I have done my first two photo sessions for my portfolio. As I wrote earlier I would approach some people at work and have a good response on that. So booked a few session by the people at home. This of course gives you an extra handicap as you are in their environment which makes it a little harder from your point of view. You need to take your lighting with you, as you don’t know what you are up against, is there room? is there a nice place, background and so on. This means that you need to be prepared to improvise quickly. On the other hand the people (sitters) you take photos of are more relaxed then as they would be in a studio and this assures you, mostly, of natural photos.

In my case I had my ProlIne studio kit with me and was lucky with the possibilities on location. The first family had some space and very light rooms. As this are groups and not an individual portrait I wanted to have as much even light as possible and needed to work with an high aperture! This because there was a child involved and they don’t sit still on demand. So I took two lights with big dishes and bounced then to the ceiling from behind my, on full power. This ensured me of a working aperture of F8 which was in combination with a 35mm lens enough to have everything sharp. We had a shooting session of an hour and came out with 110 images. After shifting I ended up with 57 images that where worth working on and showing to the family.

As you can see we see the background sharp but wasn’t really a problem BUT for the next image I worked in photo shop to get the best out of that as I though that was a winner.

This image is not sold 3 times and part of my branding.

The second family didn’t had a very light room so I had a problem with colour casts from the walls. I was lucky however that the ceilings where cream and was able to use that. Again it was a group with children so a lot of light and I used the same setup as before. We shot 98 images and got this as one of the images

The little boy was giving us a hard time as he didn’t wanted to be there. So after 20 minutes we took a rest and I was talking to the mother if she knew something that would settle him down. She mentioned that he loved the film “Mama Mia” and that he start dancing on it. So we place a television behind me and played the movie, which gave us 20 shots like this.

By improvising we created a few images which are selling good.

Till the next time

Although the course at the Institute is very, very good we all feel, well I feel, that we need sometimes some extra training in specific areas.

I personally wanted to become more proficient in Photoshop as I see that as the "old" Dark Room I have many years ago. After I have read some book I still got the feeling that things were missing and I signed-up to the video site of http://www.lynda.com/. They give you the possibility to target on specific learning items on all types of graphic software and I find them very good! I have done some of their courses like: Photoshop CS4 for photographers, Photoshop CS4 creative effects and (the one I like most) Photoshop CS4 Portrait Retouching Essential Training.

The instructors are all experts in their fields and give you an endless amount of tips and tricks. I know that I personally am not a really creative man (would like to be though) but through these video course are looking in a different way towards my photography.

This image of the thistle above was a dull, middle of the road, macro but after playing in Photoshop and using the techniques the tutor Chris Orwig demonstrated I think I was able to create an appealing images, now used as a desktop by many

Happy shooting

The first shoot is done and we have some photos to show for. I have used Paramount lighting which I show here.

Paramount 1

Paramount 2

It was difficult to begin with and we shot around 40 images. I ended up with 17 that were good and the two above I liked myself the most. The model will have a look to see what he likes and we will add that to the portfolio. As lighting equipment I used the ProLine 300 Kit which was very easy to work with and I feel gives a good result. I made 1 mistake and that was that I had the white-balance on auto and I should had this on 5600 Kelvin. This resulted in a lot of work to get the colour balance right but is a lesson for the next time. Look at your camera settings before the shoot!

The first problems arrive. I would have a session yesterday evening but the model backed-out and it was a miss. This will happen a lot if the models you use are doing it for a favour. Don’t take this personal and just see it as a learning curve, you need to have more appointments then one. Tonight I have another male-model and we see how that goes.

In the weekend of the 27th of this month I have three appointments to take photos of families at there place which gives a completely other challenge as we are not in my environment. The rest of the week I am going to ask more female models to sit as I am that missing now.

Happy shooting

I have the printed photo books from Blurb (BookSmart) and CEWE (Photo World) in.

I must say that I am very impressed as the quality, and I did their cheapest option, is very high. the print quality, colour balance and brightness is exact as I had set it is photoshop.

So who is the best?

If you want more flexibility in creating your photobook then the software of CEWE has more possibilities in layout and text as you can add or removes all the place holders you want, something I miss in Blurb’s BookSmart. but beside that I can’t see any difference in quality and service they provide.

