Dustin Snipes on Quality and Quantity
Quick, what's the first image that would pop into your mind if you were assigned to go to a basketball camp and shoot seventy portraits in two days?Picture day in seventh grade? I Love Lucy at the cake factory?
L.A.-based shooter Dustin Snipes shows not only that it can be done, but it can be done with quality and style. Check out his blog post for the details. And dig around for several more OA-style posts he has for you, too.
(Thanks, WSP! | Photo ©2008 Dustin Snipes)
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by David, at 12:00 AM.
31 Comments:
link to this guys blog doesn't work ...
David,
OT question regarding Blogger formatting...please forgive me, but I didn't know how else to contact you:
I know you're very busy, and I appreciate everything you're doing with the blog (been reading since mid-2006). I was curious, though, how you are able to post a "teaser" for your posts, then link to them on their permanent pages. I'd love to do it on my blog, but can't figure it out (told you it was OT). If there's some template or outside link to a help-discussion-thread or something, do you mind passing it along? Again, sorry for the ridiculous OT question, but I thought it was worth a shot.
Thanks,
Dale
(dale[dot]peacock[at]gmail[dot]com)
These are awesome. Another good example of lighting being the most important thing in photography.
I'm curious as to how one gets the dark background with the lighting setup. I'm a noob, so it's probably a dumb question. . . but I'd like to know the trick.
A link at strobist.com can easily cause this.
Could not connect to MySQL: User z_dusti has already more than max_user_connections active connections
Looks like traffic may have killed his site.
I don't know, I couldn't get to his main page.
Amazing photos, thanks for sharing.
Awesome job. Understand the lighting, no problem. I'd like to know how he post-processed them though.
i just started saving for a couple b800s. i need moneys, man.
Yeah, it's nice to see the light setups for these shoots, but I was also wondering about the post in these shots. I know next to nothing about photoshop so if anyone's got any notion please post.
I feel lame for asking, but what's an OA?
I'm curious how he's able to control the shadows of the players so easily. It seems that when he wants a shadow, he just flips a switch and when he doesn't, he flips it back. Thanks for the heads up on this guy, though.
Anonymous asked
> "I'm curious as to how one gets the dark background with the lighting setup"
By overpowering Ambient. There is a lighting 101 (I think) article where DH posted a completely black picture.
I achieve it by setting up the camera to 1/200th (max flash sync for me). to get a black image indoors.
Then Add flashes (watching spill closely so it doesn't light the background at all, usually with a snoot or grid), and set aperture from there.
Remember the flash doesn't care about shutter speed much, but it does care about aperture.
-J
Excellent work by Dustin. I've photographed hundreds of high school and college athletes over the years. It’s especially tough when you need to do so many in such a short time.
Dustin did a great job making each photograph different by moving the lights and working the subjects into a of variety poses. Just wondering if he did a little work in Photoshop to get the extra contrast?
Great job.
Robert
http://www.photographyandthemac.com
I like his camera bag light stand weight. I tried that, but apparently don't have enough equipment in my bag.
OH NO! Snipes' blog worked earlier today! The Strobists numbers strike again! Did we overwhelm his server?
awesome work, love these shots
Thanks for the shout out David!
Also, thanks for all the comments everyone, here and my server. Sorry it keeps shutting. I am trying to fix that right now.
To answer a few questions that I have received on my blog and here.
No, there was no HDR involved. I have no idea how to even start with this.
Yes, I will post some raw files for people to look at...as soon as my site lets me, ha!
Sorry for the confusion on the "extra" front light to the left of me in the set up shots. I used that light to do head shots in front of a black back ground before the gritty shot of each player. But, I did use it for a catch light on about 10 of the shots on very low power.
Again, thanks to everyone! You have encouraged me to actually put up more posts!
I think you just killed Dustin's site, David. It was working and then when I commented, it generated an error. Or did I do it?
Anyway, I'll spill the beans on one way to get this look in photoshop:
- Merge to a new layer using shift-cmd-opt-E (or the PC equivalent).
- Image/Adjustments/Desaturate
- Filter/Other/Highpass, with a value of 100.
- With this new highpassed layer you've created, select layer type to "hard light"
Use it judiciously. Dial back the opacity to something reasonable, and perhaps use a mask so fleshtones don't get too weird.
