Introduction to Studio Lighting

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Teddy

This is a great intro to studio lighting. If you’ve got a formal film or photography education or have been on the job for more than a few years, the content may be a little rudimentary to you, but it’s till good. Joey says “and whatnot” too much for my taste, but it’s a good lecture nonetheless.

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2011 Holiday Greeting Cards

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Teddy

Colorado got it’s first snowfall today, and you know what that means. That’s right, Halloween is just a few days away.

It also means that it’s time to start thinking about your holiday card ideas. May I suggest custom family portraiture on beautifully designed die cut cards like this:

Holiday Luxe Cards

Or maybe you’d prefer to choose from a collection of folded greeting and flat photo cards for this year’s holiday greeting:

Folded Greeting and Photo Cards

Okay, maybe you’re a traditionalist and would prefer to give out Christmas tree photo ornaments like this:

Christmas Ornaments

I also have dozens and dozens of holiday slim line cards to choose from, including Hanukkah designs:

 

Slim Line Holiday Cards

Whatever your preference, I have a holiday card for you. Call today to schedule a photo session to create a lasting memory that will be much more than a typical holiday greeting. You can also order many other photo products including canvas wraps and framed portraits so that you can display your custom photographs all year long.

Schedule your session today!

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New Professional Photoshelter Portfolio Site

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Teddy

I finally made the plunge into the world of hosted web solutions for photographers. There are dozens out there, but PhotoShelter is one of the best. In the end it came down to them or Zenfolio. Honestly, I still really haven’t made up my mind completely. I’ve got a 30 day refund guarantee with PhotoShelter so I’m going to give it a shot. You can find me by clicking Portfolio Site in the menu above or by going to http://www.teddycarroll.photoshelter.com. Here’s a screencap:

Teddy Carroll Photography Photoshelter

Zenfolio is still an option because the e-commerce section uses one of my favorite labs to fulfill print orders. If I start to sell a good number of prints, it will probably make sense to move to them, even though I really like the design options with PhotoShelter better.

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2010 Holiday Greeting Cards

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Teddy

It’s time to start thinking about those annual holiday cards. With only a few more days until Halloween, November is just around the corner. And that means its time to start planning for the holidays. For many of you, that means deciding what cards to send to family, friends, and business associates. Let Teddy Carroll Photography help you by creating a unique portrait of you, your family, or even your family pet.

Holiday Greeting Cards

Don’t wait until the last minute. Contact Teddy Carroll Photography today to schedule a sitting for your 2010 Holiday Cards.

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Shooting Food with Natural Light

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Teddy
Breakfast and Talk. Egg, Ham, and Cheese on an English Muffin

Nikon D300 w/ 35mm, f/5.6 @ 1/15, ISO 400

Shooting food can be a surprisingly complicated task. Many of the best food photographers spends hours setting up studio shots. Key lights, fills, accents, light modifiers, reflectors, mirrors, and anything else that can contribute to a beautiful shot are employed. The shots often look “perfect”. Perfectly composed, lighted, and shot. Think catalogs and product packaging.

Others, however, take a different approach: natural light. They use only natural sun light and a few light modifiers and reflectors to get what they are looking for. They shoot outside in open shade or in studio with plenty of diffused light from north- or south-facing windows. The food is often ethereal looking and seems to be more work of art than edible creation. Sometimes shadows dominate. They also tend to be more rustic in nature. Think Dutch Masters meets Betty Crocker.

Which is better?

As with anything else in photography, it all depends on the situation and what you plan to say with a particular shoot.

The shot above is 100% natural light from a kitchen window to the back left and a small, white cardboard reflector to fill in the front side of the sandwich. I wanted to emphasize the texture of the English muffin so back lighting was in order. I didn’t want heavy shadows so diffuse light from a south-facing window was in order. Check on both. It was overcast this morning so I had to go up to ISO 400 to get the shot. Even at that, it still required a 1/15th exposure. White balance was with the Cloudy preset to warm things up and enhance the homey feel of the shot.

The same exposure may have been possible with a large softbox and reflectors, but I don’t think I could’ve captured the same naturalness of the shot.

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$6.70

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Teddy
First Polaroid in over 20 Years

First Polaroid in over 20 Years

$6.70. That’s how much this picture cost, but it’s worth every penny. I am so happy to shoot Polaroids again. I just got a shipment of film from ImpossibleProject.com, a company who purchased all of Polaroids old stock and will soon be creating new film.

Why so much? I bought two Polaroid cameras at an ARC thrift store last week, a One Step Job Pro 2 and a Spectra. The total outlay was about $67. Each of the 10 exposures equals $6.70.

I bought them as is and had no way of knowing if they worked until the film showed up. This is because Polaroid film has a battery in each film pack instead of in the camera so you can’t tell if a camera works until you have film. I brought the cameras home and promptly bought the film.

