It’s a sad fact of life is that we all must move on, adapt to changes within our industry or die on the vine. My career, just hitting its 41st year of incorporation (47th year as a shooter), has been a rollercoaster of changes. I’ve embraced each and every one of them, mostly because I absolutely love what I do.

When I was in eighth grade in a small town in Minnesota, my dad gave me a Kodak Brownie Darkroom Kit he’d had when he was younger. I made a contact print in the cloakroom of my grade school classroom for a Science Fair project. I was hooked immediately, and started shooting anything and everything.

My folks gave be a Voigtlander folding camera for Christmas that year, but I quickly outgrew it, trading it in for a Yashica twin-lens reflex. It was amazing to be able to see and focus through the viewing lens. Parallax (you might have to look that up) was something of a problem, but only at the closest working distance.

At fourteen, I shot my first wedding, senior portrait, advertising job and nude. I felt I had a legitimate idea for the last one, but talked to my priest about it, just to be sure I wasn’t stepping on any holy toes. I didn’t realize until later that I’d shot a cliché.

I was the geek with the camera in high school, eventually moving up to a Mamiya 500TL, a 35mm camera with a state of the art internal light meter. I was in everybody’s face for four years (I’m so happy they let me live), and documented the whole experience for me, the school paper and what turned out to be the source of most reunion photos for the last 40+ years.

At fifteen, I asked my local camera store for a job so often that they finally acquiesced. I had the opportunity to see all the new gear (the Kodak Instamatic was huge!) and get a discount on anything I could afford to buy, including a Rolleiflex 35T that was paid for by weddings. The job was heaven, even though I was being paid a whopping $0.70/hour. I also got to drive (illegally) the boss’ 1953 Hudson Hornet for deliveries. What a car!

In the seventies, I moved north from my hometown of Winona to Minneapolis, the epicenter of Minnesota. North? What the hell was I thinking? When our daughter left the nest she moved to Hawaii!

I hung up my professional shingle in 1971. I had been shooting 20-30 weddings per year in Winona (my high was 46), but I wanted a career in commercial advertising. My first client was a crafts item manufacturer, Hobby Time, and I shot their products until they closed shop in 1976 (and I hope it wasn’t because of me).

Throughout the seventies, I shot product and advertising work for magazines, catalogs, in addition to tons of local rock bands. Most of the shots were simple group portraits, but some brought extras and props, such as this one, which called itself “Harlot.”

Minneapolis had been considered a destination for national clients for years, starting back in the ‘70s when Fallon, McElligott, Rice burst onto the scene and stole almost all of the major advertising awards with their humorous and irreverent look at simple products. Other agencies followed suit, and that was one of the reasons my career was so interesting.

In the eighties, I saw the greatest influx of advertising jobs (and those wonderful budgets!) in my career. This was a time when art directors could sell a concept based on palm trees drawn into the layouts. As long as the message was on track, the creative overseers from the client were just as anxious to get a paid vacation, with an expense account, as my art director and I were.

“Normal” clients were a cash cow, too. I was paid $4000/month to shoot newspapers, usually on white seamless paper with a drop shadow, maybe three times a month. Wow. Now, that was tough!

I thought shooting food would be lucrative (it was), and I added a full kitchen to my studio. I shot for Hormel, Jennie-O, Target, Coca-Cola and other clients willing and able to pay my freight.

By the nineties, the bloom was off the rose, and Minneapolis fell out of favor with national advertisers and film producers, and for a number of reasons. Our Fathers of State decided that, since so many movies and ads were being produced in Minnesota, sales taxes were in order. The movie companies left so rapidly one could feel the breeze as they headed northeast to Toronto. Fortunately, my favorite art director had taken a position with a major agency in Dallas, and I was on deck to shoot national ads for Home Depot and others. One of my favorite assignments was to recreate their Nascar out of items purchased only at Home Depot. It was a terrific challenge, and came with a hefty budget. We made it through numerous changes and tweaks, shot the job and submitted film, but the campaign was canceled before anything was printed.

