Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen!

I had the opportunity to work at Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen again today with Chef Gabbi and her culinary works of art. The latest news is that shes working on her own line of products, and possibly a cookbook...

Look out for these hot sauces, I hear the Habanero is out of control.

To be honest I didn't have time to learn about each of the plates we shot, so I don't really know what all of these are. Here is some cake.

For these food shots we were working on the patio and using ambient daylight as the key. I filled in from the right side using a Canon 580EX II speedlite at 1/16th power.

Gabbi's has a particularly dark atmosphere so exposure is always tricky. In the kitchen, I used a tota-lite 500w tungsten bounced against the ceiling to bring up the ambient exposure ( ghostbusters style ), and then the 580EX II as my key strobe. ( With full CTO gel to match the ambient temp )

They also wanted me to get some shots that capture the action in the kitchen, so I was using shutter speeds slower than 1/15th of a second at times. There is a lot of hit and miss involved here. This lady was a really good sport.

I honestly have no idea what this is but it looks nice. Something like a pork sushi roll I think.

Retouching, and re-retouching

The undeniable plague of the digital workflow is the endless editing and re-editing process. It can be hard to decide that something is 'finished' when you can always come back and launch photoshop again. I say all this because I'm guilty. Just thought I would let you in on the process for one of my portrait retouches:


Would you believe that the underexposed, off-color image on the left is what came out of the camera that evening! I remember being frustrated with myself for not exposing Amber better on this shoot and I knew I was going to take a lot of work to get these images to resemble the way I remember things looking.

The image in the middle is the edit I made back in 2008. It took me probably three hours and I was never quite satisfied, yet I've still used it in my portfolio since.

The image on the right is an edit I did yesterday. It took me only ten minutes and I feel certain aspects are improvements. The elimination of so much skin detail makes it look a little more plastic which I usually try to avoid. I might prefer somewhat of a compromise between #2 and #3.

There is a lot to be said for 'straight out of the camera' photographs, but unless it's specifically stated, you better believe we're all using photoshop :)

Composition Lesson #2: Correct Headroom

( Check out Lesson 1: The Rule of Thirds )

Incorrect 'head room' is a frequent compositional problem and it really annoys me. This is exactly the picture you get when you ask a stranger to take a shot of your family on vacation. I guess having your face in the center of the picture is better than having your head cut off, but for more reasons than I care to get into it makes for a horrible composition:

In high school I used to work at a cable station and got hours of composition practice doing television production. Almost all the same principles apply to photography, and they can even make your images have a more narrative / cinematic look to them.

The principle of headroom is simple: In any composition involving people there should only be a small amount of open frame above the subject’s heads.

The amount of space to leave should be relative to your shot size ( wider shot = more head room, tighter shot = less. )

In head shots and close up portraits it’s actually the convention to cut off the top of the subjects head slightly.

Like any convention in photography there are exceptions but there isn’t much you can do when experimenting with headroom. If you’re going to violate the convention make it intentional. I do it with my fashion and wedding work when I see an opportunity.

Generally you need either another subject to occupy all that space or at least something visually appealing. Clear blue skies are boring but dramatic clouds work out great. I like the atmosphere of the open headroom because it humbles the subject and shows more of the setting.

Mexico City again - Tips on traveling with your gear

Just got back from another short trip to Mexico City, Aguascalientes, and Puebla doing some video work for Cisco systems. I took my DSLR along this time but I had very few opportunities to shoot. This was the view from my hotel room on the 21st floor of the W.

I decided to compile a few tips on traveling with your photo/video gear because I was pretty proud of myself for not having to check any luggage or equipment the whole trip.

That being said,
Tip #1 : Don't check your gear if you don't have to.
Nothing is going to screw up your shoot like having your equipment damaged, lost or delayed. If your gear meets your airlines carry on size requirements ( generally about 14 x 9 x 22 in ) take whatever you can onboard. Cameras especially should not be placed with checked luggage.

Here are the few items that you cannot take onboard:
Certain flammable types of film/print stocks.
Compressed ( canned ) air products
Gaff tape ( not sure why, but I've had it taken by security )

Tip #2: Pack light and be creative
Tripods:
I was really concerned on this trip that I would have trouble getting my small photo/video tripod on board but a friend told me a trick. If your tripod has a removable head, unscrew it and put the head in your carry-on. If you strap the legs of the tripod to the outside of your camera bag, boom, all of a sudden you've got only two items that meet carry on requirements. ( I did get my bag inspected all five times I cleared security. They really wanted to see what that tripod head was. )
If your tripod has spikes on the feet see if they are removable. The ones on my tripod are fixed but I screwed the floor protector nuts down over the tips to make them appear less threatening.

Gaff Tape:
Take some foot long strips and tape them somewhere on the interior of your camera bag. For most small shoots you won't need a whole roll anyway.

Tip #3: Work with the TSA agents
When you approach the X-ray machine tell the agent that your bag has camera equipment in it and ask them if they would like you to place it separately into bins. Sometimes they will ask you to, other times they will just tell you to run it through whole. Generally after they see all the electronics in your bag someone will ask you to do a hand inspection. Just be cooperative and help them repack the bag if it helps keep your equipment organized. Remember they are given lot of discretion in the way they enforce the security regulations, so work with them.

Mexico City y Puebla

I spent the last four days in Mexico City and Puebla shooting video for Cisco systems and their partners Flip Video and Promethean. I'm very excited to be heading back in two weeks to follow up on the teacher trainings being carried out by my new friends, the DOT interns. Unfortunately I was unable to take a camera with me so there are no pictures! I promise to take a DSLR next time and bring back some images. Until then, hasta luego.