Photographing the kids at home during Covid 19 - Day Nineteen
Hi there,
I thought I would end this blog after 19 shoots of photographing my two kids in a small with office with a more conventional look.
This is my go-to portrait image. It is really simple and needs almost no post work. In fact these images are literally straight out of camera (sooc). The lighting allows for alot of movement from the subjects perspective.
The key light is a soft box and is above and in front of the camera. The subject has three reflectors surrounding them - all white to give a maximum bounce of light back on to the subject. There is a hair light beauty dish above them angled down from a boom stand. The background is a blue background but this setup can work with a black or white backdrop too.
The background is lit by a small grid pointed behind the subject. It is producing just enough light to not be noticeable!
I could not find a suit jacket or a tie for Oisin and is patience by this stage is gone!
Saoirse on the other hand, was very happy to discover that this was her last shoot…. for a few days anyhow!
I have learned lots using this equipment that I have not had the chance to experiment with and its been great to see just what can be done in such a small space with equipment that can be easily transportable. For most of the shoots, the flash settings were very low, the Iso was at 100, so this means all the lighting set ups can be replicated in offices and rooms throughout the country. I look forward to putting what I have learned here into practice and I am very excited about the images that can be created.
Photographing the kids at home during Covid 19 - day eighteen
Hi there,
I had more fun playing with colour gels, this time with Saoirse taking the helm. I used three gels, blue, red and purple and used them on a mottled backdrop. In retrospect, the backdrop was not a great choice but I was looking for something that might come across grittier than a plain backdrop. Next time I will use a darker backdrop so the subject will pop out a bit more.
Still though, Saoirse and Oisin loved the shoot, which made a pleasant change!
I asked Oisin to hold a hairdryer and blast out Saoirses hair. The problem was she could not keep a straight face, so I used some sunglasses to keep the wind out of her eyes. That did the trick. In post production, I would black out the reflections in the shades because if you look closely, you can see Oisin holding the hairdryer, but todays shoot is just for fun!
Photographing the kids at home during Covid 19 - Day Seventeen
Hi there,
This was a really tricky shoot for me as I was pretty limited in the space I could use in the home office. I wanted to create a silhouette with just a little bit of light on Oisin’s face, I am a huge fan Albert Watson, so he was my influence for this image.
I had three speedlites on the backdrop to create the white backdrop. I had a small snoot on a 45 degree angle on Oisin’s face. The hardest part was getting Oisin to stay still on the same spot, long enough for me to adjust the light to adjust the right angle and distance. Having Oisin’s chin as a silhouette really helps the overall look. I asked Oisin to take his top off as his jumper was too lumpy for the image
This makes a huge difference to the overall look but if I was shooting an actual person(!), I would ask them to wear skin tight clothes or a polo neck .
This image could work really well with a blue or orange gel on Oisin’s light. The contrast with the white backdrop would work really well. In this case, I wanted the image to almost pass as a black and white image but is in full colour.
Photographing the kids at home during Covid 19 -Day Sixteen
Todays shoot we went for a more corporate style look but be careful when you use it!
This style of lighting is called broad lighting. This is when the portion of the subject's face that is turned toward the camera is lit most brightly. It supposedly broadens the face so it looks fine on my thin-as-a-stick son, but when used on my face…not so much!
I used a soft box as a key light and another softbox to light the backdrop and the hair. As my home office is rather small, this worked in my favour as normally, I would use a third light to light the hair!
I used a black reflector to soak up any light coming in on the right. I like shadows in images, though if this was a commercial shoot, then I would have shot with a white reflector as well as a black reflector to give the choice. But when your model is getting angsty on missing out on Puffin Rock, then you just gotta go with it!
Saoirse’s lighting is very similar. Perhaps it is a better example of broad lighting as the side of her face that is lit is turned more towards the camera.
Photographing the kids during Covid 19 - Day Fifteen
I am aware that LinkedIn is not the place to post family portraits under normal circumstances. The main reason I am taking portraits of my kids every day is to show my clients and potential clients, the type of portraits that I can take. ( the other reason is there is no one else around I can photograph!)
If I can shoot quality portraits in my home office, now my studio, then I can shoot them anywhere and If I can photograph my own kids then photographing artists / writers / CEO’s are a piece of cake!
I decided to play with gels today. I shot with a green and an orange gel. I tried a full orange but that was way too strong for what I was looking for, so I swapped it for a quarter orange gel as the keylight on a soft box with the soft cover removed.
