Laya Gerlock, Author at DIY Photography

Laya Gerlock is a portrait photographer based in the Philippines. You can follow his work on his web page, follow him on Flickr and if you happen to come by Cubao Quezon, (To Manila, Philippines) he gives a great workshop!

A Year Of My Best Articles And Why I Love Sharing What I Know

October 29, 2015 by Laya Gerlock 2 Comments

By November it will be 2 years since I started writing for DIYP and and it’s time again to recap the best articles for the year plus some of last years plus I want to write how sharing what you know will help not just other photographers but will also help you as a photographer.

Ever since I started photography I have been sharing setup shots or how-tos on my flickr stream, and later I started doing my own workshops here in the Philippines, and continued sharing what I know. But ever since I started writing here it has been a whole new challenge and a whole new audience.

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Guerilla Style Shooting with the Tronix Explorer 500Li

October 24, 2015 by Laya Gerlock 7 Comments

Have you ever had a dream shot that you wanted to do but could never do it? I think it has been more than a year since I wanted to do a shoot where I could shoot in the middle of the road with cars passing by and had my model lit by my flash.

Recently I was contacted by Innovatronix the maker of Tronix Explorer Battery Packs and they offered to let me use their battery packs and it was the moment I was waiting for to do my Dream Shot. In this article I will do a review on the Tronix Explorer 500Li and a step-by-step explanation on how I got my dream shot.

I have never tried to do this shoot, where security may kick me out, because I only had 2 speedlights for outdoor use and the recycling time wouldn’t be enough if I was in a hurry that’s why the Tronix Explorer 500Li was the perfect battery pack for the job.

Before even going in the middle of the street to shoot I needed to prep up and do my research so that the shoot would go as smooth and as quick as possible.

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How To “Create” Window Light

October 4, 2015 by Laya Gerlock 7 Comments

Last year I had a shoot where I made this wooden table for food photography. This year the client contacted me again for another shoot. While on our way to the initial brief meeting I was thinking what I can do for this shoot to make it special. Then it hit me, I would light this shoot with a beautiful window light. Sadly, my concept has some trouble as I did not have a well lit window facing where I needed at the time of the shoot. OK, why don’t I “Create” a window, full with window light. Not shoot near a window or shoot using a light from a window, but actually create my won window where I would have total control. a window with light. In this article I’ll show you how I Created my own window (and window light).

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3 Lighting Setups (And 2 Tips) For Tasty Beverage Lighting

August 28, 2015 by Laya Gerlock 6 Comments

I was inspired by Allen Mowery’s post on creating fake Ice cubes for beverage photography, but after a month I still can’t find clear craft beads here in my country. While I am trying to find those clear craft beads I wanted to share a tutorial with some tricks and lighting techniques you can use for non-fake-ice beverage shots. So here are 3 different lighting techniques for shooting tasty beverages.

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7 Single Flash Portraits Techniques That You Can Apply Right Now

August 23, 2015 by Laya Gerlock 40 Comments

Almost all the photographers I know have at least one speedlight. They use for their cameras hotshoe, if for nothing else. But what if you want to dub in off camera flashing but don’t have any modifiers yet? In this article I will show you 7 different single flash techniques for portraits that you can apply right now – without buying any modifiers.

The only thing you need to have is a wireless radio trigger and you’re good to go*.

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6 Excuses Why You Don’t Improve In Photography And Why They Are Wrong

August 11, 2015 by Laya Gerlock 19 Comments

There are always reasons to go watch some Simpsons or stare at Facebook. That little voice in your head will give you all of them just when it’s time to work on your photography. We disagree.

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How To Shoot The Perfect Shoe Splash

July 29, 2015 by Laya Gerlock 2 Comments

It’s been over two weeks since I bought a new pair shoes and I still haven’t worn them because I wanted to take one last picture of them. Last week I did a lighting tutorial on how to photograph shoes, on this tutorial we will add some splashes to the shoes and do a step by step tutorial on how do one yourself.

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Lighting Tutorial: How To Photograph Shoes

July 18, 2015 by Laya Gerlock 2 Comments

I recently bought a new pair of shoes and before I use them and get them all dirty (as I always do in two seconds), I wanted to play around with them for a bit. Here is a step by step tutorial on how I made the shoes looks so fine. I tried to shoot them as straight out of the camera as possible, there is just some very minor editing to be done at the end.

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7 Functional Tips for Better Product Photography

July 12, 2015 by Laya Gerlock 31 Comments

I’ve been making different product photography tutorials for awhile now and I still regularly go back to a previous posts because I am still using the same techniques. I wanted to make a single point of contact for functional tips on improving your product photography.

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The 5 Minutes, $1.50 Reflector And How To Use It

July 4, 2015 by Laya Gerlock 7 Comments

I’ve already used those DIY reflectors in a couple of my articles but I’ve never actually did a full post explaining how they are built and used. I want to show you how easy it is to make this reflector and how useful it can be. Definitely a good use for $1.50. It actually takes around 5 minutes to make it and you can make it as big or small as you need.

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