Chicago Panoramic Print

February 11, 2012 by joe reitz | Leave a comment

Large format printing is something I generally stay away from. The only reason I do is because of how much it costs. Occasionally though, I take a panoramic or some kind of image that just BEGS to be enlarged on someone’s wall.  This is the case with my latest panoramic view of Chicago.

Buckingham Fountain

Click to enlarge! Visit the Art Gallery to buy a limited edition print!

If you’re interested in buying a large format print, hop on over to the Art Gallery page. I’m only offering this at 20” x60” to truly take advantage of the panoramic format and make an impact. As always, you’ll have the choice between a standard high-quality print or the super-high quality metallic print. I’m only selling 3 of these, so don’t hesitate if you’re interested!

I shot this last October while I was downtown for a tradeshow. Ordinarily, I don’t do much post-processing to my photos. I always try to convince people it’s because of my ardent belief in capturing the photo correctly in-camera and that a shooter of my skill only requires minimal editing… The other half (three quarters?) of that view is that I just plain don’t like Photoshop. Certainly, there are necessary tools and tradecraft associated with the program that I just couldn’t live without (unsharp mask, anyone?), but I’m a huge fan of visualizing something in reality and capturing it… Artistic endeavors like the above are truly a rare foray into unexplored waters, and are usually the product of insomnia & boredom. ;)

In any case, I hope you enjoy the above view of our wonderful city. I’ve got a couple special projects going on this week, and I’m happy to report that I’ll be test-driving a new camera for a few days (Nikon D3X)!

 

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On (Unseasonably Warm) Location

January 31, 2012 by joe reitz | Leave a comment

I just enjoyed a leisurely run outside. In case anyone has forgotten, it’s still January and we are keeping it anything but real here at the 41.77th parallel (that’s the Western Chicago suburbs, for you out-of-towners). I mean, there was a freakin’ snow storm 2 weeks ago. So while the groundhog is contemplating what’s good for him, I took advantage of this unseasonably warm weather to take a few on-location shots in a would-be snowy yard near you.

Cam Playing in the Snow

As I might’ve mentioned elsewhere (;)) I love shooting on-location. The studio has been a nice change of pace recently, but there’s nothing quite like “being up to your *** in alligators,” as the saying goes. I love being given a challenge and having to deliver against it. What can I say… It’s one of those odd reaffirmations of my Marine identity! ;)

My biggest pet peeve when working outside is harsh shadows. FAR too often I see people (many who call themselves “professional”) take their camera outside into the bright midday sun and think they don’t need any kind of flash or reflector. Usually that story ends with the photog selling their clients photos with hard shadows completely eclipsing the eyes (which, IMO, is the most important part of any portrait) or worse, squinty. Either way, that person probably isn’t getting repeat business. I guess that shouldn’t bother me… ;)

The easiest way to avoid having these ghastly looking photos is to use fill flash- just enough of a light burst on the subjects face to fill in those parts of the face that are naturally shaded by strong, high brows and deep set eyes while still balancing in the ambient scene. Short of using a little fill flash though, using a reflector on the opposite side of someone’s face can be a cheap & easy lifesaver. Some light hits the subject, the rest that passes by hits the reflector, and then bounces back onto the subject from the opposite side.

Enter: the snow.

I was just in the backyard taking some snapshots of my adorable 20 month-old nephew, so I wasn’t really big into setting up lights and chasing a toddler around (that wouldn’t be practical under any condition). The inch or so of quickly evaporating snow played double duty as an omnipresent daylight reflector. That’s why in the photo above, Cam still has a decent amount of light exposing his face, even though he was facing away from the sun. The only thing left for me to do in this equation is frame him up well and know how to balance the snow into the exposure.

Mission Successful. ;)

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More in the Studio

January 30, 2012 by joe reitz | Leave a comment

It feels so good being able to say I have a studio set up and working… and even better to take shots like these at a moment’s notice:

Haleigh Reitz 1

Connecting with the subject is a very important skill set for photographers, and if we’re all honest, we’d say we often struggle with it to some degree. Our humanity makes us subject to various emotional states, some of which are within our control. Most, however, aren’t. The subject (re: that’s you) might be having a bad day or a cluttered schedule; or more often than not, they just need time to open up in front of the camera and get over their shyness.

I’m a selectively shy person. In some situations, I’m timid to a fault. In most, though, I’m just on the skinny side of obnoxious. So I say that to say “I get it.” Here’s a little secret, though, for those of you who get nervous about getting their picture taken:

Behind the lens, I’m scared as hell.

