Shooting for fun – Tips for Hobbyists and Amateurs…

When it comes to travel and shooting for myself, as a tech junky and perfectionist I always tend to overpack and want to bring every lens I own, maybe even a backup camera and at least a hotshoe flash but this translates to a heavy pack and painting a target on yourself for thieves.  Also, it takes a little bit of the spontaneity out of an otherwise casual fun time.

One problem I have is I love my 5D (full frame) but it has no built in flash and bringing a hotshoe flash is just more gear.  My 50D has the pop up flash but I avoid it like the plague because of the direct harsh lighting.  Solution for that… Gary Fong Pop-up Diffuser and if you dont have one and dont want to carry that, you can also use a business card to bounce the flash.  I still almost always choose the 5D because of the full frame and will pair it with a fast lens.  There really is no replacement for a good fast prime lens.

On Lenses…

Choosing the right lens to carry can really make your experience more positive and give you better results to match your personal style.  A lot of people become too reliant on zoom lenses and never experience the benefits of a prime.  Personally, I started with full manual 35mm and 120mm film cameras and zoom lenses simply didnt exist.  But philosophically prime lenses feel more organic to me – it forces you to be more actively involved in framing your shot instead of just twisting the zoom ring.  The effort will reflect in the quality of your photos.

Also, cheap zoom lenses suck….  a low-medium priced prime will almost always yield sharper images with better color/contrast, and are typically faster aperture capabilities.  The Canon primes all start at around $300 and large aperture ranges from F1.8-2.5, most have more metal construction versus plastic and overall make you less dependent on flash.

If you are stuck on zooms – do yourself a favor and invest in a good one.  The Canon 28-135 IS is one of the better “non-L” lenses in a moderate price range ($400).  If you can afford it, the Canon 24-70 F2.8L and 24-105 F4L IS and will last forever if you take care of them.

Tips for Shooting in Low Light…

Low light situations are always an inconvenience and I am always seeing friends frustrated with blurry photos.  Don’t be afraid to use the timer on the camera and set it on a table or railing, or even the ground. Also, you don’t always have to sacrifice depth of field to squeeze that extra bit of time for shutter speed either. Dont be afraid of higher ISO settings.  In the digital world even ISO 1600-3000 has less digital noise/grain then most ISO 800 film has.  Also, that can be improved in editing afterwards through noise reducing plugins (see Noiseware).

Example:  Eiffel Tower at Dusk – Although it looks fairly well lit this shot was taken at dusk and the sun was just passing the horizon.  This was shot with 24mm glass on my 5D set at F18 shutter open for 2.5 seconds ISO 1600.  The camera was resting on a cement pillar for shot.

Balancing Exposure for Harsh Lighting:

Digital sensors have improved over time but one of the constant battles is their sensitivity to highlights and trying to maintain balance between highlight and shadow areas. This is when editing software can really be our friend in restoring details in extreme conditions.  To make the most out of it though you still need to balance exposure in camera.  The cameras meter will never give you what you need so just use it as a basic guide.  As a general rule of thumb I will meter for the highlights and add 2-3 stops depending on the amount of difference between shadow and highlight areas.  With software you can usually use simulated fill light and highlight recovery as well as color mixer to help bring details back into the shot.

Example: Magna Carta Memorial Trail Landscape in England.  There was a 6 stop difference between the highlights and shadows and to make matters worse the tree was directly back-lit.  I wanted some of that silhouette affect but still keep some details to avoid completely buried shadows and keep the textures and glowing parts of the leaves.  I chose an exposure 3 stops brighter then the highlights and used the fill light and highlight recovery tools in Adobe Lightroom along with the brightness and hue controls for the green and blue color mixers to keep the sky a deep blue and the greens balanced.

For traveling pros…

Traveling with studio gear is always cumbersome. Traditional ways of lighting with separate key and fill lights, backdrop lighting, and more are not always feasible when you have to check equipment on airlines and take taxis and such.  Also, just because you’ve been told you’re shooting 1-2 person groups it doesnt mean you wont be given large groups of 6-7+ people and expected to make it work.  There are a few hardware tips I have found to minimize equipment load and are extremely flexible in application.

• Alien Bees ABR800 Ring Strobe with Moon Unit Diffuser
• Alien Bees Parabolic Light Modifier (PLM) – I use the 51″ and 86″ versions paired with a B1600 Monolight
• Photek Backdrop System

When used correctly you can usually manage to get great results (even full length with high key backdrop) with only 1 light.  Dont forget if you’re only bringing 1 light, bring backup bulbs or an extra backup source to use just in case. Sometimes if I need a backlight or an extra source for fill or highlights I’ll use my hotshoe flash in manual-slave mode.

