Shoot Fireworks and Have a Blast

It can be fun to shoot and very colorful to display. It can be a blast to work with in PhotoShop to build an exciting photograph. Give it a try and you’ll see. You’ll need to carry a few special things. A tripod is a necessity. A cable release is almost required. I have used one for years but you could try without. What you will give up is the smoothness of the streaks that make up the burst of fireworks. A piece of black card stock or foamcore that can be used to cover your lens between bursts. Small flashlight is very handy to see if you're shooting area is totally dark.

Let's move on to the technique. If possible, plan to scout the area where the fireworks are going to fire from and find a location that will allow you to set-up and capture fireworks with a variety of lenses. I will be in a location this year that is somewhat under the burst but I have also been in an elevated position while the fireworks went off over the Mississippi River. My lens selection for this year will range from super wide to slight telephoto. In years past when my position was more of a distance from my subject I used more telephotos and left the wide angles at home. Get there plenty early, travel light, set up your tripod and check framing for the lenses you think will be the best. Realize that the bursts could be considerably higher than most folks would think. Avoid street lights in your shot as they can make hot spots that distract. Be ready.

A number of camera settings will make a big difference. Plan to set your camera on the shutter speed B. That setting is normally at the slow end of your collection of shutter speeds. B stands for bulb and it has been on cameras since the very early days of photography. When you press the shutter button, the shutter will stay open as long as you hold the button down. This makes a major drain on camera batteries so be sure to charge fully and have extras. The next setting is for noise reduction. The camera may have one or two settings for noise reduction. Set them both to be as active as possible. My D200 has a long exposure noise reduction and a high ISO noise reduction. I’ll set them both to maximum. Your metering will be manual for this project. We’ve discussed the shutter speed and the aperture will start at f5.6. Focus will be set at infinity. To do this you can point the camera at something that is definitely at that maximum distance, focus, then switch the focus off or to manual. Do not assume that the infinity mark on a zoom lens is accurate, it can vary. The starting ISO is 100. Use the highest capacity media card in your camera so the need to change that is minimal.

One key to this is to make as many shots during the show as you can. You’ll be tweaking your exposure as you go. So we’ve planned and checked settings. Our position is also considering the folks around us. When the show starts there could be some that will not be kind to photographers blocking their enjoyment. So the show begins. Push the shutter button and place your black card over the lens. Now the card is your shutter. As a blast goes up try your hand at timing. Get the burst as a large ball. Move the card to expose the fireworks to the camera sensor. Counting one thousand, one thousand one, one thousand two may help to arrive at some consistency. Consider also how bright the burst is, brighter burst will take less exposure. Then cover your lens with your card. Wait for the next good one. Open the card/shutter. Try combining three bursts. If the shot on your LCD is too bright then maybe you allowed to much light in on the individual exposures. Try making that time shorter to lessen the exposure. Check the back of your camera to see how the burst is streaky. If it is more streaky than you like, make each exposure quicker with your card/shutter. If your exposure is dark, then keep the card/shutter open longer to let more light in.

How many bursts? The ideal is to get a big burst near the top of your frame and then a smaller burst at a lower altitude. Try varying the number so that you may have that big ball of a burst by itself to add something to later. Then some combination shots that look great as 2 to 4 individual bursts are combined in-camera to make a beautiful photo. Keep an eye on your surroundings to add some other elements to the images. I like to have a tree to make a frame on some of the images. Also, to show the crowd in some makes for an interesting photograph.

Shoot tons. Adjust the f-stop. Change the ISO. Keep an eye on your LCD. Vary the number of bursts. Zoom the lens. Wider and closer. Have a collection when its over that has different colors. Crowded multiple bursts. Single bursts. Some with framing. Some with people. Is there a boat or bridge involved? Get some with that. Variety, variety, variety. You will have some awesome photos. We can go further. In a post after the New Year we’ll be combining images in PhotoShop.

