I guess I missed International Available Light Portrait Day, but then I am wondering when I get to color eggs and hide them in our miserably small back yard. My bud in Texas, Kirk Tuck, did a nice little post on Available Light, and got me thinking about how much I love it as well. I thought I would post a little “Natural Light” post myself.

The shot above is totally natural light from a wide open sky in back of me and a setting sun to camera right giving the shot a little tweak of light. I am loving the way it just adds that wonderful highlight to the jeans and her hair. Taken at the Omaha workshop while waiting for another photographer to get their lens changed.

I would love to discuss some natural light shots with you, but first some housekeeping:

Workshop News:
I have scheduled a few advanced classes and we have had some really great classes. The workshop we did in Baltimore last weekend was a blast for the students. They learned how intricate the lighting used to shoot jewelry can be, and how to prepare a pour shot for liquids. We added some models to the afternoons and they loved the switching of gears from things to people.

Atlanta is my next workshop and it is an advanced. If you are looking for a way to expand your understanding of studio work – still life, product, food and jewelry – take a look at what we are offering. It is designed for the serious photographer, and is still a great workshop for the advanced amateur.

Also coming up is the Greenville and Columbus workshops. Greenville will be a great time. I love going to the smaller towns that many other workshops don’t schedule. I will be doing some work in the area as well, so the month of June is totally full. Columbus is being sponsored by MPEX and will simply rock! Watch for some exciting news about that workshop!

Selina, Jack and I are gearing up bigtime for the Going Pro NOW tour this fall. We kept the pricing low and the value high. We believe in photography and we believe that we can make a difference in the challenges of the emerging photographers out there. Things seem to be picking up out there in ad land, so be ready.

I will be doing some one-on-one consultancies in July. Utilizing the studio I have in Phoenix, there will be some openings for photographers wanting to take some serious lighting instruction. We can arrange for all kinds of amenities for those of you who may want to take a more personal workshop. It will be available for 2 attendees per. If interested, drop me an email. I have only a few open days in July.

Heading for Denver in July and we are trying a workshop in the Flagstaff Area. That workshop will feature working along Old Route 66, Downtown Flagstaff, mountain meadows, pines, deserts and more. A special workshop in a special place. This will be my first Denver area workshop, and I am excited about that.

Recent posts you may have missed:
My workshop and week in NY produced New York, May 2010: Fun in the Big City
You Know That Guy… I Hate That Guy. Am I Somehow More Successful Now? was a post on the tendency to think negatively instead of with inspiration.
Sure You Gotta Logo, But What Is Your Personal Brand? discusses going beyond the surface of brand and gets into your personal branding project.
“The Heart of Portraiture” E-Book: 20 Portraits Discussed. My first freely distributed E-book featuring 20 portraits and discussions on what the thought process was to achieve them. Free to download and enjoy.

Now on to a little post on natural light, and thanks Kirk for getting my brain going on this.

I have heard it called available light, natural light, real light and so many other similar terms that it can all be so confusing. I may not have the definitive, nor the best accepted explanation of what it is, but to me ‘natural light’ only means I did not bring any artificial light sources into play. Using what is there, and modifying the bejeezus out of it is fine. (Let’s not go into whether the use of reflectors is indeed a light source or any kind of semantical issues, OK… I mean I didn’t bring a strobe, hot light, flashlight, or studio flash along for the shot. Shiny boards, scrims, and reflectors are fine in my definition. Feel free to define it your way.)

I like the softness of natural light. I like it’s ability to sculpt and define. I like the simple way the light moves across my subjects creating complex behavior that I can exploit. I think it is accessible light – a welcoming light. Natural light seems familiar and emotional to me.

When I started out, I used a Nikon with three lenses and a reflector. I didn’t own any lighting equipment at all. I shot model composites, local fashion and editorial, portraits for business, even still life all with the light in the alley behind my studio and the light that would come through the two story windows. I ended up with a cadre of fill cards… silver, white, gold, bronze. And there was a stash of odd shapes for odd fills, and cookies for shaping the window light.

I love working on location and the challenges it brings. Environments create lighting situations that can be astounding to work with. Even when I am carrying strobes, the natural environment is totally a part of the creative process. Below are a few shots from the early portfolio. All were taken in the 1980′s, most in the early 80′s.

All images in natural light. Copyright Don Giannatti

My first lighting kit was a set of Ascor Strobes with four heads. Wow. They were used like crazy for a week and then set for quite a while as I kept working in the style I was accustomed to working in. Over a couple of years the strobes became another tool in my arsenal of lights, and the work started to include them more and more.

But I never lost my love for the simple natural light. And the intimacy it can create.

Lately I have been doing all kinds of lighting (at the workshops we go from natural light to 4 and 5 strobes… it is a blast to be able to control and manipulate so many sources), and find my natural light work to be even more interesting to me. I like to move fast, capture a moment and leave it all on the set. It can be a much shorter process for me these days, and the accessible, intimate, natural light creates a definitive change from the manipulated and illustrative strobe work.

This is a totally natural light shot. What I mean is not even a reflector was used. I wanted the softness of the sky and the natural play of light on her face. Behind me, the sky was cloudy, but bright. The sun had burst under a cloud behind her for a moment and it gave me some great backlight. I work with the talent to keep the sunlight off the cheeks and nose, and then let them be themselves. This shot was taken with a 80-200MM lens at 125MM and f-2.8. I like the way the hair is lit and the catch lights in the eyes seem to be so natural.

I particularly liked this location near my old studio. It was simply the wall facing east – and to the east was a two story white and light tan building that caught the afternoon light and became a great, soft light source. In the afternoon I could place a model in the shade and still get a wonderful highlight on the hair from the open sky. This is also a totally natural light shot. With the huge light source of the building and the open sky above us, I can work her face any way and still have wide, broad, soft light. A 200MM lens at f-2.8 gave me a very shallow DOF and isolates her face against the wall.

These shots were taken on an iPhone on the south side of my studio in soft, overcast light in the late afternoon. I like the way her face is softly sculpted by the light. The DOF is of course not controlled on the wide angle iPhone lens.

The natural softness and the slightly hard shadow from the slightly diffused sun produced a nice look to my eye. The model kept her face toward the light so I could keep the ratio closer than the side light would have created.

I pushed the ISO up to 200 on this one. The light was quite overcast and I wanted a bit faster shutter speed. The 80-200MM L is at f-2.8 and the focal length is about 150mm or so. I brought a white card in close to the shadow side of her face to provide a nice fill, and had her turn her face toward the light until the shadow on her nose was mitigated to a lighter shade. Side light can be very nice sometimes, and other times, I work to get a softer ‘fall’ of light.

This portrait was taken in Balboa Park at the San Diego workshop. We had wrapped a shoot and were heading to meet the other group when I noticed the way the slightly overcast sky was reflecting on the large leaf. I loved the feeling of it, and the shape of that large leaf just seemed like a perfect background for a portrait. Yes, I really did.

I placed her in the soft light of the shade of the building and turned her face up to catch the same soft, broad light that the leaf was enjoying. I really like the way the light formed on her face. And the softness of the light kept her face free of pesky shadows. I do like shadows, it’s just them pesky shadows that bother me. The lens was a 20-35MM L at f-4 and zoomed to about 30MM. There are no fill cards or additional modifiers at all on this shot.

I hope you took something from this little exercise in pure natural light portraiture.

Here are some resources you may enjoy:
Lifehacker had this little post.
Here is a very detailed post on shooting food with natural light.
7 Tips To Use Natural Light In Your Photography from the folks at Virtual Photography Studio
While I really don’t care much for that “Secrets” thing, this excerpt from “Professional Secrets of Natural Light Photography” has some nice information.

A few photographers who use a lot of natural light in their work:
Nick Onken
Kate Orne (NSFW if you open “women” first and work with neanderthals.)
Jay Maisel
Anthony Georgis
Richard Rinaldi
Denny Zalpalac

Thanks for coming along on this little post. If you are thinking about a workshop this year, take a look at Learn to Light for more information. Follow along on Twitter if you want to keep up with a lot of what I find interesting in photography.

SHARE/SAVE

On the heels of my E-Book on Portraits, “The Heart of Portraiture”, I have a few other portraits to share. And I discuss why I like them. Article on the E-Book is here.

First some housekeeping:
GoingProNOW is our emerging commercial photographer seminar with Selina Maitreya, Jack Hollingsworth and me, and we are finalizing what we need to get the registration started. We have had a ton of interest, so we will open it to people who want to sign up soon. It is a different kind of seminar, and we focus on the commercial photographer, not the wedding or portrait industry. Direct to consumer is a different type of photography, and there are those who really know that area better.

Workshop News:
Openings remain in Atlanta and Columbus. Greenville is nearly full. Remember, we only take 12 people, so the size is small enough to get a lot out of the workshop. Columbus will be hosted by the great guys at MPEX and they will be announcing some incredible things shortly – and that will of course be here as well. New York and Baltimore are both filled up, and I will be spending the week back in that area shooting and writing so it will be a big week for me and for Lighting Essentials as I plan to blog each day beginning with the Friday before the NY workshop up to the Sunday of the Baltimore workshop.

I am going to do a workshop in Flagstaff, Arizona in July. The workshop will begin on Friday at around 1PM and finish on Sunday at sundown. Flagstaff is an incredible area, with amazing landscapes and backgrounds for portraiture. It will be a very special workshop, with a wide variety of photographic experience. From forest to stark desert, the area around Flagstaff will become our palette. More Workshop information here.

From the Web:
Seth Godin talks about the Micro Magazine and its importance to the upcoming changes to publishing. I believe the iPad is the breakthrough with many other devices on the horizon. This will be a very heady time for photographers and publishers and writers… for sure.

At APhotoEditor there was a wonderful post on “Treatments”. A Treatment is a document a photographer may submit to show the client what they have in mind. Lighting tests, wardrobe ideas and such. I haven’t used them in the past as a photographer, but I sure did in the agency days… providing the photographers and clients our treatment ideas. This is a fantastic way to differentiate yourself from other photographers, and this post shows you how. There is also a great interview with Keith Gentile, the owner of Agency Access. Agency Access is a list builder for commercial photographers, and this interview may really open your eyes to how part of the business may help you.

Bruce DeBoer has a great little article on a guy who rediscovered his art. Take a moment for a good read, and some inspiration.

Check in with Heather Morton and catch this great little post on “Contact 2010″.

And three photographers who I have been looking at a lot lately. Love this work.
Jason Bell
John Russo
Nicolle Clemetson

BTW – I wrote a rant for the guys at Tiffinbox that may cause me to get bodyguards, so look for it in the next few days.

Now on to a few portraits from the archives that I kinda like.

The first shot is Briana at a rest stop on I10 near the Sedona Exit, Arizona:

This shot has become one of may favorites, and it was shot a while ago. I have shots where Briana is looking at the camera, and I like those too. But this shot removes the ‘glamor’ from the shot and instead presents a person in the environment. And the gesture of the shoulders/hair tend to add some great dynamics to the shot. I don’t know what it would have looked like had she stood there casually looking toward the clouds, but I am very happy with this movement.

Lighting and Camera: Canon with Canon 20-35MML at 20MM. Two Canon flashes. One to camera right and one to camera left. Setting to bring ambient in foreground to close to that of the background. I wanted the clouds to be dominant, and the reflection was a wonderful find.