Do you have a specific question or tip you’d like to share – lets keep the discussion going!

General Preparation Tips for Your Photo Shoot:

1. Do not try anything new last minute, no new hair color or hair cuts the day of or the night before unless there has been a trial run.  Don’t switch to a new makeup color or skincare products.  Use what you know works.
2. Be well rested.  Dark circles and blood shot eyes from lack of sleep and hangovers do show and the energy of the shoot suffers.
3. Body and Facial Hair  -  Ladies please take whatever precautions necessary to remove anything that may be seen in photos (legs, armpits, etc) I would not suggest waxing or laser hair removal soon before the shoot due to increased redness.
4. Manicure and pedicure  – Guys don’t panic Im not saying you have to go to the spa just make sure you don’t look like a homeless person. Ladies, try and stick to natural colors for polish – french tips work well.
5. Tanning – I suggest avoiding spray-on tans or excessive use of tanning beds – if you want to add some color I suggest using a light shade of bronzer or something you are familiar with that will not over do it. Spray on tanning rarely blends well and reflects very different then most facial makeups so you get strange skin coloration in photographs.  For couples – another reason is if one person excessively tans and the other does not or has pale complexion… not a good mix for photos.
6. Hair – Nothing looks less prepared then roots showing through colored hair. Its always a good idea to have your roots touched up a few days prior to the shoot.
7. Tattoos – if you do not want them showing in the photo I would suggest either trying to cover them up with clothing choice or trying a concealer makeup to hide them. Sephora carries a number of products specifically to cover tattoos, try them before the day of the shoot to make sure it works how you want it.
8. Wardrobe – Most importantly wear something you love! Make sure your clothes are clean and wrinkle-free. Avoid extremely bright colors and shirts with big logos or advertisements on them.  Dont mix too many colors. If you are going to wear black or dark colors try and pick pieces with some texture or break it up with some accessories.

Attitude!  One of the most important factors for any kind of shoot is attitude – for all parties involved. Keep positive and friendly and everyone will enjoy themselves more and it will show in the photos! Allow for enough time so you aren’t rushing.

For you camera shy people… we’ll work with you and promise to be patient, no pressure, its your shoot and you should enjoy it. There are some things you can do prior to the shoot that will help get you comfortable.  Spend time with friends and family and bring a camera, take pictures of them and with them just as a casual fun thing.  Spend some face time with your camera phone – this will help you become familiar with how you look in photos and how to improve things you don’t like.

Tip for Creative Portfolio and Commercial Shoots:

Creative Planning, Concept Development:  Before scheduling and coordinating all of the details of the photo shoot there are numerous things to consider from a creative planning perspective standpoint.  Here is a checklist to help with the planning process:

1. How are these photos going to be used, what am I going to do with them or how will I get the most out of them?
2. Who is your target audience and how will these photos appeal to them?
3. Create multiple concepts to potentially use, ask for friend’s and co-worker’s opinions and pick your favorite.
4. Will your concept fit with your brand image, what will the photos say about you as an artist or company and the services you provide.
5. Think with an edited eye – look at the bigger picture and how all aspects of the shoot come together to form your finished look.
6. Casual or Extreme – With hair, makeup, and fashion there is a fine line between playing it safe and taking risks. If your concept is extreme make sure its not so intense that its not appealing or usable on some level.  If your concept is more casual remember to maintain your own signature of style and quality of execution so the images are still your own and is not just another typical look. Also keep in mind the intended use, if you are doing makeup or hair for a fashion shoot to show off the clothing you dont want the hair and makeup styling to be so loud that it distracts from what your trying to sell.
7. Originality – people often draw inspiration from magazines, TV, and surfing photos online but trying to emulate their exact style will not do you any favors and may actually land you in legal trouble if your work is ever published and earning you money.  Sometimes this happens on an unconscious level or even totally by chance that your styling shares similarity with others – the more you try and make it your own the better.
8. Location vs. Studio – the location of the photo shoot can have a big impact on the results beyond just whats in the background.  Studio shoots can tend to feel more official or formal and in some cases people are intimidated by that or feel pressured to deliver.  On-location shoots can really help set the mood while providing a more natural social environment. People reflect on whats around them – its only natural.
9. Commercial Application: Most fashion and beauty photos are used to sell products so even if we’re just shooting for your portfolio, if you can showcase a particular product this makes you even more appealing as an artist because your work is usable beyond your own marketing purpose as a service provider.
10. Plan Your Team Carefully: Avoid having to many cooks in the kitchen. If there are going to be multiple people involved with the shoot for hair, makeup, wardrobe, styling, and photographer its best if they have compatible personalities and understand their role in the shoot.  Its awesome to get input and when working with creative people you’ll likely get feedback whether you ask for it or not but if you have 5 people trying to run everything you’ll end up with frustrated people and looking unprofessional.
11. Share your expectations:  This is very much related to the point above and developing/sharing the overall concept.  Make sure that everyone involved understands the overall concept of the shoot and their role in it.
12. Follow up and remind people of dates/times and confirm with everyone involved the day before the shoot.

