I wanted to talk a bit about Portrait Lighting today. I would like to illustrate this with a few images from a senior photo session I did last week. When shooting outside, I like to look for open shade which is very complimentary for portraits. What’s open shade?

Indirect light. It usually can be found, just like it’s name says, in shaded areas where the sun isn’t directly hitting. Behind a building, under a tree, you get the idea. Just look with your photo eyes and not your natural eyes and you will start to recognize tons of areas to make great portraits.

Back to our first example.

I placed my subject in next to an old brick church in downtown Fullerton. The direction of the light is from camera left. See the shaded area on the subject’s face? I also composed the image with the subject’s eyes in the upper right area of convergence. Let’s look at another image….

Here my subject is leaning against a white wall with the light coming again from camera left. I was teasing him about his hairstyle and how it resembled pop star, “Justin Bieber.” It seems that most high school age boys hate that comparison, but would love the attention that he gets from girls of all ages!

I like the relaxed look on his face and his body language. BTW, I was told by my subjects father, that he hates having his photo taken. Well, that’s always a great challenge for me. We talked about college, music, Justin Bieber and in hardly anytime, my subject was relaxed and very at ease with having his photo taken.

Patience and feeling confident about your photography goes a long way in comforting a hesitant subject.

Finally, I wanted to leave our little post today with an image that is composed with careful planning. I love the relaxed look and the smile that reveals who my subject is. His guard is down and he is just looking very natural. The black and white strips away any distractions and allows the viewer to just see the personality of the subject in this image.

In review, look for open shade, that indirect light that is so flattering for your portraits and you will find your images getting stronger. Portrait lighting doesn’t have to be sophisticated, you just have to “see” it before you shoot it.

Enjoy!

I was honored to meet and photograph Coach Wooden back in t 2003 after the Angels won the World Series. He was a big baseball fan and had even thrown out the first pitch at one of the home games during the series. One of the writers at the Register set up a meeting with Mike Scioscia at Coach’s condo in LA. Meeting Coach Wooden was a dream assignment! At the time, I believe he was 93. His mind was sharp and he was a gracious host. I felt like I was about 12 years old getting to meet a legend!

The writer even brought his rabbi! So, the manager of the World Champion MLB team, a seasoned sports writer and his rabbi and a veteran photojournalist are all crammed into an Encino condominium all acting like a bunch of giddy school boys because we are in the presence of the JOHN WOODEN!

The walls are lined with every award known to mankind. There are little knick-knacks covering every open space in the living room. Things that have been accumulated from a very long and full life. Their are photos of his many grandchildren, too. There are no handlers are bodyguards, just the four of us.

He tells the reporter and Coach Scioscia about his love for baseball and how excited he is for the Angels. After about 30 minutes the interview ends and I begin setting up my lights for the photo session. I bring a basketball for Coach to use in the photo, so I asked him to sign it with really large lettering. He smiles and says, “You’re going to keep this right.?” I said, “You got me, Coach.” (I sent the ball to his biggest fan, my father-in-law, for safe keeping)

After the photo session, I realize that I am all alone with the Legend and it feels like I’m hanging out with my grandfather! He asks if I would like to see something and invites me into his office.

There are even more paintings and awards and baseballs crammed into his little office than you can imagine. He hands me his Pryamid of Success flyer and tells me that this is a blueprint for life. He tells me about his wife, Nell, and how he misses her.

A lifetime of achievements and all that really matters is his family. More wisdom from the Wizard of Westwood.
May he rest in peace!

Laguna Beach engagement session
In this entry I’d like to talk a bit about personal style. I recently did this engagement session of this fabulous couple, Christin and Jarret, in Laguna Beach.
At the very end of the session, I walked around the backside of this couple. I always try to take one last look opposite of where I’ve been photographing. You never know what you might find. Today, I found a very cool silhouette just waiting to be captured.

Beyond that, one of my favorite television shows on right now is, “Fringe,” it is directed by J.J. Abrams. He is the director on, “Lost, Alias, Mission Impossible and the latest remake of the movie, Star Trek.” His vision is amazing! He adds flares, lights, reflections and movement into almost every frame of the movie and it gives it his signature style. You see a clip and you just know it’s J.J.’s style.

