The Riverside Citrus Industry
Growing up in Riverside, CA and spending some days off of school in the front office of a citrus packing house, I have a special relationship with the citrus industry, from a teenager hanging out at the Orange Blossom Festival to growing into a commercial photographer who often finds himself using citrus as a source of inspiration.
An almost forgotten still life test from a few years ago, citrus fruits often become a still life subject for me growing up in Riverside, CA, a city that launched the Southern California citrus industry.
Growing up in Riverside, CA, there was no missing the impact of the citrus industry on the culture of the city itself. If the annual Orange Blossom Festival wasn’t enough, you couldn’t miss the small orange groves that dotted most residential neighborhoods (before the real estate boom/bubble of the early 2000’s dug out the orange trees to make room for more houses).
I came across this image when attempting to catalog the approximately 32,478 images from one of several hard drives where I digitally hoard my work. After scrolling through years and years worth of product photography, commercial still life tests, family snapshots and mobile camera back-ups, I ran across this little studio test that I think I may have entirely designed around that weird hanging candle thing in the background.
I don’t love this image, but it does bring to mind memories of my childhood that was shaped in part by what was left of the citrus industry in Riverside. When I was a child, my mom worked in the front office of a citrus packing house, where I would occasionally get to peak through the door where oranges would rush around on conveyer belts and cascade into crates that would load onto trucks and head off to their final destination.
For the city of Riverside it is a history that is celebrated through art, events, and those of us that have memories of being directly impacted by the fruits of those two original naval orange treess Eliza Tibbetts planted in Riverside back in 1873.
For more on the history of the Riverside citrus industry, check these links:
History of the City of Riverside
Parent Naval Orange Tree in Riverside
A Cultural Tale of California’s Citrus Industry - YouTube
Hidden Histories Behind California’s Citrus Industry
Whitening Teeth in Capture One
As of version 8 of Capture One, users have been blessed with the ability to control white balance on an adjustment layer. This is useful for a number of reasons, but the biggest win for my workflow is a very simple, and very repeatable way to whiten and brighten teeth in Capture One.
For a change of pace, I recorded a video to demonstrate this technique. Steps are detailed out below.
Step One: Make you desired adjustments to the overall image
Step Two: In the Local Adjustment tool tab, create a new adjustment layer and call it "Teeth"
Step Three: Use the paint brush tool to paint a mask over your subjects teeth
Step Four: Use the local White Balance adjustment tool to reduce the Kelvin temperature of the masked area until you achieve the desired effect. You can also locally adjust exposure and/or brightness to further enhance the teeth.
I find this to be a really effective, easy, and easily repeatable way to enhance tooth that appear too yellow, while keeping your images in Capture One. I used to rely on Photoshop to do any teeth whitening I needed, which meant I made my adjustments in Capture One, then exported to Photoshop for further editing. Now I can keep 99% of my workflow in Capture One, reserving Photoshop for only major editing.
Lucy Jane Totes - A Colorful Workspace Story
The Calm Before The Storm
I met Kim of Lucy Jane Totes through my wife. The two of them had met at a women's function shortly after our arrival in Louisville. When the subject came up of how the Jester family ended up in Kentucky, Kim was very excited to learn that I moved here to shoot product for Amazon. Kim had been stuck in a rut with her product photography and was interested in learning some new techniques to help her achieve more flexibility and consistency. I absolutely adore teaching, and when I get a chance to help a small business out, even better.
We got together for a single hands on session and that was all she needed to springboard herself to the next level. During that session, I took note of Kim’s incredible workspace. It was clean, organized, and very well decorated. The wheels started turning on how we could do some really great environmental portraits of Kim in her space.
Getting down to work. A rare glimpse of Alicia in front of the camera.
One of the benefits of working in a production studio is your coworkers. I work with some extraordinarily talented people on a daily basis, and since most of us are recent transplants to the area, most everyone is very motivated to collaborate on projects outside of work. Alicia Cannizzo is one such talented person. As a stylist for Amazon, she is regularly taking product straight from it’s packaging and making it look amazing. Alicia and I connect a couple of different levels, and one of those levels is our belief in the power of good visual merchandising. I knew that she would be a good fit for Kim’s incredible space.
