Rory Lewis is a professional freelance photographer from Liverpool, Rory never set out to be a photographer originally he attended medical school at Cambridge University  realising medicine wasn’t for him; Rory took a year out to pursue his passion for photography. When Rory started to receive commissions he began to take his photography career more seriously, eventually working for Large Magazine Clients, and over the past 10 years freelancing for companies such as John Lewis, Malmaison, Debenhams, Toni & Guy, Premier Foods and The Sunday Times.

PORTRAITURE IS ALL ABOUT THE FACE, THE MODEL THE MUSE. The best models I have worked in the past have been confident actors. Actors who are able to work through a series of poses following the photographer’s descriptive direction or example imagery; WHILST having the confidence of adding their own thoughts and feelings and ideas. In essence being on the same wavelength of the photographer almost psychically.

“A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.” – Edward Steichen

When a photographer and model are on the same wavelength great things happen. This occurs often in my portraiture photography. The capturing of a perfect portrait moment a split second when the model and photographer connect. You can only achieve this with the right model. As noted actor Allan Walsh says: Modelling is just another branch of acting.

Remember these moments are STAGED, the model in my opinion has to be a gifted actor. This can’t be emphasised enough. Let’s not forget studio portraiture is photographed in an artificial atmosphere with a specific theme and when everything slots together, the results can be stunning.

Professional models must have character and a photogenic consciousness, realising what looks good on camera and what does not. Whilst knowing how to use both in accordance with the direction of the photographer. As a photographer I don’t see or think like a normal person; someone with good facial bone structure and looks is NOT necessarily a good model. Photographers must see everything creatively and search for models with character and confidence.

Take the time out to find your Muse, your Model, someone who has charisma, somebody who is confident, who can take direction and in doing so come up with their own ideas.

I teach a great deal of one-on-one sessions and workshops with photographers who are just starting out and find that their work is let down by one key factor, the face of the person they are photographing. Don’t get me wrong no one is perfect yet, this can severally affect the shots they are trying to achieve. If photographers are looking to achieve a high standard of studio work they must not only think about lighting and makeup, but the models they are shooting.

The question you must be asking is where can I find good models? And you are probably expecting me to say a good model agency. Well you may be right but you may be surprised. There are a number of creative social networking sites on the web where models and photographers can collaborate, so signup. I’ve also found models in unusual places from bus stops to bistros, keep alert and don’t be frightened to ask if you even spot someone in the street, the worst they can say is no.

In terms of model agencies take the time out to contact your local model agency. You may be amazed as agencies have a great number of new faces in need of shots. You may not be paid, but you will have the opportunity to learn with models who have experience, confidence, acting skills and good characteristics. If you take the time to find a good model the level of work you are trying to achieve will improve ten fold.

“That’s easy!”  “Why didn’t they hire me to shoot that?”  “I could take that photo.”

The amateur sees an athlete on a white background and likely exclaims the quotations above.  I did the same thing when I was fresh out of school and naïve.  So, for every aspiring sports photographer, here is a step-by-step description of how the above image of Carlos Beltran made it into ESPN the Magazine’s baseball preview issue.

February 18, 2013 – Houston, Texas

I am in Houston for a different client shooting events related to the NBA All-Star Game.  One commitment for them in the morning, the afternoon free and then I have a flight home at 5:50pm after 22 straight days on the road.

My phone rings at 1:49pm CST.  It’s my favorite editor at ESPN the Magazine, frantic because the St. Louis Cardinals just confirmed access to Carlos Beltran tomorrow. “We have him for 5 minutes during photo day, which is from 7am-9am in Jupiter, Florida.  Get there, just shoot on white, and make it fun,” she said.

This is the last I hear from her until after the shoot.  This is trust.

In this business your life can and will be flipped upside down by one phone call or email.  At 2:05pm CST I am on the phone with Octavian Cantilli, a fellow photographer & assistant in Orlando whom I hire on the spot at the recommendation of a colleague.  He handles every pre-production aspect of the job while I take a 7:35pm flight direct to West Palm Beach, Florida.

