In honor of the Posing and Composition workshop that I’m leading with Jamie Wexler next week, I wanted to talk a bit about some of the techniques that I use to get nervous couples to loosen up.  How many times have you been told by a perfectly lovely bride and groom, “Oh, we’re not photogenic at all”?  Or, “we always look silly in photographs– and not in a good way”?  Or, “the groom (or the bride) always looks stiff or unhappy in photographs”?  How do you take these couples and get them to loosen up in front of the camera so that you can get natural, relaxed (and dare I say happy) expressions from them?  Every couple is different (as is every photographer), so you need to find something that works for both you AND the couple, but I wanted to share a few of my tips for getting couples to loosen up in front of the camera.  Now, some of these tips I tend to use during post sessions or engagement sessions, and some of these lend themselves more to weddings.  But they are all things that I keep in my bag of tricks, ready to go.

1) Talk to them.  About anything, really, especially if you have a lot of time (on a post shoot or at an engagement shoot, for example).  If they are really fired up about the wedding details, then you can talk to them about that, but MOST of the time I find that will leave one of them (usually the groom, but occasionally the bride)– the one who has been less interested in wedding planning– high and dry.  So try to find some common ground.  I may ask them to tell me how they met or got engaged.  If one person is talking more than the other, I’ll find specific questions to ask the less-talkative one (even if we spiral off into work topics or their house on the Vineyard or their favorite vacation overseas).  If they seem quiet, then sometimes I’ll do most of the talking in the beginning (until they start to relax).

 
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As a lead up to our Portraits with Panache workshop happening on May 17, we are themeing our next assignment series “Panache”. (More details on the workshop are here: http://shootstyle.com/mingle/announcing-the-portraits-with-panache-workshop-in-old-orchard-beach-me.html)

Your assignment is to show us images that have Panache, whatever that means to you! This might be a photojournalistic exercise or an artistic construction. We leave it up to you to define the phrase and how you will interpret it.

You are more than welcome to comb through your files for a photo that illustrates the term, but we would absolutely love it if you shot something for the assignment, special!!

Our assignment series is open to everyone. We’re hoping you’ll wanna play along! The most creative entry wins!

We will post all of the entries on our Facebook page, and post a few of our favorites on our blog, complete with a link back to your blog or website.

How to enter :

Images should be sized to 590 pixels on the long side. (If you need help figuring that out, ask your favorite Shootstyler.) And by all means, slap that logo on there if you have one! You can enter up to one photo a day for the duration of the assignment. Email your entry to:

assignment@shootstyle.com

We have an album on our Facebook fan page. When the entries start coming in, we’ll post them there first. Check in with us at Facebook if you are looking for some inspiration.

www.facebook.com/ShootStyle

The deadline is May 17! Let’s have fun doing this together!!  Assignment series: “Panache”

This post is a little different from my normal wedding posts, but this is the time of year I’m not shooting very many weddings.  It’s the off season, those golden months of leisure, where I get to sit around and never touch a camera…right?  Well that works, for a couple of weeks, but then I get bored, and want to take some pictures.  So every year about this time, I challenge myself to try something new.  This year I wanted to try classic pinup photos.  But as a personal project, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money.  So in this post, I’m going to show you how I was able to create classic high key fashion lighting for less than $100.

Alright, so in order to spend less than $100, you have to make sure you have three small flashes, and a way to trigger them from your camera.  Plus light-stands and at least one umbrella bracket for your light stand.  I already had all of the above, so my $100 was spent on a 60″ parabolic shoot through umbrella (for my key light), and a 9 foot roll of white seamless paper.   For my flashes, I used Canon’s new 600ex-RT’s triggered by a Canon ST-E3-RT Wireless Transmitter, but could have used any three small flashes.

Setup is super easy, I set up two of the three flashes (Flash A & Flash B) approximately 3 feet from the backdrop, aimed at the backdrop to light the white paper.  My goal was to blow it completely out.  I placed the third flash (Flash C) on the umbrella bracket aimed into the umbrella.  My goal with this flash was to light the model.  The parabolic umbrella, gave a wonderful, soft, wrap around light.  I lowered the wide angle diffusers on all three flashes to maximize the spread of light.

