Eagle Hunter Portrait - How Was This Photo Taken
Have you ever stood next to someone photographing the same scene, and you wondered why their photos were so much better than yours?
Your first step on your journey to answering that question is to master your camera's technical settings to have the maximum probability of success when the moment you should be taking the photo presents itself.
Beyond the technical settings, you need to learn a number of elements on your way to becoming a better photographer. To help you on that journey my workshops are designed to help you learn the five (5) critical steps you need to focus on.
1– The level of research that should be considered before embarking on any photography workshop.
2– Pre-visualization techniques to help capture the photos you want while you travel with me.
3– Making the right critical situational and composition decisions in the moment of the action.
4– The editing techniques to make your images come to life.
5– Learning from the common mistakes made by photographers.
My goal is to have you stand next to me while we shoot a variety of photos. You will hear about the research and pre-visualization I made before our trip. And you will learn the decisions that I make at the moment, and in post-processing to achieve my desired results. If you put these steps into practice while you travel with me, the next time you are out shooting it will be the person standing next to you that wishes their photos are as good as yours!
Let’s look at how I approach my photography. More important to you, how I will teach you to approach your photography on one of my workshops.
Research Prior To The Trip
Before I ever stepped foot in Mongolia I conducted research to learn about the cultures that I would be visiting. I found a variety of images and videos through some online research that allowed me to understand who I would be meeting.
It was also a great opportunity for me to save a series of images in a folder to help me when I was on my first trip. It was a good exercise in pre-visualizing the kind of images I wanted to take. One of those images was a portrait of an Eagle Hunter holding his Golden Eagle inside a tent. I wanted to add my own spin to it and place an Eagle Hunter in front of a dark background. For that, I knew I would need portable lighting and reflectors for lighting and a black backdrop to help darken the backgrounds.
I then found a tour company that could help me create the trip that I wanted. Once in the country, I sat down with my guide and showed her the images that I wanted to take. That was a critical decision because she knew how to make my wishes a reality.
That was over a decade and over 18 trips ago. It’s because of that experience that you now can travel to Mongolia with an experienced guide and a professional photographer (Me) that can help you turn your wish list of images into reality.
I will still ask you to go through the exercise of creating your own shot list. It’s a good exercise for you to do to help you begin to feel more comfortable with the kind of images you will be taking. It will help you in gear decisions and give you so much to look forward to.
Once we are together we will go through the images you want to take while on a workshop with me in Mongolia.
The Actual Photography Situation For This Image
You can see by the images that I share how the behind the scenes of this image looked. Its organized confusion. People holding up lights and reflectors. Eagle Hunters getting calls on their cell phones. And YES, bird poop gets all over the backdrop.
But we do have fun, and everyone gets the chance to take a series of images in the one or two portrait tents that we set up on location. :-)
Critical Decisions I Made The Moment
I made a series of Critical Decisions in the moments before I clicked the shutter.
1 – I wanted to have the Eagle and Eagle hunter’s faces in close proximity. I waited for the moment to take the photo
2 – I looked at the four edges fo my frame to make sure I was not cutting anything off I wanted included in the image. I would have liked the bottom of the image to be below the knees. There was too much clutter. He was also sitting on a chair that did not work with the scene. I chose to cut it off.
3 – I wanted to make sure I did not cut off the eagle tail. It was tucked under the Eagle Hunters hand. I waited for it to be visible. It would have looked strange not to include it.
4 – I checked my depth of field to make sure there was focus on the face of the Eagle Hunter and the Eagle. That aperture was ƒ8.
5 – I wanted the background to be black. I chose to Spot Meter on the Eagle Hunter’s face so the backgrounds would be blacked out.
Post Processing Decisions
Final Image
Camera Details For This Image
Camera: Nikon D850 – Lens: Nikon 24-120mm ƒ4 – Aperture was ƒ8 – Shutter Speed was 1/60th of a second – ISO1100 – Metering Mode: Spot Meter
Other Photos We Take In Mongolia
(click on images to enlarge)
Check out all the Mongolia workshops I offer if you would like to photograph Eagle Hunters in Western Mongolia in a variety of situations. You can view those workshops by visiting my workshop page.