Lucky-Star Photo Online

Some more Angel pics!

We couldn't get enough of these AAP Angels, so we posted a few more pics from our shoot this past weekend on our Facebook page. Check out the album. 

HD Demo Reel 2010

With nearly 14 years experience, Childhood Productions, Inc. (Lucky-Star's Parent Company) has produced countless media productions. We've finally felt comfortable with the amount of High Definition content to produce an all HD Demo Reel. Here it goes, enjoy all!

Shooting Against Black

One question that I get from people is, “how do you do that?” So, here is one of my how to’s? We’re shooting a large collection of exclusive men’s ties and the client requested a cool look. He wants a perfectly exposed product (duh), but on a black background.

Here is what we did to get the look the client wanted. As you can see in photo we set up the black backdrop on a stand at just about 5 feet. If front of that, approximately 2 feet away from the backdrop, we set up another stand to hang the ties from. In addition to the stands, we arranged 2 studio lamps with 150w CFLs directly to each side of the product. The lights are diffused with umbrellas. The camera is set back around 5 feet back from the product. This is pretty much it.

Keep in mind, this is only one way to make this type of shot possible. Other photographers may attempt different methods. No way is wrong, so don't be afraid to try something on your own. Look at some of our other posts for tips on how to diffuse household lights. Happy shooting everyone and I hope this helps. Final photos from our shoot will be posted on our Facebook and other online portfolios, so be sure to check back for links.

What you see IS not always what you get!

I’ve spoke a little about lighting in one of my last posts, but found a very informative video that I would like to share with everyone. Something that separates the pros from the amateurs is the use of lighting. There are a ton of options out there; finding the right one for you is the challenge. Budget, portability, color temperature, heating/cooling, etc. I’ve been fortunate enough to collect all types of video and photo lights through my years of production. If you do want to take your photos and/or video to the next level, get a good kit. We had a crazy issue matching office fluorescence to our studio lights on a shoot we had this week. Color correction is a TOTALLY different challenge, so start with getting a good look first. We were lucky enough to have some good equipment to get some good footage.

Getting high contrast photos like the ones in our portfolio, take high output studio lights. So do your research and find what’s right for you. Keep in mind, using video lights on a photo shoot is a lot easier than using photo lights on a video shoot. Watch the video and learn what is best for your needs. Happy shooting…