My old Multiblitz MiniStudio 3-light kit

Over the past three years this little photography business has been growing!  Two years ago I bought a humble 3-light Multiblitz MiniStudio lighting kit to use for studio portraits, head shots, and even event photography.  One year ago I started doing larger events that required me to rent an additional light or two in order to light groups of up to 25 people.  Six months ago one of my trusty 3 lights inexplicably quit working, at which point I had to make a decision… Is it worth renting two lights every time I do an event?  What do I really need in a light kit?

So I slipped into comparison shopping and learned how fiercely loyal people are to the lights they use!  Alien Bees all the way!  White Lightning!  I went on Amazon and searched for photography lights.  I saw complete kits (backdrop and all) for under $200.  I went to Pro Photo Supply and was shown a sweet Elinchrom kit with remote adjustments that was about $1200.  My head was spinning.

Lighting Kit Comparison Spreadsheet 2011

So I did what any rational photographer would do in this situation… I made a spreadsheet.  Have you ever done this?  I do this all the time and often drive myself completely batty but at least by the end of it I’ve tricked myself into thinking that I know what I’m doing.  This spreadsheet had columns for brand, model, power per light, guide number (even though I still barely know what that means), trigger type, accessories included, stand height, refresh rate… I even had a column for whether the unit beeps when it’s fully recharged.  I was not kidding around!

In the end this is what I concluded… Overall, you get what you pay for.  In my opinion, the Paul C Buff lines (alien bees and white lightning) are good lights but are overpriced for what they are.  I was biased towards them in the beginning because so many people recommended them.  But I discovered that they have a misleading model number system that is easy to mistake for light power, and I had to call them up to get the real wattage ratings.  They had great customer service but when it came down to it I decided that they are cute and fashionable but not the best value after all for most applications.  Bummer.

I waded through many other “cheap” lighting kits from Interfit, Flashpoint, Westcott, Impact, and RPS.  I hemmed and hawed about price, quality, weight, refresh rate…  But with all the creds laid out in a spreadsheet it became easy to weed out the cheap sets.  Turns out, they’re cheap for a reason.  Inevitably they had unusably short stands, long refresh rates, and accessories that weren’t worth anything.  So when it came down to it I came all the way back around to that Elinchrom 400Ws D-Lite IT Kit.

Photography is the art of creatively capturing light as it exists at one moment in time.  With that in mind, light is not something I’m willing to skimp on.

The last step in my journey to  better light was completed today.  I sold my original Multiblitz kit to a young guy who just finished photography school.  It was a little sad watching it walk out the door.  Despite the broken pieces, heavy flash units, short power cables, and crazy big hard case that I grew to dread moving, that kit and I had some good times together and I will miss it.  I’m glad it’s going to a new home where it will get some use.  In the meantime, I’m über glad to have my excellent new Elinchrom lights to take out on upcoming gigs!

I’ve gone to a lot of trouble over the years to learn about printing and in the process came to understand why some labs are always great, some are always so-so, and some are completely unpredictable!  I’m going to share my secrets with you today so that you’ll be able to get the best possible prints from your digital pictures.  Now, I know you see the tacos coming up, and are wondering where in the world this article is headed…  Just bear with me for a minute while I explain.

There are quite a few factors that go into how your prints come out.  Of course, the first factor is your photos themselves.  Are they exposed properly?  How is the color?  Were they taken under indoor tungsten or florescent lighting, natural sunlight, or with professional studio lights?  Is the resolution high enough for the print size you’re ordering?

Once you’ve determined that you have a good picture to print, the exposure is right, the color is right, and the resolution is high enough you need to start worrying about the lab.  What kind of equipment do they use?  Do they get it serviced regularly?  And arguably most important, who runs the lab?

When I ask who is running the photo lab, I don’t necessarily mean Costco, or Walgreens.  What I mean is who, specifically, is running the lab?  Let me explain.  Think about food for a second.  If you go to 5 different taco stands and order the same thing at each, you’ll most likely taste 5 very different tacos.  Why is this?  Because the person cooking the tacos probably has a different level of education about the food at each stand.  The person cooking your food also might have different levels of passion for tacos.  This person at one stand may be so excited about their craft that they’ve spent years perfecting the most delicious taco sauce you’ve ever tasted, whereas the next stand is serving their tacos without seasoning.  Each person may have different amounts of stress going on in their life that is causing them to care more or less about your tacos.  One stand might go heavier on the beans while another goes heavier on the cheese.  And it very well may be that the person at one of those stands just sees it as a job, and simply does not care how your tacos come out.

