Sincere thanks Bruce. I know what you mean about the aromas. Walking down a few flights of stairs, you can smell pot roast on one floor, cabbage (yecch) on the next, cookies on yet another (stop and tie my shoes there) and finally something unknown that makes you hurry along.
Being a huge fan of the black & white masters, I am humbled by your comment re LIFE Magazine. Kathy & I still love black & white film, and print continuous tone fiber most weekends in our wet darkroom. So we still feel close to those days.
<<< Please announce when the project is complete; gallery or book. >>>
I promise to do that. Thanks very much.
Jim
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
congratulations! You are creating something that most of us only dream about; something meaningful and enduring. These photos combined with your story and captions will touch people long after we're gone. And what a wonderful gift to your community.
I'm awestruck. I too will be looking for updates and the announcement of the final completion.
And, I like #3 much better than #2. Her back is too much of the focal point in #2. When I went back for a second look I noticed many more details in the shot, like the her profile in the mirror, but #3 lends much more to the noticing of details.
I like the way you used mirrors in some of your other shots too - among many other things.
I liked 12 better than the alternate because if seems to fit the project/theme of showing the actual people.
What a wonderful project!!
Lisa
PS, just a technical question. If you have to underexpose some of the shots and then push them to the point of noise in pp, why not change your ISO to 400 or 800? you might end up with less noise? many dslr's are pretty good at higher ISO's??
This is just brillaint! What a great project. I really like the way you captured all the people. To me, the shots have feeling and you get a sense of who the people really are. Not just a face in a photo, but a real person.
<<<These photos combined with your story and captions will touch people long after we're gone.>>> Lisa, funny you should say that. In the proposal that I slipped under everyone’s door, asking them if they would consider participating in the project, the last two lines are “In the time it takes the wind to blow, we’re all gone and there’ll be a whole new set of people. Let’s leave a record.”
<<< And, I like #3 much better than #2. >>> Thanks for the feedback. That seems to be the consensus, and I agree.
<<< I liked 12 better than the alternate because if seems to fit the project/theme of showing the actual people.>>> I understand and agree, although we may hang them both in the final show.
<<< PS, just a technical question. If you have to underexpose some of the shots and then push them to the point of noise in pp, why not change your ISO to 400 or 800? you might end up with less noise? many dslr's are pretty good at higher ISO's??>>>
Really good question Lisa. My short answer is three reasons: 1)While many dslr’s are good at higher ISO’s, mine is not (Nikon D200) 2)To lessen the impact of reflections and harsh shadows 3)To keep these photos from looking too flashed.
And the longer answer: Last August, when this project began, I did some tests at 400 and 800 ISO, and found substantial noise, especially in the ¾ tones and darker shadows with detail. So I ran Noiseware, which did a great job of removing it. However, the (what I call) local contrast was mushy in those areas, with poor separation of similar tones. However, when I set the ISO to 100, and then pushed in ACR and brightened in LAB, the shadow detail was crisper and the separation of tones was better.
I am aware, from reading Andrew Rodney and Jeff Schewe, that when a dslr captures six stops of range, half of the 4096 levels are devoted to the brightest stop, half the remainder (1024 levels) are devoted to the next stop etc. So I can’t deny that you are right that the numbers say that I should not underexpose. However, perhaps my workflow is not up to par, or different somehow, and is changing the result. I trust my eyes, and my results showed better separation of tones with my noisy D200 when I kept the ISO low (100 or 200), versus shooting at 800.
Also, in these small apartments, I’m constantly dealing with reflections and harsh shadows from my lights. If I crank the power up on my lights, the hard shadows on the walls etc. get much worse. So I’m trying to minimize them in the capture. My intentional underexposing does minimize them and makes them easier to eliminate.
It’s soon to become a moot point. I have just received a glorious gift of a new D300 from Kathy for my birthday (more than I deserve). I understand this camera is much less noisy in the shadows. So, I hope to abandon my intentional underexposing, and crank up the ISO if necessary.
Jim
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
Also, in these small apartments, I’m constantly dealing with reflections and harsh shadows from my lights. If I crank the power up on my lights, the hard shadows on the walls etc. get much worse. So I’m trying to minimize them in the capture. My intentional underexposing does minimize them and makes them easier to eliminate.
