The Red Chair

First off, this was my very first legit attempt at photographing animals in a editorial type of photoshoot. Not counting candid, which is by far much easier (HA!)! 

What I came to learn from this shoot is bar none... is to have a squeaky toy! This is a must! Of course you can simply have an assistant jumping around around/under you to get the dog's attention to your camera, but most of the time I won't always have an assistant on my project shoots, especially when its indoors and no time limit like this one. Plus this was not just a one animal/pet shoot... I wanted to get as many dogs they had (which was 4?) in the frame looking at me. I soon realized this would be an impossible task with what I had available, so I decided to do a one by one and get the best shots I could. Check the video below at my attempt!

Natural Light Adventures 05: Post Processing.

We're coming to an end of the series' sector, at least the written part. Post processing is finishing touches to images as we all know, but it is as important as the production itself. Depending on your current style or style you're trying to develop into this will dictate how post processing goes. So the following is based on my own style, so take it or leave it.

If you've just jumped into this part of the blog series I highly recommend you read the past parts as this part is spoke with the assumption you've read the past parts, as well you've learned the important part of timing which can be figured out with what gear you have and location you're shooting at. Check the index.

Natural Light Adventures 04: Location Scouting.

Location scouting can sometimes can be easy and sometimes very, very difficult. From looking for appealing or decent light and then finding an nice composition. And sometimes with lack of time you may need to accept a less appealing composition and make it work with what you have.

If you've just jumped into this part of the blog series I highly recommend you read the past parts as this part is spoke with the assumption you've read the past parts, as well you've learned the important part of timing which can be figured out with what gear you have and location you're shooting at. Check the index.

Locations vary on your needs of your vision, and how strict you're with your vision. I know for my journey in natural light adventures from May 2015 to today, I was not picky. Every shoot I did was purely casual lifestyle or/and fashion style shoot. No mood boards. Just meet up at a location, me and a model can shoot at during the times I think is best for the shoot, as well help with some wardrobe decisions. 

Natural Light Adventures 02: Gear Talk.

As I've mentioned in the previous post, I'm no gear head (but if I had the cash then hell yea I would lol). But it is important to know your limitations, working with what you have and making the best of it as much as you possibly can. Even if you need to push the boundaries on post processing which will allow your gear limitations to expand. We'll discuss further on post processing in another post, but keep in mind I'm not a magician in post processing.

The following may mention some information based on the assumption you've mastered manual mode on your camera.

Cameras

My choice of camera is a DSLR, more specifically canon, from T2i, XSi, 20D and a 6D. Now granted I did not expand much on my natural light photography until I had a 6D where it does have very high ISO ranges and great quality ISO up to 6400 and sometimes if really necessary 8000. This isn't a review of the canon 6D but just wanted to share my experience regarding ISO on the 6D.

The choice of camera will control most of your limitations of what you can and cannot do on natural light portrait work, and as mentioned control the size of available natural soft light during golden hours. Such as if your camera does not produce great or 
decent quality ISO higher than 1600, your limitations will be much smaller than a camera like a canon 6D having decent quality ISO at 8000, so your window could be 30-60 minutes possibly. 

Natural Light Adventures 01: Timing is Everything.

Weather you're an advanced natural light shooter or beginner, timing is everything while shooting portraiture with only natural light.

As I briefly mentioned on the introduction already the basics are sunrise and sunset for best times in the day shooting outdoor portraits. 

Sunrise and Sunset can give you both harsh shadows or soft, depending on angle you're shooting and how high the sun is in the sky. As well depending which direction your subject(s) are facing, away from the sun or toward the sun.

Photoshop Workflow: How to make a Modeling/Portrait Photo Truly High Key

Check out my speed up photoshop workflow on a photo I shot for PPW wrestlers a few months ago.

Note the video is not from start to finish as it was my first time in a very long time using the capture software so I forgot I was not recording (I know), so its in bites and pieces which ended being a 1 hour 44 minutes+ edit! And then compressed it into a 12+ minute video at the fastest speed I could make it. Plus my computer crashed right after saving the file, and starting up the video capture again as the video capture took way too much of my CPU

After watching that I basically did some masking and filled in the background with solid clean white as my seamless was a bit too small for tag team wrestlers (2 subjects), so I shot it anyways even though I generally don't and would always aim to get perfect shot in-camera, sadly it was not possible as it was on-location before an actual PPW show and bringing only a small seamless than the very large, which I cannot travel with as it is much bigger than my car! 

Other than the white-ing the background I did simple cleaning on the wardrobe and skin with the healing brush mostly. 

Lighting setup was 2 medium softboxes on left and right of subjects and 1 Lastolite Ez Box as the key light

Posing Project 01 - Heather G.

More information about the Posing Project here.

Follow Chris Adval's board The Posing Project on Pinterest.

Sample Photos of Lastolite EZY Box Large Softbox (30x30)

*The following sample photos are Straight out of Camera, totally untouched/edited, these are purely sample photos to show how the softbox looks with and without. LEFT is without flash, the RIGHT is with the flash on.

Shutter: 1/160th
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 200
Lens: Canon 24-70 2.8L
Camera Body: Canon 6D

Lastolite Hot Shoe EZYBOX Softbox Kit-30 x 30"

Side note of my experience with using hotshoe softboxes in the field, its ok, as long as you got someone holding the lightstand(s) or good weights to hold them down. I don't have weights right now other than normal sandbags I may start using since assitants are so hard to come by in my area. Other than that I would have loved more power but the only option for more power is studio strobe or investing into a $500+ speedlight (600EX) as I was using YN560 here at 90% power. I may invest into more studio strobes and battery packs to shoot more environmentals instead of speedlights, primarily cost savings is a big difference. Once I could afford into more speedlights then I'll go into a heavy speedlight setups for obvious reasons.