Grant Mac wide angle

Ever wonder what a wide angle lens can do for you?  Well shooting with a 10mm (16mm full sensor equivalent) I was able to stand at the front doors of Grant Mac college downtown and pull in a whole lot of architecture.  

Just thought I would throw this one out there.  I came across it today and dug it up for a proposal I'm working on.

TECH INFO: 1/250th | F 11 | ISO 100 | 10 mm focal length 

Kurt

Farmers Market June 27th Downtown

You are invited to stop by and visit the Stenberg Photography booth this saturday June 27th at the Edmonton Downtown Farmers Market. I will be selling various prints (with and without frames) and a variety of blank generic greeting style cards complete with my photography.

At the same table there will also be photography for sale from a friend of mine Alex Campbell. He has a variety of travel shots from Thailand and abroad. Definitely some cool stuff.

So please stop by any time during the day! We would love to see you. Check the link above for more information about the market.

Kurt Stenberg

Corporate shoot | Selective color Part 3 of 3

Hello again!

Well its time for a mix of color and greyscale.  I do not normally edit pictures with selective color but a few shots from the 2020 project proved to be an excellent opportunity.  For example, the picture of the "blue stuff" under the microscope was so vibrant and blue and the rest of the picture was dull and almost greyscale already that I just gave it a little help into full blown selective color editing.  I was then sure to edit enough shots with selective color that 2020 could use a substantial amount of these if they so choose.  Not sure if they will be a big fan or not but in the end I provided them with a good mix of b/w, color, and selective color pics.  If you would like to see 200 photos from this project to get a better idea of what kind of pictures I provided to my client, please check them out here!  

TIP: To obtain selective color on these photos I did not have to use "photoshop".  Well I guess technically I did but the program is called Adobe photoshop Lightroom.  So I did not use layers or masks or anything.  I would simply isolate the color on some color sliders and reduce the saturation of the others.  Its takes some practice but works fairly well if there is a vibrant color in a picture without any or "any noticeable" similar distracting colors elsewhere in the picture.  I would then further edit with contrast etc.  I recommend Lightroom to any photographers that want to begin editing their photographs.  It is a nice and user-friendly program to get started with before learning photoshop

:: kurt

Jeff Morin | Bodybuilder | Edmonton | Photography

I took a few casual shots today for a local bodybuilder Jeff Morin.  He is competing twice today and met me in between shows for a quick photo session.  I set up using two light stands with hard flash (no umbrella) and set one flash to 1/4 power and the other one ranged from 1/4 all the way up to 1/1.  The flash camera left was the flash set to 1/4 power and was about Jeff's shoulder height and pointed almost directly at him from 90 degrees.  I played around with my other flash which was camera right in various strengths and heights and angles.  Either way, strong hard flash looked the best to bring out muscular definition.  When I would bring one or both of the flashes slightly in front of Jeff, it would soften the shadows and reduce the defined look.  Hard flash 90 degrees from both sides proved to work the best.  I was then able to move around and keep Jeff in the middle and shoot how I chose.

Note: When we did our shoot in the middle of the afternoon it was very hot and sunny.  I was unable to overpower the light very well so we hit the shade.  Amazingly we found enough shade that I could shoot as low as 2.8 if I had chose and still hit under 1/250th of a second.  The sun came and went from under clouds which caused me to constantly change my aperture to compensate but it went fairly smoothly.  In the end, I was impressed by the amount of ambient light I was able to knock down using two small strobes.  I could go further and burn down the background light texture but I kinda like it...

Most shots were taken with my 24-70 lens at F3.5 - 6, 1/250th sec ISO 100

Thanks again Jeff!  Hope you did well in your competition :)

If you are interested in booking a photo session for yourself please don't hesitate to contact me through email if you have any questions.  

stenbergphotography@shaw.ca | 780.238.0678

-kurt

Corporate shoot | Color favorites

Here are a few favorites of mine from the same project in color.  The seeder/trailer shot was taken from inside a tractor while actively seeding with the farmer.  This image was enhanced with a saturation boost and a lot of contrast / blacks.  The second picture was from the seed cleaning plant.  There were a lot of dark shadows inside this "industrialistic" (is that a word?) building.  I naturally chose to use them and do a lot of silhouette style photographs.  The third and fourth shots are from the lab that 20/20 works out of.  The first one with the plant is some sort of infection or growth in the petri dish.  I cannot be sure what variety of plant this was or what infection was growing.  The 4th shot is obviously some beans!... and finally the soya plant was shot inside their greenhouse, I think with natural light, down on the university campus. 