The green gel was attached to a spill kill. Originally I had it facing Oisin but it was a bit strong and didn’t cover the space I needed it to cover. So, I bounced it off a large silver reflector instead.
The background is a dark blue sheet that needed some light on it. I placed a soft box on a stand and hoisted it up as high as my six foot ceiling would allow.
I found when I opened up the F-stop from 4.5 to 2.0, the colours blended a lot better, so the overall image became softer.
Oisin was not up for being photographed. We had caught a dogfish in the low tide yesterday and he was anxious to gut it and feed it to our dog. So, I got him to toss his hair a few times and this is what we came up with!
Photographing the Kids during Covid19 - Day Fourteen
Oisin was saddened to hear that he could not see his Gran and visit his friends from today, May 5th ( I had mentioned naively to him weeks ago, that he would be able to and he clearly remembered!)
So I wanted to create an image would reflected his sadness.
I brought out the large black backdrop and put it to one side of the window so there would be no reflections in the image. I also chose a north facing window so the Sun was not going to be an issue for me.
I put the backdrop up behind Oisin, just so to block out all the stuff in the room.
I placed a speed lite with a spillkill attached with a grid behind to the right of Oisin. I wanted the light to highlight the water on the window.
I had tried spraying the window with a handspray but it just wasn’t enough. I wanted the image to say “cry me a river!”
So, I turned on the water from the outside tap and then got his younger sister Saoirse to hold the hose and spray it at the window.
I also wanted the eyes to be in focus and not hidden with water, so this is the best I could get with a four year old assistant!
Photographing the kids during Covid19 - Day Thirteeen
Hi there,
Todays shoot was done in the style of Rembrandt lighting. Every photographer knows Rembrandt lighting. Its signature is the white triangle that is created under the eye. I thought I might create backdrop in my office befitting that style of light.
The white triangle gets smaller when Oisin turns his head towards the camera.
I used an old grey dappled backdrop that looks horrendous on its own. Yet, when you add some light to it, it can work out really well. In this instance, I placed a speedlite on the ground behind the backdrop at 180 degrees with a bounce reflector. I had a deep orange gel on for Oisin and a light blue gel on for Saoirse’s images. I tried pointing the light directly at the canvas backdrop but that highlighted the seams so bouncing the light worked better.
The Main light was the beauty dish with a honeycomb with a soft white sheet over it, to soften the light.
I didn’t use any reflectors on the other side, though I could have to soften or harden the shadows.
Here is an image showing how little space is needed to shoot this look.
Photographing the kids during Covid19 - Day Twelve
Hi there,
So, continuing with yesterday’s theme, I wanted to see how much space I could use in a photograph and whether I could shoot full length images in the office at home.
I exchanged the 85mm lens for a 50mm so I could photograph a wider image.
My backdrop consisted of some floorboards I purchased last year from B&Q. They were then glued together to a sheet of wood.
They are heavy but handy backdrops! I used them last year when I was shooting the Down Syndrome Calendar pro bono in Rathfarnham and they worked a treat.
I put the beauty dish with a honey comb grid in the centre as my main light and placed it high enough over Oisin at a 45 degree angle on a C stand. I had first used a large soft box but it through out too much light so I exchanged if for the dish instead.
I lowered it a little so his eyes were well lit and didn’t have much eyebrow shadow. I liked that the light was not too soft or too hard, like porridge it was just right!
You can see the position of the lights in Oisin’s eyes. The strip light helps light the guitar!
I then placed a strip light on the ground in front of Oisin to soften the shadows and also to give the bottom half of the image some exposure.
Photographing your own kids is not easy on any day, but on day 12, I sense this may not go on for too much longer! We shall see!
Photographing the kids at home during Covid19 - Day Eleven
Hi there,
Today I decided to pull back the camera from the face and see how much room I had in my small office with an 85mm lens. I also attached the ring flash to the C stand and placed it close to Oisin’s head at a 45 degree angle. The ring flash is very portable and folds up to fit into your pocket so it was great to see that it was a great light source.
The backlight is a speedlite on the ground facing upwards. It has a bounce reflector on it so the light throws a little wider.
It’s difficult to get a 7yr old to pose like an adult, and interestingly he started out the earlier shoots coming in smiling, as he sees me holding the camera.
Now he comes in to the office with this faux attitude. He has quite taken with this moody look that I have embedded into him and which I fear may come back to bite me in a few years!
His younger sister is every bit a four year, giving me a 100 looks a minute. To keep her focussed, I ask her to swing her hair from side to side which she loves doing. I prefocussed and reduced the shutter speed to 15th of a second to try and catch some movement. I had photographed Saoirse with her hair at full speed last week so I wanted to see what it was like to slow it down.