That’s not to say I don’t know what I’m doing; I do (Why is my wife scoffing..? ;) ). However, on occasions where you’re not in the studio (Read: 99% of my photographic experience), sometimes conditions just don’t cooperate. There’s bad light, weather, scheduling conflicts, etc… And contrary to popular belief, amidst the storm of common circumstance, there is no easy button. I still want to create photos that can only be described as “visual incarceration,” but I often I have my hands full just in creating a solid, plain-jane exposure.

Thankfully, I now have experience on my side (yes, that means I’ve screwed up before. And often. Don’t worry, it’s to your benefit ;) ). But for the shy and the nervous, while I put up a good facade, I just want you to know one thing: Behind the lens, the feeling is mutual ;)

Have a great week, everybody. Here’s a couple more on the house:

Haleigh Reitz 2

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Einstein Self-Portrait

January 26, 2012 by joe reitz | Leave a comment

Exciting day in the house of Reitz: I got a couple new studio strobes. Paul C. Buff Einstein e650′s, to be precise. Needless to say, our electricity use saw a marked spike this evening… ;)

Much to my dismay, I didn’t happen to have an attractive supermodel hanging out in my basement studio. I did, however, realize that I was in some dire need of some self-portraits. That, and I was dying to try out my new white seamless backdrop.

Most of my portrait work up to this point has been on-location. I like location-work for three reasons. First, it’s really easy & convenient to use ambient light for a main light and dial in a strobe for shape & tone (better “localized” quality than just “what’s available”). Second, up until my wife and I moved into our new house, I just didn’t have the space to set up a portrait studio. Finally, and most of all, I find location-based photos to be more visually interesting. Some of my favorite photos of all time were shot against twilit kaleidoscope-horizons or well known landmarks. The accent that these sort of scenes provide is something that is, to me, a cut above in-studio portraits. Not to say I don’t like doing these though; I just think a little more finesse is required on location (and I like a challenge ;) )

Now, however, between the added space in my basement and garage (along with the new gear), I’m ready to start offering more traditional portrait sessions on a seamless background.

 

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The Case for Prints: Our New Online Store

January 22, 2012 by joe reitz | Leave a comment
Photologic Images Online Store

Click to view the Art Gallery

Photologic Images (Read: me) is proud to announce our new online storefront. Now you can select from a gallery of limited edition images available for print at a litany of sizes and materials. (I am particularly excited about the metallic prints!)

For now, the only gallery with an e-commerce option is located here. I’m only going to accept a few orders for each photo in the art gallery to ensure that they remain true “limited editions.” Obviously I can set up a print ordering gallery like this for any shoot (especially useful for weddings so family can order their own prints), but so far in my experience with clients there has been a strong bias towards receiving all files on a DVD.

Prints are generally something that I overlook. As part of the revenue stream, they’re honestly not that profitable for most photographers (the exception being people that print independently, although quality is suspect there). Everyone has developed film at a Walmart or drug store, and most people are perfectly happy with the results. There are a couple key differences with prints you’d order from me, though.

For one, I took all these images. There’s a lot of time, trial & error that have gone into honing my artistic & photographic vision and frankly, that level of experience is worth something. I don’t mean that to sound like an arrogant statement, but that’s the unfortunate business-side of reality; I’ve always said I would do this for free if Nikon would just start giving me free equipment! ;)

Second, and more importantly for you, the actual quality of these prints is going to be much, much higher than anything you’ve seen from the nearest convenience photo lab. Not only is the print quality & materials just better, but I can give you way more sizing options. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m also extremely excited about new materials… like metallic prints. They’re printed on aluminum for maximum durability and sheer awesomenicity (technical term). Seriously though, color rendition on these aluminum sheets has  to be seen to be believed. Then there’s a whole host of other print possibilities, from canvas gallery wraps to coffee mugs, wall-clings, posters… basically anything you can imagine.

Whatever you want to make out of your photos, I can make it happen. You need only ask.

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Just Say Snow

January 21, 2012 by joe reitz | Leave a comment

Just say snow

I hate winter. There’s snow, cold and the highly pronounced problem of my thin Southern blood, not to mention all the traffic inconveniences. The fact that I’d voluntarily go outside in sub-zero temperatures to capture a photo stands as a testament to my unassailable love for photography.

