Misleading Flash Durations, How And Why?

‘Misleading’ may be too strong of a word, but you can decide for yourself in a minute. In very basic terms, the flash duration is a measurement of how long it takes a flash to go from full power to off.  It’s measured in T.5 and T.1 times.

The T.5 time (the time that most manufacturers give) is pretty much a useless measurement for anyone interested in freezing motion. However, in marketing terms it’s the bigger number and therefore sounds better.

Most manufacturers do not give the T.1 times of their flashes. Something which I find immeasurably frustrating. You can sometimes find the T.1 time by doing a little online digging but often you can’t or it’s a true hassle. What’s worse, is that people purchase lights based on the T.5 figures and end up with equipment which is not suited to their needs.

What Is The T.1 And T.5 Flash Duration?

So what’s the big deal? What’s the difference between those two numbers? It’s actually really simple. The T.5 time measures the time it takes for your flash to go from off, to full power, then back down to 50% power (hence T.5). The T.1 does the same but measures all the way down to 10% power. This is often represented in graph form which you can see in the photo above taken from Lighting 101.

If you want to freeze motion with ambient light only, you use your shutter speed. That’s probably something you’re familiar with. If you’re using flashes, and they’re your main source of light (no ambient), then the speed at which they turn on and off is very important.

Imagine a pitch black room. You could take a 30 second exposure and your camera still picks up nothing. Now, take another 30 second exposure but fire a flash at some point. The time it takes for that flash to turn on and off will determine the time it takes for your photo to be exposed. If the flash takes a long time, then a moving subject will be blurred and vice versa.

Bringing it back to our T.5 and T.1 times, if you’re firing a 500 W/S flash in our pitch black room, when it’s at 50% power (the T.5 time) it’s still putting out 250 W/S. That’s gonna have a BIG effect on our exposure, isn’t it? On the other hand, the T.1 of a 500 W/S flash will only be 50 W/S.

If this has all become a little confusing for you, just remember this. If you want to freeze motion, your flashes need a fast flash duration, the measurement to take note of is the T.1 time, and the specific speed you need will depend on the action you’re photographing. That’s it. The last part (the speed you need) is hard to know, but you can find it.

Why the T.1 Time is More Important Than the T.5 Time

The T.5 time is the amount of time it takes for a 50% of the flash power to dissipate. That time is actually the time that most manufacturers use when they tell you what the flash duration is.

There’s a problem with that. If only 50% of the power has dissipated, what about the other 50%? The other 50% is still going to affect your image. If the flash duration is slow, that 50% is going to actually affect something. What’s more adequate, what’s a better measurement of the ability of a flash to freeze or to know what the flash duration is the T.1. The T.1 time is the time for 90% of the light to dissipate and that remaining 10% that trails off is really not going to affect much.

That’s what really matters.

Power Settings and the T1 Time

There’s another interesting thing. The T.1 time is the best measurement of the flash’s ability to freeze a subject, but the higher the power that you use,  the slower the flash duration, so the slower that T.1 time.  The lower the power setting on your flash, the faster the T1 time, i.e. the faster the flash duration.

A pocket strobe is generally going to be faster than a studio strobe, generally. That’s why oftentimes when people are working with liquids, when people are working with close up macro dropping things into things like water, they’re using pocket strobes because they’re convenient. They’re easy to manipulate and so forth and their flash durations are very quick. To freeze water, you need a very, very quick flash duration, 1/5000th of a second, 1/10000 of a second to freeze water. Sometimes studio strobes can’t quite get there.

OK, Why Do I care? What Can I do With This Knowledge?

The obvious example is, of course, to freeze motion; a person jumping, a dancer, liquids, powder and paint being thrown, anything moving quickly. In the photo you see above, I used some stock splashes which were taken from the Photigy splash pack, but those splashes are captured by product photographer Alex Koloskov; he uses some of the best equipment to ensure the splashes are completely frozen. Another example from my own work is this “Dove With Wings” image. That was accomplished by composting evaporated milk, which had been injected into a fish tank, find a full explanation of that method here. In that example, it’s possible to use flashes with a slower flash duration as the subject (evaporated milk) is not moving as fast.

It’s not only useful to know this stuff for specialist types of photography like my product work. By understanding flash durations, exposure times and the effect of camera movement, Pye and the Lin & Jirsa team create unique shots which amaze their clients. In a recent article Pye explains how to take dance floor images like the one below, check it out here.

A variation on the same technique, allows them to pull off stunning shots like this one. If you’d like to learn more about these techniques, the SLR Lounge team have crafted some wonderful tutorials which you can find in the SLR Lounge store, click here. I’d encourage you to look over Flash Training System.

Where to Find Accurate Flash Duration Times

If you want to get T1 times for a specific flash, you can look online. A great resource is actually from Andy Gock. Andy has done some fantastic testing on flash durations.