While in the air, Octavian secures a second assistant and, by calling in a favor to a buddy, secures the following gear:

5 -  c-stands

1 -  medium riser

15 – sand bags

1 – background stand

2 – 100ft extension cords

1 – R12 Multicart

1 – mini boom

6 – Profoto Pro 7 heads

1 – Profoto Pro 7 ring flash

2 – Profoto 7a packs

2 – Profoto 7b packs

2 – Profoto 7b extra batteries

1 – 6ft Elinchrom parabolic

1 – grid reflector

1 – 9ft seamless

4 – MultiMax units

1 – silver beauty dish

1 – roll gaffer tape

Did I mention all that I had with me were my cameras? Or that it was a Sunday afternoon in Orlando and the shoot would wrap before most places opened on Monday?

I land in West Palm Beach, Florida at 11:12pm, drive to Jupiter and lights out for me at 1am for a quick three hour nap.

February 19, 2013 – Jupiter, Florida

The two assistants leave Orlando around 3:30am to meet me on location at 5:30am.  We officially meet, and then figure out where to unload and set up by 6:15am.  The players start coming through at 7am, as we are still testing our light.

First and last frame of Beltran are at 8:16am and 8:25am, 216 frames in between.  We pack up and wrap by 9:30am.  Breakfast with the crew and kill time as we wait to hear if we’re shooting in Clearwater the next day.  Clearwater is canceled and I am free to board from 7:25pm flight home.

And then of course, the retouching…

It was known that only one shot would run.  The page was part of several other identical pages that were all to be shot in a similar manner.  So it may look like a simple frame of a baseball player juggling, but it’s a small miracle that the image actually came to fruition.

I’d also like to thank Mike Ehrmann of Getty Images & Chris Lee of the St. Louis Post Dispatch for their help on site.

Sacramento, CA-based photographer Michael Starghill shares photos of his cousin and hip hop artist named DSTAR.

I was so very fortunate to spend a good chunk of time in the greatest state of Texas last month. Initially for my brother-in-law’s wedding in Austin (congrats Nate and Martha!) and then down to Houston to spend some time with the family. During that time, I photographed a kid who I’ve known for about 25+ years. An enterprising young hip hop artist by the name of DSTAR who also happens to be my cousin. We roamed the streets of Downtown Houston, mainly around the theater district, to make some promo images.

And if you’re so inclined…have a listen to some of his heat. I am biased, but it is HEAT!

Shout out to H-Town.

See more photos on Michael’s blog.

Jonathan Moore started shooting while a student at USC for the Daily Trojan in 2006.  Photography didn’t become a career choice for Jonathan until he interned for Getty Images sports in 2008, where he learned not only how to capture important, key moments at sporting events, but also how to think outside the box.  He applies that creative drive towards whatever he shoots, whether for sports, weddings or creative portraits.  His clients include Getty Images, USC, Associated Press, Toshiba, Pac-12 Conference, University of Washington and USA Water Polo.   If Jonathan is not shooting, then he is probably out training for his next marathon…

I was recently commissioned by USC to do a 2 day portrait shoot of the Women’s Basketball team.

It was my first time putting together a shoot from beginning to end.  I handled everything from scouting locations to obtaining permits, reserving gear, creating a budget/schedule and of course, making the portraits.  We shot inside the Galen Center, as well as various locations around Downtown LA.  This is what I learned:

#1:  Make sure the sensor is clean!  This is kind of obvious, but I’m so used to covering sports and weddings at f/2.8 or f/4 that dust on the sensor usually isn’t a problem, but at f/18 – f/22, EVERY SINGLE spot comes out, which made editing very time consuming and tedious!

#2: If you’re shooting at a location that requires a permit, give yourself at least one week to obtain the necessary documentation, even if it means postponing the shoot.  The final budget, schedule and location approval from the staff came at the very last minute, which made obtaining permits and finding an assistant a very rushed experience.   If you’re shooting in LA, you should know that FilmLA (the nonprofit that handles still photo and film permits) ONLY accepts cash, money order or cashier’s check and payment must be made in person.

