New Employee Headshots for Harmony Recovery Consultants

At December 27, 2021
By Johnny Stevens
In Austin photographer, headshots, portrait photography, speedlights
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Two new team members at Harmony Recovery Consultants!

Harmony Recovery Consultants in Austin is helping those struggling with substance use disorder and mental health issues find their path to wellness. Two new team members at Harmony are Autumn Stone who will serve as another recovery coach and Blake Goldstein who will be serving as case manager. One of my favorite locations to shoot headshots is my back porch shooting into the garden. With a 70 mm lens and on the lowest possible f stop (4.0) I can blur out the background and still control the background exposure with the shutter speed and control the main light (umbrella with Canon EX600 II RT speedlight) with the ST-E3-RT trigger.

Autumn Stone Harmony Recovery Consutants recovery coach portrait by Johnny Stevens

Autumn Stone Harmony Recovery Consultants recovery coach

Blake Goldstein Harmony Recovery Consultants case manager portrait

Part 1: Abstract Photography for Students, All of my Mentees from Westlake High School

Part 1: Abstract Photography for Students

All of my Mentees from Westlake High School.

Abstract Photography for Students is a challenge. I thought it was time to assemble all of the educational photographic projects I have done with my senior students of the Independent Study Program at Westlake High School over the last 8 years. I was surprised when I went back into my photography archives to see some of the projects that I have forgotten about. I am doing this in 5 Posts so the reader does not get overwhelmed. This first post is about our Abstract Photography exercises. So here we go.

When I agree to teach a student, I tell them that my approach to teaching is to expose them to as many different genres of photography as possible, so they can learn how to leverage the settings on their cameras, read natural light, learn how to control flash and strobe light, how to work with humans who hate to have their photos taken, and evaluate the environment for challenges.

The photography genres I like to introduce them to are:

ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY:

My first student 8 years ago was Elena. With her I learned how difficult shooting rising smoke is. We learned that having a flash at 90 degrees to a smoking piece of incense was better than having two flashes, one in each side. The contrast within the smoke was better and made it easier to identify an interesting moment within the otherwise chaotic billowing smoke. Then we edit the image mostly by eliminating surrounding smoke that did not lend itself to the formation we identified. More often that not (and this goes for painting too) we tend to identify with abstract formations that remind of some variation of human forms. Here are Elena’s images:

I had forgotten about this image, and today it is one of my favorite. It is whimsical and requires some time to process its intricacies.

Elena’s Abstract Smoke by Austin fine art photographer Johnny Stevens

This one I called Wisp of Elena. It clearly has some alien life forms that attract the eye….

Elena’s Abstract Smoke #2 Alien formation by Austin abstract photographer Johnny Stevens

My mentee Nolan shot this smoke image. Very often the way smoke rises and curls, it tends to show formations of vertebrae and human bones.

Nolan smoke abstract photography austin

And this one from my mentee Morgan;

Morgan abstract smoke photography by Austin photographer Johnny Stevens

For Jake’s Abstract Smoke Photography exercise, he created 2 edited versions from this first raw file.

Jake’s original raw file of smoke rising

Final edit of abstract smoke rising photograph

Final edit 2 of abstract smoke rising photograph

My mentee Krishan and I tested our reflexes at shooting water drops in a glass.

Krishan’s composition of 4 drops of water

After an hour of gruelling timing to pull the trigger at the right time we learned that we could not get the effect we were looking for which is achieved by buying a Pluto Valve Drop Regulator. It releases drops timed exactly with the shutter of the camera, but more importantly it releases 2 consecutive drops so that the upward splash of the first drop smashes into the one coming down and creates a beautiful mushroom effect. As seen in these two examples:

water drop 1 by fstoppers

waterdrop 2 by 500 px blog

To introduce my students to compositing in Photoshop, I will often give them the task of taking a series of images and composite parts of them into a master image. In this case I gave Nolan these images from my Mannequin folder of images to create a composite:

Mannequin for abstract photoshop compositing lesson Johnny Stevens Austin Photographer

Final composite by Nolan

Architectural Spot Lighting saves the day in student housing photo project

At June 24, 2017
By Johnny Stevens
In american campus, architectural photos, editing, Photoshop, real estate, real estate photography, speedlights, spot lighting, student housing
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While shooting at NEIU in Chicago, I took the time to do some spot lighting on this scene. In this first image you can see what the camera sees and there are lots of lighting problems. The window is easily 8 stops hotter than the couches in the foreground. The windows are almost blown out and couches are dark. I could have fused 5 bracketed photos as I often do, but I wanted to test this approach to lighting.

