Behind the Scenes Photography Articles

Extremely dark, horror-inspired images are a genre of their own. In contrast to last week's actress headshot, I thought it would be fun to discuss this image Fifi, a model for a popular video game graphics card manufacturer. She wanted a fun, dark, and scary image. We decided on a F.E.A.R game inspired image, and feel as though this image was a great success. We bought Fifi a red dress and cut it up to look like torn rags, then went to our location - a long-abandoned post-war era bordello in the middle of the desert.

As always, you can follow along on youtube and download the accompanying PSD file from the Repository. The content of this tutorial is based on the assumption that you are familiar with some of the earlier tutorials, so take a bit of time and watch the series. Please don't forget to give me a thumbs up on youtube, and contact me if there's anything you would like to see!

This image was shot with an overhead 7'OctaBox and a 5" regular reflector on my Bowens Studio Strobes. Camera used was a Nikon D-90 with a 10mm-10-20 mm Sigma zoom lens at 10mm.

The actor's headshot is a slightly different type of photography than corporate images or glamour/portraiture. It is a type of portrait that needs to be attractive and engaging, but accurate as well. As a rule, I will only change minor temporary blemishes to an actor's headshot, and minor improvements to the image to represent what I saw when I photographed the actor. In this image of actress Lily Delamere, I wanted to convey her stoic beauty while maintaining faith to her superficial beauty. I chose to use a soft, mostly flat light to not over-light the image and allow the casting director to see her under a more natural, flat light. This choice flattened her appearance a bit in ways that I wanted to fix in Photoshop. I re-applied highlights to her hair and added some lashes and eyeliner, cleaned up a few stray flyaway hairs. The resulting image is quite stunning:

Watch the video and follow along with a copy of the original PSD file from my Repository !

Photographed with a Nikon D7000, 60MM lens and Bowens Studio Strobes. Light modifiers consisted of a Small Softbox and a beayty dish, using the wall as a fill reflector.

Recently, I took a weekend to visit the Olympic Penninsula and encountered some great weather — driving winds and a solid downpour that made it clear that I wasn't in Arizona any more. Here are some of my favorite images from the jaunt.

This image was captured near Kalaloch. This gorgeous beach was being pounded by rough surf and driving downpour. One thing that amazed me at this beach was the large, palm-sized stones that would grind against each other with each wave. The wave would come in and crash, lifting the stones, and as the water receded, the stones would all clack together adding a loud staccato to the symphony of the roaring ocean.

This image was taken from the jetty at Lapush. The gale force wind was violent and driving, and the rocks were wet and slippery, so I was compelled to get out there and document the violence and raw power of the day:

This panorama of Admiralty Head Lighthouse was a fun image to create. As I came across the sound on the ferry, the weather started to clear and I knew that the lighthouse would be amazing in the late-afternoon light on this panorama with the white cliffs in the distance. This image is a stitched panorama of a half-dozen photographs. In addition to being a panorama, an interesting note is that this Sunday afternoon had the park full of people. So I shot multiple exposures and stitched the images together, removing the people from the pathways and lawn.

I hope that you enjoyed looking at some of my personal work from last week! I'm shooting some images for clients the next couple of weeks, then will be focusing on personal work and building my portfolio through Thanksgiving.

I recently photographed some peppers for my food portfolio. This is an image of a habanero nestled inside a Poblano pepper and flanked on either side by by Jalapenos. The lighting setup was done with a pair of gridded snoots. I put one on either side, and then added a fill by bouncing a third strobe off my home's white kitchen ceiling. My next studio will have a full kitchen set up for food photography. I recently photographed some peppers for my food portfolio. This is an image of a habanero nestled inside a Poblano pepper and flanked on either side by by Jalapenos. The lighting setup was done with a pair of gridded snoots. I put one on either side, and then added a fill by bouncing a third strobe off my home's white kitchen ceiling. My next studio will have a full kitchen set up for food photography.

One of my jobs this week was to work with Justin Current on a calendar project. I enjoy working with Justin and very much like this type of shoot. My goals were to show his versatility as a model and to show him at his best while incorporating as many different styles as possible. Shooting many types of images during the same day while incorporating a common thread is great fun and a challenge.

