Headshots and groupshots for Brainstorm

Here are a few of the headshots I did from the dress rehearsals of Indian Creek School’s Brainstorm production. They are performing the show November 11, 12, and 13. If you are looking for something to do this weekend I recommend checking it as it is a wonderful show that has a lot of interesting things to say.  It also helps that the shows the school produces are always at a professional level of production and this show sticks to that high standard. For more information or to buy tickets check out this link:

https://www.indiancreekschool.org/arts/upcoming-performances

So on to the topic at hand. My advice for both is pretty much the same for both headshots and group shots – you need to understand the production you are photographing and the people who performing the production. If you have at least a general idea of what the play is about and have at least read a little about the people producing the play you should start to get a general idea of how you want to approach this.

For example, Brainstorm is unique in that the people performing the show have an active hand in the script for the show and it is tailored to their experiences and their personalities. That means the show is personalized by them and by proxy it will always be “modern” whenever it is performed.  So, for this setup I went with a 3-light setup.  A key light and a fill light with softboxes. I used gels to color the backlight, but I allowed each performer to pick a color they wanted for their background so they could have some personalized input into the photos.

As for the group shot, it is pretty much always going to be on stage if I can get it there. That’s were a lot of fun can happen because you have access to many of the props and scenery that are already on the stage. Furthermore, the performers tend to draw a lot of confidence from the stage itself so getting decent poses tends to be easier up on stage. I do recommend at least two nice strobes with good sized soft boxes for lighting. More or less as needed but you have to position them, so they aren’t in your shot. You can’t do a 3 light shot with one light in the center because then it will be in your shot.

Anyway, check out Brainstorm this weekend at Indian Creek School, especially if you have a teenager. You won’t regret it.

Answer to October's Guess that Costume Contest

Quick Post to close things out from Halloween.

Our fine friend here was dressed up as Holden Caulfield for Halloween. The narrator and main character of the Catch in the Rye.

Congratulations to those who deduced accurately or those who figured out what words to web search the answer. We will try again next year.

Photographing a Dress Rehearsal

Alright, I got permission so here is a post on the dress rehearsals I photographed the other week. These are all from the dress rehearsal of Brainstorm which will be performed at Indian Creek School this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of this coming weekend. I recommend you check it out as their stage productions are always of professional grade and you won’t regret it. For more information check out https://indiancreekschool.ludus.com/show_page.php?show_id=22139

When I do these, I have three different objectives:

1) Candid shots of the rehearsal.

2) Cast Headshots.

3) Group shots.

 I’ll cover headshots and group shots on Thursday as I still have a few more actors to photograph and haven’t done the group shot.

So, for candid shots, understand that flash is out of the question. You don’t want to be the photographer that blinds a performer on stage and risk making them fall off the stage. Inspect the stage and see just how high it is. Which brings me to my next point, before you take any pictures, find out where you can go. Some places want you in just certain areas, other places give you open access to the entire stage and seating area – learn where you can go as this isn’t an ask forgiveness situation. You are working with fellow artists and you need to grant them that extra level of respect.

Next up, understand you are in a low light situation. It’s better then zero light, but it isn’t as bright as you think it is.  That stated, you want a solid shutter speed because they still move, so at least 1/250 or even 1/360th or even faster. The sacrifice you will want to make is with Aperture or ISO. Keep in mind, if you are trying to get several performers on stage you will want an Aperture of 4.0 or higher but if it is just one person you can go lower.  As for ISO, I usually go somewhere between 2000 and even get as high as 8000 depending on the situation. This sounds awful for noise but keep in mind it is dark and when you process to recapture and balance that darkness you will make a lot of that noise unnoticeable or even disappear.

For extra gear I go with a camera sling (that’s a personal choice), 2 cameras (though my other is getting serviced at the moment so it was just one this time), 6 batteries with a 2 battery holder belt attached on my belt, and a step stool I can get higher up. For lens I went with 70-200mm but other lens types can work well too. Particularly prime lens. I’ve switch off my first day lens between the 70-200mm, an 85mm lens, and a 50mm lens. The advantage of those prime lenses is that they can get a lower aperture number and have less parts, so they focus faster. So don’t discount prime lenses.

