Welcome to Dance Media for Headshots. Check the link below for a few sample pieces and competitive pricing. The goal is to capture your best look with an unrushed service. High quality headshots should be updated annually or anytime you've changed your style or appearance. 

Dance Media covers the GTA area and suroundings, please don't hesitate to contact us through our website for booking details or any questions you may have. ex Whhat clothes to wear, hair or makeup required, location of the shoot, backgrounds or natural as there are some very key questions and decisions to be made prior to allow for a incredible experience with Dance Media.

Call on Dance Media, see just how easy we make this happen.

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Dance Media Headshots

Quick Street Photography Tips you may find useful

1.  Stop Moving

Do you treat your street photography as if you are taking a beautiful stroll through the city? There is nothing wrong with this of course, but it is very hard to walk, pay full attention and still capture quality street photos at the same time. You will often find yourself out of position when a moment happens and it is much easier to be noticed when you try to get yourself into position. Finally, people are usually moving in the opposite direction of you and so it can be tough to stop your motion enough to achieve a sharp shot while framing correctly at the same time. All of this takes a lot of coordination to pull off while moving.

The key is to slow down. Make a point to stop every few blocks and wait for a few minutes. See what happens. You want the subjects to come to you and not the other way around. Explore your surroundings in a detailed way and wait for things to unfold around you. You will be surprised at the amount of moments that will occur while you are just standing around.

2.  Pay Attention to the Eyes

If you want to improve your street photography (or portraiture) by a thousand percent then paying attention to a person’s eyes is the way to do it. People can be so skilled at hiding their emotions on their faces but their eyes will never lie. I see too many street photos with blank stares these days. Search for that hint of emotion in a person’s eyes and it will have a transformative effect on your photography.

In addition, direct eye contact can be extremely important. It creates a powerful connection with the subject. I usually try to avoid being noticed and so I often don’t aim for eye contact but sometimes waiting for a person to look at you is exactly what a photo needs.  The photograph will still be candid as long as you capture the subject in the moment that they first look at you and before they are able to react.

3.  Focus on Details

Street photography is not only about capturing crazy juxtapositions or fitting as many different people or objects into an elaborate frame. In fact, this is something that I see way too much. Often, it’s best to simplify your photos and search for the ‘little things’ – the tiny hints about life that everyone else seems to miss. Look at the details: a person’s hands, an expression, a piece of clothing, or a single object framed very close. Powerful ideas and emotions can be portrayed through the simplest of scenes.

4.  Shoot at ISO 1600

Digital cameras these days are amazingly good at high ISOs. If you are in bright sunlight or shooting still objects then you don’t need to shoot around ISO 1600, but for the rest of the time it is a good idea. I pretty much live in ISO 1600, 800 and 3200. Shooting with a high ISO will help you achieve sharper images by letting you to use a faster shutter speed and a smaller aperture, allowing for more of the scene to be sharp. As long as you are using a decent digital camera, you will quickly notice that shooting with a high ISO will create a much higher quality image, despite the extra grain.

Also, grain is beautiful! Just make sure to not brighten the exposure too much in post-production with a high ISO photo. That will ruin the photo. If you are shooting with a high ISO, exposing correctly is extremely important.

5.  Find shots without people

Street photography is often wrongly associated with being entirely about photographing people on the streets. Street photography is about people, or more specifically about human nature, but people don’t need to be present in the scene. There are an infinite amount of opportunities out there for epic street photos without people. You just have to look for them.

But let’s not confuse a street photograph without people with an urban landscape. An urban landscape is a straight shot of an urban environment, such as a simple shot of the Empire State Building. Street photos on the other hand say something about human nature. They have a message to them. Take the example of Layers of the City. This photograph represents the changing nature of Manhattan and particularly the neighborhood of the East Village, which is currently the fastest gentrifying neighborhood in the city. It portrays the progression from the seedy underbelly of the neighborhood to a sleek and sterile future. The shot says something about human nature and the nature of cities. It is not just a straight shot of a construction site.

6.   Shoot at Night with Artificial Light

Night is one of the most fun and rewarding times to shoot on the street. In general, I find street photos at night to be more moody and powerful than their counterparts taken during the day. And you don’t need to use a flash (although I do enjoy the flash look). I prefer to shoot without a flash because I love the colored and authentic look of artificial light sources and I want to take advantage of the beautiful qualities of these lights.

