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As part of presenting our senior photos to our clients, we sometimes create cool little 6 – 10 minute videos with music. This is one of them I did for the Elliotts the other day. I got really lucky on the music because it happened to be their mother’s favorite song.
Anyone’s shoot can be done with a video and I usually try to tailor the music to their personalities as much as I can.
Stephanie and I got a chance to hang out with Stephen the other day for a few hours. I had asked Stephen to come up and take a few photos of us in the studio so we could send something out with our press release material when we get back from vacation.
We didn’t want anything extravagant, but as usual, Stephen was an overachiever. It seems a little strange saying this, but I always like watching other photographers work. It teaches me so much more about how to handle myself and what to do. If you pay attention to the small things another photographer do during a shoot, you can be sure to pick up a lot. This was no different.
I’ve talked a little bit about pulling out someone’s personality during a shoot, but Stephen has mastered this whether he knows it or not. All it takes is a little bit of time and talking to the subject.
Here’s a few more shots of us. Our press release will be going out after we get back from vacation on the 10th. Yeah, I know we’re bums for opening a business and then going on vacation, but we’re going to be bums with tans!
No, this was not a setup shot. We were actually make last minute updates to the studio before we started the shoot, but I’m glad he got photos of us actually working on the studio.
So I meant to get this up yesterday, but got really busy after subbing for the day. I wanted to take a second to talk about a few things I’m learning as a studio photographer and businessman.
The biggest thing as a businessman is that a business will never be completely setup/finished. There’s always little details that need to be finished or improved. And while completing that task, there are usually 3 or 4 more that get discovered.
As a photographer you will never have enough equipment. A person could have $400,000 in lights, cameras and modifiers and still come up with an excuse to buy just one more piece.
Thirdly, never undervalue Photoshop skills. As I’m transitioning to being primarily a studio photographer during the week and a photojournalist/wedding photojournalist on the weekends, I’m learning a lot.
Mostly the value of using layers in Photoshop. As a photojournalist you have to be less concerned with a person’s look or appearance. Not saying you had to ignore it, but if someone had a zit or red spots, that was what usually got printed. Mostly because journalism ethics says we had to print what was actually there. Not at all what a portrait photographer has to do.
Our job is to make people look good and interesting. If there’s blemishes, we need to correct them or work around them. I ran into my first major problem the other day and think I handled it pretty well.
I had a client that came in with significant red spots across her face. I felt terrible for her. Her mom said the spots had just shown up a week or two ago and they weren’t able to get rid of them. Ain’t that the luck. Of all the times to get spots, right before your senior portraits.
Hopefully I put her worries aside by telling her I’d do what I could to correct them. It wasn’t until after I was done shooting and downloaded that I remembered how bad red shows up in the camera becasue of the technical aspects of a sensor.
I tried out a few of my own techniques that I knew to hande color spots and blemishes, but wasn’t quite happy with the result completely. I was able to remove a lot of red, but it didn’t look quite natural. I was a little stuck and frustrated until I remembered I have the best resource available to man. The internet.
I did a quick search for “Correcting red spots in Photoshop” and came up with several results. The technique I used was from a short video found here.
I expanded a little on my own and I’m pretty happy with the results. You can see the before and after pics above. If anyone has any suggestions on what I could do differently or make it a little better.
If anyone’s interested in my exact process, please feel free to comment and I’ll email you the process I used on my own.
I’m going to be showing the final product to Kassandra, her twin brother (who I also shot portraits of), her mom and dad on Friday. They’re going to the first ones in our viewing room. Wish me luck.
As usual there’s been a lot going on. Monday, we officially opened our studio location at 403 1/2 Lincoln Highway in Rochelle. We’re behind the nail salon in the downtown area. Unfortunately we don’t have signage right now, but I’m working on it. I have to measure the front of the building this afternoon, turn in the permit, get it approved, and order the sign. Hopefully it’ll all be done early next week.
The studio is setup, but I’m lacking props and stools. I’m going to do a bit of shopping for them this week though and hopefully add a few things for portraits.
I’ve also been busy doing senior photos lately. I’ve done 3 in the past week and a half and hoping to schedule a few more really soon.
I did an interview and ran some adds on the radio station the other morning. I was actually surprised at how comfortable I felt on the radio. I guess since there wasn’t a camera in my face, I could just ignore the fact that a couple hundred people were listening. (Schroeder said I always had the face for radio).
I’ve got a quick post I’m going to put up in a few minutes about some things I’ve been learning about studio work.
Right now our hours are from 3:30 to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday or by appointment and I should have some press release photos after Stephen visits on Sunday.
All in all, things are pretty good.
As usual I’ve been a little absent from the blog lately. Right now, Steph and I are making the final touches on our studio. Everything is pretty much set and we’re just waiting for a few OKs to get everything open. I’m a little anxious as senior photo season is here/right around the corner. In fact, I did a shoot last week.
As usual, there were things I loved about the shoot and things I wish would have gone better. No. 1, being the weather. I hate that it can’t decide if it’s winter or spring yet. The wind was blowing so bad it made some of the outdoor shots impossible very hard.
Every time I do a shoot I find out a little bit about myself. One of the things I learned this time was that a lot of my studying is paying off in some ways. I ran into a few snags with shadows or technical lighting issues that I normally would’ve gotten flustered with. This time, I knew exactly what to do. I guess in a way, it just means I’m thinking a little more clearly.
The second thing I learned is that bringing out personality in a portrait session is probably the hardest aspect of photography. I think there are few from my session with Amy that did that, but it’s something I’ve never really thought about. Telling someone to “act natural” doesn’t help. Not because they don’t know how to do it, but that sentence is meaningless to 99% of people.
If you told me to act natural, I probably wouldn’t move at all. I think if I decide to go to any seminars in the near future they’re should be sessions that focus on this aspect of portraiture.
I’ve got another shoot on Saturday, my first double bill. Twins that is. I’m excited to see how this goes, but unfortunately Steph won’t be around to assist. Hopefully I can get another assistant for the day, but if not, I’ll just make due.
And hopefully the weather will be a lot more cooperative.
Last but not least, I hope to get to a softball game. I’ve been wanting to test out the new lens a little and haven’t made time. Today should be a good opportunity.
We’ve been pretty busy ’round here. Stephanie and I have been hard at work on our very first studio. Since everything is pretty much finalized, we can realese the location.
Our studio is going to be located at 403 1/2 Lincoln Hwy. in Rochelle. If you know where the nail salon is located in town, we’re on the back half of it. You actually have to enter our building from the back. It’s a pretty nice place since we’ve worked on it. There’s been a ton of work to say the least. Lots of painting, construction and touchups, but we’re about a week away.
Our official open date is aimed for April 15. And we’ve already got a client booked for that date as well. In fact, twins. For their senior portraits. Should be pretty fun.
When everything is designed and setup, I’ll have to put up the final pics, but here are a few from the construction. I really wish I would have taken a few more, but I got too anxious on all the construction. I actually think the construction has gotten me pretty sick. I’ve been on the couch for the past two days with fevers and a terrible cold, but finally feeling some semblance of normality right now. Keep checking in.
Oh, and one last thing, if you’re still wondering about the 24-hour project, don’t worry, I’m still working on it. I hope to continue next week. I’m going to be calling the airport and a few other places in hopes of setting up a few things.
