PhotographyCorner.com - portraits

Video Corner #183: Portrait Ideas

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:50:09 -0400

The ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner today again is with professional photographer Clay Blackmore. Instead of following along with Clay on a specific shoot, he walks us through a bunch of different portrait and tips. You’ll have to watch this one several times to get everything from it - he moves from subject to subject quite quickly, but there are so many good tips in this one - especially if you’re a portrait photographer.

Video Corner #181: How to Take an Outdoor Portrait

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:36:02 -0400

The ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner today again follows along with professional photographer Clay Blackmore. This portrait shoot is on location using natural light just before the sun sets. As always, he moves and talks fast, but this 6 minute video is packed full of great techniques and ideas.

Video Corner #171: Taking Outdoor Portraits with Ambient Light and Flashes

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:40:49 -0500

The ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner today follows along with professional portrait photographer Tony Corbell as he walks through setting up and taking outdoor portraits of a girl using ambient light sources and flash light together.

Video Corner #167: Reviewing Portraits with Monte Zucker

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:12:10 -0500

In the ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner today, Monte Zucker reviews several retouched portraits and overviews the posing and lighting for each - a great look into how he specifically lights and poses subjects for portrait work with his “1, 2, 3 approach” (1 lighting pattern, 2 poses, and 3 camera positions).

Video Corner #161: How to Take a Cap & Gown Portrait

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:03:46 -0500

It’s coming up to that time of year where portrait photographers can really make a killing doing senior portraits and more formal cap & gown portraits. The ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner this week tags along with a photographer doing a fairly standard cap & gown photo shoot. Sure, he’s a little cheesy in his approach, but if you watch and listen carefully, you’ll pick up a bunch of fantastic lighting and posing tips (and you’ll see how quickly he can get the subject set up for each shot!).

Video Corner #159: Taking Outdoor Portraits

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 21:34:10 -0500

The ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner today follows along with photographer Judy Host as she walks us through how to scout out good locations for outdoor portraits.

Video Corner #157: Even Light Portraits

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:18:14 -0500

Although technically a day late (I’m currently out of town for a family emergency), our ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner today looks at how to best use natural light as a portrait photographer. We’ll follow along on a photo shoot with photographer Judy Host as she walks us through how to find and use natural even light for outdoor portraits.

Till Death Do Us Part Wins CCC#80: All in the Family

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 01:07:49 -0500

It was definitely one of the most unique interpretations of the theme, but fatcatphotos photograph aptly titled “Till Death Do Us Part” garnered almost a quarter of the votes to win herself a brand new Tamron SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD Telephoto Lens. Contest Corner Challenge #80: All in the Family challenged the community to photograph their family (or at least someone in their family). If you haven’t already, check out the entries the community came up with in the CCC#80: All in the Family Photo Gallery. You can (now) also find out which photographers took which photograph in the gallery as well. And if you’re curious as to how the voting broke down, the results are always available (once voting is complete, of course) in the voting thread (located here).

As I’m sure you’re well aware, CCC#80 was sponsored by Tamron, and because Jennifer is a Premiere Member, she will receive a Tamron SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD telephoto lens (a $449 value!!) in her choice of Nikon, Canon or Sony mount. In the pursuit to achieve the most outstanding image resolution in the 70-300mm class, Tamron’s 60th Anniversary lens - the SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD (Model A005) - uses an advanced optical design that features LD (Low Dispersion) and XLD (Extra Low Dispersion) lens elements that prevent chromatic aberration. As a result, the SP 70-300mm Di VC USD boasts sharper contrast and greater descriptive performance than all others in its class. This is the first Tamron lens to sport USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive), Tamron’s very own ultrasonic auto-focus drive mechanism. This USD mechanism delivers fast focusing, making it a perfect telephoto zoom choice for photographing sports and other fast-moving subjects. The lens also boasts Tamron’s proprietary VC (Vibration Compensation) image stabilization to assist in hand-held photography, not only at long focal length ranges where blurring is common, but also under low-lit conditions, dramatically enhancing photographic freedom. This combination of best in class image resolution, Ultrasonic Silent Drive and Vibration Compensation is a new achievement of Tamron technology, culminating in the production of a premium 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens. Winner of EISA Best Zoom Lens 2010-2011. Available for full-frame and APS-C sensor cameras in Canon, Nikon and Sony mounts (the latter without VC). $50 rebate thru 12/31/10.

Make sure to drop by the award thread to congratulate Jennifer on her FIRST Contest Corner Challenge win (well-deserved and long overdue, in my opinion)!

