Month: January 2021

Today I have a photo tip that really breaks the rules. I’m going to talk about including hats in portrait photography.

Hats can say a lot about a person’s personality and are good props to use – if they really do suit the personality of the subject.

But, be careful with the lighting. You don’t want your eyes to be shadowed so you need to lower the light. But if you lower it too far, you can get “horror movie” lighting and shadows. Watch Out.

If you’re doing a quick snapshot just for fun let your models go and wear whatever they want. If they want to wear a cute looking clown hat or a jester hat with jingling bells – or even a deerstalker for Sherlock Holmes fans … Go for it! (I have done it all.)

People and Portrait Photography Tips

In this article, I’m not talking about funny snapshots. I’m talking portrait photography telling the story of who this person is – and will stand the test of time.

If you are trying to make something special that will be on the wall (and be liked) 20 years from now, you need to be careful and plan every detail. You DO want to show the personality of the model and who they are – so hats sometimes come into play. Make sure you NEED it to tell the story.

BTW – if you’re not aware, the reason to be careful is that hats have the capacity to draw the viewer’s eye away from the face and that’s the worst thing.

If you shoot a professional baseball player – can you imagine telling their story without a baseball cap?

How about a rodeo cowboy? Can you really tell the story of who they are without the cowboy hat? They wear hats all the time.

As well as the hat’s ability to disguise the radical difference between tanned cheeks and the white forehead of a fish belly – that’s a natural part of this subject. They will look like something is missing if you shoot them without their hats.

Now I think about it that could become our rule. Do they look like something is missing without the hat?

I’ve written several articles where I constantly harp on the fact that you shouldn’t put something that would draw the viewer’s eye off the face … but a hat can be an exception to that rule.

What about the young girl who NEVER wears a hat, but has a bad hair day! You guessed it – no hat. Find ways to fix her hair or even postpone the shoot. No matter how “cute” she looked, the portrait wouldn’t make it onto the wall. It’s just not him.

There was a time when you HAD to shoot a model with a hat, even if it was the only hat they ever wore!

This is a mortar board that graduated seniors wear. That’s a must! (And that would make it to the wall – no question.) As I write it is graduation time – which is why I am thinking of what may be the only exception to the hat problem.

By the way, do you know how mortar boards come from? It’s kind of an interesting story.

Back in the days – (renaissance era), the only two ways for an artist to make money were to be assigned by a church or a very wealthy patron.

If they are doing a religious painting for the church, the most important and most holy people in the photo are emphasized by placing them in the center and placing a gold, circular shape behind their heads – indicating a hello. It’s a solid shape, not the ring shape we now associate with the halo.

This immediately separated them from the crowd and defined them as very important people.

When rich people come and want portraits. They want hello too! The ego of the rich man is every bit as above then (or even more so) as it is now. They want to be the center of attention and “important” too!

Unfortunately, placing hello on a non-holy subject is considered blasphemy. The rich have the cash and power to stay out of trouble, but starving artists have a way of being burned at the stake. (Or tortured and killed in other gruesome ways.)

What to do?

This problem was solved by using solid circular shapes for saints and solid squares for the rich and famous. If you look at one of the paintings, it looks like they are wearing gold mortarboard!

And so it happened. The mortar board is a symbol that shows importanceyes day and graduates!

In portrait photography, avoid hats unless absolutely necessary to “tell a story.” But if it’s part of their personality – put it there even though it might technically be against the rules. Just be careful setting your lighting and you’re good to go. Photo tips are a guide and should be broken from time to time.

In the last few portrait photography photo tips articles we’ve discussed how to light portraits. So far, we’ve covered how and when to use 4 different lamps. Three sets of basic lamps and the first special light – “hair lamps”.

Today’s portrait photography photo tip will end our lighting discussion with the final special light, “accent light.”

How is light used in portrait photography?

While I refer to specific lights today as “accent light,” we use them most often to put catch light in the eye – so you’ll often hear it referred to as “eye light.” Sometimes, it’s also called a “kick light”.

By the way … you are not limited to just one!