Photographing the kids during Covid19 - Day ten
Hi there,
I love images where there is a black outline around the subject so I thought it would be a really good idea to see if I could arrange that in my small office.
The set up is quite simple, My key light was a strip light though any soft box of a smallish size would work as well.
I used black reflectors to block the light before It got to Oisin and then I had two black reflectors on either side of him as well.
Behind Oisin, I had two speedlites pointed at the backdrop to create the white.
On some images, I also placed a black card in front of Oisin so it blocked the light reaching his chest.
The images have minimal photoshop to them so you can see they work well in either black and white or colour.
Oisin was not up for it today, It took forever to get him in the office and any chance he had, he scarpered. Still though, He was a lot better than his younger sister who was obviously having a bad hair day!
Saoirse’s mind was somewhere else during the shoot today!
Photographing the kids at home during Covid19 - Day Nine
I wrote in my last blog that over the next few weeks I am going to try and photograph a different style of portrait every ’work’ day with the help of my two kids aged 4 & 7. I have the time, its whether they have the ability to stand still for five minutes!
I felt really bad for posting that image of my daughter Saoirse on Friday, It was a great pic but not one her granny will like so I wanted to start this week off with an image more befitting her character..
Also, this is really simple lighting .
I involves one flash and one soft box, a reflector, a white backdrop and that’s it.
It's a great example that you don’t need a lot of expensive kit to make a lovely image.
The light is angled to a 45 degree but it is placed high and at a 45 degree angle from the camera. This allows some of the light, to light the backdrop as well as Saoirse.
It is easy to lose yourself in the lighting side of things so simple lighting is really helpful when you are trying to photograph a four year old. There is a lot of flexibility in the space you have created and also in the exposure.
Of course, If she would have let me brushed her hair that would have helped, but you can’t have everything!
Photographing the kids at home during Covid19 - Day Eight
Hi there,
Here we have an image that looks like something out of the 90’s. I used a spill kill and honey comb combined with a ring flash. I have been talking about catchlight a lot in other blogs, so I wanted to show a really good example of it. The ring flash allows a speedlite to be placed inside. The backdrop is a white backdrop. Oisin is sitting right next to it so the whole shoot is taking place in about four feet of space.
My exposure is F1.2, which is the widest the 85mm lens I have will go and wow can you see how little is in focus in the image? It is as if Oisin is emerging from a blur.
While Oisin’s look might be a representation of 90’s cool, it is actually the result of him wanting to go and play with his sister!
The spillkill combined well with the ring flash. It added a bit of light on the face and some shadow underneath the chin.
For Saoirse’s image I increased the power on the spill kill which was a mistake for her skin, though looking at the picture, I think it was a mistake to ask her to get her picture taken in the first place.. Best to add that one to the pile I have made for her 21st.
Photographing the kids during Covid 19 - Day Seven
Hi there,
Todays shoot was similar to yesterdays. We kept a side light behind Oisin on camera right and we kept one key light, the big soft box in front of Oisin. The big change is that we introduced a spill kill with a honeycomb and placed it in front of the soft box and only about 7 inches from Oisin’s face.
It took a while to get the angle right, too high and I missed out on seeing the catchlight in the eye, too low and it missed lighting the face, It is worth the time to get it right because the result is great. I love how the hard and soft lights combine to create this sheen on Oisin’s face. I placed a black reflector underneath and on both sides of Oisin to enhance the shadow underneath the chin and also help make the image pop a little more.
I used a really low depth of field, F2.2 as I just wanted the eye in focus and the hair out of focus.
Having the spill kill with the honeycomb so close to Oisin means you need to be very precise to get the entire face covered in hard light. It also means that if Oisin moves a little then the light is slightly darker and brighter on his face than before so no two shots look completely identical. You can see that more clearly on the black and white version below.
The two images below show just the honeycomb light being used and then just the soft box light. As you can see, using these lights separately works really well and creates a different look. I prefer when they are combined shown in the image above.
This image has just the spill kill light on with the soft light turned off.
This image only has the soft box light on. It is good to see what each light brings to the images shown above.
I turned off the hard light for Saoirse image. And I increased the power on the softbox a little. I brought back a white reflector for underneath her chin. I also reduced the aperture to F1.8. I knew if I asked Saoirse to hold her head, she would stay still and I would get both eyes in focus. The bokeh effect is lovely too.
