Do YOU spend a lot of time in POST PRODUCTION? We asked 4 PRO PHOTOGRAPHERS!

“I don’t trust words. I trust pictures.”
Gilles Peress

How much different does your photo look before it got to your computer and after it was processed with filters, color correction, frequency separation and other magic tricks? We asked 4 Los Angeles photographers the same thing 🙂

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

@cerlov : So, I don’t really do any photo shopping or anything like that to my images. So, mostly, it’s just I like to preserve the natural beauty that is … I definitely like people to feel confident, to be themselves, and so I do a lot of natural light, natural looks and everything like that and then, yeah. So, I do very loose editing. Mostly just color tones and that’s about it. And just empowerment. Self-empowerment.

@carloparducho: The nature of the images I make require a bunch of compositing and masking. So, yes. I do spend a lot of time in post-production. But, when it comes to getting the lighting and the color and the contrast, I do everything in camera just because, well, I don’t want to add another thing to do in Photoshop or Capture One. So, if I can get it right in camera, I will do it.

@moisnomois: I do not spend a lot of time in post since I try to get the shots looking good on the raw file before editing.

@tate.foto: I’m looking at fashion magazines from 1992, and those images are still relevant today, so that’s what I really loved about photography. The more you hone in on that aesthetic, the less really post-production and gimmicky editing is really needed, and you really capture the mood in the photograph versus a bunch of post-production.

WANT TO LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY?

Check out our WORKSHOPS in Los Angeles that teach you hands-on how to make great photos!

One of our closest workshops – How to Shoot Long Exposures with Colored Gels: Workshop!

will take place on February 20th, 6-9pm, in one of our Los Angeles studios !!!

Watch the full episode :

Dancer Loretta Williams By John Camino

Serene and elegant shots of Loretta Williams, taken by dance photographer John Camino one could find almost theatrical. Great job with capturing gracious poses in beautiful natural light.

A quick excerpt from Photographer’s bio:

“I am a dance and portrait photographer born and raised in Mexico City, and I’ve been working in the TV and Film industries for over 12 years. The session with Loretta was done at Studio 2 with natural light only, for a very organic effect, and on the rooftop. What makes FD studio great is the versatility of its spaces, equipment availability, and having multiple creative spaces under the same roof.”

Check out participants of the project:

photographer: John Camino | Instagram | Website

model: Loretta Williams

At the location:

Studio 2, is one of New York based studios.recently it has been transformed into a perfect intimate, romantic or empowering style interior, ready for your camera. Featuring a dark wood floor platform across the stage and a sexy antique lounge chair, it creates welcoming and relaxed atmosphere. A wall section with the brick veneer adds a flavor of downtown loft life. Among these unique features, the stage comes with great equipment – three strobe lights, three backdrops of white, grey and black color, sound system, makeup station and changing station. Take a look at Studio 2 on our website for availability as well as rates.

Become Better Photographer: The Best Position for your Softbox with Gavin Hoey

*For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with Gavin on Instagram. The model - Brian Mansi IG: @bmvoh

How diverse can a portrait photograph be if you are confined to a small studio with just one strip soft box? In this episode the amazing photographer Gavin Hoey with Adorama TV is going to share his PRO tips on what positions of just one light can bring to your photo portfolio!

Gavin introduces his only modifier – ” I’ve got this 48 inch by 16 inch strip box. Yes I know it is a big light source, but it also opens up some questions being fairly large where should it be positioned for best use? Should it be in front of the model? Should the model be in the middle? Or should it be behind the model? The answer is it depends on the look you want to achieve.”

In Gavin’s setup there is simple grey background, one light on camera’s left, and one model – Brian, who will not move at all for the sake of testing how exact same images would look with different strobe light positions.

Gavin continues: “The distance between Brian and the background will remain exactly the same throughout all these shots. The only thing that’s going to move is the position of the Softbox, so we can see how that affects the pictures. Now to begin with, I’m going to start with a fairly standard position for a Softbox. In other words it’s in front of Brian. “

“What we get here is just a classically lit portrait. There’s a little bit of shadow on Brian’s right-hand side as we look at the picture and when Brian turns to look towards the light source, it’s a very similar story. “

“For my next setup what I’ve done is moved the Softbox backwards, so now the back of the Softbox is more or less in line with the back of Brian’s head. This is actually my go-to lighting setup for head-shots. It means that most of the surface of the Softbox is in front of Brian. That means we get light coming all the way around, wrapping around and lighting well both the side nearest the Softbox and a little bit on the cheeks over the other side too.”

Gavin also notes that due to change of the light position, the exposure will also change. So with every move of the light, make sure that you are still shooting at the same exposure by adjusting the light power (light meter might come in handy).

“Now we have a portrait with a lot more contrast. There’s plenty of shadow on the right hand side but there’s also plenty of detail. I can see Brian’s eye. There’s a catch light in it and even when Brian turns towards the light source, this still works and has a lovely three-dimensional feel.”

