Creating something out of nothing

Posted by kevin focht on Oct 26, 2011 in How to's and manuals, Shooting Tips | 0 comments

I think one of the hardest things to do in photography, is to create images on white seamless. You have absolutely nothing to work with per se.

You have a blank canvas to work with, and yet you can create some of the most interesting imagery if lit correctly.

For some reason fashion clients just love this look. A clean whit background to showcase their clothes. Your job as a photographer, is to try and make it interesting.

The first thing I try and do is to create interesting shapes with the model and the clothes.

This can be really odd shapes, depending on the clothes. If you are lucky enough to get a model that understands clothes all the better. If not, it is up to you as the photographer to help her pose. This can be like lifting thousands of pounds all by yourself, and yet it must be done. Everyone gets a good laugh when I pose, but somehow I get across to the model what I want.

The other way to create something interesting on white, is with your lighting. Don’s just light the background and the model and start shooting. Try something different.

Bring lights into the shot, let light spill around your subject, subtract light using black cards, just do something to change up the normal shot.

In the end, you might just end up with some amazing images, instead of the normal mundane catalog shots.

Kevin

Don’t Forget the Silhouette

Posted by kevin focht on Oct 10, 2011 in How to's and manuals, Shooting Tips | 0 comments

Sometimes we get so busy trying to shoot amazing imagery at a wedding that we forget that simple is better.

Take the simple silhouette.

We spend so much time trying to use fill flash and such to get the proper background to foreground balance, when in reality we can just meter off the bright background and let the subject become a shape.

The key to creating beautiful silhouettes, is to make sure that the shapes of the people involved don’t merge in a strange way.

You also want to make sure that if you have the sun in the background, that it doesn’t overwhelm the shot and blow out one of the peoples shapes. This is all about how you position the sun and the subjects. Be careful with kisses too. You don’t want the shape to look like one big blob. You need to have some space between them.

You can also adjust your exposure slightly to bring in some detail. In the shot above, I wanted to have detail in the flowers. I was able to use the candlelight to illuminate the flowers and still get a fairly good silhouette of the couple. This just adds to the story telling effect.

Kevin

Head in a box – PLEASE STOP!

Posted by kevin focht on Sep 13, 2011 in How to's and manuals, Shooting Tips | 3 comments

This week is going to have a few rants and personal pet peeves of mine.

We are trying to raise the bar on photography again, so let’s all try to improve ourselves.

One of my biggest pet peeves is since the advent of autofocus and digital, no one seems to understand composition. It’s like people think that those autofocus points are meant to take care of that too. You just point the camera and if it is in focus you click……WRONG! You need to recompose.

The I like lots of space above the head shot

Notice the two shots above. I can’t tell you how many times I see the one on the left and people thinking that it’s ok. Guess what? It’s not, it is horrible!!!!! This is the old center focus trick. You stick that center focus spot on the subject, focus and then click.

Just use your focus lock and then recompose for a really nice photograph. It really is that simple, just like the shot above on the left.

The head in the box horizontal shot

People are vertical unless they are laying down, so why in the world would you want to take a horizontal of them standing up. The shot on the left is the correct way of shooting a person, in my humble opinion. They are vertical and so is my shot. The problem is that I see the top horizontal more than anything lately. It’s the old head in the box shot. Once again, you center focus and don’t realize that you can turn the camera vertical. Even if you for some reason can’t turn your hand to make the camera vertical, you can still use the focus lock and recompose to make an actual composition. Look at the shot on the bottom right. Just by moving the subject to one of the thirds the shot is no longer a head in the box.

You decide

Which one of these shots looks more aesthetically pleasing? The “I love lots of head space”. the “head in the box”, or the properly composed vertical.

Please for the love of composition, start using your focus lock and recomposing!!!!

Kevin

The real behind the scenes of a catalogue shoot

Posted by kevin focht on Aug 16, 2011 in How to's and manuals, Shooting Tips | 0 comments

Everyone thinks that being on a fashion set is really glamorous. Sometimes it is, but most of the time it’s sort of like herding cats. Controlled chaos.

As you can tell from the set, there are cords and just stuff everywhere. You have to remember there are a lot of people on the set. You have the stylist, the styling assistant, the hair and make up artist, the photographer, the photo assistant, the model and the art director.

You also have to be able to go with the flow in this situation. Things are fluid and change all the time. Like today, the hair and make up artist that was on the schedule didn’t know they were supposed to be there and were still in NYC. So they called a local one to come in, but that would take a couple of hours. So instead we just started doing waist down shots.

Waist down shots look really easy, but are actually some of the hardest shots to do. Everything has to be perfect and these shots really sell items for the client.

You also have to be really organized, as there are a lot of shots to do. Anywhere from 35-45 in a day!

This is the rack for just the next couple of days. All of these garments have to be pinned and steamed so they look perfect and then shot. It can make for a long week,but if you have a fun crew and we do, it can be a blast.

So the next time you see a shot that looks really simple in an add somewhere, just remember there was a lot of time and effort put into it.

Kevin

When a senior session rocks!

Posted by kevin focht on Aug 10, 2011 in How to's and manuals, Shooting Tips | 1 comment

Last week I had one of those amazing senior sessions.

The senior girl came into the studio and I thought she was really beautiful, but sometimes looks can be very deceiving when it comes to shooting. Sometimes the really pretty girls in person don’t always photograph great. This was not the case with Taylor.

Once I started shooting I realized that she was not only beautiful, but was amazing in front of the camera.

What do you do in a situation like this? You shoot the crap out of them, that’s what you do. Even if they don’t buy everything, this is what you build your site with. You need to have good looking people on your site and on your promotions.

I thought Taylor was so amazing that I decided to use my connections with the local modeling agencies and try and get her represented. It wasn’t that hard and she is now a full fledged model within 3 days!

Ya know what else?

I will be shooting her again for her portfolio! When you find a great girl or guy to work with, shoot them until you get tired of them. It really helps our your imagery.

Kevin

Shooting men – shoot up!

Posted by kevin focht on Aug 4, 2011 in How to's and manuals, Shooting Tips | 0 comments

One of the main things to remember when shooting men, is to shoot up at them.

When you shoot up at a guy, you give a feeling of strength. All you have to do is watch some movies to see how this technique works. Anytime a director wants to make you feel like a person is powerful, they shoot up at them.

It doesn’t need to be extreme either. Even a slight hint of shooting up adds strength to the shot.

The next time you are shooting a guy, just remember to shoot up at them and make them look strong.

Kevin