While visiting home I was able to run off to the mountains of Ruidoso, New Mexico with my brother (Noel) and sister (Sarah) to practice a bit of fashion photography. My sister is an aspiring model and this gave us both an opportunity to add to our portfolios. We got to Ruidoso around 11am (after I got us lost by wanting to take "the scenic route" = dirt road to nowhere), and spent around 30 minutes scouting for locations. After I decided which looks were going to be shot where and waited for my sister to do her makeup we shot until 6pm, with breaks for snacks and wardrobe/makeup/location changes every few hours. It was a long but very fun day.

I used my Panasonic GX7 whose hot shoe randomly gave out last month (apparently I'm not the only one who has experienced this) so rather than trying to rely on my speedlight's slave mode I decided to shoot using a 5 in 1 reflector as my main "light source". I only recently purchased this and it was my first experience using one of them. Throughout the shoot I used the reflectors' shiny silver side which I think mimicked a bare flash pretty well. Since this is the look often sought after in high fashion I was pleased with the results. However, there are a few caveats I encountered:

• The sun needs to be out.
• Works best if you have an assistant - Noel was a great sport and ended up calling himself "the lighting guy" throughout the day haha.
• Sun needs to be behind or to the side of your subject.
• Works best if when you place the subject in the shade and then illuminate them.
• When using the shiny silver side, the reflector is hot and blinding - Sarah was a champ, but there were times when she needed a break.
• It can be difficult to control in the wind.

I used Olympus' trusted 45mm portrait lens for most of the shoot but also used an OM Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 coupled to a generic focal reducer (translates into a 50mm f/2 lens). It was very sunny out and I was extremely thankful for the Panasonic GX7's ability to shoot up to the 1/8000 shutter speed. This allowed me to shoot wide open for most of the photos. Below are my favorites from the shoot. It was a pleasure working with Sarah and seeing what a beautiful woman she is growing up to be. Having my brother there was also a blast because he knew exactly what to say to get her to laugh. Of course the bonding time was priceless and I can't wait to do it again. Hope you enjoy our efforts, Sam.

If you live in, or are traveling to Florida and would like to schedule a photo-shoot, I am currently offering portrait services in and around Central Fl. Check out more of my work at www.samgoldphotography.com

Into the Woods

Navajo

Radioactive

The Walking Dead

Greyscale

 

I have been spending all my editing time with the fashion photography I shot with my brother and sister in Ruidoso, NM.  I feel I need to step away from this project and let it "cool down" for a couple of days and then re-examine the collection with a fresh pair of eyes. Couldn't help but want to share a few today though and came up with this mini series of square black and white photos from each of the four looks I photographed. Hope you enjoy! Sam 

If you live in, or are traveling to Florida and would like to schedule a photo-shoot, I am currently offering portrait services in and around Central Fl. Check out more of my work at www.samgoldphotography.com

I have never been a fan of adding grain to my imagery. I think my obsession with having optimal image quality steered me away from the idea. Recently however, my sister sent me an old photo of our family and seeing it inspired me to experiment with grain in Lightroom. The less than good image quality stemmed from the photo being taken with a disposable film camera at night using the flash which illuminated the people in the photo but not the dark space around us which ended up grainy.  

I did not want to sound like an oaf on this subject and while researching the properties of film grain I found this article (a tough but fun read) which states:

The term “film grain” is often incorrectly used to describe the “fundamental” particles in a chemical-based photographic image. Fundamental image particles are the smallest particles that form an image: (a) silver particles or (b) color dye clouds ... 

Film grain is a repeating noise pattern that is an order of magnitude larger than the fundamental image particles. Film resolution is directly related to the size and distribution of silver particles in an emulsion. The noise pattern tends to obscure detail rather than define detail. The pattern is superimposed over the image, not the source of the image.

A common mistake [made by the author many, many times], is to think that film grain is the image-forming element. Many Kodak and Fuji publications, including much of the popular photographic literature (magazines), commonly make the mistake of referring to fundamental film particles as film grain. This further propagates the imprecise usage of the term.

Although this information may seem archaic, the scientist in me found it to be very interesting because it helped me understand how I should better approach adding digital grain to an image. 

I think the most important thing is that adding grain should be the very last thing you apply to a fully processed image. It helps to think of your edited RAW (or JPEG) file as the "fundamental image particles" (in the digital world it is actually the pixels making up the image) and the grain as a noise artefact being superimposed on top of it. The end result is that you obtain a digital image that has more of a film like rendering to it.

In Lightroom you are able to add grain in the "Effects" module and the adjustment sliders consist of  "Amount", "Size", and "Rougness". When adding grain into the mix, I usually toggle between the "1:1" and "FIT" to look at the changes on a magnified and overall level. This ensures image quality does not deteriorate to the point where you lose fine detail. Size and roughness play a major role in this and amount impacts the overall effects of both. As with all my processing, I just adjust the sliders around until the end result is something I am looking for. In the week of playing around with this process I like Amount:50, Size:20, Roughness:20 for moderate grain and Amount:50, Size:20 Roughness:50 for a more distinct look. Some other things to note are that:

• Grain is more noticeable in the darker areas of a photo, especially the mid-tones (or "clipped"/"faded" blacks).
• Grain is also more evident in out of focus areas.
• Increasing the grain deteriorates image quality especially in subjects with fine detail such as hair or eyelashes.
• It helps to look at film images to help understand what looks natural.
• When noise reduction is not set to 0, the effect of adding grain is diminished. 
• If the image was shot at a high ISO, you probably do not need to add additional grain.

Image Samples

Again, I have only been experimenting with this for a short period of time so the information I presented here should be taken with a grain of salt. Some may think it is silly to strive for a good digital camera with a nice sharp lens only to ruin the output with the addition of grain, but I have definitely had fun playing around with it. I am sure film photographers out there would say "just shoot film". For digital photographers who haven't used the medium however, working grain into your aesthetic can a step in the right direction. Anyone else out there add grain in their post processing workflow?? I'd love to hear your thoughts/tips in the comments section =) Sam

If you live in, or are traveling to Florida and would like to schedule a photo-shoot, I am currently offering portrait services in and around Central Fl. Check out more of my work at www.samgoldphotography.com