I’ve been trying to incorporate flares into a lot of my work to give it some life. Not to directly steal from J.J.’s work but to honor it and make it my own.
When you see something you admire, take a look at it and try to figure out how to make it your own. Think American Idol and how the judges are always telling the poor contestants to sing a song and make it their own. Don’t just karaoke it, give it some personality from your soul.

Change it and make it yours. Now go out and try that and enjoy!!!

After a long time of preparation and many hours of help from a lot of friends, “Take Better Photos Now,” the ebook is available for purchase.

Click Here to learn more about my course.

If you were one of my test subjects who have already seen the CD or the downloadable files, please let me and everyone else know what you think by leaving a comment. This is going to be an exciting year with planned photo class webinars and a members only site soon to be unveiled.

Thanks to all my supporters!
Enjoy and happy shooting!
Michael

Hi, today I wanted to share an image that I made a bit ago. Digital manipulation starts with a plan. I’ve been a Star Trek fan since my parents let me stay up late when the original series aired back in the 60’s! So when I got an assignment to photography Brent Spiner from The Next Generation I was in heaven.

The story was about the man behind the make-up. I decided to make a composite of Brent Spiner out of character and in make-up as his character, Data, the android.

Mr. Spiner was awesome. He drove up to the Beverly Hills Hotel by himself without a publicist which is basically unheard of.

I had him cover up part of his face so that I could place him in character on his hand.

In the end, I thought the shoot was successful. Planning ahead was helpful to have him pose certain ways. It was my homage to one of my favorite shows. Enjoy!

I photographed this portrait of model, Roxanna Redfoot, at a recent shoot in Hollywood. I thought it would make a great entry to talk about a few lighting tips.

Roxanna wasn’t even the model who I was photographing, but I noticed this awesome light streaming through the windows and Roxanna was conveniently standing nearby. Great lighting can occur anytime. You need to train your mind to look for it, to see it.

Here’s another version:
Notice how I have placed her head in the upper left convergence area to lead the viewer’s eye into the image. Also, the shadow serves as negative space to balance the model being placed on the left of the frame.

Here’s one last image.
Don’t forget when you have a great set-up, try another perspective like vertical vs. horizontal. Remember that digital doesn’t cost anything to make another frame. So, shoot, shoot and shoot.

Finally, this lighting situation was created by afternoon sunlight filtering through a window at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. The light is almost horizontal and is relatively soft, so Roxanna can look towards the light without it blinding her.
Morning and afternoon light are so much more complimentary than the harsh light that is created by the sun during mid-day.

So, today’s lighting tips revolve around:
1) Be watchful and look around for potential great light
2) Be really aware in the late afternoon and the early morning
3) Anyone can be a potential subject, even world-class models watching their friends work!

Enjoy!!!

I photographed seven seniors for their yearbook recently at the Fullerton Train Station. I’d like to share a few tips about Senior Portraits and photographing groups of people.

The first image shows life, fun and action. Without something for your subjects to do, you end up with a bunch of subjects standing around trying to look cool(even though they are).

Let’s see if we can find a better situation for our teens.

Finally, we have our last image…
I choose to show how a static pose can actually work. The inside of the pedestrian bridge works to enclose our subjects and draw the viewer’s eyes to the group. I carefully placed each subject where the camera could see them and asked everyone to stare directly at the camera to achieve a more confrontive pose.
The result is a cool and somewhat aloof image.

The next time you have a larger group to photograph, try having them do something to achieve an image that has action and great expressions. Enjoy!

In this image we have the jumping into the future etc. pose. The area really had busy backgrounds. I tried to use as wide open a depth of field as possible, achieving a very shallow depth of field. Or to clarify further, as little of the background is in focus as possible. Jumping in unison is sometimes the hardest part of this pose. Fortunately, this day the seniors were in rare form and jumped together.

The next image shows the guys. You can never go wrong asking boys to show how strong they are or to show off. I asked them to jump on each others backs and stay there as long as possible. A great pose with great expressions!

Moving on…..
How about choosing the tallest or smallest person in the group and doing something interesting with them?
Here I choose the tallest boy and had the entire group, or the majority of them, hold him up. It works for good expressions and the pose looks good, too.

The next pose or idea was to change my point of view. Having your subject lie down changes everything. The viewers perspective changes as does the perception of your subjects. It really is an all-around winning situation.

