Photos: Lock Shoot

Hey,

The rest of the photos are up now from my last sneak peek I posted.  Hope everyone liked them as much as I did.  I thought these were amazing photos are a great shoot.  So please go visit my site, www.tomhoustonphotography.ca and check them out!  Here is another photo that I really liked from the shoot:

Portrait - 17-55mm

Hope you like them!

Photos: Sneak Peek

Hey,

Just did an amazing shoot on tuesday, had a lot of fun and here is the sneak peek from the shoot.  Below is one of my favourite shots form the shoot and there are two others on my website at www.tomhoustonphotography.ca in the new arrivals gallery.  The model was great and did a very good job even though by the end of the shoot her heels were soaked from standing in puddles for most of it.  Really like these shots, hope you do too!

Portrait - 17-55mm

Don't forget to go see the other photos on my site and I hope you like them!

Photos: FS Shot #8!

Yes that is right ladies and gentlemen,

My 8th FS shot is up and I am very happy with it.  I hope you guys like it too.  The model was lovely and my MUA was very good as always.  Here is the FS Extra and I have both this and the actual FS shot on my site.  You can find the FS shot in my FS gallery as well as with this shot below in my new arrivals gallery.  Hope you enjoy!

Flower Series Extra - 105mm f/2.8 G Macro VR

Remember my site is www.tomhoustonphotography.ca if you didn't know/click on the link above.  

Thanks for following my work,

Tom

Photos: New Photos x2

Hey,

So I just uploaded my latest two shoots on my website (www.tomhoustonphotography.ca) and you should definitely check them out!  They were both a lot of fun and I will be doing another two shoots tomorrow if the weather is nice.  Can't wait.

So go to my site and browse my new arrivals gallery, after ~1 week I will toss the ones I want for my portfolio into the portrait gallery and then put them up on Flickr so you can still see the others if you want.

Here is one of the recently uploaded photos:

Portrait - 35mm f/1.8 G

Portrait - 50mm f/1.4 D

Hope you enjoy!

Tom

Photos: Sneak Peek

Hey,

Here is the last shoot's lovely sneak peek.  I have two shoot currently in the editing stages and I thought I should get a sneak peek for each of them out.  So here is a sample of it but be sure to check the photos out in my new arrival gallery along with my other photos : ).

www.tomhoustonphotography.ca

Hope you enjoy!

Portrait -35mm f/1.8 G

Lastly, stay posted because I will be posting both these shoots soon!

Photos: Sneak Peek

Hey,

Sorry it has been a while since you have heard from me.  I have been preoccupied with my education.

So I have done some photography however have been a little too busy to edit and post and all that jazz however I had some time today to post a sneak peek of a shoot I did about a week ago.  Now that I got my very long sentence out of the way, please check the sneak peek out on my site under "New Arrivals" and I hope you enjoy them.  I will hopefully get the rest up soon so stay posted!

www.tomhoustonphotography.ca

Also I will now put my new photos into the New Arrivals gallery for ~1 week and then I will sort them accordingly into the right galleries after that.

Hope you enjoy and no I have not died.

Tom

Also I have another shoot waiting to be edited and posted after this so there will be another one coming shortly (fingers crossed).  So please keep checking/reading my post and peeking at my site.

THP Tip #2: Portrait Photography

My first THP Tip on Bokeh for portrait photography which can be seen here.  So here is my second THP Tip for portrait photography:

Comfort!

One of my top goals of a photo shoot is just making sure the model is comfortable.  It seems intuitive however sometimes people forget some things which you can see it in photos sometimes.  

There are many ways to make a subject comfortable for example, making sure they are not too hot or too cold during a shoot.  Easy things like that.  However I have asked a lot of people who don't model to model for me and I have learned a lot from working with first time models.  Here are some things I have learned in terms of communication.  

First, if you are working with a subject that has not been in front of a camera for portraits a lot, it is a good idea to keep it simple.  I usually let them pick out their favourite outfits.  Normally I add in some ideas so they know what to think of wearing and so they don't pick anything too crazy.  But sometimes it is nice to have a model wear something different that is not the norm.  

