My David Hobby Story

I recently took a class from David Hobby, creator of www.strobist.com. It was called Lighting in Layers. After I walked out of there, I was literally chomping at the bits to use all the new lighting techniques that Dear David has bestowed upon us. I went home and spent every single dime that I had in my business account on lighting equipment. Triggers, remotes, stands, umbrellas, Orbis ring flash, 2 more SB-600's, hot shoe mounts, spot grid, and a partridge in a pear tree. No, I'm not telling you to spend your entire saving on lighting, but I knew that if I wanted to be serious about this, I needed to invest in equipment that was going to make me a better photographer.



This is Sydney, she's my best friend from high school's sister's daughter. LOL Here, I'll give you a few seconds to re-read that.....Got it? Okay, moving on.

For all of my photographer friends, I took this shot at around 10:45 a.m. very sunny, no clouds. ISO 400 (I totally forgot to check this, should of been 200), f/13, 1/250 sec. with a 35mm lens. I used my SB-600 shooting thru a translucent umbrella, camera right 45 degree angle.

Not bad, love that the background isn't all blown out, it's dark enough to see the green grass and shadows and her face is perfectly lit so that you see all the angles and even a bit of light in her eyes and face...Okay, I'm liking the light again.



OMG! Are you freakin kidding me!!! I LOVE this shot! Yeah there's a little shadow of the leaves behind her on her face, SO WHAT! It's beautiful, it's cool! It's exactly the look I'm going for.... :)

Again, one umbrella light, but this time I added a second flash with the Lumiquest Softbox III hand held, camera left. I needed a little more fill light because the bush behind her was casting a pretty bad shadow in her face. Love this picture!

Lighting is nothing to be afraid of and it's comforting to know that I'm not the only photographer in the world that has had this fear. There should be a scientific term for it. Strobeophobia? Anyway, it's changed the way I've shot my last couple of projects. It's changed the way I've looked at magazine ads and professional lighting in the studios. Sometimes you have to throw away what you've learned in a class or from other photographers who are more "by the book" out the window. It's not about technical stuff, it's about what looks good to you. YOU are the photographer! YOU are the one that people are paying for YOUR look! I don't want to be David Hobby, I want to be Marci Johnson. And I want people to see my work and be inspired, be creative and be..........well, in a word, happy! It's not about if the number is right on the LCD screen, it's what looks good to you....

So I've tweeted it, Facebook'd it and said it to his face, but David Hobby, I thank you for making me a better strobist. :)

Now go shoot something with a light!

I'm Baaack!

Hey wonderful world of photography blog people!

Yeah alright so blogging hasn't been my greatest strength, I'll admit it, I'm a big enough person to recognize my weaknesses and point them out to everyone. But I've realized a few things: #1 I don't always have to talk about myself. I mean, who wants to read about me all the time. Even I don't want to know what I'm doing all everyday, so why would you! #2 It is incredibly selfish not to share what you know. Tips, tricks that fellow photographers might learn from. God didn't give you a gift to have you keep lock within yourself, RIGHT!? #3 There are so many phenomenal photographers out there that I admire and respect enough to share with you my friends, so I will be putting some of their work and links to their blogs on here as well. There, are we good? GOOD! Let's get started....

I've been incredibly busy lately with senior pictures. Right now I'm working on an old friend from high school's daughter's pictures and let me tell you, there is nothing that will make you feel as old as shooting someones kid that you graduated from high school with. I remember when she was pregnant with her...Ugh! Okay, moving on....

The one challenge that I usually have with high school seniors is they're skin texture. Because they're hormones are completely out of whack, some of the areas of their faces can be as smooth as silk, then the others a little more pronounced and shiny. And this is why I love Photoshop!

I recently saw this video courtesy of YouTube.com....



Seems simple enough it works REALLY well...

Skin tone can be difficult as well, found another video that can help with that too.



Below are some examples of the before and after.





Both beautiful and wonderful young women, but that added touch of smooth skin really makes them glow...

I plan on doing a full preview of all my senior shoots once I'm done with them. And I'll continue to post some tips and tricks as I learn them along the way...