Shooting the H4D40

Thanks to a great dayjob, I get to spend a lot of quality time hands-on with Hasselblad cameras. I've been in love with the cameras since before photo school, and the flames were fanned when I assisted Hasselblad Master Gregor Halenda and met another, Chase Jarvis. They're both stunningly amazing photographers that have shaped my career as I study their work to become a better photographer.

Getting access to a wide range of their digital lineup means that I get to learn everything about Hasselblad without the pressure of a weekend rental, or trying to figure it out on the job. I warmed up by doing a series of still lifes and a portrait session with the H4D40, and found it to be an extraordinarily versatile camera, and then pushed it to the limits by doing an all day shoot with a sportswear company (pictures coming soon).

I primarily shoot on my Canon 1DmkIV, and while the quality is great, it hardly compares to over twice the megapixels and a physically larger image sensor. Pictures on the H4D seem to pop off the screen with little to no post processing.



Shooting bottles has been one of my ongoing personal projects as I wade through the wide world of whiskeys, and I've been shooting most of them on H4D. The color rendering of liquor is extremely important to clients, and the H4D seems to capture the range necessary to accurately portray each shade. Newer lighting technique counts for a lot, but the colors and depth make the bottles sing.



This recent shot of the new Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Whiskey was shot on white plexi lying down, with two 8' silks on either side with grid spots on Profoto 7a2400 packs. I find myself reversing my earlier lighting from small on products and large on people to the complete opposite. Glass bottles take well to massive modifiers, even if only used as a bounce, and I've experimented with using smaller, harsher light on certain subjects.

Hasselblad has their proprietary software, Phocus, which is used to tether to your computer. The software is intuitive, easy to manage and a great asset to have when checking focus and composition. The screen on the camera is limited the same as any other brand, so I have Phocus running on my laptop or cinema display whenever possible. Occasionally when I need to drop the cord, I feel confident enough to rely on the screen if I know that my lighting is already dialed in.

I worked with the H4D for an entire 10 hour session recently, and the camera body itself is easy to hold and even comfortable. The back was warm from being tethered non-stop all day, but it never shut down on me, unlike some other digital backs I've used that will lock you out without any obvious reason. I turned down a demo of a back made by another company because I couldn't afford to waste time rebooting the entire system, from my laptop to the back, body and lens.

More pictures from the most recent session are coming soon, as well as a video highlight of the shoot where you'll see some of the lighting setups used on a commercial shoot, and I'll also demo some of the camera's features and how I used them on this job.

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Like Honey

It's been busy here in NYC and the blog is being neglected, like my personal work at the same time. But new and exciting client work is coming up, as well as my review of the Hasselblad H4D40 that I've been using lately.

This shot of the tantalizingly delicious Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Whiskey was shot on the H4D using two Profoto 7A packs and 3 heads. A beauty dish on the ground was shooting through the 1/4" white plexi for the light table, and then two 8' silks on either side had gridded heads shooting through them. I've been using giant silks and foamcores to shoot bottles instead of softboxes like I used to. Having that large of a light source evens out the highlights on the bottle to the point that they just blend in much nicer.

The honey was added after I had the bottle looking exactly how I wanted it. The coolest part is how you can see the highlights from the silks, shadows from the label, and the amazing color and tone of the honey by itself. The H4D really shines here in its color rendering and the sheer depth of the image, it almost looks 3d in the large version. The only post processing was to add a little shadow to the edge of the pool of honey, something that could also be done by placing black cards all the way around it.

Coming up in the next two weeks are a few shoots and posts on other current work, a full review of the H4D40 as I've been shooting with it, and some other surprises.


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Yankee Air Museum

It's a little late coming, but I wanted to do my regular recap of the awesome group shoot we had in mid April, at the Yankee Air Museum which is currently being housed at the Grosse Ile Airfield. If you've seen the other meetups, you'll notice that this is our second time at this location, with one small difference. Or four big ones.

Four WWII era planes, including the massive Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress pictured here, were available for our group to use as backdrops and more for this shoot. While some of the coolest shots were done outside of the planes, we were given the opportunity to shoot inside these working, flying pieces of history.


