Results tagged “photography tips” from jay reilly photo blog

hi all!  super excited to announce a series of workshops and travel opportunities for like-minded photo people!!  i have had many requests for workshops and so you asked for it! now there are a few things that i am still working on so please be patient while i catch up on a bit of the content.

i will keep this post short and sweet and basically list the few things coming up and give you an idea of what i am up to:

one-day lighting workshop - january 16 - 8 hours of beginner lighting with srobes
shooting kids workshop - january 30 - 6 hours of business, shooting, and post production
costa rica april/march - surf/photo/beer drinking trip for the artist and kid in ya - come learn to surf, get shot, shoot and hangout with toes in the sand.

go check out jayreillyworkshops.com!!


first have to thank ITDR for help on the site.

as a follow up to the question, how do you build a great lifestyle portfolio...i referenced books that i take with me out on a shoot.  i was using an iphoto book, but changed over to my new inkjet book.  its great because i can keep it up to date with the best/newest stuff and can custom create books for the type of person or groups i might approach.

all in all it has been really enjoyable just to be able to print and share.  thanks to all for adding their comments and tips on inkjet printing.   look for a post on how to use them for promos...i am not sure yet, but working on it!

both shots below are ideal senarios on lifestyle stuff that i stumble upon...or in the case of the fly fisherman, hunt down and shoot...long story.

hi all, had a few requests on how to shoot the subjects with back-lite light and here are some thoughts on that topic... wish i had some video to go along with this as it might be a bit hard to explain...

some tips:

best when the sun or light source has been diffused or soften a bit.  either the time of day, morning or afternoon...of the light source behind something that is helping.

very very conscience when composing the picture as to what the light is doing to the subject and how much harsh light is hitting the lens.  its a bit of a dance to get the light amount of light to be flaring off the subject and still not hitting the camera lens to hard.  there are hit or misses in this process.  i don't like to share my misses ;-)

use a light meter.  at least i know how the shadow should be properly exposed.  under a bit is always good, i can open it up in my raw processing.  in many cases, i know what my exposures for shaded side are going to be...at 100asa, 250th at f2.8 is close to it under many scenarios.  these will come easier the more you use this technique

don't expect blue skys behind the back-lite subject.  to me, that is a lot of the appeal to the image.

sometimes open heavy light behind the subject is tough.  if the subject can be back-lite, yet the immediate background still be a bit darker, makes for easier shooting.  the portrait of remi the runner below shows that technique with the trees behind him.

your subject still needs to have nice fill light on the face.  this will be easier and easier to see but might not come easy at first.  look for structures or other things tha tmight bounce light back.

here are a few pics of josh and aerial.  a bit extreme on the back-lite side, but fun! 

just one last post before i call it quits at the studio and head home for the weekend.  i have been trying to add bits of photography tips that might stray away from your obvious ones and post tips that would have helped me a great deal over the last few years.

this new posting is about how to manage your model releases.  maybe not the most glamorous posting topics but a very necessary one.  I shoot a lot of people, every week and like to keep track of it just in case i need to publish an image, have a client interested in licensing the image or if the image is going to a stock agency, they of coarse want the digital version of the release.

i am glad to say i have a new system that works very well for me.  when i am on a shoot, either a stock shoot, editorial shoot or a commercial assignment and i have an entire group of releases to manage, i lay them out on the cement and photograph each release, standing over it and cropping in the camera as tight as possible.  i usually just shoot it in jpg format so that i immediately have a digital and hard copy when i leave the shoot.  once at the studio, i crop it 8.5x11 at 150, run auto contrast on it, which tightens up the blacks and whites, save it as a jpg and pdf and i am done.  so much better than scanning.  if the shoot has a lot of models/people, i will also photograph them holding the release, so that i can always match them up the name weeks later when all is forgotten.

also as you can see below, i have a nice book with all my on location releases, 3 hole punched and ready to go to the file.  as you can see from the pile, things can catch up on you pretty fast.

just some ideas and wish i had a system like this a few years ago, would have saved me loads of time.

if your looking for a good release, i suggest this one: adult release(over 18 years of age)
minor release(17 and under, need parents signature)

was flipping though the recent issue of PDN and happen to see my image used for the IPN Stock Agency campaign advert, see below.  kinda funny because i never really understood the images that IPN selected as featured advert images.  there really never seems to be a connection to the message...but i am glad that they featured mine.  but the question is...does it actually mean that you as a photographer will see more stock sales from the features?  I doubt it but it certainly can not hurt.

a few more features below the IPN feature, including aurora's outdoor photographer feature and images used in jupiter's web site. 

hi all, kat asked me about my naming system and i responded to her saying it might not blow ya away, its simple, easy and works for me.

i started to do screen captures but after i was like 8 screen captures into it, i was like, its way easier than this!!  so here goes...

i have drives that are mirrored for back up and the name of the drive is the date of the first job shot... so the drive i am working on is called 2008-04-27.  i never fill the drive up all the way but always leave about 20 gigs on it for working room if and when i need to dig back into that drive...or i make room on it by deleting non-selects or dead projects.

so on 2008-04-27, i have folders based on what i am shooting: commercial, personal, stock, private-commisions.  in each folder are folders of the shoots, the name is the date and a title of the shoot.  for example:  2007-06-14-nineplus-summer-catalog.  You can see the sample screen capture, on the left you can see the folder names, in a folder called random stock on my production computer:


then once all the files are downloaded in their folder, i rename them the date and a 4 digit number, for example: 20080804_0020.jpg.   I always sort the date by year, month, day.  I dont think i have ever shot more than 9999 images on one assignment, or at least in one day.


after every file has been named, i do my selects for the client or for stock with 1 star and my favs/portfolio or other with 2 stars.  once i am done with the selects and edits, i then toss some general meta data on the files.  i have many templates saved for meta data but for the most part i w ill only use my one called "basic" which is contact info.


then copy it over to the backup drive, i can then format the used cards and i am good to go.  I will output the images to jpgs and run my action to a low res file on the selects if it was for a client or to a stock agency.

the only tricky part is when i need to look up a shoot from a few years ago, i need to remember what category the shoot falls, stock, commercial assignment, personal.

i also do like to add additional searching content in the meta data and if i feel like i need to start using a cataloging software like iview, i can drop all the raw files into an iview catalog and have it generate over night.  i just don't really need to look up files based on keyword in the studio.

hope this as helpful, but i told you, pretty simple!

just thought i would share my backdrop system, which i really dig on.  i used to spend tons of money on rolled paper for my backdrops... i switched to vinyl rolls which is great, because, they roll or fold up easy, they don't wrinkle, if they get dirty, i just wipe them down with a spray cleaner and they are as good as new.  plus have you shot with paper?  it sucks!

plus when most of my shoots are done, my backdrop looks like this on the floor...not a problem ;-)  i get all my vinyl at fabric stores...