February 25, 2025 • 39 mins
#540 Photo Q&A
In Today’s Episode of the podcast I chat with YOU as I answer a variety of listener-submitted questions about photography. The episode covers key aspects of wedding photography, editing workflows, equipment considerations, camera settings, lighting setups for studios, the impact of personal experiences on photography, and more.
KEY TOPICS COVERED
- Wedding Photography Tips:
- Explanation: Raymond discusses key considerations for first-time wedding photographers, such as the importance of following the bride and groom, capturing candid moments, and understanding the significance of a wedding day.
- Key Takeaways: Focus on enhancing the memory of the wedding day rather than capturing every detail, and consider renting essential equipment like a second camera body for reliability and insurance.
- Editing Workflow Optimization:
- Explanation: The episode shares strategies for effectively selecting and editing photos, emphasizing the significance of choosing the right moments.
- Key Takeaways: Utilize tools like Imagine for AI-assisted culling and prioritize personal artistry in photo selection.
- Studio Lighting Setup:
- Explanation: Raymond introduces the concept of a three-point lighting setup for studio photography, highlighting the use of key lights, fill lights, and backlights for creating dynamic portraits.
- Real-World Examples: He provides practical advice on equipment choices and configurations for achieving professional lighting effects indoors.
IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS & CONCEPTS
- Three-Point Lighting Setup: A lighting method involving a key light, fill light, and backlight to create depth and separation in portraits.
- Culling: The process of selecting the best photos from a shoot, which can be optimized using AI tools like Imagine.
DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- How do you approach capturing key moments in high-pressure scenarios like weddings?
- In what ways can personal experiences shape a photographer's artistic style and subject matter?
RESOURCES:
Check out Imagen AI - https://imagen-ai.com/
Get Your Reusable Silica Gel Packets - https://amzn.to/3WVAnUw
Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com
Download your free copy of
46 Creative Photo Ideas to Get You Out of a Rut
at https://creativeimageideas.com/
Connect with Raymond!
- Join the free Beginner Photography Podcast Community at https://beginnerphotopod.com/group
- Get your Photo Questions Answered on the show - https://beginnerphotopod.com/qa
- Grab your free camera setting cheatsheet - https://perfectcamerasettings.com/
Thanks for listening & keep shooting!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Raymond Hatfield (00:00):
When it comes to shooting indoors, I think
(00:01):
that having a versatile lightingkit is going to be extremely
important because otherwise allyour photos are going to look
like they're just taken in frontof a wall.
One of the things that I learnedin film school is like, this was
like day one, right?
It's called a three point lightsetup.
Now I'm going to try to teachthis to you real quick.
To create compelling portrait,you need three lights.
(00:21):
You need a key light, the mainlight.
You need a fill light to lightthe opposite side of someone's
face.
And then you need a backlight.
The backlight is what's going toseparate them from the
background.
Hey, welcome to the beginnerphotography podcast.
I'm your host Raymond Hadfieldand today we are doing our
monthly Q& A episode.
This is where I ask you forquestions.
(00:43):
You send me your questions andthen here on the podcast I
answer your photographyquestions.
I know that things can come upwhile you're out shooting.
You're new to this hobby.
You're new to starting abusiness of photography.
And these questions are gonnacome up and you're always
looking for somewhere to start.
To ask your questions and getthem answered.
That is exactly what I want todo for you today in this
(01:04):
episode.
But first, the beginning of thepodcast is brought to you by
CloudSpot.
I have been in the photographyindustry for 10 plus years, and
I can honestly say that I'venever found another company in
the photography industry that isas dedicated to helping
photographers as much asCloudSpot from being able to
deliver beautiful galleries.
(01:26):
To now being able to start andgrow a photography business.
Cloudspot has got you covered.
Whatever it is that you need,they're there to help you.
Just like me in today's Q& Aepisode.
I am here to help you getclarification on your questions.
So let's go ahead and dive rightin.
All right.
The first question that I got isfrom Junaid Koopman.
(01:48):
Junaid has several questionshere, but I'm going to try to
wrap them all together.
The first question is when I doweddings for the first time,
what are some things that youshould look out for and what
equipment on a budget would youlook into renting or obtaining?
Okay, great question.
So, when you do a wedding forthe first time, what are some
things that you should look outfor?
(02:09):
One, really try to understandthat a wedding is, is a big deal
for your couple, right?
If you're gonna go photograph awedding and the couple has
entrusted you to take photos ofthis wedding, possibly once in a
lifetime event.
You have to take that seriously,but at the same time, you have
to know that you cannot possiblycapture every single teeny tiny
(02:32):
detail.
You can't capture everybody'sexperience.
So what I would do whenphotographing weddings is that I
would essentially just followthe bride and groom.
This is their day, I want totell it from their perspective.
Because, oftentimes a weddingday feels like a blur.
So many things are happening, somany people you're meeting, and
sometimes you don't get to takeit all in and enjoy it as much
(02:54):
as you were hoping for becauseyou're busy, you're shaking
hands, you're saying hi topeople, you're putting on a big
dress, you know, all the things.
So by following the bride,following the groom, taking
photos of their experience,highlighting those moments of
maybe reactions that, that theydidn't see of others who are
seeing them, who are greetingthem, who are just happy to be a
part of this couple's day, Ifound to be great way to allow
(03:18):
my clients to reconnect withtheir wedding day and have it
enhance the memory of theirwedding day rather than trying
to create something new.
Like, yeah, portraits areimportant.
Wedding portraits, gettingphotos together, getting family
photos, these are important, butagain, my view is that at the
end of the day, your weddingphoto should enhance your memory
(03:39):
of the wedding day and notentirely take your wedding day.
So try to go into it knowingthat you're not going to be able
to capture everything.
But if you go in with a gameplan of, just following the
bride and groom and capturingmaybe reactions that people have
to them or interactions thatthey have with others, you're
going to be okay.
Also maybe write down like threeposes that you really want to do
(04:04):
and then really hammer thoseout.
Say them to yourself in amirror, get them hammered out so
that when the time comes to dothose photos, you already know
exactly where to start.
You know what to say to thecouple, you know how to pose
them.
You just go ahead and do that.
And then nine times out of 10,that's going to get you in a
flow.
You're going to be willing totry something new.
Maybe turn that way, turn intothis light.
(04:26):
Let's step over here.
And then you can essentially dothe same poses over and over
again.
And then you'll get them somevariety and it won't be a huge
mental tax on you.
Because all day you feel likeyou've been fighting fires and
trying to find, the best momentsand all this stuff.
Okay.
Part two of that question iswhat equipment on a budget would
(04:46):
you look into renting orobtaining?
That's a great question.
I'm not sure what gear you have,so it's hard to tell you exactly
what you should rent.
But, I will say that for myfirst few weddings, I owned a
Canon 40 D, but I didn't have asecond body.
I really think that it isimportant if you're a wedding
photographer to have at leasttwo bodies.
(05:10):
Two camera bodies, because ifone of them fails for any reason
whatsoever, it doesn't matter.
You don't have time totroubleshoot it.
You have to put it in a bag andthen pull out the other camera
and keep shooting.
So that's exactly, what it wasthat I rented.
I rented a second camera body.
And for me at the time, it was afull frame body.
It was a Canon 5d Mark II, Ibelieve.
(05:33):
Yeah, had to be.
And then I just rented a generalpurpose all around lens, a 24 to
70 millimeter F 2.
8 lens.
My goal is to not have to usethat equipment at all.
It is simply an insurancepolicy.
I'm comfortable with my Canon 4dD I was at the time I'm
comfortable with the lenses thatI owned.
(05:54):
I didn't want to show up and notonly have to figure out, the
wedding day, but also have tolearn an entirely new camera
system.
I didn't want to do that.
So I kept it as easy aspossible.
I took the camera body.
I took the lens, I put it in mybag and I tried not to use it
throughout the entire day.
Unless I absolutely had to.
(06:14):
Because you want to be confidentat a wedding.
You want to be confident, inyour abilities, right?
You have a camera.
You know how to use that camera.
Why change it up?
Like, just use that camera.
Usually rentals are like, three,four, five days, sometimes a
week.
Maybe after the wedding, playaround with that camera.
Go out, shoot, your own personaltime, whatever.
So that next time you have awedding, well, then maybe,
(06:37):
you'll feel confident enough inusing that camera to actually
use the upgraded body at awedding, but for your first
wedding, don't do it.
It's just an insurance policy.
Use what you know, use whatyou're used to.
Alright, question two.
Editing flow wise, how do Ioptimize the selection of which
photos to use, because shiftingthrough hundreds of photos often
(06:58):
dulls my eyes to smaller detailsthat can make or break a photo.
