It Figures...

Creative Live Home Studio Class

2012-01-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the images created during my creativeLIVE workshop on setting up and working in a home studio. They start out with an unintentional self portrait as I tried to photography my X-rite Colorchecker Passport and got my head in the way of the shot.

During the class I did headshots of Troy using strobes. For this set I had a 46" Photek Softlighter II on camera right and a 24" square softbox camera right, slightly behind Troy. White seamless paper background that goes gray because there were no direct lights on it.

Then I made some head shots of Trin using fluorescent lamps. Here I had two strip lights (12" x 50" and 12" x 35") with 150 watt fluorescent bulbs forming an inverted-V over the camera lens. For the first two images shown below there was no light on the white seamless backdrop. For the third image I added a strobe on the background to give a cleaner white background.

And then I went back to strobe for these photos of Trin. Here I used a Westcott 7-foot parabolic umbrella (white with black cover) overhead with a home-made reflector under her chin. I also added a head next to the lens with a 7" reflector with a 20-degree grid to add a little more sparkle to the eyes. Background was orange seamless paper with no extra light on it. We also added a sheet of black foam-core as a background in one of the shots to see if it changed the skin coloration, testing to see if the orange background was affecting the skin tone. Finally, we played with some props.

I finished up with a group photo using two lights. On camera left there was a 60" Photek Softlighter II and directly behind the camera was a Paul Buff 7-foot shiny silver PLM parabolic umbrella.

Here is what the last set looked like when using each of the two lights individually. Camera was set to JPG mode to make tether transfer faster for the class. White balance was set to manual and 5700 degrees Kelvin.

Just the Photek Softlighter
from camera left

Just the Paul Buff silver PLM
from camera position

Here is the gear list from the class:

Canon 5D mkII body
Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS lens
Canon 70-200 f/4 L IS lens
Manfrotto CarbonOne 441 tripod
Arca-Swiss P0 Monoball tripod head
Speedotron 805 strobe power pack
Speedotron 202 heads (with 7" reflector for the Westcott umbrella and for the grid)
Speedotron 102 head (with no reflector for the PLM)
Speedotron Force V monolight with 11" reflector (background light for Trin on white)
Speedotron 7" grids
Pocket Wizard MultiMax radio triggers
Manfrotto Auto Poles for the wide white background
Savage Porta-Stand background stand for the smaller set
Westcott 12x50 strip box
Interfit 12x35 strip box
Interfit 24x24 soft box
Photoflex Starlite-QL lamp heads
Photoflex 150-watt compact fluorescent lamp bulbs
Westcott 7-foot parabolic umbrella, white with black backing/cover
Paul Buff 7-foot silver PLM parabolic umbrella
X-Rite ColorChecker Passport
Various light stands
Savage seamless background paper
Foam-core reflectors

If you have questions about the class you can ask them in the creativeLIVE forum and if you missed the class you can purchase the videos (download or watch online) from creativeLIVE to get more details.

Thanks!

John

Update on my creativeLIVE class

2012-01-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all who watched and asked questions during my Home Studio class with creativeLIVE.

I will be adding some photos and a gear list from the class this weekend, but first wanted to share this panoramic view of my studio space with you...

This was created on my iPhone using Pixeet.

Thanks!

John

WHITE HOT in Seattle

2012-01-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

A pitch black psychodrama.

Just in time for winter.

Don't bring the kids.

So begins the description of the play WHITE HOT that is coming to Seattle this month.

I had the pleasure to work with the director, producer, writer, and cast to create promotional photos for this dark play that features Hannah Victoria Franklin, Tommy Smith, Kimberley Sustad, and Ray Tagavilla. The director is Braden Abraham, written by Tommy Smith, and produced by Mark Siano.

The play runs at the new West of Lenin theater in Fremont from January 20 to February 11, 2012.

Kimberly Sustad and Ray Tagavila

Hannah Victoria Franklin and Tommy Smith

Hannah Victoria Franklin

Kimberley Sustad

Hannah Victoria Franklin and Kimberley Sustad

More On Aperture and DOF

2012-01-05T19:12:00.000-08:00

This is a follow up to my recent post about the effect of aperture on the look of a portrait.

There, I mentioned that changing focal length would not affect the depth of field if the camera was moved to maintain the size of the subject in the frame. I didn't have any images prepared then to demonstrate this at the time. I got a chance to create those images last night and present them here. Click on each image to load a larger version that will be easier to study.

Above we see three photos that were taken with 135mm, 85mm, and 35mm lenses all set to f/2.8. The camera was moved closer with the 85 and even closer with the 35 to make the mannequin head be about the same size in each. If you look closely you will see that the depth of field is about the same in each. The perspective is different in each because the camera was moved (not because of the lens change).

Many photographers go for a lens in the 85 to 105mm (full 35mm frame) range for portraits because they put you at a distance from your subject that gives a nice drawing to the face with pleasing relationship between the features on the face and head (nose, mouth, eyes, ears). If working with a smaller sensor camera look for lenses with similar angles of view for that format (such as 50-65mm on cameras with a 1.5 or 1.6x multiplier).

In the second set of photos everything is the same as the first set, except that the aperture was set to f/22. Again, you can see that the depth of field remains the same, even though various focal length lenses were used (135, 85, and 35).

You may also be surprised to see that the face looks the thinnest in the image taken with the wide angle lens. This is what happens when you move in close. With any lens the objects closest to the camera appear larger than objects further away. When in so close with a short lens the nose is relatively closer to the lens than the cheeks, eyes, and ears. So they fall away and look smaller. When you move back with the longer lens the nose, eyes, and ears are all relatively closer to each other than to the lens, so the face flattens out and they all appear at a similar size. This is due to the camera to subject distance, not the lens, even though this is often erroneously called "telephoto compression." See the fourth set below for more about that.

In this third set of photos the camera remained stationary. The top image was taken with an 85mm, the middle is 135mm, and the bottom is 35mm. Here we can see that the size of the mannequin head is very different between the images and the depth of field changes drastically between because of the difference in magnification from each lens (all set to f/2.8)

In this final group we again have images taken with the 135mm, 85mm, and 35mm lenses, this time all set to f/5.6. As in the third set, the camera remained stationary and the lenses were changed.

In these last two sets of images you should be able to see that the perspective remained the same even though the lenses were changed. The relationship between the head and the background is the same in each. If you cropped in on the 3rd image in this set the perspective would match the 1st image in this set. But the depth of field is different. Remember that when the camera to subject distance is set and the lens is changed the perspective of the area of the image that is common to each image is the same. The camera to lens distance determines the perspective. The focal length determines what fits into that frame.

One of my favorite Ansel Adams quotes is "good photography is about knowing where to stand." I think that many people misunderstand this quote. They might associate it with Jim Richardson's quote "if you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff." But what I believe Ansel meant was that you need to find the location to set up the camera that gives you the perspective (relationship between items in the scene) that you want, and then you select a lens focal length that fills the frame the way you want. Too often people pick the lens first.

I really don't like the mantra of "zoom with your feet." Zooming implies making the scene smaller or larger while maintaining the perspective by changing focal length without moving. If you move your feet the perspective changes. So you CANNOT zoom with your feet. I'm not saying it is a bad exercise to select one prime lens and learn how to use it by moving around. If you want to make good and interesting photos, do find your location by moving your feet, but then select the appropriate lens to fill the frame of your camera. Maybe the frame should be "move your butt!" And a zoom lens is the perfect lens for this, as you can frame exactly as you want. Zoom lenses got a bad reputation in the 1970s when the quality wasn't nearly as good as prime lenses. Zoom lens design has come a long way since then and today's zooms come very close to the quality of prime lenses. That said, I often use prime lenses instead of my zooms, but this is primarily because of the weight of a good zoom. The primes are easier on my shoulder, elbow and wrist.

One more thing. Something that I learned during the exercise of preparing this article is that it really is difficult to manually focus a wide angle lens. I've always heard that short lenses were more difficult to focus, but it reallyshowed here. The following set of images were taken with the same camera/lens (35mm at f/2.0) combination. A was manually focused through the viewfinder. B was manually focused using Live View at 10x, and C was autofocused. Maybe autofocus isn't such a bad idea....

Aperture in Portraits Demo

2012-01-03T22:55:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post showing the effect of aperture (F/stop) on the look of a portrait by changing the depth of field.

click on the image for a larger version

The mannequin was photographed with a Canon 5D Mark II with the 85mm f/1.8 lens. Focus was on the right eye (camera left). The background is about 32 inches behind the mannequin head. Light is from the modeling lamps in two strobe heads. One is in a Photek 46" Softlighter II (model SL-5000) on camera right and a 2x2 square Interfit softbox on the opposite side as a kicker.