Sonny is one of our awesome returning models that I work with on a regular basis when we do these events. Dressed up in a semi-authentic jacket and aviators cap, he looks pretty close to the real deal. There were some logistics that made putting this whole thing on, but this one shot was worth it.

Because I was traveling super light, and we were a little pressed for time, my lighting setup was deceptively simple. There's just that one softbox, raised up high and feathered down on Sonny. No tricks, no gimmicks, one flash and a massive hangar door streaming in some mid afternoon light. I was also testing out my new Alien Bee's and White Lightning Vagabond Mini battery. I shot for four solid hours on a single AB800 without even running down the battery meter. I think this one would outlast my Vagabond 2's, and weighing in at 5 lbs, it's a lot easier to travel with.

This was a smaller meetup by necessity of the venue, but we still brought in over 20 people to hang out and shoot with. We took this group shot with the volunteers who were our guides and technical advisors, in front of the same B-17, the Yankee Lady.

The Yankee Air Museum was extremely generous in the access they provided us with to these planes which are becoming more in danger of literally running out of parts. And after an unfortunate hangar fire at their old location in Ypsilanti, we were glad to raise a $500 donation to provide support for their mission of keeping these incredible machines hangared and flying.

We're already looking forward to seeing them again in October, so be sure to check out the A2/DT Strobist page to see when we're scheduled to go down there for another group meetup, and to see the pictures from this one and those past.

I also wanted to give a shoutout to a long-time participant of the group, Luis, who took what is probably one of my favorite pictures to come out of the meetup. While I was distracted with packing up and wrangling the gear I had loaned out, Luis snuck this shot in at the last minute in front of the B-25 with one of our models, Connie.


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Consuming-Video Post

I ran across this video on The Daily What and thought of a few things. First of all, the visuals are just stunning. The muted gray with shocks of black and white, how quiet the tonality is, how loud the subjects are, gorgeous. You could pick nearly any frame out of it and it would stand alone as a great picture.

Second, with the exceptions being studio space and resources, many still cameras are in fact turning into capable video cameras. While I'm sure this was shot on something a bit more sophisticated, my own camera is capable of 60fps at a moderate resolution, more than enough for some demos or web videos.

Since video has already become so prevalent as a skill needed by even still photographers, it's worth knowing the basics when the time comes to collaborate on a project. Even if you (or I) lack the technical know-how and the equipment, the ability to visualize and direct video can be extraordinarily similar to still photography. The job of the Director of Photography on a major motion picture set includes lighting, framing and technical aspects that are basically interchangeable with photography.

So if you're the kind of photographer that can look at a movie frame and see the light and compose an image, you may have a small stepping stone to working on video for a variety of projects. After all, photographers do in one frame what videographers have to do in 24.

Woodkid - Iron from WOODKID on Vimeo.

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Guest Post for Douglas Sonders

I recently wrote a guest post over at my friend Doug's site, and thought I'd re-post it here as well.

Hi, my name is Alex Minkin, I’m a 2010 graduate of the Hallmark Institute of Photography where I concentrated on advertising and cinematic photography. My work has been published in ads in my hometown of Detroit, Best of College Photography Contest, and in various blogs for industry leaders. I’ve sold work to companies like Adidas and ad agencies nation wide, and shot still unit photography for Anthony Zuiker, the executive producer of CSI in Los Angeles.

By the time I left Hallmark, several extraordinary stokes of luck had positioned me further ahead of what I had ever imagined possible. Profoto’s blog had done a write-up about me, Adidas wanted to purchase the rights to a picture I had done, and my website was lighting up like crazy from my first direct mailer campaign.

Then, I realized I was moving to New York but had sent my mailers to California. Adidas was taking its time with the paperwork, and I had stopped using my equipment so I could pack up and move into a tiny bedroom almost off the edge of Manhattan.