Living in England I would go for CEWE, for I like the flexibility, but just they can deliver faster and postage should be cheaper. Having said that Blurb delivered 10 earlier then promised when I did the order which makes them as fast, for England, as CEWE.

I know one thing fore sure and that is that for my professional work where a book is needed, portfolios, wedding and so on, I am using this service as for those prices and quality it isn’t worth the time doing this yourself.

Theo

Although it is nice to have your photos on the web, dvd or computer the ultimate goal is to show them in print.

Most photographers have their own photo printer and print some of them off. In the next few weeks I am looking into the world of creating your own photo book through those online printing services like “Blurb” and “CEWE photo world” to see how easy it is and what the quality is compared with your own printing, as there you are in control.

I have chosen Blurb and CEWE on recommendation from one of my online tutors and although there are many more in the market these two are coming not to expensive and seems to have high quality.

Will keep you informed.

Now that I have set my appointments for the shoot I need to start thinking about the light arrangements. As I have several different settings, woman, man, couples, kid and families over the next few weeks I though I start with three light arrangements with studio flashes and outdoor light when weather permit this.

For the woman and kids I am using paramount and loop lighting and for the men I though to practise with the Rembrandt light setup.

In the paramount lighting we have the key light high and in front of the sitter. The light is following the nose light. The fill-light (in my case a reflector) is low and bounces the light into the shadows created by the key light. This will give a smooth-soft light. Added we have a hair light but I will also do this without. You can add a light to light the background but I would like to go doe a dark background in this case

This is a glamour or beauty lighting setup.

As a second setup I will use a variation of the paramount arrangement "The Loop light".

Here we see that the key light is a little more to the side of the sitter and the fill light (reflector) is lighting the shadows from the opposite direction. The fill light comes from the camera axis and must not throw a shadow of its own. A reflector work better then a "real" light here.

Again the hair light and background light can be used.

The third light is my favourite for photographing men and is could the Rembrandt setup.

Here we have a 45 degree key light with a fill from the other side again. The setup got its name from the Famous Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rhijn and as I am Dutch you can see that this works for me

During the next few weeks I will continue with this part of the blog and will post photos from the several setting.

The family photos I will try to take outside and make them more dynamic using movement and natural light, although this depends on the weather.

One of the hardest things to do as a beginning photographer is to create a appropriate portfolio of the kind of work you do or want to do. This is especially true if you are looking to go into an area you haven’t worked in before as potential customers would like to see what you can do for them and that means what have you done in the past!

Depending on the kind of work you want I can honestly say that to create a wedding portfolio is the most difficult one there is. A wedding day is probably one of the most important days in a brides (and grooms) life and they want to make sure that everything is perfect this means that entering this market is difficult. When I tried to entering this market place I needed a portfolio of at least 1 wedding and do get that I think your have 3 options:

• If you are lucky then one of your relatives are getting married and you can create your portfolio on that day. You must be aware however that if they have an official photographer don’t get in his way as he need to deliver top quality. You can talk to him and see if you can operate as a second or third shooter for him.
• Try to in contact with an established wedding photographer and offer your time, maybe even against a small fee (he pays you), as a second shooter and get your portfolio work.
• Offer your time to a couple that is going to get married and charge them only the printing costs for the album. BUT tell them that you are new in this area so that you give them the choice on risk they are taking!

As a portrait photographer it is a bit easier to get some good portfolio photos, you have family and friends who you can ask to sit for you, ask strangers in return for a printed, of digital (DVD), photo portfolio for them. The costs are low and you can build this up.

Make sure you have ONLY your best photos in your portfolio. Make several portfolios one for every area you work in.

To give you an example: I want to get into environmental portrait photography and need to create a portfolio for that. I am lucky as I have another job and do the photography as a part-time freelancer. To get a good few photos for my portfolio on this I proposed my employer that I will create a set of photos for a calendar based on the product release cycle on the company. It will cost them nothing, and it even will cost me nothing as I am doing the portraits in working time. They have agreed to this and I am doing this project for the next 3 – 4 months. This will give me a seasonal amount of portraits to choose from and a reference of a "customer" which I can give to potential clients in the future. What is more this calendar will be printed I have tear sheets to show.

I will keep you update about this project in the months to come.

I hope this gives you a idea how to start and as usual any comments are welcome.

Theo