Mentor style shot

This is the style I love.

Gary Thomas taught me everything I knew... Check him out at www.gthomasphoto.com

Overpowering the sun.

This was a concept that took me for freaking ever to grasp. But what it really means is you kill the ambient, shoot a flash at really high wattage, and shoot a small fstop. Make sense? Okay, no, but what it really is is to darken the overall scene. Here is a good example, if I had shot this with a speed light, there would be a ton of white in the background from the sun, well not that I was able to shoot at f10, the sky was darker, now Kelli here was black. But with a alienbees ABR800 from the left side, I was able to fill her in giving a harsh contrast between the subject and background.

So basically you are killing the abient and filling in with flash, one of my favorite styles.

God's light

First of all, this is not a hey let me shove my views down your throat session. The reason I named this blog to what I did is because of the lighting, every time I see a picture of God or a god in general you always see this peaking out light.

How I got this photo is a funny story. I am sure you guys know, I still do not have an LCD screen on my camera. Which sucks. However, I was on a set with a girl who paid me to help her develop her portfolio and learn how to pose and get more expressions. I usually will demostrate to, I am a visual learner myself. We had agreed on a country girl look with ambient sunlight, give her that dreamy look and some sunset bikini work. before the shoot, she had mentioned she was a cheerleader and wanted to show off her body.

So after getting all the details set in stone, we meet up at 7 P.M. and get into her first outfit which was simple we shot for about 45 minutes in some cowgirl looking stuff, including a white dress. About 8 or so we started walking back to her car and I noticed the clouds so the colors started coming out, and full sunset was at 835 so we got a crackin on the shooting. Her first swimsuit was a white one, we shot about 30 shots in that, then switched to a hot pink swimsuit. While she was changing I noticed the beams of light coming through and wanted to get a shot, which I did. I was not sure how it would come out because of the LCD thing. When I got home I got this.

The reason I was not sure what I would get is because your camera and eye are 2 totally seperate things, your eyes can see like 65 bazillion colors and your camera can only see 64k or so, when shooting in RAW, when shooting in JPEG 2,500 or so. Your lens, depending on which one, at most 6 stops of light, your eyes, 14 stops of light. Now how cool would it be to make lenses out of eyeballs? I think I am onto something here, instead of pixels reading the info there will be rods and cones. Just because my eye saw this, does not mean my camera did, and I just so happened to get it.

You ever wonder why your eyes can see the pinks in sunsets? But when you perfectly expose a sunset it is white? Listen to you eyes, and underexpose by 2 to 4 stops for sunsets.

Behind the scenes... a video I learned from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGfiAbUeLhw

Not the norm

Somtimes I just like black and white images with pure ambient light.

All you need is love! (and sunlight)

So lately if any of you have been stalking me on Facebook, you know I try 100s of lighting styles. One I have been doing a lot lately is pure sunlight. I never really mastered it when I started it, I got thrown into off camera lighting and making images with drama, strobist style. Still my favorite style though. To mme there was no point in using only ambient lighting. And for the record, I only use the sun as ambient lighting, I do not like continuous lighting or gravy training others flashes. Sunlight and only sunlight can be a good thing sometimes.

Sunlight pointed to the back give a girl a dreay look because you have to overexpose the background giving them a dreamy look, combine that with a shallow depth of field, they will love it. Anyways, the reason I am trying to do more of this is there are a lot of pros who use it, and their work looks amazing. I love the flare in it to, just gives it a well dreamy look. This image is SOOC, for all the cool kids who know. For the non photographers means straight out of camera. I think I like it a lot. I am going to have to do some more of this kind of work. And all you will need is sunlight and the girls will love it!

This model was awesome she was a blast to work with.

Dreamy look

I have been looking to do some dreamy looks with ambient light, women love it. Just saying.

What do you guys think?

Just thought I would say the sunset was purdy tonite! :D

Tulsa trip, old friends reunite!