Saoirse is photographed with just the soft light and a white reflector
Set up for Oisin shoot. there was a black reflector under his chin. the spill kill was 12 inches from his face while the softbox was two foot behind that.
Photographing the kids during Covid19 - Day Six
Hi everybody!
Today, we decided to play it safe, despite having to use four lights to get the desired result, I could just use one light , the key light with a reflector and still manage to get most of this set up right.
The key light is on a boom angled down at 45 degrees. It is situated in front of the subject. It’s a massive softbox.
Underneath the subject, there is a white reflector so there is a small gap between the soft box and the reflector to get the camera through to see the subject. Oisin’s cheeks are lit by two soft boxes from behind and to camera right and left. I placed an umbrella above Oisin so the top of his head was lit as well.
The result is that the image is very soft and crisp and clear. This style of lighting is used a lot for headshots, model shots, and to illustrate hair and make up.
The image also works as a black and white image, I just increased the contrast and you have a crisp lighting set up.
Normally, if I was shooting an adult male, I would place a back reflector to camera right and move the key light to the left to create a bit of shadow. I would also remove the white reflector underneath.
I asked Oisin what he was missing during Covid19. He talked about missing school and his friends and other things. So I wrote them down and tried to make a montage with them on to Oisins face.
The result was a lot messier than I was hoping for but you got to try these things! ( it looks at better the further you are away from it!)
Photographing the kids at home Day Five
Oisin starts to feel the strain……
Today I decided to forgo using a lot of colour and get back to black and white. There is an old quote that says, “If you want to shoot fashion, shoot in color, but if you want to shoot emotion, shoot in black and white. I don’t know if it is true but it sounds good! To be fair most people are drawn to black and white images, whether it is because they realise what makes a photo is sometimes what they cannot see, what hides in shadows, or whether it is because they are not used to seeing monochrome images in a world of HD colour.
Or something else.
I wanted to create an image that played with light and colour, contrast and saturation so this is what I did.
I shot with a black backdrop and a small light at the bottom lighting just a small amount to differentiate Oisin from the black backdrop. Oisin was lit by a strip light. I placed a green gel over the speedlite flash. The dominant colour in the image is now green. I wanted to shoot this way and then convert the images into black and white. That way I had two options from the same image.
I placed an ND filter over half the strip light to block out the light reaching the backdrop. It was facing Oisin at a 30 degree angle but it was about two feet behind him. On camera right, I placed two white reflectors to bounce some of that light back onto Oisin. I placed a block on the back light so it did not interfere with the subject.
The important thing with side light is that the light should catch the eye, otherwise the image might lack a focal point in the image to draw the eye to.
It helps if you can see the pupil, otherwise you can only see white in the eyes and the person looks like an alien when that happens.
The side light from behind Oisin lights the side of the face but not the front. The reflective light takes care of the rest of the image.
Here is a similar image but with the colour added and contrast and clarity increased.
By getting Oisin to just wear a white vest, we kept the colours plain and simple.
When the image is converted into black and white, you can see the side light works really well. You can have plenty of fun in post processing tweaking your images. I went with a nice soft look. If this was a pic of a man
In this image, the contrast and clarity were increased to give the image a more hardened look
I have a similar image below as a colour image. Here the image is desaturated to create a lovely soft mood.
In this image, the colour is desaturated while the contrast is low.
When Oisin turns around, there is still plenty of reflective light on his face to create a soft under exposed look, though there is no catchlight in the eye.. - He couldn’t wait to get out of here and play!
The strip light has a green gel over it and is two feet behind the subject to camera left. The power setting is 1/32 and the exposure is F5.0 at 160th at 400iso
Photographing the kids at home Day Four
I thought it would be fun to play with colour gels today.
I have a 4 foot red backdrop that just about fitted against my office wall between my office table and drawers.
I am lighting it with a speedlite flash on the ground pointed up at 60 degrees with a white dome on it to soften the light. So that’s why you can see the gradient in the backdrop.
My main light is a beauty dish. It has a honeycomb centre with a soft white fabric on top of it.
It also has 3 full blue gels covering it and it is situated quite close to the face on camera right pointing slightly down.
My orange light is a soft box with the cover removed, with one full orange gel and an ND filter. I would like to have it slightly higher and further away from the subject, but truth be told, I have ran out of space in my office! I learned a few days ago that the best way to keep your children still while trying to photograph them and minimise the moaning was to bring a stool in for them to sit on. It doesn’t stop them trying to climb on the boom stands or pull down the backdrops but it does stop them bobbing up and down like a buoy in the ocean!