Today I was fortunate enough to go to my sister’s home and celebrate my niece’s and my brother-in-law’s birthday’s. This is my niece and it’s her 9th birthday. I remembered my camera to document her special day and fished her out of the pool. She’s very accustomed to her uncle asking her to pose, so she dutifully followed me to the front porch where I made this portrait. I decided to write a bit about finding good locations anywhere, just about anytime. Here’s the front porch.

The light is somewhat dappled from a palm tree and the background is basically clean. There is also an area of ambient light on the lower area of the pillar. That way I can choose to have her stand and then sit down. Two different lighting situations within two feet! You just need to look with different eyes.

Here’s another couple of shots.

After a couple of shots where she smiled like her mom was taking her photo, I asked to just stare into the camera. I achieved a portrait of my niece that shows the real her, at age nine. It takes a little patience, but the rewards are great. Next time you photograph a younger model, let them do whatever they think is expected of them. Then just wait and you’ll get to capture a true portrait of them that let’s the viewer sneak a peek into their souls.

One last location: My daughter was with me, so I noticed a white wall on the area just inside the front door.
I asked my daughter to lean against the wall and made a sweet little portrait.

To recap, look for good light. It exists anywhere and look for nice clean backgrounds to place your subjects in front of. Lastly, remember that great portraits are made with pre-planning(bring your camera), a keen eye(look for potential backgrounds) and patience(wait for your subjects to reveal their souls).

Hi again. Today we have Travel photography tips. Round two.

Here is our first example of using scale to give context to your photos. Specifically, your travel photos and using the relative size of something to visually compare or enhance a primary or secondary subject. What?

Let’s look at our first image. This is one of the giant Sequoias in California and my daughter.

I wanted to show how huge this tree was so I asked her to just stand next to the trunk, she’s even holding my second camera. I used a wide angle lens to show as much of the tree as possible and contrast the size of my daughter and the tree.

Get it?

In the next example, Half Dome is spectacular and huge thunder clouds that rolled in in the afternoon. I decided to zoom out and show the hugeness of the clouds compared the size of Half Dome. Now Half Dome is a very large piece of granite, you can image how big the cloud in this image is.

I zoomed out as far as I could and placed Half Dome in the lower right area of convergence.

The result is an image that shows the immenseness of the cloud and the beauty that is Yosemite in a slightly different perspective.

My final photo for today is also at Yosemite. Bridal Falls is the waterfall in the famous Ansel Adams photograph of the Yosemite Valley. It is an incredibly tall waterfall.

My son climbed to the bottom of the falls and is so far away that you can barely see him. If you can’t find him he’s in the lower right area of convergence.

It’s a great example of contrasting subject size to show how large the falls are.

Let’s recap: In taking images for Travel photography tips you can use a technique for contrasting subject size. So, consider putting this tip in your bag of tricks. Enjoy.

Today’s entry is another in a series of photography tips. Repetition of an image to draw the viewer’s eye into your image.

These are cormorants which are very common in Orange County. I spied them one day while I was out looking for feature art for the newspaper I used to work for. Feature art is slice of life photos that could potentially run anytime.

I saw them all lined up, but every time I got close they would fly away. So, I crawled up on these fowls. A little bit at a time and in about 5 minutes or so I was close enough to nab this image.  When you want to make sure someone understands you, we often repeat ourselves.

When you want to make something stand out in photography, you repeat it. Thus, repetition! The birds create a pattern for the viewers eye to follow.

Here, I used the pattern of the window pane’s shadow to create repetition that is interrupted by the figures. Repetition  can be all about the pattern or the breaking of that pattern. For example, in the first image, it’s all about pattern. In the shadow image it’s about the breaking of the pattern by the figures. Either way, achieves an effect for the viewer.

Another example of breaking the pattern with the woman in the orange/red dress. The pattern of the signs really makes for a great repetition. This was taken before the last night at the 2000 Republican Convention in Philadelphia. I was able to take a look inside the hall before most of the conventioneers were let in.

Finally, I have an image taken of a student studying at Chapman University in Orange, CA. The pillars of the building exude strength, stability and all the things a university should. The tiny figure of the student gives context to the size of the pillars and dwarfs the human condition. Again, another example of breaking the pattern with the student.

Try incorporating repetition of image into your next photo shoot and you will be rewarded with another technique in your arsenal. Enjoy!