Boudoir photography: Dealing with mixed light - daylight & incandescent
Boudoir photo sessions can be nerve-wracking - not just for your subject or client who undoutably feels vulnerable, but also for you as the photographer. You have to juggle speed in shooting, with meticulous posing and (hopefully) impeccable lighting .... and still keep the flow of the shoot going, and also keep your subject's confidence up. With this boudoir photo session in a NYC studio, I photographed my friend, Jessica Joy.
I wanted to use this window of course, and incorporate the boxes. It all just Read more inside...
Even when you're photographing a bride as graceful as Patricia, there's still a need to adjust and guide the pose. I liked the roughness and color of this gate, and I also knew the background would be an out-of-focus mush behind her.
When you ask someone to lean against something, they tend to fall back onto the wall or object, with both shoulders and their back flat agains the surface.
My starting point with this pose, is that I show what I want. Remember, people don't usually know what you're after, and they most definitely don't Read more inside...
Use light & lighting to add dramatic impact to your portraits
Simplifying your composition is generally a really good way to add impact to your photos - remove visual clutter, and draw the viewer's eye to what's essential. But there's a converse challenge to this - when you have a location that isn't necessarily that interesting , how do you add more impact? Light and Lighting is an obvious way to do this.
Create impact and drama in how you add light to the scene, and light your subjects. A recent article discussed this in relation to off-camera flash: using off-camera flash Read more inside...
Re-editing and re-vamping photographs for my blog post of a destination wedding in Aruba, I found it enlightening to realize how much my style has progressed over years in post-processing too.
As part of destination wedding photography coverage, I offer extended photo sessions around the exotic locale after (or before) the wedding date. While we're there, we may as well use the opportunity.
The photograph at the top was taken on the day after the wedding when we took a rented car and drove around the arid areas of the island - away Read more inside...
In posing, a good tip is to have the wrists and hands form a kind of S-curve instead of being straight. While this photograph works for me, and I really like the composition and her direct gaze into the camera ... I should've guided Anelisa to bend her left wrist (the hand closer to her cheek), a bit more. That would've made her gesture a touch more elegant in this photograph at the top.
Of course, in analyzing your photographs closely, there is (nearly) always something to pick up on how you could've improved the final image.
Here is Read more inside...
Available light photography: Posing into the light
A topic that we've given more and more attention to here on Tangents, is available light photography - but specifically the idea that in using available light, it isn't just a random way of taking photos, but that consideration has to be given to the direction of light. When you work with someone you want to take a portrait of, it is crucial that you pose someone in flattering light. This often means posing someone into the light, with the one shoulder toward the direction of light. This idea works for even the simplest of cameras - Read more inside...
Off-camera flash photography: Short lighting vs. Broad lighting
"Short Lighting" is when the side of the face turned away from the camera, is better lit than the side of the face closest to the camera. (top image)
"Broad Lighting" is when the side of the face closest to the camera, is better lit. (second image)
This has as much to do with the position of the light, as with how your subject is posed into the light. This is true for studio photography and off-camera flash on location, and for when you photograph a subject with just the available light. As shown in a previous Read more inside...
Lighting for on-location photo sessions - pick your battles
When doing a photo session with a couple on location, I mix up the lighting as needed. Some sequences are shot with shoot available light only; for other sequences I may use off-camera flash with a softbox. Sometimes I use on-camera TTL fill-flash if that helps working faster.
Even in varying the way I may use the available light and flash, I still aim to have a consistent look to it all. My specific style has to be apparent. Or perhaps, in the way that I work, my style becomes apparent. The one way that I help make Read more inside...
When working with a bride and groom for their portraits, there are a few ideas that I know will work. You have to have somewhere to start. Some fail-safe ideas for poses that allow you to at least get the essential images. From there on, I try to improvise a little, depending on the personalities of the couple, and also the place where we find ourselves, and the light. So opportunity does sway the portrait session a fair amount.
I prefer working this way, rather than applying a more mechanical "flow posing" technique. I feel that Read more inside...
Romantic wedding portraits - more than just the kiss
More frequently than not, when looking at the work of other photographers, I see that the romantic portraits of the couple are just of them kissing. Having worked with a number of photographers over the years, I've also seen how the instruction "and now, kiss", becomes reflexive. Pose the couple; have them look at each other ... *snap* ... and now kiss ... *snap*. And then the photographer takes no other photos of the couple at that specific place. Yet, there are more (and perhaps even better) ways to show intimacy in the romantic Read more inside...