You're absolutely right.
I have totally been there,there's an important moment, you
rapid fire, you got like 10, 15photos of the exact same moment,
and you're trying to figure out,okay, which one do I use.
I can't exactly answer that foryou because part of choosing a
moment is, is what makes you aphotographer.
(07:20):
That is part of the artistry ofit.
But I can tell you, it's oftenless of a big deal than it feels
like it is.
Meaning if a bride's elbow isout a little bit, shoulders are,
a slightly different way becauseyou took them in rapid
succession.
One, the bride doesn't, youknow, the couple doesn't know
what all 10 or 15 photos youtook of that exact moment.
(07:43):
So almost whatever you deliveris going to be the photo of that
moment.
That that's what they're goingto want.
That's what they're going tolearn to love.
So I would say just, take yourtime and pick the right one.
That said, I've been to weddingsand I've shot thousands of
images for maybe 5, 000 imagesfrom a wedding more.
If I have a second.
(08:03):
More if it's a 10 hour day andeven more, if it's a 12 hour day
Today, there's tools, onespecifically, is called Imagine.
Imagine is an AI video editor.
So the idea here is that youupload your catalog, your
Lightroom catalog to imagine,and now they can just
automatically call through theimages for you to pick out the
best ones.
(08:24):
I have personally never used it.
But I've talked to manyprofessional photographers
working, you know, dedicatedprofessional photographers who
use it and they swear by it.
So if culling is the thing thattakes you the most amount of
time and you dread it the most,then look into outsourcing and
again, check out, imagine fortheir AI culling services.
(08:45):
Okay.
No question three from Junaid,which is also, I personally
don't use Photoshop because I'munsure of what to do or what to
look for when opening an imagein there.
I found that Lightroom and someminor removals work quite well.
So if I do add Photoshop to theworkflow, what are some things
to look out for in an image thatI would use Photoshop to enhance
(09:06):
or edit out?
Let me start by saying don'ttake on too much too fast.
As a professional photographerfor 10 years shooting weddings,
which include a lot ofportraits, I used Lightroom for
legitimately 99 percent of myedits.
The only time I would ever bringa photo into Photoshop was if I
(09:26):
needed to swap heads or swappeople in a very rare instance.
And by swap heads, I mean, yougot a group photo, you got 10,
12 people in it, it's a wholefamily and you just take five or
six photos because inevitablysomebody's going to blink.
Somebody's going to have a dumbface.
Somebody's going to be lookingstupid and you want to have
different options so that youcan edit them together and make
(09:49):
everybody look their best.
For 99 percent of everythingelse that I did, everything that
I delivered, I did it withinLightroom.
Does that mean that it has to bedone that way?
No, of course not.
If you love Photoshop, then byall means, do everything in
Photoshop.
In fact, I know a photographerwho just, they take all their
images from a wedding, they putthem all through Photoshop into
(10:10):
a Photoshop action, and thenthey just deliver those photos.
That's it.
If that's you, that's fine.
But if you're at this point towhere you're not sure of what to
do in Photoshop, maybe you'rejust thinking about using it
because it seems moreprofessional than Lightroom,
don't fall into that trap.
If you don't have a veryspecific use for it, don't worry
about it.
As you said, the removal tool,the blemish tool, like light
(10:35):
room has a lot of features andit had enough for me to be able
to edit an image, portraitsincluded to deliver those images
to my clients.
And.
be confident in, in what it wasthat I was delivering.
So I hope that that helps.
Okay.
Question number two comes from aChristopher B.
Christopher says, my question isaround cameras.
(10:58):
I do mostly shoot fully manualat times.
I do shoot aperture prioritywhen taking landscapes.
Does anyone have favoritesettings they keep for taking
particular shots like product,photography, portraits, or
landscapes interested to knowmore?
Thank you.
Chris B, Australia, First ofall, shout out to Australia who
in 2024 became the number one,country for new listeners for
(11:22):
the beginner photographypodcast.
So to Christopher and everybodyelse in Australia listening,
cheers.
Okay.
Back to the question.
I think what you're trying toask here is, in what situations
should I be using what settings?
And there's no one size fits allapproach to this.
Again, unfortunately, that'spart of the artistry that is
photography.
But I can tell you that forevery image, there's going to be
(11:43):
something that is most importantto you.
There's going to be a mostimportant element of that photo.
So you mentioned using aperturepriority when shooting
landscapes.
I'm assuming you wanted to setyour aperture to something like
f11, f16, something where you'regoing to have a deep depth of
field to get the entire scene infocus.
So for you, that focus for theentire scene was what was most
(12:06):
important.
So that was the choice that youmade.
Aperture became the mostimportant setting for you.
And then you just set your ISOas low as, as what's reasonable,
depending on how much light isavailable.
Okay.
And then just set your shutterspeed to whatever it needed to
be to get a correct and properexposure.
So again, in that situation,your aperture was the most
(12:27):
important setting and all theother ones, shutter speed and
ISO just became secondary.
If you're shooting portraits,again, aperture is going to be
one of the most importantsettings, but you're going to
want a large aperture so thatyou can get your subject in
focus, but have the backgroundout of focus.
So once again, you're going tochoose a large aperture.
Let's say.
F1 0.8, F two, and then you'regonna adjust your ISO as low as
(12:52):
reasonable, as low as it needsto be within reason.
And then you're gonna set yourshutter speed to whatever it
needs to be to have a properlyexposed image.
If you're shooting sports,aperture is not as important.
Shutter speed is most importantbecause sports are quick.
From soccer, people running downthe field, to, baseball, to,
(13:13):
open wheel racing, right?
They all require capturingmotion.
And therefore, what of thosethree settings, aperture,
shutter speed, and ISO, controlsmotion blur?
It is your shutter speed.
So for sports, you're gonnachoose the shutter speed that,
that you want.
You're gonna probably choose ashutter speed of maybe 1, 500th
of a second if you're shootingbaseball or, just human powered
(13:36):
sports.
And then you're probably gonnachoose a shutter speed of
something like 1, 2000 of asecond if you're shooting
something like open wheel racingto freeze the action.
And then again, then you just,you pick an aperture and then
you pick an ISO that just makesthe image properly exposed.
Or, if you want an example ofthis, check out Chris Owens work
(13:57):
on Instagram.
Chris Owens is the photo managerfor the IndyCar series.
And he does these amazing slowshutter speed images of
IndyCars.
I mean, going hundreds of milesan hour and maybe his slow
shutter speed is something likeone, 1 25th of a second.
But what you get are these long,like this long drag of the car
(14:19):
going down, the track and it'sbeautiful.
So for him, that photo, not thesubject, that photo, the most
important detail was having aslow enough shutter speed.
And then he just chose hiscamera settings based on
whatever they needed to be toachieve the desired effect that
he was looking for.
The most important part of thatimage is that you get the motion
(14:41):
blur of the car.
It doesn't matter what the ISOis.
It doesn't matter what youraperture is.
That is the most importantsetting.
So think about your photo.
Think about the photo that youwant to achieve.
What is the most importantelement of it?
If it's nighttime, it's probablygoing to be your ISO so that you
can at least get enough light into properly capture the photo.
And then the other settings justneed to be whatever they need to
(15:03):
be within reason to get aproperly exposed photo.
So Christopher, I hope thathelps.
I hope that makes sense.
As somebody who comes fromshooting manual, I tried to
tailor the answer to that alittle bit so that you could
better understand.
And if you don't shoot manualyet, the other listeners, I hope
that that gave you a little bitof insight as far as, why
shooting annual is mostimportant as opposed to when
(15:24):
you're shooting an auto, becauseif you're shooting an auto, it's
going to choose whateversettings it wants.
It's going to choose the samesettings that every other camera
in the world on auto is going tochoose.
And you're not going to getsomething unique.
You're not going to getsomething special.
It just going to be a snapshot.
So again, Christopher, I hopethat helps.
Okay.
Next question comes from DebbieOglesby.
(15:46):
Hey Raymond, I really enjoy yourpodcast and have learned a lot.
Thank you, Debbie.
I'm in the process of creating astudio for senior and family
photos.
The room is approximately 11feet by 11 feet, and I have an
off camera flash, but I wouldlike to know what other lighting
options you recommend.
All right, Debbie.
Well, first of all,congratulations.
That's a huge step.
(16:07):
When it comes to shootingindoors, I think that having a
versatile lighting kit is goingto be extremely important
because otherwise all yourphotos are going to look like
they're just taken in front of awall.
One of the things that I learnedin film school is like, this was
like day one, right?
It's called a three point lightsetup.
Now I'm going to try to teachthis to you real quick.
To create compelling portrait,you need three lights.
(16:29):
You need a key light, the mainlight.
