5 minute portrait »
5 Min Portrait with the Lytro and Interview
Recently in Austin TX at SXSW 2012 I finally got my chance to hold onto a LYTRO and get a full education on what the lytro actually does.
It turns out that LYTRO has been aware of my rants but could not say anything to correct me until the camera came out. They were kind enough to sit down with me even after I called their technology an APP.
Eric Cheng schooled me in all things lytro as you will see in the video above. He has been using the camera for almost a year before it officially came out. It is pretty fascinating when you hear and see everything that goes into bringing a lytro image to life.
All I can say is I was humbled by what I was told and what I saw. The future holds some very interesting things for this newly released technology.
I also had a chance to make a 5 min portrait with this very interesting camera. You can see that video below as well as play with some of the sample images. Don’t forget that these files hold the raw data from the lytro and in the future the full power of the lytro will unlock those raw files.
CLICK HERE to play with all the photos from this 5 min portrait.
5 Min Portrait from the Airport with Andy Gibson
You may be asking yourself is this really going to be a 5 min portrait from the airpot, the answer is yes. Ari and I had just arrived at our gate at Philadelphia International Airport where we were flying out to Nashville on our way to SXSW.
I always look around to see who is at your gate and who you will be sharing your flight with. There were three guys who you could tell were musicians so I made sure to say hello. It turns out the musicians name is Andy Gibson and he so happens to be a reader of the site. We stood there talking music and photos for a little while until I decided to do a Live Spreecast.
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Fuji Instax Photo Shoot – 5 Min Portrait
One of my favorite pieces of content to create are these 5 min portraits. They are fun because its a challenge to create and capture what I hope are quality images.
For this 5 min portrait I picked up a Fuji Instax instant camera (Allen’s Camera carries Instax cameras and Film). I am fully aware that this is not the greatest camera in the world nor does fuji tell you that it is. I picked it because its fun to challenge yourself to capture great images with any camera you pick up.
The set up I used for this shoot is pretty simple. I used my Westcot TD6 continuos lights in softboxes to create some dimension in the images. I used my BlackRapid just like I do on all my photo shoots to secure the camera. Finally I asked Sarah to join me for her second 5 min portrait session.
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Fuji Instax 5 Min Portrait – Sneak Peek
This is a sneak peek of the next installment of the 5 min portrait. This 5 min portrait was captured entirely with the Fuji Instax Instant Camera.
Keep an eye out for when the full 5 min portrait will be posted.
Music by Walt Lafty. You can pick up a Fuji Instax at Allen’s Camera.
Zack Arias Flash Photography – 5 Min Portrait
I got to spend the day with Zack Arias when he held his OneLight workshop at my studio/apartment. What an amazing teacher, photographer and person. This guy is all about teaching, doing better and passing on the knowledge.
After a long 17 hour day I asked Zack if he would be able to do a 5 min portrait of me to post on the site for all of you guys to see. We started shooting right around 2 AM and Zack was able to hammer out some AMAZING portraits.
I think you will be able to pick up some lighting nuggets from Zack during this video. You will see him go from one or two speedlights to using three.
Zack is a master with speedlights, it was truly an honor to get to pose for a portrait with him. For more information on what is in Zack’s bag and why he switched from Nikon to Canon CLICK HERE.
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5 Min Portrait – Construction Site Candid Shoot
The 5 Min Portrait is one of the most watched segments on the site and I think thats because people love to sit back and watch a full photo shoot in action.
In this episode I join my friend Martin as he is taking down a wall at the future home of his bar called Steam Pub in Pennsylvania. My goal here was to show you a full on candid shoot opposed to setting every little detail up it was my job to capture what Martin would be doing.
This is my type of photo shoot, capturing candid photos of an interesting subject or location. What is interesting about how I shoot is I rarely know fully what it is I will be shooting when I show up. Sometimes I know what the situation or location looks like and other times I am seeing it for the first time when I show up. This does pose a challenge as you have to be able to adapt to every situation on the fly.
