Shooting formal portrait of Charlotte

At January 23, 2018
By Johnny Stevens
In headshots, Photography, portrait, portrait photography, professional
0

Shooting formal portrait of Charlotte

Charlotte Dalton is 102. I met her a year ago when she called me to ask me about an abstract photography print I had on display at the Flatbed Press Art Gallery here in Austin. Charlotte is an accomplished painter and artist. I thought it was time to shoot a formal portrait of her, so I enlisted my sweet wife Samantha to help with makeup. I love enlisting Samantha as my assistant to help me shoot, because it is the only time I can tell her what to do.

Formal portrait of Charlotte by Johnny Stevens Austin Texas

Shooting Portrait of Charlotte Dalton

Buck Moore Feed and Pet Supply Composite Portraiture

At January 12, 2018
By Johnny Stevens
In composite portraiture, Fine Art, Photoshop, portrait, portrait photography, professional, spot lighting
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As my architectural photography work slows in the winter, it lets me enjoy my next favorite passion – composite portraiture. When I saw the Austin American Statesman article about Buck Moore Feed and Pet Supply closing after 72 years in business, I was inspired to ask the owners, John and Ken Bushong, if I could shoot their portrait for posterity. The shop was ideal for a photo shoot since it has iconic items like a 1920’s cash register:

Buck Moore 1920 era Cash Register

a 1930’s adding machine, and scales that are over 50 years old. I knew this setting would be perfect for a composite portrait where I light and capture the people first, then remove them and the lights from the scene, and then go around the room and pop a light on different areas and paint in those spot lit areas layer by layer in Photoshop.

Johnny Stevens portrait photographer Austin spot lighting at Buck Moore

Johnny Stevens spot lighting at Buck Moore

Spot lighting the portrait scene at Buck Moore

I love the drama that spot lighting gives you because each light pop comes from a different direction.

John and Ken Bushong composite portraiture

Portrait session and making a composite portrait

At December 06, 2017
By Johnny Stevens
In Austin photographer, editing, Fine Art, headshots, Photoshop, portrait, portrait photography, professional
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For Nolan’s final training session of the semester for the Independent Study Course for which I am a mentor, I had Nolan conduct a Portrait session and making a composite portrait with my friend Lane Orsak. Lane is an author, artist, collector and marketing consultant. We wanted to create an image that would represent him as an author – maybe even to use in his most recent book. We lit Lane with a key light with umbrella and a kicker light behind him with a Westcott softbox. Then I went around the room behind him and lit several angles on the couch and painting on the wall and we layered all of those spot lit scenes into the master Lane image.

Lane Orsak formal male photography austin ortrait session making a composite portrait

Lane Orsak formal male portrait session making a composite portrait photograph in Austin

Some recent portraits

These are some recent portraits I have photographed that both use a soft glow layer in Photoshop but in different ways. The Pumas below were shot at Hilton Head on the beach. When you shoot on the beach on a sunny day, you have to remember that you are shooting not with a large soft box but inside of a large soft box because the sand is kicking light up and all around. So The beach is a great place to start for a hi key style portrait. As the sun was indeed behind them, I knew I would have to add light so my wife held a Canon 600 ex rt shooting through a 24 inch Westcott umbrella just right of camera. The soft glow on this shot was achieved with a gaussian blur layer set to overlay.You can see the soft glow effect more substantially on the back of his and her hair where the sun is the brightest. As a portrait photographer in Austin, I try to determine what style of portrait is best suited for each group or individual.

Paul and Terri portrait with glow effect

Another example is Claire’s portrait. I really like her shot out of the box,

Claire portrait straight out of the camera

but I thought a bit of glow effect would add some contrast and add some drama. It darkened the background at the same time which added even more drama.

Claire with glow effect

Professional photographers have to be able to shoot any genre

At April 23, 2017
By Johnny Stevens
In portrait, portrait photography, shutter speed, wedding, wedding photography
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As an Austin based architectural photographer, I often find I get complacent with that craft and don’t challenge myself with other styles of shooting. I suppose professional photographers have to be able to shoot any genre, even weddings which to me require a completely different type of shooting discipline. Photographers who shoot weddings generally only shoot weddings and those who do not, are happy not shooting weddings. Weddings are their own beast, and require lots of practice, trial and error, honing of the settings on your camera.

I shot a wedding last weekend in Houston and it almost dropped me to my knees, and reminded me why I don’t shoot weddings. I got some great tips from my buddy Dustin Finkelstein who shoots weddings regularly, so of course that put me a ease – for a while. So what I was fretting about all the week before is mostly how to NOT miss any shots of the bride walking down the aisle or the bride and groom on their exit. I scouted the location the day before and almost started crying with the challenges that revealed themselves. The wedding was to be held on a covered porch at Magnolia Ballroom which is a really majestic setting. The porch is cute but the backdrop behind the bride and groom is a blaring sunny f16. F22 is probably more accurate for this bright day.

Porch for wedding back lit by 6 stops

The porch shade interior was about f2.8. That is a 6 stop difference between the Bride’s spot and the background, and I cannot add light!!!. Just great! My only choice was to bump my ISO to 1000 in order to get and shutter speed that I can hand hold and keep the bride, groom and wedding party exposed and just let the background blow out. Way out. So way out that the bride had a halo around her. I suppose it made her look somewhat angelic. I practiced shooting against the bright background and remembered my camera settings on my Canon 5d Mark 3. Then I practiced shooting with Al focus turned on and set my focus trigger to one of the buttons on the back of camera. This way I could just hold down that button as the bride moved along and I would be assured she would always be in focus. Shoot back at the bride for the entrance was easy since all that ambient light was pouring in from her front.

