Blog
How to get an Epic Portrait in an Ordinary Spot
Epic Portrait Ordinary Spot
Have you ever needed to get an epic portrait, but there are really only ordinary spots to take it at? Getting an epic portrait can be accomplished in four shots. First you want a normal exposed landscape / nature scene.
The second image you want to take for the epic portrait is a underexposed of the same landscape / nature scene. You leave your settings underexposed to take the next picture.
The third picture for the epic portrait is underexposed of the same scene but you add the model in the shadow.
For the epic portrait you want to have the background underexposed. You then use a speed light to light up the model to give it the epic portrait look!
Using Fog to add Effect to Pictures
Photography Special Effects
When your wanting to get a little creative you can use smoke, and fog to give your pictures a special effect. Special effects can be made naturally or done in post edit.
For these four images I used a fog machine, speed light with colored filters, and then also used some minor edits in post. Adding the fog to the pictures created a special effect that couldn’t have been created without the fog. If we took these pictures just normal no speed light and not fog they would just be normal everyday pictures.
Knowing how to add special effects to pictures is a good skill to have. You never know when you will get an assignment or request to use smoke or fog in a picture and knowing how to use special effects will be to my advantage.
Fall in love with the Tetons
Teton Fine Art Photo Op Stop
Fall is one of the greats times to go on Fine Art Photo Op Stops. Driving through Yellowstone and seeing the Tetons and Mt Moran with the beautiful colors opens up many opportunities to stop and get a perfect shot.
It doesn’t matter what time of the year it is the Grand Tetons Schwabacher Landing is a great place to take a fine art photo op stop. I would like to make it one of my goals to get a picture of this exact spot every season.
Old houses, barns and vehicles make for great fine art photo op stops as well. Many people love having old things hanging in their houses, so when you see something old and interesting stop and get that shot.
Find unique angles and perspectives when making those fine art photo op stops. Look for leading lines and also small objects that would make an interesting close up or macro shot.
Sky Mountain Lodge
FAPOS (Fine Art Photo Op Stop)
FAPOS is an interesting concept which stands for fine art photo op stop. This is the idea of searching for the best possible places and things to photograph. It’s getting out there and seeing what not everyone can see.
Sunrises and sunsets are great times to get a FAPOS (Fine Art Photo Op Stop). You can be driving down the road and see a beautiful spot thats when you know you need to stop. Especially during sunrise or sunset take the time to stop and grab that shot because a beautiful spot and a beautiful sunrise/sunset makes for the perfect fine art photo op stop.
These Teton, Idaho sunrises and sunsets made for great fine art photo ops.
Fine art photo op stop is usually applied to landscapes, but it also can be for still life, macro, wildlife, and waterscapes. 
Creating a Portable light Triangle
Mobile Triangle Snoot
Mobile Triangle Snoot is when you create a portable triangle of light by holding a snooted flash to spotlight one area of a subject. You hold the flash out with your left arm, hold your camera steady to take a picture with your right arm and then make a triangle between you, your flash and the subject.
Being able to create a mobile triangle snoot is a great skill to have. It creates unique lighting makes pictures more interesting. Mobile triangle snoots create really nice shadows and great pictures always have interesting shadows.
By using the flash and snoot it creates a background that is darker so that only part of a subject stands out. You can use the Mobile Triangle Snoot technic on random objects or on people.
Outdoor Long Exposure
Long Exposure Stars
There are sever different types of outdoor light painting: night scape star photography, full and half light orbs, and then Dave Black style. Shooting the Milky Way and any time of night scape pictures can sometimes be difficult. The important thing to remember when shooting at night is to use a tripod so you can leave your shutter open for a long time.
Full Orb and Half Orb
Full orbs and half orbs can be created from the way you move the light. In order to get a half orb we used a bike tire with lights strapped to it and then spun it around. The Full orb was made from a flash light tied to a string.
Dave Black Light Painting
Dave Black style is a simple form of light painting and probably the most used type. This is where you have one shot and you light up different parts of the picture to create unique shadows. You don’t have to use very much photoshop when using Dave Black style because they come straight out of camera looking awesome because of the lighting and shadows.
Indoor Long Exposure
Table Top Light Painting
Table top light painting had become a popular form of photography. Light painting is done in the dark and a flash light is used to light up different parts of a display. This creates interesting shadows that makes the picture more unique. Light painting can be used to display brand name products or just to showcase an interesting table display.
Product Light Painting
Business are using light painting to show off their products. Using light painting attracts customers because it is different then just seeing a normal picture.
Faux Bokeh Light Painting
Faux Bokeh is when you light paint a focused area, then turn your focus ring to infinity to throw your image out of focus, then light paint a different area to show blur. This type of light painting gives pictures a feeling of depth and just adds something more to the pictures.
Eric Curry Style
Eric Curry Style
Eric Curry Style is a unique form of light painting. You set up a scene and take three different pictures in the same spot. How you take a different picture in the same spot depends on what you choose to light up for each picture. Once you have all three pictures you take them into photoshop and combine them together.
For this first picture we decided to use the flash light to light up the front of the wagon and also the model.
The second shot we put light on the whole wagon. As you can tell so far in each picture there is only a small portion of the picture that has light on it.
This last picture I took to use for my Eric Curry Style light painting picture was shining a flash light down the stairs of the barn. Lighting up different parts of the scene and using light from all different directions adds a unique look to the Eric Curry Style pictures.
Flora and Fauna Macro
Flora and Fauna
The trickiest part about Flora and Fauna Macro Photography is getting the focus just right. You can’t just set the focus on something and take the picture with macro. You have to use a manual Focus and move your body back and forth until you get it focused on the subject.
Once you get a clear focus its amazing what you’ll see. Who knew that a bumblebee was so hairy. This Flora and Fauna shot is probably one of my favorite pictures because of the detail you can see on the bumblebee.
Here are some easy steps to remember when doing Flora and Fauna macro photography. It is called the Z-M-M Method.
1. Z for Zoom – Zoom your lens to 85mm
2. M for Move – Move your body in and out until you see something getting sharper
3. M for Manual Focus – Turn your Manual focus ring to finetune your focus, while moving in and out. Be sure you don’t turn the zoom ring. The manual focus ring is usually on the very end of your lens.
For great work on Flora and Fauna Macro Photography check out http://caseyjphoto.com/macro-flora-fauna/.
Still Life Macro
Still Life Macro
Still Life Macro Photography is a super unique type of photography. Macro shots are close up shots that show a lot of detail. In order to get great macro shots you have to use a manual focus and have the lens zoomed into at least 50mm.
This pictures were taken without using a tripod and in order to get sharp pictures without camera shake I had to have my shutter speed between 1/100 and 1/200. I used led lights and speed lights to get the appropriate lighting to make my pictures stand out.
Check out Stonebrook Studio and Design for more interesting still life macro shots.
About Tasha Larsen