Generally, people are my favorite thing to shoot. I love making portraits and giving clients photos that really arrest their eyes & emotions- plus, I get a certain satisfaction in knowing that I captured something beautiful. However, in all things I view myself as a dabbler; there’s not much I don’t like to involve myself in. Macro photography is one of those areas, for me. I generally don’t work on the microcosmic scale, but the occasional foray into that world is always an adventure worth having (IMO).

As much as I hate snow, you can’t deny the simple beauty of the thing (so long as you’re willing to get down on your hands & knees with a macro lens). I can hear my dad already, lecturing about why the snowflakes take on their geometric, polyhedral-something-or-other appearance… My perspective is the much simpler “I think they look purdy.” ;)

As we get more snow this winter, I’m going to continue this series and make a limited run of enlargements available for purchase. I’m thinking 16 x 20 gallery wraps, but I can make other sizes available if interested. Contact me for pricing!

 

just say snow 2

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Mother’s Day

January 17, 2012 by joe reitz | Leave a comment

I know, I know… Mother’s Day is like 4 months away. I think I’m just at the age where there are a lot of new mother’s in my life. Co-workers, friends, old classmates… My facebook feed is literally crawling with newborn shots. If I had a penny for every pixel I’ve captured of my 1.5 year-old nephew, I’d be a heinously rich man. I mean, look at the kid:

mother's day

Let’s take the focus off the sweet little bundle of screaming, pooping life for a sec, though. Let’s talk about Moms.

Until I’ve seen some of my peers in action, I’ve never truly been able to appreciate everything it is that the fairer sex does for their kids. I literally looked at a kid with a diaper blow-out yesterday with paralyzing fear while his mom, nonplussed, proceeded to use her body as an impromptu “quicker-picker-upper.” I don’t care who you are, that’s love.

So in honor of Moms everywhere, I’m offering a special portrait package through February 28th (inquire for more details). What I’d like to do is develop a series of portraits (studio & candid) of mom’s plying the trade of love and post it here for everyone to enjoy. So, please, if you know a Mom, new or old, send her my way.

To start things off, here is the first photo of the series: Mother & Child.

stacia hyde

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Smoke in the Studio

January 14, 2012 by joe reitz | Leave a comment

In the annual frozen phenomenon that is “Chicago Winter,” I tend to take most of my just-for-fun shooting into the studio. Today the subject at hand was smoke.

 

Smoke is a lot of fun to shoot. Just set up a seamless background, set up a flash on off to the side (gaffer taped so it won’t spill onto the background), and fire away at something smoldering. I’ve found incense sticks work the best and require the least maintenance to keep lit.

I’ve used shots like this for everything from wall art to background imagery for corporate brochures and everything in between. It’s kind of like cloud-gazing: your imagination just starts thinking what the billows of smoke look like. Personally, I think this next shot looks like a lady praying:

Smoke

 Usually I prefer to keep the incense stick itself out of the frame, but I think it works here.

smoke

This one made me think of Harry Potter and James Bond. The Harry Potter reference is easy: it looks like a wand. For the Man with the Golden Gun, I just thought it looked like a smoking gun and was reminded of all the super cool colorful intros of the old James Bond flicks.

And finally, a more generic smoke capture. I just love the way smoke looks in pictures.

Smoke

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The Photologic Triangle

January 8, 2012 by joe reitz | Leave a comment

Now, to sum up this Photography 101 tutorial: The Photologic Triangle.

So far we’ve covered the basics of exposure and it’s requisite components (aperture, shutterspeed & ISO). There’s nothing left to do but bring it all together.

Aperture.

Aperture refers to the size of your lens diaphragm, which in turn controls how much light is able to hit your sensor (think about how your eyes behave in the dark). It directly affects Depth of Field, which is just a fancy term for the area of an image that is in focus. Everything outside the depth of field is out of focus (OoF), and the background area of an image with a narrow depth of field is called bokeh, which is rough Japanese for “Blurry.” Larger apertures like f/1.4 or f/2.8 mean narrower DoF, while smaller apertures like f/16 or f/22 generally mean everything in the photo from near to an infinitely far will be in sharp focus.

Shutterspeed.