You can have accent light for the eyes and have others accentuate whatever you want! If for some unknown reason you want to accentuate these things, you can have accents for her jewelry, fingernails or even a certain point in the background. Anything you want to encourage the viewer’s eye – and attention – for.

It’s like a mini highlight.

So while I say there are 5 types of lamps, I am referring to the category, not the number used. Your set can literally have dozens of accents. (Technically, hair lights are an accent – but we use them so often that it deserves a category of its own.)

Keep in mind that three basic light sets will handle most of your needs. You should only add extra accents if you really need them. Every time you add extra light, you increase the technical difficulty and chances are it will mess up your photo.

In other words, just because you have additional lights doesn’t mean you need to add them.

Today’s portrait photography photo tip – use “eye light!”

Sometimes you will have a pattern that makes it difficult to place the catch light in both eyes. An example is a separate lighting pattern.

One side of the face is bright, and the other side is in shadow.

If we want deep shadows, we can choose not to use the fill flash, so that no catchlight hits the eye shadow!

Or, you might have a subject with a large nose that blocks out light – or even very deep eyes – that don’t let the light catch.

Catch lights are essential! You MUST have them! Without capturing light – in both eyes – the eyes look dead and lifeless and your viewers (and subjects) will NOT like portraits. So, we added “eye light.”

It’s nothing more than a little light that is aimed at the eyes – or whatever else you’re trying to accent – and is blocked as much as possible from hitting anything else.

Portrait Lighting Essentials

This is where using arrogant will come in handy.

Snob is a photo gadget that you tuck in over the lights. It looks like a cone and narrows the block so that it hits just whatever area you’re trying to accent. In the case of eye light, you will focus the beam on the face – in the eye area.

Caution: it is almost impossible to have an eye light that ONLY illuminates the eye. It will light up at least some faces and the effect can increase the exposure value. Be careful that you don’t set it to be too bright!

Another problem with setting it too light is that it can introduce another set of shadows on the face. That’s a no-no. The only shade we want has to be from the key light.

The good news is that since the eye is literally a mirror surface, it doesn’t take much force. It can be very weak and still do the job.

Another precaution is to make sure you only have one light catch in each eye. We’re trying to make the eyes look bright, smart and natural … some catch lights just don’t look natural.

Arrange your accents in such a way that there is only one light catch. If you can’t do this, you’ll have to go into Photoshop and remove the extras. (They must be round too!)

Practice adding accent lights – especially eye lights. The results are worth it!

Today’s portrait photography photo tip – use accent lighting – will end our current lighting discussion. If you’ve read all of your previous lighting articles – and put them into practice – you know more about lighting for portrait photography than 90% of all photographers out there. Including professionals!

Below are some indoor portrait photography tips that will keep you from going through expensive studio lighting, but still producing professional indoor portraits.

As a Gloucester wedding photographer, you can easily do indoor portrait photography in the comfort of your own home. Even with a single light source, you can still take photos that hold a stunning view. All you need is a quiet corner-light.

Essential tips for indoor portrait photography in Gloucester

Below are some essential necessary tips for Gloucester indoor portrait photography that will make the task of capturing photos a piece of cake:

• Background

To start, you need to position your theme to be placed in front of a light absorbing black velvet. Velvet creates a black background for photographing your photos. To support velvet, you can use anything to hold it. Bookshelves will be a good choice.

• Lighting tips

Once your model is comfortably seated, as Gloucester professional wedding photographer you will need to adjust the light so that it is positioned just slightly above her head. Additionally, you must have the lights positioned to the right side of the model you choose. The lighting settings will create stunning, classic portrait photography results.

• Fast shutter speed

You need to set your shutter speed to be relatively fast. It’s a good idea to set the camera to 1/60 Sec at f / 2.8. Also, it is recommended to use a tripod to complement your photography.

• Using a tripod

A tripod will eliminate camera shake thereby refraining from spoiling indoor portrait photography. The resulting indoor portrait photos will be sharp when using a tripod.