Oftentimes you can find the T1 time from the manufacturer themselves, but sometimes it’s not available. Just look online, you can find the actual flash duration. I would highly recommend doing that before purchasing new flashes because you might end up with flashes that might not have a fast enough flash duration for whatever use you might have. For most people, this generally is not an issue, but if you’re wanting to use your flash to freeze motion, this becomes a problem.

Conclusion | Next Steps

The next time you’re considering a purchase make sure you know the T.1 times of your flashes. For many photographers, this won’t matter too much. If your subjects don’t move then it doesn’t matter at all. However, the day may come where you need those fast flash durations but don’t have them. If it were me, and I had the option, I’d always choose a flash which also had good flash durations just in case.

Can I work out the T.1 flash duration from the T.5? Yes and no. Typically the rule is to divide by three. If the T.5 is 1/3000 then the T.1 is 1/1000. However, this varies depending on flash brand and technology used. For cheap brands, I’ve heard people say you need to divide by four, whereas I’ve also heard people say that with some IGBT heads the numbers are pretty close. Personally, if I can’t find the figures I err on the side of caution and divide by three.

As to whether this is misleading or not, that’s for you to decide.  If you’re looking for more information on Flash Duration and other topics, I would suggest watching the video embedded below:

If any of you read that little blurb at the bottom (the bit about me), you’ll know that I suffer from a back problem. At the age of 23, I’d achieved my dream of working in the film industry. That was ripped away when my back problems started, and I was housebound for two years. I made the decision a few years ago to stop letting it rule my life and instead to try and rule it. I couldn’t stand the thought of no longer producing images and so turned my knowledge toward photography.

It’s been a hard struggle; my back has had a significant impact on my twenties and as the five-year anniversary approaches, please forgive me for being uncharacteristically emotional.

Your Nerves Can Ruin A Portrait Shoot

Now, why am I telling you this? I’m not usually one to divulge my personal life online. Far from it. Due to everything that has happened, I put A LOT of pressure on myself and my business to succeed. In all honesty, an unhealthy amount. That pressure has led me to make mistakes.

On one of my first shoots, I was so nervous (verging on panic attack), that I barely changed any of my camera settings! Oddly enough, I got some really good photos, despite running on adrenaline only.

After that session, I vowed to stop letting my emotions get the better of me. Realistically, it doesn’t work simply saying to yourself “I will not let that happen again!” Things don’t work like that. So I came up with a system. Something so simple that it would allow me to continue shooting no matter how I felt. As time has gone by, the panic has subsided, but the technique remains.

Think Like A Cinematographer For Easier Portrait Sessions

Quite a while back now, I was watching Lighting 101, and Pye was talking about “working angles.” It got me thinking about how I approach a shoot, and thus the idea of divulging far too much about my personal life was born; don’t worry it won’t happen again. My technique came from my university education (clearly money well spent) and my work in the film industry.

I did a degree in Television and Video Production and one of the principles they taught us was how to capture a scene. I won’t go into detail with it, but the classic technique is to use establishing shots to begin your scene and then gradually move the camera in closer as the emotion or tone of the scene changes. Simply put, going from a wide establishing shot to a close-up.

In many respects, the method is comparable to the classic photo essay that used to regularly adorn magazines. We’re using our photography to tell a story. You can’t tell a story with portraits alone. Can you? Utilizing this technique not only gives you a fairly clear structure to your sessions, helping to calm the nerves, but it also provides your clients with more variety.

[REWIND: FROM WWII TO CORPORATE COVER UPS – THE ICONIC PHOTOGRAPHS OF WILLIAM E. SMITH]

I’ve watched a lot of the SLR Lounge tutorials and have come to realize that Lin and Jirsa are masters of this technique, telling stories through their images. All the photographs you see here are taken from an engagement shoot on the Lin and Jirsa blog. Take a look at more photos of the shoot here.

How to Apply This Technique To Your Portrait Shoots

Applying this technique to your portrait sessions is very simple and will help you keep those nerves under control. Firstly, we split our shoot into scenes. Nothing too complex. On your recce (yes, do a recce), find locations that you like and decide on a few areas within those locations. It depends on what you’re shooting, but I wouldn’t have too many unless you want to do a 5-hour long shoot! For my family photography, I stick to 3-4 areas at the most.

When you’ve begun each scene, you then need to think about coverage. The simplest way to do this is to start wide and then move in. Start with your wide establishing shots, then gradually move in until you’re ending on close-ups and detail shots. It’s that simple.

Of course, it’s not that easy. You still need to think about good composition, directing your subjects AND change your camera settings. But having this defined structure will help you along the way.

Summary

You don’t have to follow my advice, or anyone else’s for that matter. I do encourage you, however, to come up with a system. You never know when panic may strike. Having a system in place will help you remain calm and, therefore, be more creative.