It arrived yesterday – one pack of PX 600 Silver Shade for the One Step and one pack of Type 1200 for the Spectra. I love the near 35mm format of the Spectra so I tried it first. I opened it, inserted the film, closed the gate, and … nothing. When you insert film into a Polaroid, it is supposed to immediately spit out the protective cover so that you’re ready to take pictures. Well, there was no spitting. It’s dead. It doesn’t work. Not completely anyway. The electrics seem to work, but the motor is shot, I guess.

If you’ve got a spare Polaroid Spectra sitting around in the closet, basement, garage, attic, or grandma’s house, I’d be happy to take it off of your hands.

I was not disappointed in the One Step, however. I inserted the film and heard that familiar Polaroid whir. Out came the protective cover and I was in business. I walked out of my office and over to Molly who was laying on the couch watching Tom & Jerry. Click. Whir. Wait. Smile. I am back in the Polaroid business.

The focus seems a bit off, but I was pretty close. I’ll have to what the rest of the shots have for me. Either way, I don’t mind. I am happy to be shooting Polaroids again. Many of the photos that I remember most from my childhood were shot with a Polaroid.

I love the high contrast, accidental vignettes, muted colors, and soft focus. They feel like memories. They are the tactile joy of a holding a memory in your hand instead of only your head.

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Simple Outdoor Lighting

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Teddy

Nikon D300 w/ 35mm, f/4 @ 1/1000, ISO 100

Outdoor lighting is very tricky. Day to day changes are obvious and unpredictable, but even hour to hour or minute to minute changes can be tough to manage. So what do you do you when you don’t have a truck load of lighting and grip gear and can’t afford to rent?

Get a reflector.

While a reflector might not be the answer to all of your problems, it will solve enough of them for you to wonder why you took so long to get one. I recommend one that’s at least 32″ wide with multiple coverings that includes black, silver, gold, and white translucent. With one or two of these in your kit you’ve got a flag, a silk, and a reflector all in one product.

In this image, we were at Boulder Creek around high noon. Because it was still so early in the year, the mid-day sun wasn’t as harsh as it is in the summer, but I still had a lot of high contrast shadows to deal with. My solution? You guessed it: my 42″ reflector. I zipped on the gold and silver cover to fill in the shadows and stop down the background to minimize overall contrast. The gold created some additional warmth not available in the lunchtime sun and pushed the creek and trees in the background to about -1 2/3 stops from the subject.

In my next post, perhaps I’ll write about how to keep your child models from squinting when a big giant reflector is pointing the sun directly into their faces. Maybe.

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CafeMom.com Likes Bacon Maple Doughnuts

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Teddy

Nikon D300 w/ 35mm, f/1.8 @ 1/25, ISO 200

And not just any bacon maple doughnuts, MY bacon maple doughnuts. This picture was featured in the recent CafeMom.com post, The Best Doughnuts: Fried Dough Has Never Looked This Good. Click Here!

There are some really good looking doughnuts on this list. I’d really like to get a sample of each. Do you hear that fellow posters? I would really like to get a sample of each!

Thanks, CafeMom and Cafe Kim.

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Winter in Kansas

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Teddy
Nikon D300 w/ 18-200mm at 80mm, f/16 @ 1/100, ISO 100

Nikon D300 w/ 18-200mm at 80mm, f/16 @ 1/100, ISO 100

Now that’s cold! That’s not just snow covering the ground and those rolls of hay. It’s fog. Yes, fog! It had been very foggy the night before, and, with night time temps of 0 degrees, the fog just fell as ice onto everything. Roads. Telephone lines. Trees. Everything was covered with about 1/4″ of ice.

I drove down a farm road behind our motel and shot several images of a homestead, complete with frozen windmills and barns. I liked this one the best of the bunch. To me, it really says cold. And, believe me, it was.

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My Favorite Holiday Image

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Teddy
Nikon D300 w/ 18-200mm at 200mm, f/8 @ 1/80, ISO 100

Nikon D300 w/ 18-200mm at 200mm, f/8 @ 1/80, ISO 100

So the holidays are over for another year. I’ll admit to being a bit nutty about the holidays. I love the traditions. I love the decorations. I love the corny songs. I love the food … especially this year.

We were lucky enough to host two holiday meals this year, Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. We had it all: turkey, sausage-apple stuffing, pies, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce (I found a new recipe this year. Yum!), pepper pot pork chops, pineapple casserole, scalloped potatoes, Christmas cookies, etc. I even made traditional sugar plums. They were great, but the kids didn’t like them. Too savory for them, I guess.

With all of that cooking, I didn’t have much time to shoot the results. I did, however, take the time to do a couple of holiday themed shoots. The image above is my favorite from those two shoots. It’s my take on a more sophisticated treat for Santa, including a hot chocolate chocotini complete with chocolate mint candy cane.

I don’t know if he liked it, because I ate and drank the treats after striking the set. Sorry Santa. There’s always next year.

Welcome to 2010!

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