This particular image was taken in the doorway to my studio's office. I wanted to contrast the harsh overhead sunlight with soft, diffused light inside. I wanted the illusion of indirect sunlight inside, but the contrast between the interior and exterior was very high, and the shaft of light coming in the doorway was way more directional that what I needed.

I set a large softbox with a gold interior to the right of the door and removed the front baffle. I reflected this into a white v-card to create the very warm, soft golden light that maintained some directionality. I then added a silver reflector behind Justin to the left so there would be a slight edge on him and he stands from the background. Shot this image on my Nikon D-90 with a 60MM lens at f/11, 1/160 second to expose for the sunlight on the wall.. The 60MM f/2.8 Micro Nikkor is an amazing lens - I've owned this one since 1990, it has become a great portrait lens for my crop-sensor cameras.

Post processing was less than it may appear - I simply reduced the saturation a bit and added a small amount of sepia tone. The golden light dappling on the steps was a result of the softbox placement, not a Photoshop hack.

Keep watching for more of Justin, and I will link to his calendar once it becomes available this fall.

This was a a great fighter-themed shoot for an upcoming calendar. We wanted to show multiple facets and illustrate an underground fighting location with the blurred and obscured background.

Recently, I came across a very inexpensive used tablet PC for sale. It was an old Motion Computing M1400 and I decided to get it and see if I could put it to use. I thought maybe it would be used as an external monitor for shooting tethered. I could mount it to my Tripod on a bracket and shoot with a 12" LCD. That would have easily justified the $125 asking price.

When I received the PC, I started playing with the pen settings and got pretty excited about trying it out with Photoshop. I thought the 256 levels of pressure sensitivity should be plenty for my editing. I installed CS5 after upgrading the ram and adding an SD PCMCIA card and setting it to be RAM swap. So, the specs at this point are: 2G ram, Solid State 4G swap space, 1.1Ghz Intel Centrino single-core processor, and a 20G hard drive. Yeah, I am going to upgrade that HD soon, real soon.

So, I installed CS5 to see how it ran. It actually runs pretty well, and then I tried to set up the pen functionality and learned that hundreds of other photographers have been down this path with a dead-end. Adobe's wacom drivers override the Windows wacom drivers for the tablets.... I almost gave up after a good 12 hours of experimenting and research... Then, I got the idea to install the latest (August 2010) drivers over the PS installation against a number of warnings from other users that I may render my tablet inoperable.... The installation went without a hitch. I now have a working, dedicated editing machine that I can take with me where ever I go and have full pen functionality in a small, 12" slate. Now, I can edit wherever I go... I just load a couple of pictures on the HD and take only what I plan to edit. Once I have the bigger drive, this computer will be even more useful. Is it snappy and ultra-powerful? No. Not at all, but the convenience of drawing directly on a monitor while on an airplane or while curled up on the couch offsets the sluggishness of the antique processor.

So, if you have an old tablet collecting dust, breath some new life into it with these drivers: http://www.wacom.com/tabletpc/driver.cfm. I don't know how many of my regular readers will find this useful, but after hours of unfruitful searching for this information, I owe it to the web community to put this information out for the world to find.

Using a tablet PC with Photoshop just requires the correct drivers. The motion Computing M1400 and other Motion Computing models have wacom technology built in, and have 256 levels of pressure sensitivity. This seems to be plenty for my processing style.

I recently had the honor of photographing Olympic and World Record holding Swimmers at the University of Arizona. I wanted my usual high-definition look, but the key to this image is the intense action and head-on perspective. I photographed this image with a medium telephoto from in the pool. When I posted some of the photos to my Facebook Page , I had a lot of people email and ask how it was done. I put a quick little youtube video together. Watch and enjoy, and let me know if there's anything you would like to see in more detail.

It is best to watch the video full-screen in HD so that you can see the details:

If you would like to download a copy of the PSD file and follow along, visit the Repository and download!

Photographed with a Nikon D3 with a 60MM lens and Bowens Studio Strobes.

