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This living room shoot shows the importance of back light for making a scene real

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I love a good living room studio. Not everyone can afford a full fledged studio and for many, the photography room living room is the only option. Probably not to the delight of the significant other.

Manny Ortiz (previously) shows a clever way to make the living room look bigger using a portable seamless black and a Light Blaster.

What grabbed my attention right away is how three dimensional the photos look, so I asked Manny about it. Manny tells that the secret is using backlight. There are three lights in each shot: A key which shines on Diana (a Flashpoint360 with a 47″ octa); A Light Blaster with a slide and a Flashpoint Zoom; and the key ingredient – a gridded and gelled strobe as back light.

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Tips and tricks for building a DIY home studio on a budget

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Building a studio in your home is the dream for many photographers. Assuming you can convince the rest of your family it’s a good idea, it can even become a reality. For those just getting into studio photography, building a home studio may be an afterthought to a home you already own. You may be very limited on space, so how can you make the most of it?

In this video, photographer Joe Edelman walks us through his home studio. While many of us might not be able to dedicate the space that Joe has, there’s always ways to make things feel bigger than they are. Joe shows us some of his space saving tips, as well as props and tools which serve multiple functions. No matter how large or small your studio, there are always ways to optimise your space and workflow.

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How to make a studio shoot look like a location shoot

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I just finished up a handful of promotional shots with actor Levi Fiehler and it went well. One of our shots was an odd editorial photo with a him sitting next to a head in a box.. because hey, why not?! I used a hand painted backdrop and a faux wood floor and I lit it dark and moody. I was happy with the way it turned out except for one factor. I wish it didn’t look like it was shot with a studio backdrop. If it looked like it was on location, the shot might work better. The only “giveaway” that it was done in a studio was the roll at the bottom of the backdrop. So I realized if I put a piece of wood molding along the bottom of the backdrop, it would look like a wall and a floor instead of a backdrop and a floor.

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How to get into studio lighting without spending thousands of dollars

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I hear it all the time…. “I want to get in to studio lighting, but I just don’t have the money.”

Well, you actually do. And if you care that much about the studio/ engineered lighting world, jumping in to it is actually MUCH EASIER than you might think, and much more affordable! There are a host of amazing options out there to help you get in to the studio lighting world for a fraction of the cost of strobes.

Working with the kit I’m about to show you has changed the entire look and feel of my imagery, and allows me to communicate a more beautiful, effective message with the images I create….

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Here Is How I Made A Fake Snow Shoot In My Living Room With Almost Zero Budget

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I met Sarah and her mom earlier on Facebook. They responded to a previous casting call.

We had worked together on a real fun shoot and Sarah, her mom and me were talking about some ideas that would be fun to work on next. Christmas time was coming, so we thought a winter theme would be fun.

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Build A Background Wall On Wheels

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Black and white are the default background colors for many of my photos. There are several background systems (paper, fabric, roller blinds, etc.) and I wanted to have something that is easily changeable, portable and inexpensive for those two colors.

The result is a background wall on wheels. Both sides are papered with background-wallpaper and so they are easily repaintable. By default I have one of the sides painted white and the other painted black.

Size-wise the wall is 2m high and 1.8m wide, so I have enough space for portraits and full body images. The wall stands safely on its attached furniture castors and is still very mobile in space.

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Five Audio Options for Your Home or Office Studio

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Being photographers we are accustomed to pay attention to composition, lighting, depth of field, colors, focal length and many other factors that comprise the final frame.

Photographers entering the world of video have the advantage of already mastering all these aspects, but one of the most important aspects in video gets ignored way too often – audio.

Audio recording is not something that automatically comes to mind for a stills photographer, in many cases leading to sloppy sound that ruins the video, but luckily Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens is here to help.

Watch the video for five options for recording audio in your home studio. Jay explains the advantages, disadvantages and price of these solutions, ranging from free to $1,000.

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How To Build A Killer 4-Feet, Double-Ringed, 27-Bulbs-Powered Ring Light

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Honestly, I cannot believe this went under the radar for me. Photographer Dani Diamond just broke our ring light record, not by making it any bigger, but by adding a clever inner ring making it the first double-ringed DIY light I’ve seen.

The outer diameter is 4 feet and it features 12 bulbs in the inside ring and another 15 (actually 14) bulbs on the outside, making it a 27 bulbs monster. The only bulb that is missing, making it a 26-bulber is the topmost bulb that Dani uses as a clever mounting point, booming it rather that mounting it on a light stand.

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The Ultimate DIY Photography Editing Table

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If you spend a lot of time at your desk editing photos you know how crucial a comfortable desk is. No cable clutter… easy storage… and it definitely has to look nice. Photographer Tom Barnes (who build this on location workstation too), made a table to fit his needs not only as a photographer, but as a tall photographer too.

Aside for having the precise height for Tom, the table also had to feature a shelf for hard drives, storage space and be 99% cable free. It also needed a dual monitor mount sunk into the desk. Here is what Tom got with a little bit of google sketch up and some scaffold parts.

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Check Out The Awesome Makeup In This Epic Self Portrait Project: 31 Days Of Halloween

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For most of us, the hardest part about committing to a portrait project is coming up with new and creative photos day in and day out, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for pro photographer, Amanda Chapman. Since 2012, Chapman has been partaking in a 31 Days Of Halloween project where she dresses up in different makeup and costume every day for the month of October. Once learning her husband had been diagnosed with cancer in August of 2012, Chapman desperately needed an outlet and a project to ease the mind’s of her and her family. As October of the same year rolled around, she started doing different makeup every day and posting the photos to her facebook page.

Though she had no formal training in makeup, in fact, she had only done it a couple times in the past for Halloween costumes, her Tim Burton inspired looks grabbed the attention of her fans while simultaneously giving her family something fun to look forward to each day. [Read More…]

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