So, nearly a year after school, I’m not quite doing exactly what I want to be. I’m taking shoots that aren’t even remotely interesting. I have a side job for a fine art consulting company, but every hour of every day, I’m working for myself. It’s at the same time the most rewarding and frustrating thing I’ve ever done in my life.

The dedication that’s necessary to be even a moderate success story in this field can be intimidating. It can be hard to throw yourself into it, to go for broke and screw the consequences. I thought that I was putting in a lot of work before I finished school, but now I’m spending my entire day making new mass email promos, doing market research, scouting new things to shoot, and writing emails trying to squeeze my way into something nobody wants to pay me to shoot.

I learned not to get discouraged when things take forever to accomplish, or if they fail to happen at all. I’ve made a nuisance of myself for one company for nearly a year before they finally agreed to set something up, a year of back and forth for one shoot. I’ve overpriced, underpriced, gotten rejected and been ignored, but I also learned that there’s nearly no mistake I can’t step away from and make it a positive move towards what I want to be doing.

And even though it was hard for me to believe, and maybe it is for others as well, I learned that other photographers are going to be a more valuable resource than a client that pays well and pays on time. We’re such a strange group of people, and overwhelmingly, we seem to love it when our friends get ahead.

Sure I’m jealous that Doug is shooting F/A-18’s while I shoot some interiors, but he lets me ask all sorts of stupid questions that they never fully explained in school. Questions like ‘how the %#($ do you build up a mailing list of 10,000+ people?’ or ‘where do I get insurance so I can rent a real studio instead of working in my living room?’ The photographers and companies I have been working for have been the best resource imaginable.

So, if you’re still at school and reading this, I have a few things that might help you out in a small way. Spend every waking moment shooting. Shoot everything you want to do and make it fit an assignment. Ask questions, even if it seems like everyone else knows the answer. You’re already a professional photographer; now make the portfolio to prove it. School will give you everything you put into it and more, but you still have to do the work first. And lastly, call or email the photographers you admire. You might get yelled at, but you might end up guest blogging for someone else down the road.


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Rebrand-Rebadge

Sometimes a reinvention is as easy as a new font. Sometimes it's a new font, logo, design scheme, promo cards, business cards and marketing plan.

With the site undergoing construction, promo cards being designed and business cards on the way, I'm also stoked to be listed on PDN online's Photo Serve, which promotes photographers to creative art buyers and art directors all over the country.



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Alex Minkin Promo Video

Alex Minkin Promo Video
Originally uploaded by Alex Minkin

Finally got a promo video up of some of my work from the past year

You've got to check this out

This is the newly released trailer from the project I helped photograph over the summer, CSI's Anthony Zuiker delivers a huge action packed digi novel- Level 26: Dark Origins. The series of cyber-bridges was shot exclusively on the 5dmkII, the same camera I was using at the time to capture behind the scene stills and video to be used in the upcoming iPad app. Be sure to check it out and pre-order the book or catch it in stores.




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Old Shots-Jen and Wojo

This was a shot from back in school, and was one of my somewhat ridiculously large setups. Seven lights are in here, think you can spot them all? Check out how I did it after the jump.

thanks to flickr user j.cleveland I remembered to finally make the lighting diagram for this picture. It took me a minute to figure out my own lighting, but the in studio stuff can be predictable at times, so deconstructing it wasn't too bad. Then I remembered I posted the lights used on flickr. Typical.

Two softboxes on the background start off this high key image. Metered a generous 2 stops over my planned subject exposure (f/5.6 subject, f/8-11ish on the background). I chose a fairly wide aperture to get even more depth of field out of this picture. A long lens and compression can do the job for you, but only if you have the working space to do it. I was a little crammed in there, so wide open was easier than hitting the wall.

The two strips on either side of Jen are gobo'd off for flare control. If you can't see the light source, it can't make a flare even if its hitting your subject. Black cards don't bounce much light, so you're also not worrying about spill.

The beauty dish above Jen was one of my favorite lights all year. It has great falloff, and near softbox quality soft light. The last two lights are on either side of Jen's arm sticking through the Gobos, at about equal power. The top of the ball is being ever so slightly lit by the beauty dish, and the back of her hand and arm is all grid.