So I just realized I know all the hot chicks, especially back in high school. Anyways, today was one of those days. I was talking to an old friend about a shoot a while back, but she got hurt and had to cancel. The injury she had gotten was the same I have experienced in the past. Well about 2 weeks ago we were talking and she had mentioned she was going to Tulsa to shoot with Kevin Camp, and I asked her if it would be okay to come along and shoot. Mainly to just talk with her and catch up, but also because Tulsa has stuff that Oklahoma City does not, like REAL LAKES! I talked to her and Kevin and they both agreed it would be okay, so I was excited. Got the trip planned and what not and yesterday (now) and decided to go, all she asked for was 20 dollars gas money. Fair enough.

So I woke up today about 10am, I might add that is REALLY EARLY for me, and got the camera ready to go, she called and confirmed.I took a shower got ready and met her at a 7-11 here in Oklahoma City, now the 7-11's in Oklahoma City are a great story for another day. Because part of the reason I wanted to go to Tulsa was because of Quick Trip, the worlds greatest convience store! Anyways so I got ready showered etc and went to the 7-11 at 12:20 or so, she was already there. I bought her a water and gave the cashier the money for the gas and had hit the road!

Tulsa was going to be fun, get to see 2 old friends from Aspen Athletic and hang out and shoot a gorgeous girl! So we had hit the road and man that road trip had seemed like forever! But we get into Tulsa, Oklahoma about 230 where we met up with Andrew and she took a shower and got ready, Andrew gave me a Red Bull, I felt so lucky! Anyways, apparently Andrew is now into tennis so I shoot the breeze with him and his roommate for a little while, and hit a ball around. Now I know why I am NOT a tennis player.Andrew got to catch up with her for a little while to, just kind of caught up.Now off to shoot with Kevin Camp.

We left from Andrew's house at 4:30 p.m. or so and I decided that I was going to try several different looks with her as far as lighting goes. Anyone who knows me, knows I am not scared to do something different, My only prayer is I got some good images without an LCD screen on my camera. Kevin called her and gave her directions, and the way Tulsa is laid out it was REALLY easy to get to, Oklahoma City you do need a GPS. So we arrive about 5 p.m. or so and met up with Kevin. Her first dress was a cute little form fitting dress with black and silver stripes. We shot that dress downtown, I wanted to do some pure ambient light looks with a 300mm f2.8 lens that Kevin owned and some 50mm 1.8 looks. Really shallow depth of field, and blend falsh with ambient.  As well as some dreamy looks to with an edge light. So first looks we did downtown I focused on blending the flash and ambient with her dress, I would say I did pretty good here. Now it was for the second look.

I sure do miss my paw print watermark, that was my signature. But when I get my laptop back up, I will have it again! Back to the story though, the second look we did was a formal dress she wore for a pageant one time, it was a limited edition Sherri Hill dress, for those who do not know fashion designers, she is big in pageants, about as big as Johnathon Kayne Gillespie. The dress was gorgeous, I told her to bring it out because it was just gorgeous! So we shot in that for like 15 minutes because it was hot as a mofo out and that is not cool. We went to a little park that reminded me of Kerr Park here in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was cute, had a few buildings in the background and grass and trees overall I liked it a lot. Pretty place! The lighting I went with here was kind of overpowering the sun, a little. I muted out the background a little and underexposed it just a tad bit while filling in her with a flash, overall I liked the outcome. It gets tricky because you have to meter the sky and background first, than go 1 to 2 stops underexposed. But it is a lighting style I like, a lot.

Now you see why I love the dress? It is gorgeous, like the model in it.

Last thing we did was swimsuit at Lake Oolgah, I think this is how you spell it. This lake is trippy as hell to, because apparently it used to be a town, but apparently the town got flooded and replaced by the lake, so if you go into the lake at certain parts, there are buildings, sidewalks, and various other town stuff there. Most have not been very big, I thought it was eerie, but it is a pretty lake. Of course swimsuit at sunset I got to do my style, the strobist style. You know shadows and harsh contrast between subject and background. Oh I do love that style. Except this time I did something different, there was a dramatic blue and purple sky so I did the strobist look  but without a sunset just a dramatic blue sky. I also tried out raising ambient lighting to get a more advertisment style bikini, here is an example.

Well you guys probably do not care what we did after, which was eat and a long ride home. But it was nice to reconnect with an old friend and have her model for us, she totally did rock it! :)

Dreamy light, huh?