Somewhere along the line it dawned on me that I actually knew what I was doing, and I began to write books about photography and photographic processes. I found I enjoyed writing as much as photography itself–even more sometimes, because it was a new discipline. My first book, A Photographer’s Guide to Polaroid Transfer, was published in 1999. My latest, Vintage Lighting, demonstrates how to re-create iconic lighting styles with contemporary equipment, including the great Hollywood styles, from 1910-1970.

I’ve also published eBooks on corporate portraiture, and  glamour poses. A very fun job was my first fiction novel, available through Amazon’s Kindle (with free apps for any e-reader). That was a treat to write, and a real challenge to figure out the plot, the twists, and the ending. If you feel like spending $2.99 for a good read, check it out here.

My business changed radically with the new century, and I now concentrate more on business portraiture, at least on the still side. The addition of video to DSLRs has changed things again, and I’m back to my 70s rock and roll roots, shooting music videos and promo spots for the City of Minneapolis. I hooked up with two very talented guys who formed a partnership called A440Live.TV, and we do three-camera shoots. One of them, John Heinen, is also an audio engineer, the other, Nick Nichols, an accomplished editor, so we have all our bases covered.

As your career progresses, you may encounter many of the same situations and problems as I have. If you love what you do, you’ll find a way to adapt to those situations. You may also encounter changes I haven’t a clue about because they haven’t, as yet, been discovered or applied to the industry. Our business is changing so rapidly, and there’s so much more to think about and deal with, in terms of gear and competition, that my little reminiscence could have easily run 25,000 words instead of the paltry few I used for my blog.

Change is inevitable­–what’s important is how we deal with it. I wish you all the great successes you can imagine with photography, whether it’s your hobby or your profession. It is, simply, the most wonderful, most malleable, most sensitive way to document whatever you choose to place in front of your lens.

Shoot well, and prosper.

I’d like you all to stay in touch. If you’d like to know about future book releases, eBook or print, drop me a note. I’ll keep your addresses in a smart folder, will never sell them, and contact you only when I’ve got something of interest for you. It could be a new book or a new lighting tip just for you. You can reach me through my website, chris@ChristopherGrey.com.  You can also find me on FaceBook and LinkedIn as Christopher Grey. Please let me know of your interest.

It was a hectic month in Greyville as my family prepared for the marriage of our daughter, Liz, to her fiancé, David.  Although it was a small and intimate ceremony and reception, the number of details that presented themselves was huge.  Those of you who’ve seen a child married know exactly what I’m talking about.  There must be a parental gene that drives you to take as much pressure as possible off the future bride or groom.  Resources are drawn upon, wallets are opened and credit cards are scanned, often with wild abandon.  In an ideal world, this only happens once.

Needless to say, I’ve been photographing my daughter since the day she was born and, as a result, she’s quite the ham in front of the camera.  Here are her birth and graduation announcement images.

Liz asked me to photograph her wedding, a job I would have been pleased to accept if I wasn’t her father.  I’ve shot many weddings over the years and know how much work they are.  Not wanting to miss the day (how can you shoot the ceremony if you’re in the front row, anyway?), I said I would shoot backup and candids, but would hire a primary shooter to do the heavy lifting.

You might recognize the name “Joey Tichenor” (www.joeytichenor.com) from the credits in many of my books.  Joey’s done an excellent job of making me look reasonably human for my bio photos.  He’s blessed with an excellent eye and a sense of humor that’s often over the top. It didn’t hurt that he has more than enough energy to get a job done, either.

We struck a deal and Joey agreed to come to Tucson and shoot the wedding.  It actually worked out great for him, as he drove from Minneapolis with his assistant and second shooter, Chris Colainni.  Together, they would leave Tucson after the wedding for portrait business in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, with a ten-day photography road trip up the coast and across the northern states before getting back.

