From the category archives:

Photoshoots

Photo Project Updates

October 23, 2008 · 0 comments

November is right around the corner and I’m posting an update on what Photos by Rowell is working on. At the top of the list is Sheree and Scott’s wedding photos. I’m going through each photo and they are turning out really well.

I’ve booked two other photoshoots:

Nathan & Riley Child Photography Portraits

I’m looking forward to working with these two kids. We’ll be working in their parents’ home and then moving to the neighborhood park to get some creative playground shots. Hopefully, the kids won’t notice me as much with the camera and act naturally but most importantly, listening to me and their parents to get the shots they want. For this I’ll be focusing on using the Canon 50mm 1.2L. I’m pretty excited to get some sweet child photography bokeh.

DJ Misha Urban Photography Portraits

Mid-November This project is currently on hold. I will have the pleasure of working with San Diego’s house Dj, DJ Misha. Just a little bio on Misha:

Born in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, DJ Misha relocated to the United States in 1991 and settled down in San Diego, California. Misha has held residencies at some of the finer clubs San Diego has to offer: Envy at The Ivy Hotel, Jack’s in La Jolla and Harneys Sushi in Old Town. He became the preferred dj for San Diego Euro Circle events, and was selected to play major fundraising events for the San Diego City Ballet and Rady Childrens Hospital.

For my own personal taste, I’ll be photographing the boats in the San Diego harbor with the downtown skyline as the backdrop. I’m also looking forward to photographing my friends and I for breakfast. The food better be great because I’ll be reviewing it here on my blog! Lastly, there will be some technology photographed and presented. You’ll see the hardware that this blog runs on. The backbone of the interwebs.

Sounds quite a lot to get done starting now through the end of November. I’m always looking for new ideas and projects so if you have any, comment it in!

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8 Photography Tips for Shooting Against the Sun

October 15, 2008 · 8 comments

Many times I have done wedding photography and portrait photography against the sun and depending on how you see this situation you can either get bad pictures or succeed and get creative pictures.

1. Use a lightmeter..

To get a sense of what exposure you will need to properly light your back lit subject

2. Use your on-camera flash

Pop that sucker and light up your model. You’ll at least get to see the person’s face.

3. Use an external flash (1, 2 or more..)

It will be a lot better than using your on-camera flash.. a lot more powerful too. But of course you’ll need something to trigger these, such as a pocket wizard.

4. Use a smaller aperture

Try to reduce how much the sun fills your scene. With the use of the on camera flash you can most likely get a decent shot this way. It can also create a nice effect on the sun.

5. Use a reflector

Become friends with the sun and reflect it back to your subject. Gold can create a nice effect but you can also use white to minimize the blindness to your model.

6. Don’t backlight

Turn your model so that the sun does not become a backlight. Have the sun light up your subject from an angle.

7. Photoshop

Play around with different settings in Photoshop to make it a little brighter, such as using Curves and Levels.

8. Turn it into a silhouette

Silhouettes always turn out beautiful. This is where your subject is back lit and turns black in the foreground

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Portrait Photography – Studio Portraits

October 7, 2008

**photos at the end of the post**

I had the pleasure of joining another photographer to do some portrait photography in his studio. Most of my portraiture is done on location outdoors because I love the scenary and the possibilities are endless. Another plus side is that I don’t have to spend that much money re-creating an outdoor scene indoors. A disadvantage to working outdoors is the act of controlling light to get the exact picture you want.

To change things around, my photography friend and I put up some background paper from Calumet that you can get for about $45. He had made his own background support that hung off the wall. Much cheaper than buying a heavy-duty background support which can cost over $100. You lose out on mobility though.

We worked on both white (high-key) and black background. What we found is that high-key portraits can get quite boring, especially if

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Shooting Against The Sun

September 25, 2008

One of the toughest challenges I face is shooting a subject against the sun. When I do have to shoot against the sun I’ll often opt for the silhouette. It’s very simple to get pleasing shot’s this way but the list is very short for creating “different” images. I love silhouette shots but I’ll get [...]

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Photoshoot With Taelur

August 21, 2008

I just recently finished a photoshoot downtown and I feel that I’m getting a good grasp on off camera lighting. What I love most about it is that there is minimal photoshop on my end.

I have every model hold up a grey card for me and

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Downtown San Diego Photoshoot With Tina

July 24, 2008

I had the pleasure of working with Tina Ontiveros from Model Mayhem, #735403. Shes a young beautiful woman just getting into modeling. I contacted her a week ago ask asked if she would be up for a photoshoot downtown and sure enough, we planned it. For this shoot I used a Canon 5d, 24-104mm and [...]

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