Perspective: As artists sometimes we get so caught up and paranoid in thinking people are going to steal our intellectual property that we lose perspective sometimes.  Simply put, think of how many high resolution un-watermarked images are out there on the web.  Regardless of how great yours may be, what are the chances of them using yours especially if you’ve taken precautions to resize and watermark when there is so much unprotected material out there. Of course the chance of this depends greatly on the amount of material available; uniqueness of your shot and the quality of the other alternatives.

On Sharing: My experiences have been that all parties benefit 10 fold from sharing as long as credit is given. Whether the images are from a job or just for personal use and fun, whats the point if you are the only one that gets to see them?? The possibility for networking and generating press and just getting the work seen is just too great not to take advantage.  Posting photos from events and projects for customers gets everyone publicity and encourages search and page likes and even provides SEO benefits when done correctly.  For each person that likes or comments on a gallery or photo it expands your reach exponentially! From a business perspective, quality photos provide visual content and get a lot more attention then simple text updates. Its not always possible to give credit for all people involved but I always try and encourage re-sharing, tagging, comments, and more whenever able. All of this is great, but not without risk.

On Risk: Of course we all want to protect our work, afraid of someone copying our concepts or flat up stealing the image without asking permission, giving credit, paying for usage, etc.  In most cases this is out of simple ignorance – people dont know better and assume anything posted online is within the public domain.  Some people do know better and do it anyway but usually not with any malicious intent. The topics below will help suggest ways to minimize potential risk.

On Watermarking: When posting on social media I highly suggest using a moderately visible watermark. If you go crazy overboard with something that covers the whole image or is so large that it disrupts the image then it defeats the whole purpose. The point of the watermark is to show the viewer that it was taken by a professional and who the image belongs to as well as to deter theft. The professionals that use large watermarks over the whole image or paste a massive logo that makes up about a third of the photo… they do this in attempt to make it difficult to remove in photoshop. In my opinions, its absolutely absurd and unnecessary and makes it less likely that someone would share the images at all, limiting exposure.

How to Optimize Images: I personally use the Copyright metadata field and export function in Adobe Lightroom.  This way if I deliver images to clients even if they are unwatermarked and high resolution – if they choose to post them, most social media sites will use the copyright metadata field for the default caption.  You can use either simple text or a logo to use when exporting with watermark.  Having both a visible watermark and caption is ideal but not always feasible.  If I expect the client will post the images I will create a web version that are already resized and watermarked for both protection on my end and convenience on their end.  Sometimes they post the high res unwatermarked images anyways.  I also use the keywords field for both organization and SEO purposes for the Smug Mug galleries – Picasa and Flickr also use these fields. I would check to see whether your preferred sharing interface uses the caption or keyword field – these services are always updating things. Also the gallery plugin on this wordpress site recognizes the keyword and caption fields when importing media. I usually size images to 900px to improve upload and download times and also deter theft – anyone looking to use the image for commercial purposes wont be able to use that for much especially with a watermark.

Legal: I’ll preface this with the fact that I am not a legal professional nor offer this as legal advice but rather just sharing personal experiences. I submit all images to the Federal Copyright Office with their eCO System several times a year through their bulk upload option. Separate individual uploads for special work-for-hire or other licensing options may be required when the client owns all rights to the images.  The first time is always a little confusing but you can save your forms for future use to avoid aggravation.  Technically when you take the image you own it and all rights to it, but filing it with the Federal Copyright Office gives you a lot more backup as well as options to legally delegate permissions and ownership.

Exceptions? You may have noticed there are no watermarks on the images displayed on this site.  I did this to keep the images clean and visible with little distractions so they could be viewed undisturbed – straight from the source.  Another protection method I did was remove the right click option. One of the best ways to circumvent people lifting your images is to make it easy to re-share… hence the social buttons all over this site.

Canon 15mm F2.8 Fisheye 180 degree view

I got this lens in a trade for some older flash units I wasnt using anymore, kind of on a whim figuring it was more of a novelty for fun then anything for serious commercial work.  I’ve used this lens more then I ever thought!  Yields very cool perspectives for architecture, automotive, edgy fashion, and even weddings and events in tight spaces for an ultra wide room shot.  One of the most impressive features is the focusing range and sharpness, easily rivaling its pro “L” glass companions. Due to the ultra wide nature and distortion and focusing range, you can literally get close enough that the front element in nearly touching your subject. With an aperture range from F2.8-F22 you can really distort depth of field as you’ll see in the images below.