You need a fill light to lightthe opposite side of someone's
face.
And then you need a backlight.
The backlight is what's going toseparate them from the
background.
Okay.
So these three lights and theirmain goals, the key light, this
is the key light.
This is the main light.
This is what's going to do themajority of exposing your
subject's face.
(16:50):
This is typically a large, lightsource.
So maybe you have on like a bigsoft box, the bigger, the
better.
Oftentimes I've seen in studios,they might have a five or an
eight foot Octobox.
However, if the whole room isonly 11 by 11, maybe stick with
a five foot Octobox.
Actually, another thing that youcould do, you don't have as much
(17:12):
control, but, it's much cheaperand you could do it is that you
could turn the flash away fromyour subject and have a giant,
like a white poster board,hanging up and fire the flash
directly into that, and thenthat will illuminate your
subjects.
Okay.
So that the key light is goingto be the brightest part of the
brightest light, that you'reusing out of the three.
(17:34):
And that's typically gonna lightjust one side of your subject's
face.
So, imagine that you are themodel, you're the subject, for a
moment.
This light it's either gonna beto the left or the right, but
it's gonna be off about 45degrees, right?
So not fully to the left or tothe right, and not fully in
front of you, but halfway inbetween.
(17:55):
And then the light is gonna beup, slightly above their head,
kinda pointed down.
And that is what's calledRembrandt lighting.
it looks natural.
it closely emulates what we see,because our light source that we
see naturally is the sun.
It comes from above andoftentimes it comes from a bit
of an angle as well.
So that, that replicates that.
(18:15):
Some photographers only use thatone main key light, and then
that's it.
That's all that they use.
So maybe try to get comfortablewith that first.
And once you do, then you canstart incorporating other
lights.
Cause if you try to do all thelights at once, it can be a lot.
Okay.
The next light is a fill light.
Okay, so if, if the light, let'sjust say, is to the left of your
(18:38):
subject, your key light is tothe left of your subject, then
the left side of their face isgoing to be lit, but the right
side of their face is going tobe in shadow.
Sometimes it's too dark of ashadow.
So you have what's called a filllight, and this is a much lower
intensity light.
So if your off camera flash isfiring at full power, Then the
fill light would be firing atsay a quarter power.
(19:00):
And what that does is it startsto give the face a bit of depth.
It starts to feel more alive inthe image.
It's not very flat lighting, butit provides some sort of depth
to the image.
We start to see the contours ofthe face.
And it just, it just lookspleasing.
Now, the last light here iscalled a backlight.
All right.
Let's imagine that you have adark backdrop and then all your
(19:23):
subjects have dark hair.
Well, how do you get them tostand out from the background?
It looks like their hair is thesame color as the backdrop.
And then they don't, they don'tstand out.
You use what's called abacklight.
This light is going to be almostdirectly behind them and it's
going to be way above theirhead, pointed down towards their
backs.
And what this is it illuminatestheir back.
(19:44):
It illuminates, it almost givesthem like a halo, like outline.
So when you see black hair witha back black ground, but there's
this.
Halo effect on the hair.
It's going to make it stand out.
It's going to separate it fromthe background, giving them
again, more depth, moredimension, and it's going to
feel as if they're popping outof the photo, look at some, I
(20:06):
don't know, look at any fashionmagazine, look at any, magazine
that you find at a grocerystore, once you do, you're going
to start recognizing those threelights.
One side of their face or theirbody is going to be lit more
than the other side of theirface or their body.
That's the difference between akey light and a fill light.
And then nine times out of 10,there's some sort of light
(20:26):
that's hitting them from behindthat is that you can see on
their hair or their shouldersthat is separating them from the
background.
That is the backlight.
So Debbie, I hope that thathelps kind of give you an
insight as far as what what youneed, what you should look out
for, If you're in a controlledenvironment, like a studio, you
can get away with using somecontinuous lighting so that it's
(20:47):
easier for you to see, the,effects that the light is making
on your subjects.
But ultimately a flash is alwaysgoing to be way more powerful
and therefore give you a morepolished effect.
So Debbie, I hope that helps.
If you've got any questions,follow up questions, let me
know.
I could talk about this stuffall day.
Okay.
next question comes from GerardGerard Exubery who I've had on
(21:10):
the podcast before.
This is good.
Okay.
Let's see what Gerard says.
Gerard says, Hey Ray, what doyou say?
My question is, do you have tosuffer in order to sing the
blues?
I'm talking about street work,which has a different gestalt
than let's say commercialwedding or industrial
photography.
It does.
I look at some of the world'sgreatest street photographers
and see that more often thannot, they've had tough lives.
(21:34):
Very often suffering fromdepression, and or growing up in
circumstances that reflectthrough their entire life.
Effects that they would shootand what the photographer
effects on what they would shootand what the photographer slash
artist chooses to show.
Okay, got it.
I believe that if I had notexperienced things that I did
when I was younger, things thatwere not pretty at all, I would
(21:56):
not be able to make thephotographs that I do.
I would like to know how many ofyour followers feel the same
way.
How have they been affected bytheir life experiences in a
subject and matter in which theycreate their images?
Finally, I'd like to know ifyou've heard any photography
ghost stories.
Okay.
Photography ghost stories.
I don't.
(22:17):
I did, uh, when I first movedout to Indiana, I worked on that
show Ghost Adventures.
If you're not familiar withGhost Adventures, there's a
host, his name is, Zach Beggins,I think it is.
And they go to haunted placesand see if they're on it.
They try to bring out ghosts andstuff.
Anyway, I worked as a cameraassistant.
I worked during the day.
They worked in the locations atnight.
It's really interesting.
(22:38):
They came to a location calledFox Hollow Farms, in Carmel,
Indiana.
Horrific story.
I mean horrific, horrific story.
I cannot imagine the things thatwent on in that house.
Beautiful house.
Beautiful house.
It was an amazing experience.
No, I never saw a ghost.
And I don't believe that theysaw a ghost either.
(22:58):
So, but that, I mean, that'd beas close as it gets.
Okay, anyway, back to thequestion, do you have to suffer
in order to sing the blues?
You know, you said, if I had notexperienced things that I did
when I was younger, I would notbe able to make the photographs
that I do.
And how have, listeners, howhave their lives been affected
by their life experience?
(23:19):
Yeah, I mean, our lifeexperience completely dictates
how we see the world.
It shapes how we see the world.
It shapes the lens in which welook at the world.
It's so much, you know,honestly, and, it's really hard
to answer this question becauseI only know my perspective and
the way that I have viewed theworld.
(23:39):
But I've definitely heard thisbefore, right?
But no, I don't think that youhave to suffer in order to sing
the blues.
Meaning, I don't think that youhave to have gone through a lot
of trauma to be able to createart.
I think that it's probablyeasier, because if you've gone
through some trauma in yourlife, you're probably trying to
(24:00):
outrun it or escape it, get ridof it.
And I think one of the easiestways to kind of forget is to
immerse yourself in work,especially by creating
something.
When you create something, Imean, your brain just goes into
this magical space.
Time just doesn't really existanymore.
(24:20):
incredible.
So I could see how if you wereconstantly haunted by your past
and you were trying to notrelive those moments, that
trying to find yourself in aflow state, some sort of
creative flow state, beneficialthat would be.
And of course the more time thatyou spend in that state, the
(24:41):
more time that you spendcreating, well, guess what,
you're going to be better at it.
The better you are at it, thebetter it feels as well.
see the validity to thatargument, I guess the
correlation.
But I don't think that sufferingis causation for great
creativity.
I truly believe that anybody,even if you've had a nice,
(25:01):
cushy, soft, easy life, cancreate meaningful work.
It just might not be meaningfulin the same sense.
I don't value a Jeff Koontz, youknow, dog balloon, but others
do.
So he went through something inhis life that led him to create
that.
Actually, I remember watching aCBS Sunday Morning story, about
(25:22):
him, where he talked about howit reminds him of his childhood.
In a good way.
And he's arguably, I mean, oneof the most famous artists
alive.
Not to say that he hasn't hadany trauma or, things that he's
gone through.
But he, he looked at his art ina way that was, in a happy
light, it seemed.
Now the other side of that coinis that there's the Ansel Adams
(25:43):
quote.
Yeah.
There are two people in everyphotograph, the photographer and
the viewer.
Right.
So maybe the things that youhave gone through Also, shade
your lenses in a color to lookat the work of others and maybe
make assumptions.
I've definitely worked, lookedat work and made assumptions.
Either about the subject matteror the photographer themselves
(26:05):
or, you know, what have you.
And one thing that I find mostinteresting about photography is
that just because yourexperience of an image differs
from how the photographerintended, doesn't make your
viewpoint of that artwork anyless valid.
