portrait

Nov

2021

1956 Packard Hardtop

1956 Packard

This is Chris with his 1956 Packard. We were able to get some nice photos in spite of the rain. This was a luxury automobile in its time. With a push-button transmission and torsion bar suspension, it was smooooth! And nothing like a V8 engine when you have cheap gas. Gas was $.23 (23 cents!!!) a gallon (a GALLON) in 1956. I think when I started buying gas it was about $.35. And we complained even then. Pretty sure 1956 was Read More

Sep

2021

Antonio and the Hat

Jul

2021

Portrait of Gerry

My Friend Gerry

I asked my friend Gerry a while back if I could do some photos with him. He has a great look. Setting it up last week, he said that we’d better hurry up; who knows how long he will be around. Read More

Jul

2021

Some ‘Dark’ Photos with Owen

Dramatic Portraiture

The world, if not exactly getting back to normal, is at least to the point where one can function more naturally. With that I’m taking portraits again.

My happy place.

Perfect lighting here most evenings and lots of space. Last couple of photo shoots, I’ve been using an old Nikon 50mm 1.8 ‘E’ series lens. This lens is likely about 50 years old. I’ve had it for years and often when shooting I default to zoom lenses, even for portraits. Zoom lenses are so easy. Definitely great for candid shots but one does lose some quality/sharpness.
Read More

Apr

2021

Selfie – Self Portrait

Dramatic Portrait

I was getting revved up last Fall to do more portraits. I had viewed a bunch of videos done by . Excellent course available on ProEdu.com if you are interested.

There is no shortage of material on Youtube and elsewhere for learning studio photography and lighting. My learning process goes a bit like this. I try and find someone’s photos I like, then figure out the lighting and do exactly what the other photographer did. That’s the first step. The great thing with someone like Chris Knight is that he guides you through step by step. I honestly knew a fair bit of the material in his video course but there were definitely some hole that needed filling in. But more than that, the course showed me how to apply what I knew to what I wanted to do.

The other thing that continuous learning does, is keep it fresh.

Once I’ve duplicated exactly the techniques of whatever photographer I’m emulating, and after I’ve done it one or several times, I gain more understanding of what does and doesn’t work for me.

At that point I can make some decisions of what to add or subtract or alter using other bits of knowledge that I’ve acquired. Without the first step, I never really get to this third step. But here I can add other things like some of the techniques of head shot guru Peter Hurley.

And studying Dutch masters and how they used chiaroscuro or Leonardo’s “Divine Proportion” and working with these until they become second nature will go a long way to making your photos really communicate. The way to do this is duplicate whatever process you are trying to learn. Do it over and over and over. The more this is done the better your understanding and then the better you will be able to put your own create or spin on it.

All dressed up and no-one to photograph because the world shut down!

So, I took to shooting a few photos of myself. All the lights I used had modelling lights but that wasn’t a lot of use except for the backlight. As a result I made more trips back and forth to the camera than I care to count.

The photo here was accomplished with four lights. Camera right and very near and on the same plane I used a Strobepro 63” Para-Deep Parabolic Umbrella with STROBEPRO 600M Studio Strobe. Camera left, a 4 foot Octabox with grid and StrobePro 400M Studio Strobe. Camera right behind subject (me) a 4 foot rectangular soft box with grid. Light for this is ProFoto 500. And to shed a little light on the back a small 80MM with a snoot. (StrobePro.com)

The model was very patient while I went through various combinations of power on the lights. Thank god for the remote firing thingamajig!

Some tweaking in Lightroom and Photoshop and this is the result.

Never stop learning.

Jan

2021

Self Portraits

Feb

2020

Portrait or Landscape for Headshots?

Studio Headshots and Senior Portraits - Portrait or Landscape?

The standard for years for individual portrait photos is vertical. Particularly headshots for actors and actresses. With the advent of the internet and the wide computer screen, it is often more attractive to go with a horizontal exposure.

There are other factors that can make this equally or even more appealing such as the use of negative space. Negative space is part of the picture that is not your subject. For example, if you were taking a photo of a tree or a couple of trees, then the space around and between the trees would be ‘negative’ space.

Shooting wide or using a landscape or horizontal image can give you more of this negative space which can be quite effective if used wisely.

I've included a few examples shooting in a landscape or horizontal mode.

This is a Senior shot for graduation. The railway tracks add some dimension or depth to the photo without distracting from the main subject.

Here, in this next photo, the girl in the hat is turned ever so slightly to her right, so giving extra space in that direction makes it all look more natural. And that space is used with light/shadow add some dynamic to the photo.

This next is from a series. A studio headshot for an marvellous opera singer. A series of simple headshot but using the wide frame. Again, the body is turned, to the left this time, and giving space there, makes sense again. The same with Mikayla in the outdoor shot (right). (We agreed that was the coldest of that type of photoshoot ever!)

The use of ‘Landscape’ layout allows for more creativity in many instances. You can give more depth and focus to your image without in any way detracting from your main subject. Use this negative space to take advantage of eye trail, perspective, colour and host of other techniques the will help focus on the person you are photographing. Or some aspect of the person that you want to accentuate.

A ‘wide’ photo like this will actually look just fine and often better on websites and enlarged fit a computer screen almost perfectly. If you do an image search for example for real estate agents, almost all of them are using the Landscape format. Same for insurance agent. And doctors. These photos fit better on the screen. And they can communicate much more. That little bit of extra space can give dimension that is otherwise very difficult to create.

I also find, doing portraits using this wide frame aspect, allows for a more relaxed subject. The person you are shooting has a bit more flexibility in movement and can appear to being ‘doing’ something instead of looking so static. The wide frame portrait, if done reasonably well, will draw the viewer in. And that’s always a good thing.