Posts Tagged ‘Portrait’

    

Make Eye Contact

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Just an idea for your next portrait photography session: work on making eye contact with your subject - work on making a connection with the subject.

Try this technique with animal photography, too.

Explore the light,
Rick

Explore all things Rick Sammon at www.ricksammon.info.

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Posted in Articles, Creativity, Quick Tip | 1 Comment »

Bad Light? Not for Portraits…

Friday, October 15th, 2010

Our model, Rachael, under overcast skies at the DPE Learning Weekend in Atlanta, GA

Overcast skies may be bad for landscape photography, but they are great for shooting portraits. When shooting under cloudy skies you’ve got a giant overhead softbox to work with. This creates soft light that wraps around your subject and makes it easy to capture a proper exposure without blown highlights or harsh shadows. This soft light is also a great base for adding off-camera flash.

A few tips for success on an overcast day:

•Set your white balance to ‘Cloudy’ to add a little warmth to your colors

•Don’t include the sky in your photos. Unless the clouds are very dramatic, an overcast sky doesn’t make a good background.

•Use off-camera flash (speedlights or strobes) to create more interesting or dramatic lighting. Use the ambient light as your fill and build the main light with your off-camera flash.

•You may need to bump up the contrast (I like to use a curves adjustment) in Lightroom or Photoshop.

Learn more about Rob, view his images and check out his workshops at his website.

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Posted in Lighting, Quick Tip, Vision | No Comments »

Shooting on a Workshop? Speak up, please!

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Photographs © Rick Sammon

Juan Pons and I were recently acting as assistants on the sunset hula shoot at the Maui Photo Festival.

Great fun! Great dancers! Great light.

As usual, something interesting happened. After Juan and I set up the reflectors and diffusers to control the harsh light, I ask the crowd of maybe 40 photographers, “Can you guys see the difference in the light when using these accessories?”

Silence.

I asked again. Silence again.

Although I sometimes find it frustrating that no one answers (because I know the photographers can see the big difference), I am also understanding of the situation – because I know it’s not uncommon for people in crowds to remain quite when someone asks a question. Folks in crowds expect others to speak up for them. That point is mentioned in the book, The Tipping Point – which I recommend.

Also, some people are shy about asking a “stupid” question. On a workshop my friends, there is no such thing as a stupid question. Everyone is there to learn! And that includes the instructors.

Anway, you’ll get the most out of a workshop if you speak up, ask questions, offer suggestions, share your pictures on site -  and stick like glue to the instructors. Keep in mind that the workshop leaders are good photographers and instructors – but they are usually not good mind readers.

Explore the light,

Rick

P.S. If you are interested in learning about lighting, my newest app, Light It!, is all about making professional quality people pictures using a flash and affordable lighting accessories – including reflectors and diffusers. For info and an intro video, click here.

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Posted in Articles, Viewpoint, Workshops | 1 Comment »

Jump Into Creative Outdoor Lighting

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Here’s the first installment in a series I plan to post on quick lighting tips. Let us know if you want to see more stuff on lighting –  indoors and out.

These pictures were taken by Vered Koshlano, the co-author of my book, Studio and On-Location Lighting Secrets.

In the top photograph, a remote flash, mounted on a stand and placed in a softbox, was used to freeze the action of the model jumping. Compare the contrast and detail in that image to the second image. That image looks flat, because the day was overcast, and overcast days produce flat lighting.

The pictures below (clockwise, from top left) show:

• flat, overcast day lighting;

• how a reflector can brighten up the subject…

• how a flash creates even more contrast;

• and the remote flash set up that Vered used.

Explore the light,

Rick

Follow Rick and Juan Pons at the Digital Photo Experience.

Check out Vered's website here.

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Posted in Articles, Creativity, Lighting, Quick Tip | No Comments »

One Photo, One Dozen Photography Tips

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Photograph © Rick Sammon. All rights reserved.

Here are some quick tips for portrait shooters. Enjoy

  1. Make a photograph — don’t simply take one. Work with the subject, props, posing and lighting to create a unique image.
  2. The name of the game is to fill the frame. In other words, crop out the boring stuff in a scene so that the viewer’s attention is drawn to the main subject — immediately.
  3. Crop creatively. More often than not, a picture can be enhanced with basic cropping in the digital darkroom. Experiment with different crops. Also try to see pictures within a picture.
  4. Remember that light illuminates; shadows define. That is the first step to lighting a portrait.
  5. Carefully light the scene. In this case, I used a combination of available light and the light from a flash to create a well-lit portrait.
  6. Choose your lens wisely. Think about how the focal length and f-stop will affect the end result. Use at least a medium telephoto lens (85mm) for head and shoulder shot. Wider-angle lenses are okay for environmental portraits (like this one).
  7. Carefully pose your subject. Pay special attention to where the subject is looking (toward or away from the camera). Also pay attention to the hands.
  8. Shoot RAW files because they are more forgiving than JPEG files – and because you can rescue more from overexposed highlight areas than you can from JPEG files.
  9. Use the lowest possible ISO for the cleanest (little or no noise) possible shot.
  10. Don’t over saturate an image in Photoshop (or Aperture or Lightroom or anywhere.) When areas of an image are oversaturated, details can be softened and lost. If the reds here had been over saturated, the detail and the folds in the dress could have been lost.
  11. Think selectively. Apply adjustments (especially sharpening) to select areas of an image rather than applying them globally (to the entire image).
  12. Always sharpen an image as the final step – before you save your file as a TIFF file or PSD files with all those adjustment layers (just in case you change your mind about how you enhanced your image.)

Explore the light,

Rick

Keep up with Rick at the Digital Photo Experience.

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Posted in Articles, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment »