Many people ask me about how photographs I’ve done were taken. Lots of interest in the techniques or technical aspects. The Story Behind The Photo series answers those questions! This one is a portrait of world renowned photographer Freeman Patterson.
If you see any shots of mine that you are dying to know how they were done, send me an email and I’ll post em.
As a photographer, being assigned to photograph one of your peers with the stature of Freeman Patterson would scare anyone. Having known Freeman personally for a few years however made me a bit less apprehensive. The assignment was made more difficult however as he insisted that he would not be photographed with a camera, slides, or taking photographs.
As we went through his house he showed me some recent slides images he had captured. One of which was a scene of backlit trees with light shining through, with the trees blurred by camera movement, a technique he uses frequently. When I asked him where the photograph was taken, he said in the woods just outside his front door. We ventured into those woods, and I saw the same type of light as the photograph he showed me. I had him stand so he was backlit by the trees, then using a slow shutter speed I began attempting various blurring techniques like zooming, juggling, and rotating the camera during the exposure.
This created the interesting background, but of course Freeman was backlit so he was just a black shape. So to get him in the photograph, I used a flash off camera to fire at the end of the exposure, which then produced a sharp Freeman in the middle of the blur. The fact he was backlit was very important, because if the same light was on him that was on the background, it would have recorded him as a blur as well as the flash. When I showed the photos to Freeman, he asked me how I was able to get him sharp in the frame…now that was cool, I was able to teach Freeman Patterson something!!!
Below are some outtakes from the shoot using different movement!
Technical info:
Canon EOS-1D Mark II N
Lens: 35mm
ISO: 100
Shutter Speed: 1/4
Aperture: F11
Whitebalance: Daylight
Metering: MANUAL of course!
Noel Chenier
———-
Photographer and teacher
Connect with Noel on INSTAGRAM or TWITTER or via EMAILÂ
Photography Assignment Generator Apps now available on the app store!
Noel’s Portfolio
Work Done by My Students!
Want to make sure you get all the latest posts and info? Subscribe!
More Stories Behind The Photo Post
Canada Games Athletes-Cyclist Justin Theriault
Today’s athlete is cyclist Justin Theriault, who I photographed outside the Telegraph-Journal office in Saint John. The upper parking lot provided a nice high spot that allowed me to get lower than Justin so I could put some of the nice clouds behind him on his bike. So like many …
Canada Games Athletes-Rower Keegan Drummond
Today’s portrait shoot is of Canada Games rower Keegan Drummond. With my previous water based shoot experience, I realized that I needed MORE POWER if I was going to be able to light up Keegan while he was in the water. So I velcro-ed together THREE Canon Flashes and fired …
Canada Games Athletes-Tennis player Daniel Blake
Today’s shoot is of Canada Games Tennis player Daniel Blake. Another shoot where I had an idea of the shot I wanted…the player leaping through the air, stretched out, smashing the ball… and well, just couldn’t make it work the way I envision it. I don’t think Daniel had enough …
Canada Games Athletes-Swimmer Jacqueline Murchison
Today’s Canada Games athlete portrait is of swimmer Jacqueline Murchison. I wanted to start off with some portraits outside the pool. Figured it would be easier to shoot them first, that way she wouldn’t get all wet and have to stand around. Since we were indoors, it was easy to …
1st Canada Games Portraits-Nicole Barry and Marlene Vaughan
The New Brunswick Canada Games athlete articles have started, so I can now start posting some pix from the shoots. The first story is about Nicole Barry, who is playing on the women’s softball team for this year’s games in Prince Edward Island, and her grandmother Marlene Vaughan, who competed …
(890)
Noel, I am going to love this site!