Eric Hamilton – Celebrity / DJ / Nightlife Photographer

Archive for May, 2009

This photo from yesterday’s shoot demonstrates a couple techniques I use frequently to add interest to portraits.

Choose Subjects You Know – If there is a personal connection between you and the model, it shows. Why place an ad in the classifieds to find a model? Ask your friends and family to pose for you.

Keep it Simple – Simple lines, simple color schemes and simple backgrounds let the subject stand out.

Tilt the Camera – Straight up and down gets old. Mix it up a little!

Use a Shallow Depth of Field – Shallow DoF allows you to blur out background and foreground elements so your subject stands out better. In this case, the shallow DoF helped me create in interesting diagonal gradient shooting around a corner. The top left is a wall between me and Brittany, which fades smoothly into the background because of the shallow DoF. To achieve the effect, open up your aperture as wide as it will go (smaller numbers).

Light from Behind – In this shot there are flashes on both sides of Brittany, lighting her from behind, and creating the pretty edge highlights on her skin.

Create Contrast – I used flashes to create areas of dark and light on Brittany, which helps to sculpt and define her shape.

Next time you set out to shoot a portrait, keep these tips in mind, and don’t be afraid to share your results with me!

Strobist Info: SB-600 shot through umbrella camera left, SB-600 bounced off white wall camera right, SB-600 bounced off ceiling for hair light. The gradients in the upper left corner were created by shooting around a corner with a shallow depth of field. Triggered via CLS. f/1.8, 1/500, 50mm

My good DJ friend Josh Max celebrated his birthday in style with a Big City House night at W Lounge, a small but very cool club in Salt Lake City. Josh was on the Knobtweakers lineup, so I had the privilege of hearing his DJ sets almost weekly while we were working together. He is an encyclopedia of music knowledge, and a damn good house DJ. He’s been doin’ the house gangsta thing with Karen (Kinetic) and Dan Dixon on the Big City House roster for a while. I try to support them all when I can.

As this was a pretty informal photo shoot with friends, and not a professional gig, I kept my equipment light. I got the rim lights (outline) you see in the shots above by mounting a small SB-600 strobe camera left, near the back of the DJ booth. You can actually see the flash in-frame in the second image, to get a good idea of the exact placement.

I hand-held another SB-600 flash and triggered both with the built-in Nikon CLS infra red lighting system. If you own a Nikon better than a D70 (D80, D90, D300, etc…) you have the same capability. Look for commander mode in the manual for details. I use CLS all the time, because I love having control over the flash power from the camera. I set the flashes to manual settings, and I frequently change the settings depending on the circumstances. It’s very handy to be able to mount a flash to a lighting rig and adjust the power right from the camera. Nikon speedlights can also shoot in TTL using CLS, but I prefer to know what power my flash is firing at so I can control it more precisely.

Full Gallery

More nightclub photography – Solid UNDA Ground Presents: Kemistry. Breakbeats featuring DJs Tink Fu and local scratch legends, Steez and Diggabeatz.

Full Set