“Now I’ve moved the light so it is exactly central on Brian. There’s as much light on the back of him as on the front. Now in theory this should give me a split light look; a lit side and a shady side.”

“There’s a bright side and a dark side and in those shadows there’s very little detail, not even a catch light but when Brian turns to look towards the light it’s a different story. This works fantastically well as a portrait and the background, well that slightly brighter because of course the softbox is closer to it.”

In the last scenario Gavin continues: “So finally I’ve got the softbox, so Brian is in line with the front edge. That means almost all of the softbox is behind him. That should give some interesting effects. Firstly it means much more of the light is going to reach this background that should go a lighter tone of gray and very little light is actually going to reach Brian. Certainly very little on the opposite side of him at least but the challenging part of this is actually getting the metering right. “

“The background is much brighter which is to be expected and the shadows on Brian’s face, well they’re creeping evermore to the left-hand side as we look at the picture. When Brian turns towards the light, well actually I can see a little bit of detail in the eye on the right-hand side and this would make a great portrait if the background was a nice deep dark black. “

Mr. Hoey concludes: “as you can see by moving the softbox around, we can completely change the look on Brian, so let’s do a little bit more creative photography!”

WANT TO LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY?

Check out our WORKSHOPS in Los Angeles that teach you hands-on how to make great photos!

One of our closest workshops – How to Shoot Long Exposures with Colored Gels

will take place on February 20th, 6-9pm, in one of our Los Angeles studios !!

Watch the full episode with Gavin Hoey and Adorama TV:

WHAT ARE YOU SHOOTING TODAY? We Asked 4 Photographers Ep. 3

“Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.”

Ambrose Bierce

Today at our studio our clients are shooting creative video projects, athletic fashion, beauty editorials, and 90s style that turned out “completely different”!

What are you shooting today? We asked 4 Los Angeles photographers the same thing, in a third episode!

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

Paul: Today, I focused on shooting something against the curves, something sort of new.
Today was about insecurities, about the wrong people and how
they view social media and what young girls look up to to wanna aspire to be as a
model. I think people get the wrong impression, looking at my work, most of the time. I
think they feel as though … Some girls, I hear all the time talk about how they aren’t
beautiful, yet they are. Or they talk about their insecurities and today kind of keyed in
and focused on that topic.

Paul: I feel like Sarah was the perfect person and it’s not like I was planning this project, it’s
just someone I reached out to just a couple days ago and last minute and I had some
free time and I wanted to shoot her, but I wanted to do it in a unique way. I thought on
sort of a more personable level with social media and loving yourself as opposed to
wanting to aspire to be like some of the models on Instagram, who really live just a
lonely life in general, who are so infatuated with social media likes and comments and
what they post as opposed to actually being happy with themselves and loving what
they’re doing.

Kelly: I worked with Athleta, which is GAP’s women athletic brand and I maintained
friendships with some of the ambassadors here in Southern California. So I invited three
of them to come, because I love working with empowered women. Today was just
about them looking fun and fierce and having a good time and also incorporating some
lifestyle elements into it.

Bekah: Today, we’re doing a beauty editorial that's focusing on pastel colors and emotion.
Sana: This photo shoot was pretty fun. The ladies just awesome. We had this amazing idea of
doing 90s style, but it turned out to completely different photo shoot, but it was real,
real fun. The models, they’re sisters. Both of them, like really beautiful. They’re one of
my favorite models in LA.

WANT TO LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY?

Check out our WORKSHOPS in Los Angeles that teach you hands-on how to make great photos!

One of our closest workshops – How to Shoot Long Exposures with Colored Gels: Workshop!

will take place on February 20th, 6-9pm, in one of our Los Angeles studios !!!

Watch the full episode :

Become Better Photographer: Speedlite Foot with David Bergman

*For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with David on Instagram and Twitter @DavidBergman.

Speedlite foot is that little plastic thing that usually comes in the same package with your new speed lite, and at first looks absolutely useless. (you might think).

In this episode David Bergman with AdoramaTv will prove otherwise and show you just how versatile the speed lite foot could be!

David suggests: “[Speedlite foot] is actually quite handy. It’s a tiny little stand that you can attach to the bottom of your flash when shooting with your flash off camera.”

“You’ll find that the foot can be used a lot of different ways depending on where you want to place your light. It can be used just by itself when you want to put your flash on the ground. On a shelf or on any flat surface.”

” If your flash has a head that pivots, you can then aim it up or down from there.” What about getting the flash into other positions?

David continues: “If you look under the bottom of that shoe, you’ll see it has a standard quarter inch thread, so that opens up all kinds of other mounting solutions.”

“Just with the shoe alone, you can put your flash on top of any light stand that has a quarter inch thread.”

“You can also pick up a relatively inexpensive umbrella swivel adapter. Some of them already come with a cold shoe, but if it doesn’t, you can attach the foot and use that instead. That will allow you to pivot the flash in any direction, and attach a photo umbrella if you want to.”