It’s soon to become a moot point. I have just received a glorious gift of a new D300 from Kathy for my birthday (more than I deserve). I understand this camera is much less noisy in the shadows. So, I hope to abandon my intentional underexposing, and crank up the ISO if necessary.
Jim I disagree with you. I believe you DO deserve Kathy's gift of a new D300!!! However, your recipe seems to work splendidly and I'm not sure I'd mess with it until the project is done!!! I'm sure you will enjoy what the D300 can do. I know I recently put my new Canon 40D (an upgrade from the 20D) to the test and did some shots in the hospital documenting the birth of my great-nephew. I understood the dynamic range was supposedly greater in this camera, but I was blown away by how well it handled varied light sources and harsh shadows. I also was thrilled not to spend so much time in PS!!! Enjoy!! These are great shots....I could stare at them all day.
Although I am not even originally from this country, I've lived in NYC for over 13 years and consider it "home" more than everywhere else.
Your pics gave me goosebumps of joy and made me realize why I miss living there so much. I find your photos, not to mention the entire project, incredibly moving and I think that you have a fantastic and very creative eye.
If you have another show, please let me know when it is as I honestly would love to stop by!
Cudos to you and clapclap!
Jana
all that we see or seem
is but a dream within a dream
- Edgar Allan Poe
Very Moving!
This is the kind of story that is made from real life. What a wonderful glimpse of people as they are. Well thought out and planned.
I absolutely love this series. People are my favorite subjects - with infinite possibilities. You have really captured something worth publishing. I hope that the NY Times or similar picks up on your project. Have you pitched it to them? Certainly worthy of a publishing - Blurb or otherwise.
Saurora – Thank you for your support. I’ll try not to mess up the recipe. Can’t wait to try out my new D300. I’m waiting for RRS to make an L plate for the D300 grip, as for some reason I can’t even start shooting with it until it has one of those things. (Guess I’m an all or nothing type). <<< I also was thrilled not to spend so much time in PS!>>> I hear that. After getting CS3, and after reading Andrew Rodney’s advice to use ACR for as much as possible, I took his advice and have already managed to reduce time spent in PS. If the D300 allows me to reduce it further as your 40D has, all the better.
Jana – Thanks very much. When it’s finished, you will be most welcome to come and see the show. I’ll let you know when, but can’t see the show happening until maybe June or so. The scheduling is the hardest, as people are busy, and the whole concept is outside of people’s comfort zone. I don’t want to push them, since I live here. Anyway, there’s no rush. If it takes a whole year, then so be it.
[FONT="]Kathy – Many thanks. People are my favorite subject too. I read somewhere recently that we like to look at people’s faces because we think we’re going to learn something from them. Interesting. I enjoy environmental portraits because they inform us so much. Including the environment in the portrait answers some questions but also raises many more, and it’s such an important part of storytelling.
Just finished processing the next three:
18.
in software biz
19.
he's a wine dealer, she's in retail
20.
physical therapist
[/FONT] I am trying not to get too sappy with stories about these people. There’s plenty of happiness, sadness and trouble in the lives of the people here, just as there is anywhere else with any group of people. But I must share one small story that just happened here.
Not all supers (superintendents) live in the building that they keep running, but ours does. He and his wife have been the heart and soul of this building for almost 50 years. They were both raised right here in this neighborhood and were childhood sweethearts. They raised their family here. Our super is the salt of the earth, and there isn’t anything anyone here wouldn’t do for him.
One month ago his wife passed away after an illness, and it hit the building pretty hard. The wake was at the funeral home on the corner of our block. The service was at the church right across the street from our building.
Our neighborhood, while it was a little funky in the 70’s, has come back and is fairly safe now, with some beautiful prewar european style buildings and there are always lots of people around. But still, it’s New York, you know, so there’s plenty of crime to go around. No one would consider leaving anything outside that they didn’t wanted stolen, especially overnight. One joke that came out of the garbage strike in the late 70’s was that the way to get rid of your garbage was to giftwrap it and put it out in the hall. It’d be gone in ten minutes.
Anyway, after our super’s wife’s funeral service, they put two bouquets of flowers outside our building, by the front door, to say that our building has lost someone. Those flowers stayed outside for a week, night and day, and no one touched them, not even the punks.