The trick to shooting street photography at night without a flash is to find bright areas and wait there (and shoot at ISO 1600 or 3200). Use glowing storefront signs and hang out near streetlamps. It will be worth it.

7.   Like A Fine Wine

Street photography is like wine; it ages extremely well. This idea is something that you need to pay attention to when out shooting. Think about what is going to change. Focus on current trends or things that won’t be around in 2, 3, 10 or 20 years. For example, take a look at this 2012 shot of five people reading paper on the subway. This is not my favorite image by any means but it is going to age well extremely quickly. In 3 years, capturing an image like this may be impossible when almost everyone is using e-readers or their phones. This idea makes this image much more fascinating to me.

And this is only a small sample. The exciting thing about street photography is that for each of these seven “secrets,” there are dozens more. What other tips and tricks do you use to improve your street photography.

Hope these tips are useful and remember, just keep experimenting and clicking away.

Dance Media Ltd

How to Shoot Better Landscape Photography

Hands down, the number one question is how to make better landscape images. Many fall into the new-gear trap thinking that when I upgrade to some new DSLR then I’ll be able to take better pictures. They buy the gear and suddenly the wind drops from their sails and their images still lack impact. So let’s talk about some things you can do to make your landscape photos pop.

1. Fanatically Chase the Best Light

What is good light you say? There is really no such thing as bad light, but it’s hard to create images with impact during the middle of the day when the sun is high. Midday the sun is harsh and it washes out colors and texture with heavy dark shadows.

The best time to get out and shoot everyday is when the sun is low in the sky because it creates more interesting side lighting that gives the subject more depth and scale. The light is much warmer creating softer highlights with better texture detail. This low warm light is also near sunrise and sunset and those are obvious times to add amazing colors to a landscape.

Another great place to look for amazing light is at the edges of storms. When a storm is passing through, the clouds can break up allowing the sun to peek through creating very dramatic scenes with well lit foregrounds against a dark sky. The air is clear and the ground is wet reflecting more of the colorful light from the sun. These kinds of storms move quickly and the light can change in a moment, so you have to be ready.

Shooting during off hours of the day is tough because those are very anti-social times. The first part of the day just after sunrise is really early and most of us still have to work five days a week. In the evening, the best light is going down right when dinner is served and it’s hard to leave your family behind and return to eat your dinner cold.

2. Don’t be Lazy

Getting good light in a landscape shot is the same difference between shooting a model with and without makeup. You have to work to get to these locations early in the morning and late in evening. At sunrise, that means hiking out in the dark to get on location to catch sunrise. That means flash lights, an extra layer of clothing and a stiff brew of coffee to keep you awake through the wee hours of the morning.

Patience is also key. You might be hiking during the day and find the best view looking down Yosemite Valley but it’s midday and the light sucks. To get this shot you need the fortitude to sit there half the day for the sun to get low and possibly put up a nice sunset for you. The light may not do what you want, so are you willing to stay another day to try again? If you do, your shot won’t be just another Tunnel View.

3. Know Your Landscapes

There is this odd grass is greener somewhere else mindset all of us fall into. We believe we have to travel somewhere to get a great landscape shot. The truth is, you know your area like the back of your hand and if you don’t, get in your car and explore. A vast majority of my best images were all taken within 75 miles of my home. Keep in mind that the whole world doesn’t get to look at your countryside daily. So when it’s boring and repetitive for you, it’s always new and exciting for your admirers.

When travelling, do your research before you get there. Google Earth is my number one go-to app for researching locations. You can go a step further and use The Photographers Ephemeris which plots where the sun and moon will rise and set. This is a lifesaver for knowing when the sun will hit a peak and from what angle. I can find out when the sun will go down behind a ridgeline to shoot a waterfall. Being armed with this research will dramatically boost the number of keepers and and your fans will think you’re a rockstar.

4. Don’t be a Chicken

Have you ever gotten to an awesome landscape and failed to get the shot because you didn’t cross a creek or you didn’t want to lay down in the mud to get an awesome new perspective. Often times changing our point of view can completely change a composition. I’m not suggesting you do anything dangerous, only you try pushing yourself beyond your typical comfort zone to really work for that shot. When I shoot moving water, inevitably, you will find me standing in the middle of the creek so I pack waders with me to stay dry.