Tucson has many great locations in addition to the beauty of its desert surroundings and we settled on the Congress Hotel (I don’t think they have their own site, but just Google ‘em), an old structure that was opened in 1919 and never remodeled to look anything like a Holiday Inn.  The staff was extremely accommodating to us, giving us permission to disrupt the premises in return for a signed promise to send them some photos for their website.  Sweet deal.

With the bridal party in tow, our three cars descended on the Congress.  One of the most unusual features of the lobby is side-by-side wooden phone booths next to the front desk.  The payphones have been updated but the booths themselves have to be almost as old as the hotel.  Joey lit the set and posed Liz and David in a number of interesting poses while I snapped away under ambient light and high ISO.

We moved into the theater.  It’s very popular for the local music scene and features red curtains to shield the antique oak bar from the audience.  Joey had Liz in place while he set his lights.  Since I basically had no responsibilities I was free to walk around and shoot.  I noticed the beautiful rim light from a window on my daughter’s profile and asked her to turn and look at me.

I must say, the idea of shooting without being “on duty” does have its advantages, and I was certainly enjoying myself.  This was, without question, the least stressful wedding I’d ever photographed.  I wish they could all be like that.

The wedding itself was outside, late afternoon on the Oro Valley Country Club golf course.  Tucson temperatures in summer can be testy, and this day was no exception.  I believe the high that day was 111.  Given our typical humidity, that would be a deal breaker in Minnesota, but it’s true when they say, “it’s a dry heat” for Arizona.  Even in a suit and tie, it was not unbearable, and we didn’t lose a single guest or wedding party member to the heat.  I imagine the only people to work up a sweat were Joey and Chris, who worked the ceremony from all angles with cameras always at the ready.  Chris pulled off a great shot when Liz high-fived me as I gave her away.

Joey’s sense of humor came through for the formals after the ceremony.  For one set he told me to wear my camera “like a tourist,” the strap around my neck.  Liz, ever the ham, got into the moment nicely.  Note my Spock-like eyebrow.  I can’t control it.  It has a mind of its own.

At the risk of boring you all to tears, I’ll wrap this up.  For those of you who don’t know us personally, this is, after all, much like the dreaded summer vacation slideshows of yesteryear.  The bottom line (like you haven’t figured this out already) is to not be afraid to hire someone you trust to do your family photos.  I was able to totally enjoy my beautiful daughter’s wedding to a wonderful guy and still get some terrific images myself.  The final book will be a mix of images from the three photographers and will be a lasting, tangible memory for all of us.

Hey, Gang,

My video, Pro Lighting Techniques for Beauty and Glamour, is getting great reviews from photographers and production people alike.  If this is a genre you work in, or want to try, be sure to check it out, but it’s full of techniques you can use for standard portraiture, too.  Free shipping when you order from my website.

I’m Ba-ack!

You may have noticed I haven’t been here for a while.  I apologize for that.  In the last year I’ve had two new books published, Christopher Grey’s Advanced Lighting Techniques for Digital Photographers and Christopher Grey’s Lighting Techniques for Beauty and Glamour Photography.  A new book, Christopher Grey’s Vintage Lighting is currently in the Design Department at Amherst Media and will be released later this year.

Did I mention that I authored four eBooks, too?

Whew!  It was a tough schedule because I still had to bring real jobs into the studio, just to pay for the writing time.  As much as I enjoy writing and this blog, I’m afraid little time was left for the fun I have working on it.

You, my audience in the blogosphere, are mostly photographers.  As such I want to take a little time and a couple of columns to update you about the new books and some of the terrific shoots we had to make them happen.

So, let’s talk about the Beauty and Glamour book.  I know the first paragraph indicates that I just sat down at the keyboard and ground the thing out, but the truth is I’d been working on it for almost three years and was both happy and sad to see the project end.  I’d worked it for so long that I was able to incorporate some of the information in an earlier blog post about creating backgrounds for pinups.