I used the modeling lamps because I would not be able to power down the strobes enough to get the large apertures. This is not practical for normal portraiture because the exposure times at ISO 100 was 10-seconds for the f/22 shot. Even the f/1.8 version was slow at around 1/15 second. You would need to bump up the ISO or use brighter lights to get usable shutter speeds for portraits. It is all about trade-offs. I could get camera strobes to work at f/1.8, but would lose the modeling lamp and possibly have to deal with large dilated pupils. If I switched to studio strobes I could probably get the aperture down to around f/5.6, maybe f/4. To get to f/2 or wider I'd have to use neutral density filters. With a 1000 watt tungsten light I'd have to deal with heat and the comfort of the model (luckily mannequins don't complain). I could get the wide apertures, but would not be able to stop down all that much without running into slow shutter speeds. I don't like to go below 1/60 when doing head shots with continuous lights. A 150-watt fluroescent lamp would give a similar amount of light as the tungsten lamp without the heat, but the bulb is too large to fit into the Softlighter, so I'd have to change to a different modifier for the main light.

So, there's a sampler of the thought process around selecting which lights to use for a project.

You may also ask if using a longer lens would give more control over the depth of field. The answer to that is no. To maintain the head size on the sensor with a longer lens I would have to move back and the depth of field would be the same at the same aperture. The difference would be a narrower angle of view, so we would see less of the background (the pattern would be larger, what is sometimes erroneously called telephoto compression). But the DOF would remain the same. If I left the camera at the same distance from the subject yes there would be less depth of field. But I'd be cutting off the chin and forehead of the subject.

Do you like A or B?

2012-01-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

Just a quick little poll here. In each of the pairs of images below, let me know if you like A or B. No need to say why. Don't over analyze, I just want to hear your gut reaction of liking one versus the other in each pair.

Please answer in the comments section below.

Thanks!

Example 1

1-A

1-B

Example 2

2-A

2-B

Example 3

3-A

3-B

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T09:06:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to start off the new year with big thanks to all my new friends out there. 2011 was actually pretty good for/to me. And I look forward to new and exciting ventures in 2012.

Here are a few photos from Seattle's celebration at the Space Needle. For information about how I photograph fireworks, please check out my free video at creativeLIVE. And look for my next class about setting up and working in a home photo studio.

Thanks! And a happy and prosperous new year to all of you!

John

Holiday Ships 2011

2011-12-24T21:06:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year again. The Christmas Ship Parade through the waterways around Seattle. I remember a few years ago when we had a big snowstorm for the event. Other years were pretty cold. But last night was one of the warmest I can remember, being around 45 degrees. It feels too warm and dry here in Seattle for it to be Christmas.

Here are a few photos of what seemed like hundreds of boats all decked out in holiday lights. I saw Santa Claus on a motorcycle, a few snowmen, reindeer, and lots of people have a grand time. The mild weather really brought out the crowds.

As usual, the Seattle Girls Choir was out on the lead Argosy ship and I have to really hand it to the technical crew. The sound this year was really great. In past years the sound system on the ship was extremely shrill and did no justice to what I assumed were wonderful voices. This year everything turned around. The voices sounded great through the speakers. Good job!!

If you want to see more, please check out this photo gallery.

Thanks for a great year. It isn't quite over yet, but it has been wonderful and I expect to close out in the same fashion.

Be well!

John

Recapping 2011

2011-12-22T19:34:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it is that time of year again. It sounds cliche, but time really does fly as you get older and more busy.

In addition to a lot of photography sessions, I also did a lot of work with creativeLIVE this past year. Bambi Cantrell, Vincent Laforet, Zack Arias, Penny De Los Santos, Gale Tattersall, Mike and (Unknown Photographer) Andy from Lighten Up & Shoot, Mark Wallace, Rick Sammon, and Matthew Jordan Smith rounded out the crew of photographers and videographers I worked with at creativeLIVE. And creativeLIVE is currently running a bunch of sales on these recorded classrooms, check them out. Can't wait to see what 2012 brings. January is already filling up with iphoneography with Jack Hollingsworth and weddings with Zach and Jody Gray. And I'm presenting my own class on working in a home studio.

But enough of that. It is time for me to gather some of my favorite images from the past year.

Click for a web page of images

It was quite a varied year with The Bobs, burlesque, circuses, portraits, nudes, zombies, underwater, head shots, iphone images, and more.

I hope to see you through my lens in 2012. Until then, enjoy the holiday season!

John

QR Business Cards?

2011-12-16T21:13:00.000-08:00

Its all about the relationship.

Kim recently told me that she met someone who was pushing to have QR codes replace headshot photos on business cards for their company. Ack!!! Even if I wasn't a photographer, I don't think I could go for that.

Its all about the relationship.

When I first saw a sample card my reaction was, "my, you're looking a bit pixelated these days..." Kim's reaction was "I think she looked better before the facelift."

Well, what do you think? Here are some sample business cards that feature a QR code and a head shot. Which one is going to leave a better impression on you? Which one do you think you will remember? Who do you want to do business with?

Remember, its all about the relationship.

Put a QR code on your business card? Sure! But put it on the back. Then contact me for the head shot to put on the front. See my headshot samples on Google+.

Thanks!

John

creativeLIVE home studio class

2011-12-09T18:21:00.001-08:00

For those wondering, the purple item under my arm in the promo photo for my free class at creativeLIVE coming up on January 10, 2012 is not a flotation device from a swimming pool. It is a roll of purple seamless paper. Yes, someone did ask...

It is interesting, sometimes challenging, to work in a home studio. Many years ago (around 1982-85 or so) I had a studio in New York City on 29th Street, between 7th and 8th Ave. Last September (2010) I got a chance to go back and visit that studio. Paul Gelsobello, who I shared the space with back then, is still there. And it pretty much looks the same as when I was there, except for new windows and a white floor (it was gray back then). Here is a photo of Kim and I from that trip.

Good memories!

But now it is time to look at the future. Check out the forum at creativeLIVE set up to talk about the class and ask some questions that we might get to during the class.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

John

Little Bird Therapies

2011-12-04T20:28:00.001-08:00

Last weekend I got to work with Joe Kelly and Jessica Chung of Little Bird Therapy structural medicine photographing images for a new website. I've known Jessica for some time as an aerial performer and I've also known her as a physical therapist. We had been talking for a while about creating these images and our schedules finally coincided.

Here are some of the photos that were created on location in their office on Roosevelt Ave in Seattle. For these images I went to my "go to" light modifier, the 60" Photek Softlighter II. For most images, including the head shots, this was the only light. For a few image I also added a bare-head flash in the corner of the room to provide a (very) little fill. The lights were Speedotron 202 heads powered by a Speedotron 805 power pack.

Special thanks to Ryan Mather and Nadia Losonsky for modeling for the photo session.

Please keep me in mind if you need new promotional photography for your business advertising, websites, etc. Thanks!!

Testimonials

2011-11-29T14:00:00.001-08:00

A great big Thankyou to people I have worked with for providing these kind words...

John - When I left tonight I was so exhausted not just physically but emotionally as well (something I had SO not anticipated). I was so overwhelmed I wasn't able to hug you goodbye. I had emotions that I still have not been able to put in place. I actually had to sit in the car and cry...not from sadness but coming from someplace else. I do know that you have made it so I could begin to look at myself differently...It is like a door unlocked in me tonight...leaving me with overwhelming but amazing feelings. Thank you for being a part of that experience. You were amazing. Words just stop in my throat but I can say THANK YOU! I will never forget what you have made possible for me.
--Chris G.

"I love to work with John he is so much fun and I always get back great images. He knows how to make a shoot fun with silly props and ideas which always make for funny images. Not to often you find a photog that can get super awesome images and make the shoot fun at the same time. I always look forward to working with John when i'm in Seattle. His images are some of my best work on my port and i'll always keep them up."
--Eleya M.

"John Cornicello, is my all time favorite photographer. Not only for his fantastic skill behind the camera but also his ability to be playful while remaining professional. I've never felt more comfortable with another photographer, posing nude or dressed. Whether its underwater, fine art, portraits, performance, or maternity, John has put me at complete ease and delivered some of the best work I've ever seen. I now cannot imagine Seattle without him and I do see John as a part of my Seattle family."
--Tristen W.

"John Cornicello is not only a highly skilled and creative photographer, he has the charm, grace, and maturity to make you comfortable expressing yourself in front of the camera. My session with him fulfilled my wish for gorgeous, sexy portraits that show me at my best!"
--Lisa E.

" I always look forward to modeling for John because he is great at making a shoot fun. It is easy to feel comfortable around him even from the first time you meet and work together. On the other hand he is also exceedingly professional and always treats his models with the most respect."
--Audra P.

"The experience of doing a pin-up shoot with John Cornicello was way more fun than I could have anticipated! We didn't really know each other, aside from a handful of casual conversations. His calm demeanor put me at ease right from the start. The nerves I felt were more the excited kind, anticipating the surprise when my husband sees the book of prints for our 10th wedding anniversary. He loves seeing my curves in lingerie (and bless him for that!), so this seemed like an appropriate way to give back to the man I adore. Because I love dressing up (or down as the case may be here) I enjoyed that part, but as an amateur model, I didn't know how to position my body for the camera, John had great suggestions of how to hold my arms, or place my feet, or look to the light, that really complimented my figure. The results didn't just impress the man in my life, but admittedly, I'm a little smitten with them too. It's a fabulous feeling to let go, and let a professional like John capture your essence and express whatever mood is true for you. It was such a rush, I kinda want to do it again...