Perhaps to get a clear view of a rainbow you need to get down on the ground and lay in some mud to see around some brush. If you have a fear of the dark, make steps to work past that fear so you can stay out past blue hour and not be afraid to walk back to your car in the dark with a flashlight. Perhaps the mosquitoes are acting like Africanized Bees. Be prepared with bug spray and swat a few so you can get the shot regardless. Landscape photography is often uncomfortable, slightly dangerous and downright boring, but if you’re willing to work past these challenges, the results will create incredible impact.

5. Use Different Focal Lengths

For most people, when they think of a landscape, they think of big expanses shot using a wide-angle lense. Try something different by shooting with longer focal lengths. This allows you to really focus in on specific details. You can see past all the distractions and you get to give the best part of the scene the whole stage.

Wide-angle tends to make distant objects like mountain peaks feel distant and small. Telephotos will bring that peak in close and will compress all the objects together making them feel bigger and giving them a much greater impact.

You can still get great impact shooting wide. Many incorrectly believe that wide angle lenses are good for “getting it all in”. The opposite is true. Since you can get more in the shot, it allows you to get much closer to the subject filling the frame with more of what you want having fewer distractions.

Final Words

If you struggle with creating dull and insignificant images, the recurring theme through all of these tips is simply to do something new that you’re aren’t doing now. Growing your craft is not a 5-step checklist, it’s a process that takes time. Get out of your computer chair and experiment, keep making mistakes, and don’t forget to have fun! For me each new image is the thrill of the hunt. I love to seek the unknown and share it with the world. Images created by overcoming the biggest hurdles with the most blood, sweat and tears always move people the most.

dancemedia.org

Fundraiser for the Seasons Centre for Grieving Children

March's Giveback from Dance Media Dance Media

"Glam It Up Barrie" on Facebook

"Acts of Kindness"

This past weekend Dance Media had the opportunity to get involved with a fundraising event in Barrie Ontario held at the Army Air force, Navy & Marines Club called "Glam It Up Barrie" created and lead by Shakir Barmare to support the Season's Centre for Grieving Children. Shakir, the main organizer of the event which is driven by volunteers, brings together hair and makeup artists along with professional photographers to create a one day "Glam" session for all the attendees whom purchased a ticket to raise funds and awareness of the Centre. In return, the volunteers have an opportunity to not only show off their skill to their clients but to network with other artists and build their brand identity as well. Typically a photographer requires a hair and makeup artists for their customer... 

What is "Glam It Up Barrie" you may ask?

Glam It Up Barrie now in its second year is a community driven fundraising event all to support the Seasons Centre for Grieving Children, a non profit organization located in Barrie which relies on events just like this one. Tickets are purchased on-line as well as at the door with proceeds going to the Centre. 

It was a long but very humbled day for us as we were out the door at 8am and would spend the next 8 hours capturing perfectly prepared individuals not returning until 8:30pm.

Below is some info about the Centre and the amazing work they continue to do for the kids and there families since 1995. 

The Season's Centre for Grieving Children

Since 1995, Seasons Centre for Grieving Children has been providing peer to peer support for children between the ages of 4 and 24 years who are grieving the death or life threatening illness of an immediate family member. The Centre is founded on the belief that every child deserves the opportunity to grieve in a supportive and understanding environment,

There are no fees for our services. Children are able to attend programs regardless of their family’s financial situation. Seasons Centre for Grieving Children receives no government funding and relies on the generous support of our community 

Thank you to all the individuals involved for making this day so special to be a part of and to the Seasons Centre, thank you for being there for our community. Be sure to get involved next year and attend this event and show your support and we'll capture you in the spotlight and "Glam On".

Thank you

Stephen Plumley

Dance Media Ltd Image Library from our day Click to view our Photo library from the event

Taking Long Exposures

It seems to me that we live in a world orientated to a digital generation demanding instant gratification. This extends to photography, encouraged by the prevalence of camera phones and Instagram type apps. How many photographers, when they come across a beautiful scene, just stop and snap a photo with a camera phone and then move on?

Long exposure photography is different. It demands patience, an appreciation of beautiful light and a deep understanding of composition. It is as much about the mind-set of the photographer as it is about the subject. It’s not brash or flashy – you rarely see long exposure photographers use techniques such as high dynamic range (HDR) photography or adding texture layers.

