Spark Row

My Daughter Morgan Rose is turning 5

2012-02-13T21:28:00.002-05:00

Test : Inside a Tool Shed

2012-01-29T14:36:00.002-05:00

Test shot inside a tool shed with a table lamp in the background and an overhead bulb outside the frame.

Holiday Lunch

2011-12-26T17:27:00.008-05:00

We always host Christmas Eve dinner at our house followed by Christmas Day Lunch over at my sister's. This year, I managed to set up my lights and camera for a Holiday spread photo shoot 2 hours before our scheduled lunch.

The first thing I had to do when I walked in the dinning room was to take an exposure reading.

The image below shows the room with a sliding door to the backyard and the picture taken was for exposing the room, rendering the backyard overblown.

I then decided to cover the backside of the sliding door with black cloth to get rid of the backyard issue.

The next step was to figure out the camera settings to register the lights from the chandelier and the christmas trees in the background which happended to fall on F8 1/20s ISO 320. Step three would be to set up two flashes on sticks set to 1/16 power on both sides of the room to light up the people sitting on the table. There was enough light to cover the middlle table to the end table but the front was underlit.

To fix this problem, I had to set up a front fill light using another flash head next to camera right pointing back to a white blanket behind me acting as a big bounce light. The image below shows the reflection of the blanket on the french sliding doors.

The final image was taken at F10 1/13s ISO 320 with two flash heads on each side of the room at 1/2 power pointing up the the front corners of the room. The third flash acting as a big bounce was set to 1/8 power. I cleaned up the reflection on the french doors in post production.

As a bonus post, you can check out a video of our Holiday Lunch edited by Miguel Meola.

Indian Motorcycle

2011-12-04T21:47:00.009-05:00

Following up on my last product shot, I decided to shoot this miniature scale Indian motorcycle that measured about 10 inches long and 4 inches high and even though it wasn't chromed out, it was still highly reflective as far as light sources were concerned. For the key light, a snooted flash at 3 o'clock camera right was used to rake across the rider to show texture as seen on the rider's ribs and chest as well as the front headlights. As fill, a flash with a Lumiquest softbox was used just at immediate left of the camera. At 10 o'clock camera rear left, a flash with a snoot was used for rim lighting and additional texture as seen on the saddlebags and the rider's leg and right arm. Flash settings were at around 1/16th zoomed at 105mm. Camera settings were at about f6 @ 1/50 sec. I used f6 for a moderate focus but it looks like my 24-70 set at 70mm just won't cut it for this type of shoot. I remember focusing on the Indian logo on the gas tank thinking the focus would carry but the saddle bags, the rider's chest and face are out of focus. I'd have to shoot this again at around f11 to see if focus improves but that seems like a pretty tall order to me. Otherwise, it looks like I might have to save up for a 100mm macro.

See pullout shot for lighting setup below.

Product Shot - Guitar

2011-11-26T20:18:00.010-05:00

My daughter Ashley has guitar lessons every Saturday from 12:00 -1:00pm at O.DiBella Music.

Today's class was cancelled so I took this opportunity to try and make a product shot of her electric guitar. The following shots were made with the same lighting set up with a few subtle tweaks to change the highlight and reflections. There is a main light to camera left with a medium sized softbox . Right on top of the main light is a flash on a LumiQuest softbox to highlight the upper neck and headstock. Almost 90 degrees right of the guitar (from camera view) is a strip box to provide a bit of rim/highlight. The other strip box is about 11 o'clock behind the guitar. The last flash is set low on a table about 10 o'clock. Camera settings were at ISO 200 F9 @ 1/200 sec. Camera was hand held since my tripod wasn't cooperating.

Girl with Lantern

2011-11-12T16:32:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago, I was collaborating with Miguel Meola with this concept he had in mind.
He imagined a girl holding a lantern, backpacking in the woods and walking into the unknown.
I thought about the last exercise I did with multi layer lighting and thought that this presented an opportunity to improve on that last attempt. It would be the same multi layer lighting but this time, adding a 47" octobox to light up the forest canopy.

First we had to scout a location and decide on a time to start shooting. After finding this wooded part of Bergenfield New Jersey, we started packing the Jeep at 3pm with all the gear we needed.
It took us a good 3 hours to pack, unload, set up, test and tweak before we started shooting frames. The actual shoot itself took about a half hour and wrapped up at 6:30pm.

The flash lighting the girl was snooted with black foil to limit the light spread.