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
I so enjoyed this series. It really moved me somehow. I wish I lived in a community like this and could do a project such as yours. Wonderful idea executed perfectly!
Hello again. The Jigsaw Puzzle Project continues. I’m back with some more environmental portraits of people in my building.
21.
These are the same people as photo #19. They were so cooperative that I asked them if we could shoot a sunrise photo at the same place as the twilight photo #19. So on a cold Sunday morning in February, they made a complete breakfast and set the table for the 6:00 a.m. sunrise.
22.
Grandmother
23.
The tenants are the ones standing. She’s a freelance creative director for a fashion catalog. He’s in the audio/visual business.
[FONT="] [/FONT]
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
I’ve been asked how much of the lighting is ambient light and how much is from my Nikon flashes. So I’m posting some photos taken before I turn on the flashes to demonstrate the difference.
This first photo shows ambient light only. This is the Nikkor (2.8) 17-55mm lens. Exposure is 1/20th at f 5.6 at 200 ISO for all three photos. Metering was done by pointing an incident meter out the window.
This second photo shows the same exposure, but with 2 Nikon flashes turned on, with a 3:1 ratio. The flash on the far right, just outside the frame, is set one and a half stops brighter (3 times as much light) than the flash on the far left, just outside the frame. The dark wood bureau needs some more light on the front of it, so I set up a third flash with snoot pointed at the bureau, which you can see in the next photo.
24.
[FONT="]This is the final image. She’s an actor and teaches public speaking to corporate types. We tried several different yoga positions for this shot. Well, when I say we, I mean mostly her. [/FONT]
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
This first image shows the scene the way it photographed in the camera without turning on the main flashes, but with the following light sources:
-Natural light from a window slightly illuminating the hallway at back left.
-Natural light from a window in the bathroom at back right.
-Natural light from a window just outside the frame to the right is illuminating the clothes hanging on the door on the right.
-Lamplight from the lamp by the bed.
-Television reflected in the mirror over the bed.
-One Nikon flash with snoot directed toward the dark wood drawers by the bed.
Before turning on any other “main” flashes, I wanted to get the snoot pointed in the right direction. It’s a lot easier to see the snoot light on the camera LCD if the other lights are off. As you can see in the first image, it’s not pointed exactly at the drawers yet (It’s a little too low and too far left).
But then the cat settles down on the bed, so I ask the tenant “Will that cat stay there?” “No”, she says, “as soon as your lights flash, it’ll take off.” So I pop the lights, and get this:
The cat doesn’t move. So I ditch the idea of pointing the snoot at those drawers, and instead I move the light stand with snoot over to my right, pointing the snoot right at its little cat face. I turned on the hall light (back left) and the bathroom light (back right), called the roommate to stand in the doorway, and gave directions to the humans while waiting for a good image to come up on the television reflected in the mirror. The cat stayed there while I shot fifteen frames or so. I found one frame where the image on the television, the cat, and both humans were all good. The rest is postprocessing. Here is the final choice.
25.
editor and writer
I hope this is helpful and that it shows most of the light is from the flashes. There just isn’t much ambient light inside the apartments. One way to look at it is like this: In the capture I’m trying to light everything in the apartment as much as possible while still trying to reduce shadows, although they are inevitable. Then in post processing, I’m trying to selectively reduce the light to achieve a more interesting and less flat look.
All comments and questions are welcome.
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
Wonderful set. If there was anyway to reshoot #2 and have the artist look more to the left so that her face can be seen in the mirror I think the composition of this one is much better. #3 seems too busy and ditracts from the artist.
Wow! More amazing shots! And thanks so much for sharing your process. That made a great read with visual aids. What a fantastic thread this is! Great job!
Elaine
Comments and constructive critique always welcome!
I don't know how I missed this thread before now but certainly glad I've found it. Absolutely amazing captures and stories and your running commentary on the set-ups are priceless.
LOVE the two self-portraits and the funerial bouquet saga. I also grew up in NYC and can relate to the sense of compartmentalized neighborhood tenants of a small building feel towards each other.
Randy - Thanks. Those were taken last August so no reshoot, but I appreciate your comments.