Blue Sky!!!!!

Harsh light, wolfie what the f&*&?!

Lately I have been using a lot of harsh light, and people think I am nuts. Well I am an artist, so that is a good thing, no artist is normal. Well harsh light kicks ass, if you can use it right, I love it personally and it is my style! But learning how to use it was always a challenge.

I am primarily a location shooter, personally studio work is boring to me unless you are doing something like nudes. But I also do live in Oklahoma, where the wind blows! After several torn up softboxes and lights, and hearing of photographers horror stories, I decided to use a bare SB800. I had used it once prior before my last 4 shoots, and it was with a local photographer named Kevin Camp. Well I say local, but he is really in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But it was such a wide angle stobist style with a model named Traci Lacek, I never thought about ever using it again. But I do love being a strobist, why I am a starving artist, a successful starving artist I might add. But the thought of the sundial shadow, and the hot spots on the models skin or even blown highlights. A big no no in photography. I decided I would give it a try. The first shoot I did with harsh light was a formal dress, I had the flash too close models face got blown out, and you will never see those photos (and I thank God everyday I had a few good ones) and was like, well I will need practice.

I had a shoot a week later, she wanted some sunset stuff done, with a maxi dress, and I was fretting about lighting again. I had always used a modifier. Than it hit me like a brick wall, as if I were running 100 mph. Chuck Majors, www.shotbyephoto.com, had apparently used harsh light a lot! Everyone always says that he does, so I decided to Facebook him one day and ask him if he really did, of course like any good photographer, he said he did depending on the situation. So I asked him for his advice, he said with speed lights back it off about 10 feet, and about eye level, maybe a little higher and do not go over a quarter power. So I kept that in mind. Well the shoot comes up, I have no LCD on my camera, and I am nervous as hell, so she got into the dress and I got ready and went at f8 to control the flash, flash at a quarter power, and 200th of a second shutter speed to kill the ambient (ever want a dramatic sunset? underexpose!!!)  backed it off about 10 feet, that I counted, and started shooting. Not knowing what I was going to get, I got a great surprise when I got home, and I think I like it. Makes the models skin look smoother, harsh contrast, and well the wind blowing isn't going to break a bunch of stuff.

Almost NO editing.

Flat light, most flattering for the model?

Okay this seems to be a popular belief, that flat light is most flattering to the model.

First of all what is flat light? Flat light is when everything in the photo is lit evenly, basically there is no contrast. If you shoot a coke bottle, the bottle look a part of the background, if you shoot a model, he or she look a part of the background. Flat light is most common on cloudy days, or when you shoot in shade. Trees and clouds act as a giant soft box or scirm. Here is a example of flat light for ambient lighting.

In the studio, flat light is achieved by 2 ways. Either your background lights and your main and fill lights are all at the same power. Or you main and fill lights are background lights to, and your background and subject are close together. We all see this is our yearbook photos, Rembrandt lighting style and we are up against the background, so we just kind of blend in with it. Yeah, I am sure we all remember those photographs. Here is a good example of flat light iu the studio

This is a copyrighted photo I found on Google, this is an EXAMPLE only!

So enought about what flat light is, now let's go into why this makes sense, but at the same time does not. Models with rough skin, you have to light them right. You can not have harsh shadows or it'll make their skin pop, in a bad way. The begin to look like the dark side of the moon. So it makes sense you want to evenly light them up. I understand that, trust me. However, I like contrast in my photos, so let's go over another lighting style that'll do just as good. 

Wrap around. Wrap around light is light that wraps around the model, and falls off on the back area, and the background. The only problem with wrap around light is you have to have a big source of light for it. Usually a softbox or octabox that is at least 36 inches across, meaning it is about twice as big as most models. Wrap around light is flat lighting on the model, but still gives you some pop in your photos. The way to light them is as followed.

Full body, waist up and 3/4th body shots. Use a softbox that is 3x5 or bigger or a 36 inch or bigger octabox. Now keep in mind these are big light sources, a 300 watt or bigger light will be required to fill the source. Anyways go about half power on an Alienbees B800, and get that softbox as close to the model as you can without it being in the frame, meter it and expose properly. Cameras and lenses will make a difference in your metering. Once you get it metered properly, start shooting and have fun!

