A word about ANY online forum/community – BUYER BEWARE.  There are many fine, upstanding citizens out there using these forums, with no harm, no foul.  However, flip that rock over and out will crawl lesser mortals and lower creatures….and you can get slimed.  Use your common sense and listen to the little bells and whistles sounding off in your own wee noggin.

Anywho, the lovely young lady in the image above approached me to update her portfolio.  I agreed and we were off to the races.  After many and sundry emails exchanged back and forth, we both finally settled on a ‘look’.  Dark and sophisticated with touches of Gotham City thrown in for fun.

I decided to use a basic two light, low key setup.  See diagram below:

The Gobo (a large sheet of black foam board held in place alternately by a background stand with arm and the subject’s friend) was placed between the key light and the background (in this case seamless black paper) to keep the light off the background, allowing it to go completely dark.  By using two lights, the subject is completely lit and does not disappear into the background.  In this type of lighting setup, try to move the subject as far away from the background as possible.

There is an alternate way to light this, still using two lights, but placing one behind the subject and aimed at them.  See Below:

Here are some other shots from the session. Click on each image to see it larger:

Fetish photography with low key lighting tutorial.

And finally, I just fell in love with this image and couldn’t resist post processing it like a slightly twisted ‘beauty shot’:

To see any of the images larger, just click on them.

For more lighting tutorials, see these articles:

High Key Portrait Lighting Tutorial

Low Key Portrait Lighting Tutorial

Photographing Young Children With Low Key Lighting – Tutorial

Studio Lighting for Headshots Tutorial

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2009. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 6 comments

There are at least as many ways to shoot a headshot as there are ways to skin a cat.  We won’t go into WHY someone would want to skin a cat, but I can tell you why people would want to shoot headshots.  This is a great basic skill to have in your repertoire.  Think of it as The Little Black Dress of photography.

It’s amazing at all the different types of people and professions who need headshots; realtors, editors, authors, entertainers, models, CEOs, dancers, moguls, rock stars, travel agents, ministers, entrepreneurs, business owners, internet marketers and even the occasional porn star, just to name a few. Being able to shoot reliable, polished headshots can bring in infusions of cash, and hey, who doesn’t like a little infusion, from time to time?

For this tutorial, I will focus on the ‘classic’ headshot.

Beautiful headshots can be produced with three lights and a reflector.

You will need a key light, a background light and a hair light.  The most important light, in my opinion, is the hair light.  Hair, especially dark hair, soaks up an incredible amount of light and doesn’t bounce back much.  This can leave the photograph looking dull and ‘dead’.  The effects of a hair light can be subtle, but it can really bring life to an image, just like catch lights do in the eyes.  Look at the difference it makes in these two images.

Just as the lack of a hair light leaves an image looking unfinished, a badly placed hair light can ruin an image.  It is very important to make sure the light is placed well to the back of your subject’s forehead.  Make sure the light is hitting from the midpoint of the head and falling off to the back.  If you position the hair light too far forward, you risk racoon eyes and a glowing nose.  Not pretty.  You will have to play around with light settings and height, which will be different for brunettes and blonds.  I usually find a height of about 3 feet above my subject is best and a setting of f/4.5 or f/5.6.  If you’re not careful with blondes, you’ll blow out the top of their heads.

Place your background light as close to the background as possible, with the light aimed almost, but not quite, straight up.  You’ll want to make sure it is somewhat lower than your subject.  I usually put mine about 3 feet off the ground.  I do not use a light modifier, instead I use a standard pan reflector to direct the light.  I usually set my background light a stop under my key light and this gives a very nice gradient behind the subject.  Background lights help separate the subject from the background and give dimensionality to the image.

A word about backgrounds. For headshots I want depth and dimensionality, so I prefer either black seamless paper or dark gray seamless paper. The shorter rolls are just fine for this type of shooting.

Place you key light, preferably in a VERY large umbrella, almost directly in front of and well above your subject.  You will bounce the light into the umbrella, NOT shoot through it.

Place a large white or silver reflector at a 45 degree angle directly under the subjects face, low enough not to be in the photo.  This will bounce fill light under the subject’s chin and cure a myriad of ills, such as double chins and soft jawlines.  It also adds an extra little ‘kick’ of liveliness to the image.