The Nest architectural photograph out of the camera image

The Nest at NEIU architectural photograph out of the camera image

I walked around and used a Canon 600 ex rt speedlite with no modifier on it to spot light 6 areas. I triggered the camera from my Ipad which was loaded with the Cam Ranger software. The camera had the Cam Ranger unit attached to the fire wire port. This gives me the freedom to walk around and spot light and change the settings on the camera or on the flash without having to walk back to the camera.

Spot lit scene of The Nest

Then I painted in those lit areas in Photoshop. Even with no modifier on the flash to soften the shadows, I ended up with a much more appealing architectural photograph.

Final image of The Nest with spot lighting done in Photoshop

Commercial Product photo shoot for Jon Archer

At April 01, 2017
By Johnny Stevens
In architectural photos, Austin photographer, speedlights
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I just did a commercial product photo shoot for Jon Archer Designs. Jon handcrafts wood furniture and products. Subsequently, Jon is one of a dying breed of real live craftsmen. We shot in his manufacturing studio at his home. I used natural light and added 2 Canon 600 ex rt speedlights as kicker lights triggered by the Canon ST E3 RT wireless trigger.

commercial photo shoot of custom wood furniture manufacturing

commercial product photo shoot of custom wood furniture manufacturing

commercial photo shoot of custom wood furniture manufacturing

Christmas Family Portrait

At December 29, 2016
By Johnny Stevens
In Austin photographer, family, portrait, portrait photography, protrait, speedlights
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I had these friends call me just before Christmas day asking if I could find a place to shoot a family portrait they needed to deliver as a gift on Christmas Day. My fireplace worked just fine. Three speedlights did the job. I gelled the speedlights with 1/2 CTO which is a light orange filter. There is a beauty dish on the left, back light above Erika, and a kicker just to the right of Evan. Cue the guitar for filling an empty space. I tried shooting with the fireplace on but they started melting so I added the fire in Photoshop.

Erica Holley, Debbie Holley, Evan Holley

Adding light to your portrait subject

At December 25, 2016
By Johnny Stevens
In Fine Art, headshots, portrait, portrait photography, speedlights
0

When you are adding light to a subject (which I hope you are always doing), things can get complicated quickly. Here is my set up for a simple single light exterior portrait: I like to use the Canon EX 600 RT Speedlight on a light stand bouncing into a umbrella, or shooting through and umbrella. Nikon has similar speed lights that are easily triggered wirelessly from a Nikon trigger mounted on your camera. The Canon wireless trigger is the ST-E3-RT. Here is one method I use when shooting outdoors that really helps get nice results without having to scratch your head about your camera and flash settings in front of the client. Scratching your head does not help keep the subject calm and happy!

Find a shaded area for the subject and decide on the background. Find an angle on the background only and meter it (or just shoot the background in Program mode with an open f stop of f 2.8 or f 4. (The open f stop will help blur the background for a pleasant effect…..and a longer lens will accentuate the blurred background. 70 to 100 mm focal length is always safe for portraits.) Let’s say you are shooting at ISO 100 and it is a sunny day. Your metered shot of the background at a shutter speed of 125 (fast enough to hand hold your 100 mm lens and not get hand shake blur) will be around f8 or f11. Let’s say it is f8. Now put your camera in manual mode with the same settings – ISO 100, shutter speed 125 and f stop at f8. You already know that these are the perfect settings for the background. You know that the background exposure will never change. It is set. No longer do you have to worry about the background. OK so now, your wireless trigger on the camera will also be on manual. Your trigger will automatically tell the flash to fire in manual too. Set your trigger on your camera to a flash output of half power to start. If you have a light meter, you can determine exactly how much light the flash is putting on the subject. If you don’t then you can just eyeball the test shot to see how the light falling on the subject. You are looking for an f stop that is AT LEAST what it is for the background which you have already determined is f8. Better yet, bump up the subject to f8.5 or f11 because we always want the subject to be the brightest part of the image since the bright area is where our eyes naturally go first when we look at a photo. Now, this means the background will be a bit darker than the subject, which adds drama. Click away and ask the subject to face the umbrella and to face away from it so you can get both short lighting and broad lighting options. I like to start sessions by asking for NO smile. This is easier for anxious subjects to get started, and often is the most accurate representation of them. I constantly compliment them – sometimes showing them the images on the back of the camera – and ramp up the smile by asking them to “turn up the volume”. After 20 or 30 shots with these techniques you are sure to get 5 keepers!