"Who knew taking your clothes off in front of a near stranger could be THIS much fun!"
--Sheri H.

"I'm ALWAYS amazed at how you are able to cultivate a relationship of trust with your subject so quickly, and then bring out the most spontaneous beauty in every situation (studio or out on the street)."
--Kim P. (my wonderful wife)

Working in a home studio

2011-11-24T13:18:00.001-08:00

Let me start with a big Thank You to the folks at creativeLIVE. It has been a year since they asked me to come in and help out with a live workshop with Jeremy Cowart. That was an amazing weekend that has grown into a year of workshops. And to celebrate that, I'm going to do a 1-day workshop with creativeLIVE on working in a home studio to start the new year on January 10, 2012.

I am greatly encouraged by all the viewers who have commented about me during the workshops this year and who have written in asking to have me do a workshop. I'm a little nervous. I did do the fireworks class in July, but before that the last time all the cameras were focused on me alone was back in the mid 1980s when a TV show called "World of Photography" did a segment about me when I had a studio in New York City. I think I was so nervous there that they only showed me working and never used any of the footage of me sitting in front of the camera just talking. If anyone out there knows if these TV shows are available anywhere now, I'd love to hear about that. I lent my VHS copy of the show to someone many years ago and never got it back.

Anyway, that was around 25 years ago. I've come a long way since then. But I've also gone back to working at home. I started out at home, right out of college with a Norman A202 strobe pack with a couple of heads, reflectors, and umbrellas. I worked out of my bedroom at home, photographing things in the middle of the night while I had a day job working in a large catalog studio as an photo assistant.

Now I'm firmly entrenched in the digital world, but I do still have some of my film cameras, such as the 5x7 Deardorff view camera shown above. I still use studio strobes instead of small camera flashes for most work--that's what I've grown up with. But I have actually done a few recent jobs using camera flashes. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks (thanks to the Lighten Up And Shoot and Rick Sammon workshops on creativeLIVE).

I want this to be a very interactive class with lots of audience questions. So I invite you to start preparing some questions now and ask them here. And have more ready to go when Kenna joins me to take a look at my studio. You can ask about specific images shown below. Or ask about the equipment I use. Or ask about why I do things one way versus another. But it is mostly about helping you get set up to take photographs in your space.

Below I'm showing a selection of my of photographs and I am asking you which of these were NOT done in my home studio? Here is what I can tell you about my home studio. The main room I use is about 12x18' and I sometimes use an adjacent room that adds about another 12 feet to the 12' of the main room, creating an L-shaped area. My ceilings are a standard 8 feet high, and there is a wide doorway between the two rooms.

Looking forward to your questions and to seeing you online in January!

Thanks!

John

New Vision Dance 2011

2011-11-17T21:41:00.001-08:00

For the second year I've had the pleasure of photographing the New Vision Dance Company's fall show.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the show. Dance can be tricky to photograph as I have no control over the lights and always want the lights to be someplace other than where they are. In this case, most of the lights were at floor level which looked great for the audience, but presented a few challenges for getting the the photos I wanted. But I think I did OK.

You can find more in my New Visions Dance galleries from 2010 and 2011.

All photos taken with a Canon 5DmkII with the following lenses: 50mm f/1.4, 100mm f/2.0, and 24-105mm f/4.0.

Fashion Lighting with Matthew Jordan Smith

2011-11-16T22:30:00.001-08:00

Wow! What a weekend. I got to assist one of my photography heroes, Matthew Jordan Smith in his 3-day workshop at creativeLIVE.

On Saturday we did some beauty shots with a simple lighting set up of one 22" beauty dish with a white sock diffuse on it directly over the camera. I was so busy, though, that day, that I didn't take any photos.

On Sunday we did a larger set for a fashion session. After that session I got a few comments and questions on Google Plus asking about how the lights were set up for that session. In reality it was pretty simple. A Profoto Magnum reflector on a standard head over the camera about 12 feet up in the air. Matthew described this as his "sun." It was bright. The first meter reading I took was f/45. We had to power that thing down to get to around f/22.

The questions, though, were about our background lights. We had four lights pointed into two v-flats. One v-flat on each side of the set. The v-flats reflected the light onto the background and blocked the light from hitting the models. We used four heads and four strobe packs to get the fastest recycle time we could. If we put all the heads into a single pack it would have taken too long to recylce the power between exposures. With it set up this way Matthew was able to fire off multiple shots in a row to keep things flowing.

To help with the clean white background from head to toe we had the models on a platform created by apple boxes and white boards. Above is a photo of the set and below is a diagram I created to show the lighting setup.

The two softboxes in the photograph are for the video cameras that were broadcasting the workshop and did not affect the still camera exposure. So you can pretend that they are not there.

Here are two photos I took on this set...

And here are photos of the creativeLIVE crew and Matthew and I that were taken with the same lighting setup and a remote camera release (that you can see in my right hand).

This was one of the best weekends I've had. Looking forward to getting myself back into the studio!

The models for this day were Briauna Mariah and Sara Cozad. Styling by Alvin Stillwell, and hair & makeup by Erin Skipley.

Aspect Ratio

2011-11-15T14:50:00.001-08:00

...or why can't I print a full frame image on standard paper sizes

Aspect Ratio is the ratio of the short size of an image to the long side of the image. We talk about it all the time without realizing it. When you get a 4x6 inch print you are describing the aspect ratio of that print: 4x6 (or 2x3, or 1x1.5). The length long side of the image is 1.5 times the length of the short size.

This happens to be the aspect ratio of most digital SLR cameras. These cameras evolved from 35mm film SLR cameras. 35mm film actually measures 24mm x 36mm (do the math, that translates to 2x3 or 1x1.5). Hence a 4x6 print can show the entire frame from a 35mm slide/negative or from most dSLR cameras. I say most because Olympus has SLR cameras with a 3:4 ratio, and most compact digital cameras are also in the 3:4 ratio. But that is not typical for dSLR cameras. I will talk about 3:4 ratio at the end of this post.

So, what happens when you want to make an enlargement from your dSLR image? If you make an 8x12 enlargement you will get the full frame. Everything you originally saw in the image. But, you might be saying, most frames are available in 5x7 or 8x10 sizes. What happens when I make a 5x7 or 8x10 print? What happens is that you either have to crop off parts of the original image, or you have to print with uneven borders (the borders on the long dimension will be wider than those on the short sides. The physical dimensions/aspect ratio of the image and the frame are not the same. Something has to go.

Here is an illustration:

The red line indicates the full 1x1.5 ratio of the dSLR original file. The other lines show the area of the image that will be included in various size prints.
The green lines shows the crop for an 8x10 or 16x20 (1x1.25 aspect ratio). Notice that a relatively large section of the original will be cropped out to make an 8x10 print.
The blue lines show the crop area ofor a 5x7 print (almost the full frame).
The yellow lines show the approximate crop area for an 8.5x11 or 11x14 print.

As mentioned above, there is an alternate way to print. You can have uneven borders, as shown here:

Here you are printing the full image frame (shown by the green lines) on 8x10 paper (red outline) at a size of about 6.67 inches by 10 inches, leaving a wide white border along the long dimensions of the print. I would never deliver a print that showed the uneven borders. I would have it mounted in a mat cut to the appropriate size and shape to display the full frame image and hide those white borders behind the mat.

Here (above) the red frame shows the full image as captured by the camera. The green frame shows the part of the image that can be printed as an 8x10 inch print. Of course that green frame can be moved left or right in the image for the best composition.

Another way to think about this is to divide the long dimension of your original image by the short dimension and then divide the long/short dimension of your frame size and see if they match up. For example, take your original image that is 2:3 ratio. Divide 2 into 3 and you get 1.5. Now take your frame size. First we will try an 8x12 frame. 12 divided by 8 equals 1.5. The number is the same. The original image will scale to 8x12 with no cropping necessary. Second we will try an 8x10 frame. 10 divided by 8 equals 1.25. This does not match the original 1.5, so the image cannot be scaled to 8x10 without cropping.

One more illustration:

Note the black diagonal line from corner to corner of the image. That shows various crops within the image that will maintain the 1:1.5 aspect ratio. The green border and diagonal line indicate the available 8x10 (1:1.25) crops available from this image. Any rectangle who's corners fall on the diagonal green line can be a 8x10 crop from the image.

Here are the some common aspect ratios and print sizes:

Aspect Ratio	Sample Print sizes (no cropping required)
1:1.5	2x3, 4x6, 8x12, 16x24, 20x30, 32x48
1:1.25	4x5, 8x10, 16x20, 24x 30, 32x50
1:1.3	11x14
1:1.4	5x7

Of course, you can use standard frame sizes and cut custom mats to allow your prints to have a slightly different aspect ratio than the frame. How much different they can be is a personal choice.

3:4 Ratio -- or the 4/3 systemTraditionally, televisions and personal computers have had screens with a 4:3 (width to height) aspect ratio. Computer screens have come in 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960, etc. As compact digital cameras were being developed the 4:3 ratio was adopted by most manufacturers. This way digital camera images fit the computer screens. But they don't fit traditional photographic printing paper sizes.

Here is a 4:3 aspect ratio image with 8x10 (green) and 5x7 (blue) crop guides on it.