Now we have Connie, our makeup artist from Florida:

I loved her great smile and the fantastic way the light settled on her face. It was very late in the Florida evening and the light is coming from nearly the horizon toward her. It is a warm and soft light. I took a quick meter reading as I was heading toward where she was sitting and realized that the sun and the ambient were only about 1.5 stops different, so the shadows would not be too dark. At first she turned away, but I told her how great she looked in the light and she gave me this smile. I got two shots off before she turned away laughing.

I used my 20-35MML 2.8 at 4.5 to keep a little more focus on her face. The shutter speed was only 1/100 so I had to be a little careful with it. However, at a setting of 20MM, there would be a little room to play with for camera shake.

Next up is a shot of Christina in Miami, Arizona:

This was a shot I did on a shoot I wrote about called “Minimalism Shooting”. Christina and I went out with nary more than a fill card, a camera and a couple of lenses. I love natural light, and we were on a quest to make some images without a ton of setup time. It was also damn hot in Phoenix, so we headed to Miami, only a few miles up Highway 60, to get 15 degrees cooler.

This shot was done in a little doorway with totally natural light. Across the street was a very bright wall, and that added some wonderful main, and I used a fill card to camera left to fill in a bit on the shadow side of her face.

I used a Canon 50MM 1.4 lens at 2.8, at 1/250 second to get this nice DOF look, and the way the lens shapes her form. You can tell from these settings that there was a lot of light coming from that building.

And we end with Alexi in Las Vegas, Nevada:

We were walking around a little cantina area in a shopping mall in Vegas when I saw this cool lighting thing happening on a terrace. I had Alexi walk into the light until I got the patch of light to reveal his face and the shadow to appear on the wall. Having him look off – toward the light – gives the image a bit of mystery. The framing gives it some dynamics. I had him lean into the light a bit to add more ‘movement’ to it.

Canon 20-35MM L 2.8 at f-8 – 1/250. I had it zoomed to about 28MM to get the framing I wanted. The light bouncing around in the little hallway gave me a bit of fill, but the drama of the dark was maintained because of the color of the walls. I exposed for the highlights on his face to keep the look more dramatic.

Thanks for coming along. I hope you download and enjoy the E-book. These images do not appear there, but there are 20 other images that are discussed in depth. Light, subject and gesture – the things I look for in a portrait.

You can stalk me on Twitter, follow along on the blog, or hang out at FaceBook if you like. See you soon with a blog on gear I like a lot.

SHARE/SAVE

Recently there was a discussion on whether natural light shooters would be able to compete with the strobe-heavy photographers and those deep into the Photoshop illustrative techniques. And before we begin it must be stressed that I love all kinds of photography. This is not ‘against’ any style that you may enjoy, it is only a look at some simple, and entirely wonderful ways of shooting.

Photography embraces all types of imagery. From the heavily illustrated work of Dave Hill and Tim Tadder, to the Photojournalist with a camera in a war zone, to a wedding shooter with a speedlight – and more. We love it all. I hope that when you look at a photograph you don’t measure it by whether it was ‘hard to do’ but whether it speaks to you and makes its way into your inner vision. The image is what is important.

The discussion was at Heather Morton’s excellent blog. Jaimie said:

“The other post I wanted to mention was the ‘To Gear or Not To Gear’ article where there was a discussion about exactly that. I think this was actually the first compliment I think I’ve received from someone in the industry in regards to my natural light stuff. I guess I’m curious to know why it’s seen as such a bad thing. I completely understand that in the advertising world it’s all about control and customization as well as being a little over the top in many cases. What I don’t understand is why working with natural light seems to be frowned upon and/or viewed as being amateur and simplistic, or something that wasn’t thought out. Seriously, I don’t think either Grant or I or any other shooter that uses a lot of available light (Chris Wahl anybody?) are just taking our cameras outside and hoping for the best when we shoot.”

I think that is something that a lot of people who first get interested in photography through the internets think. Unfortunately. And of course the marketers abound with gear gear gear to a point where some would wonder if were even possible to create images without a ton of lights. And of course it is. And shooters like Frank Hoedle use a lot of gear to achieve a look that seems more natural than not. And this is NOT a gear discussion…

This is a possibilities discussion. I have no dog in the hunt as they say. I could care less what anyone shoots with or without… just show me the pictures. Do they move me? Good.

My post today is on simplistic shooting… just a camera and a subject. The images above were taken 25 years ago. (Natural light, Nikon F3, 180MM f2.8 Nikkor @ 2.8, on Tri-X at ISO200 and pushed 15% in D76.) They were taken in Scottsdale, AZ on a bright, sunny day. There are no fill cards or any other lighting gear used. I think they work.

Why? Because it doesn’t matter to the image. The subject connects with you instantly. The light is subtle and soft and inviting. Was it ‘easy’? I don’t remember most anything being ‘easy’. The location has to work, and then there are considerations to be made. Will the light ‘work’ or will it just be exposure light? Can I sculpt the subject a bit and separate her and emphasize the line and shape and flow? What exposure compensations may I have to make to create on the film or capture, the look I see in my head? The only thing that is easy is that I only had to carry my bag to the shoot.

In the shot on the right we were in a closed in patio with a large window facing south. The light coming in that window was shaded from direct sun by an overhang, so the light was soft and wide. Placing the subject into that light and then making sure the walls were lit enough to provide the soft edge lighting was the goal. We had to move some furniture to get it right, but we did. Same location for the shot in the middle, and as the sun went behind a mountain and left us in shade, we did the shot on the little gravel driveway.

I shoot to the right and process to the left. What that means is I would more likely over expose the image and process to the shadows than I would underexpose. I like brighter skin tones and I like a neg or capture that has some contrast to it. Digital is so flat compared to film. So I shot the film to the regular ISO200 that I usually did (Tri-X was rated at ISO 400… yeah, and I am the king of prussia) and pushed the film (over developed it) to get a bit more contrast. Digital to follow after the jump.

This kind of shooting was my style back then. Natural or slightly modified light. Natural looking subjects in natural settings. I still love that look and shoot it. An older post on shooting with nothing but available light, Minimalist Shooting, is here and features my friend Christina.

BTW… if you would like one of those hand-filed negative borders, here you go. Just put the image in a layer below the border. This is one of my own filed negative holders, so enjoy. Only available here, and may not be available forever.

The shot below was made in Houston at a workshop. I noticed the light coming in from the window and knew it would be a nice light for a portrait. Moving the subject into the light, I made an exposure reading for his cheek and stopped down one stop from the reading. I wanted a darker side to me, and if I had exposed to the meter, the cheek would be one stop brighter, and the highlight of the face blown to nothing. I like the feeling of the light in shots like this… almost feel the warmth.

I could have brought a fill card in to lighten the shadows even more, but I liked the overall look of this shot so I left it out.

The next shot was taken in Seattle, also at a workshop. Behind me is a large white building which is adding some huge, soft light to the subject. I love the natural catch lights in the eyes when shooting natural light. This shot was taken with a Canon, 70-200MML f2.8 @ 2.8, ISO 100. Zoomed almost all the way out, the limited DOF is just delicious. There is no additional lighting modifications added to this shot.

The subject is under an awning, and the light is bouncing all around from a bright, sunny day around the structure. Keeping her in line with the brighter background helped her stay “open”, with a feeling of surrounding light that envelops her. Note that the brighter background objects out of frame are presenting as rim and hair light. Subtle, but then subtle is pretty cool to me.

For exposure: I metered the shot with an incident meter (Minolta IV) and it gave me a reading of 2.8 @ 1/320. And that would have been fine. But I chose to over-expose the image (1/200) to make sure I got the skin tones up and captured all the shadow detail I wanted. At post I can take it down if needed, but in this case the image was fine in post. Only a slight modification was needed to enhance the contrast.

What I would like you all to do, is just experiment a little with some minimal gear. Try making shots with only a subject and a lens. Find locations that have some amazing light falling all around and use it to create images that seem to have more light sources.

Here are some photographers that may inspire you to try some natural light, or minimalist shooting.

Nick Onken
Kate Orne (Women section – may be NSFW)
Jaimie Hogge
Grant Harder
Dave Hill (yes, THAT Dave Hill)
Jeff Petry
Mark Tucker
Nadav Kander (Dig around in the work a bit)
Peggy Sirota
Arthur Elgort (Especially Fashion: Check the ballet shots as well)
Chris Wahl

Of course all of the photographers mentioned above know their way around a strobe kit, and they all do work with lighting. There are images in their portfolio that use lighting… some use LOTS of lighting. The point I am making is that they also create compelling images with minimal equipment.

And that means that compelling photographs are available to the shooters who flex their lighting muscles and create with what they have. MAKE the shot happen. Take a subject out and take your cameras. MAKE the shot happen. Just for a while, focus on what you have on hand… what the light is doing, what you can do with it, where it is advantageous light, and where your image can be what you see in your head.

MAKE the shot happen. No excuses. Treat it as an assignment. You MUST make a compelling image.

I am thinking about doing some posts on the Medium Format film cameras. That way when you rent one, and you should, you will have the info here to get started right away. Your comments?

Thanks for taking this little rant about minimal shooting with me. Follow me and get all kinds of photographic links at Twitter. See you next time.

SHARE/SAVE

Well this was a fun gig. Once per year my friend Troy asks me to photograph his choir kids for a year of marketing for them. We spend about 4 hours and shoot a gazillion images. Neat part… he lets me do what I want. I can be as ‘creative’ as I want – as long as we get it done in 4-5 hours.

This time Troy wanted to do a poster of the kids to introduce the choir program to the school. He wanted to make it fun and exciting – not the normal ‘choir robes’ type of static shot. In this, as in many other inner-city schools, getting kids interested in choir takes a commitment to marketing. We started by sketching up a grid poster idea, then looked in the room for a place to shoot it. In Troy’s classroom, there are very few blank walls… it is a haven for music lovers. Posters, charts and more on every square foot.

We found a spot, took down a few posters and set it for our shoot space. This would be a place I would return to every moment I wasn’t shooting the choirs and the seniors. (I told you we shoot about a gazillion images, didn’t I?) To do that, I had to keep my ‘MOJO’ in play. That little thing inside us that keeps us centered or crazy (depending on need) for extended time. Mojo is an old, out of date term… I’m old and out of date… seems apropos. More after the jump below.

Before we take that jump, let’s take a quick look at some very cool posts from the web.

ProFotoResource.com has an article about the single portraits I did of the seniors. Check it out.
Hamburger Eyes from Chase Jarvis. You just gotta watch it.
Kirk Tuck stirs thing up with this post on the Flickr-ization of Photography. Leave a comment!
Bruce DeBoer has an interesting interview with Dominek Rella, Creative Director, at Permission to Suck.
Workin’ hard to get those Social Media numbers up? Seth Godin has some insight.
Good advice from Gary Vaynerchuk… as always.

And some popular posts here as well.
8 Essential Sites for Photographers.
Branding Your Photography Business: A Practical Approach.
10 Nifty, Excellent Excuses for Failing at Photography

If you are looking for a workshop, take a look at Learn to Light for our schedule and sign-up pages.

