Monday, August 15, 2011
Nest Of Scorpions 2011
In this first shot, I got the exposure right for the sunset in the background. It was slightly underexposed to bring out the colors in the sky, but it made the foreground completely black. Not to worry, I brought a Vivitar 285 flash (my favorite!) and a 43" silver reflective umbrella with me.
With the flash on a stand just off to camera right, and set to half power, the foreground suddenly comes to life and you can see the people on the swing. The light from the silver umbrella has a great soft look to it. Also, the silver gives you a little more output than a shoot-through or a white reflective umbrella, which is useful when shooting outdoors. By balancing the two light sources - the sky and the flash, you can get a very natural shot that captures all of the colors that you would see if you were there.
Another trick I use is to gel the flash with either a CTO or CTS ("straw") gel and change the white balance on the camera to tungsten. (I use a full straw and set the white balance to 3000K a lot of times) This renders the sky a nice shiny blue and is a great look for shooting people.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Happy Belated 4th!
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Google+
In the meantime, here is a great article about how photo sharing looks and works on Google+.
It sounds promising!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Technique: Vans Warped Tour Pre-Party Shoot
The 430EX acts as the main light with the ringflash as an on-axis fill. The nice thing about using the (expensive) Canon flashes is that exposure is controlled by the flashes and ratios between the flashes can be set on the 580EX. It allows for easily setting up different looks. I usually don't like relying on the flash/camera to determine exposure, but this setup works surprisingly well.
For this shoot, though, I really didn't want to bring light stands and four different flashes - too much gear. I knew I had to use flash, but I wanted to use as little gear as possible.
The setup I had been wanting to try was one I saw in the Bill Cunningham New York documentary. In the movie, Bill uses a single Vivitar 285 attached to the camera by a flash cord to shoot events. The 285 has a sensor on the front that can be used to automatically control the flash output. You set the aperture on the camera according to a calculator dial on the side of the flash and every exposure comes out close to that aperture. It's definitely low-tech, but the 285s have been used since the 70s (then with film cameras, obviously) to make some great photos. I ended up pulling out one of my 285s and after briefly testing this setup decided to try this out in the field.
I have sealed lead acid (SLA) battery packs for my 285s, which allows me to shoot thousands of uninterrupted flash photos and greatly improves recycle times. Coupled with a wireless flash trigger, my setup was complete. A sort of modern update for the single 285 setup.
The sensor on the front of the Vivitar 285 is surrounded by a dial that is used to control the flash output. There are manual settings that put out a set amount of light and don't use the sensor, and there are automatic settings that rely on reflected light hitting the sensor to determine when to shut off.
The automatic settings are chosen by color. I used the yellow setting, which uses the least amount of flash output, so I could use a nice wide aperture. At ISO 200, it outputs at f2.8. For my EF 24-70mm lens, this was a good setting, allowing me to shoot with the lens wide open. However, 24mm wasn't wide enough for me, so I switched to my EF 17-40mm lens. This lens only opens up to f4, so switching the camera to ISO 400 meant that the flash settings didn't have to change.
I would use the 285 handheld and point it to whatever I wanted to light up in the frame. The light from the 285 isn't wide enough to cover everything captured at 17mm, so it allowed me to light certain areas of the frame and not others. Trying to light everything in the frame means having to get creative. Fortunately, I like the selective lighting look that is necessary with this setup.
The setup was a complete success with very few exposure surprises. I would definitely suggest this simple setup if the single flash look is the look you're going for. The nice thing about using the 285s, other than the fact that they're relatively inexpensive, is that they can be used for up-close portraits, but are also powerful enough to light up entire rooms. This versatility made the pre-party shoot a breeze, as I was doing both of these things.
For shutter speeds, I usually stuck around 1/40 - 1/60. For a certain look and to allow more ambient light in to the photo, I would slow it down, sometimes as much as half a second. The 1/60 setting is a comfortable one, though, since this was the fastest that most film cameras could sync with the flash. It's the X-sync speed, so it brought back memories of when I only shot film.
This light and easy setup worked really well and is one I'll be using again in the future.
I don't know if anyone even reads these posts, but if you do and find it interesting or have learned anything, please let me know!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Lytro
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
500px
So far, 500px seems to be a lot more social and the portfolio I built on there looks good. For now, I'll be using it to showcase some of my favorite (best?) photos and keeping the number of photos low.
We'll just have to see how well the site does, but so far, I'm impressed!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Creativity
For me, it can be daunting coming up with ideas for things to shoot. I read a lot of different blogs on the web in order to keep up a barrage of visuals and ideas. I particularly like collections of photos, so blogs that specialize in this always grab my attention!
Here's one that is a collection of photos of tiny animals.
This one is one of my all-time favorites - a set of photos of 70s rock stars with their parents shot in their living room!
Here's one of famous people hanging out with their vinyl.
It goes to show that sometimes individual photos can take on a more special meaning when they're part of a collection of similar photos. I find it off-putting to try to go out and shoot a collection of photos at one time. Sometimes a good collection can be made from photos shot in different places at different times. It's just important to get out there and create!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Mavs Celebration Parade
Mavs Celebration Parade, a set on Flickr.
This morning, I got up early and joined most of DFW at the Mavs Parade downtown. It was an amazing experience and I managed to get a great spot for photos. MFFL!
Monday, May 30, 2011
David Wilson Photography in Outburn Magazine
My photo of local band Here Holy Spain made it onto a full page of the latest edition of Outburn Magazine!
There's also a glowing review of the album, which is a good listen!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
coke planet
coke planet
Originally uploaded by d double u
My Coke Planet photo has been getting a number of hits recently.
It's the number 3 result on Google Images!
I need to shoot some more 'planet' photos - they're fun!
Friday, May 13, 2011
PechaKucha Dallas #6
PechaKucha Dallas #6
Originally uploaded by d double u
My photos appear in the Pecha Kucha slideshow that highlights the 300+ cities that now have a Pecha Kucha night!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Recreating
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Double Wide Promo Shoot Jan 2011
Double Wide Promo Shoot Jan 2011
Originally uploaded by d double u
Last week, I shot another promo shot for the Double Wide bar here in Dallas. For this shot, I used members of the bands Garuda, True Widow and Maleveller. The three bands share a bill at Double Wide this week, so this photo will run in Quick the week of the show.
It was a fun shoot and I was happy to get to use the trailer that was left at the venue a couple of weeks ago.
I also shot a behind-the-scenes video during the shoot, which can be seen here.