Nikon D800 – JWNPhoto.com

Articles Tagged with: Nikon D800

Portrait Vs. Headshot

There’s a fine line between a portrait and a headshot. The main difference being that a headshot is a professional representation of the subject for the desired use of the photograph, while a portrait tells more of a story. It doesn’t have to be a complicated story either, just something that makes you wonder what’s going on. Dramatic lighting, coloring, and expressive poses can take the same subject wearing the same outfit with the same hair and make-up and transform the image completely.

The photo above is of Amanda Cruz, who came by to get this headshot made for her new real estate business:

These shots are only a few moments apart – The difference in her pose and expression coupled with a change in the lighting setup and you have a completely different product. Sometimes the difference can be subtle, so the best way to determine whether you’re making a headshot or portrait is in the story. Is the photo showing the subject being themselves? Is it displaying something in their character? Then it’s most likely a headshot. On the other hand, if the shot is implying an emotion, or leading you to imagine a scenario that is playing out for or in view of the subject, then you’re most likely looking at a portrait.

Cusses/Royal Teeth/Heyrocco

3 bands. 3 shots. 3 exercises in ridiculously low light photography at The Sparrow in North Charleston…

Cusses

Royal Teeth

Heyrocco

You can see more pics here on my Facebook page.

Olivia

I just wanted to share some of my favorite shots from a recent senior photo shoot with Olivia. She’s an awesome teen who also happens to be our babysitter. Our kids looooove when Olivia comes over, so I was very excited to have her over to the studio to make her senior portraits.

We had so much fun shooting at the studio that we totally lost track of time. We tried a bunch of different looks and setups.

When we went to pack up and head downtown for some sunset shots, it was already dark! Whoops… Well, I made some time for her the next night and we took a bunch of shots in Charleston.

At the end of the evening, I wanted to try something a little different. It was just after sunset and I lit the photo with a speedlight in a softbox. The ghosting effect is from zooming my lens as I fired with a 1/8th of a second shutter speed. The flash freezes the action while the zooming creates the motion. I love trying new techniques with my subjects – it gets everyone fired up when you get one that works (and even when it falls flat, it still creates a memorable experience).

I’m still running my senior session promotion, so there’s a little bit of time to get some unique professional senior portraits for this year’s crop of seniors at a great price.

4th of July Fireworks

I was on my way to Folly Beach to catch their fireworks display for the third year in a row when I remembered that I forgot the batteries to my camera in the charger at home! We had a long day – our neighborhood hosted a July 4th picnic and parade which my wife had a huge hand in organizing with the Indigo Women’s Group. It was ridiculously hot today, and there may have been some rum in my sodas.

I was also tasked with shooting the event and taking some portraits. Here’s a shot of my daughter Mackenzie wearing some crazy patriotic hat:

So after the parade, I put the battery in the charger and downloaded all of the pics to my computer (I still haven’t even gone through all of those yet except for the two in this post). I then took a nap before heading to the neighbors house for an Independence Day cookout. I timed my trip to the beach without much room for error as to enjoy maximum grilled bacon-wrapped jalapeno goodness. When the time came, I hopped in my car and got about 10 minutes into my journey when it dawned on me that my battery was still in its charger at home. Damn you sun and rum! I did the math and realized that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the beach in time. I had to come up with a plan B.

I know from history that any family event in Mount Pleasant is always over-populated. If I was going to catch the fireworks over the U.S.S. Yorktown, Waterfront Park in Mount Pleasant has the best view, but also the most people. I was going to take a chance anyway since it was also the closest. I got very lucky in so many ways. 1st, the bridge was still open (they close it during the show). 2nd, I found a place to park within a 5 minute walk to the park. 3rd, I found a relatively people-free spot right on the marshy banks of the Cooper river. The stars had aligned and I was able to capture these:

You can check out all of my shots here on Flickr, and also on my Facebook page.

I was thinking earlier today about one of my favorite things about living in a free country. For all of the bitching and moaning we do about what’s wrong with our government, the fact that we can bitch and moan about our government is something I think we all take for granted. Freedom of speech is something our founders were willing to die for, and it’s something our military, which is a volunteer military, is still willing to die for. It truly is my favorite freedom.

I hope you all had as sunny and bright a day as I did! Happy 4th of July!

Yogi Portrait

Grace, one of the owners of Charleston’s Eco Fitness and Blue Turtle Yoga studios is also a photographer who’s new to studio lighting so she asked me to help her out with a portrait session with Mark, one of her studio’s Yoga instructors. Grace’s idea was to capture some images of her staff members with an item that helps to define them. Above, Mark’s posing with a dragon fruit, and below he’s with his harmonium.

Of course, I needed to shoot Grace. I told her to give me her “sexy librarian” and this is what she gave me:

And here’s Grace in action with Amy assisting. This was a shot of the mirror behind us in the yoga studio.:

These were all shot with my new Nikon D800 with the 85mm 1.8G lens. I cannot stress how amazing this combination is for portraiture. Looking at the full resolution files is just stunning. The clarity is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before from a digital camera. Just tack sharp, amazing contrast, and full of detail. It’s truly a game changer for me. A new camera or lens doesn’t change my style, my lighting, or any of my other abilities. What they do do is expand my ability to capture the images more like the way I actually see them. I can achieve a great look with nothing but my iPhone, but I can’t achieve the level of professional quality that is possible with the D800. Grace was using a kit 18-105 lens with her D7000 (which is another fantastic camera), and then I let her use my 24-70 f/2.8 and the difference in quality was quite obvious even on her camera’s LCD screen. I’m not big on pixel peeping, but when you’re editing portraits in Photoshop with such high resolution files, the quality of lens is obvious – and it makes your job easier as there’s a lot less work to do in post.

Here’s one last shot I want to show you. It’s Amy, who was assisting us on the shoot today. She was very playful in front of the camera, and this was about as serious as I could get her 😉

Eileen & Gary

On a beautiful summer’s day in June, 3 people joined together as a family. Eileen & her son Tristan joined Gary Turner in matrimony at Rockville Presbyterian Church in scenic Rockville, SC. This is their story in photos.

Something borrowed: a family heirloom…

The church – Rockville Presbyterian:

The ceremony:

The newlyweds:

The Family:

The Friends:

The reception:

Time to head out on their honeymoon: