Who said that hi-end lighting equipment has to be expensive? And who says the only way to shoot with fluorescent light is to use the flicker-free Kino Flo lights that can cost you thousands of dollars?
I began using my fluorescent lighting technique nearly 10 years ago, long before Kino Flo’s and Peter Hurley became popular. I have been asked to describe it so many times that I decided it was time to put together a few tutorials to show how to build it and how to use it. In this article, I am going to deal with “how-to use” the fluorescent studio lights. Read more…
You know the expression, “there is no such thing as bad publicity”? It’s certainly true in the case of Joe Klamar’s “bad” Olympic portraits. After getting the Internet talking about (and criticizing) the images earlier this month, Joe Klamar has been given an exhibition in NYC at the Powerhouse Arena. Here’s the description of the show:
Many of the photographs were first met with harsh criticism from a bevy of news sites and photo blogs quick to highlight the images’ alleged defects—citing the off-hand poses, the stressed lighting, the scarred backdrops—and labeled the work an affront to the elite status of the American Olympic athletic team.
Such criticisms miss the work’s powerful and nuanced compositions and display of personality. Here we see real individuals at the peak of their athletic career in ordinary and impromptu poses, sometimes playful, some quite intense, in an unplanned setting. You will not see world-class athletes like this anywhere.
The exhibition is set to kick off on July 27th to coincide with the London Olympics.
Image credits: Photographs by Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images
We Are Nature is an awesome portrait project by photographer Christoffer Relander of Raseborg, Finland. He used a Nikon D700 for in-camera multiple exposures and then made small contrast and tone adjustments in post for his surreal portraits. Read more…
Here’s a short video by PBS about Duluth, Minnesota-based street photographer Kip Praslowicz. Praslowicz talks about his work and his approach to shooting in his community.
Photographer Gloria Baker Feinstein recently moved due to some health issues her husband was dealing with. As part of the transition, the couple was forced to sell off some of their possessions in an estate sale. To cope with the emotional difficulty of parting with precious memories, Feinstein decided to shoot iPhone portraits of buyers as they left with her things — creating new memories as old ones left the door. Read more…
Everyday People is a photo project for Oklahoma newspaper Tulsa World by photographer John Clanton. The goal is to meet one new person in the community every day of the year, create a portrait of them, and display the image along with a short blurb about who they are. Clanton writes,
Looking at the 2012 calendar and trying to imagine getting a portrait every single day seemed daunting before I started. Photo Editor Christopher Smith and I refined the idea through several conversations at the end of last year. We picked a consistent, vertical composition, always using a 50mm lens and decided that the discipline of looking for a picture every single day was of utmost importance. I’m not allowed to stockpile pictures and then release them on a different day.
I’m not looking for people who stand out in a crowd. The majority aren’t famous or in positions of power. They’re just Everyday People, like me. They are your neighbors, your co-workers, your kids’ teachers, the guy who prepared your food or the people you drove past on your way to work. They are people who love their work or live for their past-times. They are people with plenty to say or just enough time for a picture. Through these portraits I’m getting to know the city.
Portrait photographer Peter Hurley gave this talk at the recent Google+ Photography Conference in SF. His training on headshots have made quite a splash in the photo world in the past year, and this free hour-long lecture is a great way to glean some tips for your work.
For his project titled Peep, Japanese photographer Koji Takiguchi aimed to share glimpses into the lives of his fellow countrymen by capturing triptychs showing them at work, home, and play. He photographed people ranging from office workers to security guards, photographing them on the job, resting at home, and engaging in their favorite pastime. Read more…
Blind Spot is a new photo project by photographer John Clang in which he had people pose for portraits with their eyes closed while a previously captured portrait was projected onto their faces. The resulting images fall somewhere in the uncanny valley. Read more…
Screamotron3000 is a creative photo booth hacked together by photographer Billy Hunt, who writes,
The Screamotron3000 is an converted boom box that takes a photo when you scream. Think Rube Goldberg meets the Wizard of Oz. By using a machine, I hope to offer a window through the inherently artificial process of portraiture into real human emotion.
It’s a brilliant way to cause inner turmoil for his subjects. On one hand, a scream is needed to activate the camera, but on the other hand, subjects have a natural desire to look presentable in photos. Read more…