• A longer focal length

When it comes to Gloucester portrait photography, photographers typically use an 80-200mm f / 2.8 lens and set the same up to 145mm. The reason is, a longer focal length will result in much more stunning indoor portrait photos.
• Take multiple shots

One more thing you can do is take a few shots to test exposure and general settings. If you are satisfied with the shooting setup, you can easily start your indoor photography session. It would be better if you could discuss the same with your previous model before various poses and expressions possible with her.
• Experiment with different lighting conditions

Different lighting angles will result in different indoor portrait effects. All you have to try is to go with different lighting positions and see which one works for good. Such lighting angles include the right side, above, left side, below and from behind.

• Using a reflector

Whenever the light is too harsh, it creates unwanted shadows that can ruin your indoor portrait photography endeavors. But you can use a reflector on the opposite side of the light source. Reflectors reflect light onto your subject, creating a much softer illumination.

You are an Orange County Photographer who has experienced great growth. You have hired an associate photographer. You now want to promote him in a profitable way.

Associate photographers can be a great addition to any photography business.

They allow businesses to take advantage of job opportunities that would otherwise have to be turned down because the owner was booked or busy. They can bring new perspectives. However, the form of the relationship and the means of promotion are items that a business owner should consider and deal with before promoting other photographers publicly. This article provides a list of ideas to consider when a business owner takes this step.

1. What is the legal relationship between you and the new photographer?

Will a new photographer be hired as an employee or will you contract work for this photographer? There are advantages to both. With hired employees, you have more control over how the job will be accomplished. With contractors you have less control but you don’t have to deal with benefits, taxes and other administrative duties.

2. How broad will the role of the new photographer be defined?

Will she be meeting with clients before the wedding or photoshoot? Will he do the photo selection and editing? Will he take orders? Clarity about the answers to these questions will prevent many misunderstandings in the future.

3. How will new photographers be paid?

Are you going to pay him a piece – where he gets paid so much for editing, so much for shooting and so much for meeting clients or will you pay him by the hour? Will you offer incentive payments – say 5-10% of any order? Incentive payments can pay for themselves with larger orders. This will give the photographer enough motivation to produce an excellent product so that the order size is increased by more than 10%.

4. What is your policy on non-competitive agreements?

Are you going to be looking for an agreement that prevents the photographer from doing work on the side while he’s working for you or Will you just require him not to contact clients who come through you. It’s a good idea to get advice from a lawyer before making a decision at this point.

Promoting new photographers in your business is very exciting. This is proof of successful growth. Taking the above ideas into account will help make the trip more enjoyable for you and your new photographer.

In the last few photo tips articles, we’ve covered portrait photography lighting patterns … Short light, wide light, split light, loop lighting patterns, Rembrandt and finally butterfly lighting patterns. Today’s photo tip is all about controlling the shadows of lighting patterns with fill lights.

Each of our lighting patterns have their good and bad points and will be perfect for some faces and terrible for others. If you haven’t done any experiments to get the hang of it, I suggest you create your own weekend project!

These patterns are essential building blocks for mastering portrait photography.

As photographers, we tend to care about ourselves with light, almost to exclude everything else – but shadows are just as important! In fact, each of the lighting patterns we’ve discussed are named for the type of shadow the light source throws in!

This series of lighting patterns has been about building them with one light – the main (or key) light – and how to position them to get the most pleasing lighting patterns for certain types of faces.

While no matter what the light looks like, it can be a studio flash, a sun, a window, a reflector even more than a flashlight – it’s important to have shadows to add depth and life to our portrait photography.

However, when we look at portraits done by professional photographers, we note that they almost always have more than one light source. Usually they have three and as many as five or six!

Why? And how do we know when more lights are needed and where to place them?

Once again, everything returned to the shadows!

Suppose you are using a short exposure pattern to help visually narrow the face of the subject. This works because – visually – the shadows tend to recede and the lit areas move forward. Because the shadow is closest to the camera, it makes the face appear thinner.

But color and depth of shadow can add emotion and feeling to a portrait that we don’t want! If we use a single light, we will have sharp lines dividing the highlight and shadow areas and we lose all the details in the shadow areas.

Shadow areas can be very dark – which if we want a lot of drama and emotion in our portraits, that’s a good thing … but what if we don’t want all the drama? Obviously, we need to lighten the shadows, while still maintaining our slimming light pattern.