Jan 16, 17 : Phoenix (first one of the year… woohoo!)
Jan 30, 31 : Seattle (This workshop rocks… great studio and incredible talent)
Feb 6, 7 : San Diego (Last years San Diego workshop was amazing.)
Feb 27, 28 : Houston (Three-peat for Houston. Great town for us)
March 13, 14 : Santa Cruz (First time in Santa Cruz. Excited about that.)
March 27, 28 : New Orleans (Never even been to NO… very cool!)
April 17, 18 : Philadelphia (Philly is one of my favorite towns.)
April 24, 25 : Omaha (We had a ball in Omaha last time… probably have one again this time!)

Look for an announcement about Austin coming soon. we hope. Heh.

We have had some pretty interesting discussions at the LE FLickr Forum lately. Marketing, introducing your work to potential clients, lighting information and more. Join us, it’s free and fun.

And if you are looking for gear… MPEX has a little icon on the upper right of this page. Clicking on that will take you to the Lighting Essentials page (stuff I like) and you can save 10% on your first order. As long as you enter through this link, you can then go anywhere on the site and the 10% will be in effect. Save $180-$200 on Dynalite and Profoto Lighting kits… That’s cool. Thanks MPEX.

You can also save 50% ($100) on Selina Maitreya’s incredible audio program “The View From Here”… Just use the code FOSLE at checkout. I bought a little iPod shuffle and loaded this on it. Walking, flying, relaxing in the yard… that little iPod is clipped to my shirt.

Now let’s take a look at how to keep the shoot moving, under pressure, without losing the enthusiasm of the subjects.

I arrived before dawn to get the gear unloaded. I had an assistant for carrying stuff, but not a true ‘photographic’ assistant for this gig. I was going to be moving too fast and without an assistant who knows how I work (LOL… seriously… my assistants simply have to hang on for a few months before they totally understand the manic and furious way I think and work), I would spend more time telling them what to do than doing what I had to do. A sherpa was all I needed.

Kit:
Lenses: 20-35MM 2.8 L, 80-200MM 2.8 L
Lighting:
Speedlights: 580 EX, 430 EZ, Lumo Pro.
Studio lighting: 2 600WS ProFoto mono’s in a travel kit.
Modifiers:
2 43″ Bounce Umbrellas Satin
2 33″ Shoot Thru Umbrellas
1 60″ Bounce Umbella (Satin)
1 36″ Zebra Umbrella
1 SuperBounce with Stand
Honl Kit (snoot, flag, grids)
Speedlight ProKit: 1 Small Box, Beauty Dish, Accessories
Shower Curtain (goes everywhere with me)
Gels for Color Correction
Additonal Gear:
Elinchrome Wireless Triggers
Cybercync Kit
4 12′ stands
Tripod
Small Boom
Clamp Kit
Shoot Kit
Stand Bagger for carrying gear.

After locating and cleaning the wall, I set up the Canon 430EX in a shoot thru umbrella and did my lighting tests. We both liked the shadows as it added dimension. I like shadows… just do, so we placed the umbrella to give us a nice dramatic shadow on the wall to camera right. The shoot-thru umbrella worked well with all the white walls and the SuperBounce was brought into the shot in front of the subjects and just out of camera view. This kept some fill on them without filling in the shadows.

Against the white wall, skin tones and colors really pop!

I like the gritty look to the images. We could have blown out the background and had them floating on white… but the shadows and the texture just felt right. These kids love this room… it is a safe haven for them. Music and friends and memories abound. I didn’t want to remove all of that and make it so sterile that it could be anywhere. I wanted the reality of the room and the light. I think a lot about this stuff when I am preparing and shooting. The choices we make as photographers are based in contextual thought.

I placed a piece of tape under the center part of the stand to keep it in the same place for each student.

EDIT: I was asked about a setup shot. I forgot that I did one, so I am adding it here. I took this setup shot just before I added the fill card so I added it in with photoshop.

I had to add the fill card in with photoshop. It is in front of the subject about 20 inches... I wanted no fill on the shadow, but a little wrap back on the face.

That was the easy part.

We had over 200 kids to shoot if possible. I was also shooting the full group shots of the different choirs. so we would return to this shoot whenever time permitted. I would have nearly no time to work with each of the kids… a few shots – 3-6 and next kid.

These kids are sometimes into it and sometimes not. The key for me is to engage them in the shoot. Make them get out of their comfort zone and lose the inhibitions of ‘people are looking at me’ and they will really perform for you. It is really fun to see what they will do.

In order to do that, I have to be a little more crazy than they are.

Keeping the kids relaxed in a hectic shoot means not letting them see you going crazy.

Just not crazy with stress.

Of course things are moving fast and furious. A battery change means that the kids start to line up and more stress is introduced to the shoot. I handle those things with mock fury and real smiles. The kids get the sense of urgency, but also a sense of fun and the knowledge that it is OK to be in a hurry… we make it part of the process. If the kids get the sense that you are rushing them, uninterested in each one of them… they become uninterested in the project. Drifting off to chat instead of being excited to be photographed. I photographed every kid who was in line at lunch. If they were willing to stand there, I shot them.

I talk with the kid in front of me, and the kids around me. Joking and being somewhat irreverent to the situation brings them to my side. You have to be careful and know the limits of irreverence though. No ‘dissing’, no making fun or even sounding like you are making fun, and no off-color humor at all. Safe and fun.

I do it by making myself the point of the ‘joke’ not the subject in front of me.

I can't tell you how hard it can be to get a teenage kid to smile. I get them to laugh by bringing them into the experience and making it safe.

Getting kids to smile, let alone get goofy, is a challenge. I let their friends laugh at them with the knowledge that they would get to laugh back at their buds when it was their turn. I make them part of the experience. I chimp and share. I laugh and exclaim loudly that it was great… do it again… again… more. Always upbeat and always ‘with’ them, not aloof from them. I see that aloofness so often with photographers who are not able to identify with the subjects. Aloofness may be cool for hanging at the Starbucks, but it doesn’t cut it when shooting people in stressful situations.

I love working with kids. Getting these big, fun smiles makes the shoot successful. And the kids love the images.

We shot 136 kids against the wall. I didn’t have to choose, the choir director did that. He narrowed it down to the 24 on the poster and sent me the image numbers. Are there ones that I would have picked in the set he didn’t choose? Of course. But I am not the client, that is their job… mine was to give them as many to choose from as possible. I think we could have made at least 70 of them… but, that would be a different type of poster and require a lot more computer time. Which also isn’t free.

In the end I designed the poster with four different type treatments. He can choose the one he wants and we will wait for next year’s call and another chance to work with great kids, listen to great music (the A Cappella Choir sings all the time… beautiful), and explore portraiture… something I love to do.

Here is one of the type treatments for the poster.

I think the colors and the 'realistic' approach to lighting makes the poster accessible to the students. It let's them shine

Just gotta keep smilin’ and workin’ and never, ever let the Mojo go. You stay on top of all that is around you. It is YOUR shoot and you OWN the space. Bringing people into it and letting them have fun is one way to extend the power of your portraiture.

Please share this post if you found it interesting. Follow me on Twitter, and visit my website at dongiannatti.com to find out what is going on with me. My 365 Photoblog is at Posterous (I love those guys) and I hope you take a moment to see what is there from time to time. See you soon.

SHARE/SAVE

At least they strike me as being lit with the ‘feeling’ or ‘mood’ of the photograph foremost in mind. I have made some notes on what intrigued me about each of the images. They will get the ol’ juices goin’ for thinking about light before we think about the gear.

Each of these images seem to hold a bit of a cinematic view… shadows that are un-mitigated, soft light contrasted with contrasty light, a ‘natural’ feel that may not be natural light, but with the warmth and subtleties that draw one in. (BTW… take a look at the pool at LE Flickr… there are a lot of great images there, and this choice in no way is meant to slight the other images there.) This post comes right after the post on “Emotional Lighting”, a recent Rant.

You know, I do workshops all over the country, and some selected dates out of the country. I meet so many great photographers and beginning shooters and models and just great people where ever I go. One of the reasons I am so optimistic about the future of photography are the people I meet at the workshops. Dedicated, interested, invested, committed, and creative, there are some terrific people pursuing this wonderful art of imaging.

I also hope to see some of you at the workshops this year. We are keeping them very reasonably priced, and very exciting. New curriculum, challenges and examples to work through. More media, more notes, more hands-on. If you are thinking about a workshop this year, I hope you consider mine. Checkout Learn to Light for more information. We will be coming more into line with a lot of other workshops next year, but for now my goal is to meet and work with as many small groups as I can.

There is a lot to think about this year. Some people are saying the recession is over. I am not so sure, but I don’t feel it tanking as fast as it was. We have to be nimble and able to create more channels of income into our pockets as professional photographers. Does that mean that commercial guys start doing weddings or wedding photographers branch out into industrial? Maybe. Does it mean we all have to start shooting video? No, of course not. Should we be investigating the new tools including video? Oh… yeah, we most definitely should.

If you think things changed fast last decade, hold on to your butts. Change will come more rapidly and on more fronts than in the oughts, and that is certain. We need to be nimble and we need to adapt to the changes. Are you dabbling in social media? You better be… or it will change so fast and the learning curve / ‘buy-in’ capital will be so high that it could be ten times as daunting as it is now. Read TechCrunch for some ideas of what is coming. Social media for the enterprise and filtered for content delivery by Google and Yahoo? Yeah. If you don’t know what that means, you need to find out. It affects us all in small business.

I hope you join in and become active in taking the idea of photography by the horns. Tackle the Ideas of lighting, the nuances of lighting, and how they all tie in to posing and gesture. Both grand and small, gesture is what makes the image speak to the viewer. Even the lack of gesture is a gesture in its own right.

The 24 images you are about to see come from the Flickr Lighting Essentials Pool. I hope you join us there for more discussions, a picture sharing forum, and a chance to meet and talk to some incredible peers. We aren’t about any one kind of light, we have no mantra other than to make great photographs, and for the most part we’re pretty darned nice.

Be sure to check out the Going Pro category and if you are looking for the shorter, one page posts, hit Rants & Raves. In the recent post on “Emotional Lighting” -the one that proceeded this one, there are some links to photographers that will inspire you. Also see the “8 Essential Sites for Emerging Professional Photographers” for some places to bookmark.

Now let’s go see the images and be sure to visit the photographer’s Flickr sites after the jump.

As with all the Lighting Essentials posts, clicking on the image will take you to the photographer’s Flickr stream – and I hope you take some time to leave a comment or two.

The flare in this image takes it up a level and helps connect me to her eyes.

Bringing the face forward with the spotlight is so theatrical. Spotlights have great impact on the viewer.

While we are talking about the focused light , check how the light makes something we all see (as parents) into something more evocative.

Keeping the shadow adds drama to the shot… even the blank wall takes on part of the composition.

I love the way the face emerges from the shadow. Very shallow DOF and the wonderful, soft lighting invite us in to the image.

A pool of light surrounds her, while a key keeps her lit in front. The rim light on her leg gives the image a cinematic look. In total keeping with her outfit.

She gazes off toward the light. The light becomes a part of the shot as it lights the area behind her and then falls off in the direction that she is looking. Classic cinematic approach.

Simply exquisite crop, and light makes this image so strong and revealing. I love how the sides of the face fall off leaving a very nice, clean light on her center face. Light is part of the emotion of the image.

Such beautiful backlight, and the way the tree limbs are in and out of the light makes you feel like you are there. Love this kind of light.

Letting the background burn in so hot sets the mood of this glamour shot. Front lighting is just contrasty enough to make it believable while still well lit.