” You can also put the foot on to other things, like a ball head, a magic arm or a gorilla pod, to give you unlimited flexibility. Since I keep my flash in its case, I always have the foot available, and haven’t ever lost it.”

WANT TO LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY?

Check out our WORKSHOPS in Los Angeles that teach you hands-on how to make great photos!

One of our closest workshops – How to Shoot Long Exposures with Colored Gels

will take place on February 20th, 6-9pm, in one of our Los Angeles studios !!!

Watch the full episode with David Bergman and Adorama TV:

!WORKSHOP! How to Shoot Long Exposures with Colored Gels.

Photographer B. ALYSSA TROFORT, a Paul C. Buff ambassador brings this new workshop on Feb 20th, 6-9pm in Hill 2, that will take your lighting skills to the next level and will let you learn how shoot those colorful active shots you’ve had your eyes on. With the help of an experienced model, B. will demonstrate several long exposure techniques, some including using colored gels, and let you explore your shooting style under her mentorship.,

Here are few details about workshop:

Who?

B. ALYSSA TROFORT INSTAGRAM WEBSITE

B. Alyssa Trofort is a sports and portrait photographer and videographer, based in Los Angeles. Going the formal route, she decided to attend Virginia Commonwealth University, the #1 public university for school of the arts, where she not only received a great education but participated in numerous opportunities including an internship at People Magazine. After receiving her BFA in 2013, she moved to Atlanta where she began assisting celebrity and commercial photographer Derek Blanks. She became a full time photographer in 2015 and has had the opportunity to have her work published and featured with Finish Line, NBAtv, American Family Insurance, Rolling Out Magazine, Uptown Magazine, Estetica Hair Magazine, and many more. She believes you will never work a day in your life when you do what you love, and she’s honored to have the opportunity to be inspired by her subjects that are striving to be their best selves.

What?

During this 3-hour workshop, you will receive a hands on experience shooting a professional model, in a professional photo studio, using several lighting techniques. Come expand your studio lighting horizons!

Where and when?

FD Hill Studios (FD Photo Studio Hill Location),Feb 20th, 6-9pm.

Why?

With this easy, introductory workshop ending with a test shoot, you will get the knowledge you have been looking for! The average photographer who doesn’t know how to work with strobes wastes about 30-45 minutes of studio time trying to set it up. With this workshop you will be prepared to start your shoot from minute 1, saving both your time and money!

How much?

Tickets are only $79 and we have few spots left!

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!

Stage UPGRADE: RGB and X-light walls in NYC studio 4!

Affordable photo studio with 4 different sets, RGB lights, furniture and additional grip & strobes included, available for rent hourly near New York.

Our brand new studio 4 in New York has finally opened its doors to all our clients! To amaze you with our unique interior, here are several updates you have to know about, when reserving studio 4!

It has a RGB light wall

As the first part of our light wall installations within studio 4, this RGB light wall consist of raws and columns of small RGB bulbs that you can manipulate to your liking!

And the X-light wall

Another addition to our cool lighting setup is “X-light” wall that consist of three Xs of the same size, made of white fluorescent bulbs, crossed together. Get creative with it!

2 French Walls

Truly unique design of this blackout setup was adorned with 2 beautiful “French wall” embellishments for your artistic inspiration.

Black-Out Setup

Lastly, do not forget that this stage in a completely dark, black out stage, perfect for the set where complete control of the light is required!

WHAT IS INCLUDED?

3x Flash Units (Strobes)
Paper backdrops (white, grey, black) come preinstalled.
Fans, Sand Bags etc
2x Make-up Station
Mini Fridge (3.2 cu.ft.)
Black Leather Sofa
NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED
It is a 100% private stage.
We do not require any permits/insurance to shoot
It comes with Sound System to set the mood of the session
Free WiFi is on us!

Find out more about our new NY Studio 4’s pricing and availability by visiting our website!

Stage Upgrade: Thermal Curtains at MAIN and ART locations!

Stage with bookshelf available for photo & video rental in Los Angeles

It wasn’t long ago when stage Art 1 has gotten its cool looking thermal curtains across its perimeter. Now it is time for other stages to catch up! Ladies and gents, here are stages that from now on can be full shut from the sunlight.

Stage A

Stage C

Stage F

Stage D

Stage Art 2

Every stage is equipped with the same great gadgets available in all of our studios – black, white, and gray photo backdrops as well as three strobes along with light modifiers. Take a look at our stages on our website for availability as well as rates.

Mr. Ticasso Shoots Karina Z

Mr. Ticasso has been an inspirational, frequent client of our studio for quite some time. His work never ceases to bring enjoyment and the best aesthetic of a human beauty. This photo shoot is not an exception.

Check out participants of the project:

photographer: | Instagram

model: | Instagram

About this location:

Stage Hill 3 is one of our largest and brightest stages. Advantageously positioned with the windows facing west and north, this stage gets plenty of sift indirect sunlight in the first half of the day and lots of direct sunbeams in the second half. As with any our other stages a standard package of three basic backdrops and three lights is available within the stage already. For more information visit stage Hill 3 on our website.