I’ve been playing with my diopters this week. Diopters are close-up glass filters that screw onto the front element of SLR Camera lenses. They allow you to focus really close-up on the subject without an expensive macro lens. I took a bunch of shots with different lighting configurations, and these were [...]

How to create the look of daylight in studio when shooting products.

I took this shot during the ice storm last week. I liked the original picture, but it looked flat and kind of boring (see below). So I used Photoshop to bring in a contrast of color temperatures to the image. I think it makes the icy tree look even colder by having [...]

High Key photographs have an overall lightness to them and minimal contrast. Skintones are overexposed in a flattering way, and it can make a subject’s eyes really pop. Here are a few easy steps you can take to turn your plain images into interesting high key shots using Photoshop.

Chloe is fast becoming the most photographed baby in the universe. Seriously, we took well over 1,000 pictures of Chloe this month. Can there be too many pictures?? Hmmm, there inlies the problem. It’s the joy and the curse of digital. We’re certainly not going to print anything near [...]

I took these shots of my husband, Shayne, on Christmas day. I’m very pleased with how they turned out. It made me think about what it takes to make a great portrait of someone. Here are the three ingredients I think most important to a great portrait:

Arguably, the most useful and inexpensive movie-making tool is the Clothes Pin. Called in the biz a “C47″ or a “Bullet,” these can be used to attach gels to lights, remove scrims from lights without burning your fingers, and all sorts of other great applications. I sometimes used them to tie my [...]

3 POINT LIGHTING
Three point lighting is often the best way to create a flattering portrait, shoot a great headshot and make an interview on video look professional. Here is the essence of three point lighting:
Key Light – This is your primary light source.
Fill Light – This light adds illumination to the shadow side [...]