The sidelight sculpts the masculinity so well. And with the subtle light on the background (shadow of the subject side) it really draws the viewer in. The very judicious use of the rim light sets the image off from the background.

The DOF and bright lights behind her add to the overall feeling of flare to the image. Her slightly bottom lit face also lets us know that she is engaged in the event at hand.

Everything works so well here. Pose, attitude, gesture and light. The emotion of emerging or ‘new’ (hope) is heavily felt.

Soft light and colors let the subject be a part of the environment while keeping her well lit. Careful placement kept the subject from ‘melding’ into the white gate.

The soft, but directional light adds dimension to this shot. I particularly love the shadow of the cigarette and under her chin. Pose and lighting working so well together.

Can’t you just feel the warmth in this shot? Exceptional use of flare and gesture.

Color, pose and light working together to provide a wonderful sense of place for the subject.

Sculpting the face from all angles and then adding a slight vignette, this portrait really draws in the viewer. Cinematic and powerful.

It’s all about the light in this exceptional edge/form headshot.

Using the light to enhance the pose and the environment. The light behind her brings some mystery to the image.

The softness of the light on her with the contrasty light behind makes this shot seem like a frame from a story. Intrigue and beauty.

The feeling of an off camera light source, bringing the shadow in front, is so cinematic. You can almost hear the light here.

Subtle back light and a soft ambient foreground give this image a spark that adds drama. it doesn’t have to be a big gesture of back light, sometimes just a hint will do.

The light wraps the ballerina almost like a mist. The background seems to lift her off of it and ‘present’ her to the viewer.

Thanks for visiting Lighting Essentials. I hope this post entertained you and gave you something to think about before you pull out the gear. Lighting for effect, emotional effect, is quite a powerful tool.

RECENT LONG FORM ARTICLES YOU MAY ENJOY:

Spend a Day Shooting Portraits
“Why Did You Light It That Way?”
Natural Light for Natural, Subtle Beauty
Thinking About Portraits: 6 Studies in Beauty
And don’t forget the Going Pro Series for emerging photographers.

For the “Rants and Raves” section, click here.

See you next time. Follow me on Twitter, or visit my Learn to Light site for information on my

lighting workshops.

SHARE/SAVE

Hi, and welcome to Lighting Essentials, a place for photographers.

I do believe that is the first time I have used a welcome, and it had to be done. I guess. Stats show that I am getting new people all the time. Actually I was a bit surprised at all the people who are coming to the site. Thanks to all of you, and welcome, of course.

We are at the end of the workshop season and this weekend will find me in sunny south Florida. Anna Maria Island to be exact. It is the smallest little spit of land that completes the frame for Tampa Bay. At Bean’s Point there you can see the water from the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay meet. It really is a pretty cool place.

We have our little band of intrepid image makers, two condos, models and delightful surroundings… all the makings for some remarkable photos. In addition, I have two professional photographers joining me for some additional insight for the students. Billy Kidd, a pro from Orlando and Chris Gerber, a pro from Minneapolis are joining us for the weekend. We will be discussing and doing photography for three days. I love that.

That is the end of 2009 for Lighting Essentials Workshops. I will spend the remainder of December working on two other projects, redesigning the workshop for next year, finishing the small book and some video. We hit it again next January with a Phoenix workshop, then San Diego and Seattle. Seattle has added two additional workshops for advanced shooters. Smaller in size and broader in scope than the regular workshops. More on this as I rebuild the workshop pages… watch for that. The new design is taking shape and I am about to get it in production.

I would like to thank the folks who took the workshop, worked as hard as they did, and sent me nice notes (and they will be on the new site, for sure…). To the models who spent long hours with us, thank you. I consider you all to be part of the LE Family.

A couple of posts that I think you should take the time to read:
Frank Ockenfels III is interviewed by APhotoEditor, as is Sam Jones. Rob also interviewed my friend, Selina Maitreya. You can find her audio interview with me here.
Speaking of Selina and her incredible MP3 Audio Program… did you know that as a reader of this site, you can save half the price of the program? Yep! Visit her site at “The View From Here” and order the series. Normally it is $199, but enter FOSLE at checkout and receive $100 off the price. I believe it may be the best hundred bucks you have ever spent in photography – especially if you are an emerging photographer looking to find a voice and get noticed.
Heather Morton continues to follow two entry-level photographers as they build their books and their business. This is a wonderful project, so if you visit, be sure to leave some comments for these two guys who are working so hard to give others a glimpse ‘behind the curtain’ so to speak.
And if you haven’t kept up with the Going Pro section here at LE, take a few minutes to bookmark the posts. There is something for everyone.

Well, let’s take a look at a few of the images taken at the Toronto Workshop.

First up is this shot of Krista on the couch in Adam Belnap’s wonderful new studio outside of Toronto, CA. Brick walls, windows… check out those windows, and an environment around the building that makes it a shooter’s dream studio.

The shot is by Ian Hay:

I am drawn to this image for a number of reasons. I love how they (the team that Ian was on) took the lines of the floor and the window and used them as a graphic element. The windows do not tilt inward and the line that is part of the flooring leads directly to the middle of the couch. Graphics! Found and used.

Lighting it proved to be a challenge… there’s a lot of reflective glass there. As I teach in the workshops, they built the lighting based on an agreement of what the shot was supposed to look like (in their minds) and how they were to achieve that look.

Starting with the key light from camera right they used a bounce umbrella to control the spill and to deliver a smooth wash of light over the subject. Careful placement and angle of the umbrella assured there would be no reflection in the window. This can be painstaking work or you can sometimes get lucky. I think they worked this for a while.

Adding a second, fill light from camera left was an interesting compromise between the tools they had at their disposal. They decided that the shoot thru umbrella provided the soft, center weighted light they wanted so it was added. Keeping it low enough to not be seen in the window, and high enough to not cause a ‘Halloween’ look was worked out.

Test shots showed they needed to add a kicker light to sparkle up the shot. A bare speedlight was added to camera right, slightly behind the model and to the side. The power was dialed to be a little less than the key and fill, but the angle let it give a nice highlight to the shadow side of her.

Here is the setup shot:

Here is Scott Martin’s image from the team shoot above:

His horizontal approach and interesting pose brings a different look to the lighting setup above.

The dark brooding sky adds a nice, mystical touch to the image. The symmetry of the lines all leading to the subject and the poppy, glamour lighting make for a great shot.

Next up is a shot by a group working with Aleksandra. It was getting to late afternoon and the clouds were really dark and menacing. They chose to shoot her on a dirt road that lead to an industrial building in the background. Again there is a group of three shooters.

Hien’s shot of Aleksandra:

Keeping the separation of all that dark clothing against that impenetrable dark background was one of the challenges. Posing Aleksandra was not. She was wonderful, as were all the models in Toronto. Amazing. Hien used three lights to keep the subject lit and also for some drama.

Using the road as a compositional element to lead into the subject (and then mysteriously fade behind her) the group set up their key light on a stand in front. Zooming out to form a pool of light on her face, they then positioned it to Hien’s camera position to make it slightly, ever so slightly, off axis to camera left. This light gave the front light for her face. The light was then manned by a human to keep the axis of the light on the axis of her nose to eliminate any cross shadows.

A second light was added to camera right, slightly behind the subject. It was also bare and above the models head, angled down. Set to the same exposure as the main light, it also had to be flagged to prevent flare. This light separated her from the background very well.

Adding the third light on a human boom (and as you can see in the photo below, a very handsome human boom – heh) set to the same exposure as the other three and aimed to slightly graze the subject and throw some light on the road behind her… this added depth to the image and kept it from being too flat.

This is the setup shot for the image above:

Photo of the setup by James Harmon.

James Harmon’s shot above uses the same basic lighting, but a change in lens, angle and the use of the camera right third light changes it up quite a bit. A little light spill across the front of her and the dramatic zoom effect of the key light add a bit of lighting drama to this image.

Karen Weiler took this shot (above) of Aleksandra with the same basic lighting. She changed up the side lights a bit, and moved the subject to dead center of the road. Adding little graphical elements like that can make a shot have purpose. She moved camera right side light to be a little less on the subject and to add just a little to the shoulders. She had the light aimed up, so it wouldn’t spill too far down the dress. Camera left’s side light was moved to more fully light the background. As in the shots above, the key light is handled to make sure the axis of light and her nose are straight on.

Sometimes a single light is all you need. Navy Nhum was working in a freight elevator and wanted a dramatic shot of Aleksandra. She chose a single umbrella in bounce position to ‘pour’ the light over the subject without spilling it all over the elevator.

The pose of the model, the surroundings and the patina of the old metal elevator all lent themselves to a dramatic shot. The choice of the bounce umbrella meant that the light could be controlled and not light up the elevator with a flat light. You can see how the natural gradient gets darker as it goes up the wall. The bounce umbrella’s black backing made the light flow where Navy wanted it to flow.

Here is the setup shot from Navy’s photograph:

(Hmmm that damn handsome human boom does get around, ya know)

This shot of Heather, one of our models who is also a heck of a photographer, was done by Ian’s team.

This group worked really hard on this set of images. They found a spot in the adjoining store room to Adam’s studio and set this up. The main (key) light is my wonderful SpeedLightProKit Beauty Dish. It was set first to give the light they wanted to use to create the overall shape to the image. Adding a shoot-thru umbrella for fill from camera left provided the basics to the lighting. These lights were adjusted to give a 2:1 ratio for the model.

They added a light for her hair and it was set on a stand and brought from behind the background, and from camera left. Getting that light to stay in that position was a challenge met by leaning chairs and gravity.

Testing the shot, they found that the image looked pretty good, but lacked some real pop. A fourth light was added to come through the semi-transparent background right behind her. This shot took on a new life with the addition of that last light.

Again, I love the symmetry of the shot, the graphical look of the piece and Heather’s ‘S’ curve against all that symmetry. Below is the setup shot for this image.

A few more images with brief descriptions.

Navy shot this image with natural light from camera left and a single strobe for blending (matched) from camera left. A soft, cross process look to the presentation delivers a very romantic image of Hailey.

Karen shot this image of Krista with two canine admirers. She used a speedlight in a shoot thru umbrella for the main, keeping it a little above the ambient. Adding a second shoot-thru, dialed down to match the main, for a hair light added a nice, subtle separation to the subject.

One more image from Ian. This shot was done with two speedlights.

A speedlight from the camera right, and a speedlight from camera left, behind Krista presents an interesting shot in the woods. This split lighting creates nice drama for the environment.

And thanks again to the amazing Adam Belnap, captured here by David Giral in a rare moment of repose.

I may add some more images to this post in the next 24 hours, so check back. I am expecting a bunch of images in soon from the Toronto shooters.

Thanks for a terrific workshop, Torontonians. I look forward to returning next year. I am working on my schedule for next year this week, so the signup starts soon for the first half of next year.

See you soon on LE, folks. And thanks for reading. If you would share this with friends I would appreciate it. You can use the social icons on the top right of the page to send it to twitter or del.icio.us or whatever.

SHARE/SAVE

Wow. It has been a while since I posted. My apologies and an explanation.

1. I had decided to move from my little studio to one that has more space to shoot and in a location that I like better. More on that later.

2. I had the flu. Yeah… the one they are all talking about. Damn. It is no fun.

Now, lets add 1 and 2 together and we see that moving an entire photographic/design studio while having the flu takes, uh, longer than planned shall we say? I didn’t want to get anyone else sick so I had to turn down some offers of help.