I’ve always found education to be another great way to raise your confidence. In the past, nothing would help me more than learning some new technique and feeling like a better photographer for it. Make sure you check out the SLR Lounge Store for some of the things we offer and also click on those Rewinds above, I haven’t put them there just for fun!

Method 1 – To Remove Background In Photoshop

Refine edge is not so much a method as it is a step, but it’s an extremely important one which can be used in all sorts of selections. The image below was shot on a pure white background, but we’re going to remove and replace it.

To do so we first need to create a rough selection. In this example, I used the magic wand tool. There are, of course, many other methods which would also work. Having made a rough selection with the magic wand (it doesn’t need to be perfect) we head over to the Refine Edge / Mask dialog.

Within this dialog you’re presented with many options, and the Edge Detection options are excellent for selecting hair. Adjust Edge is a quick and easy way to manipulate your selection and most options will probably sound pretty familiar to you. The results of Smooth, Feather and Shift Edge are self-explanatory. Contrast, on the other hand, may seem a little less obvious but is in fact just as simple as all it does is sharpen your edge. If you had a very soft edge and set contrast all the way up it would become hard.

At the bottom of the dialog we have the Output options which include Decontaminate Colors. Decontaminate Colors will attempt to remove what Photoshop deems to be a color bleeding from the background. That may be green if your image was shot on green screen, or, as is the case here, white. As you can imagine, removing white can become a little problematic if there are bright tones already present on your subject.

The Output To drop-down menu allows you to select whether your adjustments are applied directly to the selection / layer mask or are copied to a new layer etc. I often find that an image will require a few rounds of Refine Edge. Not every edge is the same and hence we shouldn’t treat them as such.

I usually paint over the area I want to adjust (see image above), make my adjustments, and then export that to either a “new layer with mask” if using decontaminate color (other options are greyed out), or Output To > Selection and paint on the adjustments I have made to the original layer mask. I rarely apply my adjustments directly to the original layer mask as I like to paint them on afterwards and control where those adjustments will appear.

Having made various passes with Refine Edge, I fairly quickly arrived at the result you see above. Now, I could have placed this subject on an entirely different background, an outdoors scene for instance, or a composite I’m working on, and so on. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination, though it is important to note that if you wish to place someone into another scene altogether, special attention MUST be paid to things like direction of light, color temperature, and intensity of shadows. It is never as simple as cut and paste.

Method 2 – To Remove Background In Photoshop

The second method to remove our subject from the background utilizes one of my favorite tools in Photoshop: the Pen tool. The Pen tool was not always one of my favorites, in fact, I regularly did all I could to avoid using it. It’s something that requires practice but once you master it, it will become an indispensable tool. I’ve tracked down an excellent video from the guys over at Phlearn which will show you exactly how the Pen tool works.

As you can see, the pen tool seems complicated but really isn’t, and worth the learning curve. But why use the Pen tool if the Magic Wand and Refine Edge will work? The simple answer is that they won’t always do a good job. There are many many instances where the Magic Wand simply cannot make a decent selection, or you may find that the Pen tool comes in handy to further refine a selection you’ve already made. Say, for instance, the Magic Wand was almost good enough but couldn’t quite figure out one area. Use the Pen Tool to do that part and apply that to your mask.

In the photo above, I used the Pen tool, as well as many other methods, to make selections of every aspect of the can; from the logo to the lettering. I could have used the magic wand for the can itself but it would have struggled to select all the intricate areas of the label, the second ‘L’ of ‘Bull’, for example, would have been an issue due to its tone.

Method 3 – To Remove Background In Photoshop

The last method I’ll be covering today is Luminosity masks. I’ve spoken about luminosity masks with some frequency before, so hopefully you’re fairly familiar with them by now. Luminosity masks allow us to select various areas of our images based on their luminance. We can select very precise areas of darks, midtones, and highlights. In terms of removing backgrounds, we could use those selections to remove skies, make precise masks of hair, remove a white background etc. Check out this video from Jimmy McIntyre which explains what Luminosity masks are and how you create them.

Using another headshot, I quickly created a selection of the white background using a luminosity mask, you can see the initial selection below. Using Jimmy’s Photoshop Panel, Raya Pro, it took seconds to create a number of masks. It was then simply a case of choosing the best one and adjusting it.

To adjust the mask I used a number of techniques such as inverting the mask with Ctrl + I (CMD I on a Mac), and adjusting it as a whole by selecting the mask and hitting Ctrl + L (CMD + L on a Mac) to bring up a Levels panel. I darkened the shadows and brightened the highlights which corrected some of the nasty edges you can see above. To fill in some of the areas the mask missed, it was a simple case of selecting them using the Lasso tool and filling in the selections. A final round of Refine Edge left me with the mask you see below.

Alternative Methods – Freelancers and Web Based Applications

With improvements in technology and a global workforce, a professional photographer has many options for removing backgrounds that don’t involve photoshop.