Place yourself slightly higher than the subject aiming down.  Shoot with longer focal length lenses, in the 85-150mm range.  I prefer to shoot against either a dark gray or black background.  And there you have it – the basic headshot.

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

High Key Studio Lighting – Tutorial

Low Key Studio Lighting – Tutorial

Photographing Young Children With Low Key Lighting

Using Bold Color in Portraiture – Tips and Techniques

How to Set Up a Photo Booth in Your Home

How to Photograph Large Groups in the Studio

Make a Beauty Dish for Studio Lighting

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2009. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 12 comments

Occasionally in my web surfing I come across things that strike me as quite clever.  One such example is a homemade beauty dish I stumbled upon on lifehacker.com.  Well, actually the lifehacker page was really the entry to a rabbit hole I eventually went down, that lead to  David Tejada’s blog for commercial photographers, where he references Tyler Burk‘s instructions for this clever little item on Flickr.  Such is life in cyberspace.

Okay, so why do you want to know how to make a homemade beauty dish anyway?  Because they can turn your camera’s dedicated flash unit into a stunningly fantastic piece of advanced lighting equipment. And because you can make this version for approximately $15-$20, vs $175-$365 for one like this Dynalite Model.

If you’re still not convinced, check out the two images in this post by Evan Romine, both lit with a beauty dish.  Good stuff, no?

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

High Key Studio Lighting – Tutorial

Photographing Young Children With Low Key Lighting – Tutorial

Studio Lighting for Headshots – Tutorial

How to Set Up a Photo Booth in Your Home

How to Photograph Large Groups in the Studio

Photographing Babies, Birth to One Year – Tips and Techniques

Using Bold Color in Portraiture – Tips and Techniques

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2009. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 4 comments

I could take this post in any number of directions. I could talk about bold color in portraiture, how to transform virtually any place into a photography studio, how to work with children of varying ages or how to work with a larger group of people. Let’s roll with the last one.

Posing a large group can be intimidating to even the most seasoned of photographers.   Let me say at this juncture that my particular style of photography is casual, fun and quirky.   My subjects are often on the floor and very little proppage is used.   Yes, proppage is a word.   It means ‘things you use to make yourself feel more like a real portrait photographer and therefore run the risk of having your work look like everybody else’s work’.  If you are looking for more traditional ways of grouping and lighting people, then I am not the photographer for you.

Mama Koku, storyteller extraordinaire, a traveling bard who spins tales in several African traditions, hired me to photograph her upcoming CD cover. During our initial phone interview (yes, clients interview us and we most assuredly interview them, let the circling and sniffing begin….) it was decided that a bright orange backdrop would fit the bill nicely.  We selected a time and place (the multi-purpose room of the local library branch) and we were off and running.

Mama Koku and her wonderful tribe of friends, family and neighbors began to arrive in stages.  I decided to break the ice by photographing smaller groups to begin with.  Actually, my very first shots were lighting tests with a dashing young man of unusual grace and presence.  This test helped me determine a two light setup would be best.  Shooting down at your subject is also a great way to emphasize their eyes, btw.  This shot below was just between young Mr. ‘I’ and me, as the room was quiet and empty except for the two of us.

Here is another shot illustrating the same principle.  This is Mama Koku seated, looking slightly back over her shoulder and up at me.  I was standing on the background paper mere feet from her, aiming down.  Look at those wonderful, warm eyes.

As more people arrived, I spied these two dashing young gentlemen.   They were thick as thieves and full of mischievous energy.   Sometimes the best thing to do is pair people up.   Having someone there with them, allows many children (adults too) to relax and not feel so on-the-spot.   Through the years I have found the back-to-back pose very effective.   It works especially well with boys, as they are often far more self-conscious in front of the camera than girls are.   It also gives them a way to touch, and I always insist their backs actually touch.   This has a profound psychological effect.   It says, in a primal way “I got your back”.   It also allows for maximum individualism.   Each subject is free to be, without visual input from the other.   Yet they each feel ‘safer’ and more confident than they would, all alone out there, in the big middle of all that cold seamless background paper.