2010 was a year like no other. The economy was slow with a few false starts that created glimmers of hope, but the reality is that we are in for a prolonged recession. My business was surviving just fine, as I was able to pick off some work from less fortunate photographers that weren't able to survive the downturn; and I was able to work on a few great web design projects. About mid-way through the year, I knew I had to make some major changes to stay competitive. I reworked my entire portfolio and made plans to change things up. I did a lot of research, and determined that my best chances of continued success would be to go national again and build a strong client base of healthy companies. Easier said than done, but I couldn't identify a downside to diving in and making a go at the expansion. I needed to step up my marketing and my overall image.

I bought new portfolio cases and had some very nice printing done. I created some great marketing materials, and finally the big one: I moved to Seattle. I chose Seattle for a number of reasons. I needed to be in a location that was strong in tech-based business. I moved to Seattle and pounded the pavement. I met with 18 agencies in October. From Tacoma to Bellingham, even visiting agencies on the Olympic Peninsula. I tried to shoot personal work every day and find my vision in a new location. From Tucson to Seattle - it's more like an alien planet! I real enjoyed my time in Washington.

I have always kept an ear to the rail listening for a perfect corporate job, believing that it didn't actually exist — but still had a careerbuilder.com alert send me notifications if a position met a strict criteria, nationwide. A position at the University of Arizona hit my radar. It seemed like a great fit, so I updated my resume and wrote a strong cover letter highlighting my experience and linking to relevant, university-based clients. Late in November, I received a call from the UofA. They wanted to meet me. I was in Oregon shooting a bicycle ad when we spoke on the phone and scheduled an in-person interview for the beginning of December, after I was back in Tucson.

I was offered the position, and was very glad to accept this great opportunity. I am now the Media, Design, and Technology Manager at the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship. My lifetime of entrepreneurship, self employment, startups, and marketing has brought a great set of skills that I will continue to hone and expand as I build the new department at the University.

What does this mean for DaronShade.com? There will certainly be changes, but you will continue to get more of the same great information, as well as new content on design, technology, and marketing.

What does this mean to my clients? I will be shooting a lot fewer projects, and will be limited in availability, but will definitely continue to service my existing great clients as well as offer services to new ones. I will be doing a lot less corporate headshots in the future, but will continue to shoot products and extreme portraiture. Do not hesitate to contact me about any of your photographic needs. If I am unable to work on a specific project, I can refer you to colleagues that I know will exceed your needs.

2011 is going to be the best year yet! Follow me here, on Facebook, or on twitter

I have been exploring the Northwest these past few weeks and have found some great areas that really draw my creative enthusiasm. One of these areas is the upper Skagit Valley. This area has a distinct draw for me because much of it reminds me of the Northeast. Early in my career, I photographed landscapes, farmscapes, and rustic Americana and sold the images as stock to calendar and postcard publishers. This part of my career is long behind me, but I still love the sad, rustic nostalgia of old rural americana.

A lot of photographers have a similar problem when they are shooting on location - how to power their Studio Lights without wall power. There are a few commercial solutions available. Alien Bee makes the inexpensive Vagabond, and Elinchrom among other companies have some wonderful solutions for location shooting. I personally own older Bowens Studio Strobes, which had an available switching power supply. There are various issues and problems with these solutions.

I really like the color quality of my Bowens, own 12 heads and four packs, and don't plan to change anytime soon. I prefer to use the same lights on all my shoots for consistency and familiarity. I prefer to train my assistants on a specific system and not have them trying to work multiple brands on different shoots. I wanted a pack that could also power my laptop, a fan or other 110v AC powered appliances I may need. Also, I needed a pack that was rechargeable by a car's 12v cigarette socket for multi-day or traveling long distances between shoots. This eliminated pretty much everything available commercially, so I built my own.

There's going to be a new blog section to the website - it's called "The Move." Yes, I'm moving - not just to a blog, but to a new part of the country.