Things I learned:

1. It takes longer than you think to move.
2. I am a packrat.
3. The dumpster is our friend.
4. No matter what, my next vehicle is a pickup.
5. No one needs a G3… no one.
6. Monitors are really fragile. Don’t drop on off the back of a truck. Just trust me on that, will you?
7. There is no way a photographer can throw out old images… so they are packratted to the new space. Sigh.
8. Whatever you budget for UHaul… double it.
9. Thera-flu works. To a point. Then you crash.
10. I shoulda had boys instead of girls… and made them move for dad. (JK – girls. Seriously.)

Anyway, the hard part is over, and now we go on to the new adventure of a 40ft cyc, and plenty of room for shooting and workshops. My office is smaller, but I don’t really need that much office these days. I can have meetings there and it will be fine.

I love being downtown again. Locations are cool. There is a mystique to being where all the big buildings, the sounds, the flavors of the city can influence me. I am not going to be sitting at the box so much… more street portraits and images of an area of Phoenix that has been nearly forgotten.

I have also had some time to plan where Lighting Essentials will go next. And I think you will all like it. We will be featuring more information for the emerging photographer. Lighting, business, creativity and dealing with subjects. Our goal will be to be the place to go when you have outgrown the beginning phase, but aren’t at the $100K budget stage either. There are plenty of beginner sites, and lots of ‘fan’ sites for the big guys, but not that many for photographers in their first 2-5 years of growth. And it isn’t that I dislike either kinds of sites, I just want LE to be more relevant. Especially to those photographers beyond the starting point, but not yet at the “made it” point.

So here is today’s post… 24 images I am sure you will find interesting. All from out Lighting Essentials Flickr Forum. If you have taken a workshop with me, I hope you are a member and posting images there.

The images are linked to the photographer’s Flickr page. If you like the image, click on over and let them know what you like about it.

Our next workshop is Minneapolis and it is full. I have some other dates (Phoenix, St Louis and of course Mexico), that have openings. Check our workshop page at Learn to Light.

Please visit the photographer’s Flickr pages by clicking on the image. Leave them a comment and let them know if you like their work.

At the end of this holiday weekend, I should be moved in to my new digs and back at some double heavy posts on LE. New stuff coming soon. Please take a moment and drop a note to the photographers whose image you like.

See you soon.

SHARE/SAVE

The Seattle workshop was amazing. We had a great time and made some amazing images. Using the facilities of SPA, we were able to do several setups. And the models, stylists and hair artists were off the chart. Incredible styling, hair that was spectacular and a dozen models a day for the attendees to work with. Seattle simply rocks.

I rarely get a chance to shoot at the workshops as I like to keep all attention on the attendees. And while Seattle was no exception, on Sunday there were moments when the models were waiting for the photographers to get their gear or find a location. I grabbed these 5 talented people and made natural light portraits for fun. I made only a few exposures and didn’t make a lot of variations. I wanted portraits and I wanted them to be accessible… not too overly ‘stylzed’.

If you are thinking about a workshop for this Fall, please take a look at the Learn to Light site and consider a Lighting Essentials workshop. We have added a Friday evening “Business Essentials” for all attendees who want it. In Seattle we ran about 3 hours and it was a hell of a discussion.

September
Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 12, 13
Phoenix, AZ, September 19, 20
Saint Louis, MO, September 26, 27

October 2009
Mexico (Puerto Penasco)
2, 3, 4, 5 – Special Three Day Workshop
Detroit, Michigan 10, 11
Boston, MA, 17, 18
Boise, ID 24, 25

Thursday, August 20, will find me speaking at the local ASMP chapter. Penny Dolin (ASU) and I are discussing social media, new media and how it can be leveraged into a commercial photographer’s business.

A few from the Archives you may like:

Natural Light for Natural, Subtle Beauty
Using the Sun for A Hairlight: Some Variations
Natural Light Headshots: Keeping it Simple
Serendipitous Light
Deconstructing a Portrait on Location

Now let’s take a look at the 5 portraits from the Seattle workshop… all natural light.

Here is our first portrait.

Kim in the Floppy Hat
Kim was wearing this cool hat for one of the shots and I loved how it formed around her face. Finding an edge of the gazebo we were all sharing, I was able to find some backlight from the sun and some front light from a large, single story building behind me at 18 feet away. The side of that building was white siding and it was totally in the sun. This became my source, with the sun as my background. Kim is at the edge of the gazebo, with the mid afternoon sun coming over her shoulders. I use the bright sunny sky as a backdrop. Because of my shade exposure, the sky blew out and created a flare situation that I kinda liked.

Here is part of the contact sheet from this hat shot of Kim:

You can see how I work with models when you see my contact sheets. The top row shows Kim working with an off camera look. I then begin to pull her back to my camera slowly bringing in smiles and lowering the chin to create a very accessible look. The last image seemed to be the one I love the most. I wanted a shot that looked natural, and drew the viewer into Kim’s youthful beauty.

I then moved the shot into Photoshop and cleaned up the skin. This is the layer pallet I had for the image.

I cloned the image and blended it at softlight, blurred at 7% and then backed it off to 65%. Cloning the bottom layer again, I moved above the blur layer and again blended it to softlight. This layer can be tweaked any way you want. I then used a layer of 50% gray at softlight to slightly burn and dodge for creating more contrast.

I merged those three layers in to a flattened layer called Merge Layer, cloned it and added 10% contrast and backed that layer off to 60%. Another clone and we applied Hue and Saturation, colorized to a slight sepia and then that layer is lowered to 40% opacity. Mama Shan’s Powder action added for some matting of the skin and then Tony Kuyper’s Luminosity Masks were applied to draw out a bit more local contrast.

The final shot.

Sam in the Shade.
Sam was a lot of fun to shoot. He brought a quiet maturity to the shots and I liked his sense of humor. By shooting down on him, I created a situation where he could look intense, and change the angle from the normal straight on to a more dramatic, theatrical look. I had a lot of flare coming back on Sam from the very light concrete that is int he sun behind him. Using the same spot as Kim, the same building behind me was the light source. No other lighting modifications were used.

The contact sheet:

I worked with Sam with his focus down and behind me, and I like a few of those shots. I had him look up at me just as we were completing the shoot and snagged the shot at the end. His penetrating stare was a dramatic look and I like it a lot. Cropping in this tight prevents the viewer’s eyes from escaping the image and drives them right back to the subjects gaze.

Photoshop:

You can see how simple this was. Similar to the first image of Kim, I used two layers above the original. One at softlight blend, and one at multiply blend, backed off to 40% opacity. A color balance layer and Hue/Saturation layer were used to correct and subdue the color. A final layer of 60% Gray at Softlight blend mode was used to dodge and burn a little to create a more local contrast on the image.

The Shot:

Icee is up next:
Beautiful Icee was wearing this amazing gold and bold necklace. Placing her a little closer to the edge allowed a bit more spill of daylight to add some directional light. It is subtle, but you can see how it wraps the face with a soft light. In the top row you can see that I was getting way too much sidelight on her face. I moved her forward just a bit, then took another shot to see whether the light was working out right. It was.

Contact sheet:

This shot required no Photoshop other than simple skin editing.

Kayla is in the sun in this simple, but evocative portrait. Full sun to her back, I had a pretty nice look going, but the green grass she is standing on was creating too much darkness under her chin. Spencer held a medium 5-in-one feflector down and to the side of her for a nice fill. Kayla is standing on the edge of shadow, but the hair and shoulders are in the sun. I kept the reflector in the shade otherwise the fill would have nearly blinded her.

She is kneeling and that let me keep my camera a little high and down on her, and that let me showcase her elegant chin line and eyes. That also let me keep the grass behind her and match the green cloth draped by one of the stylists.

Photoshop.

You can see how I kept to one pose and gentle, subtle changes in posing. I want my models to be fluid and smooth, not all wild throwing themselves around like crazy. Kayla worked this pose to great effect, providing me with some subtle and fun changes. You can see how subtle changes can make big differences. Working those little differences can help deliver the shot. Models who are too scattered can come close, but maybe not close enough before the pose gets changed. I love to let the models come up with things, then when I see something I love, I begin to develop it slowly. Till I get what I want.

Photoshop.

Another simple layer blend mode group. After I got the image to where I wanted it with the two blend layers, I made a composite layer and then retouched the skin a little and added some highlights with a 50% gray layer set to softlight and very soft brushes at 8%.

Kayla.

Bri was leaning up against a column with a little sun sliding around her to provide some nice flare and edge light. A breeze was kicking up and blowing her hair around every once in a while. I love that. It keeps the shot natural and when it frames the face, it is a huge plus. I kept her in a tight area and worked the face through a lot of different angles to explore the pose. You can see how Bri and I worked that angle to finally get to the shot I liked.

The light was playing beautifully off of her face. And the subtle movement still kept her in the soft light of the reflected building in the shade. I liked how the catchlights really spark the shot.

Bri.

I do love natural light, and how it looked on these folks. It also was very fast. Most of these shots took less than a few minutes to shoot as they were waiting for photographers. If you would like to share some natural light shots with us, let us see them on the Lighting Essentials Flickr Forum.

If you liked this post, please let other know. We have made it simple for you, just go up to the top right of the page and add it to any social networking sites you belong to or just Twitter it by clicking the twitter icon below.

Thanks and see you next time.

SHARE/SAVE

(This is part one of a continuing series on starting out in the world of commercial photography. I am a commercial photographer, not a wedding shooter, but most things would be similar in that genre as well. )

Even in these uncertain times, there are those intrepid souls who want to join the ranks of the professional. From baseball players to race car drivers, there are people working hard at their craft to get their work to the level that it will be their entrance into the ‘big time’ – or, hell, even the medium to small time… but that gives them a chance to go a bit farther if they can.

Recently, at the behest of one of my clients, I looked at four photographer’s books for an upcoming shoot. They were not prepared. Not for any kind of job. Now, the work wasn’t bad at all. But the presentation was awful for all of them. I called each and offered some free consulting if they were interested and most jumped at it. Good.

I posted this adventure at a Flickr Forum with the title “What is a Photographer” to see if we could spark some healthy discussion. We did. Lots of questions raised.

I decided to get to work on a set of posts that would help straighten out my thinking into something coherent on how I would go about getting started today. I did it my way back then. Made a lot of stupid mistakes, and I made a lot of really stupid mistakes. Oh, yeah, I also did some stuff right and that helped get me over the really stupid mistakes.

I think these posts will be long and still may not even brush the surface of what must be done to get ready. But they will get you thinking and planning what needs to be done. And some things will be so easy to say, but so damn difficult to execute. That is the nature of the beast, I guess. There are challenges at every turn, and people ready to sell you a shortcut around every corner. There are no shortcuts and challenges have to be met. Head-on sometimes, and other times you sneak around the back of them and cold-cock the sob’s. Ya just do.

Workshop Information:
Workshop this weekend (June 20, 21, 09) in Missoula, Montana. Not too many workshops come to that part of the world. Don’t miss this one. We have 2 openings left. Come on out and learn to light in a small class workshop atmosphere. Seriously.

Some good writings on other overall important parts of this business… and it is a business from Ken Rockwell.
Ken pulls no punches and this post is excellent. He also has this to say about what level a professional can achieve.

