ATL Photographers

Choosing great Locations for your portrait photography can be a daunting task. For years I have been the type of person to drive by an old decrepit barn or house and think to myself “I need to do a shoot there”. More often than not, I never return to the place that would’ve been so great. My advice to you though, is to go ahead and mark the location on paper or a map, and note the direction the “desirable” part faces – that way when you decide to return you have an idea of what time of day should work best.

There are several other things that you should think about…

• Contrast – I’m not talking about dark and light either. You should envision what you are looking for out of your shoot. Are you trying to highlight the soft sweetness of an innocent child, or the glamor of a fashion model? Are you planning to shoot with a low or high aperture? All of these things make a difference. Like the photos below, a sweet innocent child can be highlighted by contrasting with a rustic background. In this case, I mainly shot at a large aperature, with the subject about 50% closer to the background than to me,  so the background would be visible. Many times in a park or green area I will reverse this – and position myself about 50% closer to the subject than the background is to them. This allows a more blurred background, and highlights the colors of trees and grass rather than the busy nature of leaves. For Fashion, sometimes a simple background or the right lines are more important. It all depends on what you dream up.
• Lighting – Possibly the most important deciding factor for on-location shoots. If you don’t have portable lighting gear or at least a couple of speedlights, then you will be best served by choosing a shaded area or even better, shooting on a very overcast day (when light still has direction). If you choose to shoot in sunlight, fill light or reflectors are necessary to make sure shadows don’t get the best of your subjects’ faces.
• Weather – Choosing to shoot outdoors can be extremely rewarding, but challenges you with the possibility of foul weather. Unless you are shooting for hobby, I suggest you ALWAYS have a back-up plan. I’m lucky enough to live in a city with clubs, studios, and nice buildings everywhere so the hard part is having a plan for where to head to when and if the rain starts.

Some of the other things you might need when shooting outdoors:

• Map, Compass, or GPS if you are going off the beaten path.
• Extra batteries for your lights, meters, and gadgets.
• Tripod! No sense in missing low-light or long exposure opportunities because you were too lazy to carry one.
• Micro Fiber Dust Cloth. No sense in shooting with dirty gear!
• Filters and Hood. If you find yourself outside on an overcast day, warming filters are going to be helpful to reduce the blue tint of your photography but a good white card and custom white balance work pretty well. Polarizing filters and a lens hood are truly needed to reduce the glare of the sun and to enhance the colors of your pictures. Color temp can always be corrected in post, remember.

So good luck in your hunt for perfect locations for you photography!

From the Development panel, adjust to the folowing values on any properly exposed photo:

Clarity to 100

Vibrance to 100

Fill Light to 100

Contrast to 100

Noise reduction (both color and luminance to 100)

Then adjust Saturation down to acceptable color levels

Adjust exposure with Brightness slider

Pull Blacks slider up to correct level

Set as a preset that will give you a perfect starting point

NOTE: THIS WILL NOT WORK WITH ANYTHING LESS THAN A FULL-RES RAW FILE

“The Hebrew Ambassador” is what the album is called – and it’s a hot one. Nachaamyah was a great sport for putting up with all of the drama that only he and his crew know about that day….I think the results were worth a little B & E

I had the pleasure of shooting Queen Robinson this past week to help out with her new comp cards. This girl has a knack for posing and the attitude of a superstar angel. Modelling in Atlanta is no joke, as many know, and comp cards are what get you into the doors of agencies – if you’re really lucky like this girl, you’ll meet an agent and they’ll ask for the cards after they decide they like you. Either way, it’s the old-school industry standard way to go from dreaming to working in modelling and acting. Thanks to Queen’s parents, April and Tony, this was an extremely fun day for me (working with a family like this is hardly real “work”). Special acknowledgement to April Robinson, who has a natural talent for quick wardrobe and style changes (you really do have a talent there).

To Order pictures from this gallery, please check back on Saturday June 6 for updated links.

I decided to write this blog as a reminder of my progress as a professional, and also as a way to share experiences with others. I haven’t worked with many children on-location so learning was even more excelerated yesterday in Peidmont Park here in Atlanta than it normally is. I don’t claim to be the best photographer, or even better than anyone else – but I do think I have always had a knack for looking through a lens and seeing things differently than most people.

When photographing young children, a variety of things come up that you can’t plan for so…don’t. Well, don’t OVER plan anyways.

When I got to Peidmont Park at 8AM on Saturday…Well, I’ll let you read the details over at Bella Sorrisa Photography.

Here are the things I learned from this last shoot, some of which were just reiterated observations:

1. Cooperative Parents Rock

2. Fun Parents are Better – I got most of my ideas from Dr. Marder and his lovely wife and I’m convinced they could be art directors if medicine ever fails them (which is doubtful considering Dr. Marders phenominal chiropractic skills).

3. Don’t schedule a tight block of time: Kids don’t read clocks and if you rush TOO much, you’ll miss some key shots.

4. If you hate kids (which I don’t) then leave the family thing to the other professionals.

5. Have funny phrases on-tap – This works for everyone. If you can make them laugh and smile and run and play the smiles will be more real and your pictures will be better. Once again, if you aren’t personable you’re trying to make your money shooting the wrong subjects. Go point your camera at something inanimate.

6.Use a low ISO, fast shutter, and keep clicking – I got some killer shots by shooting 7-8 picture busts as the kids ran and played on a good size hill. I would have missed those key shots without little bursts of the shutter. Gotta love the Canon 40D.

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