Show some of your shots.  Share them at the TEKeez Discussion Group at Flickr.  What was your biggest challenge?  What questions might you have?  What did you learn that you can use at the Fourth of July show? Questions can be left as a comment.  If you'd like to keep in private,  just add "do not publish" and I'll keep it between you and I.

Shoeboxes, Prints and Negatives No More. A Modern Approach to Archiving.

Gathering the gigabytes. This is a suggestion on the archiving of images so that we can expect to have them when they are needed years from now. First thing to consider is the workflow and how image files will move through your computer or computers. I have a picture file on my desktop that has subfolders for commercial, portraits, weddings, personal and aerial. Images are housed in one of these subfolders by the name of the client or project as long as it is needed and then they are gathered in 4.2 gigabyte groupings. These then become DVDs for archiving in duplicate. I am using DVD’s that can contain, supposedly, 4.7 Gigabites. For me it seems to max out at 4.2 Gb.  Always have a duplicate of your file. You can use numbering that helps to find the images. My label is based on the month the image is archived. My title "GCS DVD 2008.08.01" refers to my studio Gary Culley Studios, then DVD ( it was CD before that and DAT before that), then the year, the month and then a sequential number.

After making the disc we need to create a label that shows the title and the contents. The directory is shown in list form on my desktop. The name is at the top, the first folder to the left is a category. Under that is folders describing the images. An example for me could be a client's name (XYZ Corp) and then a folder with a project name (Catalog Cover) that may house all the RAW files, PSDs and Tifs. Another could be a personal project that houses a travel folder, inside is Clarksdale, MS. These different folder names can become keywords in certain image management software.

Printing the Labels. Is the disc laid out on your desktop the way you want it to appear? On the Mac hit Command, Shift and 4 and your Cursor will change to a large +. Drag a box from top left to bottom right of your disc folder on the desktop. Keep in mind that your label will end as a horizontal 5x7. A file is added to the desktop. Then open this file in PhotoShop and crop it to 5x7 horizontal. Which is basically just sizing and shaping the label. Your cropping could be only to define your label but in the process it will create the 5x7 label. You are ready to print two labels and cut them to the size.

The disc is housed in a DVD holder because a CD holder is not as sensitive to the frailty of the center of a DVD. Why not envelopes or binders? Because they touch the disc. To help guarantee a long archival life I have chosen not to have the disc touched or written on.

The Super Gold Archive disc would be a great advantage to the system. Some of the media companies have specialized disc claiming extreme life. When I have priced them they are 7-15 times the price of my disc. Discussions have led me to the best of Verbatim, Memorex and Fuji but not the ultra expensive archive disc. I’m sure there are more. Stay with the best of the brands and the best of the your brand.

Many have had success with a similar system but with no DVD's. Hard drives are purchased to store the archive on.  At a point the hard drive is turned off so it preserves the images even more. To take a closer look at my system, this is not a backup. This is an archive. My working files are backed up weekly as an 80 gb file on an external hard drive separate from the archive. This duplicates my working images. Work is duplicated after importing into Lightroom and placed in the work file of the job. I keep one set of my archive in my mini-storage and one in my office at home.


The boxes that house the disc are even special. They are placed in a very specific Rubbermaid Box (See Photo). It also housed my earlier CD archive. They stack and have good latches and a Spacer to hold a less than full box.


For my Windows brethren. HELP. I think the folders on my Mac correspond to directories on a Windows computer. Is that true? I have a key combination mentioned above to make a screenshot of a portion of my screen for the label. What is the key combination to get the selective screenshot in a Windows environment? Please drop me a comment with some help. Thanks, Gary

Dean Collins, Top Notch Education

Went to a friend's house for fried fish. Before she put the fish in the skillet, it was cut in half. “Why do you do that?” “My mom did it this way so I do it this way”. So we went to her mom's for a weekend and asked her. Well, my mom did it this way and now I do it the same way. So, on a trip to see her grandma, with her knocking on heaven's door, we asked. “Why do you cut the fish in half before you fry it in a skillet?” With her last breath, she explained, “All I have is a six-inch skillet."

