Yuri Arcurs: Mr. Microstock

Do you dabble in stock photography? Maybe, say, a little microstock photography? If you do, this is the guy you are up against. To say Yuri Arcurs has the game figured out would be a bit of an understatement. He sells nearly 2,000 images a day, 24/7/365. Hit the jump for a video tour of his insane, made-for-micro studio, and a look at his lighting...

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Boot Camp II, Assignment 1: Results

I have now been through the 700+ photos that were submitted for SCBII's first assignment enough times to be thoroughly sick of every single photo in the pile.Kidding. They are great. But I did go through them a lot.A few standouts, some notes and a lucky winner -- inside.__________First of all, it was neat to see so many people go to the effort to...

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Two Photos that were Tough to Toss

Boot Camp II Assignment #1 yielded over over seven hundred entries, which I have thus far winnowed down to a baker's dozen. It is getting very difficult to edit them any further.At this point, I have to look hard to find reasons to knock photos out. I just dropped two photos for no other reason than they are not really headshots. But they were both...

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Food Photography Made Easy: The Lunch Box

Shooting vittles can be as complex as you want to make it. But it is pretty easy to get elegant, well-lit food photographs with almost no money out of pocket. Hit the jump for a gastronomic update on a Strobist cheapskate classic.__________Of the 1,000+ posts on Strobist at this writing, one of the most popular is the $10 Macro Studio -- a cardboard...

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Tick, Tick, Tick

Just a quick reminder that the first Boot Camp II assignment is due at end of day (local time) tomorrow, June 23rd. Lotsa entries pouring in from the procrastinators, and you can check out some of the people blogging along with it here.-...

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On Assignment: HCAC Dancer

I am working on several projects this summer, the most enjoyable of which being a series of portraits for the Howard County Arts Council. I photographed Kassi, a dancer, for this series and got a chance to play with one of the two-light techniques we talked about earlier. This was also the first chance I got to use a new boom setup that is a little...

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Q 'n A

Meredith, of Jackson, Mississippi asks:I'm in the process of setting up a studio in a new space. We were trying to pick paint colors, and the rest of the building has a black ceiling. The photo studio, I think, should obviously have white walls instead of some crazy color. But then we were questioning the ceiling color -- should it be white, or black?...

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For Over-the-Top Lighting Without an Over-the-Top Budget

Pictured above is Joe McNally's assistant Drew Gurian acting as a voice-activated boom during a recent desert shoot (detailed here).While this boom is perfectly serviceable, one cannot always find a Drew hanging around in the desert when top light is needed. For the Drewless, an excellent and inexpensive speedlight boom solution, inside.__________The...

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Dustin Diaz's Daily Dose

A number of people have pointed me to Dustin Diaz's 365 Project. And while this is certainly not the first of its kind to come down the pike, Dustin has inserted a couple of twists that make his project right up our alley.Get your One-A-Day shot, inside.__________Light and SteadyFirst of all, Dustin is using much of his photo marathon to explore what...

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[OT] PSA: Careful With Those iPhones, People

I will be the first to admit that the iPhone is a great little device for photographers to carry around -- web, phone, portfolio, camera, etc. But they can bring with them a completely new set of dangers. You can be tempted to be shooting pictures when you probably should be concentrating on other things.Regular readers of Chase Jarvis' blog already know this, but he was recently involved in a minor traffic incident while filming a promo for this Friday's talk at the Art Director's Club of Denver. It was even caught on tape:As if that is not warning...

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Boot Camp II: First Assignment

UPDATE: DEADLINE REMINDER -- This assignment is due at the end of the day, your local time, on June 23rd.__________There is an old saying: The cobbler's kids have no shoes. The translation of which, for us, is that many photographers do not have a recent headshot of themselves. Your first assignment will allow you to rectify that situation, and perhaps...

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Shooting Movie Moving Posters

Via Rob at the always excellent A Photo Editor, a very cool vid from photographer Alexx Henry on how they are now bringing movie posters to life. My first thought: Minority Report. If you are going to start putting these displays out in public, go ahead and outfit them with motion detectors and retinal scanners and be done with it.Way cool -- and there is even some info on lighting in the video, too.__________ More Alexx Henry: Portfolio | Blog-...

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Boot Camp II: Introduction

Welcome to Boot Camp II, a series of assignments designed to help the newbs to get off their collective butt and actually go shoot something.If you are more experienced, you are more than welcome to participate. But understand that, at least at first, we'll be dialing the degree of difficulty back a little.Details, and a couple of items of interest, inside.__________What to ExpectThis summer, you will receive four assignments. Each assignment will have a specific subject matter and scale, and will be designed to introduce you to four different...

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Hands-on With the Speedlight Pro Kit

We blurbed these when they came out a ways back, but I just got a chance to play with them last month in Paso Robles. Inside, more on the Speedlight Pro Kit, a video showing just how specialized the internet has become, and what's in it for you.__________Combining aspects of both the Lumiquest and Honl stuff, the Speedlight Pro Kit hits a lot of high...

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Variations on a Two-Light Theme, Pt. 3

Finishing up our quick series on two-light headshot ideas, we finally come around to something a little more mainstream looking. Today, two different spins on umbrella key used with on-axis fill. More, inside.__________For the first two, we used a gridded flash and a gobo'd SB-III, respectively. Today we are going for a little more of a classic look,...

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