Why I shoot RAW

Here’s a great example of why shooting RAW is a good idea.

Yesterday a magazine requested the image on the left.  It was very bright and in the middle of the afternoon with the sun to her back (this was an incidental test shot they really liked for some reason).  As it was, it wasn’t up to my standards and had I shot jpeg, there would be very little that could have been done about it.  Look how blown out the sky is, and how dark she is. How day-glow the grass is…

The image on the right is what I ended up with after an hour or so of fiddling.  Developing the RAW into two images, one for the sky and one for her blended together in photoshop along with a bunch of curves adds up to the final image on the right.  All that information is in there in that RAW file.  Most of the time it’s not necessary and we or the camera throw it away.  But damn if it isn’t handy in a pinch.

Cynthia

Charles

Here are a couple portraits I took of a man named Charles King for POZ magazine about two months ago. The issue came out last week, so I can share them with you. I was pretty happy with them.  They’re lit by a skylight above his head and a wall of windows behind me.

 

Wes

Malcolm Gladwell in TIME

I shot author Malcolm Gladwell (Blink, The Tipping Point) for TIME a couple weeks ago and it’s in today’s issue if anyone wants to take a gander.  Below is a scan of the magazine as well as the original version and my favorite portrait from the shoot.

 

Neil Gaiman

I had the chance to shoot author Neil Gaiman for 5 minutes last night.  Here are the results.
 

Kathleen

Another silly self portrait 021108

Well, I was the only person I had to shoot tonight. Oh and make sure you go vote tomorrow morning.

The night group shots.

OK, so here are two examples of the group shots from last Wed. The first is what you get when I did my best to equalize the background and foreground lighting. Though Thomas in the back left is a bit soft. The other is a composite of a separate background exposure I did before everyone got there while there was still light. It’s fine to me, thought in comparison to the first I think it looks less organic and a little too pasted in.

Mary

My good friend Mary came by for some pictures again this afternoon.  Some of the results are below.  Special thanks to Colby Smith for doing an amazing job on the make-up.