All kids invariably love the ‘watching TV’ pose.   They like it even better when the photographer assumes the same position.   I spend a lot of time crawling around on the floor when I’m working.   When shooting like this, I’m usually on my belly, just like my subjects.  Did she just say belly? Yep. I always insist shoulders should be touching.  None of this ‘I’m not really in this photo with you’ stuff.  Either go all the way or don’t bother.  Either you like each other or you don’t and if you don’t, why bother to be photographed together?  I’m just not interested in all that in-between stuff, in photography or life.

Least you think it was all about the boys, look again.  Of course the girls wanted to get in on the action.  I suggested they line up but had no clue they were already miles ahead of me.  The relaxed and sweet energy between these girls was fantastic.  They just naturally configured themselves into a classic pyramid, which is one of the most effective ways to group people.  They got it exactly right!  We can tell they all know and like each other just by looking.

The following images illustrate how versatile the pyramid configuration can be.  Please note spaces were left for a graphic designer to drop in animated figures for the final artwork.

Sometimes within one configuration, you can use another.  Inside the pyramid below is a modified back-to-back pose.

As another handsome young man arrived to be added into the mix, I shifted to a diamond pose, which also happened to encompass a back-to-back pose.

Mama Koku is a storyteller.  I had the idea to pose her with children drapped about her person, much like the Native American Cochiti storyteller.  So I had her lie down and set about arranging some girls around her.  I decided to use only the girls in this one, because the boys were of an age to be extremely uncomfortable with this type of close, physical posing.  It is always best to work with, rather than against, your subject’s innate characteristics.  It is difficult to get warm, natural and engaging photographs of people who are woefully and wretchedly outside their comfort zone.

We also did a number of shots of Mama Koku actively engaged in the art of telling a story  For these shots, I had her sit on a small child’s chair and we gathered the younger children around her.  This took a bit of arranging and rearranging to make sure everyone’s face or profile was showing.

At the end of the shoot I asked Mama Koku if there was anything we hadn’t done that she would like to try.  She wanted some shots of the whole group standing.  Here goes:

By this time we had been working for about an hour and a half.  Everyone was relaxed and perhaps even a little tired…..

I couldn’t resist a little family love.  What’s not to love about mothers and daughters?  Yeah, I know.  Keep it to yourself.  You KNOW you love your mama.  And she loves you, right?  Right.

I realize I sometimes spend a fair amount of time on certain intangible things, like psychology or family and group dynamics.   That’s because those things MATTER.   This is aimed at all those folks who think any fool with a camera can be a photographer.   I would be remiss in my duties if I only talked about technique and equipment.   It takes SO much more to produce COMPELLING images of our fellow human beings.   It takes empathy, courage, strength of character, a sense of adventure and compassion, as well as killer instincts and lighting fast reflexes.   Here’s to all the people shooters out there.   Long may you prosper and thrive.   Without you, the world would be a lonelier and less colorful place.

Oh, here’s a shot of the room before I transformed it. Look closely and you can see my roll of orange background paper lying there waiting for me to finish my setup.

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

Using Bold Color in Portraiture – Tips and Techniques

How to Set Up a Photo Booth in Your Home

High Key Studio Lighting Tutorial

Low Key Lighting Tutorial

Photographing Young Children with Low Key Lighting – Tutorial

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2008. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 3 comments

There are several ways you can create a rich, saturated backdrop. Many of them involve multiple light heads, specialty brackets and hardware, and colored gels. I will focus on the easiest and most economical way to do it, which is with a basic, one light set up. You don’t need to light your background and can just let the light fall off. This will render your backgrounds richly saturated. You can view the basic lighting set up in my Photographing Young Children with Low-Key Lighting tutorial and view suggestions and links in How To Set Up A Photo Booth In Your Home.

The entire session above was shot against intense tulip background paper. As you can see, we rocked that color for all it was worth, going both romantic and modern.  Never let it be said that pink cannot function as a ‘neutral’.  If you are interested in the paper I used, it is Savage Tulip in 107 inch, but you can also order it in the 53 inch width.