Because art is designed to, tomove you, to make you think,
(26:27):
make you stop, and questionlife, and, but also enrich life
as well.
So anyway, point is before Istart rambling on that, no, I
don't, I don't think that youhave to suffer in order to sing
the blues.
I also don't think that you haveto suffer in order to enjoy the
blues.
I do, I do think that there's aconnection there.
(26:48):
What is it?
I'm not exactly sure.
But I think that whatever yourlife experience is, you can
create incredible work if you'rededicated to it.
So Gerard, I hope that answersyour question.
Okay, I think this will be myfinal question.
This question comes from Deidre.
Deidre says, here are somequestions.
(27:08):
We got four questions here,okay?
Number one, do's and don'ts.
Camera storage and handling.
What is something you shouldnever do with a camera or with a
lens?
Okay, I was thinking camerastorage like memory cards and
stuff.
Deidre's talking about.
Like handling your camera andyour lenses.
Okay.
All right.
Great question.
Okay.
So when it comes to storing,your cameras and lenses, dues,
(27:32):
or I guess we'll start withdon'ts.
Don't store them in an extremelyhumid.
Place, right?
Because liquid, moisture isgoing to be the death of
electronics.
So try to keep it in a cool,dry, place when not in use.
Also remember that your camerais a tool, right?
If you create great images andthe camera gets broken, like, is
(27:54):
it a financial hit?
It is, but I would literallyspend.
I mean, cameras could triple inprice, and I would still pay for
them because they allow me toexpress myself creatively in a
way that I can't with pencils,music, any other form of
creative expression.
So to me, I'm going to use acamera.
(28:15):
But again, I understand that,especially if you're new to
photography, that it can bequite an investment.
So yeah, try to keep them in acool, dry place.
In fact, you know what I have?
I bought these on, uh, onAmazon.
They're large, like silica gelpackets, and they're actually
reusable.
So can you hear that it's theseplastic bags with silica gel
(28:38):
inside?
And what they do is they soak upthe moisture.
So when I leave my cameras in,my tool cart, I put the cameras
in there and there's also anumber of these silica gel
packets.
They're blue, but when theyabsorb as much moisture as they
can, then they turn purple.
Usually this happens overseveral months or, whatever.
(28:59):
Then when they're fullysaturated, you can actually just
put them in the oven and, Iguess dehydrate them again to
turn them blue.
And then they are now reusable.
They're super great.
I'll put a link in the shownotes to where you can find
them.
They're amazing.
I put them in my camera bags.
I put them in my tool carts.
I put them with my memory cards.
I put like everywhere.
They're in my luggage.
(29:19):
All over the place, wherever Itravel with a camera, I have one
of these packets with me and youcan also microwave them if you
need to.
So like if you're on trip andyou're in a hotel and you find
that it's, turns purple, you canmicrowave it.
It'll be good to go.
Also don't change lenses inwindy conditions or sandy
conditions like beaches.
(29:40):
I mean, again, your camera's atool, your camera's more rugged
than you think that it is.
But yeah, just, just take some,minor precautions.
It's not as fragile as you thinkthat it is.
If you have a really heavy lens,then it's just good practice to
hold both the camera body andthe lens.
At the same time, one hand onthe body, one hand on the lens,
so that you can support themount.
(30:01):
However, those are engineeredpretty well.
Also, don't toss your gear.
I don't know.
I mean, like these are just kindof like common things like if
you wouldn't do it to I don'tknow a brand new cell phone
Maybe don't do it to your cameraand your lens Okay, next
question.
How long do you keep clientgalleries before cleansing
storage space?
That's a great question.
Yeah, I keep them, I would keepthem for about 13 months.
(30:24):
So, I would deliver a gallery toa couple and then in that email
I would say, be sure that youdownload this because I'm going
to keep it for 12 months.
And then on the one yearanniversary of their wedding, I
send them another email saying,Hey, congratulations, I can't
believe it's been a year, By theway, here's a link to all your
wedding photos.
If you haven't downloaded themalready, then go ahead and do
(30:45):
so.
Because I'm going to, I gottaremove the gallery.
It's no longer going to beavailable.
That typically, then they dothat.
They download the gallery.
That being said, I don'tactually delete the galleries.
I don't see any use for it.
I have enough storage with cloudspot that, In fact, I still have
all of my wedding galleries inCloudSpot.
(31:05):
Weddings from 10 years ago, lotof space.
but.
I could remove it if I want to,but, from a customer service
standpoint, if somebody reachedout and they're like, Hey, can
we get this gallery?
Like I'm going to send them alink, no big deal.
Storage is, is relatively cheap,just to keep myself safe in the
contract, it says that I willkeep it for up to 12 months
(31:26):
after that.
It's up to them.
So, I hope that answers yourquestion.
Question number three.
What is photographer'sinsurance?
Oh, that's a good question.
Okay, so, photography insuranceis, it's two parts.
Let's say that you are,traveling and your gear gets
stolen.
Well, photographer's insurancewill pay for that.
Repay, for, for your losses sothat you can buy new camera
(31:48):
gear.
And that is helpful.
oftentimes if you're not inbusiness, then your own
homeowners or renters insurancepolicy should cover this.
I'm not an insurance agent.
I don't know what your policysays.
So if you have any questions, besure to call them and confirm,
like, just say, Hey, I got, afew thousand dollars in camera
equipment, what happens if I'mtraveling and it gets stolen?
(32:09):
What happens if, I'm on a hikeand it falls and it smashes and
breaks, you know, I think thingslike that, just to get some
answers.
But again, if you are inbusiness, then it's considered a
business asset.
It's just good.
So if it's a business asset,then oftentimes a homeowner's
insurance policy won't cover it.
So yeah, it's a, it's a goodthing to look into.
The other part of it isliability insurance.
(32:30):
So this happened to me a fewyears ago where I was at an
engagement session and we wereat this, local park.
And there's this nice littlecreek bed and like the sun was
coming behind them and I waslike, Oh, this looks beautiful.
I wanted them a little bitcloser, to the water just for
compositional purposes.
These are like, I didn't askthem to do anything crazy.
(32:51):
Like it wasn't anything wild.
However, there was a bit of amuddy spot that I didn't see,
that the bride to be didn't see,she stepped in it, slipped, and
broke her leg.
She was out for like months.
Now, whose fault is that?
Is it my fault for telling herwhere to go?
And suggesting that she walkthere?
(33:12):
Or is it her fault because sheactually did it herself?
That's where it becomes like abit of a legal thing.
If she wanted to sue me forhaving her do, I don't know,
dangerous stuff, I mean, I guessit'd be possible.
You know, she could sue me for,for her medical bills.
Luckily, she didn't do that.
She understood that it wassimply a mistake.
But, what if you're at a weddingand you're photographing the
(33:35):
couple and you're backing up andthen you accidentally bump into
a kid?
I don't know.
Who falls and I don't know hurtshimself somehow who is at fault,
right?
So the liability insurancecovers you in case there's any
sort of issue that comes uprelated to that personal injury
and things like that.
So those are the main reasons toget insurance oftentimes larger
(33:58):
venues older venues historicalvenues will require that you
have a at least here in Indy, itwas like between one and 3
million of, liability insurance,which is what you can get, I
think for like 20 a month.
It's really cheap.
Some companies even offer itlike it as, as a per event
basis.
So like, if you're not shootinga ton of weddings, you don't
have to invest in like a monthlycost, but you just pay monthly.
(34:21):
So anyway, I hope that thatanswers your question there.
Okay.
Last question.
Can you recommend the best wayto start a website for somebody
who's never built a websitebefore?
What platform?
All right, DG, when it comes toa website, I think simple is
best.
If it's too complicated, you'renot going to keep up with it.
(34:41):
So when you ask what is best,that is.
up to whatever your goals are.
If you want a website that'soptimized for CEO or SEO that is
optimized for, maximum controlto let you do whatever your
heart desires on a website,probably WordPress is the best
route to go.
Cause it's going to offer themost amount of flexibility.
(35:04):
However, it's not the most userfriendly.
If you're looking for somethingthat is user friendly, for
years, I used Squarespace and Iloved it.
In fact, I still useSquarespace.
I'll probably never switch awayfrom Squarespace, but there are
some trade offs.
It's not that great when itcomes to blogging, just the way
that it lays out blogs, it isnot great.
(35:25):
But if you just have likephotography business and you're
not putting out hundreds ofblogs, like I do, especially
with the podcast, like for shownotes and every hundreds of
episodes, hundreds of blog postsare what those are, then it's
not something that you reallyneed to worry about.
And I think that Squarespace isgoing to do you just fine.
So it's up to you and whateveryour goals are.