Kurt

Monochrome | Corporate shoot favorites

Hey everyone!  I am starting to wrap up a project with 2020 seed labs I started back in the early spring.  They are a seed testing company that needed some shots of their lab as well as "in the field" at a clients farm as well as a seed cleaning plant.  I learnt a lot on these shoots about their industry and found it quite interesting.  It always helps to know as much as you can about what you are shooting in order to capture the best and most appropriate photos.  2020 plans to use a variety of the pictures I produced for a 20th anniversary calendar as well as a future website etc.  Here is a post with a few of my favorite monochrome shots.  I will post some color and selective color shots again soon and will also put up a link so you can see all 200 photos I completed for the project :)

Hope you enjoy!

Kurt

Kristin and Joe Part 2 | Behind the Scenes

Continuing on with the shoot of Kristin and Joe, we moved 'uphill' from the river and found this very large field complete with an old wooden fence.  The fence made a perfect spot for Kristin to sit up on and get close with Joe for a few pics.  I got the couple to just play around and interact while I set up and took a few test shots including my set up shot(s).  Above you can see the area we were working with.  The sun was still up and strong and was coming from behind the trees directly behind their backs.  The middle photo above shows you were the sun was coming from into relation of the subjects at the time.  

TECH INFO: To create this shot with the lens flare and sun behind them I shot at 1/1000th at F3.5 and ISO 100.  In post production, I brought up the shadows so you could see more of Kristin and Joe.  Click on the picture if you would like to see it larger.

So, now that you can see where the sun was coming from, I used this ambient light source to my advantage.  I believe the trees also knocked down the direct light a little and added some small interesting shadows as well.  Since the Sun was knocked down a bit, I was better able to use my flash with more control.  I set up with a reflective umbrella and a CTO gel for some warmth to match the sunset colors.  This light was used more as a fill flash to bring  up the exposure level of the subjects to more evenly lit situation.  You can see the light on the left side of the picture (on Joe's side) is more even and smooth and shadows are soft and in control.  On the opposite side (Kristin's  left arm) the light comes in strong and leaves strong shadows falling along her backside.  This keeps the realistic feel to the photo and dramatic lighting the trees created for us.  

Without this one light I set up, Kristin and Joe would look much darker and very shadowy in the face and where their bodies meet.  If  you were trying to tackle a similar picture that was backlit or strongly lit with darker subjects, you could still try and compensate for this photos.  You most usually always want your subjects to be properly exposed so you want your camera to act accordingly.  In auto mode, you camera will most likely take a meter reading from the whole scene and underexpose the subjects.  You could switch to (P) mode, which I recommend you always shoot, and have the option to have a bit more control of your photo.  (P) mode is the same as auto except you can control the flash a bit more as well as your exposure control (+) and (-) EV.    

In this case, if the subjects were to dark, you could experiment but hitting your (+) button a few times to increase the overall exposure of the picture.  Experiment until it looks right on your LCD.  This takes a little practice but is quick and easy once you figure it out.

If you would rather use your camera's metering ability, you could switch it from its default Matrix metering to a center weighted or spot metering.  What does this mean?  Well matrix takes readings of light from the whole scene where as spot or center takes it from where you aim the picture usually right in the center.  This makes the camera expose the picture based on the center or spot meter it takes just prior to you pushing the shutter.  For example, you set your camera to spot metering and then press your shutter half way to meter and focus on the subjects and then recompose the picture before pressing the shutter the full way and taking the picture and presto!... you have a better picture:)  Play around with your digital and take your owners manual with you when you head out and see if you can learn something new.

Kurt

Tech Info (final product ie: first picture seen above): ISO 100 1/250th and F 3.5 which brought in the tight focus on their faces but left everything in front and behind them in blur.  Flash was about 1/4 power and as seen above.