He Could Be Superman

I would like to take this time to thank my family for helping me with my assignments for an Electronic Flash class that I just finished up over at Picture Perfect School of Photography.  The class was taught by Bryan Peterson and Charlie Borland online.  I enjoyed the class, but sometimes I felt like my eyes were crossing trying to figure out the “Geeky” part of the class.  However, both instructors were encouraging and willing to answer any questions that we asked.  I also enjoyed seeing the work of other photogs.

The above photo was taken of my youngest son for my last assignment.  I had fun using two flashes on either side of him, which gives a unique look to the photo.  He must have enjoyed it, too, because he’s using this photo as his Facebook profile pic.  He also helped me out on another assignment, below.

The Sky's the Limit

I took him over to a small lake located near our house and we shot a couple of photos looking up into the sky.  The flash was used to add a little fill light on the non-sun side of his face. Oh! And here he is again helping me with a two flash set up, again.  He didn’t really have to do anything in this shot except look up when I called to him.  He was busy working on his computer and listening to his music.

DJ

My kids are so used to me taking photos of them, that they don’t really notice it too much anymore.  “It’s just something mom does.” Speaking of kids, I caught my daughter yesterday when she came over to use the community pool.  I already had the flashes set up from the Superman shoot that I did with her brother.  So, I just sat her down in our rather embarrassingly sparse grass and asked her to give me a few poses.  She always has people to see and things to do, so I had to make it fast.  We took about 20 photos and it took about 20 minutes from set up to the final snap of my camera.  See, it doesn’t have to be painful.

Taking a peek

Although, I did not use the below photo for my class, I liked the way it turned out. He’s such a good sport.

Beam me up...

The last photo was a concept I had in mind and since the Schmautz family always likes to get together and celebrate…it was the perfect opportunity. Luckily, I have a bunch of hams in my family, so this type of shot is not hard to do.

Surprise!

So…I had a great time and learned much in the flash class. If you want to find out what goes on in my household when the fam gets together…check out this Vimeo.

Schmautzhaus Father’s Day, 2011

I would love to make some great portraits of you with my new-found flash skills.  Contact me at schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net to set up an appointment.

I was beginning to feel like I had hit a wall with my photography…especially with the last photo shoot I did up in Woodland with the pin ups.  I really felt the need to branch out of my natural light comfort zone and head into the “artificial” light, so to speak. Plus, I want to open a studio in my house and I would love to add studio style portraits to my repertoire.

So, I invested in some pocket wizards and a couple of Elinchrom strobes to try out.  I got my pocket wizards I tried it out with my Canon flash – off camera with John Evans who is the chef and owner of Zachary Jacques Restaurant in Placerville.  I had to take an environmental portrait for my Portrait and Wedding Photography class that used off camera lighting to light the subject but also showed ambient lighting behind the subject.  I had to do this really, really quick because his restaurant was about to open for the evening.  So, I positioned my husband to camera right with the flash and the pocket wizard.  I took a couple of test shots and then I took this one just as the first customer was walking in the door.  I got some ambient lighting, you can see that there is a restaurant in the background, but it could have been better.  At any rate, I think his photo turned out pretty well.

The next day I got my two new strobes and light boxes.  I can’t tell you how hard it was to figure out how to put the stupid light boxes together.  I finally got the larger one on the strobe and began to look for my first victim.  I tried a few practice shots with my husband but he was busy cooking, and I didn’t want to bother him.  Then my daughter showed up and she’s always a good sport.  So, I snapped this shot.  This will give you a good idea of the type of cool catchlights (the little lights in her eyes) that you can get with softboxes.    My softbox is actually rectangular, but because I have it set at an angle to her face, it gives the catchlight a funky shaped light.  Perfect.

Yesterday my oldest son and his girlfriend came up for dinner, so I dragged my softbox out and they wanted to see what was so cool about it.  Their eyes began to glaze over as I discussed the possibilities, so I snapped a picture instead.

Now, I love the light in their eyes on this photo.  I’m not overly crazy about the pose, but they are so cute…I couldn’t resist.  They are coming over on Thursday with her little boy to help me out with another school assignment and be the first ones to help me try out my new studio arrangement.  (I even have a cool new backdrop system to use.)

Here’s a photo I took of my youngest son with my older continuous studio lights, which use brellas to soften the light.  I really like this photo, so I guess I’m not ready to give up my old, non-strobe lights.  The color of the light is much different than the strobes and the catchlights are round due to the use of umbrellas.

Hint:  to make sure your photos of people have some “life” to it…make sure they have those little catchlights in both of their eyes.  That goes for pets, too.  Actually pets look kinda scary unless they have catchlights in their eyes.  You can get catchlights by making sure they are facing a window or lamp or something that puts off light besides the sun (it will cause them to squint) or direct flash (little annoying pin point light in their eyes.)

Thanks to all my kids.

Now…I’m on the hunt for new victims.