Shooting Indoors OR Outdoors? WE ASKED 4 PRO PHOTOGRAPHERS

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“If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff”

Jim Richardson

Do you usually shoot indoors or outdoors? What are the pros of one over another?

We Ask 4 Photographers about their professional opinion!

The full interview is available of YOUTUBE. For your convenience, here is the transcript of it as well.

Zuz @the_zuz: Majority of my shots are outdoors, ’cause light is just more accessible, but I think my heart will always stay with the indoor. I love studio just because it gives me a full control with light, and no time limit. I don’t have to depend on the sunset or sunrise, or any other weather conditions. I can basically do whatever I want.

Arthur ABM Photography: I can make anything happen anywhere, whether it’s indoors or outdoors. My studio, everyone always thinks I use strobe light, actually, for my head shots, especially when I have a backdrop, but I just use natural light. You know, it’s just a natural light studio. Outdoors, I excel a lot when I shoot outdoors sometimes. I just will grab a reflector, grab the person, and rock on, you know? Put them in front of, you know, something where it’s lit nicely, and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and we’ve got some shots.

Mois @moisnomois: Mostly I shoot indoors, since I do a lot of video work. If it’s outdoors, gotta be some really dope spot.

Mila Zvereva @mila_zvereva: Regardless of the location, I always like the challenge to make my models look unforgettable in any setting I’m presented with. I have no preference to work indoors or outside.

WANT TO LEARN PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY LIGHTING?

JOIN US FOR “Studio Lighting 102” WORKSHOP that will take place on September 19th, 7-9pm, in FD Pro Studios in Los Angeles !!!

Watch the full episode :

Stage UPGRADE: Hill 4 gets a fancy pattern curtain!

Jungle Themed photo Studio available for rental in Los Angeles

Faster than Musk’s FalconX, our stage Hill 4 has reached cosmic awesomeness with overwhelming amount of props for you to play with! There are THREE unique settings – Tropical “Jungle” leaf wall, white stained “staircase to heaven” section, and orange “desert” corner with woven chairs, and mosaic textured floor. Two latter sections has new additions/modifications:

White stained “staircase to heaven” section

This section now has a cool, white, see through pattern curtain that is hung perpendicular to West facing windows, thus creating amazingly beautiful light patterns in the afternoon!

“Desert” corner with woven chairs

This section had two walls painted orange for that sandy, desert-ish feel. We decided to improve the texture of walls even further by making it more vivid and more “cracked”.

and don’t forget that we have

Tropical “Jungle” leaf wall

Thus leafy section is floor-to-ceiling high, with additional two big planters with trees. Our Vespa-style blue scooter is nicely parked in the center, waiting for your ride.

Check out Hill 4 on our website for included equipment and affordable rates!

Long Exposure Sport Photography by B. Alyssa Trofort

Photographer B. Alyssa Trofort has produced stunningly clean and crisp long exposure shots, capturing the model “on the move”.

Few words about the photographer:

“B. Alyssa Trofort is a sports and portraiture photographer for commercial and editorial clients, based in Atlanta, GA.

A graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2013, she received her Bachelor’s in Fine Art for Photography & Film. She has been published in numerous publications including PEOPLE magazine, Estetica Hair Magazine, Richmond Magazine, B.O.S.S. Magazine, KRAVE Fit Magazine, UPTOWN Magazine, Elegant Magazine, and many more. Her resume extends to working as a photography and production assistant, assistant to prop stylist, freelance camera operator, and grip for various photography and film sets. She is determined to become the master of her craft, using every day as a blueprint to learn, grow, and create.”

This session’s crew comprised of:

Photographer B. Alyssa Trofort INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE

Model Crystelle of Sports + Lifestyle Unlimited Agency INSTAGRAM

MUA Christian INSTAGRAM

Stage B is a benchmark blackout stage designed to provide complete control over the strobe light. Painted all black and with shut off windows this stage preserves complete darkness for your photo and video projects. As any of our stages, B comes equipped with black, gray, and white background paper, three strobe lights and numerous modifiers for your choice. To check the availability for this stage as well as find more helpful information about our rental please see the WEBSITE.

Install FD Photo Studio APP!

At FD we strive to make your experience smooth, easy, affordable and efficient throughout the entire process, from visiting our website ’till your last minute of the booking time!

In our pursuit of best customer experience, we decided to create an easy to install APP that would work both on iOS and Android and doesn’t require going to App Store!

This App lets you access all information that is available on a regular desktop version, as well as booking stages.