Also consider desaturating some or all of the final image, for that uber-fashionable fashion look.
You can see a similar look on an album-cover shoot I did here.
I love this kind of lighting, but I usually fail at placing the 2 back (rim lights) in the wrong position. Is it 45 degree off the back or what?
Debbi
Nice lighting and poses for so many players in such a small amount of time, but how much post is done to those images? I'd love to look inside that and see the raw files.
Awesome work!
Really inspires me to drag out my $20 each Vivitar 283 flash units and mount up a trio of shoot-thru umbrellas. Just to see what's possible in the spirit of low-tech low-cost, that is.
>>"anonymous said...
Nice lighting and poses for so many players in such a small amount of time, but how much post is done to those images? I'd love to look inside that and see the raw files."<<
What does it matter what the RAW files look like? It's the final image that matters. To nitpick about the path misses the point, IMO.
The idea that the lighting is more important than the post is, well, rather Amish-sounding in 2008.
To wit:
"That's a lovely house. But I hear the construction guys used a nailer to attach the shingles. Only houses in which the shingles are attached with wooden hammers are true houses..."
***
"WOODEN HAMMERS? When I was young we had to hammer our nails in with rocks!"
***
"NAILS? We used to DREAM of having nails. We had to fasten the board together with glue made from our SPIT!"
Eric B
@Travis Dulany
The shadows are evident or not mainly due to cropping them out. For example, in the first shot, the shadows from the rim lights would be cast toward the wall, and a bit forward, but are not in frame.
But, when he wanted shadow, Dustin was also able to alter the look of the shadow by where he placed the player in relation to the lights. Consider the shot of the leaping player with shadows to either side. He is standing further back in the loading dock than is the first player, so the lights are not coming in from behind the player as much as they are coming in from the player's sides. Then Justin framed the shot to include the shadows.
Nice work, Mr. Snipes.
Im in the hybrid school that anything goes to get the best image. Even if that entails heavy post. However, i'm also of the opinion that in deference (or respect) to the purely photographic 'process' (ie SUPER light post) that its in everyones best interest to fess ALL the way up to the degree . Theres nothing to be ashamed of...I feel it should be admitted in a 'journalistic integrity ' sense. The only times it gets ugly ive noticed is when post is passed off as raw. Therefore full disclosure helps people judge a work by its a) composition/technique, and b) their technical prowess to manipulate..for best final effect.
someone wrote:
"What does it matter what the RAW files look like? It's the final image that matters. To nitpick about the path misses the point, IMO.
The idea that the lighting is more important than the post is, well, rather Amish-sounding in 2008"
really? lighting and photography are still and art, and i know if i'm on location with a client they are looking at the photos as they come into apeture, so if i said "don't worry, it will look great after i process it" they woudl fire me on the spot, they excpect me to be a PROFFESIONAL photographer that takes a great picture.
its like we are losing that basic artistic sense of what photography is, capturing a great image on site straight out of the camera.
Wow! Awesome work!
Hi David,
This site has been great for teaching me some off camera lighting techniques, but I feel that my post production knowledge is seriously lacking. Do you know of good post pro instructional sites?
Thanks!
Wow to Dustin's photos -- he did a fantastic job with LIGHTS and POSTURE and PERSPECTIVE. I'm a little amazed at the number of people who think the trick's in their computer, and keep asking about POST instead.
This is certainly an amazing example of a good work ethic. I can think of a few photogs who would have just changed the pose of each player, while lazily keeping the lighting the same. To do that many portraits in such a short time frame, and have all of them (that I have seen, anyway) be interesting (lighting-wise, especially) in their own right is a great example for us all. Portraits are personal, and even though he had an insane deadline, he kept that personal aspect to each one.
Don't skimp out because it's hard. Don't just "make it" because it's hard. Do something interesting, do something original, even though it's harder. Awesome, awesome.
I'm dying to hear about your post work. These are fantastic photos.
Yeah, Im also very interested on how he did it in post to get this glamour look. I know it will only work with shots that are done with direct flashlight to get these bright spots.
Hey Dustin please give us some hints.
Many people wants to know it.
thanks
Brian
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