The second flash lighting the foreground tree was snooted as well so it didn't spill into the girl with the lantern.

We had the subject hold a video light in front of her to provide lighting for the path selling the idea that the lantern was providing the illumination.

We also had to drag the shutterspeed to about 1/30th to have the lantern burn in and register.

There was another video light behind and to the right of the foreground tree just to provide a dash of light on the leaves to the right side and a little bit on the ground. This way, the right side of the image wasn't completely black.

The flash lighting the 2nd layer of trees was snooted as well for a little splash of light.

The flash lighting the 3rd layer of trees was bare bulb and at a higher power setting to create a brighter area introducing an area of curiosity.

The 4th layer of trees to the right, was lit by a monoblock with a 47" octobox at a higher ratio to provide lighting for the trees and the forest canopy.

So here we are with an adventurous girl in the woods, holding a lantern lighting the path. A big fallen tree blocking the way, almost telling her not to procede. At the distance, a curious light source appears in two separate areas. What could it be ? It is both bright and cold but beckons curiosity. What would she do ? What would you do ?

Lighting diagram below:

Exercise: Multi Layer Lighting

2011-07-17T21:34:00.006-04:00

For the last 3 weeks, I've been contemplating on a setup shot showing a hit man and a body laying in the forest where the job took place. The most difficult challenge I thought of was how to light a forest. This shoot was an exercise on how to light on multiple layers.

I started at around 7:40pm. I scouted out a location, selected my trees, and arranged them in my frame. Setup my flashes to light each of the 4 trees in my frame. I then turned on one flash at a time to see how they were being lit individually. While I was taking shots, a man with a dog stopped to ask me what I was doing and I gladly explained the exercise. I also managed to convince him and his pet to stand in as my subjects just so I can see what it would look like.

Lessons I've learned:

Four flashes wasn't enough. Sure it was enough to light up four trees, but I still needed a separate light for the subject. I would aslo need another light pointing up towards the leaves on top of the trees so it's not completely dark. I also think that I would need a big soft light source to perhaps give a little bit of broad wash to the overall space. I've included a diagram below to show the lighting setup.

Overall I'm pretty happy with my experiment and real excited to start planning the "Hit Man" series.

Pockets of Light

2011-06-05T21:24:00.007-04:00

Today's exercise was about pockets of light instead of big washes from softboxes, octobanks and other big light sources. The idea was to use small strobes with snoots to zero in on small areas to be lit. Specifically an overhead flash mounted on a boom arm lighting just a portion of my face and the immediate area where I was standing. The other snooted flash head would be zeroing in on my feet or leg area. Directly behind me is a bare flash acting as rim light and another on my rear right for additional rim lighting. I started setting up today at around 3pm with the following setttings:
f5 , 1/250 sec , ISO 200 , prefocused to a plane where I approximately would be standing and then set to manual focus after that. I also want to mention that due to having carpal tunnel, I was aiming for straight out of the camera shots since I can't do any photoshop editing at the moment.
Over all a satisfying 5 hours and definitely good for the soul.

Harold "Kekoa" Bayang

2011-05-29T13:53:00.004-04:00

I had the pleasure of working with Harold "Kekoa" Bayang back in March who was patient enough to put up with my "distressed look" concept. The idea of this shoot was to light mostly the mask of the face and suggest a gritty,dirty, "just got out of a bad situation" look. I was hoping for explosion and fire in the background but hey, this was shot in my basement so I'll take what I can. I had to apply a bit of make-up to give it the black eye, bloody cut on the forehead, sprinkle some water on the face for sweat effect. Next time I have to use corn syrup perhaps for fake blood. Over all, it was a fun and creative experience. Thanks Harold.

Nikon D700 Second Test

2011-05-29T11:03:00.007-04:00

Here's another test shot from the D700.

Main light beauty dish 11 o'clock camera left
Hair light SB-80DX 1 o'clock back camera right
Background light SB-80DX low between subject and background
Reflector low on the ground in front of subject
Image captured as JPEG since my old version of Camera Raw does not open up
D700 NEF files. May have to upgrade software and hardware ( oh boy! )

Nikon D700 Test

2011-05-22T17:59:00.006-04:00

I just got my D700 last Friday and here is my first test shot with an exercise on short lighting.
f4.5 1/40 ISO 400 50mm available window light only.

Here's a pullback shot to show the distance of the bust from the window.

