Another close-up.  This one is of a model in my studio with focus placed on the drop of water on the end of the tube.  Shot with a 105mm Nikkor macro lens and D3s camera.

The difference is in the details:

Since this blog is primarily about shooting stock photography, I thought it would be interesting to include these two very simple images from my most recent stock shoot because they illustrate the really subtle, but extremely important difference between a successful and unsuccessful stock photo.

Many of the best selling stock photo lifestyle situations are oftem very humble events, such as the one depicted here.  It was shot with models in a kitchen scene created in my studio.  Infusing everyday domestic scenes such as this with a feeling of spontaneity, and action is not always easy. The concept of family values in this simple domestic scene centers on the relationship of a mother and daughter working together.  The goal is to tell a simple story without going over board -- one that still maintains the believability of the scene.

On the surface these two photos look very similar.  There are, however, a few differences between them that will make a huge difference later in terms of  their marketability.  This is a simple kitchen scene showing a casual, everyday relationship between the mother and daughter.  Above the models are smiling at each other, but their basic body language is static and they look posed.  The mother is standing upright and holding the utensil but not performing any action with it.  The daughter's position of holding the colander is similarly static and unnatural.  The scene looks uncomfortable, false, and posed -- which, of course, it is.

In this variation I made a few small changes.  I asked the model playing the mother to hold the knife as if she was about to make a cut in the potato and then to shoot a glance to her daughter.  This shifted her body into a more flattering curved position and gave a little dynamism to her pose.  I asked the daughter to repeat a motion of  picking up a potato from the counter and putting it in the colander.  At the same time, I asked them both to maintain eye contact and gave them something to say that parted their mouths as if they were really having a natural and pleasant conversation, and not just smiling at each other.  Simple and subtle they may be, but these differences translate into a stock shot with a more spontaneous and natural feel to it,

For a further demonstration of the selection process in editing for stock photography, check out my other blog where I provide an fuller explanation of the editing process of this shoot:  Tom Grill Stock Shooter

There was a full moon rising over Manhattan last night.  I was able to photograph it from my apartment window with the equivalent of a 900mm lens. To achieve this I used a 300mm Nikkor with 2x extender on a D7000.  I wanted do to something with the moon other than present it on a dead black sky.  So I combined the moon photo with one of the sunrise skies I had just taken in Mexico and added blue to the moon to blend it in.  I also chose to make this a panoramic format, which goes against the typical crop of a moon shot.

Another close-up shot, this one of some stars I saw decorating a party table.  Shot with the 40mm macro on the Nikon D7000.  I brightened and added the yellow coloring in post-processing.

Getting in close:

Recently I have been going out with only a macro lens on the camera and searching for photo ops that are extremely close up.  While in a diner today I focused in on these two subjects with the Fuji X100 in macro mode.

Photographing the late colors of winter is something I do every year.  The colors are muted and very subtle, and the plants are clinging to the last vestiges of life.  Instead of choosing a super high res camera for this series I used the Nikon D7000 with a 40mm macro lens at wide open aperture.  The "grain" structure of the D7000 is reminiscent of shooting with film.  That and the very narrow focus of the wide open aperture enhanced the fragile vulnerability of the subjects.

 

 

Another on-going series of photos I am working on is called "Camera as Object".  Most of these are from my personal collection.  Some I used professionally.  Others I collected for their importance in the history of photography.  I still use many of them today when I want to shoot film.

All of these images were taken with a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens fit with a close-up filter and used wide open for a very shallow depth-of-field.

I took this photo today of my favorite film camera, one I still use, a black paint Leica M4 retro-fit by Leica with an M6 viewfinder so it includes the 28mm frame.  I included the shadow of the see-through lens hood because it is so distinctively Leica.

The Alpa 9d with 24mm Angenieux lens, a rare and beautiful combo from circa 1964.  I never used these professionally, but always admired their looks, quirky mechanics, and workmanship.