In all honesty, there is so much more to write on this, but text limits prevent anything. Maybe next time I will dedicate a few days to this.

Anyway, check out the show – you won’t be disappointed. Also, if you are viewing this on Instagram, check out my Facebook page or my business page for more photos.

#Marylandphotographer #Annearudelphotographer #Photographytips

In studio dog photos.

And back from a short break. Had an amazing weekend of back-to-back photo sessions in a volunteer capacity so it was great.

Anyway, here are some in studio dog photos. As always, the first step with pets is to be patient. They don’t know what a camera is and they probably have no idea what a picture is, all they know is that they want to make you happy and they just don’t know how, so be patient and try to return the favor by trying to make them happy and trying to keep your photo session good for them.

And in the case of these photos, it wasn’t hard at all. This was a very quick photo session. I brought her on set, let her look around and then took off set and let her be. Sometimes that it all you need to do.

One thing I do recommend knowing before you even start the photo session is if the pet is afraid of lightening. Lightning, no thunder, one is seen with the eyes, and one is heard. If you know the pet is afraid of lightning, then you may want to skip the flash. In the case of my dog, she isn’t afraid of lightning, so a 3 light setup was fine.

Finally, try and focus on the eyes.

Cookie Monster and Sleeping Beauty

A quick post because I am prepping for a big set of sessions the day this post goes up.

Here we have cookie monster and sleeping beauty. When working with kids, especially young kids, you have to be patient and you have to keep positive. Kids will pick up on frustration and negativity and will shut down if you do that. Also try to keep things fun. Fortunately, Cookie Monster there really enjoyed sitting in the chair for some reason. Sometimes you just luck out like that. As for Sleeping Beauty, I gave her a stuffed rabbit and told her to pretend to fall asleep.

The lighting setup for this was a three-light setup. As far as lighting goes you may have noticed I tend to go with either a two-light setup or a three-light setup. These tend to work well with one or two subjects. While I think you can do great photography with any setup, if you are just talking lights, I’d recommend working up to two and then eventually three. This is easier than it sounds as there is lots of gear out there on eBay and other resale sites. There are some good deals out there, but you have to look for them. Or you can go full price and buy brand new, but I’d recommend only spending what you can afford to spend and only when you are ready.

All that stated, I want to reiterate, when it comes to lights the first recommendation, I have is only work up to what you are ready for. My first speed light did nothing for a long time because I was still learning my camera and I wasn’t ready to comprehend just what awesome stuff that could be done with even a single speedlight.

Halloween (not really) Horror... Contest!

EMAIL or MESSAGE ME via Facebook with the name of the character our furry friend is planning to dress up as this Halloween. Remember, the book is not the name of the character!

Hint: That’s a deer shooting hat.

I’ll check back but the first person to guess this character (based off time stamps) will win a free one-hour photo session. The next 10 people who guessed correctly will win a 40% off their next session. All prizes are valid for use between now and December 30, 2023 (that’s December of NEXT year). All sessions must occur in the state of Maryland.

This session was relatively easy and much easier than I anticipated. Thankfully, they make dog treats that look roughly the same size as cigarettes when paired with this dog (English mastiff). Since he wanted the treat getting him to stay in the sitting position was easy. On the other hand, he is a big boy and he kept eating the treats in one bite or two bites. So even though we only needed 1 picture, it took like 3 or 4 tries to get the treat just right in his mouth but at least he made out like a bandit with the dog treats.

Obviously, an assistant helped while I photographed. The lighting was a 3-light setup. 2 strobes on either side of him with octagon softboxes on and a light up high aiming at his head with snoot on. The goal was to get a side view of him to match one of the numerous book covers I’ve seen for this title. As for the lit part of his “cigarette” and the smoke – teaching a dog to go to the gas station, buy a pack of smokes, and then smoke is a time consuming and unethical endeavor so that is all photoshop trickery. The smoke and the lit part are not real. The “cigarette” is just a dog treat.

