Blue Jade

First ever fashion shoot, and I'm lovin it! It's invigorating to jump out of your comfort zone and try something new! You never know what excitement and joy lies ahead. This image was lit with a einstein 640 through a gridded beauty dish boomed overhead. Fill light was provided by an EXD400 light through a large softbox just behind me. Two striplights are placed on either side of Jade to add a bit of rim light. In post blue light was added entering from the top of the frame to tie in the hat and chair which adds a tranquil, calming feeling to the image. Photographer: Nakean Photography Model: Jade Curtis Stylist: Margo Jones Hair Makeup: Shalonda Cole www.nakean.com http://flic.kr/p/khxT9r

Bright smile

Lit with Einstein 640 with a blue gel through an umbrella camera right. The blue gel was used to warm up the cloudy and blue temperature outdoors behind the subject. Reflect low and camera left to fill in the shadows. http://flic.kr/p/k2nCxU

Put Me in Coach!

I've been wanting to create an image like this for some time now. I had a cancellation and decided to make lemonade out of lemons. Finally got my lens back after being away for repair for almost a month and half! I've been shooting everything with either my 85mm or my 17-40. I was screwed if I needed anything in between but made it work and zoomed with my feet. This was lit with a couple of gridded strip boxes on either side turned almost all the way up (ab800's). I had an Einstein 640 through a gridded beauty dish for the key and I filled the shadows with a 64" softbox behind me . http://flic.kr/p/jCU589

Silent Storm

Getting setup for my last shoot, I thought I'd take a few test shots. shush, don't tell anyone. I wanted to play with some brushes as it's been a while since I dug them up in their dusty folders on my computer. A bit of Render Clouds, Lightning brushes and smoke brushes along with a composite background. Lit with Beauty dish boomed overhead and striplights on either side for the rim. Background light placed behind me and pointed at the background for som separation. Best part of using backgrounds in overlay blending mode is that they keep the overall lighting you had in the original image. If you had a background light on gray paper it will still appear to have the same background light in your composite! http://flic.kr/p/j4EUp7

Lively Blanchards

One of my favorite families! Going back through some images I just had to give this one some attention. They were on time, ready to go and dressed for success on one of the last semi warm and sunny days of the year. I feel as though I really get a sense of each one of them in this particular image. Ok, for composition I just loved the way the sun was hitting the trees behind them and the grass as well. When i used to shoot I would always put the sun behind my subjects so as not to have to battle it for exposure. This works great still but there are some shortcomings. The main issue for me is the lack of background detail. If the light were directly behind the trees they would have lost all of their definition color and brightness. Granted, these types of portraits are about your subjects and not the background. It's still nice to have some depth, however. I photographed this portrait with the 70-200mm lens at 130mm, which also presents a few problems. You are so far away from your subjects and when photographing children, you almost always need to be right in their face to get their attention. Especially outdoors! My next issue is the length of the lens dictates my slowest handheld shutter speed(or so I thought). The new 70-200mm 2.8 IS L v2 is ridiculously sharp and the IS (image stabilization) is insane! This was shot at 1/40 at 130mm which is no easy feat! What's great is even at f9 there is enough depth of field to isolate the subjects with the helping hand of the sun adding just a touch of it's own glorious seperation! All in all a pretty sweet family portrait! Again I went after that cool painterly effect in post which I think turned out rather well. Thoughts, questions, concerns? Almost forgot....Lit with an Einstein Camera Left with Reflector camera right for fill. Hair light by none other than the sun! http://flic.kr/p/iWHrQk

Family Holiday Photo

-I love taking family photos, but I love it even more when i get to be in them! You can try these with a tripod and a timer but I would recommend getting yourself a wireless remote before attempting with children, or with this many people for that matter! We took countless photos and just like at work, there's almost always one or more people not looking straight ahead. Too often I don't offer to take my families photo, thinking it's a hassle and a bother for them all. More often than not it's exactly what they all hoped for! Thanks for wonderful Holiday breakfast, fun opening presents, and a wonderful outing at the park! I hope we can do it again soon! Lit with a single Large Octabox with Einstein 640 directly over the camera. I think I'm in love with 50mm 1.2 L !!! It goes back to Glazer's rentals tomorrow.... :( http://flic.kr/p/iBrCZR

Mind your surroundings

-The more you take portraits, especially locations portraits, the more you learn to really see your potential background and potential light. You also discovery the capabilities and unfortunately, at times, the limitations of your equipment. Location work, more often than not, forces you to push your camera to it's limits. I just finished editing 60 headshot images for my client and I'm proud to say I didn't exceed any limitations of my equipment, only expectations of my photographs. Photographed with a single Einstein 640 through an umbrella with a warming cto (Color Temperature Orange) gel. http://flic.kr/p/i2NNPG

Sweet girl

-Profiles of little ones might be my favorite photographs to take. I love the shadow and attention to the eyes. This was lit with a large octabox camera right feathered in front. a strip box was placed camera left and high as a hair light. Lastly, an alienbee b800 was pointed at the background with a grid to give a nice gradient. http://flic.kr/p/i2AmrL

She's a natural

I love the feel to this image taken a couple weeks back at Group Health in Olympia. The sun was just setting behind us and to the left. I used a cto(color transfer orange) gel on my main light to help balance the warm tones of the sun. The sun was only hitting the background to the right and, of course, outside. These shots are difficult to maintain as I had quite a few employees to get through and golden hour lasts, well, for an hour or less! I just kept adjusting my shutter speed as necessary which changes the ambient only and leaves the light from my strobe the same. Due to space restrictions I used only one key without a fill and a hair light camera left just behind the subject. http://flic.kr/p/hnj5Yx

Real_Smiles

A couple of my favorite dudes! Love these guys and glad we could get some real smiles! Thanks for helping me test out my new grid for my beauty dish. A tiny investement on a huge amount of control of light! Simple enough setup.... Beauty dish above and reflector below for fill. Just a hint of background light on the black paper behind them! http://flic.kr/p/h1haef

Einstein Greatness

Here's my first selfie with my new Einstein 640 light. I purchased the Cyber Commander as well which means I can now control each light in the studio or on location with one single remote!!! This thing is AMAZING!!!! If any of you know me then you know I'm crazy about my lighting and make several trips back and forth between the lights and my camera before I'm satisfied with the results. Sometimes I wish had a pedometer just so I could log the miles traveled between mere feet between lights and camera. Now when my light is boomed high or group lights are setup high I won't have to bring them down in order to adjust the power I want. Moreover, I can meter from the remote itself! It will give me the readout of each individual light in fstop and I can then correct each individual light to the exact fstop I would like. No more "close enough" exposure even when in a serious time crunch. Suffice it to say, "I'm in love!" Lit with Einstein light in Beauty dish boomed overhead with silver reflector just below frame. AB800's behind and either side for rim lights through strip lights and x800 directly behind for soft spot on black seamless. If you're looking for a great studio or location portrait, don't hesitate to look me up! www.nakean.com www.photos@nakean.com http://flic.kr/p/g3YuFQ