Education:
I am not big on photography schools, or university’s for photography. I don’t really want to debate that issue, so I am just telling you that a $65 – $100K or more investment in a photographic education at most of these institutions will leave you with a mountain of debt and in a daily competition to become an assistant with those who didn’t go to school and incur the debt. This is of course, a matter of personal decisions. If you choose to go to school, work your ass off. Do more, print more, shoot more and participate more than anyone else at your school. The top, I mean the VERY TOP, can move into first assistant positions at some of the larger photographic studios. If you aren’t doing something photographic, be sleeping. And do that as little as possible. Got it? Good.

We will not be dealing with the issues of being a business in this post either. That part you need to work and research on other blogs and online sources. Harrington’s is one of the best. And of course, David’s wonderful Strobist blog and his “Lighting 101″ is a great spot to add to your photographic knowledge.

Well, let’s get on with this initial post on “Getting Out There” as a professional. You can create a PDF of this post online here.

You need a set of tools and knowledge that will help you initially in getting known, getting seen, being remembered and landing gigs. You will always need these things. “Identity” (business cards, leave behinds, business forms), a portfolio, a website, and some understanding of business basics. All of those are rolled together to start the creation of your Brand. And while I think that ‘Brand’ is a much overused word, it is important to make sure that you are remembered, and that you and your work are noticed. Who you are and what you do can blend seamlessly into “Brand You” and that can help you in your attempts to get known and get work. It’s important. Start now.

In my opinion, the tools should be ready to go BEFORE you quit your job, or go part-time, or get out of school or whatever your line of demarcation is. Brand will take a while.

When you have these in hand, you can begin doing the things you need to do to get work. Being unemployed and hot having any funds for a portfolio case is a very scary place to be. For those of you who are in that situation through no fault of your own, well… hard doesn’t mean impossible. You may have more of a challenge. That’s OK, the air at the top may actually smell a little sweeter. You CAN do this. Just shut your ears to all the naysayers and ‘bringers down’. Screw ‘em. This is your time to do it, there is never a perfect time. Ever.

(My own story in a nutshell. I was an avid shooter on weekends and evenings and every moment I could squeeze in. When I left a paycheck behind, I was forced into finding my way. I did. And never had a business loan or borrowed from family (they didn’t have it anyway). My mom got me a Norman strobe for my birthday the first year out and everything after that was on me. My business financed my business. I am not bragging, just letting you know that I believe in bootstrapping and busting ass and getting to done. My perspective, as they say. Just do it, no whining allowed. Great years were fantastic. Bad years were terrifying. But all-in-all it has been one hell of a ride, and I wouldn’t have traded any of it… well, I I wouldn’t trade most of it. Heh.)

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
- Thomas Edison

Now let’s create a checklist for the basics to allow you to enter the world of commercial photography and “get out there.” (NOTE: This is about commercial photography and not necessarily the same things that a wedding / portrait – direct to consumer type shooter would have. I am not a direct to consumer photographer so I do not speak to that genre with other than the generalities that fit all photographers.)

My checklist in very short form:
PRESENTATION:

What does that mean? It means how you show your work. How you present yourself, your portfolio, your working space, your business forms and more. It is you. It is your work. There is no separation. You are your work and your work is you and the presentation is the culmination of the two.

Get a real Portfolio. Make it nice. Professional. It doesn’t have to be terribly expensive. It must be something that seems to be an extension of you.

For instance. Let’s say you are starting out in Architecture Photography. What kind of book could be an extension of that? Aluminum, or polished steel come to mind. So does a book in a case. Would a larger book (16×20) be a good size for showing what you do? Or would a small, compact book show the work off with a bit of style?

I don’t have the answer, but there is one for your work. Look around. Ask mentors. Get brochures and imagine your work in them. Do not buy on price alone. JUST DON’T DO IT. It is your portfolio and it must look fabulous. It is YOU. To spend $1600 on a wide angle lens and then look for a $20 solution for a portfolio just makes no sense. If you are serious about this, you have to be serious about the things that represent your work as well as the tools that create it.

What to Show:
What you do, simply put. If you are a people shooter, then the book should have some people shots that inspire and astound. Don’t split your book up into so many images of disparate things that you cannot have a cohesive presentation either. I would mix maybe two if I were to mix them. Still life and people can work. Architecture and lifestyle. Be careful. If you dilute the work too much, it can be disasterous. A really good book on creating a powerful portfolio is one by Selina Oppenheim. I love this book for its clarity and concise information on professional portfolios. More info below.

Portfolios come in many sizes and shapes. If you are an established brand, small, tiny, precious, over-sized, and gargantuan portfolios can be very cool. If you are starting out, as the readers here are, maybe we need to introduce ourselves first. Can an outrageous portfolio get you attention. Sure. But the risk that the attention may not be totally positive is simply too great. Keep it simple, keep it clean, and keep it professional.

Whether it is a horizontal book or a portrait book, there will be images that will not fit. A wide shot in a portrait book can be done only with either a spread (2 pages) or placing it horizontally on the page with space at top and bottom. You can choose to crop all of your images if you want, that is your call. But choose the book style and presentation most suited to your work and begin.

It is important to not have the book be turned to show horizontals and verticals in the same presentation. And the presentation should “flow” well from page to page. Here are some examples of page layout. These images are shown un-cropped, with borders all around them. The typical image size of 2:3 will not crop down to an 8.5 x 11 without losing some image. If planned for, that is what you do. However, many photographers like to present their work in an uncropped view.

Page Design example 1. Vertical page book in spread form. Notice how the images are displayed so that the book does not have to be turned to show verticals and horizontals.

Notice how the image on the left side “leads” the viewer to the right. The gesture of the body and the lines lead us to the next page. On the next page, our subject looks back toward the left picture. It is subtle, but when possible keep this in mind. If the person on the right is looking off the page to the right, it can draw the attention and let the viewer turn the page without ever looking at the image on the left. Left side images need to be strong to capture the visitor’s attention. While all images must be strong, left-side images should be even stronger.

In the next example we have a ‘spread’ shot covering two pages. Notice how the gutter of the page goes right through the subject on this image. This may not be the best place for the subject to be.
There are some portfolio companies that eliminate the gutter, but still, it may still have some kind of line or separator there.

The gutter is the middle part of the page where they meet. On many books, this area is not even accessible.

Here is an alternate way to show the image with the gutter down the side of the image. If you are using a deep gutter book like a screw-post method, even this space may not be enough.

You may choose to show multiple images on a page. I do this frequently in my books. If you do, you must make sure the images look good together and the gesture of the image keeps people on the page. Multiple page layouts are different animals than single image pages… treat them accordingly. You may want to work with a graphic artist or a portfolio designer when doing this kind of page.

Notice how this spread shows 3 images that support each other and keep the viewer on the page.

11x 14 portfolios are quite popular, as are some square sizes, 12x 12 and 16×16. Below is a landscape presentation in 11×14 size. You may also show the images “full frame” with borders if that is your choice. This design shows a full page left side landscape and a portrait on the right page with some white space separation.

An 11x14 spread is delivered with some white space on Lighting Essentials

What kind of portfolio should you get? Let’s take a look at some options.

Here is a look at some of my books. From top to bottom: Brewer Cantelmo Box with two Bound Books, Brewer Cantelmo self-contained sleeve book in box, Square GraphiStudio Design Book in travel case and a 12×19 GraphiStudio Book in Travel Case.

Brewer Cantelmo and GraphiStudio books.

I will talk about the companies I have worked with. There are others, but I can vouch for these companies.

Brewer-Cantelmo

Books, boxes and total presentation materials for photographers.

These are not cheap portfolios. The quality is high and the workmanship extraordinary.
Consider them one of the premier custom portfolio companies anywhere.

Brewer-Cantelmo makes your case by hand, just for you. Choose the grain and the leather and the size.

Here is my older Brewer-Cantelmo book. It contains two books with embossed name. Each had 15 sheets (30 images) and one was for still life the other for people. Also shown is the 8×8 inch square box that I used to show 4×5 transparencies mounted in cardboard panels. This was mostly used for Architecture back in the day. I no longer shoot architecture.

This is my old Brewer Cantelmo self contained sheet box. 11×14 verticals I chose to show only one image per spread. I am working some new images up that will be two images per spread.

Brewer Cantelmo Self Contained loose sheet book in a box

Lost Luggage
Boxes, portfolios and presentation materials.

Lost Luggage’s Case Envy line is extraordinary as well. Modern, hip and stylish, the Lost Luggage portfolios can range from inexpensive to very expensive, and yet the quality never falters.

Lost Luggage's Case Envy line features extraordinary craftsmanship and a very hip style/

Here is my Lost Luggage 8.5×11 portrait book. (Not shown is my 14×11 landscape book in orange.) Notice the nylon case. It is kinda weathered looking… I like the patina of it. It has gone through a lot but it has kept my portfolio looking like new.

Lost luggage makes amazing portfolios

TIP:
You can see how the spreads lead the viewer back onto the page, not letting the eyes wander instantly to the right page and off without seeing the image on the left. Layout is important. Take your time and get it as right as you can. Then commit, show it and tweak after showings. It is far too easy to fall into the “tweak, tweak, tweak” syndrome where instead of getting to the next thing, we get stuck on the littlest things and blame that on our inability to move. I am not saying to show bad work. Don’t do that. But when you have the portfolio ready, then get out there… you should be shooting things all the time that will be added to your book.

You can get some nice deals on Lost Luggage from ArtSuppliesOnLine.com.
An 8.5×11 is under $100 shipped. Look at the nylon case they make for the book as well. It protects if from the elements and has a nice place to hold a few business cards and a leave behind.

Pina Zingaro
Books, Presentations and Portfolios.

Well crafted, modern and quite popular, the Pina Zingaro portfolios are a great starting platform.
You can get some great deals and portfolios at PZDirect.

Check out the wonderful selection of portfolios at Pina Zingaro.

Prat books are inexpensive and available at most art supply stores. The self contained black book with the vinyl sleeves can be a nice intermediate solution.
Here is an online source. Consider these books as very much a starter book.

Tip:
Remember the sleeves. Get an extra set if you have the bucks… protects against not having a spare when one is damaged or scratched.

OPTION: Small bag or case to carry it in. Lots of models carry the lost luggage as a book, where photographers can have a sleeve or case for the book.

Prints
Your prints should be printed to the highest quality. Keep in mind that when showing images behind a glossy sleeve they can look a little different. Make a print and look at it behind the sleeve. I find that I prefer semi-gloss prints behind the sleeves over high gloss. Personal preference.

How many do you show? Lots of people say 15-20. I am in that camp. Leave me wanting to see some more… not so bored that I close the book before I get to the end of it. I would say 25 would be the limit for a contemporary portfolio aimed at commercial and editorial market.

Edit ruthlessly. Tirelessly. Get a mentor to help. Can’t find one, then put the top 50 of your shots in a Flickr group and ask someone to help you out. 20 really good shots says more good stuff about your photography than 20 good shots surrounded by 20 OK shots. And bad shots say that the good ones were lucky… not the other way around.

TIP:
One way to layout your book is to make 4×6 images at Costco or Sams Club and start laying out the images on the office floor. I will combine and mix and reshuffle them till I get a progression of images that tell my story. If you do this in an hour, you rushed it. If it is taking more than a couple of days, make a decision and get on with it. As important as it is, it cannot be rushed and it shouldn’t become an albatross around your neck.