Anyway, good luck!

#Marylandphotographer #Annearundelphotographer #Photographytips #oldackleydoesntapprove

Contest tomorrow!

GUESS THAT CHARACTER contest tomorrow at 7:00 AM though I think my business website page is set for 6:59 AM. First person to figure out who the character of tomorrow’s photo is and either EMAILS me the name or MESSAGES me the name wins a free 1-hour photo session. The next 10 people who guessed correctly will win a 40% off their next session. All prizes are valid for use between now and December 30, 2023 (that’s December of NEXT year). All sessions must occur in the state of Maryland.

It will be a character from a book but for those who don’t read books there will be one hint in the actual post and one hint in the hashtags which you can use to web search and deduce your way to an answer if you are quick.

Don’t expect me to immediately get back to anyone as I have some work to take care of around that time but expect my to get back to everyone by the evening.

That’s for tomorrow though, the included photos here are unrelated. These were from a light test with a totally uninterested subject.

Headshot work!

Cold weather is coming so I spent some time brushing up on basic studio headshots. I personally try to set aside time for basics every month. If you practice the basics enough, you won’t even think about them when you are using them with a client – you will just do them unconsciously freeing your head up to focus on other things during the photo session. So don’t skip practice of the basics.

One slight aside here about what a headshot is. Most people have a general idea but from the photographer’s perspective it may be a little more complicated. A headshot can be just the head and neck, head and shoulders, or head down to waist. Those are three vastly different ranges so context matters. Actor headshots, commercial headshots, political headshots, or even headshots for the family – and that’s just a few different types of headshots and each will have its own set of parameters.

For this photo session, I used a three-light setup. One strobe, my key light, had an octagon softbox. The fill light was a strobe with a long softbox and a grid. Finally, the hair light was a speed light. No frills this time, just a basic 3 light setup.

Also, yes, that is Feddy Krueger’s sweater she is wearing.

Also, also, there will be a name that character contest on Wednesday. My posts go out at 7:00 AM or 7:01 AM. Be ready if you want a chance to win a free 1 hour photo session.

Homecoming Photos

Here are a few fancy homecoming photos and a few regular homecoming photos. For the fancy ones, I utilized a fancy window and if you look carefully, you can see it is a door. The trick is to make sure the subject blocked out the light which was easy in this case given all the subjects are old enough to be going to a Homecoming dance. I also utilized a stair railing in the foreground to make the whole scene more dynamic. This blocked out the outfits some but that is okay because I also included some more regular Homecoming photos.

For poses, that’s a little trickier, so my suggestion is to look online for Homecoming photos for posing ideas but keep personality in mind too. You really want to try and match the personality and the outfit to the pose. This can be tricky but usually a series of poses will work for each subject, and some may overlap. With practice you will get better at posing, but you have to be actively trying to do so if you want to make progress with poses.

The setup for this session involved 3 strobes. In the case of the window, I used a strobe outside with a yellow gel. In both photo styles are two strobes off to the side with an octagon softbox. For the more standard style of photo, I put a bare strobe up high aimed down as a hair light.

Black-Eyed Children

A take on the modern ghost story of the black-eyed children. They show up at your doorstep late at night asking to come in, but something is wrong. Their skin is pale and their eyes are completely black. They will beg and beg to go into your house. Eventually their begs will turn into to an aggressive demand as they scream and screech at you. If you don’t let them in, they scream and rage outside your door for a bit and then just disappear.

If you do them let them in, the only thing we know that happens next is that you are never heard from again because you go missing.

A few shots I took on a nature walk at the end of September. I think I just plain forgot to do a write up about which is good because I just got back from a trip and didn’t have time to finish up the other stuff I worked on this past weekend.