Web Based Applications and AI

You can also try using web based applications and Artificial Intelligence services like the following:

• depositphotos.com Background Remover
• Background Remover by Appy Pie
• Similar web based services (remove.bg, slazzer.com, removal.ai, etc)

We recommend trying the free services since they are quick and easy for non professional jobs.  But if you’re serious about design or photography, we recommend learning the process for yourself with the steps outlined in this article.

Freelancers

For example, if you have a big volume order or don’t want to do it step-by-step in Photoshop, you could also hire freelance pros or professional retouching services like Retouchup (based in Utah), or other service to remove backgrounds and make basic photo retouching for anywhere from $2 and up depending on the complexity.   Freelance websites like Fiverr.com and Upwork.com also have options at various price points, though results and quality will vary.

Final Thoughts and More Information

As you would have by now picked up, removing backgrounds in Photoshop can be quite difficult, and it completely depends on the image. You will rarely find that one technique will work for every photo, which is why it’s important to master multiple methods. Once you do, it will open up a whole new realm of possibilities; creating stunning composites, precise adjustments, replacing skies, removing people, all sorts, which makes it applicable to essentially every genre of photography.

What Is Focus Stacking And Why Should I Use It?

For those that don’t have the time to read my previous article, I will give you a quick rundown. Your camera, lens, distance to subject and aperture will produce a particular depth of field. That depth of field may cover anything from meters to millimeters. If we want very little in focus, most of us know how to accomplish this. If, however, we would like everything to be in focus – a flower in the foreground to a building in the background, an object filling our frame, and so on – things become a little more difficult.

This is where focus stacking comes into play. For some, it’s a stylistic choice just like any other photographic technique. For others, it’s an absolute necessity that every little detail is sharp, for instance, product photography.

Helicon Focus To The Rescue

Some of you may be jumping out of your seats at this point saying, “I can do this in Photoshop! I don’t need another program!” You would be both right and wrong. Yes, you can focus stack in Photoshop, but it’s slow, sometimes painfully so, and, more importantly, the results are not always perfect. It is a viable option though and one which many photographers use. Our very own Matthew Saville made this excellent video which shows you exactly how to focus stack within Photoshop.

[REWIND: FOCUS STACKING AND BLENDING IN ADOBE BRIDGE AND PHOTOSHOP: A HOW TO GUIDE]

In my personal experience shooting product photos, Photoshop could not produce results I was happy with. That’s where Helicon Focus came to my rescue. Helicon Focus is a program dedicated to focus stacking. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that it produces results superior to Photoshop, but the big question is “is it worth it?”. For me, the answer was an unequivocal yes. For you, hopefully, this little review will help you decide.

Key Features Of Helicon Focus

Vadim Chiline of Epic Mind Studio is one of the instructors over at Photigy; a website dedicated to product photography education. He made this great video which takes you through the three main rendering methods of Helicon Focus. These rendering methods are the most important part of the program. Sure, there are lots of other added elements, some which I’ll cover, but it’s the way that Helicon renders your stacked images that makes it so much better than Photoshop.

As you can see from the video, Helicon is much faster than Photoshop and produces some very good results, once you get the right settings dialed in. I’ve had the same experience as Vadim except I have attempted, and waited for Photoshop to stack images, only to be disappointed with the results produced.

The two most important things that Helicon gives us over Photoshop are speed and accuracy; the 2nd being especially important. Whether you’re a professional sitting with a client or an amateur creating images for your own pleasure, accuracy is of the utmost importance. In the few months I have been using this software, I have yet to find a set of images that it cannot handle. I’m sure there will be some exceptions and you still have to take care to shoot correctly, but so long as you do, you should be ok.

More Useful Features Of Helicon Focus

Being able to use the various sliders (radius and smoothing) as well as the different rendering methods is fantastic and usually produces great results. However, what if you started with a very complicated stack? What if you were photographing a bug and it moved? Or the program was struggling with one particular area? Helicon Focus has a retouching tab which can help with even the most challenging of stacks. I’ve never had to use this feature as I’m usually shooting in the studio and hence my stacks are pretty close to perfect. Although having watched the following video, I can certainly see how this tab would be very useful.

As well as being a very accurate program with lots of additional controls (compared with Photoshop), Helicon also includes many others useful features. It can be integrated with Lightroom, making the whole process seamless. Once you’re finished merging the photos, you can save as DNG, thus retaining all of the raw information. And it has a very handy batch processing function if you have lots of different stacks to merge at once.

Finally, if you purchase either the Pro or Premium package, Helicon Remote is thrown in for free. In the interest of keeping this review somewhat succinct, I will not go into too much detail about Helicon Remote. Needless to say, I use it all the time when creating stacks of images which I then merge using Helicon Focus. The following video will give you an overview of Helicon Remote.