One of my favorite tricks from this book is found in Chapter 9, The Search for Super-Soft Light.  At first glance, the placement of the light looks really goofy, but the final look is outstanding.  Here’s the info:

Soft Light that Falls Off

Here’s another nifty little trick that will produce very soft light that falls off noticeably as it travels down a subject’s body.  A caveat: it will only work with a white or neutral ceiling.

Mount a medium or large softbox on a stand and aim it at the ceiling (a medium was used here).  Leave just enough of the lower edge in view of the subject so that a little of the light will actually fall on the subject.  Knowing where that light ends, the point at which the edge of the frame blocks the white diffusion front, will tell you where the light will fall off.

Aim the softbox at the ceiling from a distance that allows a full bounce down to the subject and creates nice shadows.  Meter as usual, under the chin, reading both the bounced light as well as the little bit of oblique light coming from the angled box.  The bounced light below the oblique light will be less strong and will fall off at that point.  As with any trick that involves light bounced off any surface, a Custom White Balance is a necessity.  I know this looks odd (it is), but it produces a terrific soft light that’s also quite unusual because of the falloff.

This first image was made with the model about four feet from the edge of the softbox and about ten feet from the background.  Notice how soft the light is on my model’s face, due to the large surface area of the ceiling and the slightly more defined light from the edge of the softbox.  A hair light, a Beauty Bowl with a 25 degree grid (a favorite combination), was set on a boom arm directly over the model’s head.  It was powered to the same f/stop as the key, providing just enough kick to give the model extra dimension. 9.014

We created a nice variation with this lighting when the model held a translucent umbrella, and the hair light was boosted an additional 1/3 stop.  The halo from the umbrella, along with the angle of its handle and the model’s arms, combine with the light’s fall off to direct all attention to her beautiful face.

If you like this as a general idea but prefer less fall off, simply increase the distance between the model and the light, approximately double for this next image.  The softbox will spread the light more evenly.  You’ll also see an increase in the brightness level of the background, as the Inverse Square Law comes into play and the light on the background is closer in value to that of the model.

I hope that you’ll try this little trick yourself.  If you’d like to learn even more creative uses for light, you can get a signed copy of the book through my webstore.  Checkout is totally secure through PayPal and the sister site, e-junkie.com.  The interface is a little strange but, trust me, it works just fine.

We also created a DVD documenting some of the techniques I wrote about.  It’s about 80 minutes of video and was shot with multiple cameras.  You’ll swear you were in the studio with me.  My editor, the fabulous Nick Nichols, created a short teaser that you can take a look at right here.

My mission in life has changed.  As I get closer to that mythical age of retirement, I’ve decided I need to teach you everything I know, and there’s more coming soon.  Promise.

Shoot well, and prosper.

Hi Gang,

I know it’s been a while since I’ve added new material. No excuse except that I’ve been very busy. I’ve finished the final edit on a new book, Christopher Grey’s Advanced Lighting Techniques, essentially Book Two of a series that began with Christopher Grey’s Studio Lighting Techniques. Both are “tricks of the trade” books that explore many of the cool things I’ve learned over the years and how I’ve applied those tricks to my work. It should be out in a month or so, and I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s available (well, duh!).

Many of you, especially the baseball fans, know that the Minnesota Twins moved into a brand new outdoor stadium this spring. I had the honor to be hired to be in the stadium and on the field before it opened, to shoot two of the Twins and a nationally known sportswriter and broadcaster for a billboard campaign. The stadium is beautiful, probably one of the most nicely designed structures of its type, utilizing many Minnesota features such as native granite, throughout.

I’ve written before about how much I enjoy working with my radio clients, translating their voice-only personas into visual representations of those personas. It’s a challenge that always becomes a fun assignment.

For this particular shoot I’d be working with Patrick Reusse, writer and broadcast personality, along with Denard Span and Michael Cuddyer of the Twins. Like all shoots where tightly scheduled people come together, our window to produce a series of excellent images was really small. I was told we’d have no more than 30 minutes to get them in and out of makeup, do the billboard shoot as well as some video at another spot in the stadium. Needless to say, we were at the stadium with time to spare, bright and early at 7:30am.