On a side note, if you’re shooting for yourself (i.e. NOT for a client) and your production is small, don’t bother obtaining a permit.  Save time and money.  I did everything by the book as a formality.  Since this was for a client, I didn’t want to risk getting shut down, as I would have been held responsible.  That said, two cop cars drove right by us and saw we were clearly shooting in the street.  They didn’t bother to ask what we were doing…

#3:  Avoid using speedlites.  I realize a lot of photographers will advocate speedlites because they are cheaper and more portable than traditional strobes, but I find them to be very unpredictable, they overheat quickly and take way too long to recycle.  I’m referring specifically to the arena shoot (below)– I could never get consistent performance out these lights, in fact I don’t think I have a single frame where all 8 flashed at the same time.  This really broke the rhythm of this particular shoot and was a huge distraction.

Major issues with the speedlites, very inconsistent performance. Stick with strobes…

LED setup — this was a 15 second exposure in a dark room with a black background. Once the shutter opened I painted the cardinal and gold light with two LED strips attached to a yard stick. The LEDs were powered by two 9 volt batteries. The side strobe fired at the very end of the exposure (rear shutter curtain).

Like most photojournalists I am often seen as “that” photography who over-documents their life. I usually do it a little differently than most. But before I do lets set the stage here and I will clue you in on some of our super-secret photojournalist club rules. Us photojournalists often document our own lives with a 35mm f/1.4 on our cameras and creatively forget that there are apertures beyond f/1.4. Some of us have moved on and we have begun to document our reality with our iPhones (Android phones are definitely exempt) and Instagram our over saturated lives. Actually, no, that was our old modus operandi. Instagram was so 2012. So some have fallen back to old classics to legitimize our creative prowess. We have a designated “walk-around” camera and it is a Leica. If we’re really cool it’s a film Leica with either Tri-X or Tri-X with plans to push one of the rolls two stops. Now that you know our secrets and have heard our collective confessional, let me continue. Instead of the above ways of documentation I often use a photo booth and let the people with me be creative and make their own pictures.

Last weekend our dear friends threw us a co-ed baby shower and it was a ton of fun. Yes, even for the men. Leading up to the shower I knew I wanted to make a visual guest book for our daughter so that someday she could see all the people who showered her with lots of love. So I fell back on the old photo booth concept. In the weeks leading up to this shower my wife bought a playful background for the photo booth to fit the shower theme. I knew the pictures wouldn’t read “baby” unless we made everyone hold a bottle, a stuffed animal, or a bag of diapers. I wasn’t about to ask my friends do something that lame. On the morning of the shower the elusive idea I had sought out to make this baby photo booth special landed on my frontal lobe like a Hefty trash bag chock-full of diapers after coming down a 35 story trash chute in a NYC high rise. I would set it up from a baby’s perspective. Yes! Leave it to the photojournalist to get the inspiration on deadline.

More of Garrett’s baby photo booth pictures on his blog.

This all started around nine years at a graduation party for an emerging photojournalist. He had a camera set up with a ring light, a backdrop and we all had a blast. I noticed three things that evening. First, it allowed my friend who was graduating to visit with everyone in the room without a camera glued to his face. Second I noticed that almost all the guests really had fun with it. Lastly, once I saw the pictures days later I realized that he had a super fun visual guest book and we, his guests had some fun memories in the form of an indelible .jpg.  Thank you Robert Caplin for inviting me to your graduation party! After that I started setting them up at my client’s weddings. It was a huge hit for the exact same reasons it was a huge hit at Caplin’s grad party. Throughout the years I’ve added props to my photo booth which seems to help people let loose a little bit and get them off the ground creatively. Here are a few of my favorites over the years.

More of Garrett’s favorites wedding photo booth pictures on his wedding site.