(35:46):
If it's maximum flexibility, Iwould say WordPress.
If it's maximum usability andease of use, I'd probably say
Squarespace.
That said, I have not used everywebsite platform.
I've seen some people use Wix.
I've never used it.
But again, you asked me for myopinion.
That's what I would say is myopinion.
So hopefully that helps.
I would recommend maybe watchinga few YouTube videos and watch
(36:08):
like beginner's guides to bothof those and see which one you
like best.
So that is it.
Yeah, no, that is the lastquestion for today.
I really hope that you enjoyedtoday's Q and a episode, here on
the beginner photographypodcast.
If you have questions related tophotography that you want me to
answer, then I would love to doso.
You can head over to beginnerphotopod.
(36:29):
com forward slash Q a again,beginner photopod.
com forward slash Q.
A, that's just two letters Q ato submit your question there.
You can even leave a voicemailif you want to hint, hint, tons
of fun.
And I would love to answer yourquestion on the next Q and a
episode of the beginnerphotography podcast.
That is it for today until nexttime.
(36:50):
Remember the more that you shoottoday, the better of a
photographer you will betomorrow.
Talk soon.
When it comes to shooting indoors, I think
(00:01):
that having a versatile lightingkit is going to be extremely
important because otherwise allyour photos are going to look
like they're just taken in frontof a wall.
One of the things that I learnedin film school is like, this was
like day one, right?
It's called a three point lightsetup.
Now I'm going to try to teachthis to you real quick.
To create compelling portrait,you need three lights.
(00:21):
You need a key light, the mainlight.
You need a fill light to lightthe opposite side of someone's
face.
And then you need a backlight.
The backlight is what's going toseparate them from the
background.
Hey, welcome to the beginnerphotography podcast.
I'm your host Raymond Hadfieldand today we are doing our
monthly Q& A episode.
This is where I ask you forquestions.
(00:43):
You send me your questions andthen here on the podcast I
answer your photographyquestions.
I know that things can come upwhile you're out shooting.
You're new to this hobby.
You're new to starting abusiness of photography.
And these questions are gonnacome up and you're always
looking for somewhere to start.
To ask your questions and getthem answered.
That is exactly what I want todo for you today in this
(01:04):
episode.
But first, the beginning of thepodcast is brought to you by
CloudSpot.
I have been in the photographyindustry for 10 plus years, and
I can honestly say that I'venever found another company in
the photography industry that isas dedicated to helping
photographers as much asCloudSpot from being able to
deliver beautiful galleries.
(01:26):
To now being able to start andgrow a photography business.
Cloudspot has got you covered.
Whatever it is that you need,they're there to help you.
Just like me in today's Q& Aepisode.
I am here to help you getclarification on your questions.
So let's go ahead and dive rightin.
All right.
The first question that I got isfrom Junaid Koopman.
(01:48):
Junaid has several questionshere, but I'm going to try to
wrap them all together.
The first question is when I doweddings for the first time,
what are some things that youshould look out for and what
equipment on a budget would youlook into renting or obtaining?
Okay, great question.
So, when you do a wedding forthe first time, what are some
things that you should look outfor?
(02:09):
One, really try to understandthat a wedding is, is a big deal
for your couple, right?
If you're gonna go photograph awedding and the couple has
entrusted you to take photos ofthis wedding, possibly once in a
lifetime event.
You have to take that seriously,but at the same time, you have
to know that you cannot possiblycapture every single teeny tiny
(02:32):
detail.
You can't capture everybody'sexperience.
So what I would do whenphotographing weddings is that I
would essentially just followthe bride and groom.
This is their day, I want totell it from their perspective.
Because, oftentimes a weddingday feels like a blur.
So many things are happening, somany people you're meeting, and
sometimes you don't get to takeit all in and enjoy it as much
(02:54):
as you were hoping for becauseyou're busy, you're shaking
hands, you're saying hi topeople, you're putting on a big
dress, you know, all the things.
So by following the bride,following the groom, taking
photos of their experience,highlighting those moments of
maybe reactions that, that theydidn't see of others who are
seeing them, who are greetingthem, who are just happy to be a
part of this couple's day, Ifound to be great way to allow
(03:18):
my clients to reconnect withtheir wedding day and have it
enhance the memory of theirwedding day rather than trying
to create something new.
Like, yeah, portraits areimportant.
Wedding portraits, gettingphotos together, getting family
photos, these are important, butagain, my view is that at the
end of the day, your weddingphoto should enhance your memory
(03:39):
of the wedding day and notentirely take your wedding day.
So try to go into it knowingthat you're not going to be able
to capture everything.
But if you go in with a gameplan of, just following the
bride and groom and capturingmaybe reactions that people have
to them or interactions thatthey have with others, you're
going to be okay.
Also maybe write down like threeposes that you really want to do
(04:04):
and then really hammer thoseout.
Say them to yourself in amirror, get them hammered out so
that when the time comes to dothose photos, you already know
exactly where to start.
You know what to say to thecouple, you know how to pose
them.
You just go ahead and do that.
And then nine times out of 10,that's going to get you in a
flow.
You're going to be willing totry something new.
Maybe turn that way, turn intothis light.
(04:26):
Let's step over here.
And then you can essentially dothe same poses over and over
again.
And then you'll get them somevariety and it won't be a huge
mental tax on you.
Because all day you feel likeyou've been fighting fires and
trying to find, the best momentsand all this stuff.
Okay.
Part two of that question iswhat equipment on a budget would
(04:46):
you look into renting orobtaining?
That's a great question.
I'm not sure what gear you have,so it's hard to tell you exactly
what you should rent.
But, I will say that for myfirst few weddings, I owned a
Canon 40 D, but I didn't have asecond body.
I really think that it isimportant if you're a wedding
photographer to have at leasttwo bodies.
(05:10):
Two camera bodies, because ifone of them fails for any reason
whatsoever, it doesn't matter.
You don't have time totroubleshoot it.
You have to put it in a bag andthen pull out the other camera
and keep shooting.
So that's exactly, what it wasthat I rented.
I rented a second camera body.
And for me at the time, it was afull frame body.
It was a Canon 5d Mark II, Ibelieve.
(05:33):
Yeah, had to be.
And then I just rented a generalpurpose all around lens, a 24 to
70 millimeter F 2.
8 lens.
My goal is to not have to usethat equipment at all.
It is simply an insurancepolicy.
I'm comfortable with my Canon 4dD I was at the time I'm
comfortable with the lenses thatI owned.
(05:54):
I didn't want to show up and notonly have to figure out, the
wedding day, but also have tolearn an entirely new camera
system.
I didn't want to do that.
So I kept it as easy aspossible.
I took the camera body.
I took the lens, I put it in mybag and I tried not to use it
throughout the entire day.
Unless I absolutely had to.
(06:14):
Because you want to be confidentat a wedding.
You want to be confident, inyour abilities, right?
You have a camera.
You know how to use that camera.
Why change it up?
Like, just use that camera.
Usually rentals are like, three,four, five days, sometimes a
week.
Maybe after the wedding, playaround with that camera.
Go out, shoot, your own personaltime, whatever.
So that next time you have awedding, well, then maybe,
(06:37):
you'll feel confident enough inusing that camera to actually
use the upgraded body at awedding, but for your first
wedding, don't do it.
It's just an insurance policy.
Use what you know, use whatyou're used to.
Alright, question two.
Editing flow wise, how do Ioptimize the selection of which
photos to use, because shiftingthrough hundreds of photos often
(06:58):
dulls my eyes to smaller detailsthat can make or break a photo.
You're absolutely right.
I have totally been there,there's an important moment, you
rapid fire, you got like 10, 15photos of the exact same moment,
and you're trying to figure out,okay, which one do I use.
I can't exactly answer that foryou because part of choosing a
moment is, is what makes you aphotographer.
(07:20):
That is part of the artistry ofit.
But I can tell you, it's oftenless of a big deal than it feels
like it is.
Meaning if a bride's elbow isout a little bit, shoulders are,
a slightly different way becauseyou took them in rapid
succession.
One, the bride doesn't, youknow, the couple doesn't know
what all 10 or 15 photos youtook of that exact moment.
(07:43):
So almost whatever you deliveris going to be the photo of that
moment.
That that's what they're goingto want.
That's what they're going tolearn to love.
So I would say just, take yourtime and pick the right one.
That said, I've been to weddingsand I've shot thousands of
images for maybe 5, 000 imagesfrom a wedding more.
If I have a second.
(08:03):
More if it's a 10 hour day andeven more, if it's a 12 hour day
Today, there's tools, onespecifically, is called Imagine.
Imagine is an AI video editor.
