Canon Thursday December 24, 2020

Well, it's 5:20 p.m. Christmas Eve here in New York City, and it looks like everyone is too busy with Xmas to think about photography. Even though I have never started before I guess I might give it a try. As they say, you all (if you are even out there) know the rules.

The enclosed photo was taken two days ago. I have photographed Michelle and her family for just about 30 years. Bribing me with promises of lobsters and shrimp I showed up for a combined birthday and family Christmas photo shoot. The enclosed headshot is what I liked best.

Usually I am quite willing to let the camera do its own thing, Auto ISO, Program, and Auto TTL flash. But here I went manual on everything. Gear: M5, Sigma 56/1.4, two Godox AD 200 into silver umbrellas. First I found an exposure I liked for the tree, ISO 800, f/2.0, 1/60 sec. Then I adjusted the flash exposure until it looked right. And there we are.

Pretty workmanlike. But looking at it on the screen later I felt the back wall was too light, and I realized that I should have used the concept called lighting in layers. There are three layers here, Michelle (who is on the dark side), the tree, and the far background, the wall. The tree determines the exposure as it is "ambient" that can not be altered. Michelle and the wall are both lit by the umbrellas, and to get good skin tone I put too much light (in my view) on the wall. As the setup would also be used for four standing people I didn't want to mess too much with it. But on hindsight I should have moved the lights closer to Michelle and reduced their intensity. That would have kept the skin tone but diminished the light on the wall while the tree would stay the same.

The perfectionist in me, however, would have brought in a small third light, camera left, with a small diffuser. I am thinking of a Godox V 860 II c in a flash disc. I had both pieces with me, but no more light stands. So there we are.

And a Merry Christmas to all!

In more normal years, our family had the usual Swedish Jul holiday.

Complete with visits from the Jul Tomte (Yule gnome). If the children had not been good, he would beat them.

Taken in the Wien Kunsthistorisches Museum, Pieter Breughel

JDMvW, there used to be a Swedish Smorgasbord restaurant near me that I loved! Yummy!

Christian, I hope you got your lobster and shrimp!

I better start getting ready for partaking in a feast later!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. Hopefully the New Year will be healthier.

Taken Christmas 2020 Morning. Sunrise from my back yard. Canon D6 / Canon 70-200mm 4.0 IS.

[ATTACH=full]1369595[/ATTACH] Army Master Sergeant, Mrs Claus, Mommy and Grandmommy - Christmas Day 2020

Tell her, thanks for your service to our country.

Our non-stop Vancouver cloud and rain does provide some good relief now and then when the sunset lights up everything. This week was no exception. Canon 7D; Canon 100-400.

5D mkII EF25II Tamron 90 mm macro

Happy Holidays, sorry for late response, ben traveling through deserts with no Internet.

5D MK IV