographer, perhaps one of the best in the world! He lives in Escheburg, Deutschland and his name is Markus Schwarze. Here are some photos of his. He mostly uses a 5D and 35mm f1.4. Here are a whole bunch of his photos http://www.flickriver.com/photos/wefwef/popular-interesting/ but here are a few I liked in particular.

 

 

Summer Photography Work

This summer I have been keeping myself somewhat busy by taking photos - but not just taking photos, taking photos for money. Primarily two things: senior portraits and weddings. Here is the deal with this line of work - it's fun and it pays well, but finding work sucks. It just sucks. Sometimes you get lucky and you find someone looking for a photographer, or better yet someone looking for a photographer finds you and contacts you. But in the world we live in, most of the time you have to fight for your work and I really mean fight for it. I like to refer to the phenomenon as a price war.

Today it's so easy to get into photography - invest a few hundred and get a crummy DSLR and a kit lens. Then snap a few photos, call yourself a photographer, and attempt to make money. Of course, you keep your prices low. Then the professional photographer who lives off the money he makes from photography does not know what to do when your charging $40 an hour for weddings and the pro is charging $400 an hour. Usually I'd say they are in diferent markets just like how while a BMW and a honda are both cars, the BMW is better quality and thefore costs more. However, in this economy, people are looking to save money in any place they can, and photography is a place they can...

HDR Update

After doing many HDR photos I feel I have nailed it. Of course not all photos will turn out great, but my percentages have increased.

Here are some tricks I learned:

Use a tripod or hold the camera really damn still. I dispise having to carry around a big ass tripod with me, although without it, it’s hard to get good looking photos that are not blurry. This is due to the fact that an HDR photo is a combination of a few photos.

Take 3 photos. And have these 3 photos be RAW photos if your camera allows

Keep the ISO low. Your photos can become very noisey if there is even the least bit of noise in your HDR

The Badass Shot

This shot was taken as Anne, Gray and I were walking to her car to get a ride downtown. It was one of those shots I snapped real quickly with my 50mm. When I got on the computer and looked at it on the big screen, I saw the potential it had. I edited it in Lightroom and boom – it was totally badass. At f 2.8, it was crystal clear with a nice blurred background that fitted well with the trees.  

Night Photography

Night Photography is one of my all time favorite things. Especially, living in Asheville, this city is really happening at night. With my new camera’s expanded 12800 ISO and my 1.8f 50mm, I can take wonderful photos no matter how dark it is. I really do love the lighting I can achieve.

More HDR

This is a photo I took after school with some friends. It sat around on my Hardrive for a few weeks and then I decided to edit it a little. First I did HDR through Photomatrix, then I added more effects and filters on photoshop then put it into lightroom to edit the lighting and composition a little and put some of the final touches on. This is the final product.

Fun faces