Of course, something always makes your life difficult on location shoots, and this was no exception. We’d been told that we wouldn’t be able to park in the controlled lot closest to the field because it would be full, even at that early hour, so we parked in the closest lot we could find.

Close, as you know, only counts in horseshoes and grenades.

You should always over-pack for location shoots. It’s true, but it was a decision I regretted deeply as we began walking to the media entrance, about three blocks away. While the two makeup artists had their little carts, and the producer and art director carried props, I pushed a cart loaded with close to 100 pounds of battery powered strobes, accessory strobes, a softbox, light stands, tripod, stepstool, camera, backup camera, lenses, miscellaneous junk that I may or may not need, and two 15 pound sandbags, in case the wind came up.

As much fun as that was, it paled in comparison to dragging the gear over the gravel path that runs around much of the stadium. The wheels of my cart dug ruts that curdled the blood of the groundskeepers, while straining muscles I’d forgotten I had but was reacquainted with the next day.

I came prepared to shoot with in a shaded area, but the players were late getting to the shoot, and the sun had already filled our part of the stands. This was good because I wouldn’t have to create fake sunlight with a battery powered studio strobe, but it was bad because I’d still have to haul the thing out of there. I’d only need to fill the shadows, and I could use an accessory strobe, my Quantum QFlash, for that purpose.

Well, the bottom line is that after each subject had an accelerated makeup session and was placed in the seats, we were ready to go and got the job done. One of my production people shot a little video of the event, and it’s fun to watch.

I must say that even with the scramble to set up before the shoot and the stiff muscles the next day, I love assignments like this. Because these are high-test shoots, I’m forced to think on my feet so much more than in the studio. I’m also forced to think ahead, ‘cause there’s no quick run to the studio to grab something that was forgotten. Finally, I’m forced to get everyone ready now, and get a terrific image in a very short time.

I just received some interesting news from Amherst Media, the publisher of my lighting books. I want to share this with you because, well, it’s additional validation of my efforts to help photographers learn how to light their subjects.

In 2004, Amherst released my first lighting book, Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers. I’m very happy to say that it was, and continues to be, a bestseller, one of the most popular titles they’ve ever produced. I believe it’s sold over 50,000 copies to date, a fantastic number for a niche market, and is still going strong.

The UPS guy stopped by this morning with a package. I wasn’t expecting anything, so it felt a little like Christmas, and it was. I don’t think my eyes popped out quite so far since my gramma gave me a set of Matchbox Trucks when I was six, but inside was a copy of Master Lighting Guide translated into Polish. It’s the first of my books to be translated into another language and, believe me, it was a thrill to see.

Pretty cool, huh? I just wanted to share.

Some months ago I was asked if I would write a foreword to a colleague’s new book, Portrait Lighting for Digital Photographers – the basics and beyond. My colleague, Steve Dantzig, had placed his fourth book into the more than capable hands of Amherst Media, the most prolific publisher of photography books in business today. This book was, to a very small degree, the result of a conversation we had at our first person-to-person meeting last year in Honolulu. Needless to say, I was honored to be asked.

Aside from my personal interest in the book, I was taken with Steve’s writing abilities, especially when describing the laws of physics that lurk in the background of any professionally created image. Some of us are aware of them, many of us use them creatively, most of us ignore them (a bad decision). Steve has a wonderful way of explaining the dry side of photography, putting it into perspective as a creative tool rather than a wall.

Now, I’m from Minnesota. We have bright sunlight without snow for about three weeks out of the year. OK, I’m exaggerating. We might have it five weeks a year, two without mosquitoes. Regardless, when it’s here, we photographers all pack our gadget bags and head out to our favorite location, gleefully determined to overcome Old Sol and create deathless art.

Steve works in the sunlit paradise of Hawaii. As wonderful as it is, it’s “plagued” by high sun everyday (the curse of the tropics). Steve’s written about a number of natural light situations, and how he’s managed to work with them to get stellar results, either with reflectors or portable strobes.