Printed Books:
I love my GraphiStudio books. They were very expensive. They helped me seal the deal in a couple of cases. GraphiStudio is mostly a wedding book company, but I have used them for a couple of years for my more overall portfolios. My books ran $700 and $500 respectively.

Here is my large 12×19 book with a 1/4″ polished steel cover. It contains my portrait work in the front half and wedding work in the back. One of the problems with printed books. It is now not current as I no longer do wedding photography.

a large 12x19 book with 1/4 inch stainless steel cover. Portrait and wedding photography

This is my 16″x16″ GraphiStudio book with graphic design work and photography. I use this for large client presentations where I am working on both design and photography. It is carried in its own travel case and weighs nearly 5 pounds. When I hand it to someone they know it is a substantial book.

Notice that these two GraphiStudio books have no ‘gutter’ in the middle. In addition, they lay flat on any surface. No binding or having to flatten the pages. Hand made, they are not inexpensive, but well worth it for a large presentation that won’t be changing all the time. I do one of these each year for my Design and Photography studio. Photography is much more loose so I use the above Lost Luggage books for that work.

GraphiStudio makes some amazing books. Mine have 1/4 inch stainless steel covers and they weigh a ton.

A new and very exciting company doing books is Couture Books. You can get a beautiful book there for around $300. I particularly like their New York and Himalaya books.

A less expensive option: A Blurb book with hard cover. I have had great work done with the hard cover product. Soft cover has been a little dicey. I made a few LuLu books that turned out pretty well, but they were not “portfolios” but photo books. Watch out for those books with the holes cut out in the front. They may be good for some fun studio work or for home use, but not for portfolio work.

Oh, almost forgot Asuka Books. A sort of midground between Blurb and Couture. Asuka makes very nice books that can be used for portfolio presentations (around $100 or so).

If you know of one that I have missed, it may be because I have not worked with them and cannot vouch for the quality/price/value. These are the ones I know, and I have made books from all of them. I will not recommend ones I have not worked with, but that certainly doesn’t mean that there are not other high quality books out there.

Printing Your Prints:
Either make them yourself or get them printed somewhere like WHCC or MightyImaging or hire a local buddy who prints really well.

Book shouldn’t turn. If it is landscape, portraits are either 2 per page or one with wide borders. If it is a portrait book, landscapes go across with borders top and bottom. The book does not have to be twisted.

Size: 8.5 x 11 is fine. 14×11 may be a little better. 16×20… well, you are into the esoteric there… as well as 6×9 or smaller. Could be cool, depends on the work I suppose.

Prints can be produced on your inkjet if you have a good one. I print on Epson with High Quality Ilford Glossy or Semi-Glossy Paper. Many of the newer printers can make amazing prints.

Places to get your portfolio images printed.
Mighty Imaging is a lab in Scottsdale, AZ. They have a very high quality control system and they produce excellent work.
White House Custom Color has some very tasty pricing and excellent quality.
The online printing places can be pretty good if you have the right files. Check with your favorites.
Sam’s Club and Costco. The ones by me both do wonderful work if the profile you are working with is correct. Pricing is dirt cheap, but you may have to have the prints done a few times to get exactly what you want.

Business card.
You need a good business card. It is your calling card. They are not out of fashion at all. Resist the urge to go cheap on the business card. Resist having a clipart photographer on your card. Resist goofy fonts. Resist more than two font styles. Resist the urge to be ‘clever’? Please.

If you are going to go with images on your card, you must be very, very careful. The image you choose has to say what you do, without limiting you to that image. I once made the mistake of putting an image on my card that was very fashion oriented. It really made a bad impression at several corporate clients I was working with. I had a new one made as soon as I realized it was not helping me.

Do a trade with a designer. Cards with clipart of cameras, 5 different type styles, photographs of stuff the client may not be interested in, or bad design coupled with bad typography say a hell of a lot about your business. A good designer will not do those things. When you are not there it IS your business. It says taste level, experience, visual literacy, and a pride of ownership. Crappy ones say those things in reverse. They say those things loudly.

Want to see some amazing business cards to get inspiration? OK, here ya go.
Simple and Elegant Business Cards
Smashing Magazine
WebDesigner Depot
QuickSprout
First WebDesigner
LogoDesignerBlog
Here are some templates to start with if so inclined.
These are pretty cool, and very creative.
And lastly to keep it all digital… these are pretty cool as well.

A Leave Behind.
A postcard, or oversize card with a photograph or two. A one-sheet. Something to sit there while the pondering of the choice is made. OverNightPrints can hook you up as well as DesignitPrintit.com – you can order as few as 25 oversized cards with printing on both sides. Contact information should include website, phone and email. Add your twitter and facebook if you are so inclined. Getting people engaged with you and your work is the idea. I have even had some nice work done at Kinko’s. For a custom leave behind, that may be a great way to go.

Here is a recent leave behind I had printed in a run of 25 at www.designitprintit.com.

Print these out and make sure everyone has one. Everyone. Build an army of supporters.

Make sure your leave behind has all contact information on it. In an envelope or not, it should be something they can refer to when thinking about making a decision. Models have comp cards, you have a leave behind. Print them up on and inkjet if you want. You won’t have that many to print.

Oh, and remember to send a thank you card after every appointment. Like clockwork. Do it. And separate yourself from the other 95% of shooters who don’t.

Identity Package.
As well as business cards, you should also have letterhead and billing materials ready to go. Be sure your billing materials are as attractive as possible. It is all part of your look. All part of your marketing. Having a great business card, portfolio and leave behind should not be mitigated by a badly designed delivery receipt or invoice.

Need some ideas on what paperwork you should have? Join ASMP or APA and get to know the different documents you need. May be a good place to find a mentor or two. I would say that a good id package should also contain a Jewel Case design and having a few pre-printed DVD’s and CD’s can make a nice presentation when dropping off work to an agency. Just imagine how a sharpy scribble on a CD would look next to your portfolio.

What you need:

Invoice
Delivery Memo
Project Bid Form (Estimate and Job Description)
Scope of Agreement: (What you are doing, when you are doing it, what are the projected delivery items, when it will be delivered and what happens next. This way we can use the next form when things start to build on our original job bid.)
Change Order Form
DVD / CD Labels (have 50 pre-printed or make sure you have a printer that can print on them)
Jewel Box Design
Thank You and Note Cards

Invoice: So you can get paid. Never wait more than 3 days before sending it out after completion of job and acceptance by client.
Delivery Memo: We deliver things… prints, files on CD or DVD’s, Hard Drives, Thumb Drives… Delivery Memo states what was delivered, Job it was for, who signed for it. (In case something goes wrong and it comes up missing.)
Project Bid Form: Putting the numbers to the test. Line Item things that will cost something. Or pay for it yourself (not recommended…)
Project Description: Similar to the worksheet above, but now in final form.
Scope of Agreement: What are you going to do. What you will deliver (10 shots, 25 shots, RAW files of shoot, P-shopped edits… whatever). To Whom. When. When payment is due. No surprises.
Change Order Form: “Since you are already here could you shoot the CEO’s office?” “Sure, let’s get this change of work order filled out. BTW, do you have to get approval on the additional cost?”
CD / DVD Labels: Design and have them printed on printable discs, or print yourself. Do not use peel and stick labels.
Jewel Box Labels or Cool Jewel Boxes: Self explanatory… what you deliver in could be seen more around the office than what you delivered… keep it sharp. Probably the best I know of are these guys. Not cheap, but definitely an investment in your image. Jewelboxing.
Thank You and Note Cards: After every appointment, send one by ancient, old people snail mail. An email is NOT a personal thank you even though you may do that as well as twitter, facebook, plaxo, friendfeed or whatever you use. Text is, welll… no text.

Score has some really good forms for your overall business.

FreshBooks. For those of us who want to cut down on paperwork and dealing with folders and such, may I recommend FreshBooks. It is an online management of your billing and bidding and all things business.

Business Awareness.
Join ASMP or APA if you have to. Find out what this stuff is worth. Even if you don’t get what it is worth, knowing what it is worth is very VERY important. Professional organizations can hook you up with a lot of the forms, bidding information, how-to’s and more of your industry. Quite often you will be able to meet a mentor or someone willing to help you in your endeavor.

That is important, because at some point, a prospective client may actually ask you for a bid. That is what it is all about, so what now?

What do I show?
Show work that is relevant to the client. If you have a portfolio that allows you to quickly change images, then you can rework your book specifically for the work that the client wants to see. Show them the work they want to hire you to do. Don’t show them stuff they are not interested in.

If it is a beauty shoot for a local hair salon, then headshots and beauty shots are good. Kids to adults. Playful and studio-serious. Men, women, kids are all good. No, they don’t have to be “hair” shots everyone, but people are at least a common denominator.

If it is architectural shots that the client is asking about, then the beauty, glamour and fashion shots may not be the ticket. Not at all. Show them your buildings and interiors and property and landscape design shots. Don’t have any? Well, you can handle that two ways. Face up and tell them that you have no shots but would like the opportunity to do one for them. Handle that any way you can if you know you can do it. If you know you can’t, then the other way is to simply say “thanks for the opportunity, but I am not shooting Architectural. I can refer you to a friend of mine that is awesome if you would like.”

Don’t take jobs you have no familiarity with. The bad Karma and negative feedback can cost you way more than you can possibly deal with starting out.

A hint: Nudes, glamour shots with girls in fishnets, pinups, kitty pictures, your car’s dented hood, random beach pictures, sky shots of awesome clouds, flower pictures, prom photos, porn, still life shots with no point, ‘art’ studies of overweight people eating at food fairs and anything you shot while inebriated should be stricken from your book. I have seen all of the above in books called in to do advertising work for medical technology clients. Really.

When asked for a bid, ask questions back. Find out everything that you could possibly need to know and ask.

Do not blurt out some number off the top of your head. And that is where it would have come from if you don’t have any clue to what the job actually entails. A day rate of $2000 may sound great but if you are not on the same page as the client and the models get billed to you… OOOPS.

Ask questions. Take notes. Bring a recorder if you don’t want to write. Be ready to find out all the details of a shot that you may have to deal with. Be as thorough as you need to be.

What about props?
Who will deliver the clothes?
Will the clothes be ready to wear or will a fitting be needed?
Stylist?
MUA?
Will they need an assistant?
Time Frame?
Location challenges?
Models?
Casting?
What about weather delays?
What about usage?
What about usage beyond what was discussed?
What about location fees or permits?
What about lunch for the crew? (which for 2 models, hair, mua and assistant could eat half the $200 fee.)
What about assistants?
What about overtime due to client being slow?
What about …

Ask what they are going to want the pictures to do? Incite a buying frenzy? Introduce a new product or service? Change the mind of people who thought they were something else? Find out what the motivation is and keep that in mind as you plan your shoot. Many times, the shoot is mostly planned for you by a marketing person or AD, but sometimes you can bring your ideas to the table.

Without asking a few, or many, questions, it is hard to know what to charge when you don’t know what is going to be happening at the shoot. Where does your scope start and end? Who is taking care of all the little things that may get in your way? Permissions to shoot – you or the client?