As a professional photographer giving up almost all control over the image is kind of like handing the keys of your treasured car to all of your friends even though you’d really like to be the one driving even if you’ve been driving for six hours without a bathroom break and your left leg is asleep. You endure because you know how crazy your friends are behind the wheel. But when you do give up the keys you shuffle to the back seat of your own car and you watch each person takes a turn at the wheel and try not to be that backseat driver offering advice and critique even when you know you’re right. This handing over of the “creative keys” of your photographs can be frightening and freeing at the same time.

I can look back over the years I’ve got a fun collection of memories. I’ve set up photo booths for Halloween, Birthday parties, fundraisers for the not-for-profit organization started by my friends called Davids Hope, and even for the “Garrett got his dream job celebration” party I threw when I was hired on at USA TODAY in 2008. I’ve likely set up about 30 photo booths for various events and seasons of my life. All in all, after eight years of other people driving me around the visual landscape with my photo booth I’ve come to learn giving up control is a beautiful thing.

Atlanta-based Kendrick Brinson took portraits of folk artist Lonnie Holley for FADER.

I spent an afternoon with Atlanta folk artist Lonnie Holley for FADER. He is a painter and sculptor, and a musician and I really enjoyed getting to know him.

We started off in a (very unphotogenic) warehouse where his art is stored, and then he dumpster dived (literally) for some pieces (the majority of his art is found objects) and then we headed over to The Goat Farm, an artist community, where some of his work is and he made a piece of art from all the items he found during our time together.

Continue reading and see more photos on Kendrick’s blog.

Seattle-based photographer Keith Daigle traveled to India and took portraits of villagers in the northern state of Haryana.

On a recent trip to India I went to the northern state of Haryana, taking portraits of villagers who make their lives there. Haryana is one of the richer states in India, its economy based primarily on agriculture. The livelihoods of the people I photographed was related to farming in one way or another. No one ever turned down my request for a photograph, and often times I had to field multiple requests to take peoples photos at a time. I was amazed at the generosity and the willingness of people to literally bring a stranger into their homes and treat him as part of the family.

See more of Keith’s work on his website.

Rather than throwing away the outtake prints from his portrait series called Intimacy, Carlos Lopez decided to scratch designs onto the prints and created a new artsy series.

The following images are based on my series Intimacy. The drawings on them are indeed scratches and I did them because these prints did not come out as I had expected and I am not into throw prints to the garbage. I had this photos stored approximately two years since I print them because I knew I had to do something with them, but I did not know what.

Sometimes, you may have random ideas in your head but from there until make them reality may a take a while. Ideas and inspiration are just a small percentage of the creative process, the rest is real work, take the brushes a start to paint, grab the clay and start to shape it or take your camera and go out to take photographs and from there look at your work and redefine it. It is normal that you start with idea A and during the process it evolve to B and you may finish with C.

Continue reading and see more photos on Carlos’s blog.

Tom Di Maggio is a freelance photographer who picked up his first DSLR a Canon 300D in 2007 and instantly fell in love with photography. In 2008 he created InFocus asbl with a good friend and fellow photographer JP. InFocus was created as a non-profit association which provides a base for learning the art of photography, in different ever evolviong environments. The first exhibition quickly followed and the motivation grew. In 2009 Tom started working as a freelance concert photographer. This allowed him to combine his two big passions, namely photography and music. It is with concert photography that things started to move along quite fast. In 2009 he was approached by RoadRunner Records. In 2010 he started doing some promotional work for bands, which is a photographic journey he enjoyed a lot. 2011 Tom shot a promo for Gibson Guitars in Paris. In 2011 Tom started working with composited images for different Band CD booklets. This generated quite a big demand and made Tom focus a bit more Photoshop oriented work. Today Tom’s pictures are regularely published on photography and music related websites, magazines, band sites and record labels. Lately he also enjoys writing articles about photography. He’s certain about the fact that a photographer should not be limited by a certain style of photography. Photography is a learning process that doesn’t stop, you have to be open to change and always on the search for new ideas.