I am headed 1500 miles north to the Great Pacific Northwest - going to Seattle. I have been considering a move - this move - for about 3 years. It's always tough to decide what is best for my family, so it's taken a lot of deliberation, long conversations with my wife and countless hours searching the internet. It's a tough decision to pack up and move after 15 years in a town. We finally made the decision to Go. I will be staying outside of Seattle, showing my book every day and shooting it when I'm not showing it. I have an existing client base in Tucson, so I plan to bounce back and forth a bit to keep some great relationships alive here in Arizona. I have even decided to turn my Tucson studio into a Co-op and keep a share just to make sure I have a great space when I'm back in the Old Pueblo

I will be posting quite a bit in the coming weeks as this move grows legs. I have been shooting for my portfolio, shopping for portfolio covers/books/prints, marketing to the region, researching locales, and a bunch more that I would like to share. Stay tuned and we will tackle each of these subjects over the coming weeks -- and see how successful I am over the coming months. I've had some successful moves in the past. Admittedly, my move to Tucson was the least successful in my career and it took a long time to rebuild my work. That was over 15 years ago and I'm much wiser now. I have an entirely different technology-based plan and method that promises to let the right people know that I'm in town!

I often hear comments about the sharpness of my work, and photographers are constantly asking me how I get everything so crisp in all of my photographs. The careful process of creating tack-sharp images starts in front of the lens and finishes with the conversion to JPG or printing. I do not use filters on my lenses except for the polarizer as needed, and turn to my sharp prime Nikon lenses first. I also shoot in the f/8-f/11 range whenever I can, and always use my heavy Tripod if practical. These practices and techniques yield very shap images in-camera.

The other process that yields me the sharpest-looking images possible is my sharpening technique. There's no single setting or acction that will work best on every image, but once you understand the concepts of sharpening and the problem with using the sharpening presets in Photoshop, you are well on your way to creating ultra-sharp, natural looking images without halos or blotchiness.

Sharpening images is something we all do as photographers, but most of us really have trouble getting the best effect without causing halo's around dark edges and other problems that are emblematic of overshaprening. The sharpening algorithm in Photoshop increases contrast along edges - this works great, but it will often overshoot at the edge of a transition leaving a double-image or halo. Photoshop has built in a way to keep this fram happening but hid it in a place outside of the sharpening tool. Under the edit menu, there's a selection called "Fade..." after you use the unsharp mask, it becomes "Fade Unsharp mask" - when you select this, you will be given Fade modes, which are the same as the overlay modes on layers, but only affect the sharpening that was just done on this layer. In this video, we will run through this process and show the before and after :

Here are some before-and-after closeups of his hair:

I recently photographed a series of images for Kurij, an upstart soft drink maker. We wanted cool lifestyle images that were a bit fun and trendy, but with an underlying message that Kurij is for everyone to drink at any time. I wanted consistency of lighting and feel, so I chose a lighting theme and carried that through each image. The processing was guided by the client, with some images brighter or more saturated than others. They felt it was better to complement images individually, focusing on the flexibility of the drink; rather than keeping a consistent feel through all images and risk a single mood. I think this was a wise choice.

The standard lighting throughout the shoot was my single large OctaBox. I put a 12" reflector inside the center of the box to create an effect where the outside edge of the box is brighter. This causes softer falloff in the shadows. Most were shot with a 12-24mm nikkor lens to create an intimate feel. There's a tradeoff in lens selection. Longer lenses lack intimacy and a promote a feeling of voyeurism. The wide angles bring the scene more intimate, but there can be some serious distortion issues. I like to use wider lenses for this type of work, then work with composition to create an intimate image that is visually pleasing and reasonably true to perspective.

This image was lit with the 7' OctaBox placed outside behind the camera on a balcony. The strobe was firing in though large windows.

In this image, I placed the OctaBox to camera right and balanced with ambient from windows on the left.

This "Poker" image was shot differently. I bounced one of my Bowens strobes off the wooden ceiling and manually color balanced using a gray card. In the foreground, I placed a 48" reflector under the camera to recreate the soft fill light of the OctaBox. The important part of this image was to emulate the lighting of a poker game. I am satisfied that this requirement was met:

Here's an overview video on the processing of the guitar image:

A web-sized copy of the PSD file can be downloaded from the Repository if you would like to follow along and see how the layers work.