Chances are if they are really comfortable with wearing their outfit, they will be more comfortable getting photos taken in it.  I think that if you push someone too far out of their comfort zone, it will show in the photos.  Also I give some edited photos to my friends who model for me for Facebook or what ever personal use they use it for.  If I make them wear a ridiculous outfit they don't like or feel comfortable in, and it shows in the photos... Then you are giving them photos of themselves looking awkward in an outfit they didn't like.  What a great keepsake from a shoot that they will love to showoff...

Another thing is always suggest is if they bring a friend or someone along to the shoot.  I always do that now because it makes for a much better shoot usually.  Also you just got yourself an assistant sometimes out of that deal.  I have done shoots for a friend who does makeup and we usually have a couple of friends to model there.  Having a group at a shoot is always a bonus.  They can help hold light stands, fix hair, help with clothing ideas and such.  Never hurts to have more hands, or at least someone to help keep conversations going while you get stunning photos.  Sometimes they even help guide their friends for poses and help give ideas.  So when a model, or whomever, brings a chaperone is a win-win situation usually.

I could keep writing on this subject however I will call it here.  So there are many ways of making sure the model is comfortable and this tip was just one or two things to do.  So if you just do the things I stated here you might not get a return customer.  However if you add bits of all of this to what you already do (or read if you are just starting) then you will hopefully make you subjects more comfortable.  This will help your photos because keeping the model comfortable is paramount since uncomfortable looking photos don't help you, the model or how people interpret your photos.  I personally think it looks bad for a photographer if a model looks really uncomfortable in the photos.

THP Tip #1: Portrait Photography

Hey,

So I decided since my blog has gotten enough views (+2000, thank you!) that you might actually care to hear my opinion and thoughts on some things.  So I will started doing some Tom Houston Photography Tips for things and Opinion pieces.  Just so that it is easier for me to write the tips in a timely fashion I am going to write them one at a time.  Since they are not my top ten tips since most of them would be the same with all the others you can read, I thought I would do the tips you might no see elsewhere.

There are many sources for finding tips for portraits and I encourage you to read those as well.  I don't know everything about portrait photography so this should just be one of the many resources you read to help you with your portraits.  

So here in no particular order, here is the first tip you might not see elsewhere. 

(As a quick disclaimer, most of the portraits I shoot are female so in some cases it might only apply to working with female subjects)

#1.  Bokeh, Bokeh, and more Bokeh.  

I love having bokeh in my portraits because it just makes your subject the only focus in the photo.  Personally I often, for outdoor portraits, stop my 50mm down to 1.4 or my 105mm to 2.8 and keep it there.  This makes the background into a lovely out of focus blur and makes your subject pop.  Sometimes I even do it in my studio because having such a narrow depth of field really helps focus the viewer on what you want.  

So as seen in the photo below, the background is almost indiscernible which makes the detail of the subject pop out.  It also brings the focus of the photo directly to their eyes.  This is obvious since it is really the main thing in focus, duh.  But that is also another tip mostly all photographers would say, focus on the eyes.  So write that down somewhere too.  Also another note with using wide apertures outside is be careful with blowing out your photo.  It is hard to keep your photos exposed well with using f/1.4 on the bright and lovely sunny day as seen below.  Her cheek bone might actually be blown out just a tad in this photo because of the sun.  On a quick side note I took this photo to just show what effect aperture has on the photo.  I am very glad I did since this is one of my favourite portrait shots I have.  

Portrait - 50mm

This photo below I took in my studio (however you can't really tell) and used my 50mm to get a really shallow depth of field so the eyes and rose were in focus.  I had to stand precariously on a stool to get to the right angle to do that but it was worth it.  

Portrait - 50mm 

Another reason (or amazing bonus) to shoot at a wide aperture is to get as little detail in the skin as possible.  This mostly comes into play for females however it still is a good thing to keep in mind.  Females tend to not want to see all the detail in their skin in photos.  Eye yes, skin no.

So if you have the ability to shoot wide open for portraits, give it a shot.  It is a very pleasing look I think.

I hope you try this and I will have Tip #2 coming on the weekend!