Blog of Andrew Collings Photography: Chicago Headshot and Wedding Photographers » Technical

Natural Light and Loving it in the New Studio

Andrew Collings — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 12:42:51 +0000

You just can’t beat natural light. I recently moved to another space in my building and largely it was to give me a whole bunch of natural light shooting options. Lifestyle portraits are really the only portraits today and this new space gives me options rain or shine. Chicago Artist Paige Lunde needed some portraits and we had a lot of fun using the natural light of the studio and also the great strobe light of the Elinchrom Octa (bottom photo). Still trying to find a boom that will hold that beast!

Author Portraits

Andrew Collings — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:28:48 +0000

One of the most enjoyable kinds of shoots for me is working with authors on photographs for their books. I had the opportunity to work with several this past month. Pediatrician Dr Ira Chasnoff has another book coming out in September called The Mystery of Risk. And Tom Payne has his first book coming out later this year, The Template of Time.
Both of these shots were lit with my new lighting system. I couldn’t be more excited about the lighting options I now have with the Elinchrom System. It was an expense but the quality of light has improved dramatically. I love having wireless 1/10 stop control via the Skyport and via the computer. I also love the light modifier design, from the integrated umbrella/deflector shaft to the Octa softboxes. I never got into train sets as a kid, but I’m making up for it now!

The Neo-Futurists Rock!

Andrew Collings — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:52:36 +0000

One of my favorite groups of people to photograph is Chicago’s Neo-Futurists theatre ensemble. They are always a blast to work with and I love their shows! Doing a group is always tough to do without it turning into a school portrait but I think we were able to produce something eye-catching but still free-form in keeping with their improvisational style. I was really happy with the lighting in the shot. I used a giant umbrella, without any diffusion, and cut a hole in it for the lens. Instant $80 giant ring light! I like how the light is hard and soft and even at the same time. It allowed me to work with the positioning of everyone instead of working out lighting problems.

Studio Portrait with Interior Designer Jenna Wedemeyer

Andrew Collings — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:10:19 +0000

I had a great time last week photographing the talented interior designer, Jenna Wedemeyer. Jenna has an interior design company here in Chicago. She was great to work with and we got some fun and catchy and professional portraits.

Doing portraits in the studio is so enjoyable and makes me think of the idea of the studio portrait while doing the work. I’ve done them for a long time now but it never gets old. It’s a great tradition in photography and it’s good to have such a usable and busy studio. I think a lot of what makes a portrait real and pleasing is that it occurs in a flow of activity. And a busy studio environment is part of that flow.

The studio wall system is finished now and it is fabulous to have the ability to create an entire room on the fly and position the walls anywhere I want them!

I was once again fortunate to have the fantastic services of makeup artist Sandy Morris. Even with good lighting and a little photoshop, there’s no substitute for having a professional makeup artist. Every face is unique and so is every personality. A great make up artist like Sandy can bring out the features that make a person’s face really sing. And the time and attention is also felt by the person being photographed–which also shows in their expressions.

Business Headshot with local entrepreneur Ginna Ryan

Andrew Collings — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:21:23 +0000

I had the pleasure of doing business headshots for my neighbor and Chicago businessperson, Ginna Ryan of Mauge, Inc., a Chicago creative services agency. She needed a photo for her profile in the Illinois Real Estate Journal.

The business headshots are going great. With my mechanical-genius assistant Brent Knepper, I’ve built a permanently mounted to the ceiling 4×12 lightbox that creates great-for-every-face light that allows me to be always ready for a headshot and that means that I can keep my pricing very reasonable, $95. And it also means I really can get a great shot in 15 minutes which is huge for the busy businessperson. In the next couple weeks I’m going to expand my background options to accommodate different business profiles and styles. Stay tuned!

PhotoShelter series of workflow articles and DAM II book about to hit shelves!

Andrew Collings — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:36:56 +0000

Every day, PhotoShelter becomes better and better. I came across this great series of posts about how their customers (photographers) integrate PhotoShelter into their image workflow.

Workflow and digital asset management (DAM) has been a huge focus for my studio this past year. With the help of image-management wunderkind Dane Deasy, and following the guidance of DAM masterminds Peter Krogh and Michael Stewart, I’ve created a system for handling my images and at the same time building greater SEO for my sites.

Peter Krogh has written the bible on Digital Asset Management, The DAM Book and the 2nd edition is about to hit the shelves. I think I have a sense of how the Harry Potter fans must have felt each time Rowling was about to have another book published.

I use PhotoShelter for my online image storage. They provide bulletproof image security, both as yet another form of backup and also a totally controlled level of image download permission settings. I can easily control who can see which images and also who can download high resolution images. Beyond that, customers can search my image archive for specific keywords and those keywords are viewable to google, increasing my SEO with every image I upload.

In the old days, when customers would purchase an image, I used to attach jpegs to emails. And to show completed shoots I used to create simple galleries with Lightroom or Photo Mechanic. Now my galleries are all integrated into my larger archive and the downloading is much smoother and the customer can revisit the stored image to download from another computer, anywhere. Thanks PhotoShelter!

Studio Wall System Construction

Andrew Collings — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:40:59 +0000

My great studio assistant Brent Knepper has built a movable wall system for the studio. We came up with the idea together and Brent used his vast knowledge of engineering and mechanics to design and build it.

This system will allow us to easily create “rooms” to shoot in complete with a corner and variety of materials. It’s great to have a wall to shoot against/with but often it’s hard to get the light just the way you want it when the wall can’t be moved. Problem solved with a movable wall. Can’t wait till it’s time to wallpaper!