An original Contax I rangefinder made from 1932-36 and shown here with a 5cm Sonnar lens and variable viewfinder that shows framing for 28-85mm lenses.  I had this camera restored to full working order and still shoot with it today.  I use it in conjunction with a Weston Universal Master I light meter from the same era.

This is the last rangefinder to carry the Contax name, a G2 made from 1996-2005. It was a very stylish machine and still fun to use.

Hassleblad 500CM with 150mm Sonnar lens. This is the camera I used for beauty advertising photography I did in the 1980's.

A collection of old Weston light meters all of which have been re-calibrated so I can  use them when shooting with the old cameras.

My first serious professional SLR camera was the Nikon Ftn from 1968-71 shown here with a 58mm Noct-Nikkor f/1.2 lens.

Polaroid SX-70 camera circa 1970's  with a photo from it taken with the new film available from the "Impossible Project".

Sub-miniature, or "spy" cameras: in the foreground the first Minox model, a Riga circa 1940.  Behind is a Tessina, made in Switzerland since 1960. It takes actual 35mm film.

Nikon's ultimate photo-journalist's rangefinder, the 1957 Nikon SP was equipped with viewfinders for six lenses ranging from 28-135mm, which was very advanced for its time.  This, in addition to the Leica M4 shown above, is one of my favorite film cameras to use today.

It was raining lightly in NYC today -- perfect weather for me to add a few more images to another of my on-going projects I call "Urban Abstracts".  Many of the photos are of street and sidewalk patterns such as those shown here.

To bring out the vibrancy of colors inherent in the subject I change color spaces from RGB to work the image in LAB, a more extensive space.  The two photos above were done today.  I included a few earlier images below to illustrate how the project theme fits together.

These images are some of the latest added to an on-going series I am doing called "Real People".  I place the models in a straight, non-modely forward pose, without expression other than looking directly into the camera, and style them with a few, simple items that indicate who they are and what they do.  I reduced the color saturation and used a retro film look to keep it plain.  All were shot in the studio with strobe lights.

Ahhh...bling!  Done two ways here.  The top photo is soft, warm ambient window light for a natural look, while the one below was shot with a ring light strobe to provide a starker, hard-edged feel.

Here are some light variations I did of the star fish in the studio.  This one was back lit with a tungsten light, which gave it the yellow cast.  It was also over-exposed by two stops to keep it very bright.

A straight shot of the star fish was superimposed over an antique nautical map in Photoshop.  The blue coloring, vignette, and drop-shadow were also created in Photoshop.

This photo was taken similarly to the top image but the color was brought back to normal balance.  All images shot on a Nikon D3s and 105mm macro lens.

While wandering around Soho I found these starfish in Evolution, a store I often frequent for photo ideas.  I thought of several ways I could photograph them.  Here is the first.  Shot against the sun on a clear day with the Nikon D7000 and Sigma wide angle zoom set to 16mm (that would be 24mm in full frame).

I found these delicate candles in a shop while I was walking through the flower district today and thought they would make a nice photo.  This is a fairly straight forward shot done with the Nikon D7000 and 80mm macro lens wide open.  The delicate pastel tones of pink, yellow, and blue are a result of mixing the cool blue color temperature of daylight from a window with the warmer tones of the candle light.  Both the candles and the surface they are on are pure white so the coloring is a direct result of the differentiation in color temperature.

Anyone aside from me remember what this was used for?  I post-processed the image to make it appear as if it had been taken on old, faded film.

The danger of mixing prescription drugs with alcohol has been a topic in the news lately.  So I thought I would illustrate some variations on this theme.  Here are a few samples, all using the Nikon D3s with 85mm tilt-shift lens.

Over the past four years I have been working on a series of photos taken from the windows of my apartment.  This morning I captured the sunrise image above with a 400mm focal length lens that "squashed" the perspective of the foreground buildings into a flat, monochromatic graphic.   To illustrate how this image fits into the series I included some other photos below that were taken earlier as weather phenomena changed the landscape..