The next time I saw the space, it was shoot day. For our first shot, we were going to frame Kim through the opening from her foyer into her workshop. The theme here would a peak into her workshop from a “normal” part of her house. The composition technique would be framing. Framing the space in the doorway frame, framing her inside the box created by her work table and the top shelf behind her, and finally framing her form out with decor and props on her shelving.
The key here would be impeccable set dressing, which is where Alicia comes in.
I literally mean hours were spent dressing this set.
Every single prop, piece of decor, bolt of fabric and tool in this shot was placed with intent and after much discussion. There is not a single part of this image that is not 100% intentional. This is one of my key tenets of photography: Do everything with purpose. If someone asks you “why is it like this?” always have an answer. Always have a reason for this prop or that light. You control the perspective, so own it 100%.
For lighting design, this was all about mimicking how this room looks in person, which is awash with light. The lighting would be simple: blast the corners of the room with strobes and generally boost the amount of light in the room. We would use the window light as fill and the key light would come from a Broncolor monolight hitting the wall opposite the windows.
The room was lit in three zones, the foyer, the workroom, and the back corner.
Here is the final scene with only the window light. This light was used for fill in the final lighting design.
Shown here is foyer light + window light only. Broncolor Minipuls C80.
Shown here is the key light + window light only. Broncolor Minipuls C80.
Shown here is the fill light for the back, camera right corner of the work room. LumoPro LP180.
The foyer light was simply to keep the dim foyer even with the workroom. As mentioned above, the key light was used to boost the way the natural light looks in person, but allow us to shoot at settings that will net us the sharpest, cleanest images. Finally the back corner light was used to address light fall off in that back corner, which was betraying the fact that the scene was lit with strobe.
Once the light was dialed in, we spent literally HOURS fine tuning the set dressing. I think the time and effort really pays off. The result is an image that I’m in love with, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
The final shot. Well, one of several really solid options. I like this one a lot because of the quiet confidence that Kim exudes. For the record, that confidence is earned. Her product is top notch.
Tech Details
Camera: Fujifilm X-T1
Lens: Fujinon 35mm F1.4
Camera Settings: 1/15 @ F4, ISO 200
Foyer Light: Broncolor Minipuls C80, with shoot thru umbrella aimed into the corner
Key Light: Broncolor Minipuls C80, reflector only, aimed towards wall, camera right
Corner Fill Light: LumoPro LP180, with shoot thru umbrella
Radio Trigger: Pocket Wizard Plus III
Other Details: Tethered shooting into Lightroom. Imported images into Capture One Pro 9.1 for editing and processing
Purchase one of Kim's bags here:
www.LucyJaneTotes.com
Shooting Your Kids - 5 Tips From a Photographer and Father of 3
Top 5 tips for shooting your kids from a photographer and father of 3
Far and away the best part about being a photographer is that I have access to solid photography all the time. As a father of 3, that comes in really really handy. I've been thinking a lot about how to get great shots of your kids, and here are the top 5 things I came up with.
Disclaimer: These are more philosophy related, than technical tips, although I will include a few quick tips at the end of this post.
Here we go!
Patience and a little bit of right place/right time can create some really nice images.
Patience
Arnold H. Glasow said “The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.” As parents, you and I understand this concept probably more than most people do. Children have a way of requiring seemingly inhuman amounts of patience. This virtue is the number one key to getting great photos of your kids. I can’t stress enough how critical it is, and there are a few aspects to it.
You need classic, good old fashioned patience. Not losing your cool. Going with the flow. You don’t want your kids on edge when the camera comes out because they’ve come to associate it with mom or dad getting snippy and pushy.
You also need patience in the form of restraint. Don’t try to snap away at every moment. Be selective in what you shoot, and leave the image reviewing until later. It’s a hard habit to break, but burying your nose in the LCD screen is a surefire way to lose your kids cooperation. Be present in the moment with them (more on this in step 5).
