So what exactly are gels?  Lighting gels or just gels are thin sheets of colored, translucent plastic, usually polycarbonate, that add color for theatrical, photographic, video graphic, or other lighting situations. Gels are fantastic to add some punch or visual sizzle to what might otherwise be a fairly mundane environment.  Typically gels are placed in front of lights in a gel holder. A gel can be used on any kind of light source.  Many people use Do It Yourself (DIY) methods to attach gels to speedlights which is a very cost effective way to add gels to your photography.  I personally use monolights with special adapters to hold the gels. Adding a little bit of color either to your subject and/or background can really make a glamour picture pop.  This is true whether you are using a studio set or location set. The trick is to use complimentary colors to your environment, subject, wardrobe, and lighting.  A color wheel really helps to decide what colors are complimentary and which are not.  I recommend having one available as a reference to make sure your choices make sense. I use gels primarily for adding color to the environment and seldom actually use them directly on my subject. This accomplishes a few things for me.  First it allows subject isolation.  Having a distinct color as a background effectively draws your eye to the subject.  This is obvious in all the examples.  When using this technique placement of the gelled light can either give  [ Read More ]

By Rick Trottier Whether you own, rent, trade time for a studio or only shoot in the most commando-like settings, effectively managing your resources during a “studio shoot” is one of the most important elements when it comes to making the evolution from a hobbyist to a professional photographer. Understanding that a successful shoot of any type needs careful management of time, energy, materials, concepts/content and personalities is what makes the difference between a rank amateur and a seasoned expert. Proper handling of all the aspects of a shoot will set you apart from your colleagues as your reputation for professionalism precedes you. Like the Rock of Gibraltar, the professional photographer should be as steady and responsible in the control of his universe as is humanly possible.   Achieving a consistent grasp of resource management starts with finding a proper balance between the need for structure and maintaining a degree of spontaneity in your methodology.  Planning and structure are absolutely essential to professionalism. The hobbyist “wings it” in most or all of what he does. The professional prepares wisely, puts thought into what comes before, during and afterwards and reflects on what went right and what didn’t and then makes the appropriate course corrections. Nonetheless, adhering to the talisman of structure can lead to a stultifying approach in how you conduct your shoots. This may sound oxymoronic, but “planning in” some opportunities for spontaneous lighting schemes, background options and even posing strategy will keep any studio experience from becoming stale.  [ Read More ]

Defeating the Lighting Trap Maintaining Innovation and Creativity in The Studio Written By Rick Trottier – RJT Images Consistency provides us with a sense of stability and comfort. When people go out to eat, it is often seen that they will go to the same restaurant and order the same meal rather than try something new. That which is known  [ Read More ]

In my articles Lighting 101 – Part 1 and Lighting 101 – Part 2, I discussed lighting techniques ranging from single light source Rembrandt type lighting to multi-light studio and indoor location lighting. In Part 3 I’m going to talk about outdoor portrait lighting. On Craigslist and other places photographers advertise “all natural light” or “outdoor natural light photography” but when you translate that for most of them it means “I don’t have lighting equipment” or “I don’t know how to use lighting equipment” or maybe even both.  For most of them when you look at their work it becomes crystal clear. Now that said, I know professional photographers who use available light and get fantastic results but they know what they are doing.  Dave Alan in Las Vegas is a terrific example with his glamour/fitness work. Remember in my article Lighting 101 – Part 1 I told you not to think of the sun any differently as you would a studio light or vice versa. You still have to know what you’re doing and what you’re trying to achieve when you position your subject to the light! Outdoor portrait photography is much more difficult in my opinion than studio portrait work.  Why?  Simple. In the studio the photographer controls everything about the light.  Outdoors the photographer controls just a portion of the light. You can’t control the sun.  You can and should position your subject relative to the sun’s position but short of waiting for the sun to rise or set, you can’t  [ Read More ]

It’s all about the light. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines photography as: the art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface. So if light is needed to create the art, then how exactly do we use the light to produce the art?  I’m not going to go into the techno-jargon of how digital sensors or film capture light, what I am going to do is show you how professionals use light to create art. Lighting is arguably the single biggest difference between professional photographers and amateurs! Lighting isn’t rocket science, but it is something you must know.  You can easily identify good lighting techniques vs. bad ones immediately. The foundation for good lighting techniques begins with an artist, not a photographer. Let’s take a look at Rembrandt. Take a look at the self portrait by Rembrandt.  He was a master of Chiaroscuro.  Chiaroscuro is the light and dark elements of a representation.  I like to think of it as the interplay of shadow to light. The point of Chiaroscuro is to create the illusion of 3-D on a 2-D medium.  Why is that important?  It’s important  because 3-D is how we see the world.  We don’t see flat images, we see shape and form so that’s what the representation, be it a painting or photograph, should also demonstrate. There is a tell-tale way you can identify Chiaroscuro.  Some people refer to it as the Chiaroscuro Triangle. Look under Rembrandt’s left eye (the shadow side for  [ Read More ]

