Website: Revamp!

Hey folks,

I just restructured, revamped, and added to my website!  Took a while however here it is and I hope you like it!

http://www.tomhoustonphotography.ca

Enjoy the photos!

Photos: Waterfalls Photo Shoot!

Hey folks,

I just posted all the final edits from the photo shoot at some amazing falls with a very beautiful model.  This was one of my best shoots for sure.  Hope you guys like them and you can check the rest out at www.tomhoustonphotography.ca.

Here is one of the photos:

Portrait at Waterfalls - 85mm f/1.4D

Hope you like them!

Photos: Waterfall Shoot Sneak Peek!

Here are some of the shots from my latest shoot which was shot at an amazing waterfalls!  You can see the two photos of the sneak peak on my website here.  Here is one from the sneak peek:

Portrait - 85mm f/1.4D

Hope you like them and stay posted for the rest!

Photos: Latest shoot is now up!

Hey folks,

All the photos from my last shoot are now up on my website so you should go check them out!  You can go to my site or click Here to go to the gallery.

Portrait - 85mm f/1.4D

Hope you like them!

Sneak Peek: Country Shoot

Hey,

Here is a sneak peek of photos from my latest shoot!  Hope you like them and I posted a couple since I did take a bunch at this shoot.  So here is one but be sure to check out my site for the others here.

Portrait - 85mm f/1.4 D

Rest of the photos will be up soon, so stay posted!

Photos: Latest Shoot's Sneak Photo

Hey,

Just tossed up my latest photo shoot's sneak up on my site in the New Arrivals Gallery!  You should check them out and stay posted for more photos from the shoot.

Portrait - 85mm f/1.4D

Hope you like them!

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.

Photos: Makeup Shoot

Hey,

So I just posted the other photos from the shoot on my site @ www.tomhoustonphotography.ca and they are at the start of my gallery for my portraits.  I will post one of the photos below here but make sure you check out my site for the rest of the photos.

Makeup Shoot - Portrait - 105mm

Thanks for reading and here is a direct link to my portrait gallery to see the other photos from the shoot!

Photos: Makeup Shoot Sneak Peek

Hey,

Just did a shoot recently with a lovely model and my very talented makeup artist.  Shoot turned out really well and I am very happy with the photos.  I decided to post the photos of the sneak peek on my website to try to get some of my blog audience to take a peek at my site.  So I uploaded the two sneak peek photos as the first two photos of my portrait gallery.  Please go check them out!

After a week or so I will sort the new photos into the gallery however for now I will leave them at the front of the gallery.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

Also one of those photos is on my Twitter @TomHoustonPhoto

Tom

Photo: Composite

Hey,

Thought I would show this photo I did recently that made me laugh a little.  I was bored and it was very fun to plan/do.  I hope you like it.

Self Portrait(s)? - 17-55mm - Composite

Edited it together in Gimp.  It isn't perfect however I think it is good considering it is my third composite.

Hope you enjoy this!

Photos: Update: Flower Series!

Yes that is right folks.  I am posting my Flower Series!

It has been a long time in the making since they were harder to organize than I thought.  Also I was super busy with everything else in my life while I was taking these.  I have a total of seven Flower Series shots and will probably get more later however I decided to post them now.  I did this because I have now moved onto another series.  I have done more than seven Flower Series shoots however some were not quite up to either the standard I wanted, or they didn't turn out exactly the way I had planned.  Therefore I am just posting my top ones.

First I will have them only on my website since one is fairly revealing and is for +18 eyes.  I may post them on my Flick however I will stick to my website right now for the Flower Series.  They will also be posted on my Model Mayhem account soon just so I can "show off" my creative side there.

Here is a link to my website @ www.tomhoustonphotography.ca and you will find the series in my galleries.  Or you can click here to bring you directly to the gallery.

I  came up with all the series ideas as well as planned and organized all the shoots.  Some of the shoots I used my lovely and talented Makeup Artist, Leslie Emmerson.  The concept of the series was from my access to free flowers from a local florist in my city.  I decided I wanted to do a series of photos where I incorporated flowers into the portraits.  It was overall a very fun experience doing the shoots and very tedious at times.  Flower petals do not have much friction on skin.  I had to get creative and a little crafty with my ideas to pull this series off.

I hope to do more however I am very happy this this set so far.  I hope you are as well and thank you again for the support!

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!

Review: Beauty Dish

Sorry for the small delay on my review of my beauty dish however I wanted to use it enough to make sure I could give a good review.  

Review: Cameron Mini-Max Beauty Dish (Set)

Recently I purchased a beauty dish because I wanted to create different lighting that had more character.  Before the beauty dish I was using two umbrellas with my SB-600 and SB-900.  Most of my portraits had no shadows and were perfectly lit however I wanted more attitude sometimes which two umbrellas couldn't deliver.  So I decided to get a beauty dish.

Thoughts and Opinions:

It was one of the hardest things to assemble since the instructions did not make sense.  Once I decided to ignore the instructions it was easier to built.  However I had never seen how a beauty dish was setup so part of the could have been my lack of knowledge.  Anywho, it is a 20 inch beauty dish and it came with the brackets and a diffuser as well as a honeycomb grid.  The size is great for my SB-900 and the beauty dish and its pieces are well made.  I am not worried about it being cheap and breaking easily.

So far it is a very great light modifier to have.  I do love the light it makes, especially with the grid.  If I need to go back to my shadowless lighting then I can usually achieve it from just using the bare beauty dish or with the diffuser.  

I think it is a great beauty dish to use with a speedlight and is a good size for what I use it for.  I have no complaints with it so far and it is doing everything I need it to.

Usage:

I have used it in five shoots now and I really like the results.  It does add a lot more character than an umbrella which is great.  I am very impressed with the lighting and I find that I am learning to use it even better with each shoot.  

Pros:

- Good Size

- Great Lighting

- Versatile (grid + diffuser)

- Well Built

Cons:

- Springs holding the dish in the centre might lose their spring over time (however there is a spare set)

Sample Images:

Portrait - 50mm f/1.4 D

Portrait - 35mm f/1.8 G

Portrait - 105mm VR Macro 

Conclusions: 

Overall very impressed with this light modifier and I am very impressed with what I have gotten from it.  Well built, lightweight and produces great light.  I hardly have any faults with it and I really like the effect it is having on my portraits.  There isn't much to say about it other than it is a great addition to my lighting setup.

Additional Info (Added October 2012):

Here is the link for my video review of my beauty dish: http://youtu.be/ZUU4LCUCuZM

Hope that helps!

Photos: [M.H]

Hey,

Posted up the finals from my shoot last week.  I loved the final product and I hope you do too!  Without further adieu:

Portrait - 35mm

Portrait - 50mm

You can see other photos on my Flickr