Several years ago we bought and renovated a 1964 ranch style home on the ‘wrong’ side of the tracks.  Literally.   But that’s another story.   My studio was in the living and dining rooms. One of the concessions to working in smallish places is making everything do double duty. I kept the living room portion as my main camera room and therefore, the walls and ceiling were painted a clean, true white, to make sure any light bouncing around remained ‘neutral’. The dining room was my ‘presentation’ room for presenting multimedia shows for our clients. I had the walls in the dining room portion painted a rich and textured shade of red, but because I knew I also wanted to shoot in there, they were painted with a matte finish, so as to avoid glare and hot spots.

I had the perfect opportunity to shoot in there when I did the music CD cover shots for Amy Lee, saxophonist extraordinaire.  She played with Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefer Band for many years and was just going solo.  She wanted a lush, sexy new look and by golly, we gave it to her.  We did several looks that day, some in the more typical white high-key, but her faves and ours were the ones shot in that red room.  Ask me nice sometime and I might tell you how I lit it.

Here is the actual CD insert:

If you ask almost anyone what they think the most difficult or challenging color to work with is, most of them would probably say orange.

Not me.  I LOVE ORANGE.  This fabulous family was so energetic and lively it was the perfect background for them.  Of course, we discussed and agreed upon this vivid shade in a pre-shoot phone consult, wherein I offered suggestions for clothing.  Once they arrived at the studio, we were off and running.  Of course, it never hurts to be prepared to change colors and course, if need be.

So, don’t be afraid of color.  Granted, it’s not for everyone, but if you have clients and friends who are up for the fun, grab it and run!

Look for future articles on how to make sushi with nothing more than a soft box and synch cords.  Just checking to see if you were really paying attention.  Because everyone knows you need a radio release to make sushi.  Geez.

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

High-Key Portrait Lighting Tutorial

Low Key Portrait Lighting Tutorial

Photographing Young Children With Low Key Lighting – Tutorial

Studio Lighting for Headshots – Tutorial

How to Set Up a Photo Booth in Your Home

How to Photograph Large Groups in the Studio

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2008. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 4 comments

This tutorial is for those of you who would like to go a step further in polishing your photography skills.

In this tutorial, I will give you a list of all the items you will need to set up a small, functional photo booth in your home.  What is a photo booth?

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Behold the photo booth:

As you can see, it is nothing more than a background stand and seamless paper.  That, and a few more pieces of equipment, which I will outline below.  I have also provided links so you can see the items I am discussing.  You will be able to set this up in any extra room in your home, then take it down and store it when you’re finished.  This equipment is also highly portable, so you can set it up on location as well.  There is, of course, an upfront cost to getting the equipment, but everything other than the paper is a one time cost.

List of essential components:

1 Camera
1 Light
1 Slave (optional)
1 Stand for light
1 Reflector (optional)
1 background stand
1 roll 5 ft background paper
1 soft box or shoot through umbrella

The Camera—You don’t need an ultra advanced camera.  In fact, you could even do this with a really good point and shoot with a zoom/telephoto lens and a built in flash.

The Light—This could be the dedicated flash for your camera, a non-dedicated flash unit or a strobe.

• If you use your camera’s dedicated flash unit, read your user guide for instructions on how to fire it off camera.

• If you use a non-dedicated flash, such as the Vivitar 285, you will need an external slave.

• If you use a strobe, you can either trigger it with your on-camera flash or the sync cord that should come with the unit.  If you have a prosumer DSLR without a sync port, you will need a hot shoe adapter.

I have been using Paul C. Buff’s White Lighting line in my studio for literally decades.  I can’t say enough good things about this product line.  FYI–I do not get a single cent from them.  I just happen to be a very happy Paul C. Buff customer and know firsthand how well-made their products are and how top-notch their customer service is.  I recently had an opportunity to use their Alien Bees B800 units during a private consulting session, and was just FLOORED by the power output from these EXTREMELY economical units.  These fantastic units cost no more than a Nikon or Canon dedicated flash unit.  One of my major purposes, aside from teaching and mentoring, is to provide real value to my readers.  Paul C. Buff is REAL value.

