Posts tagged Lighting

Lighting Demo at Buena Park Camera Show

Apr29
2012 Leave a Comment Written by KerryG

If you are looking for good deals on photography equipment, you should check out Bargain Camera Shows which take place in Pasadena, Buena Park, and San Diego. Today we were in Buena Park with my Blackbelt Lighting Products and had models from VIP Model Events.

For these shots we had a super simple setup with just a 44″ softbox umbrella with a Blackbelt Lighting BB560 speedlite in it set to 1/2 power. With the camera set to 1/250th, ISO 100, f/5.6 we were able to pull really nice light. The softbox umbrella was mounted on a lightweight boom arm so that the umbrella was positioned about 2′ above the model and about a 45 degree angle up from their face.

Posted in Blog, Events, For Photographers - Tagged , ,

Wonderland Studio Shoot with Westcott Products

Apr22
2012 Leave a Comment Written by KerryG

My friend and fellow photographer Devin Workman often does some really interesting photo shoots and I have wanted to collaborate with him on some projects for quite a while and this weekend the stars aligned and we hooked up to do a fun shoot at Wonderland Studios in Anaheim, Ca.

Part of the goal of this shoot was to try out some new modifiers from one of my favorite companies FJ Westcott. The two main products that we were working with were the 7′ White Reflective Umbrella and the 43″ Orb Softbox.

After using these two products for a day of shooting they are my new favorite modifiers. The light quality from these large modifiers is super smooth while still being controllable.

Here is a setup shot showing just the 43″ Orb being used to light the model. Because of the Orb’s large size, we only needed this single modifier. In this case we were using an Alien Bees AB1600 on only about 1/32 power with the camera on ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/250th second. This gave us super fast recycle times with enough power to still use a very low ISO setting and avoid any digital noise in the image.

I will be doing a complete review of these products on Camera Dojo soon so stayed tuned for more information. To see more of the images from this shoot, visit my SMUGMUG site at http://kgarrison.smugmug.com.

Posted in Blog, Featured, For Photographers, People - Tagged , , , ,

LA ShootThis! Group Shoot Event March 25th

Mar26
2012 Leave a Comment Written by KerryG

I talk a lot about working with other photographers to improve your skills, learn new tricks, and collaborate on projects together so I often attend group shoots whenever I can. This weekend we had a shoot planned with the LA ShootThis! group and as we were getting started, the rain started coming down. The sky was gray and ugly so I took a tip from my friend Chris Diset and set the camera’s white balance to tungsten and gelled the flash with a 1/2 CTO gel. This got the skin tones really nice but turned the dull gray sky into something a little more interesting.

We finally relocated into a dry parking structure for some more shooting and I chose a spot with almost no ambient lighting so that I could have total control over the lighting.

In this shot, I used a single 24″ softbox from BlackbeltLighting.com and had Amanda turned directly facing the light. This harsh angle provided a nice soft light on her face while illuminating the back wall at the same time.

In this next shot, I had pulled the softbox about 15′ away from the wall so that it wouldn’t light up the wall and then used a second flash with the same 1/2 CTO gel as before pointed at the side of his head to create the hair light.

With Kelsey, I didn’t want the lighting to be quite as dramatic so I placed a third light to camera right with an ExpoImaging Rouge Flashbender as a basic fill light. I still had the 24″ softbox and gelled hair light in the same position as the shot of JK above.

Moving the gelled light from the side to directly behind Kelsey’s head. we got a completely different look with a dramatic rim light effect.

To see more pictures from the event, check out my SmugMug Gallery.

Posted in For Photographers, People - Tagged , , ,

Simple and Effective Three Light Portrait Setup

Dec07
2011 Leave a Comment Written by KerryG

After learning the ins and outs of your camera, the next thing you generally want to do is to start working on your portrait skills. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to get really good lighting without spending more on lighting than you did on your camera. I have been promoting a pretty simple three light portrait setup that is very simple to use and creates excellent results with a minimum of work. This setup is so easy and effective that you will see it used anywhere mass portraits are done such as on cruise ships.

For more information on this, please read the entire article at CameraDojo.com.

Posted in Blog, For Photographers - Tagged , , , ,

Impromptu Portrait Setup at MDA Christmas Party

Dec05
2011 Leave a Comment Written by KerryG

My wife is the patient liaison for the MDA so she often volunteers me to work different events as the photographer. At a recent Christmas party my wife had told me that she wanted me to come and “just take some event photos”. While this sounded like a good idea at the time, when I got there and saw all the families there I decided that I wanted to do a portrait setup for them. The problem was, most of my gear was back in the studio and I only had what was in my camera bag and the trunk of my car.