What is long exposure photography? There is no precise definition. I think of it as involving shutter speeds of ten seconds or longer, but I’m sure some photographers will be thinking in terms of shutter speeds of a minute or more. But the aim is the same – to create beautiful and surreal images by leaving the shutter open long enough to record anything that moves within the landscape, such as water, as a blur.

That’s why most long exposure photography tends to take place along the coast or near moving water. It creates an interesting subject, helped by natural features such as rocks and islands, and man-made ones like piers and jetties.

Painting with light is also a form of long exposure photography.

It's all about the focus, learn it and apply it !

All pictures of people soar when you focus in on your subject’s eyes, and that’s no different with Christmas photos. It’s critical to compose the image with as little headroom and dead space on the sides as possible, so the image is more about the faces and the eyes than anything else. The rest of the décor will filter into the image on its own. In our photographs, always try and nail the eyes to be on the same plane, and this is effective for this kind of photo as it shows a subtle unity among family or group shots. 

You should always use a flash with most indoor Christmas photos, but use a detachable flash (or an angled flash) and bounce the light off the ceiling or walls and don't be afraid to review your picture and then re set it. Remember, the ambient light levels will be raised by the Christmas lights (and possibly candles too), and you don’t want the vibrant colors washed out by the flash. And as always, don't miss those special moments and get in the picture yourself if it's your family picture, have a tripod handy and a remote trigger and don't take just one as kids can be the hardest to capture the right expression and the eyes.

Steve
Dance Media Ltd

We've all seen these shooters !

Just read on Facebook the other day how the social networking site has suddenly turned into a magazine – poets, writers and photographers after every few posts. While it is a great thing to share your creativity with everyone, some people just do not know where to stop. For instance, budding photographers who, no matter their age or location, always do these 11 annoying things on Facebook.

1.Tag 50 people in one photo to get likes and comments.

So you get a notification about being tagged in your friend’s photo – and you click on it to find dozens of other people being tagged in it too, which is essentially some random shot of a bird or flowers or something equally lame. You give one sympathy like, untag yourself and move on. This is a warning sign that your friend is going to go into the amateur photographer mode soon.

2.Create a “XYZ Photography” page on Facebook.

The most common annoying thing photographers on Facebook do is to create a photography page in their own name on Facebook. Even if they had probably just started out fresh and taken up the art as a hobby. With 50 average pictures in their computer to boast of. Sigh! Or they stand in a room full of people and can't stop shutter bugging, literally by taking a rapid fire barrage approach of 10 pics and just maybe their hoping for 1 decent one of each person.

3.Hound every person they know to like the page.

This is the most annoying part of having an amateur photographer for a friend. It does not matter if you guys have not spoken in years, they are going to pop up on your chat and be like, “Hey! What’s up? Please like my page “Douchebag Photography”… thanks! : - )” And they are not going to rest till you do it. So just get it done and over with!

4.Hound every person they know to tell their friends to like the page.

The next level of douchebaggery comes with them getting in touch with you once again. You’ve already ‘liked’ their page, but no – that’s not enough. Could you also please-pretty-please spread the word to the people in your friend list too? Of course, why not? Why don’t you effing pay me a salary for being your public relations officer?

5.Create a fancy watermark and post it on every picture.

Because they are so effing brilliant, magazines and other photographers are dying to get their hands on these works of art. At least that’s what these shutterbugs think. How to avoid such theft? Put more effort into creating a watermark than they do in mastering their photography skills – and paste them on every effing photo. The least it does is give these poor souls a sense of achievement.

6.Upload at least one ‘artistic’ selfie for a profile picture.

Every wannabe photographer has at least one profile picture they have taken of themselves – a DSLR selfie, if you must. This is to do two things – one, show the world that they have a fancy camera, and secondly, show the world that they can use it to take their own pictures too!

7.Think that pictures of poor/old people in black and white are the epitome of great photography.

Amateur Photography Lesson 101: If you have not taken high contrast photos of tired, wrinkled and depressed old/poor people in black and white, you have not done anything worthwhile with your expensive camera. Every wannabe shutterbug will have at least one photo of such a subject in their extensive albums.

8.Think that macro is just the bee’s knees. Literally.

Amateur Photography Lesson 102: Macro the shit out of all the bugs in and around your location. Butterflies, caterpillars, bees – any and every insect become subjects of this budding lensman’s camera. If bugs could talk, they’d probably be saying…

9.Edit the shit out of the simplest pictures.