You may ask yourself how this could help you, but if you live in any part of the country with more than five weeks of summer you’ll most certainly be asked to shoot some outdoor portraiture. It’s a good idea to learn techniques from someone who does it more frequently than I shovel my driveway.

In other words, if you’re hired to shoot a graduation portrait, and your client wants to go outside, do you just rely on natural light or do you use the built-in flash on top of the camera? If you said yes to either, you really need to get Steve’s new book, practice the principles he espouses, then go for the money shot. He demonstrates rock-solid techniques to get great shots every time, like this one, taken in open shade under bright sun. The background’s been toned down from its usual dominance, any green tinge from the vegetation has been negated, and the subject is beautifully and fluidly lit, with shadows that match the background. Let’s see Uncle Roy pull this off with his point-and-shoot.

If you’re serious about photography, you need to create a style (along with the requisite depth of knowledge) that will set your work apart from that of your competition. This is a book that will help you immensely on both counts. I’m proud and happy to know this guy, and to recommend this book to you. He’s a kindred soul to all of us who love the camera.

Here’s the shameless promo part: You can certainly get the book through Amazon (and you’ll save some dough), but you can get a signed copy here.

Judging from images I’ve seen on some of the model sites (Model Mayhem, One Model Place, and others), a hot item for pinup style photography is a colored, dimensional shape on a white background. The subject, who has been separated from her original background, is then layered onto the new background. Here are a couple of easy ways to make them.

Use your favorite method to separate the subject from the background. I use greenscreen and Ultimatte’s AdvantEdge Photoshop plugin, but there are many other programs out there. Many are available as free downloads, fully featured, that will save images with a watermark unless you buy a license. This is a great way to test different approaches to a complicated problem. When you find “The One,” buy it and have fun.

Once your subject is separated, all you will see on your screen is a subject against a transparent background.

Many, if not most, of the programs work in Layers, which means you will see the original image along with the transformed image on the Layers Palette. Select the original layer, and use Edit>Fill to fill it with pure white. Use the Elliptical Marquee and create an oval or a perfect circle. You can hide the transformed layer if that helps you visualize the final effect, but you’ll want to see the transformed layer to correctly position the shape. Select a color to fill the background (I selected a tone from her lipstick). If you create a form, “as is,” it will have a sharp edge.

I usually prefer a soft edge, and use Select>Feather to find a feathered edge that I like. This image was feathered by 25 pixels.

No matter how you do it, simply filling the form with a color produces a very flat look. To add dimension, use the Burn tool (about the only thing it’s good for). Use a soft-edged brush, set the tool to burn Midtones at 10%, use the Brush tool, and simply paint around the edge until you get the gradation you want. Now the background has more of a three dimensional look.

Once the original layer is seen again, the effect of the trick becomes clear; goofy, kitchy, and fun.

Another option is to create a background layer with color, any way you like it, then frame it and refill it with white, black, or another color.

Select the Background layer and the Rectangular Marquee tool. Create a box in the dimensions you wish, feather the selection (100 pixels for this one), and fill with your color of choice. If you’d rather have the outside of the selection filled, select Inverse before filling with color.

You can create some interesting background shapes by using the Polygonal Lasso, too.

I’ve certainly enjoyed a varied career. In the ‘70s, when I first hung up my shingle, I shot hundreds of rock bands, weddings and portraits. Later I moved into fashion, then commercial advertising, producing images for industrial, food and aerospace clients. I still work with many of them, athletes for the Dairy Association (Got Milk?) being one of many. It’s a little known fact (because no one really gives a damn), but I’m responsible for developing the dairy recipe that we use in Minnesota for the milk moustache. Yes, it’s a dairy product, but if I told you what it was, well, you’d have to go bye-bye.