Elaine - Thank you kindly for your continued support!
Angelo - Many thanks for your comments. We're in Manhattan on 107th between Amsterdam & Bway. A friend visited us recently from the midwest suburbs and after a couple of days declared that our building (or city life in general) was a "rabbit warren with too many locks." You can probably appreciate that we had a good laugh, and then had to agree he was right.
Jim
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
Angelo - Many thanks for your comments. We're in Manhattan on 107th between Amsterdam & Bway. A friend visited us recently from the midwest suburbs and after a couple of days declared that our building (or city life in general) was a "rabbit warren with too many locks." You can probably appreciate that we had a good laugh, and then had to agree he was right.
Jim
Ahhh, Morningside Heights! I thought it might be. As a Columbia alumni I know the area well!
Hello again fellow Dgrinners. Here’s the next batch of environmental portraits of people in my building. I’m hoping to wrap up this project soon, so there will probably be just one more post in a few weeks.
I’ve started working on putting together a Blurb book of this project. For the book, I want to include photos of our building. In order to get a good photo of the front of our building, I managed to get into the building across the street. After I got in, I put a note under the door of the apartments on the 4<sup>th</sup> and 5<sup>th</sup> floors (our building is 10 floors, so that would put me roughly half way up). The note explained this project, and asked permission to shoot our building from inside their apartment. One nice tenant answered my note. Over the next several days, they invited me in twice at the times I requested, 8:30 am and 9:30 pm. That’s how I got the photos of the front of our building in this post. It’s great when you find people who are willing to go out of their way to help with some stranger’s creative endeavors. I thanked them, and left them with a bottle of red. Cheers, Jim.
that's our building on the right
26.
27.
28.
29.
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
Wow - just wow - I am literally speechless right now.
Superb photos, incredible feeling of really being there and understanding those people.... I could see bits of me in some of those photos it felt so real - the emotion etc.
Thank you very much for sharing this - truly this is one of the best threads I've read on any forum.
Another great set, Jim. clap A few specific comments and a couple of nits.
#26 is sensational. It is witty and perfectly exposed. I love it.
Something is bothering me about the sky in #27. Maybe too saturated? My eye was drawn immediately to its strong color, and I don't think that's what you want.
#28 is wonderfully composed. And I am envious of all those books. This is environmental photography at its best. I'm not sure I like the abrupt drop off of light in the middle of the guy's shirt. Was that intentional?
Of the two building shots, I prefer the second, as you can just barely see a few things through the windows. I'm guessing that these two will mean more to the residents than to the rest of us.
Thanks so much for sharing these. It's a fascinating project to watch.
Ulrik, Jase & Richard – Thanks very much for your comments, I really appreciate it.
Richard – Comments and nits are welcome and helpful. Yes, I know what you mean about the sky in #27. I went back and checked the original captures, and the sky really was a deep blue like that. It was twilight, and I set the camera exposure to get the sky where I wanted it. There was no funny stuff in the sky, meaning I didn’t enhance it or saturate it at all. However, there’s a thing I call “sRGB blue” that I think might be happening here. I process these in Adobergb the first time through to make ink jet prints. Then I convert to sRGB and reprocess for my website and for here and for the blurb book. Upon conversion, sometimes a twilight sky will look boosted as this one does. I call it “sRGB blue” because I never get that color in print, only on a backlit monitor. It’s close but not quite as … “Polaroid” as it looks here.
Regardless, if it distracts from the portrait then you are right, it’s not what I want. A similar thing is happening in the trees in #29. That green color looks fake. However, it’s not. No funny stuff there either. That tree had just burst it’s buds and bloomed two days before this shot, so they were young and fresh leaves struck by early morning sun and that’s the color they were. I haven’t decided what to do about these issues yet. Still pondering. Is your suggestion that I desat the blue sky?
Re #28, yes, you spotted the long snoot light from the flash to left of camera. Believe it or not, it has been improved from the capture. Just not enough, I guess. That shoot was very difficult and I am loath to go near it anymore. But I appreciate your pointing it out as sometimes I get too close to these to see them objectively.
<<< I'm guessing that these two will mean more to the residents than to the rest of us.>>> I think I sometimes value pictures based on how much I had to go through to get ‘em, which is certainly not the right criteria to use. So those look good to me. But if they’re just “eh” to others, that’s helpful for me to know. Thanks again.