This story was told by Dean Collins. If you know his name and his teachings then you are a better photographer for it. If you do not know it then you need to know it. The story is an illustration of how folks do much in photography and life by copying the “norm” without reason. Dean Collins is known for much in the technique of good photography but primarily for his theory of lighting which makes for a basis on which to grow. Three dimensional contrast is a creation of Dean’s to explain how light effects your subject. A good photographer is challenged by the limitations of the two dimensional workspace. Height and width. Making the image appear three dimensional is a task for photographers. Dimension is enhanced by S-curves, converging lines and other visual techniques, but one stands out needing some technical knowledge to make it the best. Lighting. It is the key to that third dimension and that is taught by Dean Collins like no one else. What follows is a snippet of what can be learned from this man.



St. Louis Missouri was the place for me to see Dean Collins. So a group from the Memphis Professional Photographers Guild went. It was to be a full day of learning. Mr. Collins started and he is known for talking very fast. This is my third time to witness this photo extravaganza, and it is even more of a production than before. He had so much to say and explain, it’s good that he was fast-talking. People from my area of the South would have taken at least double the time to teach that much material. It was awesome. The show is powered by multiple medium format Hasselblad projectors with very tight registration. This all predates PowerPoint. The images created for the show were produced by Dean Collins on 120 transparency film. He is standing on the stage lit by another projector off to camera left. The stage is 60ish feet wide with numerous rear projectors to visually support all that he has to give. I will not say that his lessons are over my head because I already was locked in to all he had to offer. I started listening when he was creating light-stands for Vivitar 283’s and P-22 panels and I never stopped listening. I had the printed Finelight Series and had seen his videos. Someone must have slowed him down for the videos because today he is going full tilt on material that he created and is himself fired-up about. The study of three dimensional contrast is illustrated by a white circle that becomes a ball and then a duck that goes from flat to 3D and numerous exceptional, fantastic photoshoots. The duck starts off flat with no dimension but it grows to a very dimensional 3D with the progressive changes in lighting. It was either a mid-morning break or lunch when I realized I was mentally exhausted.  There is so much to take in, I'll need the video. Learn from this legend of photography all that you can. Soak this in like a sponge and you will have a major foundation for anything that comes your way in lighting and photo technique.

Dean Collins On Lighting - Live at Brooks Institute of Photography: 1991 is available now at Amazon.com and Software Cinema. If you like the snippet and want more, you can add this to your collection. The updated version of 3-Dimensional Contrast is also available. This all-new DVD based on Dean Collin’s original 3-Dimensional Contrast covers lighting for photography and video production in the digital age. It is taught by two of the few people qualified to teach Dean's techniques - Tim Mantoani and Bill Holshevnikoff, two of Dean's closest friends and best students who have since developed highly successful careers.

3-Dimensional Contrast will teach you about the different qualities of light (Shadow, Diffused and Specular) and the many methods used to control it in the digital age. With this knowledge you will be able to “read” a photograph and see how it was lit, or how to set up your lights for a photo or video production.

Fido Pictures, Yes You Can!

Running in the woods with all feet off the ground and as close to a grin as a dog can get. My dog Annie as I remember her. Then on a trip that would not normally be accompanied by a pet, Dixon goes to St. Louis. Walking around the Gateway Arch, I photographed him as my wife Tina held to the leash. More clicked than the camera and that is the experience that brings today's post.

So let’s make a good picture of your Fido. Plan and it can be easy to accomplish. Your lens selection needs to be telephoto. This, along with shooting with the lens as wide open as possible, will give you a background soft and defocused. At f2.8 or even f4 at 200mm, you will have a very limited depth of field with Fido sharp and the background very soft.

