Portrait Lighting with Flash

Portrait lighting with off camera flashes is simple and inexpensive. I used Nikon speedlights triggered with a remote wireless cowboy trigger I purchased on eBay for $32. I could have also used the Nikon CSL system built in to the speedlights. The diagram below details the layout used. The umbreela on the left was about 4ft high, the shoot thru umbrella on the right was ground level pointing up and the back light was bare suspended from the ceiling pointing down to highlight her hair.

Shooting Stock Photography

My most popular image this month. My iStock sales are up 300% for 2016. This year has been promising and I plan to continue in 2017. The micro stock market gets more competitive every year but it's well worth the effort. I opted to be an exclusive contributor with iStock and in return they give me higher royalties on my images. I prefer this instead of submitting my pictures to many micro stock agencies and getting the minimum return on any royalties I may receive.

Yosemite Revisited

A redo of a Yosemite image from the past. I wanted to see if the new Aurora 2017 software would make a difference in some of my older images. I was totally blown away to see how well this software brings out the colors and details. Shot with Canon Powershot SX50 HS. ISO 80, f-8 at 1/15th sec.

Snowman

This black ceramic snowman image was a composite of three images. I used colored gels on a pen light to paint light into various areas on the snowman for two exposures then zoomed the lens to infinity and painted the blue background. All three images were then merged in Photoshop CC. Nikon D3, 24-70mm lens at 70mm. Iso 200, WB 3030, f-16, 25 sec. each.

Our Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree is up and decorated for the upcoming holiday. Now I just need Santa to drop off that Nikon D5 I've been wishing for and make my day.

Razor Sharp Cutting Tool

Light painting of a ulu on cutting board. A gift from my brother this razor sharp cutting blade is a great kitchen tool. I made 3 exposures at 3 sec. with red, blue and amber colored stream lights and merged the layers in Photoshop CC.

Taking Stock

It's been a month since my last post and now I'm back. I haven't been out much lately to do many landscapes so I decided to maybe get back to work on my stock images. I used Dave Black's light painting technique for this image. A 6 second exposure lit with led streamlight.