The 4:3 aspect ratio translates to 1:33333 and gives you uncropped print sizes like 10.5x14, 9.6x12.8,

9x12, 7.5x10, or 4.5x6. Not your typical print sizes. But these do work well for online, full-screen presentation.

This is a re-run of an article I originally posted on my web site about 4 years ago.

Embodied

2011-11-12T19:48:00.001-08:00

This week I was lucky and honored to be able to photography a multi-media one person show by Courtnee Papastathis at the FRED Wildlife Refuge in Seattle.

The show was a mix of aerial, music, and video projections. I've known Courtnee as Zita the Aerialist for some time. But now I got to see/hear/experience her great voice and musical talent as she performed with guitar, ukelele, and synthesizer.

Here are some photos of the performance...

Perspective (again)

2011-11-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

I've been seeing some tweets and Facebook messages about how lenses affect perspective and the drawing of the human face. My argument is that the lens doesn't cause the different look, but rather the distance from camera to subject does. The lens focal length just determines the angle of view or what fits into the frame. I could refer you to my previous blog post from this year on this. Or the one before that in 2009. Or even a post from 2007. But no, I'm going to write it all up again for your enjoyment.

I'm not saying that you should photograph everything with a short lens and then crop later to get your composition. But I am saying that you should determine your camera to subject distance to set your perspective and the relationship between items in the photograph and then select the lens focal length that fills the frame appropriately. Don't blame your lens(es) for perspective distortion (expansion or compression of the scene).

Here is a set of 3 images. I'm using a mannequin here instead of human so that there would be no movement between the photographs. One was taken with a 200mm lens, one with a 35mm lens, and one with a 16mm lens. The fourth image takes the 200mm and the 16mm images and combines them in separate layers in Photoshop. I then set the blending mode to "difference" to show how the two images compare. The pixel and noise structure of the two images accounts for the variations inside the facial area. But if you look at the outline of the face, you will see that it is exactly the same in both images. Changing the focal length did not change the perspective. Can you tell which image was taken with which focal length lens?

200mm and 16mm images overlayed
on each other in Photoshop's "Difference"
blending mode. The facial shape and
features are the same.

Here are the full frame originals to show the size differences due to the various lens focal lengths...

200mm lens from 8' away

35mm lens from 8' away

16mm lens from 8' away. Notice that
the relationship between objects
in the scene are the same even with
the widely varied focal lengths used

And to round out the comparison, here are three photos taken with the 200, 35, and 16mm lenses where the camera to subject distance was changed to try to maintain the approximate same size of the face in the frame.

200mm lens from 8' away. Facial features
are flattened. Nose, eyes, and ears are
all similar in size. The face appears slightly
wider than "normal"

35mm lens from about 2' away. Facial
features are more pronounced. The nose
is larger than the ears. The face is
narrower than "normal"


16mm lens from a few inches away. Facial features are even more distorted. The nose comes forward, the ears are much smaller. The face is much narrower than "normal"

Once again, I'm not suggesting that you take your portraits with a short lens from far away and then crop. I just want to show and help understand that camera to subject distance is what affects the perspective in a photograph. Too often the lens gets blamed for this. Select the appropriate lens for the situation.

Remember, a shorter lens doesn't cause the perspective change. But it does allow you to move in closer so that you get that distortion. And a long lens doesn't compress depth. Blow up the center section and you will find they match (like in the first three images above). Photographs taken with different focal length lenses, but from the same camera position, show exactly the same perspective in the section of the scene that is common to all the different angles of view of the various lenses.

Thanks for putting up with this again!

Alison Marra Yoga

2011-11-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

This past week I got to work with a Seattle-based yoga instructor named Alison Marra.

Alison teaches at Mountain Flow Yoga in Madrona and I Love Hot Yoga of Greenlake. She is working on setting up her own web site. (UPDATE, Alison's web site is now up and running).

The studios listed above describe her like this...

Building upon a background in gymnasticsand dance, Alison felt an instant connection with Vinyasa Yoga after beingintroduced to the style while attending college. Yearning for a deeperunderstanding, she received her 200-hour instructor certification fromCorePower Yoga in 2007. Today, sheguides students through a Vinyasa-style practice that focuses on corestrength and flow to build a solid practice based on strength and spirit. Placing emphasis onlinking breath with movement, this style of yoga heals, detoxifies, developsendurance, and exhilarates the body and mind. In addition, Alison often teaches sport-specific yoga classes to athletic teams around Seattle through Jasyoga Athletica.

For this session we created a set of 7 main photos and a few extras...

Frog

Warrior II

Side Plank with Yogi Toe Hold

Forearm Balance with Backbend

Wheel

Eagle

Headstand

Bird of Paradise

Standing Splits

Tittibasana

Technical info: Canon 5D mkII with 24-105 lens. Five light set up: 12x48 strip box to camera left, 22" beauty dish with 40-degree grid to camera right, 10x35 strip light overhead from behind as a hair light, standard 7" reflector with 10-degree grid at camera to fill in Alison's face, and standard 7" reflector with a 20-degree grid and color gels for the background. All lights by Speedotron. All processing in Adobe Lightroom.

Winternacht by the Cabiri

2011-11-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

It is always interesting to see what the Cabiri put together for their annual Ghost Games shows around the Halloween season. This year they presented Winternacht. You may remember that I made some photographs for them at Mt Rainier back in August.

The show introduced a new act from John Murphy using a set of chains. The show also featured a giant and a snow storm. The lighting for the show was done by Sara Torres (who doesn't have a web site yet, I'll add a link when she sets up a site). Emcee duties were handled wonderfully by Steffon Moody.

The Cabiri shows mix aerial, dance, story telling, mythology, light, and sound that educate as well as entertain. Here are a few of my favorite images from the show...

And the poster...

Photos of the show were taken with a Canon 7D with these lenses: 85mm f/1.8, 135mm f/2.0, and 200mm f/2.8, all hand-held. Processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Halloween in Fremont

2011-11-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

Halloween is always an interesting time in Fremont (Seattle, WA). A few days ago I posted images from the big Seduction party at Fremont Studios. Today I have photos from Trollaween, the Fremont Arts Council's celebration of the Fremont Troll's birthday, and from the Naked Pumpkin Run. Where else to you carve a pumpkin, put it on your head, strip of your clothes, and run through the neighborhood?

Mad Hatters at Trollaween

Let's start with Trollaween. This is an annual event that doesn't get much publicity. Ghouls and Goblins and lots of other people and creatures gather in front of the Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge on Halloween night to celebrate the birthday of the troll (installed and dedicated in 1990). Maque DaVis, past president for life of the FAC, produces the show that includes a cast of characters on stage followed by the drumming and dancing skeletons of Vamola leading a procession through the streets of Fremont to another celebration under another bridge, the Fremont Bridge.

The Troll's Birthday!

Did you know that the Troll is being celebrated this year as a custom CHIA PET available from Bartell's drug stores in the Seattle area? 20% of the proceeds from Troll sales will go to the FAC.

Tricky Bunny has stars in her eyes

Pong video game

The Naked Pumpkin Run has become a new tradition. Not much to say about it I'll just leave you with these two photos...

Some of the runners made it up to the Troll this year.

Off to Trick or Treat

Trollaween images taken with a Canon G10 with a Canon 430EXii flash held off camera. Pumpkin Run photos taken with a Canon 7D.

Seduction Halloween Party by SEAF

2011-10-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

Last night was the gala Halloween party put on by the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival. Like the festival itself, it was held at Fremont Studios here in Seattle.

Michael Holden spins at SEAF

The night brought out a wide variety of revelers in a wider variety of costumes and some body paint. For me this was a departure in that I used my flash to photograph guests of the party. Of course I also went for some "available light" photos. Available light in quotes because I believe in the W. Eugene Smith quote that available light is any damn light that is available (which could be strobes, sun, a bathroom wall sconce, etc.). But back to partying...

At some point in the night I noticed someone sitting in a large bird cage in the "Village" area of the studio. I thought it was part of her costume, but quickly found out it was not, it was a studio prop, so I set up shop there for an hour or so to take photos of guests in the cage.

I finished up the night with some photos of body painting and my friend Tiberio, who you may know from previous blog posts about his La Figa project.

Here's til next time...

Return of the iPhone

2011-10-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

For a while I was really into "iphonography," taking and editing a LOT of photos with my phone. But for the past few months I've been using my larger cameras more than the iPhone.

That all changed today. I woke up to a wonderfully foggy morning. In the past I'd go grab a big camera with a few lenses and head out into the fog. But this morning I decided to go it alone with the iPhone. Here are three of the images. The one above has had a lot of great feedback on Facebook. Just a reminder that many of the images that appear on my blog can be purchased as prints. If you don't see an image you are looking for let me know and I will get it uploaded there. But that's all the selling for today. Please enjoy these images taken with and edited on the iPhone (I'm still using the iPhone 4)...

UPDATE: We had another foggy morning and I was able to create these two new images:

Rick Sammon at creativeLIVE Day 3

2011-10-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

As usual, at the end of day three of a creativeLIVE workshop I'm too wiped out to write much. But still have photos to share from behind the scenes.