The Stand—Although you don’t have to have an extremely sturdy stand, I advise buying the best you can possibly afford.  Like a Chinese chef once told me years ago, you can cook small in a big wok, but you can’t cook big in a small wok.  In other words, a sturdy stand can hold a small light head, but a lightweight stand cannot hold a big light head.  I personally prefer Bogen, but Photoflex is a very good and economical choice as well.

The Reflector—The reflector is optional.  They are relatively inexpensive, especially compared to the price of most flash units and strobes, yet they can act very effectively as another ‘light’.  Of course, having a stand and arm to support them is very helpful, but once again, this is all optional.

The Background Stand—Same advice as for the light stand.  Get the best background stand you can afford.  It’s a one time purchase and you can take it with you.  Plan on needing it for the bigger rolls of paper, but you can use it for the smaller rolls in the interim.

The Background Paper—This comes in several different widths.  For the purposes of this tutorial I am referring to either the 5 ft or the 9 ft width.  The 5 ft is useful for table top, babies and non-hyper children.  You can get a gazillion different colors, so if you’re fickle, background paper is the place to ‘pig out’.  You just trim it and roll a little more down as needed. It can last quite a long time, and depending on the angle at which you’re shooting, dirt and grime won’t necessarily show.  Much.

The Soft Box or Umbrella—Once again, there are many different manufacturers of these products.  I’ve owned many of each. Photoflex is the economical choice and they make very nice light modifiers.  I also own two medium sized Chimera soft boxes.  They are PRICEY, but oh so nice, because they are shallow and take up that much less space.  But the truth is, I’ve used Photoflex for years with great results.

As I’ve already mentioned, my personal preference is a soft box for this application.  They give more directional lighting with more contrast, which makes for a sharper, crisper image.  However, if you don’t like soft boxes or already own an umbrella that can be converted to a shoot-through, then by all means, use it.  You’ll just have to keep a closer eye for lens flare and light spread.  I would also stick with a small to medium sized umbrella.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your light source is a dedicated or non-dedicated camera flash unit, you will want to make sure you purchase a soft box designed to fit this type of light.

And there you have it.  Your very own photo booth.  Now get shootin’ people!

For more information on positioning you lights or reflectors, see my high key and low key tutorials. Here is another post full of tips and techniques about what to do with those babies once you’ve got them on that background paper.

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

High Key Studio Lighting – Tutorial

Low Key Studio Lighting – Tutorial

Photographing Young Children With Low Key Lighting

Using Bold Color in Portraiture – Tips and Techniques

How to Photograph Large Groups in the Studio

Make a Beauty Dish for Studio Lighting

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2008. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 2 comments

In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, the depth of field (DOF) is the portion of a scene that appears sharp in the image. Although a lens can precisely focus at only one distance, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on either side of the focused distance, so that within the DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under normal viewing conditions. –Wikipedia

Huh? Well, the easiest way to say this is, depth of field determines, in any given photograph, what is sharply focused and what isn’t.  How do you set depth of field?  With your choice of f/stops.  What is an f/stop?  It is how big or small your aperture opening is.  What is an aperture?  Inside each lens is a shutter, shaped like a wheel composed of individual, curved, overlapping blades.  These blades can open wide or close tight, and that, in a nutshell, is an aperture.  The larger the f/stop number, the smaller the aperture opening, and vice versa.  F/1.4 is a very big opening in your aperture, and creates very shallow DOF.  F/16 is a tiny opening in your aperture and creates great DOF.  See image:

So why do f/stops, apertures and depth of field matter?  Because they will affect how your photographs look.  They will determine what the FOCUS of your images is.  How powerful is that?  Let me illustrate.  The three photographs below were all taken within seconds of each other, using the same camera (Nikon D70),  the same lens (Nikon 50mm f/1.4-16), and the same point of focus (the rose.)

The first image was taken at f/16, which is the smallest aperture for this particular lens.  Notice how much of the background is in focus.  The rose was my point of focus, but it is overwhelmed by background clutter and just one more element in a busy image, with lots of different elements competing for your attention.

