Studio Portraits : Joe Pyle Photography
The other day I shot a few studio portraits of my wife, Kari. I would love to say that I own a big studio with several lighting kits and softboxes and such, but I don’t. I own a very simple, compact, travel-ready kit that I can carry with me in one “car to job” trip. That being said, we can get by fine, and we aren’t going to purchase something we don’t need unless we, well, need it. We have several areas of our home with awesome, “modify-able” lighting, and we own several flashes, reflectors, white boards, colored backgrounds, etc. If you look at this picture of Kari that I shot last night, you may think that we have a space designated to studio portraits. The lighting is good, the background is nice, and she looks great. This shot was taken behind my desk with a piece of matteboard stuck on the wall, along with two flashes, one to the left and one to the right of her, both modified.
Point #1 You don’t need to rent out a space for your photography work. I would love to have a giant warehouse to use for shooting in, but to pay for a building that size would be impossible for me right now. Down the road, as the work increases it would be fun to entertain the thought of having a space to shoot in, but not now. I have seen people shoot in their kitchen before because the light was good.
Point#2 You can create wonderful portraits almost anywhere, as long as you are proficient with your gear. One thing that is nice about working with a small kit is that I can shoot pictures like this one above at anyone’s home, place of business, or even in an alley somewhere.
Gear and cameras these days are very good. You can shoot in very high ISO when it gets dim, you can change the white balance to change the mood of the shot, along with several other ways to be creative with your work.
Let me know if you have questions about shooting, I’d love to help. Peace.