And that’s it!  I adjusted my flash output to balance output and recycle time.  With my newer Canon bodies, I have no problem using ISO3200.  That meant I could keep my flash power very low and still achieve an aperture of f8, giving me plenty of depth of field.  And with the flash power that low, my recycle time was very good.  Shooting at moderate speed, I didn’t have to wait for the flashes to recycle.

Straight out of camera the images look great.  And with a little love in photoshop I can make them look even better.

So there you have it – using flashes you already own, a $30 umbrella, and a roll of white paper, it’s easy to create high key fashion lighting for fun and profit.

Here’s the umbrella: http://www.adorama.com/LTU60T.html

The long awaited Nikon D4, D800 and Canon 5D Mark III have all started shipping this month and these new cameras hold the promise of helping us do our jobs better, faster, and easier. They also invoke the reality of helping to empty our bank accounts. So for this week’s ShootStyle blog post I’m writing about something that will help you make money to save for a new camera, or if you’re like me, to help you pay off your credit card for the cameras you just bought.  :-)

But I’m not going to give you advice on how to raise your prices, sell wall collages, or market to high end planners. No, I want to help you make money the old fashioned way… by selling your crap on eBay!

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~by Andree Kehn

I am as scattered as they come. After a couple of years of being in business I realized that I needed to standardize my client folders so that I wouldn’t lose my mind.

I created a client folder template that lives on my hard drive, and eventually built automation into my Lightoom catalog. Every client has the same output, every time.

That way, when the client gets around to ordering their files, or vendors come around looking for sample photos, the images are ready to go. No need to fire up Lightroom again.

I use a new Lightroom catalog for every job. I do this in part because Lightroom has a reputation of bogging down after tons of images are added to the catalog, but mostly because I find it keeps me better organized.

I created a Lightroom catalog template, which lives in my client template folder. It has all of my preferences set up the way I like them. My special development settings I use on import, slideshows specifications, brushes and presets and are all ready to go each and every time I create a new catalog.

Every time I create a new job, I copy the folder template and rename it with the job name. Inside this template is the Lightroom catalog. I rename the catalog, open it and start importing.

But what really keeps me organized is the Export panel.

Here is where Earl Christie saves the day. He helped me create a folder structure on my hard drive for all of the different size images I use.

Then we created Export User Presets for all of those files sizes. I use Client High Res, Client Small Res, Blog and, Facebook. Each User Preset is created with all of the specifications I need to output those files.

When I export, I work my way down the list of export options and all of the images go into their respective folders in my hard drive “00Processing Output” Folder. I don’t need to navigate to the appropriate folder every time I export. I just click one after the other and all of my files are automatically exported. Then I go to bed.

When I come back to work, I simply copy the entire collection over to the client folder. Since I am copying the folders, the folder structure is identical for every client. If I need to pull images for a blog post or for a vendor, I can go right to any client folder and know exactly where to find them in the right dimensions.

Once I’ve copied the files over to the client folder, (and backed up my drives) I trash all of the files in the 00Processing folder, so it is ready to accept the next export from Lightroom.

It’s a super simple solution that is one more step to staying organized.

Let me hear what you do!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our winter assignment series Brrrrr! All of the entries really illustrated the theme,and resulted in some of the coldest photos we here at ShootStyle have ever seen. It was a really close vote, and involved copious amounts of hot chocolate, but we finally cam up with our winners.

First place goes to Tennile Sunday’s submission featuring footsteps in the snow.  We liked the strong composition with the footsteps drawing the eye into the person walking away as well as the warm pastel color palate.

In second place (by one vote) is Greg Hinsons entry featuring a frozen house covered with snow.  We loved how stark the scene was with the covering of snow making us all wish we were inside…in front of a warm fire…and the infrared treatment was particularly effective making the sky look dark and menacing.