This time I'll start our with one of the last photos of the day in the studio. This is only a part of the full crew. Here we see students, camera operators, sound technicians, production assistants, chat hosts, Rick, Myself, Craig, Kenna, Susan, and the two people who really keep the whole thing together, Celeste the producer, and Nikko, who's job title is Nikko because he does so many things.

Today we got to take some photos, play some music, teach some concepts, talk to Catherine Hall, take more photos, and go out for dinner where Rick entertained us with magic tricks.

Rick Sammon posting to Google+

Mic-ing up the students

Adam being Adam

A new look for Jacob


Emily

Wonder what Sammonism is being discussed here

Adam explains the camera angles

Celeste trying to fly away

Butterfly lands on Kenna's hand

The Power Trio (see/hear us on YouTube)

Thanks to kaylyn for taking this group photo

Thanks to the remote trigger for taking this group photo

View from the ground during another group photo

Celeste signals us that we're all clear and off the air

Craig watching a magic trick

Celeste participates in a magic trick

Pick a card, any card...

Next up at creativeLIVE is Matthew Jordan Smith. I look forward to seeing you there! But before we leave for the night, one more photo of Rick after 3 days of non-stop action packed photography classes...

Rick Sammon workshop at creativeLIVE

2011-10-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

Whew! We're two days into the Rick Sammon workshop at creativeLIVE. It has been a whirlwind of tips, tricks, and general photographic education.

Outside of Serious Pie in South Lake Union

On day 1 we worked with small strobes in a variety of sets with two models. From an elegant rim light on black background to Little Red Ridinghood in the woods. In the middle of the day we did a call in session with wildlife photographer Juan Pons. And then we finished up the day/evening with a great dinner at Serious Pie (second time this week!).

Day 2 mixed continuous fluorescent lights (a Westcott Spiderlite TD6 kit), strobe, and window light. And I got a good amount of air time discussing various lighting topics with Rick and the students. Rick has really gone out of his way to include me in the class instead of being in the background. Who knows, this might lead to me doing some of my own classes on creativeLIVE. Let cL know if you want to see me present on something there.

Tomorrow I will try to post some photos of me as model, musician, assistant, photographer, general go-to guy on set. In the meantime, some photos from the first two days...

Rick Sammon talks to Juan Pons

Some of the items on the equipment cart

Behind the Live's Kenna and Susan

Getting the crane ready for some overhead shots

Introducing the Rick Sammons Custom Light
Modifier (patent pending).

Getting ready to start the show

The behind-the-scenes crew

Introducing the new FJ Westcott Apollo Orb

Got batteries

Who is our mystery guest?

Little Red Ridinghood

Chase Jarvis and Rick Sammon

Celeste and McKenzie

Rick enjoying interaction with his students

One more day to go! Watch us live on Sunday, October 23 from 9am to 4pm Pacific time on creativeLIVE and/or purchase the class to watch at any time.

creativeLIVE with Rick Sammon

2011-10-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

I've spent most of the past two days at the creativeLIVE studios here in Seattle doing prep work with photographer Rick Sammon for his 3-day FREE workshop this weekend.

The view on Camera 1

Above we see Rick talking to BehindTheLive's Susan Roderick in preparation for the workshop. Below he talks to Kenna Klosterman about his favorite business books (watch the workshop to get the titles). And then we finished the day with some photos to use on the creativeLIVE web site. Speaking of which, check out the new discussion forum on the site. And watch the video that was being filmed when I took some of these photos, I might show up in there at around the 5 minute mark, and again at around 25 minutes in...

Rick loves to teach

More to come as the weekend progresses. See you online!

John

There's a new Bob in town!

2011-10-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

You may remember that I did a photo session with The Bobs back in January (blog post). Well, as it often goes, after doing a set of photos the line up in the band changes. Amy Bob has moved back to the East coast to attend graduate school at Columbia and to write music for broadway musicals. Angie "Bob" Doctor is joining the group. I can't wait to see the new lineup on stage. Check their site to see if they're coming to a theater near you. It sounds like both Amy and Angie will be at some of the upcoming shows.

The Bobs are always fun to work with. In the last session Matthew Bob showed up with bags of fruit. Today it was cases of musical instruments.

We needed to do a new group photo. But we also needed to match some individual photos from the last session. I have to wonder if they warned Angie beforehand what she was in for with the "bobbing" photo in the fish tank (which I didn't show last time)...

Angie "Bob" Doctor

And the water photos. I believe that the credit for the concept of "the Bobs go Bobbing" goes to photographer Michelle Bates during a backstage conversation at the Moisture Festival. Matthew Bob talked everyone into participating, and I just got to make some fun photographs, as you can see here...

Dan

Matthew

Angie

Richard

For the photographers following along, the lighting for the group photo was a 7' sliver Paul Buff (Alien Bees) parabolic umbrella as the fill light, a 60" Photek Softlighter II to camera left as the main light, and a Westcott 12x50 strip bank from behind on camera left. Flash power packs were Speedotron 805 boxes with a mix of Speedotron heads.

For Angie's head shot and the water photos I used a Photoflex Medium Silverdome NXT with a Speedotron Force 5 monolight.

Julie

2011-10-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop about using ZenFolio for presenting images for viewing and selling. One of the sessions was an inspirational talk by a photographer named Julie Watts. She had great stories about her becoming a photographer and a new product she developed called PhotoPantz for women photographers.

One thing she said really struck me. She showed a beautiful photo of her local bank teller and said that she saw the woman and knew she had to photograph her, so she went up and asked. Well, all during Julie's presentation I kept thinking to myself that Julie would make a great pin-up model. She had a great face and a wonderful red curl in the front of her hair. Normally, I would see someone I want to photograph and I'd let them just walk on by. I'm too shy to approach strangers about taking their photo. But Julie just told me to go up and ask. So I did. And she said, SURE!

We emailed back and forth for a couple of days and set up a date for the photos. She had some great outfits in mind, and I got my infamous prop closet in order and here are some of the photographs we made that evening...

I'm looking forward to the day that you come over and pick out some props for your special photo session. You will have great fun!

Thanks!

Sheri

2011-10-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

I recently worked with a wonderful new client, Sheri. We did a mixture boudoir and pin up style photo session from which she created a book to present to her husband on their 10th wedding anniversary. I was excited to show these new photos here, but wanted to wait until after she presented the photo book.

Now that her husband has the book, I'm able to share the photos and this great testimonial from Sheri...

"The experience of doing a pin-up shoot with John Cornicello was way more fun than I could have anticipated! We didn't really know each other, aside from a handful of casual conversations. His calm demeanor put me at ease right from the start. The nerves I felt were more the excited kind, anticipating the surprise when my husband sees the book of prints for our 10th wedding anniversary. He loves seeing my curves in lingerie (and bless him for that!), so this seemed like an appropriate way to give back to the man I adore. Because I love dressing up (or down as the case may be here) I enjoyed that part, but as an amateur model, I didn't know how to position my body for the camera, John had great suggestions of how to hold my arms, or place my feet, or look to the light, that really complimented my figure. The results didn't just impress the man in my life, but admittedly, I'm a little smitten with them too. It's a fabulous feeling to let go, and let a professional like John capture your essence and express whatever mood is true for you. It was such a rush, I kinda want to do it again..."

Sheri followed up a day later with a one liner...

"Who knew taking your clothes off in front of a near stranger could be THIS much fun!"

Here are a few more images from the session...

Please keep me in mind if you are considering creating a keepsake album or gift for your significant other. Or, better yet, consider making a book just for yourself. You deserve it!

Thanks, Sheri!

Worldwide Photo Walk at Pike Market

2011-10-03T19:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, I just posted some photos from the Pike Place Market in my last post. But a few days later I found myself back at the market joining up with the worldwide photo walk folks.

Interloper

As usual, I concentrated on people. Some vendors, some photographers, some shoppers, some friends, and some others. Not much else to say. Hope you enjoy some of the faces from the Market...

Pike Place Market Buskers

2011-10-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

At the end of summer the Pike Place Market folks put in a festival to show off all the great buskers* to perform daily at the market.

September 18, 2011 was the date of the latest festival. It had been a few years since I was able to make it to the festival, and as usual, I found a number of really wonderful performers, some of them completely new to me (such as Jobo Shakins). Here are a few of the images I made at the festival. You can see many of these performers year-round at the Market. If you run across them, please drop some money in their hats to help support this great tradition.

Jobo Shakins from Portland

Gloria Darlings

Morrison Boomer

Dre

Dave McKesson

Some folks, though, perform for free...

*Busker: street performer working for gratuities

If Life Is A Stage, I'd Like Better Lighting

2011-10-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry if you've seen this from me a few times now. I've posted on Facebook and Tweeted about it. And now a blog post. This is for all those folks out there who hate red and blue stage lights. I don't know if it is a national thing, but lighting folks in Seattle seem to love their red gels. Maybe they last longer or are less expensive than other gels? I don't know. But they generally don't look good on people, unless there is a very specific effect you are going for (such as the Aerialistas at the Moisture Festival Burlesque shows a couple of years back that were all red).

