Robert Harris Robert Harris

RADA Unearthed and Balcony TV! BTS coming Soon

So I recently worked with RADA Unearthed again. I took some behind the scenes photos for them during their filming with Balcony TV.  This was filmed at Randlords. Amazing view!

We will put them up here on the blog this week for you all to look at. Full write up as well.

rada bts.jpg

See you all soon! Keep being awesome!

 

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My shoot with the talented miss Micci T!! :D

Hey everyone.

So I recently got to work alongside this incredibly talented dancer, miss Micaela Todd.

Over the past few years I have photographed many dance shows and competitions, in which I have seen her dance many times. So to finally get to shoot some professional images of her with lighting and a great location was really fun.

Here is my favourite one :D

We took these shots at the Centurion Golf Estate at sunset. Really worked like a dream, and these are some of my favourite dance photographs to add to my portfolio. 

Dance photoshoots always take a little bit of patience and a good connection with the model. Getting timing right during a jump is key. Making sure the technique portrayed in the shot is correct. All the while trying to make sure the shot is sharp and that you have the settings right. Michaela did her part perfectly. 

Its always great fun for me to work with dancers. They are always willing to do the shots just one more time, which means we going to do this at least another 5 times... but it works.

I took along my usual set up of gear, Canon body and lenses, Yongnuo triggers, and my Menik fn 600 flash which i use for all my work now. Seriously need another one ! I also had the Olympus OM-D E-M5 mk ii which the cool people at Olympus South Africa allowed me to play with for a few weeks. Along with some killer and beautifully crafted lenses, which I used on all the portraits of her. 

Anyways on to the images. please look, enjoy, and let me know what you think. We love hearing from you. 

All the info to our gear used and all the people involved is below.

Full list of gear we used for this shoot:

  • Canon 5d mk iii
  • Canon 50mm f1.4
  • Canon 85mm f1.8
  • Menik fn-600 strobe (battery powered) from cameralight SA-- Link to flash
  • Peak Design Slide strap.
  • Yongnuo 622c triggers
  • Logitek backpack
  • 2 lightstands
  • 120cm octobox bowens mount.

Also For the portraits:

  • Olympus OM-D E-M5 mk ii
  • Olympus 45mm f1.8
  • Olympus 40-300mm f2.8

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Optical Noise photography:

Micaela Todd (Dancer)

Olympus SA

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Have a good day everyone!

cheers!

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Photographing Prime Circle at RADA Unearthed concert!

Hey guys.

First off hey, hi, whatsup! Apologies for not blogging in forever.  I realise that my last blog was in March!! I will try get back onto my constant writing again. Things have been very busy, and I have been working on some new things and moving studio again, but things are coming back on track very nicely.

So for my firs blog back I wanted to tell you a lil about getting to photograph Prime Circle live.

I was booked to work an Event For RADA Unearthed, where they were introducing new artists of theirs, as well as their new music videos. The event was last week Thursday at Monte Casino. Hosted in the gorgeous Parkers Comedy Club. 

For those of you who have not yet seen what RADA Unearthed and especially RADA Healing is about, please have a look. They provide rehabilitation for those in need. RADA is an acronym for rape, alcohol, drug and abuse. please have a look at their site

http://www.rada.co.za/

RADA Unearthed is a platform which is aimed at supporting musical artists and pushing their potentials for creating great music. their info can be found on the RADA site as well.

RADA Unearthed launched Prime Circle's new song , "Keep Marching On". Definitely go and check that out !!

Prime Circle, has always been one of my favourite bands, both locally and internationally. I love their style of music. Speaks to your soul a little bit. Their new song called Breathing, is my favourite so far, which they also performed live at the event. I got to photograph them during their performance. I don't get to shoot a lot of live music, but the lighting was awesome and made my job really easy.

heres a few!!!!

Most of the shots were taken at f2.8 on all the lenses. some at f1.8 and f2 on the 50mm. all of the shots were done with the lighting from the show itself.  If you have any questions dont be shy to hit me with a message on email or on our social media channels. rob@opticalnoise.net

Gear we used for this shoot:

  • Canon 5d mk iii
  • Canon 50mm f1.4
  • Canon 70-200mm f2.8 mk i L IS
  • Canon 16-35mm f2.8 L ii
  • Peak Design Slide strap.

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Optical Noise photography:

Have a good day everyone!

cheers!

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A look into my dance photography

Hey all I know that I have been quiet since I left on my trip to Cape Town in July. During my stay I had my camera bag and gear stolen and it kind of threw me off quite a bit. So lets get back into it.

I have decided to start off with sharing some info about my dance photography and why I adore it so much. Also a little info into how I freeze motion with flash (speed lights)

I have always been around dancers, and now recently I have been able to photographed a lot of dancers. Which makes me very happy.  :D

Some was photographed using flash, and some of the older shots were shot without flash. Most recently I have been working a lot with speed lights so that I can utilize the High Speed sync function.

With dancers moving so fast you sit with the decision of is the slight or heavy motion blur ok or not, do you prefer frozen solid or a slight feel of movement? I try getting both, all depending what I feel is more important at the time. Most of the time a sharp frozen in time is key for me.

Now to make a dancer freeze solid you need to shoot with a very fast shutter speed, and with most sync speeds of 1/160th or 1/200th is way too slow. Especially when it comes to break dancers or ballerinas. Some of the moves they remain still and that’s easy enough but when a foot or arm has to be swung to get to the climax of the movement then the shutter speed is key.

I have noticed that anything under 1/800th is never sharp. So my go to speed for these shoots are 1/800th and 1/1000th. I would go faster but the flash can’t handle it always and I end up killing the flashes. When I get more speed lights this will be more suitable. For now I work off 2 yongnuo YN500ex flashes. Which are around 1/4th power or 1/2 power. Full power also kills the flash when fired too much, and I usually mount both on one bracket, and either bare or with a shoot through umbrella depending on the light situation.

With HSS you need a much higher power output to make it affect the image at all. Do a quick test shoot a photo at 1/200th, then at 1/250th. The difference of HSS is seen easily.

I only use Eneloop pro batteries, which goes a long way when I do this.  They recycle quite fast and don’t overheat easy.

Using flash just allows you to create a very unique light effect on the dancer, which creates contrast and makes it different. Shooting without flash at super high speeds is pretty simple. If you can anticipate and time the move nicely that’s all it is, but with flash the look of the image using strobist techniques will create a nice feel.

Here is a photo I took in Jhb CBD a while back of bboy Lab-A . No flash, just high iso, with a canon 85mm f1.8 wide open and the only here’s we had was an above streetlight

 

Then here is a shot of Bboy Curse in Cape Town shot using high-speed sync (1/2000th)

 

I love speed lights because of the uses they have. I have completely moved away from studio strobes. If I could afford a strobe like an elinchrom ranger or profoto B1 then maybe id do that. But even with my in studio work I have been using only speed lights. Maybe I will do another write up on using speed lights to do studio work. Just remember light is light, however you can get it into the shot, it will work.

I can do a more in depth write up on the exact settings for each shot if you guys are keen to know more. But this is my introduction: D

Check my site

www.opticalnoise.net

Instagram @opticalnoise

Keen to hear from you all. Lets hope they publish it.

I will try attaching a bunch of images to this as well.

Enjoy

#Speedlightsonly

More of my dance photos with and without flash all together

       


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