WPPI…am still tired!

I've been home from WPPI's 2009 convention and trade show in Las Vegas for a couple of weeks now and I'm still trying to adjust to East coast time. I was there for eight days which for me is about 5 days too long. At the risk of sounding completely uncool, I confess that I am just not a fan of Sin City, especially when you're there to work and learn as I was. Having to trudge through the smoky MGM Grand casinos every morning and evening on my way to and from the convention center was painful. I tried holding my breath once and just could make it that far without a little O2. And it bugs me that a bottle of water is $3!!! It was great to spend some time (not much, 'cuz we wuz soooo busy) with my friend Regina Holder who roomed with me. If it weren't for her I probably would have stayed in the room just trying to keep my head from exploding from all the information, sights, and sounds, not to mention all the great products I could have dropped serious money on to be found on the trade show floor at WPPI.

Part of the reason I was in Vegas for so long was to take a two-day class on location lighting taught by Claude Jodoin. Claude is a veteran portrait, fashion and commercial photographer. He also helped develop one of my favorite white-balance tools, the Expodisc. The purpose of the class was to refresh and expand our knowledge of lighting, both in the studio and on location. Now most of you know that I am not a studio girl -- it's just not where my interests lie at all. Still it was fun and inspiring enough that I'm looking into some cool new backdrops from Drop It Modern to bring with me on location shoots. The really fun part of the class was on day two after the refresher course on main lights, fill lights, hair lights and beauty lights (whew!). We got to go outside on to the grounds of the MGM grand with two models, Megan and Celeste, to learn about quick ways to add lights outdoors to make our photographs really shine (sorry, bad pun).

Now a little disclaimer: Fashion Photography is something I've never aspired to. After a day shooting these two lovely girls, I'm convinced I would make a horrible fashion photographer and that modeling must be the most boring job in the world. Megan (the brunette) and Celeste (the blonde) were so easy to work with. It was actually pretty unseasonably cold in Vegas that week, which helps explain the coats and palm trees.

One of the things Claude pounded into our heads was to start using our hand-held incident light meters again. The metering in the cameras we use is exceptional, but the camera's job is to read the scene and try to convert all the shades to a basic 18% gray. Sometimes that's good, sometimes not so much. The light meter measures the light actually falling on the subject and tells the photographer how to override what the camera's internal computer tells it to do. I had to hunt for my light meter, since I pretty much stopped using it when I went digital. When I was shooting medium format film and every exposed frame had a certain dollar amount associated with it (whoops, bad shot...there went $2.25) I was more careful with exposure. Now that everything's digital, we've been lulled into a false sense that the camera and Photoshop can fix anything if you don't get it right the first time. We forget to calculate the cost of the time it takes us afterwards to fix the image in post-processing. The goal of the class was to get the exposure right in the camera on the first shot, the end result being images that need little "fixing." I'm all for that if it gets me away from this computer more often!

Anyway, you'll be seeing me using my hand-held light meter much more often in the future!

Now onto some shots. Some of these make me laugh; some were instructive and I've tried to point out where. Here's Celeste, looking all warm and cozy in her white coat.

I actually like this shot of Celeste on a bench. Below it is a shot of our set-up.

The light we're using would fall under the category of "natural light" since we're not adding any light to the scene. The diffuser at right is filtering the hard overhead sunlight, while the silver reflector bounces some light back into the right side of her face.

(Sidenote: Doesn't Celeste look completely bored? I'll give a $25 iTunes card to the person who leaves a comment with the funniest caption. Keep it clean, though -- she was a sweetheart.

Here's a close-up of the end result.

Now on to Megan. Notice how Celeste has darker-pigmented skin and is wearing a white coat? Megan is the opposite -- fair skin in a long black coat. Since most of us there were wedding photographers, Claude planned this on purpose to show us that it can be easy to get exposures correct no matter the subject or the situation, just by taking a moment to meter the light first. The camera sensor kind of freaks out when it has an all-white something and an all-black something to register in the same scene (sound familiar to anyone? Brides and Grooms, maybe?) It wants to make everything gray -- not a good look for white wedding gown. Anyway, on to Megan.

Megan is a gorgeous girl and I really like her casual, confident pose. But its an awkward image for one simple reason: her hand. The back of the hand should never be shot straight on to the camera. I don't know why it's true, but it is just a distraction. I had that little tidbit drilled into me (again) by the instructor of a posing class I went to later in the week. Initially, I really liked this shot of Megan, but when I came back to it after the posing class, the hand just leaped out at me and I saw immediately what the instructor meant. Thank goodness for cropping.

Because the hand is a fist here, the effect isn't so pronounced. Now, if I had only noticed that hair band around her wrist...

Back to Celeste, still on the bench. This shot makes me laugh. I just would never ask anyone to do this. It looks like a shot for some cheesy woman's clothing catalog. Plus, the coat and the palm tree combination is just startling. Good sport that she is, Celeste just rocks the pose. There's a large softbox off to the left contributing that nice light.

Next we headed back inside (the models were farreeeezing). In front of a huge window on the third floor of the convention center, Claude set up a really beautiful lighting scheme, using just the natural light coming in from the windows and two silver reflectors. Here's the set-up.

Here's the shot. It's one of my favorites from both days. I just LOVE the soft rim of light coming in from the right of image.

Another view:

While we were upstairs, someone from the class peeked out two industrial-style doors and saw the greatest space for some cool outdoor shots. A group of us begged Claude and the models (who were still thawing out) to go back outside. While we were waiting for them, I convinced Ton, one of my fellow students to fill in for Megan and Celeste in this cool stairway. LOVE IT!!!

Had Megan and Celeste not arrived, we might have convinced Ton to be our model for the rest of the afternoon.

Celeste hits the stairs. Again, I'm laughing a bit...not because it's a bad picture, it's just so foreign to what I usually do. But I'm a firm believer in going outside your comfort zone, so here I am. One of my goals is to photograph more high school seniors this year and that group is definitely up for edgier shots. Fun!

 She was such a good sport. She even laid down on those filthy stairs.

This was really cool...here's two shots of Megan shot with natural light, nothing but the light-colored wall to her left throwing a little bit of light back onto her left side. I think I actually like it best in black and white. Notice that the sky behind her is totally white.

But here's what happened when we exposed for the sky (the brightest light source) and filled in with a softbox to properly expose Megan.

This is a great example of what the camera can't do well. It can't properly expose Megan and keep detail in the sky and clouds behind her because it's trying so hard to neutralize the scene. When another light source is brought in and readings are taken for both the sky and Megan with the light, presto! -- beautiful skies and clouds. I can't wait to use this technique on my next bridal session!

Look for more on WPPI and what I learned (both useful and not) coming soon, plus see and hear about some of the great new products we'll be offering in the studio that I discovered at the trade show. I'm so excited about 2009 -- it's going to be a great year!

Two last shots of Celeste and Megan, the two most patient models in the greater Las Vegas area! (Although I kinda missed shooting happy, smiling faces.)