Sean M. Leahy Photography

Not your average portrait!

For this project I am working with portraits, but rather than a traditional portrait I have decided to create a gritty image.  To get these I have asked colleagues and friends to stand in front of a backdrop and let me shoot their picture for a few minutes.  These images do not necessarily reflect the individual, but rather my construction of that person in a gritty mood and lighting effect.

To get these types of portraits I have developed a lighting scheme that provides harsh light to reveal the most detail in the skin and hair.  The result is a real gritty tough appearance, kind of a Hollywood western bad ass look.  I will be continuing this project for a while.  My goal is to end up with 50 or so portraits.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in participating in this as a model please contact me.

email: sean.leahy@gmail.com

Here are a few images taken recently from a series I have been working on with abandoned buildings.

I have been working on this series for a few weeks.  I look for an old building or structure of some kind that has become dilapidated, yet strangely is still part of the “normal” landscape.  These old structures become forgotten yet they are not removed.  I find the juxtaposition of the old dilapidated buildings in “normal” surroundings ironically intriguing.

If you know of any old houses or buildings that are in pretty rough shape please let me know.  I would like to continue this series for a while longer yet.

All images above were shot with a Nikon D300.

Here are some images taken on a recent trip I made to Lake Michigan (Wisconsin side) with the Nikon Nikkor AF 10.5mm Fisheye lens.  This lens is an amazingly cool little lens.  First off, its a fisheye style lens, which for the unfamiliar has a wider angle of view than an super wide angle lens.  In fact, its so wide it distorts the edges and creates a spherical effect.

This particular fisheye creates a really strong effect due to its angle of view.  This Nikkor 10.5mm Fisheye lens has a 180 degree angle of view.  The result, is an image with everything form both sides of your lens in your image, hence the spherical nature of the image.  Along with the curved fisheye effect, this lens also boasts a maximum aperture of f2.8 so its fast, and at f2.8 can handle low light scenarios quite well.  As with other prime (fixed focal length) lenses the image quality is superior, extremely sharp with little to no chromatic aberrations.

Overall, this little lens has earned its permanent place in my daily photo bag.  Its small and relatively light so its not too cumbersome to carry around.  This lens retails for around $550 US and can be found at B&H Photo Video.

All of the images above were taken with the Nikon D300 and the Nikkor AF 10.5mm f2.8 Fisheye lens.

Shooting still life images can be very fun, after all you get to control the entire shot form beginning to end.  Unlike portraits, street photography, or basically any other type of photography involving leaving moving objects still life photography allows you control every aspect of the frame, composition and subject.  As the director of the shot you have complete control over the lighting, the depth of field, focal point and the positioning or staging of the subject.

Here are a few quick tips on shooting some still life images.

1. Visualize the final image, what do you want it to look like?  Remember you have complete control so set up the subjects and the scenario the way you want it to look.  Pay close attention to light, for most cases you will want soft, diffused light as opposed to harsh direct light (such as sunlight).
2. Setup your camera on tripod with a cable or remote shutter release this is essential to use if you want to eliminate any camera motion.
3. Choose your focal length, normally wider is better (think 18-50mm on a DSLR) for stills, as you are able to get more into the frame of the camera, but this is by no means a “rule” experiment with it all you like, and sometimes you want the effects of a longer lens to flatten the distance between objects.
4. Choose your aperture, this will determine your depth of field (what is in focus what is out of focus).  Alot of the time when shooting stills I want it ALL!  So to get the most depth of field in most cases I stop the lens down to an aperture of f16 or so, then focus the lens about 1/3 of the way into the subject.  Rember that typically you have more depth of feild further away from the lens, so if you ensure that the first 1/3 of the image is in focus you should not have aproblem with whats behind it.
5. Use your cameras exposure meter to dial in the “correct” exposure by adjusting your shutter speed, leaving your aperture alone.  Once you have the correct exposure dialed in, take a few test shots to see where you are, this is your starting point, from here we start braketing.
6. I normally will take a 5-7 shot braket of exposures ranging from -3EV to +3EV or so.  Bracketing your shots will greatly enhance your ability to “get the right shot” as you will run through a set of differnt exposures to capture the scene in multiple variations of light.

Remember the more you get right in the camera the easier your life will be.  As an aditional bonus to bracketing, you now have multiple exposures for the same object, so you can use Photoshop to combine the images to enhance your image.