Yes, sometimes red works. But it is often over done

Princess Farhana in Hollywood posted a great blog article on stage lighting for dancers that can apply to many different theater productions. It is a great intro and reference for those not very familiar with stage lighting and a good reminder for those who have been doing it so long that they may have forgotten a thing or two. I really like the last couple of paragraphs, which I hope she doesn't mind me quoting here...

UNIVERSALLY FLATTERING STAGE LIGHTING
If you are unsure of what sort of lighting effects to ask for, or there is a limited amount of lighting in the venue, a nice, bright stage with a mixed wash of whites, pinks and ambers is a safe bet.

It will compliment any performer’s skin tone and show the true colors of costumes, props, sets and backdrops. These colors used together will warm up and soften white lights, and make the performers on stage look life-like and animated without looking harsh. A stage lit like this will also allow the audience’s eyes to take in a performance without being distracted.

Here are some local Seattle performance photos that I hope will help show that you can use other colors than red for you production.


Even black lights (UV) can work

I'd love to hear your thoughts on lighting situations you run into in theaters you photograph in. Please add your comments below.

Thanks!

Cafe Nordo returns for 2012

2011-09-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I ran into Terry Podgorski at a SANCA show and asked about plans for a new Cafe Nordo. That was great timing, as they had a show just about ready to go (To Savor Tomorrow at the new West of Lenin theater in Fremont) and needed publicity photos. I had a really great time with the cast creating photos last year and immediately jumped at the opportunity to work with them again.

We emailed back and forth a bit and came up with a plan to create the photos at the Seattle Museum of Flight. What a perfect place to set the photos!

Terry and I met up early and scouted the location. We also stopped in the gift shop and were able to borrow some props to add to the photos. Soon the cast (Mark Siano, Max Davis, Ray Tagavilla, Opal Peachy and Aimée Burneau) showed up and we were ready to go. It was a slightly overcast day and we selected a glass enclosed walkway for the location. A single on camera flash (Shhh... don't tell anyone I used an on camera flash. Especially an old 540EX in manual mode!!) provided the needed pop on the faces. A few minutes work in Adobe Lightroom and we were ready to go. Hope you enjoy these photos as much as we did creating them.

Max Davis and Ray Tagavilla

Max Davis, Aimée Bruneau, and Ray Tagavilla

Opal Peachy

Aimée Bruneau, Max Davis, Mark Siano,
Ray Tagavilla, and Opal Peachy

Coffee, Tea, or...

Thanks for taking a look. Let me know if you are ever in need of staged publicity photos for your event or production.

Eleya

2011-09-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I met Eleya Maureenhttp://www.modelmayhem.com/eleyamaureen through photographer Rolando Gomez. Since then, I've had the great pleasure to work with her a few times when she has visited Seattle.

Eleya has been super fun to work with, with a wonderful attitude and great experience. She was kind enough to send me this testimonial...

"I love to work with John he is so much fun and I always get back great images. He knows how to make a shoot fun with silly props and ideas which always make for funny images. Not to often you find a photog that can get super awesome images and make the shoot fun at the same time. I always look forward to working with John when i'm in Seattle. His images are some of my best work on my port and i'll always keep them up." --Eleya

So, without further ado, here are some of the images we've created together...

Flora

2011-09-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

I recently had another great and fun personal portrait session with Flora.

We are planning a second session, but I wanted to share some of the photos from our initial session here on the blog...

Audra and Ryan

2011-09-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a surprise for everyone. My SECOND wedding this year. Pretty amazing, huh?

As with my other recent wedding, this was for a friend. One of my favorite models, Audra, sometimes known as Angel Alabaster, called to ask if I would consider photographing her wedding. How could I say no? Besides, it was to be on my birthday, another favorite model, her twin sister Elke was in the wedding, and it was to be held on the great Virginia V steamship here in Seattle.

So happy to have been a part of this. Here are some of the photos...

Most of the photos were taken with a Canon 5D mkII and Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens. Either available light or Canon 550EX flash. Photographic note about thinking fast and on your feet--at some point during the event the 550 "broke down" in that it started firing full power. Even the e-TTL pre-flash was full power, so the actual exposure flash didn't fire (couldn't recycle in time). Took a few seconds of head-scratching to figure out why it wouldn't sync. I could see the pre-flash, but the actual frames were black. I tried another body (Canon 7D) with the same results. Relief that it wasn't the camera's shutter. But confusion about what was going on. Once I realized what was up I was able to continue with the flash in manual mode, where it didn't take long to figure out that even when set to 1/64 power it was still firing at full power. That meant slow recycle and quick draining batteries. But it all worked out. Guess it is time to replace the flash. It hurts to spend so much money on a camera flash that could better be spent on studio equipment. But I'm learning to enjoy working with small flash units.

Aerial Portraits

2011-09-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

Today's blog post brings you Debbie, Jenn, and Ishya from the Versatile Arts Aerial Studio.

For these photos I went to the studio where they had rigging points available to hang the tissue and lyra (hoop).Not much else to say about this other than I'd be happy to talk to you about photographing you in your studio.

For the photographers following along, these were lit with a pair of Speedotron Force V mono lights. On camera-left the light was in ever favorite 60" Photek Softlighter II, and on camera-right the light was in a Westcott 12x36 strip bank. I just let the background go dark. Camera was a Canon 5D mkII with a Canon 70-200 f/4L IS lens. Lights triggered by a set of Pocket Wizard MultiMax wireless transceivers.

Tristen

2011-09-09T22:43:00.000-07:00

Some times you find that person who you get along so well with and have great creative energy and fun. Tristen is one of those people. We can work serious, we can work fun. I remember the first time we met. It was on Whidbey Island, near Coupeville. It was a group photo session arranged by Black Mist. Models and photographers did rotations working with each other. When Tristen and Paul came to work with me she was so excited that I had a pile of props available to play with. Eye patches, hard hats, caution tape, mud boots. This was going to be fun. And it has been fun ever since.

Tristen had this to say about working with me:

"John Cornicello, is my all time favorite photographer. Not only for his fantastic skill behind the camera but also his ability to be playful while remaining professional. I've never felt more comfortable with another photographer, posing nude or dressed. Whether its underwater, fine art, portraits, performance, or maternity, John has put me at complete ease and delivered some of the best work I've ever seen. I now cannot imagine Seattle without him and I do see John as a part of my Seattle family."

Amazing to think back over the past three years where we have covered all the things listed in the quote: underwater, fine art, performance, maternity. Here is a collection of some of our images from the past few years of working together.

I am looking forward to more fun photo sessions with Tristen. If you are considering a fun and sexy photo session, please keep me in mind.

Thanks!!

Lisa

2011-09-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

I had the great pleasure to recently do two photo sessions with Lisa. One session was in the studio in a "boudoir" or "personal portrait" style. The second was an underwater session made possible by a wonderful and unexpected late Seattle summer day in early September.

Lisa was great to work with, and sent this testimonial after our first session...

"John Cornicello is not only a highly skilledand creative photographer, he has the charm, grace, and maturity to make youcomfortable expressing yourself in front of the camera. My session withhim fulfilled my wish for gorgeous, sexy portraits that show me at my best!"

Here are a few more images from the initial studio session...

A bit over a week later we got together again for an underwater session...

Please keep me in mind if you are looking for boudoir or personal portraits.

Thanks!

WinterNacht

2011-09-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about a quick Friday night trip to Mt. Rainier to make some photographs for a poster for an upcoming show. The poster has now been released, so I can talk more about it.

WinterNacht is the 2011 Ghost Game show by Seattle's Cabiri group, part of the Anunaki Project. Above is the poster for this year's show, which runs October 21 to 31 at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West Seattle. Below are some of the photos we made in producing this poster.

Note that we had a visitor pass through
the scene in this frame

This is the frame that was
used in the final poster

Please contact me if you are interested in working on a conceptual photo session for your next performance, CD, or any other project. You can see some other promotional pieces I've worked on at these links:

The Habit
Cabiri 2010 show
The Moisture Festival
Circus Contraption
Vertical Girl
Cafe Nordo

Thanks for taking a look!

Inverse Square Again

2011-09-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

I've written about the Inverse Square Law before. But I wanted to give a little different perspective on the Inverse Square Law here by adding a crude little video I just created with an iPhone, a white board, an LED flashlight, and some sticky notes. Let's start out with a description from Wikipedia:

In physics, an inverse-square law is any physical law stating that a specified physical quantity or strength is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity.

The first thing to keep in mind is that strictly speaking, the law applies to light emanating from a point source. Most any photographic light we might use is much larger than a point source, so exact meter readings aren't going to happen. Where the law says that if you double the distance between the light and the subject the light will be 1/4 power, in practice it will be brighter than you expect. So please don't run off and set up a softbox, umbrella, or octabank and measure with your meter and come back saying it doesn't work. Please refer to the Wikipedia section on photography for more info.

What is more important here is the concept. Know that the closer your light is to the subject the faster it will fall off. As you move the light away from your subject, the slower it falls off. In practical situations, move your light in close to your subject if you want the background to go dark. Move the light further away if you need to even out the light (for example you want to have the background lit up or you have a group of people who are not all on the same plane with the light source).