One of my favorite clients is Aveda Institute. In addition to working with the corporate office, I have been selected to photograph the graduating projects of their up and coming future professionals. These groups always have creative ideas and great fun with their challenging photo shoots. This class project was themed "vintage" -- each of 8 students selected a particular theme and a model and recreated a vintage look from their chosen era. My job was to complete the look. With no prior knowledge of what looks and eras would be requested, this type of shoot is great fun and a challenge for me as a photographer. Why the challenge? I had 8 models to shoot in two hours, on location - and the shoot was at night. Zero natural light. I had the opportunity to shoot everything from 1940s fresnel spot look to 80's glam fashion.

All images photographed with my D-90, 85MM lens, and Bowens Studio Strobes triggered by Pocket Wizards

In my many years as a photographer, I have done some high-volume production work on occasion, most of that was catalog style product work. But, the truth is that I have always been a custom photographer, lighting every one and every thing specifically based on client needs. I rarely set my lights up the same way twice, but this month is a bit different.

Last week, I started shooting the McGuire Experience team photos, starting with the team lawyers. I decided that we needed consistency for all of the photos, so I wanted a soft, flattering light that would work for everyone, no matter their age, skin or hair color, or other factors. Portability of kit and ease of setup were important factors in choosing a lighting style. I wanted to easily replicate the lighting whether in my studio or in a classroom.

I chose a simple 2-light setup. A single main and a single background light. I set the main to act as two lights, though- by putting a Small Softbox 3' in front of the subject, firing perpendicularly, into a very large reflector. This created a large, bright source opposed to a smaller, less bright source, filling all of the subjects faces in a flattering light. This geometry also minimized glare for those who wear glasses.

For the attorneys, I chose to slightly underexposed the images and pushed them using levels adjustments to give an 'old-school corporate' feel. The images were shot in the law school with plenty of space, so I had excellent light control.



For the Entrepreneurship students, I went with the same setup but a more normal exposure. Since my on-campus studio is narrow, I have a bit of a scattered light problem that I needed to work with, so I boosted contrast a bit...


The lighting setup


Now that the lighting setup and mechanics have been presented, we need to discuss the logistics of photographing 100 students, identifying them, adding the photos to their online bios, and creating signed releases with identifying photos....

Enter Easy Release. Using my iPad, Camera Connection Kit, and Easy Release, I was able to greatly simplify the process.

Each student that came into my office/studio was asked to write their name on a small whiteboard, sit on the posing stool, and have the it ID photo taken. They would set the board down and we would shoot a formal Headshots. I then removed the SD card from the camera and put in the iPad's connection kit. I would then import the single photo with the whiteboard into the iPad and start the Easy Release application.


Easy release is super-easy to use, and I only needed to capture name, DOB, email and a signature. All other information is already on file at the university. Once the student entered their information, I attached the photo (note to easy release: if you could access the image directly from the SD card or integrate with eye-fi, I'd happily spend $50 on your app) and had the student sign. Then, I immediately sent the completed release to myself and the subject.

This process is quite a bit more involved than my old paper releases, but attaching I'd reference photos has always been a hassle, and I have stacks of paper and not the best filing system... Now, those problems are solved and automated. Instead of one minute with the subject and ten minutes of paperwork, it's about 5 minutes total and they have an electronic copy of their signed release. Pretty slick!

Photographed for an advertisement about bringing the world to mobile phone browsers, this still life image of the Bonsai Tree and Blackberry may look a little complicated, so let's break it down and show some video of the setup. As you will see from the setup and video below, the Bonsai images is straight from the camera with only minor dust spotting on the plexiglass.

Here's the same tree shot with clean overhead lighting. There's nothing wrong with the image, but it's flat and very bland... there's nothing really right about it either:

Here, we added lots of color and light separation. In the video, I walk around the set and discuss all of the pieces of the setup.