Amateur Photography Lesson 103: Take a picture, Photoshop it till it barely looks like the original and take all the credit for some amazing photography skills. What is up with THAT? They really need to calm down and go easy with the editing tools.

10.Overthink their captions.

So you take a picture of a line of ants scurrying away – and give a 300 word exposition on hard work and discipline as the caption? Really? They are ants – taking their food back to their anthill. That’s it. Don’t overthink it – it comes off as incredibly pretentious, dude.

11.   Flood your newsfeed with pictures.

Remember #2 and #3? This will lead to a chain reaction – and before you know it, your newsfeed is flooded with photos of the aforementioned “Douchebag Photography” that you were not even interested in to begin with. Open your Facebook and you are like –

The remedy? Unlike their page, unfriend them, block them – or do something more permanent than that… to their precious camera.

Clearly One Choice for Newmarkets Ward 6

Click here to find out more What is the definition of character? Sure, there is the one that is in the dictionary but what is the REAL meaning of character?

The Head Shot, using your shoulders to control the image

When taking head shot and upper body portraits of people one simple posing tip that I’ve picked up is to angle the shoulders of your subject rather than to have them even or squared in your shot.

While the shoulders might not seem like an important aspect of a portrait they can actually set the tone for an image as they’re the widest part of your subject and they are visually what the main point of focus for your image (the head) is sitting upon.

Generally speaking, angling the shoulders slightly gives you shot balance and helps lead your viewer’s eye into the shot towards your main focal point. It also stops your subject seeming out of proportion as it lessons the width of the shoulders slightly.

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Getting this effect might mean actually getting your subject to lean in one direction or another or it could simply mean getting them to turn their body a little so you’re not photographing them directly front on. Another technique can be to frame your subject slightly off center so that one shoulder is actually out of the frame.

Some believe that in positioning your subjects shoulders make the one closest to camera the lower of the two – but I’ve found that you can get an interesting effect by doing it the other way around too.

Of course – this isn’t a hard and fast rule and sometimes the completely front on symmetrical shot can leave a shot can have a very powerful (and often confronting) impact upon your readers also. So as always – experiment with posing your subject in a variety of ways and see what works best for you and your subject.

dancemedia.org

Practice and prepare the same shot multiple times and see what happens

Jim Harmer of ImprovePhotography.com

Dance Media shared this amazing article:Visit DanceMedia.org for more

Athletes would never consider showing up to a game without having practiced, so why is it that most photographers shoot for the “wall-hanger” photo every time they go out without ever practicing new techniques? Consider applying these new workouts in your photography routine and you will improve your skills and creativity.

1. The EXIF Drilldown

In my photography workshops, I often show my portfolio to introduce myself before the class begins. After showing a few pictures, someone will inevitably raise their hand and ask, “How did you shoot that one?” I tell them the answer, but then I show them how to practice guessing camera settings so they will know what to use in any situation.

The very best way to shoot like a pro is to analyse the work of the pros, and Flickr is just the place to look. Most photographers probably know that cameras save information about what camera settings were used to take a photo, and the information is saved in the jpeg image file. Some websites, such as Flickr, make this information easily viewable so photographers can see how other photographers created a photo.

To view this information on Flickr, find a photo and click the small text link on the top right of the screen that reads the name of the camera that shot the picture. Clicking this link will bring up a new page showing all of the camera settings the photographer used.

This photography workout simply requires going to Flickr or any other photo sharing website, finding good photos, and then carefully reviewing the EXIF data from the pictures. Ask intrinsically why the photographer chose those settings and what camera settings could change in order to improve the photograph.

When this photography exercise is implemented, the question, “How did he take that picture?” is asked much less often. With practice, knowing the correct camera settings is easy.

2. One Shot

Most photographers take tens of thousands of pictures over the course of a year, but only a handful of those photos really stand out enough to make their way to your portfolio of best images. Many good images may be captured during each time shooting, but rarely is an image captured that is truly stunning.

While all photographers understand this fact, their photography techniques rarely reflect it. Most photographers shoot hundreds of images and hope that some of them reach the level of quality necessary to make it into the portfolio.

Though this method of never missing the moment has some merit, it also teaches photographers that if the first or second photo of a scene does not turn out, it is acceptable to simply forgive and forget the mistakes and move on to something else. Therefore, this straight-forward exercise is designed to work that bad habit out of photographers: Go out and shoot, but do not return home with more than one photo. Click the shutter more times, yes, but delete each photo if it is not perfect.