This is the rough lighting diagram, and what Jared may not know is that nearly the same setup was used the same day for another shot, this one:


I used the same setup for a couple reasons. Working without an assistant is tiring sometimes. And Wojo's shot was actually the test for Jen's, but since we had two completely different subjects, I felt that repeating a lighting pattern wouldn't be too egregious a sin.
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Retro-Vintage-Old School

Photographing in the style of another time period is a great exercise in nearly every area of photography. You're re-creating lighting, wardrobe, editing and, in some cases, the very media you're using.

And while pinup isn't exactly something that's lacking on the interwebs, going back around 70 years to an art style that fell out of common usage long ago is one of the coolest things I've done this summer.

I chose pinups because of the huge range of imagery possible-the different styles, mediums, and even purpose you can choose. I decided the logical place to start is with the classic pinups mostly inspired by Alberto Vargas. While I decided to go with girls wearing more clothing than he normally depicted, the pure white backgrounds, popping colors and an incredible sense of light are all true to his paintings. Part of the editing process even brought in a painterly feeling for that little disconnect from the modern digital photography that captured it.

Check out more pictures, the lighting setup and some processing after the jump.

Planning these shoots was fairly straight forward. My models were told to research Alberto Vargas, Bettie Page, and the pinup genre in general for clothing. Hair was simply curled and taken up for most of the shots, let down for others. The one absolute necessity to me was having the deep red lips. We took test shots before makeup, and you could tell something just didn't look right.

The lighting setup was one of the larger setups I've used for something that looks deceptively straight forward, and I still haven't perfected it yet. Total count-6 lights, or rather, every light I own right now.



Three lights on the background, two in softboxes on the side and one magic-armed to the ceiling with a bare reflector nuked the background to nearly pure white. I could have pathed out the model off of any background, but some of the flare from the background gave me part of the look I was looking for.

Two lights in grids were positioned behind the model at an angle. It was important that these two were never actually visible to the camera-way too much flare if they were. The background softboxes provided gobos, but light stands with poster boards attached would have worked if I needed to change the angles.

The main light was in an Alien Bee PLM system, which is really a glorified bounce umbrella. It's supposed to be more efficient, but I never had to test that since I shot relatively open at f/6.3-8, never straining my lights at all. Faster recycles, less eye strain on the model and a shallower depth of field are all bonuses.

Where I was lacking light was a fill which would have been positioned right next to me in front of the model. The PLM is huge, so it has to be pretty far to the side. The opposite side of the model would go dark pretty fast from the light falloff, so a fill would have given me slightly less of a ratio, but still be really nice, sculpted light.

With the background nearly pure white, the PLM was lighting my model and foreground. The tileboards I put down on the floor disappear into the curve of the 9' seamless paper, and the bottom half gets painted over in photoshop, as do any gaps or irregularities.

The light makes the picture look like it's straight off a page of watercolor paper, and then I enhance it even more in photoshop. First, stray bits of background are painted white, covering the bottom of the background, sides peaking around, and anything that shows up that isn't supposed to be there. Skin is retouched if required, and liquifying is done now, so we don't change masks later.

A layer of curves brightens the whole image, skin tones and background. If an area like a knee or an elbow is blown out, it will disappear so I mask those areas back in, and then brighten them individually with the dodge tool.

A second layer of curves pulled down, only affects the model, since our background is 100% white. This provides a punch of color, contrast, and usually, too much red. A hue/saturation layer with the red channel selected pulls down the reds just a little, and I mask in red clothing, accessories and lips.

Then I just go crazy with curves, using them to increase contrast or brightness in individual areas. Legs and eyes usually get brightened a little, hair gets added contrast, and the overall image is brought up to near the final look. Masks are on every individual part so I can fine-tune as much as I want. Dodging and burning is done on a 50% gray/softlight layer, usually on clothing to give it some pop and depth.

If the photoshop didn't scramble your brains a little bit, here's the finished product to finish the job for you.









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