Negatives Of Helicon Focus

This whole review has been very positive thus far, but as with anything, there are some negatives. The most obvious of which being the price. Helicon Focus is not cheap. That being said, if you’re interested in this technique, or you create focus stacks on a daily basis, then Helicon Focus will be an indispensable tool which could save you time and money.

Other than price, I find the UI to be a little dated, however, so long as the program does its job, I don’t really care. Furthermore, as you would expect, there is a learning curve. If you decide to purchase the program, I’d advise you to watch the videos I have posted here as well as any others you can find online.

The Million Dollar Question. Is It Worth It?

If you’ve read this far, then you’ll probably know what I think. For me, the answer is a solid yes. I use this program constantly and could not achieve the types of photos I do without it. I was reluctant to purchase this as, at heart, I am a cheapskate. But I am very glad I did. It was money well spent. Therefore, if you regularly create focus stacked images, Helicon Focus may be for you.

On the other hand, if you’re only just getting into focus stacking, I’d suggest trying Photoshop first. While I love this technique and in many instances could not do without it, you may be different. Having created a few focus stacked images, you might find yourself hooked. At that point, I’d revisit Helicon Focus.

If you would like to purchase Helicon Focus click here to be taken to their site.

Where To Find ‘Blend If’ And How It Works

You can find Blend If by double clicking on any layer. When you do that the Layer Style dialog box will appear. On the very first screen (Blending Options), you’ll find the Blend If controls at the bottom. There are two gradients with pointers on either side. The top is labelled This Layer and the Underlying Layer.

The tool is pretty simple, but the effect it can have certainly isn’t. If you’re doing this on the computer, open an image in Photoshop and add an empty layer above the image. Fill this layer with black. The names of the two sliders are self-explanatory. The top slider, This Layer, will take the highlight/shadow analysis from only that single layer. Whereas, the Underlying Layer slider will take its analysis of the highlights and blacks from every layer beneath the one we are working on. As such, the majority of the time we use the Underlying Layer slider.

For those of you on the computer, click on one of the black pointers and drag it out. You’ll notice the black begins to disappear. The key point to note here is that it starts to disappear from the darkest area first. What you’re doing by moving that slider is telling the layer you are working on not to appear where ever the underlying layer is darker. If you were to slide the white (or grey) arrow, you would see the opposite happening.

One thing you may have noticed is that the transition is quite abrupt. If you were to paint on a layer now, you’d see some ugliness. That’s why we never slide the pointers as one. Hold Alt, click on the pointer and drag. By doing so, you’ll see the pointer split in half, and the effect have a smoother transition.

Down & Dirty Dodge And Burn Method

Hopefully, you now know that by moving these sliders you can tell the layer you’re working on to only be visible where the underlying layers are either brighter or darker. Now how do we use this? In the following image, I used this technique extensively. Effective dodging and burning is a laborious and skilled task. You need a really good understanding of light and the way it interacts with your scene to be able to realistically manipulate it. This is especially noticeable on a person’s face, for instance.

By using Blend If we can make this whole process a little easier. If you want to totally change the existing highlights and shadows in your image, then this technique will not work. Instead, what we will be doing is using Blend If to limit and control our brush work. Thus allowing us to a) extenuate the already existing highlights and shadows and b) be a little clumsy with our masks. Check out the before and after of this image I recently edited.

Pay special attention to the Stag, the trees and the mud pile the stag is standing on.

By using the Blend If technique I just explained, I was able to quickly carve out the highlights and shadows in the areas I just mentioned. I even used it to exaggerate the fog surrounding the stag a little. Take a look at the next photo that shows all the different dodge and burn layers I used. Note the symbol next to many of the layers. That symbol indicates that a layer style has been added (almost always that was Blend If).

[REWIND: MAGNUM PHOTOS DARKROOM MAGIC | THE GENESIS OF PHOTOSHOP & LIGHTROOM]

If you are wondering how I dodge and burn in the first place, I opt for the curves method (there are lots to choose from). Create two curves layers, drag the curve up on one and down on the other, fill both layer masks with black and paint on those layers masks with a white brush. Simple. If you want to be a little more technical, I sometimes change the blend mode of those layers to Luminosity so as not to affect the colour of my image while dodging and burning.

What Else Could I Use This For?

In the most basic of terms, using Blend If is similar to using the brush tool in Lightroom to affect either the highlights, whites, shadows or blacks. The difference being that, in Photoshop, we can use layers, and apply this effect to more than just a dodging and burning layer.

I was recently editing this product shot for instance and needed to darken down the labels. Rather than make some complex selection, I just created a quick Burn layer and roughly painted over the labels. I then used Blend If to limit my selection to the labels and remove it from the white bottles.

There are so many possibilities for this technique, and I encourage you to mess around in Photoshop and see what you get. Good luck!