“Made up of disparate or separate parts or elements”, is what you will find when you look up the word composite in a dictionary. You are probably asking yourself what this has got to do with photography? Well that’s the issue with composites, people instinctively think image manipulation and tend to forget that photography is still playing the biggest part in a composite.

The thing with composited images is not so much about the technique or the tools, but more about creativity and inspiration. Somebody once said that “imagination has no limits”, and this a very good way to describe composites. There are no boundaries, you’re not limited by locations, weather, physics or even reality. Whatever you can think of, well you can create it with composites.

A composite, assignment or for personal work always starts with an idea or theme. It sounds trivial but trust me, if you have the idea you are halfway there. Being forced to find a theme for a composite for an already planned shoot is a creative challenge that is not very easy to master. Especially if it is a paid assignment with financial pressure associated with it. The proper way is to start working on the idea and then organize the props, model, make-up artist and so on.

When you have to create a composite for a customer, you usually know the approximate creative direction to take after meeting them. Sometimes you are left with absolute creative freedom, and sometimes they know exactly what they want and give you pointers that make your life a whole lot easier.

When you have creative freedom or work on a personal project you need to plan the final image ahead. I never start organizing anything before I am sure of what I want to do and what I need to get it done.

People often ask me where I get my ideas for the composites. I have many sources of inspiration that I use on a daily basis, they range from music to books, from video games to movies, or even magazines. There are no rules here, I use whatever works. As a small tip I found out it’s very useful to have something around at all times to take notes. Pen and Paper or Smart Phone, it doesn’t matter. Once you have an idea write it down. Depending on where you were when you had the idea you might not remember at a later stage. Very often one idea leads to another and soon you’ll have a really interesting project to prepare.

The idea for the Roller Derby girl came to me while I was stuck in a traffic jam in front of a tunnel. She wanted a shot that wasn’t common to Roller Derby, she wanted depth in the picture.

Once I’m set on the idea I start organizing the studio shoot. I book the model(s), make-up artist, stylist and assistant(s), try to get a hand on all the props I will need for the shoot. At the same time I start to look for the pictures I will use to create the composite. Whenever possible I will use pictures I shot myself but I find myself relying more and more on stock photography sites. It takes less time to use those pictures than to drive around scouting for locations to shoot. I use sites like iStock, Fotolia and Bigstock. Sometimes I get in touch with artists from Deviantart for more specific stuff.

As for make-up, clothing and lighting I do adapt them to the mood I want to create in the final image. I will talk a bit about lighting here, as it can make or break the composite. Most of the time I tend to lighten the subject as much and as even as I can. Shadows are easy to create in Photoshop whereas the other way around is not always easy to achieve. You can plan ahead as much as you want, but sometimes things will change at the last moment, and having lit your subject in a very specific manner will cost you in flexibility at a later stage. My standard light setup is two strip lights (1,20m) left and right of the subject and one big Octabox (1,40m) over the camera angled down or slightly to one side of the subject. The softness of the Octabox will allow the light to wrap nicely around the subject. The ratio between the Octabox and the Striplights is usually 3:2. I like the highlight the strip light produce on the side of the subject’s body. As for the background, I will usually shoot on a white or grey background, depending on what gives me more contrast. I don’t light it as I will extract the subject from the background anyways. For a normal composite I usually don’t spend more than 2 hours (make-up included) with my models in the studio.

Once the studio session is wrapped, the images transferred to my drive and backed up, I’ll leave them alone for a few days (if the schedule permits it). It gives me time to get some distance from the shoot and prevent me from being to subjective in the final selection. This is very important and too often underestimated. I will keep on selecting my images until I am left with one or two pictures for my composite. I will take as much time as I need for this as I want to be 100% sure that I work with the best image possible for the finale image. I use Adobe Lightroom for all my image selection and organization. Is it better than other products out there? Honestly I don’t know, I’ve been using it for years now and never felt the urge to look for a different software to do this.

For this composite I shot the four band members separately. When they hired me they were not sure yet what they wanted as an end result. I wanted to remain flexible in Photoshop with the positioning and lighting and thus decided to light them separately.