I love photography.  My love for photography includes studio, on location, and outdoor environments.  They all have their unique challenges but there’s something about being outdoors that really get’s me going.  Of course the obvious fact that you’re not encased in four walls with conditioned air; but the photographic challenges of shooting outdoor portraits really engages me.  The down side is that you are at the mercy of the environment.  Climate, light, location and distractions can all be very challenging. I’m going to focus specifically on lighting in this article. Photography is all about light.  The most daunting challenge of shooting outdoors is exactly that…the light.  When you are outside the most obvious light source is the sun.  That poses a lot of challenges.  The time of day changes how we approach the shot.  We can’t always control what time of day we get to shoot so it’s critical you know how to deal with the issues that come with shooting with the sun in all positions.  It may be counterintuitive, but when the sun is at the highest point in the sky is when I use the most artificial light for fill. The following are 3 different examples of dramatically different lighting situations during the span of a day.     All 3 of these examples were taken in the same day.  The day saw partly cloudy skies that really created a nightmare for camera settings.  The sun moving in and out of the clouds created a huge challenge  [ Read More ]

Shooting Fashion, Whatever that May Be! The Eclectic Fashion Look Written by Rick Trottier   The definition of “fashion” is as diverse as a bag of marbles, and like those playthings of old, the amorphous nature of “fashion looks” makes it almost impossible to truly codify this photographic genre.  To some people, if it isn’t “High Fashion”, it isn’t fashion at all. Then there is casual wear, alternative fashion, retro looks, fitness wear, seasonal styles, accessories/eyewear/beauty, urban wear, club fashions and so many other types of attire that any kind of consensus is not only unattainable, it is a colossal waste of time trying to find common ground. Instead of trying to lock down what fashion is, the more appropriate application of thought and energy needs to be on “how to shoot” fashion and make the garments look their very best. Shooting fashion isn’t as easy as it sounds. There is an entire set of criterion that needs to be carefully considered to make the shot look right and not have it come out looking like a High School Senior Portrait. A deeper sense of strategy and purpose has to go into the planning of a fashion shoot and despite the diverse nature of the genus and species of this complicated branch of the family, there are some very specific approaches that will serve the fashion shutter-bug well if they are carefully adhered to. Just as acids and bases are on opposite ends of the pH spectrum, fashion and glamor  [ Read More ]

This is the first of a two part, in depth field test with the Pixel King flash triggers. The Pixel King flash triggers are available for a wide array of modern, TTL camera systems. Mine just happens to be designed for Nikon’s. I used the triggers with various other non-TTL, third market speedlights and with Nikon SB-600/800/900 speedlights, as noted below. How did I ever manage to work at all before these little jewels came into my life! For those of you unaware, the Pixel King flash trigger system is an alternative to the high end systems on today’s market. Such as: Pocket Wizards and Radio Poppers.  Having not used an iTTL flash trigger system before, I was of course, very skeptical and anxious to really see what these devices could do for my outdoor lighting. Before I get too involved with the road test itself, let’s look at the specs and some of the minor details that seem to be easily misinterpreted.  First of all, (on Nikons) the triggers do respond to Channels and Groups as defined by the Nikon CLS, Creative Lighting System. However the Pixel King flash triggers cannot be used to control all CLS menu functions, specifically; power/light output. I misunderstood this myself and probably would not have bought them had I been crystal clear on that.  I am told this is not the case with Canon systems and that Canon systems may change light output as normal. I have developed a simple workaround to overcome  [ Read More ]

  Reflections on the Outdoor Photography Season. By Rick Trottier – RJT Images As each year passes in the Journey of Life, I become far more absorbed by my passionate love of Spring and Summer. As the air warms and colors slowly return to the landscape, the poignancy of renewal takes on a whole new meaning for me. I am  [ Read More ]

By Rick Trottier – RJT Images Just about anyone with any sense dislikes “drama” in their lives. “Drama” is draining and valueless, it is distracting and wasteful. However, there is a form of “drama” that can be of incredible value to a photographer and that is gaining command of dramatic forms of lighting. Lighting a model in such a way  [ Read More ]

Glamor and Fitness: A Match Made in The Gym – An Article in Three Parts Written by Rick Trottier, Rachel Seeker and Chrissy Scobi of RJT Images Why and How I shoot Fitness Imagery – Rick Trottier – RJT Images For a very long time, while my general interests in photographic imagery were diverse, they were not as varied as  [ Read More ]

I think we all see the pit falls of other photographers and models losing there focus, but sometime you have to ask yourself “where is my focus?” I’m not talking about the focus of your lens, but the focus of your life.  I have seen so many good photographers get caught up in the fact that they want to dominate  [ Read More ]

Revised: 7.08.2012 I’m asked all of the time how I get that beautiful “glow” in Photoshop, I wish… I haven’t figured that one out yet, I use a special light modifier called the Beauty Dish. Ten years ago a photographer on ModelMayhem wrote and asked me how I get such wonderful skin effects in Photoshop. I wrote her back and  [ Read More ]

A popular tool for the glamour and fashion photographer is the ringflash.  I’m not talking about the ring flashes used for macro photography, I’m talking about a high-powered studio strobe that can be mounted on the camera.  Similar to the macro ring flash, a ringflash used for portrait work allows the camera to shoot “through” the ring in order to  [ Read More ]