There have been several subjects over the years that have tweaked my creative genes; the figure, dance and heavy automotive being among them (yeah, I know that doesn’t quite compute). Recently, I sat down to lunch with a good friend, Paul Hartley, a photographer who specializes in heavy automotive photography (http://www.AddMedia.com). I’d written about Paul in my book “Canon DSLR: The Ultimate Photographer’s Guide” and I can tell you he’s one dedicated soul. His travel kit would cost at least a grand in luggage fees at an airport (which explains why he so often travels by car, towing a trailer).

I’m a “Look at that huge machine-isn’t that cool?” guy while Paul is more of a “Let’s drop the transmission and see what’s inside” guy. We’ve decided we’re going to pool our resources and create a stock photo website devoted to such photography. We have no idea if it will be successful, but it’s a niche market that we’re in a great position to accommodate. Between us we have thousands of images. Here’s one I shot in Oklahoma.

While at lunch, Paul mentioned a shoot he had arranged at a nearby International dealer, where he had a shot list he wanted to accomplish. Like most of us, his business has suffered with the recession, and he wanted to make the most of his off-time. I volunteered to join him, mostly because I enjoy hanging out with him but also because two shooters can produce more, and with differing points of view, than one.

On the day of the shoot, we gathered at the dealer’s garage. Between us we must have hauled in 300 pounds of gear, which we set down a few yards from the shooting bay.

After we’d set a large, 4×6 softbox over the exposed tractor engine on a custom stand that Paul had had built for him, and placed other lights around the truck the dealer had provided for us, Paul began setting up his camera. Paul likes to shoot RAW, and also likes to shoot tethered to his computer. I prefer to shoot jpeg so I won’t need to process files after the shoot. The primary difference, aside from the (very) slight quality difference of RAW over jpeg, when the RAW files are processed “as is” is that the RAW files, like an original film negative, can be processed in numerous ways. I like RAW; it has its place. I just don’t use it very often because I don’t wish to expend the additional time to process files after doing an edit on them.

I set one light to the side of the upended hood and started shooting portraits of the guys who’d been hired to model as drivers. Paul was still setting up, so I took great pleasure in walking up to him and whispering in his ear, “I’ve got two shots done. How’re you doin?”

Well, I could ramble on about this shoot, but it was only great fun. While Paul does this stuff quite often, being in a service garage was new to me. The noise, the smells, the light, all came together. Between the two of us we racked up a good 50 images that may or may not have value as stock photography. That’s the beauty, and the risk, of shooting stock. One image might make thousands, the rest next to nothing. Here’s a shot of Paul working with one of the models. Look behind them and you’ll get an idea of how much stuff we dragged in there.

If you use studio strobes for lighting, and your images are consistently too light or too dark, it’s probably not your fault. It’s entirely possible that your light meter and your camera are not on the same page. I know that sounds improbable; after all, they are both precision instruments. But, while all manufacturers produce equipment to close tolerances, it’s possible for a meter and camera to both “pass” their respective Quality Control tests but not be in agreement with each other. Fortunately, it’s really easy to discover if the two machines are out of sync, and it’s really easy to fix the problem.

You will need a neutral gray or white target. You can find collapsible targets from BalanceSmarter.com and Lastolite.com, both of which are gray on one side, white on the other. The difference between the two is that the BalanceSmarter product has printed lines on both sides, to make it easier for your camera’s auto focus to lock on to it. These products are invaluable for Custom White Balance as well and are available in several sizes.

For this exercise we’ll use a gray surface, which will allow us to use the camera’s histogram to judge the accuracy of the meter.

Begin by mounting the gray target on a light stand, and aiming a strobe at it. You will get a more even light by setting the strobe at least seven feet away from the target and using a softbox or umbrella to spread the light even more. Check the exposure with the light meter and move the target slightly forward or back, if necessary, until the exposure is a perfect whole f-stop, like f8 or f11, or a perfect third of a stop (f+.03 or f+.07). Check the top and bottom and both sides of the target as well, to make sure the exposure is even across the surface, no more than 1/10 stop off in either direction.