Jim
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
I haven’t decided what to do about these issues yet. Still pondering. Is your suggestion that I desat the blue sky?
I suppose the most important thing for this project is how the colors will look when printed. If the sky doesn't overpower the scene in print, then it's not a problem. I am looking at the pics on an uncalibrated laptop...it's a pretty decent display, but it's possible that it's exaggerating the problem. I have seen that very strong blue around twilight...perhaps part of my reaction was because there are no electric lights visible outside, so my time of day sense got confused. In any event, I wouldn't hesitate to adjust the color if it improves the pic. Ironically, sometimes we have to adjust reality to make it look real.
Comments
Being a huge fan of the black & white masters, I am humbled by your comment re LIFE Magazine. Kathy & I still love black & white film, and print continuous tone fiber most weekends in our wet darkroom. So we still feel close to those days.
<<< Please announce when the project is complete; gallery or book. >>>
I promise to do that. Thanks very much.
Jim
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
I'm awestruck. I too will be looking for updates and the announcement of the final completion.
And, I like #3 much better than #2. Her back is too much of the focal point in #2. When I went back for a second look I noticed many more details in the shot, like the her profile in the mirror, but #3 lends much more to the noticing of details.
I like the way you used mirrors in some of your other shots too - among many other things.
I liked 12 better than the alternate because if seems to fit the project/theme of showing the actual people.
What a wonderful project!!
Lisa
PS, just a technical question. If you have to underexpose some of the shots and then push them to the point of noise in pp, why not change your ISO to 400 or 800? you might end up with less noise? many dslr's are pretty good at higher ISO's??
A fun series to look at.
I think you did a nice job with these.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21695902@N06/
http://500px.com/Shockey
alloutdoor.smugmug.com
http://aoboudoirboise.smugmug.com/
Thank you for taking the time to show us.
<<<These photos combined with your story and captions will touch people long after we're gone.>>>
Lisa, funny you should say that. In the proposal that I slipped under everyone’s door, asking them if they would consider participating in the project, the last two lines are “In the time it takes the wind to blow, we’re all gone and there’ll be a whole new set of people. Let’s leave a record.”
<<< And, I like #3 much better than #2. >>>
Thanks for the feedback. That seems to be the consensus, and I agree.
<<< I liked 12 better than the alternate because if seems to fit the project/theme of showing the actual people.>>>
I understand and agree, although we may hang them both in the final show.
<<< PS, just a technical question. If you have to underexpose some of the shots and then push them to the point of noise in pp, why not change your ISO to 400 or 800? you might end up with less noise? many dslr's are pretty good at higher ISO's??>>>
Really good question Lisa. My short answer is three reasons:
1)While many dslr’s are good at higher ISO’s, mine is not (Nikon D200)
2)To lessen the impact of reflections and harsh shadows
3)To keep these photos from looking too flashed.
And the longer answer:
Last August, when this project began, I did some tests at 400 and 800 ISO, and found substantial noise, especially in the ¾ tones and darker shadows with detail. So I ran Noiseware, which did a great job of removing it. However, the (what I call) local contrast was mushy in those areas, with poor separation of similar tones. However, when I set the ISO to 100, and then pushed in ACR and brightened in LAB, the shadow detail was crisper and the separation of tones was better.
I am aware, from reading Andrew Rodney and Jeff Schewe, that when a dslr captures six stops of range, half of the 4096 levels are devoted to the brightest stop, half the remainder (1024 levels) are devoted to the next stop etc. So I can’t deny that you are right that the numbers say that I should not underexpose. However, perhaps my workflow is not up to par, or different somehow, and is changing the result. I trust my eyes, and my results showed better separation of tones with my noisy D200 when I kept the ISO low (100 or 200), versus shooting at 800.
Also, in these small apartments, I’m constantly dealing with reflections and harsh shadows from my lights. If I crank the power up on my lights, the hard shadows on the walls etc. get much worse. So I’m trying to minimize them in the capture. My intentional underexposing does minimize them and makes them easier to eliminate.