Alternative Methods of Creating the Glamor Look” Written by Rick Trottier – RJT Images In the Beginning there was Studio Lighting, and it was Good.  We moved the lights in arrays that tended to create cleanly lit but somewhat flat illumination, and it was enough.  But as time passed, the desire to create imagery that had a deeper, more complicated  [ Read More ]

Many people are not only unfamiliar with what Nikon dubs  “Auto FP High Speed Sync” or what canon calls “High Speed Sync” flash photography, but they are also unaware of how much it can assist them in their photographic efforts (for purposes of this article, we will refer to this as HSS).  This brief article helps make the case for  [ Read More ]

The Importance of Composition in Outdoor Glamor By Rick Trottier – RJT Images   Studio work has all kinds of alluring qualities that entice. However, unless one has a studio like Julian Wilde, the limitations of white brick, steel doors, dark corners, seamless paper and other generic backgrounds, limit the complexity of compositional thinking when creating the glamor shot. It  [ Read More ]

Ultra-wide lenses are fantastic to use for fashion, glamour, and artistic work if you know how to handle them. Advertisement Conventional wisdom tells us that Ultra-wide lenses should not be used for portraits. Why?  Well simple; they distort!  When I say distort, I don’t mean a subtle vignette effect I mean a real radial distortion. Don’t get me wrong, you  [ Read More ]

Advertisement Every since Jim, published his article on Shooting in Small Spaces, we have had several letters requesting more. I’m personally a studio snob. I love large rooms with high ceilings, but occasionally I am forced to shoot in smaller rooms. One winter I was driven out of my studio by some construction in an adjacent unit and forced to  [ Read More ]

Photographing the Motorcycle in The Studio. “From Lighting to Model Pose: The Intricacies of The Bike Shot” By Rick Trottier, of  RJT Images Advertisement One of the first great challenges a studio photographer tackles is appropriately composing, lighting and then posing two models in a studio shoot. Dealing with differences in height and body style, hair and skin coloration and  [ Read More ]

by Jim Jurica A common issue we address at my studio lighting workshops is that of the dreaded “black bar” phenomenon. Photographers new to studio lighting and off-camera flash often seem puzzled by the mysterious appearance of an underexposed area to one side of their images. This can manifest itself as a dark, fuzzy area along the edge that’s only  [ Read More ]

Shooting on Chroma-key or Green Screen backdrops have come a long way with today’s technological advances. The purpose of this article is to explore the advantages of one plugin in particular; the Easy Green Screen 3.0 plugin, available from: photoshopgreenscreen.com, as Freeware. The plugin is available for all versions of Photoshop, CS or higher, running on Macintosh or Windows. I  [ Read More ]

Ever viewed your images after a shoot and wondered why the model looks too blue or red? Or the vibrant colors in a skyline aren’t quite what you remembered them to be? Chances are, the culprit is an incorrect white-balance setting. Just as you can change the lens aperture or camera shutter speed to affect exposure, white balance settings can  [ Read More ]

Making The Most Of A Small Studio Space Small studio spaces can cause big headaches if you’re trying to squeeze too much gear into a tiny room. I know I was always tripping over cords, tip-toeing around light stands or crawling under soft boxes when I first began my photography business in a spare bedroom 10 years ago. I then  [ Read More ]

Back to the Basics: I’m receiving a lot of mail asking me to explain a little more of the thought process that goes into the “methods of my madness, when deciding how to configure lighting setups“. Perhaps I assumed and skipped a few steps when I first started posting tutorials here. Lets just start at the very beginning for those  [ Read More ]

Well if you are reading this, please be advised, you have just entered my little world, “The Rambo Zone”! A place where things are not as they appear, a place where the mysterious and magical are considered the norm! So you went out and bought a killer set of lights and you are trying to figure out how do I  [ Read More ]

Are you bored with shooting the same old identical poses on the same old identical backdrops? You have heard “Blue Screen” could be the path for you but you just art not sure how to get started and don’t what to invest a fortune to get started. I faced a learning curve back in the early days of this technology  [ Read More ]

If photography is light, then lighting is everything. It’s the way in which the photographer manipulates his or her light that sets them apart and distinguishes their style as an artist. I use a Beauty Dish exclusively as my light modifier of choice, now indoors and out. The Beauty Dish magically enhances skin and makeup pigments, making it the perfect  [ Read More ]

The annual Thanksgiving Day is coming close to us, and then the Christmas. Have you ever think of creating your own ecard for your family, friends, business customer and all people concerned about you? It’s not just a celebration and what’s more is to send your respect and regard of a message with a few sentences to let them know  [ Read More ]

Introduction In the glamour industry, the “iron triangle” for creating a good shoot consists of three parts: photographer, model, and makeup artist.  While there are many variations of this triangle (i.e. makeup artists and/or stylist, more than one model, photographer and graphic artist combination’s, etc.), and while all three of these parts may or may not be “equal” in talent,  [ Read More ]