Image by Kathleen Thomas Photography

Here’s a step by step guide of how to achieve perfect butterfly lighting:

1. Face your subject at 7.8 view: Start by facing your subject directly to the camera, then turn the head just to hide the far ear. This view of the face is most flattering as it minimizes the face.

2. Hold your off camera flash 1′ above your subject, and 3′ toward the front to eliminate any possible shadowing on the face. You will also create a shadow beneath the chin, thus hiding any excess weight there.

3. Place a reflector just below the edge of your frame. The closer your reflector is to your subjects chin, the more even the spread of light. This reflector will soften that shadow and eliminate a harsh contrast.

4. Light for catch lights: You want your subjects eyes to be well lit and fortunately, with the angle of your main light in front/above, and the fill light coming in from below, your subject should have large round catch lights in both the bottom and top part of the eye.

For such beautiful results, Butterfly Lighting is among the most simple of the “directed” studio lighting options. As you can see, Butterfly Lighting will yield gorgeous results, without a great deal of precision or drama.

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How to Achieve Perfect Butterfly Lighting

Perhaps you ought to consider the possibilities of on location product shooting.

On location product shooting looks something like this: You go into a storefront, use the available and supplemental lighting to feature the pieces best, shoot to highlight the store offerings and other unique aspects, and present to the store owner for use and possible display.

While a generally simple process, follow these few tips and you will be sure to have a successful shoot.

1. Choose a storefront that holds your interest. Makeup technician. Clothes designer. Jewellery artist. Coffee shop. Anything you like or are drawn to may give you a more interesting perspective for shooting.

2. Evaluate the light: Your best hours for available light will entirely depend on which direction the store’s windows face. Scout ahead of time and find out which hours of the day will provide the brightest light for your work.

3. Visit the store multiple times. Buy some pieces. Study the arrangement of the displays to best capture the products. Remember you want to create art, and also draw the viewer to purchase the pieces.

4. Talk at length with the owner: You want to portray the shop in a way that captures the viewers attention, but above all else, you want to capture the vision of the shop owner. As your work will add to the message of the store, it is vital that you work with the owner on the right look and feel.

5. Take your time. While shooting, watch the angle of your light. Slowing down will enable you to focus on manipulating the light to create the most appealing textures and shapes.

6. Use variety: Don’t get stuck in one kind of focal length or framing. Create shots that are wide angle to give setting to the entire scene. Use mid shots to illustrate pieces in an overal setting. And don’t forget about close up detail shots that will capture the true elements offered by the shop.

Once you have completed your shoot, back up and edit right away. Send a “Thank You” card to the shop owner during the time it takes you to process. A fast turn around time is what will set you apart from the crowd. And while you may simply be handing a disc of rights free images, remember that first impressions are everything and be sure to package the disc to stand out.

Really want to make a splash? Order a few complimentary prints. If your abilities are where your confidence is, the shop owner will be ecstatic to display beautiful pieces of their work by your own hand.

And that is a win=win situation for you.

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On Location Product Photography

Whether you want to invest a good amount of time in a project, or simply give a print, the opportunities to use your art for the good of the community are endless! Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Host an Art Fundraiser: Pick a nonprofit that regularly affects your community, and ask if you can sponsor a Art Fundraiser. Have the organization print invitations and send out email invites to their donors. Bring together a group of local artists who may be willing to contribute by donating a few pieces to raise money. Be creative in the kind of artists you invite: Jewellers. Photographers. Painters. etc.

2. Donate a family portrait session: Many families in need cannot afford the priceless memories garnered by family portraits. Inquire of the city officials or a local church and find out if there is a family in your area who is particularly deserving. Book a session with them, and give a complimentary 8×10.

3. Volunteer to shoot a holiday program: Holiday programs may produce fun times, but It is far too common for the pictures of these events to turn out less than noteworthy. Take 4 hours out of your schedule to shoot and edit photos for one such program, and then pass along a dvd of images rights free. You never know who may discover your work simply because you reached out to others.

4. Write a story: Know a particularly noteworthy event, family, or program? Interview the people involved and create a photo story that will inspire others. Submit this story to the local newspaper as a community interest piece.

5. Hold a workshop: The gift of teaching is one that keeps giving long after the class is over. Take the time to plan a class for the community on some aspect of photography. Put up fliers at schools and community bulletin boards to generate interest on the topic. The day of the class, hand out pdf guides of your subject and offer additional assistance if needed.