It’s soon to become a moot point. I have just received a glorious gift of a new D300 from Kathy for my birthday (more than I deserve). I understand this camera is much less noisy in the shadows. So, I hope to abandon my intentional underexposing, and crank up the ISO if necessary.
Jim
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
Jim I disagree with you. I believe you DO deserve Kathy's gift of a new D300!!! However, your recipe seems to work splendidly and I'm not sure I'd mess with it until the project is done!!! I'm sure you will enjoy what the D300 can do. I know I recently put my new Canon 40D (an upgrade from the 20D) to the test and did some shots in the hospital documenting the birth of my great-nephew. I understood the dynamic range was supposedly greater in this camera, but I was blown away by how well it handled varied light sources and harsh shadows. I also was thrilled not to spend so much time in PS!!! Enjoy!! These are great shots....I could stare at them all day.
Although I am not even originally from this country, I've lived in NYC for over 13 years and consider it "home" more than everywhere else.
Your pics gave me goosebumps of joy and made me realize why I miss living there so much. I find your photos, not to mention the entire project, incredibly moving and I think that you have a fantastic and very creative eye.
If you have another show, please let me know when it is as I honestly would love to stop by!
Cudos to you and
Jana
is but a dream within a dream
- Edgar Allan Poe
http://www.saltydogphotography.com
http://saltydogphotography.blogspot.com
This is the kind of story that is made from real life. What a wonderful glimpse of people as they are. Well thought out and planned.
I absolutely love this series. People are my favorite subjects - with infinite possibilities. You have really captured something worth publishing. I hope that the NY Times or similar picks up on your project. Have you pitched it to them? Certainly worthy of a publishing - Blurb or otherwise.
Flash Frozen Photography, Inc.
http://flashfrozenphotography.com
<<< I also was thrilled not to spend so much time in PS!>>>
I hear that. After getting CS3, and after reading Andrew Rodney’s advice to use ACR for as much as possible, I took his advice and have already managed to reduce time spent in PS. If the D300 allows me to reduce it further as your 40D has, all the better.
Jana – Thanks very much. When it’s finished, you will be most welcome to come and see the show. I’ll let you know when, but can’t see the show happening until maybe June or so. The scheduling is the hardest, as people are busy, and the whole concept is outside of people’s comfort zone. I don’t want to push them, since I live here. Anyway, there’s no rush. If it takes a whole year, then so be it.
[FONT="]Kathy – Many thanks. People are my favorite subject too. I read somewhere recently that we like to look at people’s faces because we think we’re going to learn something from them. Interesting. I enjoy environmental portraits because they inform us so much. Including the environment in the portrait answers some questions but also raises many more, and it’s such an important part of storytelling.
Just finished processing the next three:
18.
in software biz
19.
he's a wine dealer, she's in retail
20.
physical therapist
[/FONT] I am trying not to get too sappy with stories about these people. There’s plenty of happiness, sadness and trouble in the lives of the people here, just as there is anywhere else with any group of people. But I must share one small story that just happened here.
Not all supers (superintendents) live in the building that they keep running, but ours does. He and his wife have been the heart and soul of this building for almost 50 years. They were both raised right here in this neighborhood and were childhood sweethearts. They raised their family here. Our super is the salt of the earth, and there isn’t anything anyone here wouldn’t do for him.
One month ago his wife passed away after an illness, and it hit the building pretty hard. The wake was at the funeral home on the corner of our block. The service was at the church right across the street from our building.
Our neighborhood, while it was a little funky in the 70’s, has come back and is fairly safe now, with some beautiful prewar european style buildings and there are always lots of people around. But still, it’s New York, you know, so there’s plenty of crime to go around. No one would consider leaving anything outside that they didn’t wanted stolen, especially overnight. One joke that came out of the garbage strike in the late 70’s was that the way to get rid of your garbage was to giftwrap it and put it out in the hall. It’d be gone in ten minutes.
Anyway, after our super’s wife’s funeral service, they put two bouquets of flowers outside our building, by the front door, to say that our building has lost someone. Those flowers stayed outside for a week, night and day, and no one touched them, not even the punks.
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
Thanks for sharing this series.
The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer. ~Author Unknown
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Hello again. The Jigsaw Puzzle Project continues. I’m back with some more environmental portraits of people in my building.
21.
