Tag: Photography

January 22, 2016

Burning Pixels with Dan – Light Painting a Diecast Car with a CD

I was in my basement shooting my little diecast Pagani supercar, and I remembered a technique I had seen somewhere using a CD to light paint with. I wish I could give attribution to the artist, but I have no idea where I saw the technique, although it might have come from Eric Paré when he used multicolored reflective paper to create a light painting with Mike Campau. The result was an abstract form of light made up of wild vibrant colors. Anyways my idea was to light paint the car like I usually do, and then wave a CD around the image as I shined a flashlight on the CD to see what kind of look I would get. It was a messy process, but that’s the way I like to shoot. Here is how I went about it on this day. Read more

August 25, 2014

Championship Night at Granite City Speedway

For the last couple weekends the rain has rained supreme (mind my pun), but tonight the racing gods shined down upon Granite City Speedway. With weather threatening the track yet again, instead of rain we were blessed with a beautiful night at the track.

August 25, 2014

Cambridge Flat Track Racing 2014

As I left my driveway in St. Cloud and headed towards the Isanti County Fairgrounds in Cambridge, MN, I knew that I would finally get to photograph a sport I had been dreaming about shooting for a long time. Read more

July 10, 2014

Painting an Old Friend with Light

This weekend I had a chance to visit the past with an old friend. When my father passed away in 2010, he left behind his 20th Edition Vmax. My Mom would ride everywhere with my Dad on the back of this beautiful bike. It was nearly 10 years ago when he got the bike and I can still remember my parents motoring down the driveway together, sharing those special moments that are so important in this life. Read more

July 3, 2014

Use the Dreaded Pop Up Flash to your Advantage

If you are serious about photography then you probably understand that the first tip to next level photos is to get your light source off the camera. A straight shot of nasty light from the camera is just a terrible thing to do to your subject. But is there is a time and place for that darn pop up flash? What happens when you find yourself out at a beautiful location and you either don’t own or don’t have a speedlight with you. Behold the pop up. The secret is to first use the natural light to give the image some depth then use the pop up to add a nice fill light by reducing the power of the light as much as possible. With a dslr there is an option to use the flash exposure compensation button. In this image I knocked it down to -3.0. If that isn’t enough you can always use your feet and back up while zooming back in to your model.

In the image you can see that I first shot without the flash and used a nice rim light on Jackie’s face created by the beautiful natural light at sunset. This adds depth. I also made sure to set the exposure to show off that beautiful background. Then I added the flash just enough to light Jackie without blacking out the background or flattening out the natural light on her face.

Camera Settings: f1.8 1/100th sec ISO 640

Pop up flashes are not meant to be used all the time, but in a pinch, they can sometimes save the day.