To do this, we add a second light. This is called a “fill light.” It’s named for the fact that this light fills the shadow!

With the fill light, we can now have complete control over the shadow! We can turn it off and have a completely black shadow or we can change it and have the shadow almost disappear – and anything in between!

Portrait Lighting Tips

Note: if we have the same amount of light intensity on the fill light as the main light the shadow is lost. If we have more light on the fill light, it will cast a shadow on the (previously) lit side. If you do this, it becomes the main light and the other one is the fill light. In other words, the fill light is always the same or lower intensity than the main light.

To get an understanding of fill lights and what they do, look through your favorite magazine and try first to determine the lighting pattern, then where the headlights are positioned and whether or not they use fill lights. If they use one, why? If not – why not?

In portrait photography Science Articles, depth of shadow is just as important as light quality and will make a big impact on your viewer’s perception. We control the depth with a fill light.

Use photo tips today to start thinking about how you can use lighting patterns and fill lights in your portrait photography to start controlling the emotions of your viewers – and you’ll be well on your way to consistently winning photo contests. …

Is photography your true passion? Do you want to turn it into a successful career? Use these tips to earn more money as a professional photographer and make everyone else’s dream of turning a hobby into a job.

If photography is one of those true passions you can’t imagine your life without, turning into a highly paid job is the only way for you. Ok, maybe not the only one, but definitely one that will make providing for your life by doing something you really love is absolutely possible.

With the significant costs of equipment, transportation, and editing software, as well as the time photographers put into editing their images and making them truly beautiful, photographers (especially beginners) often note that they barely manage to make enough money to cover those costs and get the something worthy of it.

Artistic people struggle with it the most, as they tend to gravitate toward photography that is more non-commercial or not average market-oriented.

However, to survive in the fiercely competitive modern photography industry and be able to engage in more artistic shooting activities, you will need to learn some tips and tricks to find more clients and orders and, consequently, increase your bottom line.

Tips to help you earn more money as a photographer

Understand the difference between photography as an art / hobby and photography as a job. Try not to be too stubborn and concentrate on all your efforts in, say, landscape or wildlife photography when you can clearly see that it’s not bringing you money. Turn your passion into your hobby and use your photography skills to earn money in other fields.

Get involved in a variety of areas of photography which will give you a consistent amount of work throughout the year. Try not to be too stubborn and concentrate on all your efforts in, say, landscape or wildlife photography when you can clearly see that it’s not bringing you money. For example, wedding photography can be very lucrative, but newborn, family, and pet photography will keep you busy all year round.

It is everywhere. Promote your photography on your social media pages (the more of them – the better), feature your work on various photography websites. Turn into a real freelancer – create your profile on various websites (Like Angie’s List, HireRush.com, Thumbtack, etc.) that connect service providers with clients who need a certain type of work done, including photography to not miss any job opportunities. Create your own online platform – a personal photography website with your portfolio, price lists of your services and DIY photography tips.

Remember that your time is money. And your client must respect that. Don’t underestimate your hourly rates and set them up to the average local photography rates. Don’t forget to include your editing time, the time it took you to get to your destination and return home, and travel costs in the total project price.

Brand yourself by volunteering during charities and social events, freelancing for local newspapers and magazines, create an online portfolio to become better known among professionals and let potential clients experience your skills before they have a chance to work with you. The more ‘popular’ you get, the higher the price you can charge.
Try to offer unique services and special bundles. Not every photographer will agree to do nativity photography, as it requires an extraordinary sensibility, respect and an artistic approach to what is happening. Not every pro is capable of flying a drone and taking great pictures during an aerial photo session. Improve your skills, dive a little deeper into newer, less congested by other photographers, ball photography and become one of the most sought after local pros in it.

Are you a beginner?

Don’t miss the opportunity to learn from more experienced photographers and earn money at the same time. Watch for local advertisements and contact local photographers to see if anyone needs helpers for their upcoming event photography. Many pros need a second cameraman when they are hired to shoot big events. And that’s where you’ll come in handy.
Take full advantage of your rights to the photos you create. Try to avoid contracts that require you to sign those rights. Instead, save those rights for