In the trunk I found an 8′ light stand, but no umbrella or softbox. In the camera bag I had a couple of flashes and a large and mediium ExpoImaging Rouge Flashbender. While not really an ideal portrait setup, I figured I would use a flash on the stand with the large FlashBender as the key light. While this would give some decent directional light, the shadows would be pretty harsh and without another good modifier I needed a way to soften the shadows. The simple solution was to use another flash on-camera with the medium Flashbender. By throwing the light from the flash on the camera, this would help soften shadows and fill in any dark spots.

Did I pull it off with an absolute minimum of equipment, you be the judge.

Posted in Blog, Events, For Photographers - Tagged , , , ,

Blackbelt Lighting Products in Pasadena Sun 11/13

Nov12
2011 Leave a Comment Written by KerryG

If you are in southern California and looking for great deals on camera gear, be sure and checkout the Bargain Camera Shows that happen every month. This weekend we will be in Pasadena at 400 W. Colorado Blvd selling our Blackbelt Lighting Products. Tickets are only $2.00 so be sure and bring some friends.

Other upcoming dates include:

  • November 27th Buena Park
  • December 11th Pasadena
  • December 18th Buena Park
  • January 8th Pasadena
  • January 22nd Buena Park
  • January 29th San Diego

For more information, check out http://bargaincamerashows.com/

Posted in Blog, For Photographers, News - Tagged ,

Kerry Garrison at Los Angeles SmugMug Oct 20th

Oct07
2011 Leave a Comment Written by KerryG

Master your lighting using multiple speedlights: with Kerry Garrison

Thursday, October 20, 2011, 6:30 PM

Beverly Garland Holiday Inn
4222 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood, CA (map)
Inside Beverly Garland Theatre. Hotel Self-Park to the right for $5.00 or Free Street Parking.

Kerry Garrison will demonstrate working with multiple light sources. He will start with a single speedlite and work up to six speedlites. During this presentation you will learn how to balance lighting, setup hair lights, rim lights, background lights, and more while maintaining a proper exposure.If you are wanting to move into multiple lighting setups, this will be a great primer to get you going and learn how to use different modifiers such as softboxes, snoots, grids, and other accessories to really control your lighting.

For more information: http://www.meetup.com/LASmugMug/events/36546652/

Posted in Blog, News - Tagged , ,

Been on the road lately

Mar15
2011 Leave a Comment Written by KerryG

Hopefully things are going to start to return some some degree of normality around here soon. In the past three weeks I have spent more time on the road than I have at home. Don’t feel too sorry for me, as I have been having a great time traveling around teaching people how to improve their photography with off-camera lighting.

This past weekend myself and fellow photographer buddy Chris Diset joined forces with Nations Photo Lab to demo off-camera lighting techniques at the Pro Photo Expo in Pasadena. Over the three days, hundreds and hundreds of people came by to see what we were doing and even to take shots with our great models.

On Friday, we started off with Monique La Barr who was a great sport the entire day and really helped draw attention to the Nations Photo Lab booth. Here are a few of my favorite shots from Friday.

On Saturday I was thrilled to have two of my daughters with me. Andi Garrison was there to do makeup while Taylor Thorne rocked the house with her modeling. In the booth next to use was Backdrop Outlet who loaned us a cool purple background for the day. Some of my favorite shots from Saturday include these:

On Sunday, Monique was back along with a different background from Backdrop Outlet.

Of course, I have to throw in a couple shots of the team. The first pic below is Chris hamming it up for the camera and the second shot are my two girls.

Want to learn more about off-camera flash and help make your images better, be sure and check out all my tutorials at http://cameradojo.com and my lighting products at http://blackbeltlighting.com.

Posted in Blog, Events, For Photographers - Tagged , , , , , ,

Walking through a typical product shoot

Jul09
2009 Leave a Comment Written by KerryG

product_shoot_frameIn this video I walk through the process of doing a typical product shoot. This tutorial uses the Westcott Spiderlite TD-5 constant lights. Constant lights are great for product shots because you can easily get your lighting setup and see exactly in the viewfinder what you will get when you press the shutter.

During this tutorial I show how to use a light meter to determine the difference between the background and the subject to achieve a good high-key look as well as using the meter to determine the proper exposure. READ MORE »

Posted in For Photographers - Tagged , , ,

Jessica Sterling Photo Shoot

Jul06
2008 Leave a Comment Written by KerryG

I had the pleasure of working with Jessica this weekend. For a 17 year old she is extremely comfortable in front of the camera and had the flow of a seasoned professional. While this shoot was done for an upcoming article on Camera Dojo, I can’t wait to work with her on some more projects. See more of her work at: http://www.modelmayhem.com/jessicasterling

Here are a few more shots from the shoot:

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