The same is true with photo labs.  That’s why you can’t count on the labs that pay their staff minimum wage and have high turn over.  Maybe you went to Walgreens last year and got great photos but when you go again 6 months later they’ve hired a new manager who doesn’t understand how to set the color balance, or who is just working there temporarily while they finish business school, and the prints are terrible.  There is no way to predict because the quality at these labs depends on staff who come and go on their way somewhere else.

Which is why I stick with businesses who only do photo printing.  They also must pride themselves on quality.  This means that the management is going to be careful who they hire, train them well, and work with them on the quality of their printing from day to day.  At a pro lab, trained image technicians review every print for color correctness, contrast, brights and darks, and overall image accuracy.  They make adjustments to the print if they catch something weird, so you don’t have to bring it back and say “My daughter’s face looks green, can you fix this?  Not only that, but they know the subtleties that make the image really look great instead of just looking okay.  Unlike someone who is simply pushing a button and letting the printer figure out the rest, the pros at the lab will ensure that each image is as stunning as possible.

Before you drop your files off with a lab, do a quick google search for reviews.  See who is talking about them online.  Are professional photographers using them?  This is a very good sign, because pros a have critical eye and will only go back to a lab that does quality printing.

Although I print my clients’ photos by hand when they purchase print sheets, when I sell digital files to my clients I always recommend they print with mpix.  Over the years I’ve tried out Ritz, Costco, and countless other brick and mortar one-hour labs – even local ones!  I’ve seen such a variety of results that I won’t even get into the details.  I’ve seen good and terrible prints come out of the same shop from the same file just weeks apart.  I simply don’t trust them.  I have been using mpix for all my event photography printing for the past 6 years, and I’ve never had a single complaint.  The one time an order got mixed up, it was an order that contained over 800 prints and one was missing.  I e-mailed them to alert them of the problem and they immediately sent the missing photo to me.  It arrived in the next day’s mail.

I just hate to think of my photos being printed somewhere that doesn’t love what they do and produce beautiful results.  So if you are wondering where you should go to print the photos you bought from me, or even ones you took yourself, check them out.  I worked hard for that lighting!  I want to make sure it makes it to the frame!

I absolutely love this shot of Mary, it makes me feel like I’m in the country on a summer afternoon with nothing to do but listen to her sing.

Using the natural aesthetic ensures a beautiful image

One thing that people often forget is that head shots, and really any kind of portraits, are all about people. For a beautiful portrait, you don’t need a stunning location. In fact, your efforts will be wasted if you take a bunch of time to plan out the perfect location for a head shot. Why is this? Because a successful headshot leaves the background as just that: Background.

Texture and color are both great, but you certainly don’t need an expansive coastline or mountain range.   You are not doing landscape photography here!  If you do it right, your lens will be zoomed in enough that you won’t be able to get the landscape in your shot even if you try.  When I’m shooting portraits I look for three things:  texture, color and light.  A simple fence, field or neutral wall will do just fine. In fact, the more your background fades, the more successful your head shot will be.  The important thing is that your subject is lit well and the background color compliments their aesthetic.  Because what is a head shot about if it isn’t about the person?

A few of my favorite head shots for this local musician

Red Robin Smiling Burger Competition Portland 2011

I had a really great time at the event, and the bar made a gorgeous backdrop for photos! I am used to doing portraits and head shots with more lights in the front and less detail in the back, but I quite liked my one-umbrella setup with all the beautiful bokeh in the background… The restaurant ambiance gave the photographs a lot of character.  Here’s my favorite shot of the morning.

Kaytie and Sean were really great to work with, and patient while I attempted to hold reflectors, aim the flash, figure out the exposure and shoot all at the same time!  I also took the opportunity to play with textures in my editing process.  We got some great shots, and I really appreciate the experience.  Thanks you two!

Dusk photography with two local models