StudioStyles: Learn Photography, Studio Lighting and Portrait Posing Techniques in Online Photography School » Articles

Using Bogen Monospots

Lee Hughes — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:57:21 +0000

Studio lighting doesn’t have to be complicated to get great results. This is a simple 1 light set-up using a Bogen MonoSpot aimed directly at her.

Check out the pull-back shot below to see my exact lighting set-up.

I was sitting on the stool in the bottom left of the frame. I started right next to the light and then rolled around getting different angles. I liked this one the best.

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Posing Basics: Head Positions

Lee Hughes — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:20:53 +0000

In this section we will take a look at proper head positioning. The two basic head positions are the masculine and feminine head positions.

Masculine Pose

The masculine head position is accomplished by turning subjects head toward either shoulder, tilting top of the head away from the lead shoulder. This position can work for both male and female subjects.

Feminine Pose

The feminine head pose is shown in images below. This is accomplished by tipping the head towards the lead shoulder. This pose works well on females. Although some males may fall into this poses when sitting in front of the camera, it looks very awkward and I would not recommend shooting it.

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Adding Movement to Your Image

Lee Hughes — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:40:29 +0000

In the world of “I’ll do it in Photoshop” many new photographers are not learning many of the basic techniques used in the good ole film days to be able to create effects in camera. Now, don’t get me wrong….applying movement in Phototshop does have some advantages. For example, you can control how much of the image gets the motion effect, as well as the direction and strength of the blur.

However, when deciding if I should to create an effect in Photoshop or in camera, here’s the way I approach the matter. I simply do whichever one will be the quickest (time is money). If I can do the effect in camera or with lighting quciker than I can do it in Photoshop, I will do it that way. In most cases, getting it right in the camera is the simplest and least time consuming.

In this case by using a slow shutter speed with my trusty Canon Mark 2 Digital camera we were able to capture the motion of the guitar as a blur. The exposure was f-11 at 1/3 second.

The Studio lighting set-up for this shot is as follows.

1. Main Light – 3×4 Soft-box at f11
2. Fill – 4×6 Silver Reflector

Try it out. It’s fun to see what you can do.

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Glamour Head Shot Techniques

Mike Luter — Sat, 16 May 2009 11:35:23 +0000

The difference between shooting a typical head shot an creating a glamour portrait are really obvious.

The lighting must be flattering, the filters soft and the make-up truly professional. It’s the execution of these principles that will set your work apart.

Our studio technique involves a few simple steps that give us the “Hollywood” look, as demonstrated in the accompanying photo.

For the primary light , we used a Photogenic MonoLight that has been placed into a Halo Light Modifier. The halo gives a soft, low contrast lighting and a quality that sets the mood. The main light is placed on a boom approximately four feet in front of and above the subject. This is the butterfly lighting style frequently used for glamour work.

A silver reflector is placed in front of the model and just out of the camera’s view. The reflector bounces additional light back into the underside of the eyes and chin, filling in the shadow areas. In the photographs in this article you can see a small catchlight in the lower half of the eyes as a result of the reflector.

The next step in the set-up is the background light. By using a background light and various color gels it is possible to change the color of the background without physically changing the seamless paper. In this photograph I used color gels over the light source to coordinate the color of the light with the clothing color and the mood desired.

The background light used in the photographs accompanying this article was a Photogenic Powerlight fitted with a 7 inch parabolic reflector, covered with a gel and adjusted to emit equal power as the main light (metered just above shoulder level). This allows the light to fall-off at the edges of the photograph. By changing color gels, the feeling of the photograph can be changed in seconds, and you will be able to give the customer a variety of looks to choose from.

To determining what color various gels will produce at different ratios to the main light, you will need to shoot a test roll and record the settings so they can be reproduced easily. Then, experiment with a combination of different colors.

In this lighting set-up make sure none of the main light spills onto the background and contaminates it. The subject was placed approximately eight feet from the background and the main light was feathered down to prevent spill over light onto the background.

To create a more dramatic look in each of the portraits, a hair light was placed directly behind the model’s head adding light to the hair. The hair light is a Photogenic Powerlight fitted with a four inch parabolic reflector. The reflector must be small enough to hide behind the subject’s head without being seen. When metering for the hair, I hold the meter at the back of the head and point it toward the light. Depending on the model’s hair color, I adjust the hair light to main light as follows:

Black + 1/2 to + 1 stop

Brown – equal to main

Medium to dark blond hair – 1/2 to 1 stop less

Blonds – -1 stop to 1 1/2 stop

Occasionally I will add different color gels to the hair light to create an entirely different mood and feeling.

Another vital key in glamour photography is make-up, and yes, a professional stylist is essential for top results. In my studio, I never do a glamour session without a professional stylist. The stylist is crucial because everyday make-up is very different from photographic make-up. Since lighting used on the set is relatively flat, the make-up must be applied so it doesn’t look flat. Therefore, the make-up used is heavier and more contrasting than everyday wear.

To flatter the face still more, use soft or very soft, focus filters. You may even want to combine several soft focus filters for an even softer effect. These filters are a must in glamour work and they also help keep the retouching costs to a minimum. My clients love them. Although, now with digital we typically add this effect afterwards in Photoshop.

And yours will, too. With soft focus, soft light, a soft touch and just the right make-up, they’ll look better than they really do.

Which is what we all want anyway, isn’t it.

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Add Impact To Your Photos

Lee Hughes — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:17:50 +0000

Most portraits are shot in the standard vertical orientation (which is where the term portrait comes from). However, to add impact to your portraits don’t be afraid to crop the image in a horizontal format. Try shooting some images horizontally in your next session.

For this image not only did I crop the image in the horizontal format, the model is placed in the in the far right of the frame. What would this shot look, like if she was placed dead center in the frame? Static – no impact.