Implementing this photography workout will teach photographers not to give up on a shot until it is perfect.

3. Ten Shots, One Subject

This workout works almost the opposite of the second exercise, but it has a similar purpose—keep shooting to capture the perfect shot.

To practice this technique, find one subject and work to capture ten photos of that same subject before leaving. I recognized the need for this exercise while teaching my photography students landscape photography in Naples, Florida. We went to shoot the famous Naples Fishing Pier, but, not to my surprise, all of the students set up their tripods at the exact same spot immediately upon arriving at the beach. Their photo included all of the pier and the sunset behind it. This was a perfectly reasonable composition, but the students had a difficult time thinking of new ways to photograph the pier in an interesting way.

I asked the students to all take 10 different shots of the pier. They struggled at first, but eventually ended up with beautiful photos. They photographed tiny details on the pier, captured photos of the water splashing up against the pier pilings, and shot the pier as a silhouette against the sunset. Soon the students discovered their initial photo of the subject was not quite as strong as the photos they took as they forced themselves to try new things.

When something captures your eye, don’t leave until you have shot that same subject in ten different ways.

As you practice your photography skills rather than simply shooting and hoping to improve, you will feel more confident in your ability to come out of any shoot with creative and technically-correct photos.

Camera Flash Blow Out-How to avoid it !

Flash blowout is an inevitable problem for anyone with a basic point-and-shoot or entry model digital SLR. Because you don’t have many settings that allow you to control the intensity of the flash coming out of your camera, the flash is oftentimes too bright for the situation you are trying to photograph. Add in the fact that many point-and-shoot models don’t allow you to zoom in that far, and you end up too close to your subjects to reduce the effect of your flash.

So what’s a budding photographer supposed to do? The following tips won’t make flash photography as easy as owning a professional setup, but they will help you innovate in tricky situations. Try these out and see if you can’t beat the flash blowout blues once and for all.

Zoom In And Crop Your Photos

There’s a reason your images are too bright. You’re too close to your subject. I know you need to get close to your subject to fill the frame (you’ve been paying attention, haven’t you?), but it gets to be problem when your camera’s flash destroys the image. Here’s what you need to do.

Take a few steps away from your subject and zoom in as much as you can. Try to fill the frame with your subject’s face, but realize that you will probably have to do some cropping in Photoshop or another paint program later on. That’s fine because most new point-and-shoot cameras have plenty of megapixels for resolution. You should be able to do quite a bit of cropping without losing any of the important details.

Try To Adjust The Settings On Your Flash

Some point-and-shoot cameras and digital SLRs will allow you to make some small adjustments to the intensity of your flash. Go ahead and play with these, trying to reduce the flash as much as possible. The basic idea is this. The more you can reduce your flash, the closer you can get to your subjects without destroying your colors and turning everything white.

If You Can, Try To Increase The Light Nearby

Just turning a few lights on can stop flash blowout in its tracks. You won’t have to stand nearly as close to your subjects to get the flash to work properly. Just try to reposition your subject somewhere near a bright source of light. You can then use your flash as it was properly intended – to eliminate unwanted shadows and improve the overall lighting in the situation.

The following goes without saying, but it’s important to mention anyway. Always be courteous when you want to turn on a few light at someone else’s house. Not everybody is as keen on this as you might be. Get permission, use the lights for a little while, and then turn them off so everyone can enjoy the party.

Experiment With Bouncing Your Flash Off Of Some White Cards Or Mirrors

Not too many people know about this, but it can produce some pretty professional looking results. Instead of simply aiming your flash directly at your subjects, bring along a white card and try to bounce your onboard flash off of it. This dampens the flash, spreads it out, and makes your subjects look like they are being photographed in a more natural light.

I’ve found that this works best when I am in a corner and my subjects are directly in front of me. The corner reflects the light very efficiently, producing an even illumination all around. Of course, all of this requires practice, and no two corners are alike. Differently colored walls return different kinds of light when you bounce a flash off of them. It pays to spend some time experimenting before you go to the party.

Diffuse Your Flash

It also helps to spread out your flash and make it less intense by using a semi-transparent white material that you place in front of it. A surprising variety of materials will work just fine. One of my favorites is a single square of toilet paper. Just place it over your flash and watch the magic. The light from your flash will look much more natural.

