John Cornicello

ACT Theatre, Seattle WA

It is always a pleasure to work with the folks at ACT. This past spring I worked with them on photos to promote their 25th anniversary production of Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This photo session produced one of the billboards our photos have been appearing on around Seattle.

Here are a few more images from the session

We love working with theatre groups. Let us know if we can be of service to you for your next production.

Habit 14 Sketch Comedy

This time of year is always fun with calls from some of my favorite theatre folks to do publicity images. In the past week or so I've photographed for ACT-A Contemporary Theatre, Café Nordo, and The Habit.

This post features the poster for the new Habit show coming up in November at the Bath House on Green Lake in Seattle. The theme was WWII aviators and we went on location to photograph the sketch comedy group at a museum in Mukilteo, WA. 

In addition to the photos, I got to watch a B-25 fire up its engines, taxi down the strip, and take off into the wild blue yonder. Quite impressive. 

Here is the poster image that Jeff Schell created from one of the photos we made that Saturday afternoon...

And some out takes that might make it into social media channels...

Next up will be Café Nordo. Keep watching this space!

Let me know if you need publicity photos for your performance or project. I look forward to collaborating with you!  

Check out Iman Lizarazu's finished website ~ it's beautiful!

Earlier this year we showed some images from our photo session with Iman. And now we can show you how the photographs are being used.

Sometimes we create a large collection of photos for a client so that they have a variety of images to use over several web pages. It makes the website even more personal, and if you're in a relationship-based business (like real estate) the more connection you make with potential clients, the more they seem to know you and are likely to call.

Our "Portfolio Photo Packages" are very reasonably priced, and we're very happy to work with both your branding consultant and your web designer to get the images you need. Contact us for more information.

Check out Iman Lizarazu's finished website ~ it's beautiful!

Earlier this year we showed some images from our photo session with Iman. And now we can show you how the photographs are being used.

Sometimes we create a large collection of photos for a client so that they have a variety of images to use over several web pages. It makes the website even more personal, and if you're in a relationship-based business (like real estate) the more connection you make with potential clients, the more they seem to know you and are likely to call.

Our "Portfolio Photo Packages" are very reasonably priced, and we're very happy to work with both your branding consultant and your web designer to get the images you need. Contact us for more information.

Check out Iman Lizarazu's finished website ~ it's beautiful!

Earlier this year we showed some images from our photo session with Iman. And now we can show you how the photographs are being used.

Sometimes we create a large collection of photos for a client so that they have a variety of images to use over several web pages. It makes the website even more personal, and if you're in a relationship-based business (like real estate) the more connection you make with potential clients, the more they seem to know you and are likely to call.

Our "Portfolio Photo Packages" are very reasonably priced, and we're very happy to work with both your branding consultant and your web designer to get the images you need. Contact us for more information.

Sometimes more people want to be in your photograph

I was finishing up the second of three private lighting lessons I'm teaching this weekend when I realized that most of my posts about light modifiers have been showing a single subject where I can get the light in real close. (If you are in the Seattle area and are interested in personalized lighting classes please contact me through the web site.)

After today's class I decided to gather a group of subjects, including a live person this time (your's truly) to see what some of these lights would do in a small home studio situation.

Like yesterday's post, the subjects are mostly static. There is only one light. It is approximately 60" away from the center model (wearing the beads). Camera on a tripod. This time the aperture was f/11 with the flash output raised or lowered to match the exposure between frames. All were at ISO 100 except for  the second bare bulb image where I had to jump up to ISO 400. No fill cards or fill light except for a white card in that same second bare bulb image where I was trying to get a feel of the afternoon sun in the studio.

This time I just used the studio strobe (Speedotron 805 pack with one 202VF head) and a variety of light modifiers (Photek Softlighter, 7' umbrellas, beauty dish, soft boxes, etc.). Light was to camera left, about 2 feet in front of the group, feathered slightly foreword ofd the group to get the most even light I could for the group from the one light.

If you want a large file (around 2.3MB) to look at or print out, you can download it from Dropbox. 

I really hope that you have enjoyed these last few posts. Here are links to the first three in the series: It Is More Than Just Size, What About Silver Umbrellas, and Comparing Light Modifiers (for an individual portrait). Contact me if you are interested in photography and lighting classes in the Seattle area.

Here's another...

Pulling out all the stops

I continue today with comparing light modifiers and how they work with studio strobes versus speed lights. I am not advocating for either. Just comparing.  For the sequence below I tried to keep everything as consistent as possible. Camera on tripod (Canon 6D with 50mm f/1.4 EF lens). Consistent aperture (f/7.1). Mannequin to maintain pose, facial expression, distance from background, etc. (I couldn't bear to make a human model sit through hours of changing out modifiers). Similar light to subject distances when possible. Soft boxes and the Photek Softlighter can get in closer than umbrella because they don't have the shaft sticking out, so they were used in closer, as I would in a real situation. In this main set, I had a consistent white balance setting. Color changes between images are due to the diffusion materials (some of my soft boxes are older and warmer) and the difference between the Speedotron 202VF head with UV-coated flash tube and the Canon 480EX II speed light. I've made no exposure or color corrections to these images. The original image is 2400x6480 pixels and about 2.2MB. You can download it, open it in Adobe Photoshop, and cut/paste the individual images to get better side-by-side representations of specific modifiers you might be interested in.