AND I cropped off the top of her head – all in the name of impact. Add some nice lighting and there you have it.

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Although this next image is in the vertical/portrait orientation, I titled the camera to have her come in from the corner of the frame. This creates some nice angles and adds a fashion feel to the image. Again, creating impact in the image just by tilting the camera. The image was over exposed by 1 stop to create the “blown out” feel.

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Building a Studio Background Tip

Lee Hughes — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:53:54 +0000

You don’t have to have expensive sets and backgrounds in order to get a stylish, trendy look. This background was made with the siding material that you can buy from your local Home Depot. Since this was the first time we ever used it, we simply clamped it to our background stands. As you can see, it produced some great looking images. After a couple sessions we decided to make it a permanent background at the studio and it has proved to be very popular.

Online Photography Training: Making a Stylish, Trendy but Cheap Background

Since we decided to make it a permanent background we made a simple light weight frame to make it easier and quicker to set-up and move around in the studio. The background frame was made out of 1×4 lumber to keep it as lite as possible. Had we made it out of 2×4′s it would have required 2 people to move it around in the studio. Here’s a quick shot of the frame right after we made it.

Lighting set-up for this shot is as follows.
1. Main Light – 3×4 Soft-box at f11
2. Fill – 4×6 Silver Reflector
3. Edge Light – Covered with Amber gel at f 5.6 1/2
4. Background Light – 7″ parabolic reflector with barn doors, covered with purple gel – f8
5. Background Light – 7″ parabolic reflector with barn doors, covered with blue gel – f8
6. Edge Light – Covered with Blue gel at f 5.6 1/2

Here’s some other photos we made with this background.

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Studio Lighting with Photogenic Mini-Spots

Lee Hughes — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:41:42 +0000

This set-up was done using 5 tungsten continuous light sources. The lights used for this set up are Photogenic Mini-spots. These lights are a lot of fun to work with, and provide a will you can only achieve with his style of lighting. We use these lights a lot for Hollywood style glamour and when doing character studies.

A couple things to consider when using tungsten continuous lights are:

1. Make sure you get lights that have focusing capability.

2. It it is also important to be able to control the output of the lights. For this particular light we had to purchase third party Rio stats
to be able to control the output

3. You will also want to lights that can accept barn doors. This is critical for light control.

Here’s a link to the lights used for this set up:
http://www.photogenic.com/store/item…PARTMENT_ID=62

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Want to know more? Check out this video on dramatic lighting.

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Using Posing Stools Correctly

Lee Hughes — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:54:57 +0000

At first glimpse talking about posing stool height may seem silly to you. Although that couldn’t be further from the truth. Correct posing stool height is very important to maintaining your subjects proper posture.

The correct height for the posing stool is slightly above the knee. At that height it forces the subject to sit properly producing a slight L shade between the body torso and the upper part of legs. The subjects feet should just reached the floor.

If the posing stool is too low it tends to add weight to the subject. This will not please many of your clients.

On the other hand, if you want to the subject to lose weight just raise his stool and have the subject lean forward. If I have a heavy set man I will raise the stool slightly above standard height, this will automatically cause him to sit on the edge of the stool and lean forward for his feet to be able to touch the floor. As a result it will seem that he just lost twenty pounds automatically (just by having the posing stool at the correct height. If you want him to gain weight just positioned the stool too low.

Please take this into consideration when buying a correct posing stool for your studio. This is probably more important than you first thought. When I for starting out I purchased a posing stool that did not extend high enough which did not give me all the results I wanted. Since I will typically to raise the stool a little higher to make the subject look thinner it’s important to have the right stool. You can not do this with a posing stool that doesn’t extend a full height. When looking for a posing stool make sure it will extend from very low range to a very high arrange to accommodate taller people.

**See I told you one of my goals was to keep you from making some of the mistakes I made along the road… since that time we have replaced the old posing stools with new stools that extend the full height.

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Basic Posing Tips

Lee Hughes — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:22:19 +0000

Basically, your job as a professional photographer is to make your client look good (or better than they actually do) in their portraits.

The first thing I typically do is a quick facial analysis to determine if the subject has one side that is better than the other. Many times this is very obvious, especially if they have a scar or blemish, but often times you need to make a point of doing a quick facial analysis before starting the session.

Here are a few common things to look for:
One eye smaller than the other – by putting the smaller eye closer to the lens it tends to create and evening effect so they both look the same size.

Crooked nose – put crooked side towards main light to avoid crooked shadow. Shoot from side to which the nose curves.

Facial blemishes / scars etc… – hide in the shadows

Crooked smile – put the highest side closest to camera

Part of hair – you typically will not want to shoot across the part. It has a tendency to throw a shadow across the forehead.

When doing head and shoulder portraits, proper shoulder positioning is very important. The shoulders provided a good base for the head… too little base and the portrait feels uncomfortable.

Football Shoulders – when the subject is squared off to the camera it tends to add weight to to the subject and creates a very masculine portrait. You will typically want to avoid football shoulders, especially with women.

To slenderize the subject turn them slightly sideways to the camera. I will typically position the subject’s shoulders at a 45 degrees angle to the camera. From this position you can have the subject turn her head comfortably into a feminine or masculine position.

In addition, for most portraits, the subjects shoulders should not be positioned horizontally level in the portrait. It’s best if the shoulders are position more diagonally in the portrait.

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Photo Studio for Rent

wBerlin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:23:17 +0000

Jacksonville, Florida Photography Rental Studio Program

Here’s a link to a gallery with more images of the studio and props and sets that are included.

Studio Gallery

Take a video tour of the photography studio rental facilities in Jacksonville, Fl.

[See post to watch Flash video]