Morgan 02-06-11

2011-02-08T11:01:00.006-05:00

My first shoot for 2011 was of my youngest daughter Morgan Rose, who will be turning four next month. This shoot was one of those GOYA ( Get Off Your Ass ) shoots just to get my creative juices flowing again. The most memorable thing about this shoot was the fact that Morgan insisted on putting on eye make up herself ! Waaay too cute !

Bethwood Sitting Room

2010-12-05T17:50:00.004-05:00

The image above was an exercise on how to balance ambient light with a single on board flash set to manual control. For the record, I prefer shooting off camera flash and normally crosslighting my subject. The situation presented itself in a sitting room about 15ft wide x 9ft high x 12 ft deep. To the left of the couch was a single tungsten lit lamp, too low for handheld exposure. I had an onboard flash which when shot dead on just wasn't doing the atmosphere justice. I tried turning the flash head behind me to bounce of the wall but that gave me a big wash of light with no shadows, just flat. I then turned the flash head to my right where the wall met the ceiling (45 degrees) and that gave me a soft directional light with soft shadows. The next step was to balance the exposure so that the lamp still registered with a glow plus the directional flash coming from 45 degrees up and right. After working on the image in photoshop, there was something that just felt wrong. The motivation from the light wasn't right. I should've bounced the flash 45 degress up and LEFT. This way, the shadows would have been cast on the camera right side of the subject mimicking light cast from the lamp. Posting this image will remind me to constantly think about motivation of the light and not just merely bouncing light. Lessons learned.

DJ Kryptoknight

2010-11-21T17:24:00.010-05:00

In the late eighties and early nineties, DJ Kryptoknight fell in love with hip hop and in February of 1997, while attending a development conference in high school, he was introduced to turntables by his close friend DJ Lingo. By May of 1997 Kurt had saved up enough money to buy his first set of turntables. He never looked back and he would subsequently join the iRT DJ Crew (consisting of DJs Lingo, OnPoynt, JonyFraze, Reason, Rik Guyver [aka Rik Cordero], Cuekut & Swerve). The iRT DJ Crew was very involved in the battle scene of the late nineties, and was also a fan of the underground hip hop scene.

Originally dubbed "$pecial K" by DJ Lingo, Kurt decided to change his name to "Kryptoknight" while he was attending Morehouse. He quickly became a household name among his classmates and started deejaying house parties and school events. Upon returning to the NYC area, he picked up where he left off in Atlanta, spinning at various lounges, clubs and private events. His DJ style is characterized by impeccable song selection, seamless transitions, and sword sharp scratches.

Kryptoknight has spun NYC clubs such as Touch, Providence, Stay, Fat Buddha (formerly Forbidden City), Light, Tribeca Cinemas and Katra.

Follow him on facebook http://www.facebook.com/kurtkryptoknight

DialySus Photo Shoot - Oct. 24, 2010

2010-11-07T17:01:00.010-05:00

I had the pleasure of photographing hip hop artist "DialySuS" (Derek Simmons) from Scotch Plains, NJ. He is currently the Freestyle Champ on the Mix Tape Comedy Show which hold battles for up and coming hip hop artists every month. He just won the title last Oct. 17th but unfortunately Mix Tape's website has not yet updated their video links. When they do, you can check it out from the link below:

http://www.mixtapecomedy.com/category/freestylebattle/

Read on after the images to get info on this promising new artist.

Taken from his myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/dialysus

Derek Simmons - DMoney - DialySuS Born on March 12, 1989...and that's when it started! A lot of people probably wonder how or why I have the name "DialySuS." Well at first, I had the name DMoney. This was a nickname given to me by many of my peers. It was a chain reaction, one person, then another, and then everyone! However, due to life experiences, and advice from my older brother, I decided that DialySuS would be a better fit. At the age of 10 I was diagnosed with a kidney disease. This disease became worse over the years, and in February of 2006 I had to go on dialysis. This was an everyday thing for awhile. I was hooked up to a machine 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. Dialysis is "the process by which uric acid and urea are removed from circulating blood by means of a dialyzer. " In a sense, you could say that dialysis "flushes" out your system. I like to think of the hip hop world as a "system." A lot of artists nowadays use inappropriate language in their songs. I, "DialySuS, pride myself in saying that i don't curse in my songs. In a way, I say that I am "flushing" out the hip hop system, therefore, giving myself the name DialySuS. With much prayer, family, and friend support, I was lucky enough to have a perfect match for a new kidney: My father. On July 12, 2006 I had a kidney transplant at St. Barnabas Hospital. After 6 other surgeries I was finally released from the hospital on August 26, 2006. After I was released, I wrote a song about my life and received a lot of compliments. This encouraged me to keep going and I feel I got better and better with time. Now, I am where i'm at today. "I been through the pain, i been through the tears, held it down for myself, and held it down for my peers, I been through the struggle, i been through it all they tried to knock me down, but I'm still standin tall" SO NOW....SHOW ME SOME LOVE