You Are Not The First And You Won’t Be The Last

Sorry in advance this part is a little depressing but you need to hear it. You are not special, you’re not the first person who wanted to be a photographer. Your work might be good, but there’s probably better out there. Even if your work is the best, you’re not going to find work straight away. There will not be a queue of agents hoping to sign you up. Brands don’t know who you are, art directors don’t know who you are, and agencies don’t know who you are. You’re new.

No matter how hard you work, it will (probably) take years and years before you begin to see success (whatever that is). During that period of hard graft and rejection, you will be poor, sometimes very poor. Despite this, you’ll still need to pay your rent, mortgage, buy your kids clothes and eat.

This is where so many photographers fail. It does not matter how good you are, serendipity will always play a massive role in the speed of your “success”. People may tell you that all you have to do is work hard, and to an extent they’re correct, but unless you can support yourself during those tough months it doesn’t matter how good you are or how hard you work, you will eventually be at the point of, “Crap! I tried so hard but I have no money and now I need to pay my rent! Better go and get a real job…”.

Golden Advice From A Working Commercial Photographer

Despite how hard you try, success takes time, sometimes a lot of time. So how do you ensure you can be financially buoyant throughout your early career? The solution is simple but so often overlooked: find a means to financially sustain yourself during the quiet moments.

[REWIND: How To Create A Sustainable Photography Career | Remaining Viable Among Market Shifts]

This can come in all shapes and sizes from assisting other photographers, doing so-called ‘money jobs’ (jobs that you only do to pay the bills), working for photography studios, working for photography companies, teaching photography classes, or if none of that is available to you, then working an unrelated part-time job. They key is that this work will always keep you going financially but will allow you to keep plugging away at what you really love; commercial photography, fashion, still life, weddings, boudoir and so on.

Begin Your Photography Career With A Kick-Ass Portfolio

My method is working for other studios. I’m lucky enough to live in London and have relationships with some of the biggest e-commerce studios. It’s not glamorous work (that’s kinda the point), but it pays the mortgage.

In an ideal world, this work will give you additional benefits. For example, working in a large e-commerce studio gives you the opportunity to meet other working photographers, stylists, art directors, and to work with some of the biggest brands in the world.

Starting your career with a kick-ass portfolio will open so many doors to you. I get emails all the time from people either asking to assist me (sorry but I rarely need any) or asking for advice. I always tell them what I’ve told you here and I tell them to build a kick-ass portfolio.

I really like how this image turned out. It's so important to have some kind of end goal in mind when you set out, the more specific the better. For this shot, I wanted something dark and simplistic to draw the viewers attention to the face of the watch and exaggerate it's minimal and elegant style. ⠀ ⠀ #cluse @cluse #photooftheday #picoftheday  #ig_masterpiece #ig_exquisite #ig_shotz #master_shots  #exclusive_shots #jaw_dropping_shotz #worldbestgram #ig_great_pics  #global_hotshotz #feedbacknation #igmasters #AGameofTones  #thecreatorclass #photigybest #productphotography #stilllifephotography #commercialphotography #commercialphotographer #advertisingphotography #productphotographer #stilllifephotographer

A post shared by Square Mountain (@square_mountain) on Aug 22, 2017 at 12:05pm PDT

[REWIND: How To Build A Still Life Portfolio (& Others) On A Budget]

Your portfolio is your CV. It says who you are and how good you are. Without a decent portfolio few people will take you seriously. When I needed to find the type of work I’ve talked about today, I sent my portfolio out to a selection of companies. Almost all of them got back to me because they could see my skills as a photographer. These people get sent portfolios every single day. If you don’t stand out in a good way, you won’t get work. The same can be said no matter who you’re contacting; agencies, art directors, brands, etc.

Summary – The Secret To Success As A Commercial Photographer

The Big secret is that there is no secret. Yes, you must work hard and be determined. You should probably be on social media, do test shoots, expand your portfolio, contact agents, directly contact companies and so on, and so on. You should do all of these things, and every other thing you can think of, to gain traction and notoriety within your field.

[REWIND: How To Shoot Fashion | Style & Directing Tips To Serve Your Career]

The crux of this whole article, the message you should go away with, is that this is not a quick process. If you want to be a successful commercial photographer, prepare to spend years grafting to get to that point. During those years, if you’ve not got a way to keep yourself going financially, you will fail. Success comes to those that are able and prepared to weather the storm.

SLR Lounge will be covering much more to do with launching and running a successful photography business, and here’s a primer with one of the founders, Pye Jirsa, on CreativeLive, below.

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The Best Lenses For Still Life | What Do You Need?

As always, this will depend on what you’re shooting and how you’re shooting it. Things to consider will be; your subjects size, your lighting set up, your set, the space you’re shooting in, and the distance you need to your subject. By knowing that info, you’ll be able to answer the question “what type of lens do I need?”; macro, zoom, prime, telephoto, wide-angle and so on.

