Model Posing

I wanted to give some advice to both photographers and models on posing. So to best do this I brought in Daniel Le Hoty (photographer/posing instructor), out of the Cleveland, OH area. I also brought in a brand new model, Amy Marie. Amy has only shot a couple of times and both with my wife and I. Fare warning, this video is a long one, and since it was my first time filming with the camera (GoPro Hero), I was a little off on distance. I can only hope that this video helps some of you out there.
I would be more than happy to hear from you all about a subject that you would like to see covered. After all this blog is about helping you be a better photographer and model in some cases. So please do not be shy.
For this session we used a four light set up. The main light is provided by two custom built 2' x 4' light boxes with grids, a 1 1/2' soft box, and a 2' soft box. The main lights were placed nearly side by side, with only a foot between them, at about a 45 degree angle to the subject. The only constant on camera settings was a 400 ISO, with shutter speeds ranging from 1/100 - 1/60, and f/s from 2.8 up to 7.5 if I remember right.
I hope you enjoy this video, and remember... Keep shooting!

What's next?

Be sure to click on the follow button, because you are not going to want to miss some of the upcoming posts. Like the next one with special guest Daniel Le Hoty, working with a new model. Daniel is a posing instructor as well as a photographer, so this will be something for both photographers and models to see... I am also working on doing a full on, from start to finish post. What does that mean? Well it means you will see everything... from the shoot to photo editing.
Here is a sneak peek...

 

So until next time.... Keep shooting!

Child portrait 1

A big portion of photography is family portraits, and the majority of that is children. Doing children portraits is not always an easy task. Kids can be unruly and their attention can drift quickly. So,  the best thing to do is have everything pretty much set up before they arrive, props, lighting, ect... Have some idea of what you are going to be shooting, so when they arrive, all you have to do is put them into position. Shoot as quick as possible, and change things up after a few minutes. Keep talking to them, don't let them get bored.
In the video you will see two of my grandchildren. We only shot for maybe 20 minutes total, and that is really fast for me; my normal shoot time with a model is 1-3 hours. My granddaughters are not your typical child subjects of course, they have been in front of a camera for years. That is obvious at one point in the video where they are jabbering away, but when I brought the camera up to start shooting, they fell right into place.
As you will see I used a four light set up, 2 four foot boxes (custom built), and 2 softboxes made from coolers and a white frosted shower curtain. For props I had a heart shaped pillow, a giant teddy-bear, and a free standing full length mirror, with a faux fur rug. I started out shooting at 1/100, f/s 5.6, at 400 ISO... But soon switched to 1/80, f/s 5.6 at 400 ISO, and that was were I stayed for the rest of the shoot.

I hope you enjoy this episode, please feel free to comment, or ask any questions you may have.
Until next time... Keep shooting!