Basic Digital Photo Tips for Location Portraiture

Saturday, March 24, 2012 6:58:57 PM America/Los_Angeles

Have you heard the term 'location' or 'environmental' style of portrait and wondered exactly what was meant? A location portrait is, very simply stated, a shot that is taken anywhere but in a studio setting. This environment where your subject is located could be their office, living room, a garden or even a bakery. Since your family and friends are probably often the subjects of your pictures, start using these locations to tell a richer story about them.

Your next step is to find a suitable location. Depending on how well you know your subject, talk to them about their hobbies and interests. What do you know of their personality? The key to a really good portrait is your ability to tell the viewer something extra about the subject. Placing them in a specific location helps do this. A good example is the senior portrait pose where the subject is wearing a sports uniform or letter jacket. Get the idea? These are the simple cues that speak without using any words.

Location portraiture will make you consider other factors that are not an issue when in a studio setting. Take your background for example. In the studio, it is typically very simple. You must now pay extra attention to what is going on in the scene behind your subject and correct for items which may be a distraction. Don't try to include to much detail in these shots. Simplify and emphasize your subject and the rest will follow. Another big factor when shooting on location is control of your lighting. Pay attention to your aperture and shutter speeds. You may be working only with available light and trying to capture your subject in motion.

If you are working outside, you will want to keep direct sunlight off your subject as this creates bright highlights and deep shadows which are not desirable. If you don't have access to a well manicured garden, a simple bush or tree, if used properly, can work well as the background. Try looking for interesting architectural features to help frame your subject. Staircases, book shelves, fancy doorways and windows are a few things to keep an eye out for. Give your subject something to hold on to or otherwise do with their hands while you're shooting. Most people don't readily know what to do with them so it can look awkward sometimes. Finally, keep your overall lighting simple. Make sure you use sounds photography lighting techniques for whatever method is appropriate.

You should now have a better understanding of how to use your subject's surroundings to help the viewer relate that to more of who they are. If you have a digital camera and want to take your abilities to the next level, check out the Internet for digital photography lessons and other photography courses online. You can find excellent programs for very reasonable prices.

Thomas Luttig is a freelance professional photographer and business owner. You can find lots of great landscape photography tips, studio lighting techniques and much more in-depth information at his photography blog.

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Advance Tips On Composition In Photography

Saturday, March 24, 2012 6:54:52 PM America/Los_Angeles

The key to a good photography is that everything should point to the focus of the photograph. A good way to accomplish this is not just by positioning the subject in the right part of the frame, but to also have all implied and literal lines in the photograph pointing towards the subject or emphasizing the pose of the subject. A literal line is a line in a picture like the edge of a road or a straight fence. Ideally these lines would be widest at the foreground and then would narrow towards the subject. These types of lines will draw one eye directly to the subject who is the focus of the picture. An implied line is a not so obvious line. It would be that of the subjects arms and legs, shoulders and eyes. These lines should enhance the pose but should not be the focus of the picture. They are positioned to facilitate the shot. A break in the wrist will complement lines of clothing, a tilted head towards the shoulder that is closer to the camera will create a gentle feminine feel to the picture. A tilted head to the shoulder that is further away will create more of a masculine feel. If their are lines in the picture that frame the subject they should always be pointing towards the subject. If the lines go away from the subject so will the focus of the picture. The key is to always emphasize the focus which is almost always the face or the eyes in a picture. Lighting is key to a good picture and their are literally books written just about lighting. With only a paragraph to write about lighting I will say the most important thing about lighting is to have plenty of it. Multiple light sources are the key to amazing photography and your best bet for out of the studio lighting is multiple flashes set up via remote. The light mounted on the camera will always make the subject look flat. By using the on camera flash as only a fill light and using other slave flashes as your main sources set up off center to the subject, you will get the dramatic and defining effects that make great pictures. The key to many of these techniques is to produce a three dimensional feel of a two dimensional photograph. That is where the artistic side comes into photography. The techniques in this article and others are to emphasize the bringing out the greatness in people or emphasizing that which is great. A picture is a moment capture in time forever. Nobody wants a picture that shows their flaws or even worst... emphasizes their flaws. Bringing out the best in somebody can be learned but the greatest photographers take the techniques as fundamentals and excel at recognizing the best in people. That often comes with intuition, practice, and understanding people. If you can connect with somebody it is almost hard to take a bad picture. In with knowing the right techniques it is almost impossible to not take a great picture.