Shutterspeed is how long light is allowed to hit your camera’s sensor/film plane. It is used to convey motion, whether that means streaky, blurred motion or frozen-in-time, sharp images. For sharp images, your shutterspeed will have to be one-over your focal length (i.e., for an 50mm lens, you’ll need a shutterspeed of at least 1/50s to eliminate any camera shake). Something I forgot to mention before is sensor size. That guideline is intended for 35mm film, or “full frame” sensors (in the digital age parlance). Most digital cameras have a 1.5x crop factor, so you simply multiply your focal length by 1.5 and apply the same one-over rule (i.e., for the same 50mm lens on a DX sensor [Nikon's 1.5x crop sensor], you’ll need a minimum shutterspeed of 1/75s).

ISO.

ISO determines how fast your digital camera gathers light (film speed, for the blue-hairs in the congregation). A higher ISO will let you use faster shutterspeeds and smaller apertures when the lights go dim. The tradeoff with ISO is that higher values bring more noise into the image.

So there you have it…

An adjustment to any leg of the Photologic Triangle is going to affect your exposure. Each component carries a unique variable with it: Aperture & Depth of Field, Shutterspeed & Motion, ISO & Noise/Grain. Most old-school photographers are instilled with the practice of keeping a low ISO if they can help it, so most of the time we worry about shutterspeeds & apertures. Our pro lenses with nice “fast” apertures (means they’re really big openings that give a huge boost to autofocus systems.. i.e., f/1.4) allow us to gain a shutterspeed or two in most cases, and also create some really cool creative opportunities with Depth of Field.

That’s it for this intro series. Feel free to ask questions, but for now you should get out and get shooting!

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Intent of ISO

January 7, 2012 by joe reitz | Leave a comment

So we’ve expounded on exposure, analyzed aperture & studied shutterspeed… Now it’s time to discuss the final leg of the Photologic Triangle: ISO.

Simply put, ISO is a rating of how much light-gathering ability your sensor is programmed for. Back in the day, this would be akin to “film speed.” For some reason, ISO tends to be the most difficult to understand component of exposure.

Meet Luz. His sole raison d’être is to gather light. Now, pretend for a second that light can be gathered in buckets and you need, say, 1000 buckets of light to create a “technically correct” exposure. Now let’s pretend that Luz can clone himself. What would gather light quicker? Luz times 100 or 1 Luz plus 399 of his chromosomally identical friends? Let me break it down visually

 

 

 

 

Of course, 400 Luz’s (re: ISO 400) will gather the same amount of  light much faster than just one-hundred Luz’s (RE: ISO 100). You’ve now unwittingly internalized the concept of ISO. ;)

It’s true that higher ISO values will let you gather light faster (meaning you can use smaller apertures and faster shutterspeeds), but there’s a trade-off. If you’ve got 400 light-bearing construction workers traipsing through your 12 megapixel exposure, they’re going to track in some dirt, if you get my meaning. What I’m talking about is noise. Take a look at these two samples:

Both "technically correct" exposures according to my camera's meter, but click for full size to see the noise difference.

As you can see above (click for full size), there is virtually no noise present at ISO 100. At ISO 1600, however, the noise can be quite brutal. Whenever I shoot anything, I try to use the lowest ISO rating possible to avoid noise like this. Every camera handles noise differently (some better than others), so it’s important for photographers like me to use the best equipment available. FWIW, I find Nikon cameras to be the best in this (and just about every other) department.

I tend to view ISO as a variable of last resort, since it has the most potential negative impact on image quality. I’ll only increase ISO if I can’t:

  1. Create more ambient light (i.e., open up a window)
  2. Open up my aperture
  3. Use flash

My view here is solely my opinion, and one formed mostly from having an older generation camera (which will soon be replaced with a Nikon D4; the evolution of noise handling technology & high ISO capability has induced a frenzy within my soul). I use flash for every commercial client, event & portrait, so pretty much all of my work you’ve ever seen has been shot at ISO 100, or worst case 400. But noise is generally your enemy, unless you’re going for that retro black & white super-grainy look.

My final disclaimer with ISO is that there is no substitute for having a correctly exposed image, even if that means picking up a little bit of noise. The attitude that is far too prevalent among photographers is that we can just “fix it in post.” That’s just an excuse to be lazy and not nail the exposure in the camera. As the sagacious Joe McNally said in The Hot Shoe Diaries, “No pixels have to die!”

So use this knowledge skillfully: ISO is the nitroglycerin of the Photologic Triangle. It’s dang useful when used properly, but it can be disastrous if used carelessly.

In the fifth & final part of this Photography 101 series, we’ll bring the whole Photologic Triangle together, summary style.

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