ThePhotoOp http://thephotoop.com/wordpress My goal is to teach you to capture portraits like a professional photographer. If you have a pocket Digi Cam, you probably already have what it takes. Let me show you how. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:23:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 en A photography blog? What is he thinking? http://thephotoop.com/wordpress/?p=3 http://thephotoop.com/wordpress/?p=3#comments Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:34:14 +0000 jim Photography http://thephotoop.com/wordpress/?p=3 Well, I’m a photographer, so what else am I going to blog about? 
 
I love politics, but if I see, hear or speak another word about the election, it may kill me.
 
No, really.  It my brain will explode.
 
 

My (brief) Bio: 
I spent 22 years in two military services.  After wasting a few years in the wrong service, I finally joined the Air Force in 1983 as a Security Policeman. 

From the beginning of my Air Force career I sold a bunch of snapshots as postcards to my buddies in Alaska.  All the commercial postcards for sale were of the tourist areas, nothing about our cool little corner of the earth. (Clear AFS, 80 miles south of Fairbanks)

Someone looking over my shoulder one day said he’d like one of my photos to send home.  I gave him a few photos for free.  He told a friend, who told a friend, and so on.  Soon I had a little postcard business making a few hundred a month on the side!

Even the local postmaster purchased a few to mail home. She showed me how by just drawing a line down the middle of the back of the 4×6 picture and keeping all text out of the bottom inch, made it OK to mail out cheaply!

Those photos were a big hit, and I was asked to photograph a band for personal and promotional purposes.

More money was very good thing.  My base pay in 1984 was about $700 a month.  I was making enough to keep me happy and working!  (Getting this far was very tough!  More details will be in the e-book.  A free preview will be available soon)

I was hooked on Photography!

Years later when I was facing a medical discharge for a back injury, I was also friends with Mr. Oklahoma.  He was getting ready to go to nationals without any photos.  On a whim I offered him free photos.  In exchange, he’d send me referrals of his friends and fellow bodybuilders.(This was a great deal for me! I gave away 2hrs and $80 worth of photos.  He gave me my whole business that first year in Oklahoma City!)

He sent me enough people that I was more than happy to leave the service and work as photographer.

Of course, the Air Force blew it all by refusing to retire me!

But I got lucky and was retrained into Public Affairs, specializing in Journalism and Photography, with a follow on assignment to Las Vegas!!

That training and this city changed my life forever.

 Nine years later I’m still here in Vegas, working constantly on something.  My business has expanded to include framed art prints, t-shirts, mugs, the whole she-bang. 

Anything to do with Las Vegas photos that the 35 million visiting tourists want, I can probably put up on my site and sell.

Why and an e-Book and Blog now?  

The #2 question I always get is “How can I take a better photo of…..?”

(#1 is “What do you charge for….?” )

Hence my inspiration for the e-book and up coming classes on do it yourself Digi Cam portraits.

 I hope I can use this blog to get ideas, feedback and inspiration from everyone who posts here!
 
Lets Blog!

]]> http://thephotoop.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=3 Single Light Portrait http://thephotoop.com/wordpress/?p=5 http://thephotoop.com/wordpress/?p=5#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:46:44 +0000 jim Photography http://thephotoop.com/wordpress/?p=5 WL2 

I based my whole business for years on this outstanding portrait technique.  It works wonders and is simple to modify or you can just leave it alone and enjoy the results.


My wife and best student, Anna, captured this excellent photo using a simple point and shoot Sony DCS 650 7.1 Megapixel (MP) pocket Digi Cam.


 
Camera Setting: (I always leave my Digi Cam set like this)

Good Batteries

Empty Memory Card

Portrait Setting or Auto

Flash Off

Smallest ISO setting (50 or 100 ISO preferably)

Largest file size (If it is a 7MP camera, 7MP is the largest file size)

Fine or Superfine JPEG Setting

 Drawing2The Set Up:Mid-day direct sunlight is usually too harsh to photograph people in.  But if you use Open Shade you can capture excellent photos all day long.
Find a window with the sun either just overhead or filtered through a tree.  In the photo above, the sun is just touching the windowsill, see the hand on the left side of the photo is in full sun, but her face is in Open Shade. (Open Shade can be found under a porch, tree or anywhere covered, or in the shade and not in full sun)Your subject (blue circle) faces the Window Light at about arms length, just enough to be well lit by Open Shade.The camera (You) is about 5 feet away (1.5m) to either side of the subject.

With the above camera settings above, just Fill the Frame (Zoom in until the subject’s face is complete filling the frame.)

Slowing, without jerking, press the shutter button.  Use you camera view screen to see the results.  Keep taking pictures until you are happy with the results!


Anna could have photographed this using a vertical camera hold (also called a Portrait Hold) , but she liked the extended arm touching the window, so she used a horizontal camera hold (Also called a Landscape Hold) addig a nice bit of direction for the image. 

Drawing2  Modify the Light:You can add a reflector to the opposite side of the setup filling in the shadows and adding depth and detail to the the subject hair. Because Anna shot this alone and without any help, and the subject is two and a half years old, adding more things like a reflector or a helper to the set up was not possible.  It would have ruined the moment. If your camera is always with you, you can capture great photos like this one in just a matter of moments.Enjoy!   

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