Mona Lisa smiles...

Did a headshot of a young lady yesterday. Uncanny resemblance? You be the judge!

Is lighting THAT important?

You've heard all the arguments on both camps. They all tell their tale. The Photoshop experts will tell you that everything can be done in Photoshop. The older generation photographers will tell you that lighting is everything. Some will go as far as saying that Photoshop sucks!!!

Me? I've been straddling both camps for a long time now. I've at least 15 years of Photoshop experience, that makes me somewhat of a Photoshop expert. On the same tone, I have taught lighting classes on everything from models to products to food. So, I'm not pushover in that field either.

No, I'm not going to tell you all the typical excuses on why people hate using photoshop, such as, "I hate sitting behind the computer all day". That's quite baloney and photoshop does have its place in the new world of digital photography, whether you like it or not. However, in commercial shoots, lighting is key! Why?

Imagine. You are shooting commercial food photography. The Art Director is breathing down your neck. Each shot taken requires approval to either move on to the next item OR continual fiddling with the setup by the food stylist. To give you an idea, this back-and-forth process goes on for 50 shots and at times 100 shots, lasting several hours for the most important cover shot!

At this point of time, one cannot afford to spend 10-15 mins after each shot fixing the image in photoshop before showing it to the Art Director before proceeding to the next shot. No way, José. Your lighting setup will prove you to be the best or just a regular Joe Photographer.

Same goes to shooting a portrait session for an hour or two and you got 100 shots. You'll like to give the clients some proofs. Will you be retouching all 100 of the proofs before showing them to him/her? If your lighting is bad, do you think the client will buy more than the agreed images based on the proofs?

Just something we can all chew on and think about.

- MS

Food Photography for Birk's Restaurant

Shooting meat seems to have its good set of challenges in today's health conscious world. How do you shoot a rib eye, which is supposed to have fatty portions to entice the viewer without overdoing it, tipping a balance between alluringly delicious, and health.

One of the key lies in the positioning of the meat and the position of the light(s). Do not show too much fat smack in front and control the oil content. Using light to not fully expose the oil content (think light position and family of angles) but keep it subtly reflective to show the natural juice of the meat and not oil. That'll entice the viewer AND at the same time, display freshness and tenderness.

Now, dessert, on the other hand is easy as a cheese cake. People ordering desserts wants to be feel defenseless against the smooth decadence of chocolate, submit to their natural aphrodisiac qualities and smooth textures. Melting and swirling in sweet surrender.

Desserts have to look gorgeous, saturated and by the Gods, sexy! Oh yeah baby! To render those qualities, they have to be done in multitude of steps. First of which, is the smooth quality of light. They can't show as harsh of a texture like the entrées. They almost have to be done the same way as when I shoot models in a glamour setting. The smoothness of the light and the settings is extremely crucial here.

See all other images from the Birk's Restaurant.

- MS

Model Photography Workshop

"I'll help hold your reflector" is what a fellow photographer will nudge into my ribs when they see my modeling portfolio work. They are interested to work with gorgeous models but has nothing in his portfolio...yet.

It's a catch-22. You can't attract a 8/10 model to work with you if you don't have images of other 8/10 models in your portfolio and you can't have a portfolio full of 8/10 models if you never work with a 8/10 model!

So, how do you go from point A (zero portfolio, zero interest) to point B (beautiful models calling you to have you shoot them, and PAY YOU $550 while you're having your fun)?!?!

I suppose everything comes at a price. You can of course start by investing a lot of time working with the 5/10 models. It will take you some time and if you're lucky and have the charming personality of car salesman, you may coerce a 8/10 to work with you.

The alternative, is to find a good model photography workshop that you can get get some immediate air time with great models in a nice friendly location. They'll even sign your model release form while rubbing shoulders with you, handing off more of their friends to you.

While you are at it, you do also get to learn about lighting, how to work with models, communications, workflow, tips and tricks that you can't learn anywhere else.

It's no secret that I'm trying to put workshops together and one may think this is a shameless plug.

The truth is, this really isn't my main line of work where I'll make my millions. I love teaching, I love sharing and I love shooting models. And if I can get paid while doing what I'm passionate about, I'll be in heaven.

Workshop info provided here, http://www.soophotography.com/workshop/

These shots are done at Libby's dad's 300+ acre ranch in the east bay, a location that I'm contemplating on doing the model shoot workshop. There are full of wonderful spots, props and rustic background that will fill your portfolio to the brime with amazing landscape (location work) and model work in one.

On top of that, it's private and is only a mere 1.5 hrs away from most bay area cities.

When is the model photography workshop? It's still undecided. I'll let it swirl in my head a bit longer. Email me if you are interested. msoo (at) soophotography (dot) com

Of course, here is a thread to the SooCool Forum with all the images from that day.

- MS