Here's the video of the lighting setup description:

I shot images as I moved and adjusted the lights. Because I was shooting digital, I chose to take a lot of photos, more than I would have if I was shooting polaroids back in the day. You will see some tests where I sprayed a fine mist of water into the image to simulate fog. It didn't work as I had hoped, so the final images don't have the mist... Here's the evolution of the shot as seen through the lens:

Equipment used: Nikon D-90, 105MM micro-nikkor, Bogen Tripod, and Bowens Studio Strobes triggered with Pocket Wizards.

The second image of the blackbery was shot with similar light, but the BB was pulled to the back of the plexi and stuck fast to a light stand.

This image was comp'd in the Bonsai image for the final result:

I'm often asked how I create the smooth contrast and realism in many of my images. I created a video for those interested. This image of Justin needed a bit of contrast boosting and smoothening of the transitions into those highlights and shadows. I have a process that I use that adheres to my non-destructive workflow Photoshop technique.

Scroll down for the "before" version.

The video can be viewed below. If you would like to follow along on a layered copy of this image, visit our Repository for the PSD file.

A very common designation these days is the "effective watt seconds" for strobe output. There are a lot of disagreements about the value of this designation and if it is based on reality or a marketing fabrication. I have long wondered about strobe output and the comparison between my pack and head system and a very common modern monolight.

Last month at the monthly social I host at my studio, I had the opportunity to test my Bowens pack system against two different monolights with high "effective" w/s designations. Both of the monolights had a designation of 1600, with an true 640w/s output. I put identical Bowens-style 7" reflectors on both strobes and aimed them at a wall 15' away.

Here's where I explain that I was just looking for a baseline idea of output, not trying to do anything more scientific than simple A/B comparisons. I did not test light quality nor am I claiming that my comparisons are 100% exact.

The monilights at full power both had an output that gave me f/22 at 15' underexposing a white wall by 1 stop -- that's a guide number of 240. To reach the same output with my older Bowens Estime pack and head, I needed to dial in 1000 w/s -- so, in my estimation, the monolight is almost twice as efficient, but still falling short of the "effective" designation. This designation may be more in-line with the output of older norman or speedotron packs, but I don't have any to compare.

What I learned is that the "effective" designation is not necessarily accurate, nor is it as much a fabrication as I had previously believed. I also saw variances in the monolights color temperature and overall output from one image to the next - it was clearly visible in my color histogram on the D3X. I didn't have a lot of time with the lights and wasn't in an environment where I could test accurately and come to a scientific conclusion. My general impression is that I'm very happy with my Bowens gear, but I'm certainly not going to be a gear snob about it - there are good reasons to buy less expensive equipment,including significant output for the investment and less expensive replacement tubes - but there are definite advantages to the big pack systems or pro-name monolights : light quality, consistency, rental availability, maximum ouput on each of my 3000 w/s pack exceeds any available monolight.

I have some colleagues with Profoto and Dynalite systems, so I will definitely be rounding up some equipment for a shootout.

I met this beautiful young lady last Saturday. Her name is Lauren and she has never had her photo taken outside of the annual school pictures. I suggested she chose the wardrobe and she found a nice dress on the rack and we got started.... The start was actually pretty rocky, she was nervous and didn't really know what I expected of her. She had a natural reluctance to model and was unsure of herself. The shoot wasn't going extremely smoothly - yes, she was doing everything asked, but she was uncomfortable and it showed in our work. We decided to change things up and put her in some of the clothing she brought to the shoot. We chose these cool skinny jeans and great Zoo York t-shirt.

Not knowing that she jumps on a trampoline in her spare time, I asked her to jump and spin and kick -- she came alive! We were able to catch these beautiful images showing her natural beauty - she was obviously comfortable in her own element.

The lighting was relatively simple. I put a single OctaBox (ABR800 Moon Unit) above and in front of Lauren and went with a pair of Beauty Dish Grids on either side behind, so that there were smooth edges. This is basically similar to a 3-light grunge setup that is quite the rage right now, but I throttled the rim lights back so that the main light was the brightest by abotu a half stop. The bacground was lit with one additional light (not shown).

This shoot reminded me how important it is to focus on the model and be in touch with their feelings on the shoot.