To install the app, simply

1. go to our website

2. see at the bottom of the screen the message “FD Photo Studio App”

3. For Safari browser, tap center bottom button

4. Tap on “Add to Screen”

5. Enjoy!

For other browsers like Firefox, Opera or Chrome.

WINNERS of Summer 2018 Yelp Contest

It is time for another round of generous giveaway as we are ready to announce this Summer 2018 term Yelp review winners!

For those who have never heard about our seasonal 4, 8 and 12 hour package giveaways, NOW is time to put down your sandwich or taco, head over to Yelp and find FD Photo Studio there. Why ? Every season we count Yelp reviews left for our studio and draw winners randomly and live on our Instagram account!

The rules are simple

All of our creatives are welcome to participate, including photographers, videographers, hair and makeup artists, models, talent, etc.; and all you have to do is write a review about your experience at FD Photo Studio.

For Summer season our lucky winners are:

1st Place: 12-Hour Package – The first place prize goes to HeyItsJas.
You can check out his review HERE.

2nd Place: 8-Hour Package – In second place, Greg P. receives an 8-hour package! You can view her review HERE.

3rd Place: 4-Hour Package – Lorenzo B. will receive a 4-hour package ! View the review HERE!

Packages can be used at any stage ( except rooftop or secret loft ) at any day of the week.

Be sure to keep those reviews coming in! We’re doing another drawing in the Fall 2018! Thanks again to all of our great clients that shared their feedback with us, we will grow and continue to provide you with great spaces for your creative projects.

To see the full details of our package giveaways, visit our website

3 WAYS TO CREATE DRAMATIC LIGHTING with Toma Kostygina

Continuing series of awesome quick tricks for photographers, Toma Kostygina teaches us what the dramatic lighting is and 3 ways to create dramatic lighting.

Watch full episode on our Youtube channel!

What is dramatic lighting ?

Does it require a special equipment? No. Do you need to shoot it at the specific time of the day? No. Dramatic lighting is simply the shadow play on the photo, where the contrast between highlights and shadows is drastic, very distinguished. In other words, the light fall off into a shadow happens very quickly.

How does one shoot it? To create drama on the photo you actually do not need any specific environment. You can easily create it in the broad day light with a couple of handy tools. Here are 3 easy techniques you can implement right away!

Technique #1.

Use light modifiers that that have fast shadow fall off – shoots, 7-inch modifiers, beauty dishes with grids, etc. These modifiers are known to create hard light, which is the key for the drama.

Technique #2.

The second technique is called “feathering”. It utilizes the use of soft boxes of various shapes and sizes. Usually, if the modifier is facing straight towards the model, the light it produces is soft, with gradual, slow fall off.

To create a quicker fall off/more distinguished contrast just turn the modifier to the side, so only the edge of it lights up the model. On a picture below, the left photograph of yours and only is the example of modifier – rectangular soft box -facing straight towards the model. And the right photograph is lit with the same modifier, turned to the right, so only the edge of the light hits the face of the model.

Technique #3.

And the last technique covered Toma implements light reflectors/blockers such as V-flats, flags, screens, 5-in-1, etc. If you work with just one strobe light as your key, and the ambient light is your fill light, use blockers to block the ambient light from one side, while flashing the key light on the other.

That’s it!

JOIN Toma Kostygina’s “Studio Lighting 102” WORKSHOP that will let you have hands-on experience under keen supervision of Toma herself

It will take place on September 19th, 7-9pm, Downtown Los Angeles
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Tickets are only $35 (five tix left!) — SIGN UP HERE

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Watch the full episode with Toma Kostygina on the official FD Youtube channel:

Alan Daneshrad masters natural light photography

“Personal Injury Lawyer by Profession, Photographer by Hobby”, is how Alan Daneshard describes himself on Instagram. Choosing the Art 3 studio as the creative ground for his leisure pursuit, Alan took full advantage of amazing natural light conditions the space provides.

Besides working in the studio environment, Alan also takes his passion onto landscape photography, capturing different vivid destinations like Japan, San Francisco, and also focusing on details of skylines, oceans and other aspects of nature.

Follow Alan Daneshard on his Instagram, and make sure to check out his website for more cool projects.

Studio Art 3
is one of our most popular stages. Featuring shot perfect props such as an elegant white-and-gold chair with a mirror as well as a luxurious bathtub, this stage is always on a high demand. Art 3 now also presents a gorgeous rose wall for your unrivaled, outstanding background setting. Besides, this studio is supplied with a seamless backdrop paper of black,grey and white color and studio lighting found in all of our spaces, promoting it as a very flexible creative space. For pictures and more information about stage Art 3 check out our WEBSITE.

