....is getting better.

Here is a quick scan of Theresa's official school photo. I like it, so I bought a few prints. This is not your typical flat lighting on a mottled blue canvas backdrop. I can even see shadows/highlights on her face.  Even the camera position is correct for a headshot - level with the nose.

Not bad for school photography, which is generally recognized to be at the bottom of the photography food chain.

What's going on here?  Photography is hot!

Back in the stone age (the 1990's) most people I knew didn't even own a camera. When they did take pictures (which was rare) they bought a disposable cardboard camera from the drug store.

In this first decade of the 21st century, everyone has a digital camera. Now with millions of people taking pictures, it's inevitable that many of them have gotten serious. Combine this with the internet and sites like Flickr and you've got an explosion. Do you know how many DSLRs I see at a typical wedding? Guests with 1 -Series cameras?

There are many sites (like the one you're reading now) where you can find lots of information to help improve your photography. Lots of forums and "groups".  Joe McNally's "Hot Shoe Diaries" was an Amazon best seller. Crazy.

The other day I was cruising through the "creative commons" area of Flickr looking for examples of bad portrait photography to use on an instructional blog post. You know what?  It wasn't easy!  Most of the images looked pretty darn good.

Chase Jarvis puts together a photography get-together and hundreds of photographers - most of them amateurs - show up.  

What does all of this mean?

It means that your competition - both professional and amateur - is getting both more numerous and better. Here in Seattle there's probably two new photography businesses opening up every single day. That's not an exaggeration.

Everything else is easier too. Equipment is better. Software is better. Instruction is better. You can buy a very attractive, clean and modern template website for $100. Everyone's using the same actions. New photographers (many of whom with backgrounds in the high tech industry) who know SEO get their websites on the front page of Google within a year of opening their business.

Nikon's entry-level dslr - the $700 D5000 - has better image quality than it's top-of-the-line $5,000 professional dslr from just 2 years ago (Nikon D2x).  I kid you not.

Better, better, better.

So what are you going to do about it?

You can do the same thing you've always done.  Or you can step up your game!  You've got to work on your craft.  

• buy a new piece of gear and learn how to use it - see if it makes you change the way you take pictures

• attend a few workshops (a self-serving piece of advice for sure, but that doesn't make it less valuable). learn first hand how someone else does things.

• work on your marketing

• grab a few models from ModelMayhem and set up some shoots to try out new ideas/techniques

• try this one:  read your camera's manual from cover to cover

• never used off-camera flash before?  learn how to use it!

• use off-camera flash all the time?  put your strobes away for a month and learn how to creatively use natural light.

• waste too much time reading photography forums and surfing the net?  go for a week without it. disconnect your computer from the modem. allow yourself 1/2 hour every day to respond to emails and that's it.

• is that 85mm glued to your camera body? grab a 24mm and shoot with that for a month.

• hate tilt/shift? great. go rent one for a weekend and take 3,000 frames with it.

• you don't like asking for the order?  try the assumptive close at your next sales session "well Mrs. Jones, it looks like since you like at least 30 images from your portrait session we're going to have to go with an album".

• grab some friends and use a point-n-shoot for a few portrait sessions. it will force you to work a  LOT harder to get professional looking images.  once you go back to your dslr your images will have improved.

• you suck at posing? great.  set up 10 sessions over the next 2 months where you pose every single shot.
  
  
  

I think you get the idea. Now just go do it!

Location Lighting 101

Seattle, WA

January 23, 2010

2 seats left

Laurence Kim Workshops

I've worked a lot of weddings with second shooters over the years and I thought I would put together some basic principles that should help all of you second shooters out there (and by extension, the primary photographers you work for).

(1)  Do go to www.time.gov the morning of the wedding and update the time on all your bodies to this time. Having accurate time stamps on all of your images will greatly help the primary shooter organize and process the shoot.

(2)  Do use higher capacity cards like 8, 16, or 32 gig cards.  If you hand the primary a half dozen cards at the end of the night it will make it easier to  inadvertently skip or lose a card.

(3)  Do scout the location for spots to take portraits. While you're at it, take some scene-setter shots of the venue and grounds.

(4)  Do remember to always keep it light and fun.  If the bride, groom, family and bridal party don't like you, they won't like any of the images.

(5)  Do not shoot over the primary photographer's shoulder. You'll end up with duplicate images that don't help the primary at all.  

(6)  Do not ask the bride/groom/bridal party to look at your camera while the primary photographer is shooting.  While the primary is taking the must-have shots, have some fun and look for the unique images that will complement what the primary is shooting. If you find people looking at your camera while the primary is shooting, stop shooting and point to the primary photographer so they know where to look.

The bride here is looking at my camera while my 2nd shooter Jennifer Tai is catching this image from another angle. Sometimes I prefer these images to the ones I'm shooting!

(7)  Do help organize the groupings during the family formals. This - and not picture taking - is your primary responsibility during the formals.

(8) Do take lots of detail shots.

(9) Do make sure that you're always shooting from a different angle than the primary.  In fact, it's often a good idea to shoot in the opposite direction.  For example, while the primary is shooting pictures of the best man giving a toast, you should be taking pictures of the bride, groom and audience reaction.

(10) Do try to avoid being in the primary's field of view. The B&G do not want lots of pictures with you in them!

(11) Do not make direct contact with the B&G before or after the wedding.  They are not your client.

(12) Do not pass out your business cards during the wedding. If asked, answer that you are at the wedding working for the primary photographer's studio.

(13)  It is okay to occasionially break the fourth wall by taking an image of the primary photographer interacting with the wedding party and guests. These interactions were part of the day, so go ahead and document it.