Fill the frame with the target (you can turn off auto focus if you can’t get close enough with your lens) and take a picture. I try to just shoot the center portion. Be sure your shadow does not fall on the target. Also, be sure to set the ISO on the meter to the same value as the camera. If your meter and camera are speaking the same language, your camera’s histogram will show a spike right in the middle, which is exactly where you want it.

All good flash meters allow you to make adjustments, in tenths of a stop, in how they read the light. If the spike in your first image is left or right of center, you’ll need to make an adjustment to the meter, basically tricking the meter into reading the light stronger or weaker than it did before. All meters will make adjustments differently, depending on the manufacturer. Consult the meter’s instruction manual to determine how to do it for your equipment.

Regardless of how it’s done, all you need to do is adjust the meter until the reading it gives you produces a histogram spike that’s in the middle of the graph. You’ll need to adjust the target toward or away from the light each time you make an adjustment, so that the reading the adjusted meter gives you is the same as the reading you started with. In other words, don’t make any changes to the aperture of the camera, just adjust the target position.

Once calibrated, your meter will measure light that’s perfectly tuned for your camera. If you use more than one camera, repeat this exercise for your other gear. It’s possible that your other camera(s) will require a different adjustment or none at all. If that’s the case, a marked piece of white tape or a white label on the bottom of the camera will remind you how to reset the meter. My Sekonic, for example, offers two different calibration methods, one of which is invisible. The other shows the adjustment on the meter’s screen every time it’s turned on. This is the one to use if you have more than one camera in play because you’ll immediately know if the adjustment is correct for the machine in your hand. Photo4

Had an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago. I’d been rooting through a bunch of old rolls of seamless background paper, culling the herd, so to speak, when I found a 6’ wide roll of tracing paper that I’d completely forgotten about. I’d originally bought it to diffuse window light (it worked beautifully) and then put it away when the job was done. Over the course of time it just got buried behind the rest of the rolls.

One of my favorite techniques is to shoot through some sort of barrier; lace or sheer cloth being high on the list. It’s a trick that’s both evocative and useful because the images, being somewhat anonymous, make interesting stock and portfolio shots.

Tracing paper, being what it is, will transmit light differently than cloth. In this case, almost all detail will be lost beyond those parts of the subject that are closest to the paper. Further, the larger the light source behind the subject, the more the light will wrap around the subject, resulting in super-soft edges with just enough detail to define the subject.

I decided to use a very large softbox as my source, my Lastolite HiLite, a 6×7 box with room for two lights, one on each side. This accessory is typically used to create clean, pure white backgrounds for high key images but will produce the broad, wraparound source I’m looking for.

In my new book, Christopher Grey’s Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography, due to be released in November, I write that, “I’ve got a thing about menacing imagery with threatening characters. Part of it has to do with my love of bad scary movies, part of it is because the majority of what I’m hired to shoot is “warm and fuzzy.” True enough, but for this shoot I wanted to combine an impending danger with beauty and elegance.

The HiLite was set about six feet behind the paper and the paper was flagged off on both sides with sheets black foamcore to keep any spill from reaching the lens. My model, who wore a beautiful vintage negligee, was positioned very close to the paper to hold some detail in her side and in the weapon she would be carrying. By varying the closeness of the weapon to the paper I would be able to vary the degree of sharpness in her body and in the weapon itself. I metered from the camera side of the paper and then set the exposure 1 2/3 stops over what was indicated. This much overexposure guaranteed a pure white “background” as well as a nebulous, soft figure showing through. Note that any softbox will work but the effect on the figure will change the look of the image.

I did a little research before writing this. The widest roll of tracing paper I was able to find is 36” and made by Bienfang. That’s not to say that there’s not wider paper out there, but the 36” width will work just fine. You’ll have to extend the sides in Photoshop, of course, but that’s an easy fix. Obviously, this trick would work well with other subject matter.

Shoot well, and prosper.

Check out and preorder (if you wish) my new book, published by my friends at Amherst Media and released this November. Signed copies will be available at my website as soon as the book is ready.