Style. Some photographers have it, others don’t, many people don’t even know what style is and in photography ask five professionals and chances are you’ll get five different definitions about the word style itself. Established style however is a key ingredient that will identify a professional photographer from their colleagues and subordinate beginners.

Personally I define photographic style as the following:

Photographic style is a consistent, identifiable quality in a visual body of work that portrays the artistic personality of the photographer and the life-influenced reflection of what the photographer saw and felt during that depiction of time.

Normally photographic style is associated with those that have made it as the leaders in specific genres of photography. When one sees Playboy style images, few know that Ken Marcus influenced that style, though today it’s more associated with the current number one contract photographer for Playboy, Arny Freytag, Marcus’ former assistant. [Read more...]

The greatest photographers in the world are those that understand the three “C’s” of being a professional photographer, comprehension, communication and creativity. While you’ll often hear the statement, “The difference between an amateur and a pro photographer is the pro never shows you his bad photos,” that’s more myth than fact, though practiced by some.

Let’s look at the first fact, comprehension. A photographer today not only needs to comprehend how his equipment works, i.e., the difference between an F/stop and a bus stop, but how his market, client and even audience functions.

While understanding your equipment is core to this first fact, especially knowing white-balance, lens choices, aperture and shutter-speed settings and all the gizmos cameras come with today like image stabilizers and matrix metering, comprehension has evolved to peripheral levels. Comprehending your market, its demographics including buying power and the intended audience is also important to you and your client. There are so many research tools available that there is no reason to fail in this category. [Read more...]

Light is the lifeblood of a photograph like blood is to our bodies, without either, we have nothing. As photographers, we rely on light to give us the ability to reproduce life in our subjects and images through the addition or subtraction of light.

We can manipulate this effect in many ways, including the selection of the proper light modifiers and for our light source to match our desired result. Ultimately it’s still-light that photographers control to produce lively, still photographs.

Still-light is about control, controlling how the subject appears through the control of light itself. This control can change the mood and story of the photograph instantly. As an example, utilizing a 7-inch reflector on a studio monolight with a 20-degree grid will direct light in a tight path, or swath, across the subject, thus creating a beam of light surrounded by dramatic shadows that brings life to the image. [Read more...]

It’s no secret that I’m not impressed with Alien Bees or White-Lighting marketing hype or the quality of their products–simply put, the owner and CEO of the company, Paul C. Buff, knows my biggest beef is about their use of the word “effective” when describing watt-seconds of their products. I’ve more than once have asked Buff to join me on the Glamour1.com photography forums for an open discussion on this and other topics related to his products, he’s refused and countered back with false statements and libelous claims.

So far I’ve ignored his unprofessional actions, but was rather disturbed when he posted a racial slur about me on DPReview.com (in reference to another poster’s photo) and I quote,

“Now if he’d used Rolando’s body grease you would see more. But maybe he didn’t want greasy bodies?”

Describing a Latino’s body as greasy is not a smart move by any corporate CEO when Latinos are more than 40-million strong in the United States alone—many are photographers too. Being of Latin descent I take the latter remarks by Buff very personal and find it a rather off-color remark, but Buff doesn’t stop with just this Latino, he slaps our European friends and family too! [Read more...]