For headshots, a beauty dish, a large softbox or a ring light will do the same. Follow the same directions. Place the model where you want him or her, Meter up. Make sure everything is exposed right, and shoot away! Here is an example or wrap around lighting. 

Yes, this is photo shopped to hell and back. Again example :)

So yes, flat lighting does make sense to be more flattering to the model. It is a bigger light source and it does not create shadows. If you want to shoot flat light shoot in shade, or shoot on a cloudy day. Studio make everything the same power. If you want to try wrap around here are some links to softboxes and to some lights that'll give you a good wrap around light. I have also provided links for location photography to.

Paul C. Buff Alienbees B800
http://www.alienbees.com/b800.html

Paul C. Buff Alienbees ABR800 ringlight
http://www.alienbees.com/abr800.html

Innovations battery packs
http://www.innovatronix.com/prod_gallery.asp

Paul C. Buff Vagabond 2 and Vagabond Mini
http://www.alienbees.com/VIIsystem.html

http://www.alienbees.com/vmini.html

Paul C. Buff Alienbees 60 inch moon unit

http://www.alienbees.com/mu56.html

Typical umbrella
http://www.amazon.com/CowboyStudio-40-Umbrella-Reflective-Removable/dp/B002ZY4T8S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1307048839&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/CowboyStudio-33-Silver-silver-umbrella/dp/B001TSMJDS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1307048867&sr=8-4

Phtek softlighter

http://www.amazon.com/Lastolite-LL-LU3227-40-Inch-Umbrella/dp/B00012CHIK/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1307048965&sr=1-7

Paul C. Buff Alienbees PLM
http://www.alienbees.com/plm.html

These light modifiers will help you get good soft wrap around light!

Hope to hear more questions. If you have any Email me at wolfiemuellerphotography@gmail.com

I was told to place the lights about 3 ft high and point them up to the model. Is this true?

First of all, to me for bottom fill yes it is! But 2 lights as a main light? NO!

I will tell you why, and Kevin Camp from Tulsa, Oklahoma and James Cooper from Oklahoma City, Oklahoam taught me this one. It gives a very unflattering light to the model. If u know me in photography I am almost 100 percent self taught. And this was a mistake I made on the field one day. Kevin has dubbed it "Halloween" lighting and the reason is the shadows it casts.

In the previous post I showed some ways to use a reflector, the guy also went over three lighting schemes in the studio.

Rembrandt lighting. This is the most common lighting out there I have seen. Ever typical portrait studio uses this lighting scheme. Its about 45 degrees from the subject and the stand is about 6 ft high from the subject. This causes a triangle looking high light on the subjects cheek.

Butterfly lighting: This is another common lighting style. You place the light right above the subject directly centered to them, and down about 45 degrees to the subject. This casts a butterfly shadow under the persons nose. great one light set up.

These 2 cast shadows under the persons eyes. Not above.

The third lighting style the guy went over was edge lighting, we have all seen this. It is the lighting that causes harsh shadows and gives the photos a really dramatic look. Usually used in guy head shots and art nudes. The light is placed 90 degrees to the subject casting side shadows on the subject. You can use one or 2 lights and cause different shadows, but it is still side shadows.

This lighting style causes above the eye shadows, very unflattering to anyone. By placing the lighting on the bottom, the eyes do not get lit as well as from above. Placing the lights on the bottom as fills for butterfly are a great way to do fill light.

Here is a photo I took, and did this lighting style, as you can see the shadows are very distracting, and look like a jack-o-lantern look.

Are these shadows flattering?

No. So if you ever use a light from the bottom, you better have a top light to. :)

Hope to hear more questions!

Cheers,
Wolfie

Do you use a reflector?

This is another commonly asked question. Yes I do, on every shoot, depeding on the shoot is depending on what I use it for. Let's go over 2 ways to use a reflector.