With Oisin’s image I just wanted him to look toward the blue light light so you had that wonderful transition from warm to cold light against a strong red backdrop. Normally, Its not a look I would photograph a 7yr old with but, I only have two models to work with for the next few weeks due to Covid19 and I am really interested in what style of images I can create in a tight space, with gear that can be transported anywhere.
I like that Oisin’s face is underexposed. I associate blue light like this with evenings and it just didn’t work as well when I increased the power on the blue light.
When it was Saoirse’s turn, I knew there was only one thing to do and that was for Saoirse to shake her head from side to side I made sure I was shooting at 250th of a second and I upped by exposure to 5.6 and set the lens to manual focus. I prefocussed and then Saoirse pretend she was moshing sideways..
Now, if only I could get Saoirse to let me brush her hair!
I wanted to add this image in case people think my kids are working under duress!
It is amazing how the blue gel transforms the image.
See how the light reacts differently when the head is turned towards the warm orange and then the cold blue
I think the results work really well even without a wind machine!
Distance from the backdrop to the speedlite was 40 cm with power set to 1/164
Distance from the subject to the blue and orange lights was approx 60 cm. The orange light is set to 1/32 while the blue light was 1/8th power.
Photographing the kids at home during Covid 19 - Day three
I am trying and photograph a different style of portrait every ’work’ day with the help of my two kids in my small home office. Due to the Lockdown, I have the time, its whether they can stay still for five minutes!
Creating a pure white background is difficult in the tight space I am working in. So instead of using a white background paper that I would normally use with two umbrellas lighting it from either side, I used a large softbox as the backdrop and the key light.
I placed two large reflectors on both sides of the soft box making just enough space for my son Oisin to stand in and also enough space for the camera to see Oisin. So when the flash goes off, it bounces back off the reflectors onto Oisin’s face. So far, so good.
The image is very soft and you can see the reflective light on his cheeks. But his nose and mouth are a little dark. It works well but it wasn’t what I was looking for.
Soft light from the back light surrounds Oisin
So I put another softbox up on a boom arm and placed to camera right at a 45 degree angle.
I also took away the reflectors and placed a black reflector on camera left of Oisin.
I then upped the exposure so the backdrop was on half power and the foreground was on a quarter power.
My camera exposure is F5.6 @160@500iso.
On the histogram, the shots looked over exposed but I wanted the backdrop light to bleed through to the foreground so you get that white sheen down the side.
And this is the result.
So that is two very different looks created using the same background light but adding an additional key light. I tried using a harder light but the kids skin tones are so soft that I would need to try it out on an adult male to see the best results. Heres hoping I get a chance to do that soon!
Photographing the kids at home day 2
Hi everybody!
I wrote in my last blog that the next few weeks I am going to try and photograph a different style of portrait every ’work’ day with the help of my two kids. I have the time, its whether they have the patience!
I purchased a Lastolite pop up black and white backdrop. It is brilliant! No longer do I have to carry 8 foot wide rolls of background paper up 6 flights of stairs because it doesn’t fit in the lift!
It arrived on March 12th just as the lockdown began but I was too busy organising my new website www.pictureit.ie to have a play with it.
Now though I have no excuse.
I am shooting with speed lites as I only have 3 by 4 metres of space to work in. So I placed one flash behind the model with a spill kill light and an ND filter attached. I have a snoot with a honeycomb attached above the camera. I wanted to see what light I could get from a source that is 3cm in diameter!
I am shooting on F1.2 which is an incredibly low depth of field and requires my subject to stay absolutely still, so in this image below Oisins eyebrows are in focus but his eyes are just a little soft.
The eyebrows are sharp in focus but the eye is soft. The camera focussed on the hair in front of the eyes and not the eyes themselves.
I got luckier in the next shot.
The focus is sharp in the eyes in this image.
Saoirse was sucking on frozen raspberries when she came in to have her photo taken so her lips and skin around them were covered in red juice. I got her to mess with her hair this is the result I got. It is a touch soft and if I was shooting this again, I would have my depth of field a lot bigger, (or a model that would stay still!) but this is what testing is all about, finding out what works and what doesn’t.
It’s a great look for a four year old to have!
The image is a tiny bit soft but it’s fun and mischievous and it works for those reasons.
The lighting was very simple with the snoot on a boom above the camera.
By the way, there is very little processing on these images, I just put them into Lightroom and press auto and that does the job for the moment!
Okay lets prep the next set up….
Photographing the kids at home during Covid 19
Saoirse photographed in the office.
Read More