There’s another thing I like about this approach. You can vary the intensity of your flash by using thinner or thicker materials for your diffuser. Try a paper towel instead of using a toilet paper square. Try two toilet paper squares stacked on top of one another. Experimentation will only lead to better photographs. It’s like I always say. If you can’t control your flash from the inside, control it from the outside!

I can’t wait to see a huge improvement in your night time photos. Send a few of them my way, and tell me which tricks you used to get them to turn out. If any of you are experimenting with bouncing your flash or using different diffusers, let me know about them.

www.dancemedia.org Dance Media

Photographers / Videographers are kinda Car Dealerships !

Photoshoots are kind of like cars.
Photographers are kind of like car dealerships.

People often want me to take their photos for cheap, thinking it will look like the expensive photos I take.

They think I just sell cars and that all cars are the same.

But sometimes I sell Ferrari and sometimes I sell Honda's.

My ferrari has room in the budget for:

• Me, my eye, my time, my talent
• My gear and equipment
• A talented hair/makeup artist
• Props to build sets along with a talented prop stylist
• Catering to keep my subjects happy
• An awesome assistant to make things move smoothly and efficiently
• Extra rental gear. Lots and lots of fancy lights and crap
• A digital tech to run computers, tethering, backing up files, etc.
• Location, location fees, insurance, permits, etc.
• A producer to handle and manage all production and logistics
• A retoucher to “finish” the images… skin, color, hair, etc.
• a fancy web gallery to see everything
• There can be more but you get the idea

My honda has room in the budget for:

• Me, my eye, my time, my talent, my passion
• My gear and equipment
• Maybe one assistant
• That’s about it.

Of course I sell cars in between too. There’s a full range of cars.

But next time you have the budget for a beat-up Honda, don’t think it’s going to look like a Ferrari.

Dance Media

Creating Beautiful Shots using only natural lighting-No Flash (Great Tips)

For me, using flash can be the most efficient way to create a high-quality portrait. There’s nothing like it for an editorial shoot when you need that combination of full lighting control, minimal shooting time, and predictable results. Sure, you have to know what you’re doing to make it come together like that. But that ability comes with knowledge and experience. Mastering flash, means mastering your light in any situation. Sometimes, however, there is beautiful light to be found, just waiting there for you to use it. Natural and constant ambient light can be your best friends if you have a little time and flexibility with the environment and your subject.

Constant light, as opposed to flash/strobe lighting, will allow you to see and adjust its effect on your subject and the environment in real-time. This is a great way to learn about lighting placement and this knowledge and experience will certainly carry over into your flash portraiture. As I like to say, "light is light," meaning the principles of lighting a subject and their environment are essentially the same whether the light source is a quick "flash" or a constant illumination. The main difference is that the flash is capable of producing a more intense light but with too short of a duration for the photographer to see the effects of its position on the subject in real-time. With constant lighting, you can casually move the lights and your subject around and know instantly how the changes will affect the portrait you’re making. With a few test shots to check exposure, you’re good to go.

Lighting Setups

Natural Light. Window light as just about the most beautiful light you can find when the conditions are right. It can serve as a huge softbox and be manipulated with any combination of window dressings such as blinds and curtains. Simply place your subject nearby the window and let the light create much of the portrait’s drama. I like to position the subject so that there is plenty of shadow to one side, providing many options for classic portraiture looks.

Window light narrowed with curtains. ISO 800, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/80 sec.

Household Lights. You can also make great use of simple household lamps. I like to remove the shades off the room lights and utilize them as bare bulb light sources. To start off, just position the main light in front and to one side of your subject, preferably several inches higher than her head. This will give you a classic lighting pattern to work with. A second light may be placed farther back from the subject and serve as a back light or kicker which will add dimension.

Setup consisting of two household lamps, minus the lamp shades. Kicker is behind Kelly and main lamp is almost directly in front of her, just to camera right. ISO 800, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec.

Camera Settings

My general advice for any indoor shooting is to think "fast and wide." Your initial camera settings should be a balance of the highest ISO possible that will still provide acceptable noise levels for your purposes, the widest aperture your lens will allow, and the fastest workable shutter speed. Of course, each of these controls are interrelated and integral to overall exposure, so you’ll have to make some adjustments, and concessions, for the environment you’re working in and the effect you’re trying to achieve in your shots.