The second image was taken at f/5.6, which is effectively the ‘middle’ of the focal range for this particular lens.  Notice the background has become slightly more blurred and less focused, thus making the rose stand out a bit more.  However, there is still a lot of competition for your attention.

The third image was taken at f/1.4, which is wide open for this particular lens.  Notice the absolute focus of the image is now on the rose, while all else falls out of focus.  Your eye is forced to focus on the rose and nothing but the rose.  A powerful point of focus has been created.

Shooting with a wide open aperture, i.e., shallow depth of field, is a very effective way to photograph people, even in the midst of cluttered, busy backgrounds.  Below is another photograph shot last summer in the same alley the rose grows in.  In this one, the focus in on the boy’s right eye, yet the depth of field is so shallow his left eye is slightly out of focus.

Shooting ‘wide open’ does have its challenges.  With a fast moving target, such as a child at play, it is easy to come up with totally out-of-focus photographs.  However, with practice, you can learn to anticipate the direction the action is going and you can improve your reflexes.  Remember, if the subject’s eyes are in focus, all the rest can be a blur and all is well.  So aim for the eyes, or at least one of them.

One of my very favorite lenses, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4D Auto Focus AF Nikkor Lens, is also surprisingly inexpensive.

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

Outdoor Portraiture – Photographing Families in Natural Light

Outdoor Portraiture – Overcoming Challenges

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2008. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 2 comments

There is no doubt that photographing young children can be a challenge, and never more so than when using a low-key lighting setup.  So why bother?  Because the drama and richness inherent in this type of lighting is SO worth it and because it’s unexpected for high energy children’s photography. For the purposes of this post, young and active will be defined as children between the ages of one and four (toddlers).

The good news about this type of lighting is the comfort and ease with which it can be set up.  You only need one light and a dark background.  Most of the time I use black seamless paper or dark gray seamless paper. To provide the widest possible latitude for movement on the child’s part, the light should be positioned as close to the center as possible.  See diagram:

I prefer a soft box for this particular situation, as it provides a more directional, slightly ‘harder’ light than that bounced out of an umbrella.  This does not mean you cannot use an umbrella.  As a matter of fact, you could use a white, translucent shoot-through umbrella to great effect.

Okay, let’s say you’ve got your victim…er subject lined up.  So now what?  Well, just tell that two-year to go on out there to the ‘middle’ of the background and do something interesting while you photograph them.  Sure thing Mz Photog, but…what’s a background and where’s the middle and what am I supposed to do out there all by my lonesome?  I am about to introduce you to the very best friend you will ever have.  Meet Mister Smiley Face:

Draw him on the ‘sweet spot’, your pre-determined perfect lighting zone.  Might as well go ahead and draw him in with a sharpie marker, so toddlers can find it easily, and make him at least one inch in diameter.

This next step is very important.  Make sure the child knows about Mister Smiley.  Get down on their level and show them ‘their’ smiley face.  Make a big deal out of it.  If you have a fresh roll of paper, you might even wait until they are in the camera room and draw it in front of them.  In any event, make a big production of Mister Smiley Face, emphasizing it is just for them.  You now have a way to direct the toddler.

This may seem overly simple, but trust me.  I have been photographing toddlers for almost 20 years.  They don’t know from backgrounds and lighting zones, nor do they care to learn.  They have other things to do.  Like moving around.  A lot.  All over the place.  You will save yourself and the child an enormous amount of unnecessary stress if you have a non-combative, non-confrontational way to direct them.  It allows you to remain in position to shoot and allows them a certain amount of freedom and distance from you. If you’re very clever, you can get some killer shots of them looking for ‘their’ smiley face.

Mister Smiley Face works well for slightly older children, in the four, five and six year old range, as they love having a ‘mark’ to hit.  It’s a wonderful, stress free device that can easily be erased via Photoshop. Another great device for keeping busy toddlers in place is anything they can climb into, such as THE BOX.

I found this box at Pier One and knew immediately it was a great prop.  It’s heavy, well made and has a lid that will stay open and won’t fall and chop off little fingers.  The great thing about the box is, if they won’t get inside it, they’ll get on top of it.  Either way, they’re in your lighting sweet spot and all’s right in the world.