Anyway, as always, try and do other types of photography. It gets you outside of your comfort zone and forces you to think about other aspects of the photography work you do like to do. Doing some nature photography forces me to think about framing more and background. I also tend to zoom in and focus on detail. All of this helps with the family and wedding photography work I do. Periodically doing other photography types can only help you strengthen the primary types of photography work you do.

Rim lighting practice.

I’ve been reviewing rim lighting techniques. There are a few ways to do it but then I stumbled upon Gavin Hoey’s latest video and decided to give it a try. I didn’t want to get the fog machine out and I am changing my light gear around so I didn’t have gels but the main technique could be tried.

This is another “you should try everything you come across” post that ties in with Monday. I’ve done rim lighting a million times, but this is just a little different from my standard approach. Will I use it on all my shoots? Probably not, but it’s useful to have these techniques because that’s a big part of photography; putting together the smaller set of techniques to make the whole piece. Think of them as cogs in a big clock. Each one alone is nothing, but together they make the clock work.

Anyway, his technique involved taping two black pieces of paper together. I wasn’t about to go out and buy that, so I just did the same thing with a black sheet – I got lots of those. I am happy with the results and have a few ideas of how I might want to use this.

Check his video on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USZzCZi9ZR4

Ouija Board Troubles.

She was advised not to talk with spirits. She was told she didn’t understand what she was messing with. She wanted answers and the answers she got left her wanting even more answers. But the board accommodates two sides of the wall, and you never know who or what is on the side.

Her last call was fatal.

That’s a custom-made Ouija board made by Carl Robinson. I’ll have a separate post about it a little later this month.

Framed!

I grabbed a picture frame and did a quick session the other day. It’s an easy prop and I do see it done often but it works. Plus, you really should try everything so you can say you did it and so you know you did your paces in photography. Not to mention that doing these things can help you communicate with clients more easily. There is usually a communication gap between the photographer and the client. It isn’t because the clients don’t know what they want, they usually do, but because the jargon gets in the way. However, if you have a photo of your past work and they see it while checking you and your services out, they can just point to that and say, “that’s what I want, something like that!”

Everyone wins in that scenario.

This was a relatively easy setup. I had a photography strobe equipped with an octagon softbox just off to the side. Obviously, I used a picture frame, it was an 8 by 10 frame I think. I also made use of the leading lines on the road they help guide the eye to the subject. The lens I used was 70-200mm lens and I was closer to 200mm for that enlarged background.

Fine Arts at the Washington Commanders game.

Luis, the fine arts half of our fine arts and photography business, was honored by the Washington Commanders today. You might have seen this already if you were watching the game today. Thanks to his wife, Christa Rosa for getting these!

It’s October, so let’s do some Halloween Horror!

Meet our friend the face thief. With just a few cuts and a peel; he can be anyone and anything he wants to be – even you! Don’t worry about the precision in his cuts, he’s wearing a doctor’s face after all.

For this shot, we made fake faces out of latex (using a dummy head) and put makeup on them. Also, the emphasis was on harsh lighting from low angles to create deep shadows – the type of shadows you normally try to avoid. During this shot one of the bulbs from one of my strobes just straight up fell out and broke on the floor which was upsetting because those bulbs are expensive however since this was an open basement shot, I just used the reflective background to my advantage for this.

From here on for the month of October we should have something Halloween related up every Wednesday. This week got a little wonky so that’s why we started on a Saturday for this.

Cat!

You got to start October off with photos of a black cat if you can do so. Here I started with a piece of Plexiglas to get a reflected look but then I realized I grabbed the wrong size, so I quickly abandoned that idea. Once the cat is on set, you can’t exactly run off to add things, cats are notorious for their short patience and short attention spans, so you have to move quick. You can always take away though and should do so as long as it keeps the session going.

Speaking of moving quick, cats move quick, so while they might be laying down or sitting have your shutter speed set to something fast (in this case around 1/400th) in case they move. In my situation here, I had two strobes that could do high speed sync, allowing my camera to set faster than 1/200th. Without high-speed sync you get light sync in your photos where half or all your photo is covered in black. So, it is a balancing act.