In all images except the ring flash, the flash was about 45-degrees to camera left, light centered just about at the mannequin's eye level. Mannequin was close to the background so that you can compare the shadows created by each light/modifier combination. The lights were feathered slightly forward of the mannequin. The ring flash was obviously at the camera.

In the second image, I put together a side-by-side comparison of the Speedotron and the speed light in the same umbrella reflectors. I also attempted to neutralize the color temperature differences between the two lights.

Have fun with these and let me know what your go-to favorite light modifier is in the comments.

And now for the umbrellas...

More than just the size, it is what you put into it

A big rage the past couple of years has been a proliferation of low cost 7' "parabolic" umbrellas from various manufacturers. I'm not going to get into the arguments of who created the first one, or who stole who's design. My concern is more with how they are being used.

By now we should all know that the size of the light relative to the subject determines the quality of the light. Large lights give a softer, less-shadowed look. Smaller lights give a harder, more contrasty look. So, the immediate thought about a 7' umbrella would logically be that it is a very soft light. And it is. Or at least it can be. But it also to depend on what light source you use with the big umbrella.

I see a few kits offered with the 7' umbrella and a  bracket to use your speed light/lite with it. Speed lights are normally a small and hard light source. So, if you bounce it into a gigantic umbrella it should become a big and soft light. Makes sense, no? 

Maybe not!

Below is a set of images of such an umbrella with a speed light attached and bounced into the umbrella. The flash is a Canon 430EX II in manual mode. The three images across the top row were taken with this combo. In the first one, the flash was set to the 105mm zoom position. There is hardly filled any of the umbrella. Yes, the light will be larger and softer than direct flash. But probably not what you were expecting. So, for the second image the flash was zoomed out to the 24mm position. Uh-oh! That isn't all that much wider than the 105mm position when the umbrella is so close to the flash head. Additionally, we see that the flash bracket doesn't come close to pointing the flash into the center of the umbrella. What to do?

The third image was taken with the flash head's built in diffuser panel popped out and over the flash. It does a much better job of filling the umbrella, but I had to open up 3+ stops to get enough light into the umbrella. And it still doesn't quite fill the umbrella evenly, note how dark the bottom portion of the umbrella is.

Just as a way of comparison, I took two more shots using a studio flash head, a Speedotron 202VF. The first of these images has the standard 7" umbrella reflector. Even with this combination, the umbrella isn't quite filled by light, but overall it is much more efficient. To get the umbrella to fill with light, for the last image I took the reflector off the strobe head. With the bare tube the umbrella is finally filled. It is not quite as bright. And you need to be a lot more careful if using the umbrella rig off to the side that direct light from the bare tube doesn't hit your subject causing very distracting shadows.

Take from this what you may. I just wanted to make sure you understand that just having a super large light modifier doesn't mean that you have a super large light source. I encourage you to do a similar test with your own lighting equipment to see what it is really doing.

It's that time of year again. As I noted before, 2012 was a great year. And now it is time to feature some of my favorite images from 2012. Here you will find some individual portraits, some conceptual pieces for performers, dancers, family portaits, personal Celebrate You! portraits, boudoir, glamour, cancer survivors, headshots, and more. I hope you enjoy.

I had a great time working with all these wonderful people and look forward to making you look great in pictures in 2013. Contact Kim to schedule a photos session. Remember, your best is now!

I had the distinct pleasure today to photograph some of the creations that came out of creativeLIVE's Ugly Holiday Sweater class presented by Celeste Olds and Michael Alm. Don't worry if you missed it, you can re-watch for free online once the videos have been processed and uploaded..

This bring to a close another great year being involved with the folks at creativeLIVE. I started the year off with my class about working in a home studio (which is currently on sale until the end of the year). The rest of the year was filled in by assisting some amazing instructors, such as Christa Meola, Bambi Cantrell, Don Gianatti, Mark Wallace, Lindsay Adler, Rob Adams and Vanessa Joy, Vicki Taufer, Joe Buissink, Lee Varis, Ben Willmore, Matthew Jordan Smith, Lara Jade, Sal Cincotta, Lori Nordstrom, and Jared Platt.

Looking forward to see what next year brings at creativeLIVE and in my newest venture, Celebrate You! portraits. Maybe I'll see you through my lens soon. I sure hope so! Happy Holidays to all!