If you don’t have a box, try a simple stool, like this one I purchased at IKEA for under $20.  The plain, simple lines and blond wood make it an unobtrusive prop.  Don’t assume the possibilities are limited with this type of prop either.  I’ve had kids turn it over and sit in between the ‘legs’ or even try to crawl through it, which affords a great opportunity to photograph them peaking out.  Just make sure you and your light source are closer to the ground when photographing this way.

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

High Key Studio Lighting – Tutorial

Low Key Lighting – Tutorial

Studio Lighting for Headshots – Tutorial

Photographing Babies, Birth to One Year – Tips and Techniques

How to Set Up a Photo Booth in Your Home

How to Photograph Large Groups in the Studio

Using Bold Color in Portraiture – Tips and Techniques

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2008. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 10 comments

With the whole, wide world out there to shoot in, why would anyone bother with a studio?  I’ll answer that question and then move on.  The best reason for having a studio is control.  Indoors, you have absolute control of climate, background and lighting.

However, not everyone has a studio, a camera room or even wants one (in a later post I will discuss ways to convert almost any room in your home into a camera room with comfort and ease). Or maybe you do have one, but want to break out of your cozy little comfort zone and take it to the streets.

What are some of the drawbacks and limitations to overcome when shooting in the great outdoors?

• Weather
• Light quality
• Bugs and creepy crawlies
• Other people
• Noise
• Background clutter
• Restrooms or lack thereof
• Dragging equipment around
• Food and water, or lack thereof

Let’s take these in order and discuss ways to deal.

• Weather–In the heat of summer, shoot early in the day.  Later in the day can be okay as well, but is usually not as cool and crisp as early morning.  In the cold of winter, work it baby!  This is a great time for bright, colorful, layered clothing, funky boots and shoes, scarves, hats, mittens, hoodies and so forth.  Get people moving, jumping, leaping and playing.

• Light quality—let’s face it, working out of doors is a mixed bag where lighting is concerned.  The first and most obvious way to use outdoor lighting to your advantage is to shoot early morning or late evening.  That way, you get to take advantage of the ‘golden hour’, that time when the sun’s rays are longer and more golden.  Did you know that bright, overcast days are PERFECT for outdoor portraits?  Skin tones are rendered beautifully in this type of light and colors are richer. Even a light drizzle is good, as long as you protect your camera with an umbrella.

Low light can be an issue as well, and this is where really good, fast prime lenses come in.  I’ll discuss this further under ‘background clutter’ below.

A special challenge is dappled lighting, such as you get under large trees.  Try to avoid shooting directly under trees and look for ‘open’ shade instead.  If you’re fortunate enough to have some assistance, which can come in the form of a member of the party not being photographed at the moment, they can hold a reflector to bounce some light onto the subject.

• Bugs and creepy crawlies—Fact of life and you just might have to learn how to deal.  Either that or some sort of spray on bug repellent.  Or how about just incorporating the little critters into the shoot?

• Other people—Often picking the early morning hours to shoot can help eliminate having to deal with lots of other people in public venues.  Early on a Sunday morning was a good time to be in this usually crowded subway station plaza, and we had the place completely to ourselves.

Other times, you might just have to learn to adapt.  I have just taught myself not to care what others may think.  As long as you’re polite and focused on the task at hand, most people are merely curious.  If the photographer is relaxed and at ease, the subject is more likely to feel the same.

• Noise—street noise can be a distraction in the city, sometimes making communication between subject and photographer difficult.  Easily enough solved…just step in closer to say what you need to say then carry on shooting.  Harness the energy of the city and just SPEAK UP!

• Background clutter—A pre-shoot scouting trip is helpful.  But the real weapon to deal with this issue is really fast prime lenses.  One of my favorite lens is the good old 50mm f/1.4 shot wide open.  This lens is fantastic for really focusing on eyes or blurring out backgrounds, not to mention letting in an amazing amount of light, even on a really dark day.

• Restrooms or lack thereof—Tricky.  Lots of public parks have them.  In town, there’s always coffee or sandwich shops (buy something, it’s only fair.)  Out in the country, well, that’s what bushes are for.  Hey, nobody’s watching.