Giving back to the community with your gifts and talents will always pay back. Whether you simply acquire a good name, or become connected with new relationships, a little bit of time and donated art will go a long way to inspiring others. And you will never feel so fulfilled.

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5 Ways to Use Your Gifts and Reach Your Community

The most notable wedding photographers are the ones who are most innovative in their portrait creations. So the question is, how do you become a trend setter with your wedding imagery? Start with these ideas and you’ll be on your way to becoming an edgy and creative wedding photographer that impresses.

1. Think with movement: Just because your wedding subjects are dressed in formal wear doesn’t mean your portraits need to be all formal also. Try to capitalize on every day motions and movements to add interest to your shots. Skipping. Laughing. Dancing. Karate moves. Leap Frog. The more movement you can incorporate, the more interesting your shots will be.

2. Use framing: Shoot “through” as many objects as you can. Car windows. Tire swings. Key holes. Rings. Positioned fingers. A type of “third party” element will give more depth and dimension to your imagery.

3. Show off your subjects: Treat a wedding party as simply many individuals making up a whole group. Allow each individual to pose themselves to add variety and personality.

4. Think “polaroid”-esque: Take a photo with an iPhone, a Polaroid, or a digital camera. Face this image screen toward the camera and set up the shot again with your subjects mirroring the previous image. Layering these images adds another dimension that boasts “no photoshop” creativity.

5.Utilize space: Gone are the days when everyone was positioned equal distance from one another and from the camera. Play with your subject spacing and placement to the camera. Variety of distance and space will add an illusion of alternating “levels”, and used rightly, will give additional importance on the Bride and Groom.

In an age of creative genius all around us, don’t forget: No one sees the way you do. Don’t be afraid of taking some creative risks. You never know when you may hit on a new trend simply because you aren’t afraid of thinking outside the box.

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Wedding Photography: Be Imaginative

The LED for On-Location:

There will be times in your on location portraiture sessions when the available light is just too dim or weak to create an even portrait. Getting rid of shadows and adding catch-lights in this scenario is impossible unless you bring in another light source. An LED is a quick and non-imposing way of adding just enough light to create an artistic flair to your portrait.

1. Position your subject near the primary light source. In this case, window light is my main light and illuminates my subject. I turn my subject into the light until her skin is appears soft and luminous.

2. Add the LED. Rather than the LED acting as my main light, I use it to soften the transfer edges of the highlights and shadows along my subjects face. I am able to maintain shape and depth along her face without having harsh and distracting shadows.

3. Pull the LED away from your subject: If the LED is too close to your subject, the lighting will become flat – especially if we are using the LED as a fill light. Move the LED away from your subject as much as possible while still filling in and softening the shadows just a bit.

The LED for Studio:

If you don’t own strobes or speed lights, you may not be as limited with off camera lighting as you think. LED’s can help you create extremely artistic portraits without a lot of financial investment. Here’s a look at using the LED for a studio like portrait.

1. Place your subject away from your backdrop. If the area behind your subject is dark, you’ll create a nice, black backdrop – no matter where you are. For this portrait. my subject is 5 feet in front of a dark hallway wall.

2. Get rid of all other light. To create a contrasty portrait, eliminate other light sources. Though you are using a single LED, the light will be more even and controlled without other competing light sources.

3. Position your LED. For a close up portrait with no other light sources, you will want to position the LED, 1 foot above and 2 feet away from your subject. This distance will enable you to cast light evenly along the face, and you won’t have to worry about distracting shadows falling under the eyes or the edge of the nose.

An LED can be purchased at Wal Mart or Amazon for $10 to $20 and is a pretty simple solution to acquiring an additional, easy to use light source for any off camera need.

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How to Light a Portrait with a Single LED

There is another market for Wedding Photographers that is often overlooked: Traditional Cultural weddings.

Cultural weddings require additional time and research by the photographer to make the most of the wedding day and not miss any important details. Here are some suggestions for preparing and shooting a Cultural Wedding.

1. Be detail oriented: Cultural weddings are often spread out over several days. The families spend a great deal of time, money, and energy to make the wedding memorable for everyone involved. Be pro-active to watch for important little details that characterize the culture and cause the ceremony to stand out.