This leads me to the core of the job… namely Photoshop. To achieve the effect that I have on my pictures I use a combination of Photoshop CS6 and NIK’s Color Efex Pro 4. I work on the subject first and spend a lot of time marking the areas I am going to work on, modifications, light, doge and burn and so forth. I work in a non destructive manner as much as I can so I can always adjust things at a later stage if need be. For the extractions I typically use the quick selection tool followed by a refine selection. I apply that selection to a layer mask that I will fine tune afterwards with a simple brush or the smudge tool. Once the subject is done I start working on the special effects in the picture if there are any.

I had the idea for this composite while reading a tutorial about special effects on the internet.

The final and most important stage of a composite is making the foreground and background come together as one picture. You don’t the subject to look pasted in on the background. This is usually done with a coloring effect at the end of the process. I usually use photo filters in Photoshop to achieve this.

For hiring models I often use “Model Mayhem”. The pool of Models is very impressive on that site, and I’ve never been disappointed by a model that I booked over this site. If I am on a budget or plan a personal project I usually look for “TFP” work. Models as well as photographers are always on the lookout for pictures they can use in their portfolio. You can look for models who ask for “Trade for pictures” (TFP) assignments or you can post your own add asking for models.

This is another shot that came out of the “Fight Club” Idea. Initially I was shooting some portraits for the subject.

The temptation is always big to ask friends to pose for some shots, especially when you are starting out. That’s not a bad thing in itself, it’s fun and depending on your character it might be easier to work with someone you know as opposed to work with a total stranger. And most of the time it’s free. Working with a pro though gives you the chance to focus on the light and the composition of the shot. They know how to pose and that will make your job a whole lot easier. Once you’ve explained them what you want to do with the picture they usually know what to do to get you the pose you are looking for.

When people hear composite they often think huge elaborate backgrounds. Backgrounds that you’ve spend more time on than on the subject in the picture. That doesn’t have to be the case. I often use compositing techniques on simple portraits. As I said before, the only limit to a composite is the limit we set our imagination.

The only thing I had to do here is to put the subject onto a new background.

Finally it’s important you keep on working on your techniques. You don’t have to (and you should not) wait for someone to come along and ask you to create a composite for them. If you have an idea write it down and look for a way to realize it. One such example is a project that I’ve started last year which is quite simple. I want to realize one Christmas composite for the family every year. It gives me ample time to prepare and realize, it’s personal and fun.

This is the composite I did this year and gave me the idea to make a yearly thing out of it.

As with every kind of artistic creation, the most important ingredient is inspiration. I for one cannot “control” inspiration. When I get an idea it’s crucial for me to write it down with as many details as possible. That’s the start of the process, and I can assure you that not once has the final image been what I had in mind to start with. During the process of creating a composite I talk to people, show people close to me what I am working on., and thus the image keeps on changing until I am satisfied with the result or until I’ve hit the deadline. Sometimes I get really interesting comments that I will incorporate into the image, sometimes it will change the whole feeling of the image. But that’s ok, as long as I (or the customer) am happy with the end result.

Tallahassee, FL-based photographer Scott Holstein took portraits of people’s reflections inside their own eyes.

One day back in college, I realized I could see my reflection in my own pupil while looking into a mirror. I thought it might make a neat image so I enlisted fellow photographer Joel Fluty to endure some pretty strong off-camera flash blasts to the face. After sacrificing Joel’s vision, I determined that it was theoretically possible to photograph someone’s reflection inside their own eye, but it would not be easy to accomplish.

I recently revisited the idea with some better equipment and a handful of patient models. This was indeed a very technically difficult photo shoot. In order for the model’s face to appear properly exposed as a reflection in the pupil, I had to overexpose it with the flash equivalent of a small nuclear explosion. But for the iris to be properly exposed, the blast had to be controlled so that it lit one side of the face but did not spill over into the eye I was photographing. Then I had to light the eye I was shooting at a darker exposure so it would have detail and not be overexposed.

Read more on Scott’s blog.