As simple as this picture seems, it was not that way. This took moving some furniture and being creative with light.
So here is what I did with this photo. There was not enough light coming into the room to get a photo that was not dramatic. So, I decided to use the wall behind me as a huge light source. By using my ring light as a light source and having the ability to hold it in my hand, it gave me greater control to adjust the angle of the light. As you can see in the photo, she has a nice catch light in her eye. This is because the white wall behind me became like a huge soft box. I also used a reflector to add some light to the side of her face.
The other key to this photo is the depth of field. Because I shot at f2.8, I was able to get the limited depth of field. Also, placing items in front of her. This helps create the depth and dimension I was going for in the photo.
Here is another photo that I did but changed a few things.
Here is how I did it…
This was pretty much the same setup. This time I just did not power so much light from the Ring Light. I still exposed at f2.8, and the photo had an entirely different look. What I controlled here was the amount of light.
So whenever you are shooting and you have to work fast, just think about how you can create different looks with just adjusting the power of your strobes. I hope this helps.
If you want to see more of my work visit my web site.
“Shoot what you love”. That is probably some of the best advice that was ever given to me. Shoot what you love. How simple of an idea.
Taking photos of what you love for a living is the hard part.
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I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July weekend. Enjoy it and be safe.
No matter how many times it has happened, it sometimes can be frustrating when someone says, “That camera takes great photos”. The camera is just a tool, nothing more and nothing less than a tool for my vision.
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Every once in a while I get bored or I want to try something different in my work. This night I called over my good friend Chris Clayton to take some photos. I wanted to see if I put a black background up could I easily knock him out of the background using Photoshop.
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Anytime I get an assignment for a magazine I like to talk to the art director to get some input for the design. The AD wanted energy, excitement, and plenty of options to choose from to fill the cover and inside story. They also wanted me to create my own look and come with my own ideas.
So since I only had an hour with the subject and had very limited space, I was able to create a few different looks and I will show two of them to you.
So for this shot I used an Alien Bee Ring light for my main key light. I exposed for Louie’s face at f8 @ 1/125th of a second. I went ahead and changed my shutter speed to 1/200th of a second to make sure there was no ambient light that would affect my picture. I chose an aperture of f8 because I wanted the congo’s and Louie to be sharp and not out of focus. My other two lights were set to about 1.5 stop hotter at f14. This creates the hard rim light and also gives the photo the feeling of him being on stage with lights beaming down on him. The ring light fills in the rest of photo with soft even lighting with no shadows. I also shot this photo with my Kodak DCS Pro
For this photo I just made a few changes to give it a different look. I also made sure that there was enough room to add copy around the image if needed.
I shot this photo at f2.8 @ 1/60th of a second. I used an Alien Bee 800 with a 22 inch beauty dish. I shot this with a Nikon D90 with an 80 - 200mm lens.
The reason I opened up my lens was because I wanted to get a little more depth in the photo. I wanted the instrument out of focus and because of the slower shutter speed create just a little movement. Louie was great with his action. I just told him to play and let me capture him doing what he does best.
Here is the final cover shot. If you have any questions please just ask or if you want to hire me for an assignment visit my web site M329.com
I had a chance to photograph California State Senator Dean Florez for Mas Magazine which also was published in the Bakersfield Life Magazine’s December 2008 issue. For this photo I wanted it to be very relaxed and to show that the Senator is a normal guy.
I used beautiful window light for this photo. It was about 9 in the morning in my studio and the light was just amazing. I exposed for the window light and added a big octobox with an Alien Bee 800 as a fill light and to also add a little catch light in his eyes. I added the big gobo on the other side to fill in the shadows. I used my Kodak DCS pro/n with a Nikkor 50mm at f4 @ 1/15th, ISO 160. I made sure I used a tripod to lock the camera down to keep the image sharp and minimize the blur.
He was so excited about the photos that he decided to use me for his mother’s campaign photos as she was running for California State Assembly.
Also, I let him know what I was trying to accomplish with the photos and I also talked to him to get him to open up and just be natural.
I learned a lot about people. I shot photos of over a hundred people in 5 months. People that I knew and people that I had meet for the first time.
What I learned the most was about people and their willingness to give. People want to support organizations that are really trying to make a difference in their communities.
People want to be apart of something bigger and creatively different. I feel as though I was able to accomplish that with Project Bookface.
What I learned from taking the photos more importantly is that a project like this takes time and lots of detailed work. I had to make sure each photo looked it’s best.
I also learned that preparing the images to be put on display took a lot of hard work. I was blessed to have great people around me who gave me such great support.
But I think the biggest lesson that I took from it all was the promotional side of it. How important it is to promote your photo projects or business. I sometimes only like to say something once because I do not like to be annoying. “Here comes that photo guy with his project thing…”, is what I think most people will say about me.
I only hope to inspire people to make change. Think outside of their box and challenge themselves to be the difference in their community.
You can view the Project Bookface photos by visiting http://www.m329.com/home/project-bookface-gallery.php
I again want to thank everyone who participated in this amazing project.
I met this young man when he was just a small child. I knew his parents and they also lived around the corner from my family. Well, he has grown up into a big powerful baseball player. He was just drafted the other day by the Toronto Blue Jays.
His mom and dad are absolutely some of the best people you will ever meet. He too is a great person and has a bright future in front of him.