2. Create a timeline: Sit down with the Bride and ask her to walk through every detail of the wedding day – particularly the ceremony. Take detailed notes and ask as many questions as possible. How long does the ceremony last? What is the role of each family member? What is the significance of the ceremony traditions? The purpose of this timeline is not necessarily to be a memorized and rigid game-plan, but it will be helpful when capturing those moments that you would have otherwise ignorantly overlooked.

3. Research other Photographers: There is a Proverb that states “there is nothing new under the sun”. This is especially true in artistic circles. If you have never shot a Cultural Wedding before, research other photographers who have. This is not to give you permission to “copy” their work. Rather, these visuals will help solidify what the cultural experience may be.

4. Ask for help: On the wedding day, make friends with one of the attendants and ask them if they would point out to you any additional details or shots that would be important to capture. A little humility may go a long way in a successful capture.

5. Focus.Focus. Focus: Be prepared for anything that may come your way. Watch. Observe. Do not let down your guard. Creating a beautiful photographic experience for everyone involved in a cultural wedding will assist you in breaking into this new market.

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How to Shoot a Traditional Cultural Wedding

Don’t be overwhelmed. Take the guess work out of pricing your work by thinking through the following aspects:

1. Know your market: What is the average value of photographers work in your area? Compare and contrast and decide where your work can fit in. Don’t forget to evaluate your service, quality of imagery, and professionalism.

2. Know your client: Some people would rather pay more for a service if it means higher quality. Some people cannot afford anything but the basics. Determine what clients you want to reach and begin arranging your price structure from here. Take note: Unless you are in similar circles and arena’s as your potential clients, you may find it difficult to keep to a higher price bracket.

3. Evaluate your investment: How much time to you put into a senior shoot? A wedding? Evaluate hours of prep, driving, shooting, editing, development, service, quality, and interaction. When you have an idea of your hours of investment per shoot, divide your price by this number. How much are you really making by the hour? What is your return on investment?

4. Determine your expenses: Every photographer has expenses above and beyond the time spent in a shoot. This is where many photographers fall short of “making it” in the business; they have not learned to identify the additional expenses of running this business outside jobs. Equipment costs. Time spent. Services. Presentation and packaging. Insurance. Unless your jobs can cover this overhead, you will be hurting for a way to increase your income. Add up this number to get a ball park figure of additional coverage from your jobs.

5. Establish your jobs: Total your hourly rate, and your expenses. This is the number you need to shoot for when pricing your work. After you have totaled this number, divide it by how many jobs you would like per year. This final number is what you ought to charge for your sessions and shoots. Of course, you may need to adjust your pricing more or less, or increase the number of jobs you aim for. At this rate, you will be able to target the pricing of your work to maximize your overall profitability.

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How to Set the Price for Your Photography

1. Use an simple backdrop: Wrinkles and ridges in a still life photograph – unless a part of the setting – will be distracting to your main subject. Be vigilant about keeping your backdrops smooth and simple.

2. Make your lighting contrasty: Whether you are using strobes, speedlights, or LED’s, it’s important that your “ratio” from one light to the next is varied. The main light should be strongest, and the second light should simply provide a nice fill.

3. Light directionally: Side light is always most effective for bringing out texture and creating dynamic variation between the highlights and shadows. Whether rings, or florals, side light will enable you to give dimension and depth to your still life imagery.

4. Pay attention to your angles: Two things to think about when faced with a studio lighting scenario. a). The position of the lights to your subject and b). the position of your subject to the camera. Side light will give dimension, but so also will the angle at which you take your shot [ie. side, above, below, etc.]. Don’t be afraid to experiment and change up angles. A photo is most interesting when you give a new perspective to something that is ordinary.

5. Light for shape: We see life 3 dimensionally. For this reason, the most dynamic photographs are the ones in which the audience could walk into the scene, or reach out and touch the subject. Lighting for shape will be most emphasized by side light, when your highlights spread along the edge of your subject and add that 3rd dimension.

Whether or not commercial Still Life is an area you want to enter professionally, practicing in a still life context will give you a better understanding of directing light for maximum photographic impact.

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5 Still Life Lighting Tips for Beginners

Here are some tips for creating a stopped motion piece.

1. Brainstorm your visuals

Through stopped motion you have thousands of images to shoot, but you need to place the same kind of focus you had with one image, and apply it to many. It is probably helpful to discuss an “image” as a “scene”. So, in a movie, every element in a scene is important right? Each element helps to describe the story, thus making it stronger. Same principle is applied in the elements of a photo. Same principle is applied in stopped motion.

