If you’re interested in trying portrait and glamour photography and think it’s difficult and requires lots of expensive equipment but don’t know where to start? Well, I’ve got good news…The truth is that portrait photography is not difficult. All you need is a camera, some light(s) and a subject.—Joe Farace
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Create your own visual style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others. — Orson Welles
In my book Studio Lighting Anywhere I quote Richard Avedon who once said, “I think all art is about control—the encounter between control and the uncontrollable.” I think that’s what a dedicated studio, no matter what size it may be or where it may be located, can offer a portrait photographer.
It’s Your Style, Not Somebody Else’s
You own shooting space becomes a safe haven from the real world where, to paraphrase the Outer Limits voice, you can control the lighting, the background and subject. Even my small 11×15-foot in-home studio, where many of my current portrait and glamour images, including today’s, were made, is a retreat for creativity and, I think, making it a place to develop a portrait style.
When working in this environment, I control everything from the subject’s pose, clothing choices and make-up with the resulting photographs tending to be as much a portrait of myself as they are of my subjects. Or as my friend Rick Sammon likes to say, “the camera points both ways.” And what often emerges from all that control is a style.
How I made this portrait: For this photograph of Pamela Simpson that was shot against a Savage Infinity black vinyl backdrop, I placed a Rotolight Anova LED light at camera right that was close to Pam and bounced off the 9.5-foot ceiling in my home studio, acting as fill. The key light is a small, inexpensive Rotolight RL48-B LED that was placed at camera left with a second, magenta-filtered RL48-B at right and behind Pam highlighting her blue-ish hair. The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 lens with an exposure of 1/50 sec at f/2.0 and ISO 800.
Having a personal photographic style is not something I’m conscious about when shooting portraits but the truth is that over time we all develop a signature way of shooting. The danger, of course, is that we keep shooting that same way or different versions of the same shot for the rest of our lives so any style you develop must grow and change as you learn to make better portraits.
Postscript: A note about the model: In recent posts I have featured many different images of Pam, including some on my Password Protected posts, and I wanted to call your attention what a chameleon she is and how she always gave her all to help me create interesting and fun images like this one.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), click here. And if you do, thank so very much.
If you’re interested in shooting portraits and how I use cameras, lenses and lighting in my in-home studio, you can pick up a used copy of Studio Lighting Anywhere from Amazon.com for around twenty-five bucks, as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.