And our strong runner up is Joe Goldsberry’s image of his street through hanging icicles.  We thought that the icicles framed the street in an interesting way, and the iphone camera was particularly effective in capturing the scene.

Thanks to everyone for sending in your images and sharing the Brrrrr! Stay tuned in a couple of months for our next, warmer, assignment series.

I have posted a few times about the importance of capturing the details, but today I wanted to write about an oft-forgotten detail– the delicious, beautiful, oh-so-amazing food.  Take it from me, I can’t even remember what I ate at my wedding.  I do know that it was excellent (we hired a fabulous caterer) and that it made up a big part of our budget, but other than that I draw a total blank.  It’s funny, but for something so expensive and that takes up such a large part of the day/night, food is often ignored.  Sure, we photograph the wedding cake and the cute little whoopie pies served at dessert.  But how often do people say “I would love a photograph of my food”?  I get perhaps three couples out of forty that ask for food shots, and yet every single one of my clients who orders an album wants to include the shot of their food as a supporting detail in their album.
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I am a strong proponent of the idea that it is the craftsman not the tools.  In fact, I’ve been trying for years to find a couple that would let me shoot their wedding with a Canon Digital Rebel and a kit lens, just test that theory.  But I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I am completely in love with one piece of equipment in my gear bag.  One lens that I reach for every chance I can.  One wondrous chunk of glass that makes everyone it captures look good….that gives crisp details to the in-focus parts of the image, and makes the out of focus parts of the image buttery and beautiful.  If I haven’t given it away by now, I am speaking of my lovely fat bottomed girl – the Canon 85mm f1.2.

Our love affair began a few years ago, when I found a steal of a deal on a used 85 f1.2 on an online photographers community.  At the time, I had a slightly slower, consumer version of the lens that I was happy enough with.  It worked well enough, and was fast enough, and generally sharp enough.  But I couldn’t resist the allure of the exotic.  I have to admit, it wasn’t love at first shot.  It took me a few shoots to get used to the super slow auto focus, and super thin depth of field, but once I understood her, my attention never wavered.

We soon settled into a happy relationship, and a look at my blog on any given week will tell the story of our affection.  At a wedding she is with me during the bridal preps, all of the couple portraits, and the first dance.  For portrait sessions, however, she is the star of the show.  Many are the portrait sessions where she was the only lens I used.

So on this New Year season, I want to raise my glass to my favorite piece of, well, glass, with the hopes of thousands more beautiful images in the years to come!  Now let’s hear about the piece of equipment that inspires you!  Leave a comment with your own love letter to your favorite piece of gear.

If a wedding were a movie, the bride and groom would be starring in the leading roles. They’ll get most of the closeups and the camera will linger on them throughout the day. We’ll also see other supporting members of the cast as they interact the couple or react to the unfolding events. Then there are some people in the movie we’ll barely see at all, but they play important visual role of populating the universe of the film. Without them, the feature film wedding would merely be an short subject elopement. That’s why I often go out of my way to create photos that include wedding guests as part of the composition.

As wedding photographers, we all shoot the guests. We often try to get a shot of as many guests’ faces as possible for the bride and groom. Those shots are important but they’re not quite what I’m getting at now. And to be clear, I’m not also talking about shots like this:

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If you have never worked with models before, you are missing out! It’s a great vehicle for practicing with new lighting gear or exploring new direction in your work. I love working with models to strengthening my boudoir portfolio. I won’t publish client images from boudoir sessions and model shoots give me images with which to market. It’s also super fun and I experiment in every way I can imagine.

Earl Christie and I recently got together for a model shoot up in Maine. We wrangled our models using our tried and true (un)patented model system. We’ve been running models shoots in ShootStyle over the years and I wanted to share what works for us.

We use Model Mayhem, and love it. There’s a great community there and getting to know the models and other photographers has been fun and useful. :) There is a basic free account, which has some restrictions on numbers of images you can post on your portfolio and numbers of conversations you can start in a 24 hour period, but over all, I highly recommend opening an account.