Leaving the more obvious requirements aside you may be surprised to hear that many lenses will provide you with the quality necessary for still life photography. Why? Still life photography is usually shot at high apertures and if using programs like Helicon Focus, you can shoot at your lenses “sweet spot” and get the maximum quality.

[REWIND: IS HELICON FOCUS THE BEST FOCUS STACKING SOFTWARE? {REVIEW}]

In addition, it may surprise you to hear but most still life images don’t involve moving subjects, who knew! As such, the latest and greatest focusing system is not needed. Nor do we need any kind of vibration reduction/stabilization technology as we’re almost always shooting on a tripod. There are really only two main things a still life photographer needs from their lens.

1. To be sharp in the f8-f11 range (so most lenses)
2. to be the appropriate focal length for your subject

Ok, it is nice to have a lens with decent manual focus. One where you don’t turn the barrel a little and suddenly find you’ve gone from infinity to close focus. With that in mind, however, I’ve taken many great photos using Nikon’s basic 50mm 1.4g, and Canon’s 50mm 1.8. The most important part of still life photography is knowledge and imagination. On the subject of knowledge, check out one of my recent articles all about photographing watches, find it here.

Best Still Life Lenses For Versatility

Sometimes versatility is a big requirement. Let’s say you’ve been asked to shoot 60 pairs of shoes in a day, with multiple angles of each. Not a fun day but we’ve all gotta pay the bills. In that situation, I’d want a zoom lens so I didn’t have to move my tripod too much; saving precious time. There are loads of other situations where versatility is a big consideration and here are my lens recommendations.

[REWIND: WHAT ARE THE BEST LIGHTS FOR STILL LIFE & PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY?]

Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art 

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR 

While a 24-105 is not going to win many prizes for its sharpness, it will be good enough for a day of ecom. Heck, for most clients it will be good enough full stop, shoot at the f8-f11 sweet spot and you’ll be fine. The great thing about a 24-105 is the versatility it offers. It’s got a decent zoom range and even has some macro capability. For a cheaper version, I encourage you to look back to some of the older incarnations of these lenses, most of which are just as good but lack some modern features.

Best Still Life Lenses For Macro Work

As a still life photographer, you’ll often find yourself shooting very little things. At that moment, the lens you need is a macro. I don’t just mean one which says macro on the side but actually only offers a paltry amount of magnification. No, I’m talking a proper 1:1 macro lenses. The great thing about macro lenses, no matter what the budget, is that they all tend to offer excellent sharpness. The benefits of buying a more expensive macro lens is often just working distance and a slight bump in optical and build quality.

Budget

Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro 

Mid-Level

Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 VC USD 

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM 

Nikon AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED 

Expensive

Sigma 180mm f/2.8 APO Macro EX DG OS HSM 

Nikon AF Micro-NIKKOR 200mm f/4D IF-ED 

Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

If someone could only afford one lens, I would suggest getting a macro in the 100mm focal range. Macro lenses offer amazing value for money and can be used for a wide range of subjects. If price is an issue, take a look at all the older models of the lenses listed above. Just like with the 24-105mm lenses the older versions are often very similar in optical quality but lack a couple modern features which still life photographers don’t need anyway.

Best Speciality Still Life Lenses

At times, you’ll want to get creative. Or you might want a lens that you can parade about in front of your photography buddies despite it being pretty useless for still life. When that moment arises, any of the following will do. Only joking. Although still life photographers generally shoot with lenses on the longer end, a wide-angle lens can often provide an interesting perspective which is different from the norm.

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art 

Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD 

The Tilt Shift Lens

Tilt shift lenses used to be very popular in still life photography and, to a lesser extent, still are today. With the advent of programs like Helicon Focus, however, the popularity of Tilt-Shift Lenses has diminished somewhat. Although that is the case, there are still lots of times when a Tilt-Shift lens can come in pretty handy. Check out the video below for a quick explanation of what a Tilt Shift Lens can do.

In terms of recommendations, there’s not a huge selection of these lenses out there. Check out the offering for your particular brand of camera and you’ll probably only see 3-4 choices.

Final Thoughts On Lenses For Still Life Photography

In lots of genres you’ll often hear the criticism “you only take good photos because you have that lens” or “this amazing camera” and so on. Within still life, it’s much harder for that statement to hold any weight; to be honest, it rarely does anyway. With still life photography, your camera and lenses tend to just sit there and wait for a photo to be taken. All the creativity, all the magic of the shot, happens far away from them. Yes, they take the photo, but the creation of the photo has very little to do with them.

An amazing still life photographer can take a good photo with the most basic of cameras and lenses. So don’t get hung up on this. Buy a lens that works for your subject and space. After that, start getting creative and stop obsessing about gear.