Natural Light Beauty/Casual Photography with Zuz

Photographer Zuz produces yet another great episode of photographs, this time in stage Art 1. Zuz is one of the most prolific photographers who visited FD, as her style of capturing portraits/fashion is undeniably catchy. Watch the interview with Zuz we took earlier in studio Hill 3.

About the shoot:

“We recently did a quick shoot (only 1h) with Bleu, focusing on beauty and casual style. Because of short time frame, I decided to use only natural light with a little help of a reflector for some of the shots.
We were still able to do 3 looks, each in different style and vibe (1. showing the coat, 2. natural portraits, 3. casual look – top and jeans) in only 1 hour.
I am really happy what we did and how the final images turned out to be. They are a perfect example of what you can do by just playing with natural light and getting creative in short time frame.
Please let me know if you would like me to provide any extra info.”

This session’s crew comprised of:

Model: Bleu Archbold, @bleuarchbold
Photographer: Zuz, @the_zuz

Stage Art 1 was a choice of location for this session. Adorned with features like white grand piano and three step podium this stage is a tool of versatility, provider of great natural light, benchmark of industrial Downtown minimalistic design. This space has its windows facing South and West and gets beautiful direct light during the PM hours, and great open-shaded light in the morning. Using strobes? No worries, we include 3 strobe lights in the hourly rate along with black, white and grey background available. Take a look at Stage Art 1 HERE to see what equipment is included in the hourly rate, as well as its availability and pricing.

4 PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FOR BEGINNERS! WE ASKED PROs, ep 4. Sep 9

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“In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.”

Henry Cartier-Bresso

WATCH THE FIRST PART OF PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS HERE .

Continuing series of photography tips for beginners, here are 4 advices from Professional Photographers in Los Angeles that will help you hone in on your skills.

The full interview is available of YOUTUBE. For your convenience, here is the transcript of it as well.

Molly Pan @mollypanphotography: Backup your files.Backup your files in three different places. Backup your files in as many different places as you can. I’ve had to do reshoots and I’ve had to do extra things and spend extra money to recover files, so backup your files to avoid a headache. That’s the biggest one, I think.

Jeff Tse @jefftse123 : So for a newcomer I think it’s important that they have some aspect or some passion that they’re also excited about besides photography that lets them build a strong body of work. So say you’re very into skateboarding, but you’re also into photography. So get really serious into the skateboarding culture and create your style and create your body of work that way. This way it’s more of an organic development. You’ll very easily know what resonates with you in terms of style, and because it’s something that you’re excited about that you’ll be motivated to do it.

Ruben Tomas @ruben_tomas : So it’s important to always go in the direction of the things that you like and represents you the most. Be careful about which magazines do you want to be published. You have to choose the really ones that you think that correspond more of who you are or whatever you want to show with your pictures.

Steven Pressler @stevenpresslerphotography : One of the biggest pitfalls for most newcomers from a photography standpoint is they don’t become an expert at something. So they’re a generalist, and so they pick up the camera, they’ll do landscape work, they’ll do modeling work, they’ll do fashion work, they’ll do commercial work, but they never become a subject matter expert. They take the shotgun approach. And unfortunately they’re not known for anything, and not being known for something, you won’t get hired. You have to be known in the industry as an expert at what you do.

So my advice to any photographer is: pick the genre that you want to be the subject matter expert for, and work on that exclusively.

WANT TO LEARN PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY LIGHTING?

JOIN US FOR “Studio Lighting 102” WORKSHOP that will take place on September 19th, 7-9pm, in FD Pro Studios in Los Angeles !!!

Do you usually shoot indoors or outdoors? What are the pros of one over another? We Ask 4 Photographers about their professional opinion!

Watch the full episode :

White stained “staircase to heaven” section

“Desert” corner with woven chairs

Tropical “Jungle” leaf wall

Few words about the photographer:

This session’s crew comprised of:

To install the app, simply

The rules are simple

For Summer season our lucky winners are:

What is dramatic lighting ?

Technique #1.

Technique #2.

Technique #3.

This session’s crew comprised of:

WATCH THE FIRST PART OF PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS HERE .

Watch the full episode :

Do you usually shoot indoors or outdoors? What are the pros of one over another?

We Ask 4 Photographers about their professional opinion!