So the idea here is that youupload your catalog, your
Lightroom catalog to imagine,and now they can just
automatically call through theimages for you to pick out the
best ones.
(08:24):
I have personally never used it.
But I've talked to manyprofessional photographers
working, you know, dedicatedprofessional photographers who
use it and they swear by it.
So if culling is the thing thattakes you the most amount of
time and you dread it the most,then look into outsourcing and
again, check out, imagine fortheir AI culling services.
(08:45):
Okay.
No question three from Junaid,which is also, I personally
don't use Photoshop because I'munsure of what to do or what to
look for when opening an imagein there.
I found that Lightroom and someminor removals work quite well.
So if I do add Photoshop to theworkflow, what are some things
to look out for in an image thatI would use Photoshop to enhance
(09:06):
or edit out?
Let me start by saying don'ttake on too much too fast.
As a professional photographerfor 10 years shooting weddings,
which include a lot ofportraits, I used Lightroom for
legitimately 99 percent of myedits.
The only time I would ever bringa photo into Photoshop was if I
(09:26):
needed to swap heads or swappeople in a very rare instance.
And by swap heads, I mean, yougot a group photo, you got 10,
12 people in it, it's a wholefamily and you just take five or
six photos because inevitablysomebody's going to blink.
Somebody's going to have a dumbface.
Somebody's going to be lookingstupid and you want to have
different options so that youcan edit them together and make
(09:49):
everybody look their best.
For 99 percent of everythingelse that I did, everything that
I delivered, I did it withinLightroom.
Does that mean that it has to bedone that way?
No, of course not.
If you love Photoshop, then byall means, do everything in
Photoshop.
In fact, I know a photographerwho just, they take all their
images from a wedding, they putthem all through Photoshop into
(10:10):
a Photoshop action, and thenthey just deliver those photos.
That's it.
If that's you, that's fine.
But if you're at this point towhere you're not sure of what to
do in Photoshop, maybe you'rejust thinking about using it
because it seems moreprofessional than Lightroom,
don't fall into that trap.
If you don't have a veryspecific use for it, don't worry
about it.
As you said, the removal tool,the blemish tool, like light
(10:35):
room has a lot of features andit had enough for me to be able
to edit an image, portraitsincluded to deliver those images
to my clients.
And.
be confident in, in what it wasthat I was delivering.
So I hope that that helps.
Okay.
Question number two comes from aChristopher B.
Christopher says, my question isaround cameras.
(10:58):
I do mostly shoot fully manualat times.
I do shoot aperture prioritywhen taking landscapes.
Does anyone have favoritesettings they keep for taking
particular shots like product,photography, portraits, or
landscapes interested to knowmore?
Thank you.
Chris B, Australia, First ofall, shout out to Australia who
in 2024 became the number one,country for new listeners for
(11:22):
the beginner photographypodcast.
So to Christopher and everybodyelse in Australia listening,
cheers.
Okay.
Back to the question.
I think what you're trying toask here is, in what situations
should I be using what settings?
And there's no one size fits allapproach to this.
Again, unfortunately, that'spart of the artistry that is
photography.
But I can tell you that forevery image, there's going to be
(11:43):
something that is most importantto you.
There's going to be a mostimportant element of that photo.
So you mentioned using aperturepriority when shooting
landscapes.
I'm assuming you wanted to setyour aperture to something like
f11, f16, something where you'regoing to have a deep depth of
field to get the entire scene infocus.
So for you, that focus for theentire scene was what was most
(12:06):
important.
So that was the choice that youmade.
Aperture became the mostimportant setting for you.
And then you just set your ISOas low as, as what's reasonable,
depending on how much light isavailable.
Okay.
And then just set your shutterspeed to whatever it needed to
be to get a correct and properexposure.
So again, in that situation,your aperture was the most
(12:27):
important setting and all theother ones, shutter speed and
ISO just became secondary.
If you're shooting portraits,again, aperture is going to be
one of the most importantsettings, but you're going to
want a large aperture so thatyou can get your subject in
focus, but have the backgroundout of focus.
So once again, you're going tochoose a large aperture.
Let's say.
F1 0.8, F two, and then you'regonna adjust your ISO as low as
(12:52):
reasonable, as low as it needsto be within reason.
And then you're gonna set yourshutter speed to whatever it
needs to be to have a properlyexposed image.
If you're shooting sports,aperture is not as important.
Shutter speed is most importantbecause sports are quick.
From soccer, people running downthe field, to, baseball, to,
(13:13):
open wheel racing, right?
They all require capturingmotion.
And therefore, what of thosethree settings, aperture,
shutter speed, and ISO, controlsmotion blur?
It is your shutter speed.
So for sports, you're gonnachoose the shutter speed that,
that you want.
You're gonna probably choose ashutter speed of maybe 1, 500th
of a second if you're shootingbaseball or, just human powered
(13:36):
sports.
And then you're probably gonnachoose a shutter speed of
something like 1, 2000 of asecond if you're shooting
something like open wheel racingto freeze the action.
And then again, then you just,you pick an aperture and then
you pick an ISO that just makesthe image properly exposed.
Or, if you want an example ofthis, check out Chris Owens work
(13:57):
on Instagram.
Chris Owens is the photo managerfor the IndyCar series.
And he does these amazing slowshutter speed images of
IndyCars.
I mean, going hundreds of milesan hour and maybe his slow
shutter speed is something likeone, 1 25th of a second.
But what you get are these long,like this long drag of the car
(14:19):
going down, the track and it'sbeautiful.
So for him, that photo, not thesubject, that photo, the most
important detail was having aslow enough shutter speed.
And then he just chose hiscamera settings based on
whatever they needed to be toachieve the desired effect that
he was looking for.
The most important part of thatimage is that you get the motion
(14:41):
blur of the car.
It doesn't matter what the ISOis.
It doesn't matter what youraperture is.
That is the most importantsetting.
So think about your photo.
Think about the photo that youwant to achieve.
What is the most importantelement of it?
If it's nighttime, it's probablygoing to be your ISO so that you
can at least get enough light into properly capture the photo.
And then the other settings justneed to be whatever they need to
(15:03):
be within reason to get aproperly exposed photo.
So Christopher, I hope thathelps.
I hope that makes sense.
As somebody who comes fromshooting manual, I tried to
tailor the answer to that alittle bit so that you could
better understand.
And if you don't shoot manualyet, the other listeners, I hope
that that gave you a little bitof insight as far as, why
shooting annual is mostimportant as opposed to when
(15:24):
you're shooting an auto, becauseif you're shooting an auto, it's
going to choose whateversettings it wants.
It's going to choose the samesettings that every other camera
in the world on auto is going tochoose.
And you're not going to getsomething unique.
You're not going to getsomething special.
It just going to be a snapshot.
So again, Christopher, I hopethat helps.
Okay.
Next question comes from DebbieOglesby.
(15:46):
Hey Raymond, I really enjoy yourpodcast and have learned a lot.
Thank you, Debbie.
I'm in the process of creating astudio for senior and family
photos.
The room is approximately 11feet by 11 feet, and I have an
off camera flash, but I wouldlike to know what other lighting
options you recommend.
All right, Debbie.
Well, first of all,congratulations.
That's a huge step.
(16:07):
When it comes to shootingindoors, I think that having a
versatile lighting kit is goingto be extremely important
because otherwise all yourphotos are going to look like
they're just taken in front of awall.
One of the things that I learnedin film school is like, this was
like day one, right?
It's called a three point lightsetup.
Now I'm going to try to teachthis to you real quick.
To create compelling portrait,you need three lights.
(16:29):
You need a key light, the mainlight.
You need a fill light to lightthe opposite side of someone's
face.
And then you need a backlight.
The backlight is what's going toseparate them from the
background.
Okay.
So these three lights and theirmain goals, the key light, this
is the key light.
This is the main light.
This is what's going to do themajority of exposing your
subject's face.
(16:50):
This is typically a large, lightsource.
So maybe you have on like a bigsoft box, the bigger, the
better.
Oftentimes I've seen in studios,they might have a five or an
eight foot Octobox.
However, if the whole room isonly 11 by 11, maybe stick with
a five foot Octobox.
Actually, another thing that youcould do, you don't have as much
(17:12):
control, but, it's much cheaperand you could do it is that you
could turn the flash away fromyour subject and have a giant,
like a white poster board,hanging up and fire the flash
directly into that, and thenthat will illuminate your
subjects.
Okay.
So that the key light is goingto be the brightest part of the
brightest light, that you'reusing out of the three.
(17:34):
And that's typically gonna lightjust one side of your subject's
face.
So, imagine that you are themodel, you're the subject, for a
moment.
This light it's either gonna beto the left or the right, but
it's gonna be off about 45degrees, right?