Alternatively, I could of just waited until the cat was sleeping and did some natural habitat photos. Also, focus on the eyes and if all else fails get the head and the eyes. Or just fill the shot with their face.

Fall photo setup.

Here we are testing with a fall setup. I was also faking sunlight for a few of them. Ideally you could hide the light behind some tree branches but sometimes that just doesn’t pan out. I also used two strobes on either side with an octagon soft box to act as key and fill lights. As for the subjects, I only went as far as they were willing to go. For example, the one-year-old wanted to run around, so after a few attempts with the setup I just scrapped that goal and went with shots of her running around.

If you want to do stuff like this professionally then you are playing a numbers game. You not only want to get a decent setup, but it also has to be at a price you can afford as well as a price that you can earn back with customers. That’s why it is important to track how much is going into your setup pricewise. After that, if you can estimate how many clients you might have using it, you can spread the cost over several clients rather than getting just one to balk at the price. It is also a good idea to have a general idea of what you want to do and adjust according to what you can get hold of. Budgets also are a nice thing to have.

In terms of budgets and estimating clients – be realistic. Yes, you want to be ambitious, but you can’t say “I am going to have everyone in the world as my client base.” You aren’t going to get everyone on the planet. So, keep the estimates realistic based on your history, who you know, and how enthusiastic your clients are about your work.

Actress headshots and advice on planning gear upgrades.

Here we did some actress headshots. They turned out well and the group they were used for were satisfied with them. I wasn’t though. The backdrop just isn’t working for me. Or I should say, it isn’t working with my photography setup flow and that tells me I am in the market for something else. What it is, I do not know yet, but I do know I want something that works with how I do my photography work. Something that flows with it.

That’s how gear upgrades should work. At least, that’s how I advise that they work. You don’t just go out and buy the flashy toys you see advertised on the internet. You figure out what in your photography workflow isn’t jiving with the rest of your set up, what is simply being tolerated, and then try to find something that does that but works within your photography workflow. There are mountains of items that all give similar results in photography, but only a handful work with how you operate in the manner you currently operate and that’s where you need to focus when looking at upgrades.

And as stated, I know when I want to upgrade and what I want to upgrade based on what I’ve been tolerating and just can’t tolerate anymore. Sure, that thing might work great, it might even work perfect, but it might not work perfect for the way I setup my studio or conduct my photo sessions. That’s when I start looking at upgrades. For acting headshots, I need a new backdrop setup and I already have an idea where I want to go next.

#Marylandphotographer #Annearundelphotographer #Photographytips

More self-portraits.

Another round of self portrait photos. I can’t stress enough how important it is to take self portraits every few months if not every month. Sure, you probably picked up a camera, so you didn’t have to be in front of it but getting in front of it offers a wide range of benefits that can only help you and your photography goals, especially if your subjects tend to be people.

First, it acts as a quiz of what you know as a photographer because this is one of the rare cases where you pretty control everything and also a case where the photographer is in 100% sync with the subject. This means you can do everything perfect as you perceive it and as you understand photography. Do you think your subjects should be dressed a certain way? Do you care about certain details? Do you not care about other details? This is your opportunity to work under what you would consider to be perfect conditions and control all aspects of it.

Second, you really get a better idea of what the limits of your photography knowledge are. You can go through every pose you know, every outfit and background you have, and try every angle you can think of. If any of these areas seem lacking or weak you will get a clear idea of where you need to improve next.

Third, it forces you to problem solve, which is an important skill in photography. You need to figure out how you are going to do the selfie with what you have. You need to figure out how to evaluate your photos when the subject is you. You need to figure out how to pose yourself without anyone else’s direction.

These aren’t the only benefits, but due to text limits and the fact that I don’t want to write this book at the moment; I will stop here. However, there is a lot to be gained by applying your photography to yourself and it will only improve the photography work you do with others and in other places.