It’s “Tricky Tuesday,” a way for me to share some of the tricks, tools and techniques I’ve used over the years when shooting studio portraits. Today’s post features Kelsie, who I photograph once, which is an oft-repeated pattern, before she moved on to fame and fortune elsewhere in the modeling world.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
The mind is like an umbrella. Its most useful when open.–Walter Gropius (1793 -1870)
One question I’m often asked is where did I learn my studio lighting techniques? If you haven’t figured it out yet by this blog post’s title, I’ll repeat it: I strongly believe the best way to learn studio lighting is just by doing it.
As They Say..Just Do It!
That is not to sell short the program speakers who present studio lighting techniques to rapt audiences at trade shows, seminars and conventions. These kinds of presentations can really be valuable at two points on your studio lighting learning curve. They are useful in the beginning of your learning process and can also be useful at the point when you think you’ve finally mastered studio lighting. Chances are you haven’t and programs like that, blog posts and YouTube videos will help you expand your knowledge by showing some new ideas and concepts. In between those two times, you gotta keep practicing. Or as Douglas Adams says in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, “the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys”
Let’s kill a preconception that many people have: You don’t need a lot of expensive equipment to make a studio portrait. Today’s featured image was made early in my pursuit if learning lighting for glamour photography. The lighting equipment consisted of an inexpensive, store-brand monolight. Even the background was some kind of cheap muslin that I picked up, who knows where.
How I Made this Portrait: As an admirer of the work of the late Peter Gowland, I must have been channeling my inner pin-up photographer when photographing Kelsie in the crude 10×10 foot basement studio of my former home. The camera used was a Canon EOS 5D Mark I with an EF 85mm f/1.8 lens with an exposure of 1/60 sec at f/8 with an ISO of 100. The lighting was provided by a Flashpoint II monolight with a 45-inch Westcott Optical White Satin Umbrella mounted.
Practicing portrait lighting is not always that easy because you need a subject to practice with. For many years I used Mary as a subject but at the time I made this portrait, I also had access to many models who were interested in getting free photographs. To this day, I still give each model I photograph their choice of a flash drive or CD containing every image that we make to take home with her on the day of the shoot and these images may be used any way they want. It is a full trade with each party offering their time and energy to create great looking images. In these post-pandemic times, finding models have been a challenge.
Recently I’ve had several companies offer to loan me photographic and lighting equipment but I was unable to find a model within the time frame of the suggested equipment loan to see what the gear (and I) can do with it and share the results with you on this blog. So I’m asking Colorado readers, if they or someone they know might be interested in posing for me, please click the CONTACT tab and let’s talk.
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Kelsie appears on the cover of my book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography that is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography. It includes information on all of the cameras and lenses used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. New copies are $45.08 with and used copies available from Amazon for for around forty-one bucks, as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.