As you watch the full photo shoot you may notice that some of the images early on are just bad, they missed, they missed focus and they missed proper exposure. Sometimes it takes a few minuts to get your settings to where you feel confortable with them. I know the first batch of images are not very good. There is motion blur because my shutter speed was to slow. My focus missed because the Nikon 24-70 2.8 seems to have an issue with focus which I am checking with Nikon about. All of this could add up to being very frustrated during a shoot and possibly ruin your mind set and the rest of the shoot.
Click here to see the rest of the FULL RES images
5 Min Portrait – Portraits with a Polaroid Instant Camera
I am back with a NEW 5 min portrait video and this time its the 5 min portrait Polaroid Edition.
Adam has a Polaroid 450 instant camera that takes Fuji Instant Film. We thought it would be fun to do a portrait session using just the Polaroid camera and seeing what we were able to capture.
Check out the video above to see how we were able to do.
Click the image below to see all the full res images form this shoot.
5 Minute Portrait – Off Camera Flash Tutorial
As we continue with the 5 minute portrait series it was time to venture into off camera flash. I asked my long time photographer friend Richie who so happens to be an off camera flash wizard to shows us the basics.
It is amazing how simple it was to set up one Nikon Speed Light off camera using Nikons CLS shooting in TTL. Richie wanted me to mention that when he is shooting with off camera flash he is generally setting it to manual. For the very basics he wanted to show you how easy it is to set it to TTL and get great light quickly.
Off camera flash has never been my strong point and I am not afraid to admit that. After seeing how Richie set this up it honestly seems like something that I should fully embrace and utilize on simple photo shoots along with shooting my style of photos.
With this set up Richie was able to get amazing balanced light on the subject as well as keep the background in check. As you can tell from the first few images that were taken without the flash and brought back using the RAW file the background is completely washed out.
Would you like to see more in depth flash videos from Richie and Adam that break down the very basics?
5 Min Portrait – Portrait Photography with Gizzy
This is the latest installment of the 5 min portrait series. As you can see from the video I decided to shoot this portrait session right in the heat of the day around noon.
The sun was straight up, it was a clear day and it was very very hot. I shot all the images with the Nikon D3s Nikon 14-24, Nikon 24-70 and70-200 2.8 VR II.
During this photo shoot I was able to cycle threw a few different lenses and have Gizzy strike a few different poses. You will notice that most of the images have been converted to black and white. The reason being that Gizzy was getting very red from the sun which is not easily taken out in post production.
There is really not much to say about this video, I placed pop ups in key places where explanations were needed so keep an eye out for them.
If you would like to see the full res images please click the image below.
5 Min Portrait – Nikon D3100 Tutorial
The 5 Min Portrait videos are some of my favorite to put together. These videos allow you guys to see how I interact with and capture images.
In this installment I take on the challenge of photographing my good friend Adam Rosenberg with one catch. I only used the Nikon D3100 and its 18-55 VR Kit Lens. I know I have used the D3000 in a video before but this is the first time I did a whole photo shoot with just the kit lens.
I thought that I would shoot part of the session with the D3100 and than switch to the D3s but I decided to stick with the basic set up. The reason I stuck with it is I like the challenge of having to work with the limitations. Once I get into the shooting zone it doesn’t matter what camera I am using because at that point its all about getting the best images possible.
In this video pay attention to my framing as well as the settings I am shooting at. I wanted to keep the D3100 to 1600 ISO and no higher. I would loved to have been using a 2.8 or 1.8 lens as the kit lens only lets you shoot at F3.5 wide open. This whole discussion with be explained in full detail in my upcoming beginners guide.
In the meantime enjoy this video and keep an eye out for Part 2 where I will discuss in more detail each image. At the very end of the video you will notice a link to take you to see a Time Lapse of Adam Rosenberg painting. (you can see that below as well)