• Dragging equipment around—this is where I liberated myself by making two distinct decisions.

1. No fill flash, only really fast prime lenses.
2. No bulky camera bag.  Instead I use the Shootsac. This ultra bitchin’ accessory is something I SO wish I had thought of.  Photographer Jessica Claire and entrepreneur Keats Elliott created it and it is a MUST HAVE.  It is incredibly comfortable and cradles your lenses very securely.  It will save you money in the long run by protecting your lenses from scratches and dings during shoots.

• Food and water, or lack thereof—Once again, public parks often have water fountains, coffee and sandwich shops certainly have beverages and you can always toss a few bottles of water and some peanut butter crackers in your car.  No biggie.  Oh, and while you’re in the coffee shop, you could go ahead and snag a window seat and use the local ambiance as a background.  Once again, that’s where those fast, prime lenses come in handy.

Outdoor Portraiture

Well, that about wraps up this little discussion on sweeping away the challenges for shooting in the great outdoors.

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

Depth of Field – Photography Tutorial

Outdoor Photography – Photographing Families in Natural Light

Using Bold Color in Portraiture – Tips and Techniques

Wide Angle Lenses Are For Portraits Too – Tutorial

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2008. All rights reserved.| Permalink |

In my last post I discussed a classic four light, high key on white, lighting setup.

“But Deborah,” you say, “I don’t have four lights.  Or three.  Or really, even two.  I just have the one.”  No problem.  You’re perfectly outfitted to do a beautiful, classic low-key lighting setup.  Your camera’s dedicated flash unit could even be set up off-camera to achieve this result.

What is low key lighting? According to Wikipedia, it attempts to create a chiaroscuro effect. In traditional photographic lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for even illumination. Low-key lighting requires only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector. This type of setup is usually shot against a dark background.

The image above of my oldest daughter was taken using a single light inside a very large soft box that was positioned directly to one side and approximately 2 feet away from her.

See diagram:

Generally speaking, this is a less ‘forgiving’ lighting setup than other options in two different ways.

• The lighting zone is much more narrow than high key lighting, meaning the subject has to be more carefully placed in relation to the light.  This would NOT be the lighting setup of choice for a busy two-year old (unless you have a trick or two up your sleeve, like my super secret weapon MR. SMILEY FACE).

• Severe side lighting will highlight any natural flaws in the skin.

Therefore, this is lighting best reserved for the very young, those with flawless skin or ruggedly good looking men where you want to emphasize their facial ‘character’.

However, that last drawback can be overcome if:

• you simply back farther away from your subject, shooting full body, rather than tight facial close-ups and you
• angle the light more towards the front of the subject and use a reflector directly opposite it (see diagram below), which is not only more flattering, but allows light to spill onto the background, providing a level of separation between subject and background.

This image is a good example of the natural drama of this type of lighting and the unexpected scenarios you can use it in.

I used one light and a reflector on an arm and stand for the shot above.  The key light was placed to one side and slightly in front of the subjects.  The reflector was positioned on the opposite side to bounce light back onto the subjects.  Whereas the first photograph of my daughter was against seamless black paper, this one was shot against a dark cloth backdrop.  The side lighting emphasizes the texture in the background to nice effect.  If I had not used a reflector opposite the key light, the young man’s face would have been completely in dark shadow with no visible expression.

Best results with this lighting setup are achieved with the use of a soft box.  The larger the soft box, the more ‘window-like’ the lighting will be.  In another post I will illustrate this lighting technique using natural window lighting, which, while it requires NO lights, does require knowledge of how to get a properly exposed image.

If you would like to read more, check out these articles:

High Key Studio Lighting – Tutorial

Photographing Young Children With Low Key Lighting – Tutorial

Studio Lighting for Headshots – Tutorial

How to Set Up a Photo Booth in Your Home

How to Photograph Large Groups in the Studio

Photographing Babies, Birth to One Year – Tips and Techniques

Using Bold Color in Portraiture – Tips and Techniques

© Deborah Wolfe for Studio on a Shoestring, 2008. All rights reserved.| Permalink | 7 comments