Asking questions also says you are interested in the client’s job, not just an opportunity to shoot pictures. I am more interested in people who are interested in me than in people who are interested in themselves… All of us are. Human nature. Becoming interested in the details also helps to remind the client of how much work is actually involved. It reveals the challenges that may prevent the work from being done to the highest level possible. And that helps them understand the fee. You do remember the fee, right? (I once read about a photographer who was so excited about his first big job that he forgot to even bill it. Heh… don’t do that.)

As to what to wear to the interview, well, I am from a different generation. Showing up in crappy jeans (instead of ‘designer’ jeans LOL) and a wrinkled old shirt won’t do it for me. A photographer can be a little offbeat – especially portrait and fashion shooters. Be respectful in your choice of what to wear, and be unique. Let them see something unique. You want to be remembered, right? Now dressing loony may not be the best thing, but having a ‘look’ is a good way to keep your name and image together. (Personal aside: my assistants don’t show up looking like they have been up all night and drinking heavily. No T-shirts with slogans and no holey, beat up tennis shoes. No, they don’t have to wear a suit – we do a lot of work that is work, but looking like a homeless person on a shoot is not happening with me either. (If you don’t know the name Anthony Edgeworth, look it up. Great true story about a guy getting started in late middle years. Heh.)

Website.
Well, we are working on a large post on websites, so we will be a little short here. If you are working to create a feeling of trust, you want that on your website in spades. Lots and lots of professionalism.

Now here’s the thing. I don’t think photographers should spend too much money on websites. When I see sites costing $5K or $8K, I just wonder at all the other places that that asset could have been placed. A website should show your work, a contact page and have some description of what you do.

Personal opinion is that I really think those sites with 5 or 10 categories look stilted or groveling. Like I can shoot everything and anything and pleeeeeese give me a job. A couple of dozen images or so could be enough. Resist the temptation to show every shot you ever did. Keep the editing as tight as your print book. Less is more. Only the best. Keep it exactly as you want it to look. No filler. Only the best images should be used for your portfolio.

Show a couple of categories if you want, like “people” – “not people” or “still life” – “environments” – “portraits” but having a category for everything and then only one or two shots in that category is just pathetic looking.

I will be discussing more about websites in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, you can download this wonderful document by Photoshelter for more information on the web, how people use it and what you can do to up your game there.

In closing on this rather long post… a little on Brand.
Don’t go cheap. Don’t break the bank, but don’t go cheap. It will be so difficult to build a ladder out of the hole you build if you go with a look that doesn’t help you. Be ruthless in protecting your brand… all of which is above. And a little more of you. Your brand is you. It is how you answer the phone. It is whether you return calls or not. It is how you deal with adversity. It is how you deliver your work and how you treat your assitants and whether you respect the people around you.

You. You are your brand. Not your logo. Not your portfolio… and not the pictures you take. It is all of that rolled into a person that either delivers or doesn’t. One bad client experience can lead to many more bad impressions than one good one. More people complain than ‘extol the virtues of’… so you have to work as hard as you can on the problem clients to make them happy.

It is your business. All of your work reflects YOU when YOU are not there.

Some reading on personal branding.
Tom Peters (Brand YOU evangelist.)
Brand You Tool Kit
Garr Reynolds
Seth Godin. If you aren’t reading Seth Godin every day, you are missing some incredible Brand and Marketing wisdom. Like this one on the day I post this.

As I said, we will have some more information coming on websites, blogs and social media marketing.

UPDATE: Milton Glaser, one of the foremost designers of our time, has this to say.

Thanks for coming by and visiting Lighting Essentials. Please tell your friends.

SHARE/SAVE

This post is about portrait lighting and some of the things I think about when shooting a portrait… whether in the studio or on location.

The shot above was done in Mexico at the Workshop in April. Christine had been walking with me and when she turned to talk to me I saw this shot. I pre-visualized the image as being somewhat illustrative… some heavy Photoshop was planned and I wanted the colors to be muted. The feeling was one of mystery, and the color palette and post would show a portrait that was modern, but also seemingly candid.

I liked the symmetry of the background, but also knew that putting her there would rob the image of the candid aspects. I wanted her to be moving into the middle of the poles… not be there already.

The sun was over my right shoulder and when she looked away toward the beach, her face was in shadow. I wanted to light her independently from the background and knew that a split lighting would work to show off the shot.

A handheld 430EX on a tethered cable was aimed right at her face… on the axis of her nose. I wanted no nose shadow or face sculpting at all. (Secretly I wished I had a beauty dish at the time, but – well, I didn’t.) I had Christine look over toward the water – and the light – and carefully framed the shot. She did a great job of posing and looking like she was distracted and NOT being the subject of a photo. I loved the hair coming into the face and we did a dozen or so exposures. The light on her coming from camera left while the backgorund is presented in light that is camera right adds a bit of whimsy or mystery to the shot. Christine’s excellent acting for the camera cinched the look I wanted.

Later in Photoshop I made the shot into what I had seen by adding some texture, muting the colors and presenting it within a very slight vignette.

Before we go ahead, I want to remind everyone that there is a ton of information on this site. Hit the archives button and grab a cold one. You can spend a lot of time here. And please tell your friends about us, we want a ton of people to learn to light and have fun with photography, but most of all we want to help photographers reach their goals. We offer this site as well as workshops all over the country.

See these recent posts for some more cool reading.

Claire Curran Corbett Interview
Eduardo Francis Interview
Our WordPress Themes for Photographers

Now lets look at a few more portraits and discuss the making of them, shall we.

Please remember to visit our sponsors. Links are on the sidebar, and they have some great offers for you.

Soft Window Light (Somer in the Shower)

This photograph came about as a test. We were looking around for a place to do some soft headshots and I remembered the great light that was in the shower in the master of the casita. Somer went in and I went on the other side of the room to use a long lens. I remember thinking that the light was so warm in there due to the brown tiles, that it made her skin tone lovely.

The soft directional light gives the face shape and shows off her beautiful eyes. Using a long lens with this kind of light also brings a flatness to the features from the shortening effect of the telephoto. That shortening effect, added to the very shallow DOF of the aperture (2.8) helps to sculpt the subject from the background.

I used no fill cards or strobes for this shot, preferring to let the light do its thing. I turned her head slightly toward the light to get a full half face lit. I don’t like the light to be ‘patchy’ on the shadow side of the face. The pose, soft and natural light, and DOF combine to make a lovely, understated portrait.

Jesika on the Yellow Sofa in Dallas

This shot is from the workshop in Dallas. We were taking a bit of a break when I noticed Jesika sitting in the light in the corner. The window light is coming from over her left shoulder (camera right) and was creating a wonderfully soft shadow on the couch. It was a very large window and had a wonderful soft feel to the light coming in. I needed to add a little light from the front to open the shadows and gain some texture in her wardrobe.

Bringing the medium octabox in, I set the light by making it slightly less than the sunlight. Taking the light reading with a meter and then metering the strobed Octabox to about 2/3 less exposure. I then exposed for the face, and let the back light go 2/3 over. The point was to make the light seem as though it was coming from the window, but also that she was the subject and she was lit a bit oddly to bring her out of the background. The eye knows when something is added, even subconsciously. Looking into the shadow area at her feet you will see the shadow created by the strobe and octabox. This is because this area was in total shadow, not getting any sunlight from the window. There is no shadow on the lit area behind her because the octa is less light than the window, but there is at her feet because it is more light than what was there.

I wanted a feeling of isolation and vulnerability, so I chose the wide angle lens and placed Jesika at the bottom of the image. The formidable brick wall rising above her, added with the symmetry of the couch and angles, gave her frame a ‘place’ against the ground. Her pose and the angle of her back and legs break the symmetry, and her face adds to the feeling of vulnerability.

The light, while seemingly natural, adds to the drama by keeping the figure so well ‘placed’ within the background and the set.

Blonde model in studio.

I used a large (60″) soft-white umbella in very close for this shot. I needed the light to be soft and even to show off her delicate features and Lorri’s great makeup work. Adding a large white fill below her at chest height filled in any shadows and opened her eyes beautifully.

The first shots were fine, but there was something missing… a sense of mystery or ‘interestingness’… So I added a speedlight in close for a hair light, letting the hair get quite lit from an off stage source. Bringing a fill card in at an angle to catch some of the direct hairlight gave me a bright poppy hairlight to camera right as well. This little bit of lighting made the image more interesting and drives the viewer to her eyes.

The pose was the last little bit of work I did. I wanted to make a statement other than “look at me I’m pretty”… I wanted drama. Having her avert her eyes was a simple way to pull the image from the “seen before” to the “interesting.” As she worked this pose she would slightly tilt her face… I wanted her to actually do the tilting and look away from me so there would be some reality to the image. Catching it was my job. We did it until I thought we had it right.

Adding the backlight to the soft front light gave the glancing away a little context… a little drama.

Edyta with a very “direct” pose.

Sometimes a very direct look can be dramatic as well. Edyta was piercing me with those eyes and I needed something to offset the hardness of the portrait. Although I liked the hard, symmetrical look to it, I wanted to beak the image up with some angles and whimsy.

She was wearing a tube-top and with the bare shoulders and well toned muscles she looked too strong to me. I wanted the light to add to the strength, but not to make her look over the top, so I worked it a bit more. The main light was brought in quite close and again it is my 60″ umbrella. A shiny fill board was added for bottom fill and it is just out of sight of the camera. This light gave her a well lit face as well as some beautiful liquidy highlights on the shoulders and muscles in the chest.

A few shots told me that it was still too “flat” so I needed to add some dimension. I did that with a small reflector against the back wall (10 feet behind her) and positioning it to give me a small circle of light behind her shoulders and neck. The closer the light gets to the back, the tighter the ring of light becomes. Working that light to the correct amount of power can be a bit daunting, but a few sheets of spun glass from the local video house can dampen the strong light and give a little softness to the edges.

Doing this gave me some depth, and the addition of a speedlight in close on the top of her head gave me just a bit of hairlight and another reason to drive the eyes back to the face. Big strobes with speedlights are a great combination… I love it.

The angularity and the directness achieved with the lighting, I now turned my attention to the pose. I wanted something else other than the bare shoulders. We added the flowers and it immediately worked for me. The hard, direct look of Edyta is offset by the seemingly random shapes of the flowers. They add whimsy where symmetry prevailed.

Laura in the shade in Mexico.

The last shot is of Laura and it is taken in the shade with a small fill card in close. I wanted something to catch the youthfulness and grace of a lovely young lady. Choosing natural light was instant… the long lens gave me a tight crop and I added a small card to the shadow side of her face to even out the exposure across her face.

I had taken her hair (after she messily put it ‘up’ on top of her head) and pulled some strands out to let them frame her face. I love that look and it adds to the natural effect of the shot. Pull out fewer than you need, you can always get more…pulling out too many and you gotta start over. They were kind of blowing and moving around her face in the very faint breeze.

I moved her forward to catch the edge of the sun on her head, but not far enough forward to cause a ‘backlight’ look to it. I wanted the sun to catch little strands of hair and add contrast to the shot.

The very flat light across her face, and the tiny bits of sunlight catching her hair, give the shot a natural, almost candid look. Choosing the long lens and bringing it in tight also added to the vulnerability of the image and her beauty put right in front of our faces to view. I have a 20×30 of this shot in the studio and it really is striking. The combination of a natural look with a tight crop makes it irresistible.

I hope you enjoyed this post on portraits with some of my favorite portraits of the recent few months. Lighting Essentials is growing and I hope to take it to some new places in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

See you next time.

SHARE/SAVE