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[REWIND: LINKED SMART OBJECTS | THE ESSENTIAL BUT UNKNOWN PHOTOSHOP TECHNIQUE]

When taking still life photos our cameras are generally placed on a tripod and don’t move for the duration of the shoot. In addition, our subjects are usually stationary, big surprise there. As such, rarely is it necessary for a still life camera to have all the bells and whistles which the latest models provide. We don’t need an advanced focusing system, the ability to shoot at high frame rates, excellent dynamic range, good high ISO noise capabilities. In fact, there are very few things a still life photographer needs from their camera.

What Makes A Good Camera For Still Life?

So what do you need? What actually makes a good camera for still life photography? Well, the fact is, you can use pretty much any camera and still take excellent photos. The majority of the work in still life photography comes in away from the camera and lens. You need a good selection of modifiers, scrims, decent strobes, light stands, tables, gold, white and black card, props and most importantly creativity.

[REWIND: IS HELICON FOCUS THE BEST FOCUS STACKING SOFTWARE? {REVIEW}]

When it comes to the actual camera there are very few essential requirements. Firstly, you need a camera with a decent number of megapixels, I’d say at least 24 but the more the better. Still life photography is all about quality and therefore we need a good number of megapixels to allow us to capture a high-quality base image. That image is then worked on in Photoshop to one degree or another. If you have too few megapixels, you’ll struggle when zooming in close to your product to do things like cleaning. On the other hand, having lots of megapixels brings its own challenges in terms of the computing power necessary to manage all the images.

Away from megapixels, everything else falls into the category of “it would be nice to have but it’s not necessary”. It would be nice to have a camera with a decent dynamic range in case you have to pull details from shadows. It would be nice to have a full frame camera, a camera that produces true 16-bit files, has a large viewfinder coverage and so on. None of these things, however, are necessary. You can create outstanding still life images with a budget cropped sensor camera. I cannot stress enough how important everything around the camera is when compared to the camera itself. That said, would I say no if someone offered me a Phase One XF 100  or Hasselblad H6D? No, of course not.

[REWIND: THE POWER OF THE SCRIM IN STILL LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY | TYPES, WHAT TO BUY, & HOW TO USE]

Budget Camera Recommendations For Still Life Photography

These cameras are about as cheap as you can get. Coming in at $399 for the Nikon and £549 for the Canon. If you wanted to go even cheaper, pick up a used or refurbished body. Can these cameras really take good still life photos? Yes, God yes! Remember the most important part of still life photography is everything that goes around the camera; your lights, modifiers and so on.

RECCOMENDATIONS – Canon EOS Rebel SL2, Nikon D3200

Mid-Level Cameras For Still Life Photography

As we go up the price range we start to get a few more of the “it would be nice to have but it’s not necessary” features. The three cameras recommended below are all full frame, offer much better high ISO noise handling, have better focusing systems etc. If you get these cameras will your photos automatically be better though? No, definitely not.

RECCOMENDATIONS – Nikon D610, Canon EOS 6D, Sony Alpha a7

Professional Level Cameras For Still Life Photography

Now we’re starting to get serious but what does an increase of $1-3k really get us? If we are strictly talking about still life photography and ignoring the camera features which you don’t need, then all this gets us, compared to mid-level camera bodies, is a significant increase in megapixels. You may be thinking “I need those megapixels so I can shoot billboard size images”. Nope. It may amaze you to hear but you could print a 24 megapixel image to billboard size and it would still look good! Check out this article for an explanation.

RECCOMENDATIONS – Nikon D810, Canon EOS 5DS R, Sony Alpha a7R II

Medium Format Cameras For Still Life Photography

This is a realm that very few of us will ever reach. When quality is of the utmost importance, medium format is where most photographers will go. Although, I have seen a comparison of a Sony A7rII and Phase One (sadly I can’t recall the model) in which the Sony was easily comparable in terms of quality. Strangely enough, one of the biggest things that shooting with this level of camera offers is prestige. It’s the ability to say to your camera ignorant clients “I’m shooting with Phase One”. Can you create the same image with almost any of the camera’s I’ve mentioned here, yup. Does that stop me wanting one of these cameras? Nope.

RECCOMENDATIONS – Hasselblad H6D-100c, Phase One XF 100

Final Thoughts On Cameras For Still Life Photography

If you’ve read this far then hopefully I’ve drilled into you the idea that the camera means very little in still life photography. Almost all the images in my portfolio  were made using a Nikon D750 or Canon 5d Mk II, coupled with a range of lenses. If you’re an amateur getting into this for the first time, don’t feel that your camera will be holding you back, it will do 99% of what the higher budget cameras will. As you begin to progress you’ll find that the small differences between these cameras; megapixels, viewfinder coverage, live view quality, dynamic range and so on, begin to become important. At that point, you may find yourself coveting something a little more expensive.

[REWIND: WHAT ARE THE BEST LIGHTS FOR STILL LIFE & PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY?]

If nothing else, please remember that creativity is the single most important thing in still life photography. Don’t obsess about your gear, obsess about your ideas.