First way. A main light. Okay the most common way I have seen shooters shoot is point the sun to their back and shoot the model properly exposed, overexposing the sky. This is good if you use pure ambient lighting, but I see a problem with it. There is no catch light in the eyes and the background is blown out, to me that is distracting. The way to get that catch light is use a white foam board or anything white. If you have a 5 in 1 reflector use the white side. The reason I say use the white side is you want to fill in, not overexpose. The silver side, or using a silver side will overexpose and cause the model or subject to squint. that makes any photo look bad, period. Using the white side will fill them in a little better and give a nice catch light in the subjects eyes. It is not hard to do at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jJKF9ihLwQ

Here is a good link. It goes over all the sides of the reflector.

Second way: as a fill light. If you use off camera flash, and only have one light it makes a great fill light! You can do it multiple ways, bottom fill side fill etc. You can use either side of the reflector because now you will lose several stops of light. The reflector has to be directly across the light. But it will add a great fill light!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH84-pA7p-c

These are just 2 very basic ways to use a reflector you can do a lot with them. Again, this is just basic lighting. Anyone got any questions? Email me!

Starting out in photography.

We all have been there. Whether you are Rolando Gomez or David Mecey or even Joe McNally, or just some local photographer in the middle-of-no-where, Oklahoma, we were all a starter at one point in out lives. Even myself 2 years pro, 10 years screwing around, I had to learn somewhere.

My most frequent question in photography is "I want to get started, what do I need to do?"

That is a multi part question, so here it goes!

First part: Like modeling, a lot of people think you need a degree to be a photographer, this is not true. Photography as a business is nothing about the art, and everything to do about business. If you are to or were to get a degree, I would say go the business route. The reason I say this is because a photography degree is basically worthless, what you learn there in school you can learn from YouTube videos. Workshops are another great way to learn about lighting and posing and the basics of your camera. Zack Arias has a wonderful one light workshop DVD I own. I would highly suggest this DVD series to.

Second part: Starting gear, what should you get? Well this depends, my starting set up was a nikon 70 to 300mm f4 to 5.6 lens, a 18 to 55mm 4 to 5.6 lens and a SB800 and a D80. Ran me about a grand all in all. However, if you want to go cheaper you can. If you want to go Canon the Rebel t3i is a great beginning camera, and a 50mm 1.8 lens is a great starter lens, fast glass and sharp images for about 130 dollars

t3i
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-T3i-Digital-Imaging-Body/dp/B004M170YC/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1306958495&sr=1-2

Canon 50mm 1.8
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/12142-USA/Canon_2514A002_Normal_EF_50mm_f_1_8.html

If you decide to go Nikon I would reccomend the D90 and a 50mm 1.8

The D90 can be found at the following link

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/580241-REG/Nikon_25446_D90_SLR_Digital_Camera.html

The Nikon 50mm 1.8

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/247091-USA/Nikon_2137_Normal_AF_Nikkor_50mm.html

The great thing about the Nikon bodies above the D5000 is they come with AF built in.

This will get you started and have some great glass with a decent body. Remember, lighting and glass are what is important!

Third part: Actually getting started. This business does take a long time to build a name and get known. When I started I asked friends to model for me and did senior picture type photos, eventually I found 2 awesome models on Craigslist and got a www.modelmayhem.com account for free. These are great networking sites, but Facebook has been my best. If you want to do seniors, find some friends in a church or in a workplace that have children that are seniors, do their photos are a discounted rate, please them, and they will tell a lot of people. Post Facebook posts and what not. It is all marketing yourself. You will get there eventually. Personally I did a lot of time for shoots before I even got a penny. The old saying "spend money to earn money" is oh-so-true in the world of photography. However, this is also a pretty middle-of-the-road career money wise. You will make between 15 and 35 grand a year on average. But everyone can do it.

If you want to get into weddings, a nikon D90 and a 70 to 20mm 2.8 lens with a great flash is a good starter kit for weddings, from there see if a friend is getting married, work out pricing. Book a few weddings build a portfolio, get a print one made. Take it to the shows and saturate it with cards and get your name out there. Again word of mouth is great.

Fourth part. Never settle. The second you think you are where you need to be at is the second you quit.

Fifth part. Lighting. Start out with ambient, learn your camera in manual mode learn the reflector meter, learn how to use a reflector, properly. From there move up better and beyond.

Submit your questions into wolfiemuellerphotography@gmail.com and I will answer them!

Hope to hear from you guys!