These are the same people as photo #19. They were so cooperative that I asked them if we could shoot a sunrise photo at the same place as the twilight photo #19. So on a cold Sunday morning in February, they made a complete breakfast and set the table for the 6:00 a.m. sunrise.
22.
Grandmother
23.
The tenants are the ones standing. She’s a freelance creative director for a fashion catalog. He’s in the audio/visual business.
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
This first photo shows ambient light only. This is the Nikkor (2.8) 17-55mm lens. Exposure is 1/20th at f 5.6 at 200 ISO for all three photos. Metering was done by pointing an incident meter out the window.
This second photo shows the same exposure, but with 2 Nikon flashes turned on, with a 3:1 ratio. The flash on the far right, just outside the frame, is set one and a half stops brighter (3 times as much light) than the flash on the far left, just outside the frame. The dark wood bureau needs some more light on the front of it, so I set up a third flash with snoot pointed at the bureau, which you can see in the next photo.
24.
[FONT="]This is the final image. She’s an actor and teaches public speaking to corporate types. We tried several different yoga positions for this shot. Well, when I say we, I mean mostly her.
[/FONT]
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
This first image shows the scene the way it photographed in the camera without turning on the main flashes, but with the following light sources:
-Natural light from a window slightly illuminating the hallway at back left.
-Natural light from a window in the bathroom at back right.
-Natural light from a window just outside the frame to the right is illuminating the clothes hanging on the door on the right.
-Lamplight from the lamp by the bed.
-Television reflected in the mirror over the bed.
-One Nikon flash with snoot directed toward the dark wood drawers by the bed.
Before turning on any other “main” flashes, I wanted to get the snoot pointed in the right direction. It’s a lot easier to see the snoot light on the camera LCD if the other lights are off. As you can see in the first image, it’s not pointed exactly at the drawers yet (It’s a little too low and too far left).
But then the cat settles down on the bed, so I ask the tenant “Will that cat stay there?” “No”, she says, “as soon as your lights flash, it’ll take off.” So I pop the lights, and get this:
The cat doesn’t move. So I ditch the idea of pointing the snoot at those drawers, and instead I move the light stand with snoot over to my right, pointing the snoot right at its little cat face. I turned on the hall light (back left) and the bathroom light (back right), called the roommate to stand in the doorway, and gave directions to the humans while waiting for a good image to come up on the television reflected in the mirror. The cat stayed there while I shot fifteen frames or so. I found one frame where the image on the television, the cat, and both humans were all good. The rest is postprocessing. Here is the final choice.
25.
editor and writer
I hope this is helpful and that it shows most of the light is from the flashes. There just isn’t much ambient light inside the apartments. One way to look at it is like this: In the capture I’m trying to light everything in the apartment as much as possible while still trying to reduce shadows, although they are inevitable. Then in post processing, I’m trying to selectively reduce the light to achieve a more interesting and less flat look.
All comments and questions are welcome.
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
www.brogen.com
Member: PPA , PPANE, PPAM & NAPP
Comments and constructive critique always welcome!
Elaine Heasley Photography
I don't know how I missed this thread before now but certainly glad I've found it. Absolutely amazing captures and stories and your running commentary on the set-ups are priceless.
LOVE the two self-portraits and the funerial bouquet saga. I also grew up in NYC and can relate to the sense of compartmentalized neighborhood tenants of a small building feel towards each other.
May I ask what part of the city this is?
Moderator of: Location, Location, Location , Mind Your Own Business & Other Cool Shots
Elaine - Thank you kindly for your continued support!
Angelo - Many thanks for your comments. We're in Manhattan on 107th between Amsterdam & Bway. A friend visited us recently from the midwest suburbs and after a couple of days declared that our building (or city life in general) was a "rabbit warren with too many locks." You can probably appreciate that we had a good laugh, and then had to agree he was right.
Jim
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
Ahhh, Morningside Heights! I thought it might be. As a Columbia alumni I know the area well!
Moderator of: Location, Location, Location , Mind Your Own Business & Other Cool Shots
Ha. Well then, I'll say hello to our neighborhood for you.