So not fully to the left or tothe right, and not fully in
front of you, but halfway inbetween.
(17:55):
And then the light is gonna beup, slightly above their head,
kinda pointed down.
And that is what's calledRembrandt lighting.
it looks natural.
it closely emulates what we see,because our light source that we
see naturally is the sun.
It comes from above andoftentimes it comes from a bit
of an angle as well.
So that, that replicates that.
(18:15):
Some photographers only use thatone main key light, and then
that's it.
That's all that they use.
So maybe try to get comfortablewith that first.
And once you do, then you canstart incorporating other
lights.
Cause if you try to do all thelights at once, it can be a lot.
Okay.
The next light is a fill light.
Okay, so if, if the light, let'sjust say, is to the left of your
(18:38):
subject, your key light is tothe left of your subject, then
the left side of their face isgoing to be lit, but the right
side of their face is going tobe in shadow.
Sometimes it's too dark of ashadow.
So you have what's called a filllight, and this is a much lower
intensity light.
So if your off camera flash isfiring at full power, Then the
fill light would be firing atsay a quarter power.
(19:00):
And what that does is it startsto give the face a bit of depth.
It starts to feel more alive inthe image.
It's not very flat lighting, butit provides some sort of depth
to the image.
We start to see the contours ofthe face.
And it just, it just lookspleasing.
Now, the last light here iscalled a backlight.
All right.
Let's imagine that you have adark backdrop and then all your
(19:23):
subjects have dark hair.
Well, how do you get them tostand out from the background?
It looks like their hair is thesame color as the backdrop.
And then they don't, they don'tstand out.
You use what's called abacklight.
This light is going to be almostdirectly behind them and it's
going to be way above theirhead, pointed down towards their
backs.
And what this is it illuminatestheir back.
(19:44):
It illuminates, it almost givesthem like a halo, like outline.
So when you see black hair witha back black ground, but there's
this.
Halo effect on the hair.
It's going to make it stand out.
It's going to separate it fromthe background, giving them
again, more depth, moredimension, and it's going to
feel as if they're popping outof the photo, look at some, I
(20:06):
don't know, look at any fashionmagazine, look at any, magazine
that you find at a grocerystore, once you do, you're going
to start recognizing those threelights.
One side of their face or theirbody is going to be lit more
than the other side of theirface or their body.
That's the difference between akey light and a fill light.
And then nine times out of 10,there's some sort of light
(20:26):
that's hitting them from behindthat is that you can see on
their hair or their shouldersthat is separating them from the
background.
That is the backlight.
So Debbie, I hope that thathelps kind of give you an
insight as far as what what youneed, what you should look out
for, If you're in a controlledenvironment, like a studio, you
can get away with using somecontinuous lighting so that it's
(20:47):
easier for you to see, the,effects that the light is making
on your subjects.
But ultimately a flash is alwaysgoing to be way more powerful
and therefore give you a morepolished effect.
So Debbie, I hope that helps.
If you've got any questions,follow up questions, let me
know.
I could talk about this stuffall day.
Okay.
next question comes from GerardGerard Exubery who I've had on
(21:10):
the podcast before.
This is good.
Okay.
Let's see what Gerard says.
Gerard says, Hey Ray, what doyou say?
My question is, do you have tosuffer in order to sing the
blues?
I'm talking about street work,which has a different gestalt
than let's say commercialwedding or industrial
photography.
It does.
I look at some of the world'sgreatest street photographers
and see that more often thannot, they've had tough lives.
(21:34):
Very often suffering fromdepression, and or growing up in
circumstances that reflectthrough their entire life.
Effects that they would shootand what the photographer
effects on what they would shootand what the photographer slash
artist chooses to show.
Okay, got it.
I believe that if I had notexperienced things that I did
when I was younger, things thatwere not pretty at all, I would
(21:56):
not be able to make thephotographs that I do.
I would like to know how many ofyour followers feel the same
way.
How have they been affected bytheir life experiences in a
subject and matter in which theycreate their images?
Finally, I'd like to know ifyou've heard any photography
ghost stories.
Okay.
Photography ghost stories.
I don't.
(22:17):
I did, uh, when I first movedout to Indiana, I worked on that
show Ghost Adventures.
If you're not familiar withGhost Adventures, there's a
host, his name is, Zach Beggins,I think it is.
And they go to haunted placesand see if they're on it.
They try to bring out ghosts andstuff.
Anyway, I worked as a cameraassistant.
I worked during the day.
They worked in the locations atnight.
It's really interesting.
(22:38):
They came to a location calledFox Hollow Farms, in Carmel,
Indiana.
Horrific story.
I mean horrific, horrific story.
I cannot imagine the things thatwent on in that house.
Beautiful house.
Beautiful house.
It was an amazing experience.
No, I never saw a ghost.
And I don't believe that theysaw a ghost either.
(22:58):
So, but that, I mean, that'd beas close as it gets.
Okay, anyway, back to thequestion, do you have to suffer
in order to sing the blues?
You know, you said, if I had notexperienced things that I did
when I was younger, I would notbe able to make the photographs
that I do.
And how have, listeners, howhave their lives been affected
by their life experience?
(23:19):
Yeah, I mean, our lifeexperience completely dictates
how we see the world.
It shapes how we see the world.
It shapes the lens in which welook at the world.
It's so much, you know,honestly, and, it's really hard
to answer this question becauseI only know my perspective and
the way that I have viewed theworld.
(23:39):
But I've definitely heard thisbefore, right?
But no, I don't think that youhave to suffer in order to sing
the blues.
Meaning, I don't think that youhave to have gone through a lot
of trauma to be able to createart.
I think that it's probablyeasier, because if you've gone
through some trauma in yourlife, you're probably trying to
(24:00):
outrun it or escape it, get ridof it.
And I think one of the easiestways to kind of forget is to
immerse yourself in work,especially by creating
something.
When you create something, Imean, your brain just goes into
this magical space.
Time just doesn't really existanymore.
(24:20):
incredible.
So I could see how if you wereconstantly haunted by your past
and you were trying to notrelive those moments, that
trying to find yourself in aflow state, some sort of
creative flow state, beneficialthat would be.
And of course the more time thatyou spend in that state, the
(24:41):
more time that you spendcreating, well, guess what,
you're going to be better at it.
The better you are at it, thebetter it feels as well.
see the validity to thatargument, I guess the
correlation.
But I don't think that sufferingis causation for great
creativity.
I truly believe that anybody,even if you've had a nice,
(25:01):
cushy, soft, easy life, cancreate meaningful work.
It just might not be meaningfulin the same sense.
I don't value a Jeff Koontz, youknow, dog balloon, but others
do.
So he went through something inhis life that led him to create
that.
Actually, I remember watching aCBS Sunday Morning story, about
(25:22):
him, where he talked about howit reminds him of his childhood.
In a good way.
And he's arguably, I mean, oneof the most famous artists
alive.
Not to say that he hasn't hadany trauma or, things that he's
gone through.
But he, he looked at his art ina way that was, in a happy
light, it seemed.
Now the other side of that coinis that there's the Ansel Adams
(25:43):
quote.
Yeah.
There are two people in everyphotograph, the photographer and
the viewer.
Right.
So maybe the things that youhave gone through Also, shade
your lenses in a color to lookat the work of others and maybe
make assumptions.
I've definitely worked, lookedat work and made assumptions.
Either about the subject matteror the photographer themselves
(26:05):
or, you know, what have you.
And one thing that I find mostinteresting about photography is
that just because yourexperience of an image differs
from how the photographerintended, doesn't make your
viewpoint of that artwork anyless valid.
Because art is designed to, tomove you, to make you think,
(26:27):
make you stop, and questionlife, and, but also enrich life
as well.
So anyway, point is before Istart rambling on that, no, I
don't, I don't think that youhave to suffer in order to sing
the blues.
I also don't think that you haveto suffer in order to enjoy the
blues.
I do, I do think that there's aconnection there.
(26:48):
What is it?
I'm not exactly sure.
But I think that whatever yourlife experience is, you can
create incredible work if you'rededicated to it.
So Gerard, I hope that answersyour question.
Okay, I think this will be myfinal question.
This question comes from Deidre.
Deidre says, here are somequestions.
(27:08):
We got four questions here,okay?
Number one, do's and don'ts.
Camera storage and handling.
What is something you shouldnever do with a camera or with a
lens?
Okay, I was thinking camerastorage like memory cards and
stuff.
Deidre's talking about.
Like handling your camera andyour lenses.
Okay.
All right.
Great question.
Okay.
So when it comes to storing,your cameras and lenses, dues,
(27:32):
or I guess we'll start withdon'ts.
Don't store them in an extremelyhumid.