Fortunately, most DSLRs are now capable of low noise even when using high ISO speeds, so most room lighting and even low natural light won’t be a problem for you. But even if your camera happens to produce lots of noise at higher ISOs, that isn’t necessarily a big concern. Either leave the noise as is, or bring some of it down in post-processing using your choice of available noise reduction techniques. Many photographers are actually artificially adding noise BACK into their images in order to reproduce the look of film, or otherwise reduce the super-clean, slick, digital look coming out of the camera. Simple advice: Don’t worry about the noise unless it gets in the way of the image you’re trying to create.

Another thing that will really help with achieving beautiful portraits in lower lighting situations is a fast lens. By "fast" we’re referring to a lens with a wide aperture of at least f/2.8. The wider the aperture, the more light the lens allows to pass through in a given unit of time. This will give you more freedom with your ISO settings (as they won’t have to be so high to compensate for less light coming in through the lens), and faster shutter speeds (as they won’t have to be so low to compensate for less light coming in through the lens). Lenses with wider apertures also have the capability of shallow depth-of-field, which can greatly add to the interest and mystique of your portraiture.

Shutter speed is an important consideration not just because of its effect on overall exposure, but also because of potential blur with lower speeds. As with ISO however, the effect of supposedly less-than-optimal shutter speeds is what you make it. You might find an occasional blurry image makes a rather artistic statement. Every portrait doesn’t have to be sharp as a tack.

Another household light bulb setup, featuring Chris. Bare household light bulb off to camera left illuminating her on one side and the background at the same time. Main light is coming in from camera right. ISO 800, 85mm, f/1.8, 1/60 sec.

So, with those factors in mind, you might want to try the following exposure combination as a starting point and adjust according to your needs:

• Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
• Aperture: f/2.8 (or the widest possible for your lens)
• ISO: 800
• Shutter Speed (target): 1/100 sec. or higher.

In Aperture Priority mode, your camera will automatically set the shutter speed for you while you control everything else. You’ll have to pay attention to your shutter speed to make sure it isn’t falling so low as to create unwanted blurring. Again, these are just starting points. With a stationary pose and a steady hand, I’ve managed hand-held shutter speeds as low as 1/15 sec. to produce good results. You might also want to try your camera’s Manual mode to maintain full control of your settings. If your lighting conditions are going to be fairly static, I’d recommend it.

Also, you will most likely benefit from shooting in your camera’s RAW (NEF) format so critical adjustments, like white balance, exposure, and contrast can be made easily and with minimal loss of information in post-processing. Although white balance settings aren’t actually imposed on the RAW file, you can set WB as you wish during shooting in order to get an idea of what the final image might look like. Plus, a chosen WB setting will tell your RAW conversion/processing software what color temperature and tint settings to best start off with for each image.

Window light illuminates Satu. ISO 800, 50mm, f/4, 1/200 sec.

Post-Processing

Aside from the creative post-processing possible with your ambient light images, there are some things you might want to address in initial post:

White Balance: Not all light sources produce the same color temperatures. Despite what they look like to our eyes, the camera will record various types of household lighting (florescent, tungsten, daylight balanced) and natural light (sunset, cloudy, shade) as producing different color casts. So, if you are shooting a portrait using a bright tungsten light as your subject’s main light, but you have a strong window light coming through in the background, you might have an undesirable color mix to deal with.
Fortunately, you can correct these types of color mismatches in post-processing by making a general white balance setting choice in your software, and selectively altering the offending colors in specific parts of the image. If this isn’t something you’d like to worry about, then don’t. The colors might be acceptable just the way they are. If not, you always have artistic color altering effects and even black and white conversion options. So, it’s all good.

Noise Issues: I personally like a little noise in my images most of the time. But if you had to use very high ISO settings to get your shots, and have the need to bring some of the noise down, there are a number of good built-in, stand-alone, and plug-in software options to handle this. I will occasionally use the noise reduction tools in Lightroom or my Noise Ninja plug-in in Photoshop, for example.

Natural and ambient light photography indoors can be a great way to learn the finer points of lighting your portraits. The actual experience for you and your subject is also worlds apart from the strobe and studio effect of working with flash. Unlike outdoor shooting, indoor work without flash can introduce problems having to do with lower lighting situations. Using some to of the advice above, you should be able to handle the challenges of low-light portraiture and come away with great-looking images.