Lastly, you need to recognize that you may not get a great shot this time around, but with perseverance you will eventually get some incredible pictures of your kids.
Sometimes you just don't get the shot you want. And sometimes the result can still be pretty fun.
Technique
The second most important thing is having a good grasp on photographic technique. Understanding how the functions of your camera work together to achieve exposure is critical. If your kids are moving around a lot (which they definitely are) you probably want a pretty fast shutter speed in order to freeze the action. But you also probably want pretty generous depth of field if they are moving toward you or away from you, which means a smaller aperture setting. The only way to reconcile those two things is to increase ISO.
There are a lot of ways to get the right exposure, the example above simply illustrates that you need to understand and be thinking about photographic technique and fundamentals during your session. If you don’t know the basics, take a class. A simple community college course will be enough to get you started, and the rest is practice and patience (see above).
Hannah runs away from me, but with the right shutter speed and aperture (thus, depth of field) I still get a killer shot
Planning
If I had to take these 5 tips and cut them back to 3, planning would make the cut. Even when keeping it simple and casual, planning is vital. You have a secret weapon when it comes to planning! They are YOUR kids. That means you shoot on your schedule, and because you control meal time, nap time and bed time, you can leverage all of these things to work in your favor.
Maybe Jackson is usually a little grumpy right after nap, but tends to open up and get silly about an hour before dinner. That might be the time to strike. Maybe Hannah is really cuddly and sweet first thing in the morning, that might be the right time for a quick mother daughter photo shoot. Leverage your kids naps and bed times to work in your favor also. If you want to shoot with strobe, use the kids nap time to dial in light. Use a stuffed animal as a stand in so there is no guess work once the clock is ticking. All parents understand that good behavior in children is basically equity that can be depleted, so wasting it is generally not wise.
This family Christmas portrait took tremendous planning and testing, all of which was done before the kids ever got in the shot. Even so, we still had to just put Hannah to bed and then bring her out while asleep. Sometimes they just don't want to cooperate.
As an aside, here’s another pro tip that is planning at the macro level. Give your kids the bedroom that gets the best light in the house. Seriously. Your kids are comfortable in that space and will open up and you can get some incredible photographs right in their own bedroom.
See what I'm saying about the room with the best light? Shot on film: Kodak Portra 120mm, Yashica 635
Routine
By routine, I don’t mean it should be a daily or weekly occurrence that should be treated like bath time or church. I mean do it often enough that it’s not out of the ordinary. And when the camera comes out, don’t make it a big deal. Just have it there, engage with your children, and snap a few frames. Making it an ordinary part of your life does two main things for you:
1. It desensitizes your children to the camera and your behavior while shooting. This will allow them to be more comfortable and act natural, allowing for more opportunities for those delicious candid moments.
2. It increases the likelihood that you will get something really magical, just because you will be shooting more often.
Since Dad always has a camera, Hannah just goes on about her business.
Playfulness
Just play with your kids. Have your husband or wife play with your kids and when they run away from you, or toward you, or turn to pour tea into Banjo’s teacup, lift the camera and snap your shot. No fuss, just be present, be playful and occasionally snap a frame or two.
Remember: You’re a parent first, and photographer second. Don’t sacrifice their desire for your attention in order to get the shot. They will reward your patience (that word again!) with cooperation and candidness that will result in images you will cherish for the rest of your life.
Rocky laughs at silly Daddy
A Few Final Thoughts
I promised a few technical tips, so here you go:
- Get down to their level, or lower. There are very few interesting shots of kids from an adults perspective
- Don't ask them to smile or say cheese. Make them laugh instead. Kids do weird things when you ask them to smile.
- Use strobes aimed at the ceiling in two or more corners of the room for indoor shots, if you are short on light. This will create a natural looking boost in the overall room light.
The light in this room was boosted with 2 LumoPro LP180 manual speedlights in opposite corners aimed into the corners.
Finish strong.