Diana walking down the wedding aisle

This is what I was dealing with if I opened up the f stop to f2.8 and the iso to 1000. It was my only option.

Porch with iso up to 1000 and f 2.8

Bride and groom with back light

Though flashes and speed lights are not kosher during the wedding ceremony, I knew that once the bride and groom kissed, speed lights were open game. So I strapped two 600 ex rt speed lights up on either eve of the porch ceiling, and pointed them at the center of the group and another at the back of the porch pointing straight down the aisle. I set them to manual and had my ST E3 RT trigger on my camera ready to flip it on once the kiss happened. Here is a shot with the speed lights working just after the kiss – much better exposures.

Diana and Alex after kiss with speedlights on

We took a moment just before the ceremony to shoot a first look photo. The ICON Hotel has a spectacular Victorian smoking lounge that is very sultry and moody. I just asked Diana to creep in and touch Alex on the shoulder as I snapped away with 2 speed lights firing at about 45 and 90 degrees.

First look with bride and groom

Just after the ceremony we took a minute to take one bride groom shot in the stairwell to try to capture the majesty of the domed ceiling at the Magnolia Ballroom.

For the dancing, I hung 2 speed lights at 45 and 90 degrees and set them to manual half power output. I had another 600 rt on my camera acting as the master communicating with the 2 off camera 600s.

About halfway in the dancing I decided to try slowing down the shutter speed to accentuate the inebriation that was clearly taking over. It had a nice effect I think adding some light trails to anything in motion.

Diana dancing with slow shutter speed

We took a few minutes to pick up this shot while we were in the smoking room at the hotel

Bride and Groom in the smoking room. One main light, one kicker light and a hefty amount of vignetting in photoshop.

For the bridal party shots I found a room upstairs with huge windows that were a perfect start for large group photos. Lucky for me the light from the window was so dominate that when one of my speed lights decided to blitz on me, I could do just fine by filling from the right with just one flash.

Diana and bridal party

Christmas Family Portrait

At December 29, 2016
By Johnny Stevens
In Austin photographer, family, portrait, portrait photography, protrait, speedlights
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I had these friends call me just before Christmas day asking if I could find a place to shoot a family portrait they needed to deliver as a gift on Christmas Day. My fireplace worked just fine. Three speedlights did the job. I gelled the speedlights with 1/2 CTO which is a light orange filter. There is a beauty dish on the left, back light above Erika, and a kicker just to the right of Evan. Cue the guitar for filling an empty space. I tried shooting with the fireplace on but they started melting so I added the fire in Photoshop.

Erica Holley, Debbie Holley, Evan Holley

Adding light to your portrait subject

At December 25, 2016
By Johnny Stevens
In Fine Art, headshots, portrait, portrait photography, speedlights
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When you are adding light to a subject (which I hope you are always doing), things can get complicated quickly. Here is my set up for a simple single light exterior portrait: I like to use the Canon EX 600 RT Speedlight on a light stand bouncing into a umbrella, or shooting through and umbrella. Nikon has similar speed lights that are easily triggered wirelessly from a Nikon trigger mounted on your camera. The Canon wireless trigger is the ST-E3-RT. Here is one method I use when shooting outdoors that really helps get nice results without having to scratch your head about your camera and flash settings in front of the client. Scratching your head does not help keep the subject calm and happy!

Find a shaded area for the subject and decide on the background. Find an angle on the background only and meter it (or just shoot the background in Program mode with an open f stop of f 2.8 or f 4. (The open f stop will help blur the background for a pleasant effect…..and a longer lens will accentuate the blurred background. 70 to 100 mm focal length is always safe for portraits.) Let’s say you are shooting at ISO 100 and it is a sunny day. Your metered shot of the background at a shutter speed of 125 (fast enough to hand hold your 100 mm lens and not get hand shake blur) will be around f8 or f11. Let’s say it is f8. Now put your camera in manual mode with the same settings – ISO 100, shutter speed 125 and f stop at f8. You already know that these are the perfect settings for the background. You know that the background exposure will never change. It is set. No longer do you have to worry about the background. OK so now, your wireless trigger on the camera will also be on manual. Your trigger will automatically tell the flash to fire in manual too. Set your trigger on your camera to a flash output of half power to start. If you have a light meter, you can determine exactly how much light the flash is putting on the subject. If you don’t then you can just eyeball the test shot to see how the light falling on the subject. You are looking for an f stop that is AT LEAST what it is for the background which you have already determined is f8. Better yet, bump up the subject to f8.5 or f11 because we always want the subject to be the brightest part of the image since the bright area is where our eyes naturally go first when we look at a photo. Now, this means the background will be a bit darker than the subject, which adds drama. Click away and ask the subject to face the umbrella and to face away from it so you can get both short lighting and broad lighting options. I like to start sessions by asking for NO smile. This is easier for anxious subjects to get started, and often is the most accurate representation of them. I constantly compliment them – sometimes showing them the images on the back of the camera – and ramp up the smile by asking them to “turn up the volume”. After 20 or 30 shots with these techniques you are sure to get 5 keepers!

Intimate Portrait

At January 27, 2016
By Johnny Stevens
In Austin photographer, Fine Art, portrait photography
0

Somewhat challenging shoot, an intimate portrait.

My client has a small apartment so after moving the dinette table I had about 8 x 10 feet to shoot. This is always fun to figure things out on the fly when on location shooting. Portrait photography is a bit more stressful because you have to keep the subjects comfortable and calm while you are frantically trying to figure out what happened to the wireless connection between your camera and your flashes! This shoot has one speed light in an umbrella, one flash in a rapidbox strip as a kicker light on her face, a collapsible background, a cam ranger and my ipad to watch the images going down.