brolly

Business Headshot in St. Petersburg Florida home studio February 2013

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Dick wanted a headshot of him doing something he would actually do - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame right & SB-600 @ 1/4 power in closed shoot-through umbrella to frame left and aboveFor one of his two headshots made here in my home studio in St. Petersburg, Florida, Dick wanted one of the images to show him acting naturally doing something he would actually do.  So he did a little acting to look like he was giving a presentation.  He was actually very good at it and we made the shot above on only the second take!

He was photographed on a neutral gray background.  In Photoshop I removed him from that background and painted in a digital background using pure black, then adding a slight gradient.  It was a fun shoot!

Large Family Group Portraits on Coffee Pot Blvd St. Petersburg Florida

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16-person family portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightJust before Christmas I had an interesting photography challenge in the form of how to make a large family portrait, 16 people in all, outdoors at a home along Coffee Pot Blvd.  I live within two miles of the location myself and drive by it often.  It is a very beautiful place and I liked having the chance to photograph a family somewhere besides the beach.  

Just the ladies in a family portrait St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightI did some research on large group portraits and it helped to have a prop of some kind that some family members could sit on, often the grandparents or grandchildren.  They said they had an outdoor sofa they could use.  I thought the sofa they had was perfect as soon as I saw it and feel it really made the images far better than they could have been without it.

Big family portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightOf course when making a large group portrait you have to really pay attention to making sure no one's head is hidden or blocked by another person, and also to make sure no shadows get cast on a person in one of the back rows or interior placement.  To help this, it is best to have people line up in straight rows and not curve at the edges.  

Family on sofa portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightAfter the big group shot I made some shots of the individual families, which were still fairly large as seen by the six person group shot above.  Again, have the sofa helped prevent making portraits with people just all standing in a straight line next to each other.  I also made a conscious effort to have an up and down composition by having taller people at the edges and a taller subject in the middle.  This also helps add balance when you have an even number of subjects, with no central person to compose around.  

Children and grandchildren portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightA variety in hand placement also helps add creativity to a mostly posed large group portrait.  Each of the boys has a different way of holding his hands together, and the same for the others in the background of the portrait too.  

Three levels large family portrait in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightThe family wanted one person to lie down on the ground for one of the portraits which was fine by me as that adds yet another element of interest to the portrait.  

Candid generational portraits in St. Petersburg FloridaThe last shots of the portrait session were much more candid with me setting up my lights and just having people walk in between them and have fun.  Giving suggestions to the subjects help get a candid reaction, as I asked the grandparents to think of the first time they met, and the grandmother as you can see moved her hand to her heart in reaction, which I was ready to capture.  The girls shared a laugh about something and the boys wanted their football in the shot.

I used the same basic strobist setup for all the shots in this blog post, two speedlights off camera on light stands, one in a 43" brolly and the other in a 42" shoot through umbrella.  I used a 17-50mm lens for the large group shots and an 80-200mm lens for the smaller group shots.  

Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park Children Kids Portraits with Rivera Family

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Family Portrait in Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/2 power in 43" brolly to frame leftI received e-mail from Carlos, a returning client about having a portrait session with his expanding family at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in Tampa Florida. I knew the park and liked it a lot, but had not had any chances to shoot there yet so I was excited for the opportunity, and was also looking forward to see his family again.  I first photographed his family back in November of 2009 for his daughter's birthday party.

Two sisters and their brother in Curtis Hixon Park Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/2 power in 43" brolly to frame rightNow he has another daughter, a Christmas baby no less!  The sun was strong at the time of the shoot, but using my 43" brolly I was able to manage some strobist shots into the sun.  The biggest challenge, really, was keeping all three kids in the frame and kind of looking in my direction!

Brother & Sister jumping in Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park Tampa Florida portraits - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/2 power in 43" brollyHere you can see the difference in jumping ability between sister and brother!  In the background are some of the downtown Tampa skyscrapers.  I used a single speedlight for this shoot as two speedlights would have been too much to manage in the busy & windy park without an assistant.

Baby girl running in Curtis Hixon Park Tampa Florida kids portraits - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/2 power to frame rightChristmas baby Juliet on a scamper across the riverwalk area of Curtis Hixon Park.  I got low for this shot to offer a different view of the baby than most adults see of her from their much taller perspectives.  

Siblings in Curtis Hixon Park Tampa Florida kids portraits - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/400th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/2 power in 43" brolly next to cameraThe University of Tampa is engulfed by the sun in the background of this portrait of sister and brother from one of the unusual platforms in Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park.  I chose black & white processing as the sun was washing out much of the color in the shot anyway.

I really liked the park as a shooting location and was glad to have a chance to make more photographs of Carlos and his family!

St. Petersburg Commercial Business Photography product feature with Al

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Bayprint owner Al inspecting a special print destined for the windows of Cassis - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 at 1/1 power in 43" brolly to frame right & SB-600 @ 1/1 power in 43" shoot-through umbrella to frame leftA sudden commercial photography job came up when I saw Al at a networking event he was hosting just yesterday.  Al is a past headshot client (see here) and has also referred other business to me.  The project we started today involves me photographing special window display prints he is making for the downtown St. Petersburg restaurant, Cassis.  The first shot he wanted was the above, showing the prints coming right out of the (large!) printer.  The remaining shots will be of the installing process as well as a before and after of the Cassis window front.

As is often the case with on location commercial shooting, space is in short supply and careful placement of lighting for strobist shots is necesary.  I put my 43" brolly on a light stand partially in a closet next to the printer and ultimately placed my 43" shoot-through umbrella on a light stand to camera left.  I wanted to maintain good detail in the full frame of the shot, so I used a small aperture of f/7.1 causing me to have to use both speedlights at full power, something I normally do not have to do.  The ambient light in the background was pretty well exposed at 1/60th, but I still did some dodging in Photoshop to make the lighting balance overall between foreground and background.  

The last detail was making the shot from a higher perspective.  Al is a pretty tall guy, and the print was fairly long coming out of the printer, so I used a step-stool to get the framing as seen above.

Vintage Door Model Portfolio Shoot St. Petersburg Florida with Rita

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Framing the model, Rita, with detailed architecture and a vintage door - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/9 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame left

For my model portfolio shoot with Rita in downtown St. Petersburg, I finally had a chance to use a very small part of a building I had been wanting to feature in a photo shoot for a long time.  Many times I walked past this spot while teaching 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons and kept making mental notes to use the features of the spot (long brick wall, medieval looking door) in a shoot someday.  Finally, that day was yesterday evening with model, Rita (her official website).

Featuring a brick wall in this panorama model headshot - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame right & SB-600 @ 1/16th power with diffuser cap pointed at the wallThough we only shot in a space of about 10 feet, we were able to produce a variety of different shots by featuring the brick wall or the metallic door as the background as well as close-ups and wide shots.  I also switched between using a 2-strobe setup like the one above, and a single strobe setup like the lead image.  

Model positioning her arm as a triangle to be symmetric with the door handle - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame leftRita's style of changing poses after each time I pushed the shutter made for a flow that I had not experienced with a model before.  I really liked it as it kept the shoot moving giving the process a dynamic feel.  

Bokeh made by traffic lights - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame right & SB-600 @ 1/16th power to frame leftI liked being able to make soft looking images, like the one above, along with gritty images in the same shoot as no matter how long or short of a shoot, I do like to create a variety of looks for the model.  For the above shot, I thought the straight perpendicular composition looked too rigid, so I tilted my camera to remove the boundary feeling of the 90-degree angle framing.

This images features a vertical line theme - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/9 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame leftI was again impressed with the lighting job my 43" brolly did.  I will feature it in a proper gear review soon.  As you can see it does not take a lot of lighting equipment to make an effective portrait.  The above shot features a single speedlight off camera in the brolly.  All I did was place it about 45 degrees to the left of the model on a light stand using inexpensive Yongnuo radio triggers (to be reviewed soon also).  Of course it also helps to have a beautiful and talented model like Rita to work with!

St. Petersburg Florida Professional Business Headshot Photography Service with Buddy

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Professional Business Headshot made in St. Petersburg Florida home studio - Buddy in formal attire - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/100th Strobist: SB-800 in 43" brolly to frame right & SB-600 in snoot pointed at backgroundBuddy came to my home studio in St. Petersburg Florida to have his professional business headshot made to improve his online business appearance.  This is exactly why I offer this business headshot service either in my home studio or on location right in your own office or home.  The more Linkedin profile photos I see made with an awful camera phone the more I wonder why anyone would want to represent themselves in that type of unprofessional manner.  

Business casual style professional headshot done in my St. Petersburg Florida home studio - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in 42" brolly to frame right & SB-600 in snoot pointed at backgroundBuddy was a natural in front of the lens and very fun and uncomplicated to photograph.  He was even wearing eyeglasses with an anti-glare coating that showed no reflections in them at all!

Office Staff Business Headshots on location in office in Clearwater Florida

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Part of the staff I photographed on location making business headshots for the entire office in Clearwater FloridaThis morning I drove to Clearwater to photograph nearly the entire staff of a business.  It is actually a planned two-part shoot that will entail me returning on another date yet to be determined to photograph the remaining staff.  It was my first time to make so many headshots in a row, all told thirteen different shots.  It was kind of fun for someone to walk in for a few minutes, see how they choose to smile, and then move on to the next person.  No one was really camera shy so all I had to do was tell there where to point their toes and then which way to twist and look.

camera settings for headshots: f/7.1 ISO 200 1/60th Strobist: SB-800 in brolly @ 1/4 power & SB-600 with diffuser cap at 1/8 power pointed at backgroundI was provided with a near ideal space to make the headshots in--a long rectangular room free of obstacles and even a large table for me to spread all my gear out on.  I leaned the collapsible photography background against the wall, setup my lights, dialed in camera and strobe settings, then it was just a matter of getting the best smile out of each person.  No mess, no fuss!  Nice.