Props

2010-10-11T09:56:00.008-04:00

Going through the test shots from last night, I realized that I am a cross-lighter. I love this technique and just wanted to give props to Matt Adcock of FlashFlavor.com to whom I draw most of my inspiration from. Sol Tamargo of delsolphotography.com is equally inspiring (Matt's talented wife) and to you I tip my hat off as well. Thank you so much for fueling my soul !

Test Shots for Next Project

2010-10-10T21:49:00.008-04:00

With the Family and Friends photo shoot wrapped up, I am now gearing up for my next project. An up and coming rapper from Scotch Plains NJ is in need of some promotional images. I have a few preconceived ideas of what images I want but try not to have limitations. However, after viewing the images on my computer, I think these images are more suitable for the DJ project I have down the pike. Either way, the exercise was good for the soul. Here are a few frames from the test shoot for my first idea.

Family and Friends

2010-10-09T13:27:00.000-04:00

Best Buddies - Dylan, Morgan and Adrian

2010-10-09T13:23:00.002-04:00

Kurt and Sarah

2010-10-09T13:14:00.005-04:00

Mei and Adrian

2010-10-09T13:07:00.004-04:00

John, Angela and Dylan

2010-10-09T13:01:00.006-04:00

Angelo, Karen, Ashley and Morgan

2010-10-09T12:53:00.009-04:00

Old shots of Central Park

2010-08-28T13:59:00.012-04:00

Shot taken with Yashicamat 124G with Ilford 400 BW film (1996).
I used to love walking around Central Park with my old 6x6 film camera on the weekends. My wife used to work on weekends when we first got married and this enabled me to go and shoot personal projects. The thing about the twin lens reflex (TLR) camera is that you really have to spend time composing your shots. This is especially true when you only have 12 or 24 frames in a roll of film. Unlike digital where shots are limited by card space, film only had a few shots and were a bit costly. But I sure enjoyed the experience.

Benches

Arches

I met the photographer who was taking pictures from the steps that afternoon and got to talking about our passion for the craft. Two strangers drawn by the image ahead of us from opposite sides. By the way, he too included me in his shot.

Boat Basin

Bethesda

Ashley at 6 years old

2010-08-28T13:02:00.009-04:00

Going thru some old pictures of my daughter Ashley.
The Love of My Life !

Ashley and Cappy

2010-08-28T12:17:00.006-04:00

Dug these out from the digital box of pictures of Ashley and Cappy.
Ashley was about six years old in this picture and Cappy was six months old. Picture taken about three years ago.

Cross lighting on dance floor BW

2010-08-22T14:00:00.004-04:00

Flash with lens zoom

2010-08-22T13:51:00.002-04:00

2010-08-22T13:36:00.000-04:00

2010-08-22T13:33:00.000-04:00

So you think you can dance ? I wish I did.

2010-08-22T13:28:00.001-04:00

Sundown

2010-04-25T13:59:00.002-04:00

Badminton on a Sunday

2010-04-04T20:48:00.002-04:00

Dance Corner

2010-02-08T12:28:00.002-05:00

Evacuate the Dance Floor

2010-02-07T18:05:00.001-05:00

Light Test

2010-01-13T09:36:00.002-05:00

Social Media Avatar 2

2010-01-12T21:50:00.002-05:00

2010-01-12T19:35:00.001-05:00

Social Media Avatar

2010-01-10T13:07:00.002-05:00

Angela, Dylan and John

2009-11-14T18:39:00.002-05:00

Morgan, Ashley and Dylan

2009-11-14T18:36:00.000-05:00

Boulevard

2009-11-14T14:41:00.002-05:00

John and Angela

2009-11-14T14:11:00.000-05:00

Beauty Dish

2009-11-14T14:08:00.000-05:00

Groom and His Men July 18, 2009

2009-10-26T17:07:00.000-04:00