Casting call:

When you are ready to get going, start by creating a casting call. Here is where you can specify who you are looking for and talk about the shoot a little bit. Go big! ShootStyle has managed to score some amazing locations, so we link to the venue. Even if you don’t have links to the space, be descriptive. Include links to your work too. Describe what you are looking for and be very specific about what you will be expecting from the models. You can imagine, some of the situations that have been posted have been sketchy, to say the least. Describing everything in as much detail as possible is going to allay any worries your models will have answering your call.

Throw down some cash if you can. You are much more likely to get models with a little bit of experience. Working with a model who has experience is fantastic when you are just getting going, they will help guide you in common practices in the industry. It also greatly reduces last-minute cancellations. But if you are short on cash, you should be able to find some models who are willing to do TFP (trade for prints, or these days, trade for files).

Some models prefer to bring an escort. Since ShootStyle so often does group shoots, with multiple photographers and models, we designate a room for escorts to hang out so as keep our models as comfortable as possible. If you are willing to have an escort present on the day of the shoot, indicate this in your casting call. Many photographers don’t like the extra person, so if you demonstrate your flexibility, this may win you some points.

Spread the Word:

You might think that once you’ve gotten your casting call up, all you have to do is sit back and answer the flood of emails about to come your way. It’s probably not going to happen that way.

Start searching for models on Model Mayhem that you want to work with, and personally invite them to look at your casting call. I look for models that are older and curvier than the typical model since I am looking to build my boudoir business, and want to find models closer to my clients age and body type. I usually settle for older or curvier. By “older”, I mean pushing thirty. And “curvy”, is anyone over 130 pounds. Being much older and much curvier than that, I have to laugh. But the truth is, this field is full of 98 pound 19 year old aspiring models.

If a model lists another way to get in touch, use it! Facebook, email, form-spring, anything! You are looking to carpet bomb your casting call to get as many eyes on it as possible.

Confirm Confirm Confirm:

Once a model expresses interest, get a cell phone number and an email address. We won’t confirm a spot on the day until we get those. You don’t want to run into a situation where a model has changed her mind about participating, but doesn’t bother to tell you.

Once we confirm with the models, we send them an email with all the information they need. We provide a google map link to the address, a street address, our starting time, what to expect when they arrive, clothing and make-up to bring, and if snacks or drinks will be provided. Include at least one phone number they can reach you at on the day of the shoot, and tell them to expect a phone call the evening before the shoot. If you are doing boudoir work, they must bring a photo ID with proof of age!!

We also ask them to reply to us when they’ve received the email, which also lets us know they’ve read it.

Don’t forget to make the call the day before the shoot! You may have to do some last minute changing around and this gives you a chance to tell the model how excited you are work with them, you can remind them to bring their ID. It also lets you know if you need to scramble to find another model.

On the Day of the Shoot:

While you are shooting, keep checking in with the model to make sure she is comfortable. Avail yourself to collaboration. Often the models get a particular portfolio going in a particular direction, and they may want some variety. If you can do it, it’s great to be able to meet their needs as well as your own.

Make sure you have a release all made up for the models to sign. It shows respect to the models to offer to give them a copy. We take a photo of the models ID and keep it with the files. Keep track of these ID’s. And don’t let them get posted online. The ID has a models personal identification on it and you need to keep them safe by not inadvertently publishing their home address. (This happened to a model-friend of mine. If one is doing boudoir work, you can imagine how terrifying it would be to have your street address out there on the internet!)

Let the models know when you will be delivering their edited images to them. Give yourself double the amount of time you think you’ll need to deliver them, and try like help to deliver earlier. It can be a nightmare for models to get images from photographers. Don’t be that guy.

Above all else:

Show mega-respect for the models. These models are putting themselves out there for you to practice your photography; it is a gift to you, even if you are paying them. The greater respect you can show the models, even in the face of last-minute cancellations, lateness or general dippiness. the easier time you will have with your shoot.

Have a blast out there! And I would LOVE it if you would let me know in the comments section of the blog what tips and tricks you have for working with models!