You can almost think of light fall off similarly to depth of field. When you are in close on your subject, with high magnification, the depth of field falls off quickly. Only a small part of the scene is in focus. With the light in close, just a small part of the scene is lit and the brightness falls of quickly. When you are further away from your subject the depth of field is greater. When the light is further away, the intensity is more constant/even through the frame.

I think there is still some confusion about why light falls off so quickly. What is happening is that as the light photos stream away from the light source, they spread out in a cone-shaped pattern. The light doesn't really get dimmer, but the photons have to spread out further to cover the area of the cone pattern as they move away from the source of the light. As they move away the rays start to get more parallel and at that point the falloff stops happening. To show that the light is not getting dimmer, think of a city skyline in the distance. You can see the lights in the windows of the buildings when you are miles away. But there isn't any chance that those lights are illuminating you when you are at a distance. Same thing with an airplane flying overhead at night. You can easily see the marker lights on the plane at their point of origin, but they are too spread out by the time they actually reach you to have any effect on lighting you.

Think of the sun and earth. If we were able to be close to the sun the light skimming across the planet would be much brighter on one side than the other. But due to the distance between the sun and earth the light rays from the sun are reaching us in a parallel fashion. The light on the top of a mountain is the same intensity as at the base of the mountain if there is nothing blocking the light and causing shadows. When you stand on a beach and look out to the horizon, the brightness remains constant. You can see a ship off on the horizon many miles away. It doesn't fade into darkness until the sun goes down. The same amount of light hits the sand where you are standing as hits the ship on the horizon.

Here is the video:

For this demo I've set up a small LED flashlight as the light source. It is not a point source, but I think it should do for the demonstration.

At first I have it set at 6 inches from the whiteboard and I have drawn a circle around the light hitting the board. Next. I moved the light back to 12 inches and drew another circle. This should start making things click if they haven't already. Note that the light expanded in all directions when I moved it back.

Then I added another element--sticky notes. I have one here that is approximately the size of the original circle that I used to cover that inner circle. How many sheets of paper will we need to cover the larger circle caused by doubling the distance of the light to the white board? At first you may be tempted to answer TWO. Seems reasonable. Double the distance equals twice the size. But that is incorrect. The light beam is expanding in all directions, so to cover the second circle I needed 4 pieces of paper. The light has spread out so that is is 1/4 the intensity at twice the distance. If I doubled the distance again so the light was four times the distance, it would take 16 pieces of paper to cover the circle.

I hope that this gives a little clearer demonstration of what is happening to the light beam as it expands as it gets further and further away from its source.

Here are a few more links with photographic demonstrations… This Week in Photo; Mark Wallace's YouTube video; and WikiPedia.

Vadim and Andreea, August 20, 2011

2011-09-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Those who know me know that I don't photograph many weddings. But once in a while the right one comes along. That happened (or is about to happen) twice this summer. First was Vadim and Andreea. We met a few years ago at a Seattle Flickr Group meetup back in 2008. Three years later I got an email from them mentioning how much they liked the photo, and would I consider photographing their wedding. They gave me the details and I only had to think about it for a few minutes before saying "yes!"

I had the pleasure of having Susan Roderick as my second shooter for the day, which started at a wonderful church, St. Spiridon, in Seattle. After the ceremony we raced down to the Fairmont Hotel where I set up a "studio" while Susan started working with the bride and groom and got some detail photos.

The rest of the night was spent with some wonderful guests having fun in the photo studio and on the dance floor. I don't think we got a single photo where everyone wasn't smiling big or laughing. Here are some of the images from the day...

The other wedding for this year happens next week. Looking forward to this one taking place on the Virginia V steamship on Lake Union.

Snake Suspenderz

2011-08-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week Kim and I had a small house/garden concert for our neighbors. We invited a local band called Snake Suspenderz who were absolutely perfect for the concert.

This whole concert thing started last winter when Kim decided to build a little deck in our back yard. She and a friend, Brian, worked on it and when it was done Brian stepped back and said, "you didn't build a deck, you built a stage." That got the gears spinning in Kim's head and she had been talking about having an outdoor concert series ever since. Unfortunately, summer arrived very late in Seattle this year, and the series dwindled down to this one performance.

Snake Suspenderz has been around for a while in various incarnations. I knew two of the players, Thadeus Spae (from the Oregon Country Fair and the Moisture Festival) and salamandir (who I used to play with in the Fremont Philharmonic back in my musical days). New to me were Sketch and Howlin' Hobbit. As Thadeus said that night, you know the band has to be special when the guy named Thadeus has the most normal name in the group.

They played a great mix of danceable jazz tunes on tuba, ukulele, trombone, guitar, and drums. I even sat in on one number, All Of Me, on Melodica. A recording of that event may surface some day. In addition to playing, taking photos, and hosting, I also was dragged onto the dance "floor" (actually the grassy lawn) by my 91-yr-old mom for a dance. I still can't keep up with her.

Here are some photos of the band, followed by some photos of folks in the crowd. And ending up with a video of the Snake Suspenderz rendition of Mack the Knife from the Three Penny Opera.

Thadeus

Howlin' Hobbit

salamandir

Sketch

Some of our guests...

Mam Rose, exasperated that I'm
trying to take yet ANOTHER photo of her

Kellie

And part of Mack The Knife (captured via iPhone 4)...

The Habit Return to Seattle

2011-08-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I got hired to take some publicity photos for a Seattle-based comedy group named The Habit. It seems they had been on hiatus for a number of years and were planning a big comeback show for September.

I knew one of the members, Mark Siano, through Larae Lobdel who some of you may know as PhotoSister and others may know as the social media and marketing person at Black Rapid. I had also photographed him last year when he starred in the 2010 production of Cafe Nordo Sauced. Through Mark we set up a photo session at his place for a Sunday afternoon. Luckily his place has a large garage that we were able to use as a studio. We weren't quite sure what the weather was going to be that day.

On my first meeting with Mark he started talking about the concept. The five members of the group tromping through a city, wrecking havoc. I just had to supply the photo of the group and they would add the city and effects in Adobe Photoshop. "Why go through all that trouble?" I asked Mark, "I just happen to have a set of sky scrapers and other city buildings in my basement. Compliments of Tasty in Greenwood who used them in a window display about a year ago."

Being there were going to be 5 people, I opted for some large lights. A couple of Speedotron heads, one in a 60" Photek Softlighter II for the main light on camera left and the other in a Westcott 7-foot white umbrella for fill light next to the camera. We did some individual photos and some group photos for use on the web site and on the poster.

This afternoon the final poster and show dates were released and here are some of the photos from the session. Unfortunately, I didn't get any behind-the-scenes images this time. Too busy wrangling 5 comedians!!

Luke Thayer

Ryan Dobosh

John Osebold

David Swidler

Mark Siano

Jeff Schell


Mark Siano

Out takes from the group photo

Thanks to Jeff Schell for taking my photo on white seamless and turning it into the grand poster for the show.

Lighting Rosemary

2011-08-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

My previous entry I showed the photos I made today with model Rosemary Timmons and makeup artist Kerrin Birchenough. In this post I'm going to talk about the lighting set ups for the session.

Above you can see some of the basic setup. There is a 7-foot Westcott Parabolic Umbrella with black cover overhead (you can see the end of the umbrella shaft and the handle from the strobe head at the top of the picture). There is also a Westcott strip bank overhead behind the model. She is sitting on an apple box and there is an oval shiny reflector in front of her to bounce back some light from the umbrella to open any shadows on the model's face. A Blow It Fan sits to camera right to provide some motion to some of the photos. On each side of the model were black Westcott reflectors to kill any bounce from the sides.

Here is a view that shows the head in the
umbrella and the strip box in the back

Some of the images added a
ring Light in front


This is the model's view (sans photographer). The ring light is not in position here, but you can see the Westcott 7-foot umbrella

Another view from behind the camera. This one is
a little deceptive because it makes it look like
I actually use my tripod. You can see the gray
seamless background and the black velvet ready
to be hung in the background. The hand painted
gray muslin is on the right

The main light for the day was a Speedotron strobe set powering the heads in the umbrella and strip light. At some points during the session I unplugged the umbrella head and replaced it with another head with either a 10-degree grid or a snoot, as in the next four images.

Snoot with black reflector

Snoot, as above

snoot, as above

10-degree grid

For other images I turned off the head in the umbrella and used a ring light. For yet others, I mixed the ring light and the umbrella.

Looking through the ring light

The backgrounds for these images consisted of gray seamless paper, black velvet cloth, some remnants from the fabric store, and a hand-painted gray muslin (courtesy of my recent class with Rosanne Olson at Photographic Center Northwest).

None of today's work would have been possible with Rosemary and Kerrin. Here are some iPhone photos of the prep work...

Getting started with hair

Initial makeup application

Finalizing hair for the last images

One last iPhone photo of the set at the end of the day...

Please feel free to post questions or comments.

Thanks!

Rosemary out of the water

2011-08-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

Last week I posted some underwater photos of a new model I met named Rosemary Timmons. In that post I said I hoped to be able to do some studio work with her. Later in the week I had the great fortune to meet a makeup artist named Kerrin Birchenough. And I was somehow miraculously able to schedule a photo session with both Rosemary and Kerrin for this afternoon. Some weeks the stars all come together. Or maybe it was the full moon...

This is going to be a 2-part blog. Here I will first show the images from the session and then I'll post another entry showing behind the scenes and talking about the lighting setups.

As I mentioned last week, Rosemary is signed up with Heffner Management here in Seattle. Kerrin is working on getting a website up and running, contact me directly if you want contact information for Kerrin. I'm going to start off the images with a couple of "before" photos taken when Rosemary initially arrived at the studio.

I handed things over to Kerrin to get started on hair and makeup while I made some changes to my initial lighting plan. I'll cover more in the followup, but the basic setup here is a Westcott 7-foot white parabolic umbrella overhead and slightly in front of the model and a small Westcott strip light overhead behind the model, facing directly forward (not angled down). The two before photos above have the strip box to the camera right. That's what I changed while makeup was being applied. I also used an Alien Bees ringlight for some and a flash head with a 10-degree grid or a narrow snoot for a couple.

Ring light added with black background

Modeling lamps only with a 90mm
Tilt/Shift lens to throw the mouth
out of focus

The overhead umbrella, reflector, and
strip light from behind

Same lighting as above

Same as above

Ring light in addition to the above

This one uses the ring light, but
instead of shooting through it,
I moved it off to the side (camera
left) to give some directionality
to the light.

Back to shooting through the ring light

Shot with a Canon 5dMkII and 70-200IS f/4 L and 90mm f/2.8 Tilt/Shift lenses. Speedotron and Alien Bees lights.

La Figa Project at the Greenwood Block Party

2011-08-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

I attended the Greenwood Block Party last night to photograph my friends at Versatile Arts, but ran into a number of other friends and had a quite diverse evening. This post is about chef Tiberio Simone and photographer Matt Freedman's La Figa Project which Tiberio demonstrated at my friend Sheri's shop Tasty on Greenwood Ave between 75th and 76th in Seattle.

This demonstration in the store's front window seemed to be one of the big attractions of the Block Party. It was quite wonderful to see families taking in the art project together. Seattle is a pretty amazing place. Here are a few more photos from the event. More photos can be found on the web at johncornicello.com.

Tiberio sighing off at the
end of the evening

Taking another plunge

2011-08-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

I recently had the pleasure to work with a new Seattle model, Rosemary Timmons with Heffner Management. I hadn't planned this session, Rosemary was doing a test with David Peterman when I arrived for a separate underwater photo session. So, I jumped in the water, too, to capture a few images.

self portrait in glasses

I am looking forward to doing some studio sessions with Rosemary and makeup artist Kerrin Birchenough in the near future. Keep a look out for those. In the meantime, some more underwater photos with makeup by Fuchsia Foxxx.

Big thanks to David for the great facilities!

All images created with a Canon 5DmkII, 16-35mm f/2.8L lens, and Ewa Marine U-B 100 underwater case.

Back in the water

2011-08-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't had the opportunity to do underwater photos since early September, 2010. Summer is usually short enough in Seattle, but this year it started later than ever. So I was really happy to have things lined up to have a pool, nice weather, and models all available on the same day.

Underwater photography can be a lot of fun. It can also be nerve-wracking. If you spend any time around water, you know that the question isn't "IF" your case will leak, but rather "WHEN." Luckily I haven't experienced a leak yet, but two of my friends have had water get into their cameras. Luckily for both, they were quick to pull the battery out and dry it out and their cameras came back to life after a few days.

Underwater is also 60% skill and 40% luck. Especially in my early days when I was using a Canon S70 and a Canon G10 in underwater housings (OK, maybe it was 80% luck back then!). Shutter delay on land is one thing, but it seems to be even longer underwater. So I never quite knew what I was going to get. You see your model swimming towards you, you press the button, and you wait. And you wait. And you wait. Sometimes your model is still in the frame when the shutter finally fires. You can find some images from the G10 in an earlier blog post.

Last year I upgraded to an Ewa-Marine underwater "bag" for my dSLR camera. Things are much easier. But it does take a bit of experimentation to get the right balance of weights and air in the bag. I like to have it so that the camera will sink. Too much air in the bag and you are always fighting to keep the camera underwater. I sometimes also wear a set of wrist and/or ankle weights to help keep myself under water while photographing.

Here are some photos from Sunday's sessions. All were processed in Adobe Lightroom. The real tricky part is getting a good white balance. As you get more than a foot or two underwater you really lose most red light and things go a sickly greenish/blue. The originals out of the camera can be dis-heartening to look at. This is one place where I really don't think you can do JPG and fix in post. Raw is the way to go for underwater unless your camera has a specific underwater white balance setting.

Thanks, Aerial Nurse!! More photos to come...

All above photos created with a Canon 5DmkII, 16-35mm f/2.8L lens, and Ewa Marine UB-100 underwater bag. Natural sunlight filtered through a diffusion sheet above the pool.

Photo below is from my friend Hyejin Yun.

I call it "One of these is not like the others."

Horse Riding Class

2011-08-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

My friend Kristine invited me to come see her riding class and to take some photos. I had not previously had much experience with horses, so I was happy to go along and see what we could get.

Kristine and Stanley

The weather cooperated with us, giving us partly cloudy skies instead of bright sun outside of Bothell, WA. I had been concerned about shadows, as the class was happening at 1pm in the mid-day sun.

The above images were taken with a Canon 7D with the 10-22, 24-105, and 70-200 lenses.

Here are a couple of iPhone photos to round things out...

photo by Kristine

Photos on Mount Rainier in August 2011

2011-08-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

On friday evening I packed up a camera, lens, and tripod for a "quick" trip up to Paradise at Mt. Rainier with folks from the Cabiri performance group. Going into this I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

View from the car as we approached Paradise

We left Seattle around 4:30pm for the 2-1/2 hour drive. The day was already overcast, but that's what we were looking for (along with some snow). Things were lining up, we didn't even hit much traffic. As soon as we arrived at Paradise (a little after 7), we did a quick scouting walk to find the snow and a ridge line of trees in the fog. The temperature was quite mild and almost comfortable for the models.

Can't show you the images for the poster and mailer yet, but I will post them when they are published. In the meantime, here are some behind the scenes photos...

We got the fog we wanted. Now to go look for snow.


Have make-up brush, will travel!

I see snow up ahead

This is the poster and card that
resulted from this photo session

Day with Mikey and Andy

2011-07-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

Andy and crew arriving at the Market

This is the big weekend of Lighten Up and Shoot at CreativeLIVE. I hope you are getting a chance to watch the free live stream going on this weekend.

Mike and Andy have been putting on a great class about getting out and taking photos, concentrating on the experience, rather than the technicalities. As their name says, Lighten Up and Shoot! Last night I had the pleasure to accompany Mikey, Andy, students and staff folks from CreativeLIVE as we headed to the Pike Place Market and Victor Steinbruck park for an evening of photography.

We got a chance to approach strangers to ask them to be photographed. And we also had people come up to us and ask to be photographed. Great experience for all involved. Here are some photos from the evening...

Behind The Live's Kenna

Fran at the Market

Everyone seems to do this at the infamous Gum Wall

Christian Jacobson, Market Ghost Tour leader

Mikey gets his point across

Tonya from Poprock Photography

Amber seems to have fallen into a hole!

Below are two photographs showing the set up for a couple of images by Fran and Kenna that were shown during the class on Saturday.

One more day left in the FREE workshop. If you've missed the first two days you can purchase the full video of all three days for $99 until the end of the workshop on Sunday evening. After that the price goes up.

Getting ready to LIghten Up and Shoot

2011-07-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

Andy and Mikey from Lighten Up and Shoot are in town (Seattle) this week getting ready for a 3-day free online workshop at CreativeLIVE on Fri, Sat, and Sun.

Yesterday and today have been two of those perfect days in Seattle and we went around to people we found on Craig's List, some garage sales, and some thrift stores to start picking up inexpensive and free props for use in the workshop. The idea is to show folks that you don't need to spend a lot of money to build a set for your photographs.

Negotiating to purchase an organ

After dropping off some of our treasure at CreativeLIVE we headed out to a wonderful dinner at The Skillet restaurant. You might remember their food truck from the Penny De Los Santos workshop.

Andy, Craig, and Mikey outside the CreativeLIVE studio

From there we regrouped and did some prop "shopping" in my basement, and then headed out to a wonderful dinner at The Skillet diner. You might remember the Skillet food truck that was part of the Penny De Los Santos weekend a couple of months ago.

After that we visited the Photo Center Northwest's 24-Hour Long Shot celebration to finish up a long day.

Mikey gets photographed with a
tiny Rollieflex digital camera

And turns around to take a portrait of the camera

I happend to look down as we were standing around
talking outside the Photo Center

Always nice to run into Tonja Gabryshak

Andy, Susan, Kim, and Mikey

On Sunday morning, I headed out to the Ballard Farmer's Market to photograph some people on the street.

Buskers at the Ballard Farmer's Market

This guy was an amazing slide guitarist.
Great tone and style. I tossed some money
in the hat, but totally forgot to find out
more about him.