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A World Class Collection Of Lights At Low Price

Saturday, March 24, 2012 6:49:00 PM America/Los_Angeles

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A Short Inception Of Hollywood Cinema Techniques

Saturday, March 24, 2012 6:44:14 PM America/Los_Angeles

The first hollywood cinema movie cameras were attached directly on to the head of its tripod or alternative support, with just the crudest sort of levelling tools provided, in the manner of the still-camera tripod heads of the hollywood period. The earliest movie cinema cameras were hence resolutley static during the course of filming, and hence the very first equipment movements were thanks to fixing a camera on a moving truck. The original documented, well before cinema and hollywood, of these was movie shot by a Lumie cameraman from the rear carraige of a train departing Jerusalem in 1896, and by 1898 there were lotsof cinema movies shot inside moving trains, Hollywood was beconing. Despite listed under the confusing heading of anoramas?in the sales catalogues of the time, those movies shot immediately forward from in front railway engine were usually referred to as hantom rides?

Sometime in 1897, Robert W. Paul had the very first notable moving camera mount manufactured to put 1on top of a tripod, so that he could track the passing parade of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in unique uninterrupted cinema shot. The device had the equipment set on a vertical axis that could be moved with a worm gear driven by cranking the handle, so Paul placed it on public sale the next year. Films made with such a "panning" camera were also known as anoramas?in hollywood listings of the earliest decade of cinema.

The standard setup for newy cinema studios in Hollywood was provided by the studio which Georges Mi erected in May 1891. It had a glass roof and three glass walls made after the model of large studios for static photography, it was also fitted with flimsy cotton drapes that were stretched below the roof to eliminate the bright ray of the sun on brilliant days. The natural overall light devoid of real shadows that this setup delivered, and which also happens naturally on moderately overcast days, became the standard for cinema movie lighting in hollywood film studios for the next decade.

Unique within all the short hollywood cinema movies priduced by the Edison studio, which recorded pieces of the shows of variety performers for its Kinetoscope cinema viewing devices, was The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. The film portrayed a person dressed as the queen putting her head on the execution block in front of a small gathering of bystanders in Elizabethan apparel.

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Background Supports and Lighting Kits

Saturday, March 24, 2012 6:36:58 PM America/Los_Angeles

When you are furnishing a photography studio, it is important to have the right background supports. Background supports provide a framework for your backdrop. Some of these frames allow you to mount more than one backdrop at a time so you can change backgrounds simply by flipping through three or four mounted backdrops. Others operate on a rotary system. The important thing is that you can easily change your backdrop. You may wish to shoot the same subject with several different backgrounds, so it is important that changing backdrops is simple and quick. Before deciding which background support to purchase, you should look at several and decide which one is best suited to your needs.

Lighting kits usually include not only the actual lights, but the stands for mounting the lights. Some kits may include diffusers or umbrellas and reflectors. You will probably need to buy several kits to completely outfit your studio. You will need strobe or studio flash lighting, continuous lighting, reflectors, diffusers and umbrellas. You will probably want to add colored gel films to your lighting as well.

Every manufacturer offers several different lighting kits in various price ranges. You should look at the different kits and decide which ones you need for your studio. The lowest priced kit may not be the best value, if you have to buy additional pieces to supplement the kit. Some kits come with boom stands and some do not. A kit which may serve very well for an amateur photographer will not do for a professional studio.

If you are a professional photographer or a dedicated amateur, you may want to include a red head lighting kit in your studio. While not necessary for most still photography, red head lighting can add to your versatility. If you are setting up a video studio, you will definitely want to include a red head lighting kit in your budget.

You will probably want a continuous lighting kit that includes several lights and stands. You will need to decide if you want cool lighting, hot lighting or both. If you chose both, you may prefer fewer of each type of light. For most professionals, a combination of cool and hot continuous lighting is preferable. A boom stand is also necessary.

Studio flash lighting kits usually come with several different size lights which can be placed at different distances from your subject to produce different effects. Kits generally include stands for the lights. If you normally use a digital camera, you may not need studio flash lighting, but it is best to have it for film cameras, particularly if you do a lot of work in black and white.

You can check reviews of lighting kits from various manufacturers to see how well the kits worked for other photographers. You can also ask about various lighting kits and background supports in forums and chat room dedicated to photography. Studio lighting in particular is a major expense and you want to get the right equipment the first time.

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