Place, right?
Because liquid, moisture isgoing to be the death of
electronics.
So try to keep it in a cool,dry, place when not in use.
Also remember that your camerais a tool, right?
If you create great images andthe camera gets broken, like, is
(27:54):
it a financial hit?
It is, but I would literallyspend.
I mean, cameras could triple inprice, and I would still pay for
them because they allow me toexpress myself creatively in a
way that I can't with pencils,music, any other form of
creative expression.
So to me, I'm going to use acamera.
(28:15):
But again, I understand that,especially if you're new to
photography, that it can bequite an investment.
So yeah, try to keep them in acool, dry place.
In fact, you know what I have?
I bought these on, uh, onAmazon.
They're large, like silica gelpackets, and they're actually
reusable.
So can you hear that it's theseplastic bags with silica gel
(28:38):
inside?
And what they do is they soak upthe moisture.
So when I leave my cameras in,my tool cart, I put the cameras
in there and there's also anumber of these silica gel
packets.
They're blue, but when theyabsorb as much moisture as they
can, then they turn purple.
Usually this happens overseveral months or, whatever.
(28:59):
Then when they're fullysaturated, you can actually just
put them in the oven and, Iguess dehydrate them again to
turn them blue.
And then they are now reusable.
They're super great.
I'll put a link in the shownotes to where you can find
them.
They're amazing.
I put them in my camera bags.
I put them in my tool carts.
I put them with my memory cards.
I put like everywhere.
They're in my luggage.
(29:19):
All over the place, wherever Itravel with a camera, I have one
of these packets with me and youcan also microwave them if you
need to.
So like if you're on trip andyou're in a hotel and you find
that it's, turns purple, you canmicrowave it.
It'll be good to go.
Also don't change lenses inwindy conditions or sandy
conditions like beaches.
(29:40):
I mean, again, your camera's atool, your camera's more rugged
than you think that it is.
But yeah, just, just take some,minor precautions.
It's not as fragile as you thinkthat it is.
If you have a really heavy lens,then it's just good practice to
hold both the camera body andthe lens.
At the same time, one hand onthe body, one hand on the lens,
so that you can support themount.
(30:01):
However, those are engineeredpretty well.
Also, don't toss your gear.
I don't know.
I mean, like these are just kindof like common things like if
you wouldn't do it to I don'tknow a brand new cell phone
Maybe don't do it to your cameraand your lens Okay, next
question.
How long do you keep clientgalleries before cleansing
storage space?
That's a great question.
Yeah, I keep them, I would keepthem for about 13 months.
(30:24):
So, I would deliver a gallery toa couple and then in that email
I would say, be sure that youdownload this because I'm going
to keep it for 12 months.
And then on the one yearanniversary of their wedding, I
send them another email saying,Hey, congratulations, I can't
believe it's been a year, By theway, here's a link to all your
wedding photos.
If you haven't downloaded themalready, then go ahead and do
(30:45):
so.
Because I'm going to, I gottaremove the gallery.
It's no longer going to beavailable.
That typically, then they dothat.
They download the gallery.
That being said, I don'tactually delete the galleries.
I don't see any use for it.
I have enough storage with cloudspot that, In fact, I still have
all of my wedding galleries inCloudSpot.
(31:05):
Weddings from 10 years ago, lotof space.
but.
I could remove it if I want to,but, from a customer service
standpoint, if somebody reachedout and they're like, Hey, can
we get this gallery?
Like I'm going to send them alink, no big deal.
Storage is, is relatively cheap,just to keep myself safe in the
contract, it says that I willkeep it for up to 12 months
(31:26):
after that.
It's up to them.
So, I hope that answers yourquestion.
Question number three.
What is photographer'sinsurance?
Oh, that's a good question.
Okay, so, photography insuranceis, it's two parts.
Let's say that you are,traveling and your gear gets
stolen.
Well, photographer's insurancewill pay for that.
Repay, for, for your losses sothat you can buy new camera
(31:48):
gear.
And that is helpful.
oftentimes if you're not inbusiness, then your own
homeowners or renters insurancepolicy should cover this.
I'm not an insurance agent.
I don't know what your policysays.
So if you have any questions, besure to call them and confirm,
like, just say, Hey, I got, afew thousand dollars in camera
equipment, what happens if I'mtraveling and it gets stolen?
(32:09):
What happens if, I'm on a hikeand it falls and it smashes and
breaks, you know, I think thingslike that, just to get some
answers.
But again, if you are inbusiness, then it's considered a
business asset.
It's just good.
So if it's a business asset,then oftentimes a homeowner's
insurance policy won't cover it.
So yeah, it's a, it's a goodthing to look into.
The other part of it isliability insurance.
(32:30):
So this happened to me a fewyears ago where I was at an
engagement session and we wereat this, local park.
And there's this nice littlecreek bed and like the sun was
coming behind them and I waslike, Oh, this looks beautiful.
I wanted them a little bitcloser, to the water just for
compositional purposes.
These are like, I didn't askthem to do anything crazy.
(32:51):
Like it wasn't anything wild.
However, there was a bit of amuddy spot that I didn't see,
that the bride to be didn't see,she stepped in it, slipped, and
broke her leg.
She was out for like months.
Now, whose fault is that?
Is it my fault for telling herwhere to go?
And suggesting that she walkthere?
(33:12):
Or is it her fault because sheactually did it herself?
That's where it becomes like abit of a legal thing.
If she wanted to sue me forhaving her do, I don't know,
dangerous stuff, I mean, I guessit'd be possible.
You know, she could sue me for,for her medical bills.
Luckily, she didn't do that.
She understood that it wassimply a mistake.
But, what if you're at a weddingand you're photographing the
(33:35):
couple and you're backing up andthen you accidentally bump into
a kid?
I don't know.
Who falls and I don't know hurtshimself somehow who is at fault,
right?
So the liability insurancecovers you in case there's any
sort of issue that comes uprelated to that personal injury
and things like that.
So those are the main reasons toget insurance oftentimes larger
(33:58):
venues older venues historicalvenues will require that you
have a at least here in Indy, itwas like between one and 3
million of, liability insurance,which is what you can get, I
think for like 20 a month.
It's really cheap.
Some companies even offer itlike it as, as a per event
basis.
So like, if you're not shootinga ton of weddings, you don't
have to invest in like a monthlycost, but you just pay monthly.
(34:21):
So anyway, I hope that thatanswers your question there.
Okay.
Last question.
Can you recommend the best wayto start a website for somebody
who's never built a websitebefore?
What platform?
All right, DG, when it comes toa website, I think simple is
best.
If it's too complicated, you'renot going to keep up with it.
(34:41):
So when you ask what is best,that is.
up to whatever your goals are.
If you want a website that'soptimized for CEO or SEO that is
optimized for, maximum controlto let you do whatever your
heart desires on a website,probably WordPress is the best
route to go.
Cause it's going to offer themost amount of flexibility.
(35:04):
However, it's not the most userfriendly.
If you're looking for somethingthat is user friendly, for
years, I used Squarespace and Iloved it.
In fact, I still useSquarespace.
I'll probably never switch awayfrom Squarespace, but there are
some trade offs.
It's not that great when itcomes to blogging, just the way
that it lays out blogs, it isnot great.
(35:25):
But if you just have likephotography business and you're
not putting out hundreds ofblogs, like I do, especially
with the podcast, like for shownotes and every hundreds of
episodes, hundreds of blog postsare what those are, then it's
not something that you reallyneed to worry about.
And I think that Squarespace isgoing to do you just fine.
So it's up to you and whateveryour goals are.
(35:46):
If it's maximum flexibility, Iwould say WordPress.
If it's maximum usability andease of use, I'd probably say
Squarespace.
That said, I have not used everywebsite platform.
I've seen some people use Wix.
I've never used it.
But again, you asked me for myopinion.
That's what I would say is myopinion.
So hopefully that helps.
I would recommend maybe watchinga few YouTube videos and watch
(36:08):
like beginner's guides to bothof those and see which one you
like best.
So that is it.
Yeah, no, that is the lastquestion for today.
I really hope that you enjoyedtoday's Q and a episode, here on
the beginner photographypodcast.
If you have questions related tophotography that you want me to
answer, then I would love to doso.
You can head over to beginnerphotopod.
(36:29):
com forward slash Q a again,beginner photopod.
com forward slash Q.
A, that's just two letters Q ato submit your question there.
You can even leave a voicemailif you want to hint, hint, tons
of fun.
And I would love to answer yourquestion on the next Q and a
episode of the beginnerphotography podcast.
That is it for today until nexttime.
(36:50):
Remember the more that you shoottoday, the better of a
photographer you will betomorrow.
Talk soon.
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