Take Fido for a walk and keep his leash taut and straight over his head. You can extend your arm and firm the connection to Fido. If your leash is thick consider using a thin rope for this project. When the photo is made be sure to loosen any visible tension so it appears natural. You or your helper will not be in the picture. The handler will also need to keep their shadow off of the subject and the background. You can position the camera low so the connection of leash to collar is hidden by the dog's head. Yes, on your knees or lower. Roll over and play dead while you're there. Your location needs to include simple backgrounds. Distant trees or simple patterns keep your post-processing easy. Lighting can be natural with the diffusion in the sky, also known as thin cloud coverage, or by working in the shadow near a wall or stand of trees. If this is the case try to eliminate direct light and work with the indirect light from the sky opposite the sun. So make your photo after making your plan. Now it’s on to PhotoShop.

Make your image choice and duplicate the background layer. The healing brush is your tool of choice. Make your source selection near the leash and slightly larger than the width of the leash so that as you brush over the leash you will supply a pattern that fills in the area without drawing attention to it. I use the normal mode setting. If you need something a bit more aggressive try the replace mode. It is more of an exact copy without the blending that “normal” has.

Questions?  Leave a note as a comment or go to TEKeez Discussion and let's talk.  TEKeez Discussion is at Flickr.com.

Umbrellas On One Side, Try It

Think of some very basic concepts when you light your subject. Rarely in a natural light world does light have multiple directions. If our source is the sun then we must relate to the fact that it bounces off different elements in the photograph. Direct sun bouncing off a white wall makes a great soft source for a photograph. The light has one direction. With other sources being secondary and having less strength. So when we artificially light a subject we need to remember this. Learn this and it will affect your lighting in a very positive way. When I’ve mentioned this to photographers I get comments about how their mentor always said “light comes from one source like the sun”.

Try it Please. Put both umbrella’s on the same side of the camera. This will give you a lighting quality much like a large softbox. Umbrellas will give you round catchlights in the eyes and they allow you to wrap around the subject. You’ll see that this is very professional in appearance with a very gradual trransition from highlight to shadow.

Position one umbrella near 45 degrees to the subject. With only this light on determine a good exposure for your portrait. Use your camera preview and histogram in the absence of a light meter.

Now position your second umbrella between the first umbrella and the camera. This can be placed at different positions to control the intensity of the shadow side of the face. Make sure the exposure stays the same or only slightly in need of a tweak. The second light is truly a fill and should not alter the exposure. Be sure for your test to do like I did. With two lights of equal power let your main light be at half power. I have used 2 White Lightning Ultra 600s. Exposures are recorded with the main light only, with fill light at it’s weakest setting, at a middle-power setting and at a full power setting. If you like, other lights can be added to the set. For our illustrations, there are only two lights, the main and the fill. No other lights.

We have created a portrait with lighting from one direction. We have not used cross lighting. The lighting has a nice wraparound look with a smooth transition from highlight to shadow.

Another Perspective. I like a good deep shadow. The good part of this is that it gives the illusion of thinning the face. Check our samples, the one lit with a full fill light seems that the face is wider than the images with more of a shadow. The flip side of this is the character of the face (wrinkles and bumps) are enhanced by the more contrasty lighting. Think of it this way, for every object whether it’s a face or bumps and wrinkles on the face there is a highlight and shadow. So when you choose to leave the shadow side of the face very dark then you also leave the shadow for each bump and wrinkle.

The photos that illustrate this post were made within a minute or two to maintain consistency. As the fill light gains in power through the series, the overall exposure gets to bright. I tried to balance in ACR and PhotoShop to keep the highlight side of the face the same so the shadow would be the only difference. By the way, the model is ME, Gary Culley. I am the writer, producer, editor and IT department of TEKeez.com. The photos were shot by my good friend Keith Renard. Be sure to see his exceptional photography at Skipworth.

Give it a try. It doesn’t fit for every situation but works great for a headshot and other portrait situations. Got a question? Leave me a comment or come to the TEKeez discussion at Flickr. Show me your pictures there also.

What is it that you’d like to know more about. If it’s brain surgery or airplane pilot related then I am not your guy. But I do know photography and I’ll share with you anything that’ll help.  

There are articles coming up to help with natural light-outdoor portraiture.  Also a great way to photograph your dog in a better pose than you've ever seen.  Research is being done on batteries, from how to mark them to charging the best ways. It's all coming soon!  GC