Family formals usually get planned around a shot list and a clock. When a grandparent, sibling, parent, or one of the newlyweds uses a wheelchair, the plan needs one more layer, because the standard lineup of everyone standing shoulder to shoulder puts that person at a different height from the rest of the group. Wheelchair […]
Rembrandt lighting is one of the first portrait setups we teach at our Queens studio, mostly because it looks so dramatic for so little gear. You need one light, a subject, and a little patience while you move things around. Once it clicks, you can set it up anywhere in a couple of minutes. The […]
If you’ve been taking pictures for a while, you’ve probably experienced this. You look at a photo, and it’s okay, but it seems a little flat, or there’s too much going on in the frame. You try it in black and white just to see what happens, and it finally looks the way you pictured […]
Once students in our beginner classes start looking for their first real camera, almost all of them ask us about mirrorless vs DSLR. Usually they’ve already spent hours reading reviews and watching videos, and they’re more unsure now than when they started. Talking to other photographers doesn’t always help either, since many have strong opinions […]
Right after someone books a headshot session with us, the first question they usually ask is what they should wear. It makes sense. Your clothes take up a good part of the frame, and the wrong top can pull attention away from your face or make an otherwise great photo look dated in a year. […]
Let’s say we’re making a short video for a family bakery in Astoria. The owner sits down in front of the camera and tells the story of how her grandmother opened the shop and why they still do everything by hand after all these years. It’s a great story, but if all the viewer sees […]
Disagreements between photographers and clients usually aren’t about anyone trying to pull a fast one. More often, both people leave the same conversation remembering it a little differently. The client might have been counting on 50 edited photos while the photographer was planning on 25, or someone thought the deposit was refundable and it wasn’t. […]
The backdrop is one of those things people don’t think about until it goes wrong. A wrinkled sheet behind a portrait, a background color that clashes with someone’s outfit, or a backdrop that’s too narrow for a group photo can drag down an otherwise great image. The right one, on the other hand, barely gets […]
Most people don’t look at a photo in one steady glance. Their eyes move around the frame, usually toward whatever is brightest first, and then along any edge or shape that seems to be heading somewhere. Leading lines work because of this. When there’s a road, a fence, or a string of lights running through […]
Picture two people standing side by side at the same fountain, taking a photo at the same moment. One gets a shot where every drop of water is frozen in midair. The other ends up with water that looks soft and smooth, almost like mist. They had the same view and the same light. The […]