For these visuals, your story needs to be extremely strong. And by story, I mean, “series of images”. Just like in video you create a flow of progression from the “scenes” of your story, your “scenes” also must create a progression.

2. Create a storyboard for your stopped motion piece

If you go into stopped motion creation without planning and storyboarding, you will be sunk with a l.o.t. of time in post processing. In video, the medium is in clips. But in photo, the medium is in single images. Unless you have thought out what elements and scenes you want in your piece, you will have the unfortunate experience of sorting through thousands of individual photos to try and put the piece together. Take my advice. It is challenging enough to work with thousands of individual photo’s when you have your piece planned out. Without a plan, you will be left with trying to sort through what series of photo’s to move where, etc. etc. and it’s just incredibly complicated. So don’t do that. Story board.

I’m sure you’ve heard enough about storyboarding from the great “making of” specials on different movies, but practically, how do you dissect a story board?

• Start with a script. You must k.n.o.w. what you want to communicate. Sometimes it’s easier to start this in writing. Write a story just like any other. Intro, which explains the characters and the core of the film. The development, in which more elements are introduced to further complicate or challenge what already existed. And then the conclusion and resolution of story and all it’s elements where your audience can take away the final message.
• Mentally visualize your story. What visual elements create the intro, the development, and the conclusion? Will you need to alternate between wide angle and detail shots? Remember, the point of stopped motion is to literally CATCH MOTION. The series of HOW you catch that motion is what you need to visualize.

3. Shoot to NOT edit

The point of a stopped motion piece is not individual photos. The point is multiple image series capturing motion. You don’t have the time to edit each individual shot. You will be editing the series – culling and placing them into a timeline.This means that unless you “shoot to kill” you are going to be wasting a lot of time simply because you didn’t get it right the first time. Now, this is not to say that you don’t have the freedom to make artistic edits, but remember it is going to add more time. Using Imovie, Windows Movie Maker, or Final Cut Express will give you a variety of editing options for your disposal.

4. Add audio to give emotion and connect the story

Audio isn’t the main point of a stopped motion film, but it most certainly can strengthen the piece by magnanimous proportions. Sometimes the audio will simply be music. Sometimes it will be sounds. Sometimes it will be narration. Sometimes it will be all three. It truly just depends on the scope of the project. Sometimes it is easier to start with audio and add visuals, but it can be much simpler to plan audio when nearing the completion of visual assembling. Then I can determine how much audio to bring in and what the feel of it ought to be.

5. Consider output.

Done with your stopped motion piece? Export based on what you want to do with the piece. Posting it to web? Putting it on your phone? Burning it to a DVD? Consider how you are going to use the piece before completing your last step of output.

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5 Tips for Making a Stop Motion Video

This post is based on the portrait shoot of a young family who are DPS readers. After hearing of my work in Battle Ground, they contacted me for a portrait session. I am very happy to feature them in this post.

Shooting family portraits is always a varied experience based on the number of people you are photographing. Depending on the number and ages of your clients, you will need to be spontaneous and learn to adapt to different levels of interaction. Portraits of a young family is no exception. Here is a starting point for a Young families portrait session:

1. Interact with the children

If the children in your shoot are happy, the parents will be comfortable, and you will be able to achieve natural portraits. This said, focus on interacting with the children. Do your best to be “entertaining” through the session to draw out laughter and smiles.

2. Avoid “posing”

Children do not sit in one place for a long time. They are active and moving. Keep your session this way also. Constantly be moving with your clients. You may be able to position or pose the couple where you want them, and then encourage the child to move around – walking, twirling, etc.

3. Follow the Child

Sometimes you may not be working with children who will follow your guidance. In this situation, keep the session lighthearted and fun, by having the parents follow the child until the child stops. Your job then is to have the parents draw close to the child, and then snap a series of shots.

4. Be shutter happy

Especially working with small children, don’t be afraid to take more shots than a normal portrait shoot. You want to make sure to catch the right expressions and no blinking – and with children this is much easier said than done.

5. Be ready for anything

Don’t walk into a family shoot with set ideas that can’t be adapted to in the scenario. Have some ideas in mind that may serve you if possible, but be prepared to take what you have and run with it.

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5 Tips for Young Family Portraits