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
I’ve started working on putting together a Blurb book of this project. For the book, I want to include photos of our building. In order to get a good photo of the front of our building, I managed to get into the building across the street. After I got in, I put a note under the door of the apartments on the 4<sup>th</sup> and 5<sup>th</sup> floors (our building is 10 floors, so that would put me roughly half way up). The note explained this project, and asked permission to shoot our building from inside their apartment. One nice tenant answered my note. Over the next several days, they invited me in twice at the times I requested, 8:30 am and 9:30 pm. That’s how I got the photos of the front of our building in this post. It’s great when you find people who are willing to go out of their way to help with some stranger’s creative endeavors. I thanked them, and left them with a bottle of red. Cheers, Jim.
that's our building on the right
26.
27.
28.
29.
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
I take my hat off
Canon EOS 30D, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Sigma 70-200 f/2.8, Sigma 18-50 f/2.8, Tokina 12-24 f/4. Sigma 1.4 TC, Feisol 3401 Tripod + Feisol ballhead, Metz 58 AF-1 C, ebay triggers.
Superb photos, incredible feeling of really being there and understanding those people.... I could see bits of me in some of those photos it felt so real - the emotion etc.
Thank you very much for sharing this - truly this is one of the best threads I've read on any forum.
Cheers, Jase
Jase // www.stonesque.com
#26 is sensational. It is witty and perfectly exposed. I love it.
Something is bothering me about the sky in #27. Maybe too saturated? My eye was drawn immediately to its strong color, and I don't think that's what you want.
#28 is wonderfully composed. And I am envious of all those books. This is environmental photography at its best. I'm not sure I like the abrupt drop off of light in the middle of the guy's shirt. Was that intentional?
Of the two building shots, I prefer the second, as you can just barely see a few things through the windows. I'm guessing that these two will mean more to the residents than to the rest of us.
Thanks so much for sharing these. It's a fascinating project to watch.
Regards,
Richard – Comments and nits are welcome and helpful. Yes, I know what you mean about the sky in #27. I went back and checked the original captures, and the sky really was a deep blue like that. It was twilight, and I set the camera exposure to get the sky where I wanted it. There was no funny stuff in the sky, meaning I didn’t enhance it or saturate it at all. However, there’s a thing I call “sRGB blue” that I think might be happening here. I process these in Adobergb the first time through to make ink jet prints. Then I convert to sRGB and reprocess for my website and for here and for the blurb book. Upon conversion, sometimes a twilight sky will look boosted as this one does. I call it “sRGB blue” because I never get that color in print, only on a backlit monitor. It’s close but not quite as … “Polaroid” as it looks here.
Regardless, if it distracts from the portrait then you are right, it’s not what I want. A similar thing is happening in the trees in #29. That green color looks fake. However, it’s not. No funny stuff there either. That tree had just burst it’s buds and bloomed two days before this shot, so they were young and fresh leaves struck by early morning sun and that’s the color they were. I haven’t decided what to do about these issues yet. Still pondering. Is your suggestion that I desat the blue sky?
Re #28, yes, you spotted the long snoot light from the flash to left of camera. Believe it or not, it has been improved from the capture. Just not enough, I guess. That shoot was very difficult and I am loath to go near it anymore. But I appreciate your pointing it out as sometimes I get too close to these to see them objectively.
<<< I'm guessing that these two will mean more to the residents than to the rest of us.>>>
I think I sometimes value pictures based on how much I had to go through to get ‘em, which is certainly not the right criteria to use. So those look good to me. But if they’re just “eh” to others, that’s helpful for me to know. Thanks again.
Jim
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
I suppose the most important thing for this project is how the colors will look when printed. If the sky doesn't overpower the scene in print, then it's not a problem. I am looking at the pics on an uncalibrated laptop...it's a pretty decent display, but it's possible that it's exaggerating the problem. I have seen that very strong blue around twilight...perhaps part of my reaction was because there are no electric lights visible outside, so my time of day sense got confused. In any event, I wouldn't hesitate to adjust the color if it improves the pic. Ironically, sometimes we have to adjust reality to make it look real.
Please drop a link in here when you've got the blurb book done. I'd love to get a copy.
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
<<< Ironically, sometimes we have to adjust reality to make it look real. >>>
Yes.
“this is not real, this is a picture of real.”
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
http://www.jimwhitakerphotography.com/