That's pretty much it. Being a second shooter should be fun!  In fact, if I could make as much second shooting as I could running my own business, I'd probably do that instead. While the primary has all the pressure of getting the must-have shots, you are free to play and be more creative. Joe Buissink always says in his seminars that he is the second shooter at his own weddings. He hires a guy to take all the portraits and formals.  Just keep it light and use your common sense.

Location Lighting 101 Workshop

January 23, 2010

Seattle, WA

I'm paraphrasing this question I received from one of my readers:

I don't know why, but my images just don't look "professional". They look like snapshots. What am I doing wrong?

So how do you isolate your subject?  You isolate through a combination of background selection, lighting, composition, depth-of-field control and yes, Photoshop.

Let's look at some examples:

(1) Studio shots usually look "professional", don't they? That's because it's easy to isolate your subject in the studio. The subject in this image is isolated because the background (seamless paper) is absolutely plain and distraction free, and the stobe lighting separates her from the background.

(2) The subject in this image is isolated through a combination of composition, lighting, lens selection and depth-of-field control. The tight framing naturally creates isolation. The combination of telephoto lens +  shallow dof creates more subject/background separation. The large gap between the background and the subject creates additional separation. The closer your subjects are to the background, the less separation you'll have. Lastly, the subject is much brighter than the background, which helps isolate her. A bit of Photoshop dodging and burning was involved here - but that's what Photoshop is for!

(3)  Sometimes a clean background is all you need to create isolation.

(4)  I'm not much of a nature or flower guy, but I'm posting this one to demonstrate that isolation is an important concept no matter what your subject. The isolation here is achieved through a combination of composition, telephoto lens and shallow dof. You want some instant isolation? Try shooting at 200mm, f2.8.

(5) Isolation through background selection (lots of sky), composition (low camera angle)  and off-camera lighting.

(6)  The background (clean, clutter-free hillside) combined with the composition (shooting upwards from way below and including plenty of sky) creates my subject isolation here. I had to use Photoshop to clone out a couple people on the hilltop to make this image even cleaner.

(7) Both the clean background and the pose enhance the isolation here.

(8)  When I saw this location I was pretty discouraged. It was an extremely cluttered back yard absolutely filled with junk everywhere. The first mission was to find an acceptable background to isolate the subject. I had two choices: get up high and shoot down at the one clear spot not filled with junk, or get down low and shoot up, using the sky as the backdrop. Then I used an extremely shallow dof (I believe f1.8) to isolate my subject's eyes and blur the background. Equipment note: you should have at least one fast prime in your lens arsenal.

(9) The isolation here created by the composition - framing the shoes close up in the foreground - plus the extremely shallow dof. The placement of the light shoes on the dark table creates additional separation.

(10) Here's a promo image for my favorite TV show of all time. See some isolation here?  Background - check. Composition - check. Lighting - check.

(12) How about this Andrew Wyeth painting? See any subject isolation here?

If you want to see more great examples of subject isolation check out Josef Isayo, who is (not surprisingly) my favorite wedding photographer.

To sum up:  think "clean".  Slow down and think about what you're shooting - don't just blast away. Use  the appropriate tools in your arsenal - composition, lighting, background selection, lens choice and aperture selection - to isolate and separate your subjects. You'll find that your images improve and get that "professional" look.

Your photo assignment:  Plan your next portrait shoot carefully. Select a couple locations well in advance that you know would be conducive to getting clean backgrounds. Decide in advance how you're going to light your subject - natural or flash - and how you're going to use the light to create separation regardless of which method you choose. Plan your lens and aperture selection. Compose more deliberately than you're used to. Be aware of everything you see in your viewfinder, including the background. Then let me know how it goes. I'd be surprised if you don't see an immediate improvement.

Location Lighting 101 Workshop

January 23, 2010

Seattle, WA

2 seats left

Laurence Kim Workshops

I love black and white images.  Let me rephrase that:  I love crisp, punchy black and white images.  

When photographers ask me to look at their websites, the first thing I usually notice is that many photographers have dull, flat black and whites that look lifeless.

I've tried just about every method of b&w conversion there is: convert to lab mode, using the channel mixer tool, applying a gradient map, third party actions, etc.  

Given this plethora of choices, I just follow Occam's Razor:  entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.  Loosely paraphrased: the simplest strategy tends to be the best one.

In this case, my preferred method happens to be the quickest and - to my eyes - the best. I convert my b&w images exclusively in Lightroom, just by hitting the "Grayscale" button.  I haven't found any method, no matter how complicated, that gives me better results than this one.

Let's look at a sample image from a recent wedding:

Step 1:  make sure you click on the boxes on the upper left and right corners of your histogram. These will display areas of absolute black and white on your images. Absolute black will show up as blue shading, and absolute white will show up as red shading.  

Step 2:  Hit the "Grayscale" button. This converts the image to b&w. This is just the first step. Sometimes the images look pretty good right here, but usually to my eye they look a little flat.

Step 3:  To punch up the image and add contrast, I start by moving the "blacks" slider to the right. I do this until the areas that I think should be completely black turn to blue on my screen in the "develop" module.  When I see dull b&w conversions, much of the problem is usually due to lack of true blacks.  I may need to also move the exposure slider a bit to the right as well. This is what the image looks like in the develop module of Lightroom. Sometimes if I really need it I'll also move the "contrast" slider a bit to the right, but usually just using the blacks and exposure sliders does the job.

That's it, here's the final result - a snappy b&w conversion in about 10 seconds. Try it and let me know how it goes.

Location Lighting 101 Workshop, Seattle, WA, January 23, 2010

Laurence Kim Workshops