Joby SLR Zoom Gorilla Pod (shot with the 15mm shown above)

I initially saw these when we were in NYC drooling over all the tech at the B&H Super Store… yep its more then just a website!  This little tripod has a lot more beef then it looks like on the surface.  In this photo its holding a Canon 70-200 F2.8 L IS II mounted on a 50D… thats some seriously heavy glass for a tripod with flexible legs that only stands a foot tall!  Im not so sure I would be eager to wrap it around a tree or a pole with this much weight and money strapped to it, but all the same… with a lighter duty cam/lens combo much more feasible.  My 5D with battery grip and 24-105 was extremely steady.

More images from the 15mm…

Think Tank Retrospective 20 Shoulder Bag

Ever get tired of having to choose between dragging around a Pelican Case or carry around a dorky looking camera bag.  Think Tank Photo came out with this option and I was given one as a gift this Christmas.  My expectations were beyond exceeded. Its easily one of the most functional bags Ive ever had my hands on.  Everything from the quality of materials to the design and construction has clearly been overbuilt for hard use but without being overly rigid.  The thick padded strap and all the compartments and everything are perfect, plus its fashionable!  Pretty much just as the picture shows, it has the urban weathered kind of vintage military garb kind of finish… I dig it!

(Photo courtesy of Think Tank photo)

Black Rapid RS-4 Camera Sling

I’ll preface this one with the fact that I hate camera neck straps! I’ve always used the Canon wrist strap on my 5D but thats not very practical for carrying and even more so if you have 1 rig for telephoto and another for normal range.  In comes the shoulder sling from Black Rapid.  Another extremely practical camera accessory especially for those of you who like to hike or travel or carry multiple rigs.  It feels kinda weird the first few times but once you get used to it, simply awesome.  Mine has followed me to NYC, Milan, Paris, England, and to every wedding and event I’ve shot since I bought it.  Hands down the best $50 I’ve spent!

(Photo courtesy of Black Rapid)

A little about me… I’ve been working as a commercial photographer since 2003.  I have a passion for all things creative and enjoy finding new ways to apply them in business.  Photography as an art and as a business are two very different things although one is not necessarily without the other.  I hear a lot of friends and colleagues discuss photography, sometimes asking me for advice on hardware or how to get started as a professional, and most often pricing.  Whether you are a working pro, hobbyist or amateur I’ll try and have something for everyone to enjoy here… tips, tutorials, product reviews and more!

For me, it started as a fine art hobby in my early teens, I enjoyed the aesthetics of the camera gear, processing chemistry, darkroom prints;  the connection between the visual stimulus and the hardware.  At that time I shot through a lot of Ilford 35mm and 120 and occasional 4×5 transparency later on.  In the beginning I started by selling framed fine art prints, eventually making enough to start investing back into camera gear and eventually leading the path into the commercial side of things

One of the first customers that bought a print from me asked me to shoot a wedding  because she enjoyed the classic black and white candid sort of approach and felt that was something she hadnt seen from other photographers at the time – I went on to do 2 weddings and 4 portrait photo settings for their family which sort of opened the door to additional opportunity.  Providing a quality all-around experience means everything and word of mouth will follow. From then on my entire scope changed… instead of shopping for that hard to find vintage Zeiss lens for the Hasselblad I started looking at umbrellas, lights, backdrops, digital camera bodies and battery packs, flashes, reflectors, and more.

My workload has gone in waves – for a good 2.5 years I shot mostly weddings, engagement photos, and family portraits.  Shooting weddings is seriously one of the best ways to keep you on your toes in terms of adapting to your surrounding, and also socially and technical camera/lighting. Business progresses, networking, being in the right place at the right time, willing to take chances, and adapting your style to your client’s needs while keeping your own signature is key.  Ive met a lot of great people along the way that have brought me into industries ranging from Professional Ballroom Dance, Beauty/Cosmetology, and Aftermarket Automotive.  The internet marketing side of the business came about from my interest in web design, IT knowledge, and necessity to market my own business.  I trained myself in HTML, Flash, CSS, Java, and more and kept up on search engine trends and tools and eventually ended up offering it as a service and significantly helping growth for a number of small businesses. Of course the internet and technology is ever evolving and keeping up on those trends gives me the ability to help. This sink or swim environment combined with formal marketing and business education from Grand Canyon University has helped put me where I am.

So here we are at our latest rendition of my online portfolio and blog.  This blog will be used to share experiences with photo equipment, tips and tutorials, latest projects and collaborations.

Have a technical question or interested  in talking shop or helping on a shoot, we’d love to hear from you! Leave comments for me…