Keep it 'All in the Family' for Contest Corner Challenge #80

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 20:01:28 -0500

For Contest Corner Challenge #80, we want to keep it ‘All in the Family’ - in that we want you to photograph your family (not that old 70’s TV show by the same name). We all have some sort of family. Your entry for CCC#80 should be of someone in your family, or even your entire family. Pets can be included, but there must be “people” family in the photo, too. Portrait photographers, this is your chance to shine and pick yourself up an brand-spanking new Tamron SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD telephoto lens.

Yup, you ~~heard~~ read me right - this contest, like CCC#79, is being sponsored by Tamron. If the winner is a Premiere Member, they will receive a Tamron SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD telephoto lens (a $449 value!!) in winner’s choice of Nikon, Canon or Sony mount (for use on full-frame and APS-C cameras - in event winner is Pentax user, they will receive a $449 credit towards a Tamron lens). If the winner is not a Premiere Member, they will receive a Tamron Domke Bag and Tamron Optech Large Lens Wrap (a $75 value).

In the pursuit to achieve the most outstanding image resolution in the 70-300mm class, Tamron’s 60th Anniversary lens - the SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD (Model A005) - uses an advanced optical design that features LD (Low Dispersion) and XLD (Extra Low Dispersion) lens elements that prevent chromatic aberration. As a result, the SP 70-300mm Di VC USD boasts sharper contrast and greater descriptive performance than all others in its class. This is the first Tamron lens to sport USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive), Tamron’s very own ultrasonic auto-focus drive mechanism. This USD mechanism delivers fast focusing, making it a perfect telephoto zoom choice for photographing sports and other fast-moving subjects. The lens also boasts Tamron’s proprietary VC (Vibration Compensation) image stabilization to assist in hand-held photography, not only at long focal length ranges where blurring is common, but also under low-lit conditions, dramatically enhancing photographic freedom. This combination of best in class image resolution, Ultrasonic Silent Drive and Vibration Compensation is a new achievement of Tamron technology, culminating in the production of a premium 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens. Winner of EISA Best Zoom Lens 2010-2011. Available for full-frame and APS-C sensor cameras in Canon, Nikon and Sony mounts (the latter without VC). $50 rebate thru 12/31/10.

You’ve got less than 2 weeks to get your entries in, so get your family together for an emergency photo shoot, and email your entries in by midnight on Thursday, November 18th, 2010. All the contest details are here in the contest thread. Don’t forget to read through the CCC Guidelines, too - I HATE having to reject entries because people haven’t read the guidelines.

Say CHEESE!

Video Corner #103: How to Take Great Groom Portraits

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:56:31 -0400

As a continuation of last weeks ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner, “Video Corner #101: How to Take Great Wedding Portraits”, we look specifically at taking great portraits of just the groom. Obviously most tips and techniques discussed can also be applied to portraits of the bride as well…

Video Corner #101: How to Take Great Wedding Portraits

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:14:14 -0400

It’s the first day of July, and for most wedding photographers, it’s already well into the busy season. If you’re photographing your first wedding this summer, or you’ve been a wedding photographer for decades, today’s edition of our ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner will give you some great ideas on how to pose and photograph newlywed couples. The video has us sit in on part of a wedding portrait session with photographer Clay Blackmore and explores some great wedding couple portraits. Next week, we’ll look specifically at groom wedding portraits.

Video Corner #95: The Daylight Studio

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:06:12 -0400

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s starting to get a lot warmer outside, and today’s ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner shows us how to create a classic studio portrait in any outdoor location using the Sun as the only light source. To shape the light, the photographer in the video simply uses a Matthew’s 6×6 diffusion panel, a muslin background (with a couple of light stands to support it), and a couple of plexiglass mirrors to reflect the sunlight onto the subjects hair for back-lighting.

Video Corner #93: Window Light Portraits

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:09:15 -0400

The ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner today looks at using natural window lighting to light a variety of different portraits and poses; how to position the subject in relation to the window, as well as how to light the rest of the room with lights and reflectors.

Video Corner #91: Basic Portrait Techniques

Thu, 27 May 2010 19:43:22 -0400

Our ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner today discusses some standard portrait techniques including facial analysis (hair styles, eyes, nose, etc), lightning and camera position. This is the first video in a collection of ‘Photography Thursday’ videos that will look specifically at portrait photography.

Video Corner #89: Using Reflective Light to Create Compelling Portraits

Thu, 20 May 2010 15:11:27 -0400

Today, in our ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner, we tag along with a professional portrait photographer during a photo shoot that specifically makes use of natural, reflective light. During the photo shoot, the photographer uses a Canon 5D Mark II, a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM Lens, a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens, and several Lensbaby lenses.