tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80194850717663892632024-03-08T16:44:30.970-07:00PAUL BELLINGER PHOTOGRAPHYMONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILLINGS MONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER PAUL BELLINGERAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.comBlogger237125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-43897468673257578462016-06-10T18:08:00.001-06:002016-06-10T18:08:15.448-06:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – FASHION TEST WITH CHRISTINE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I love working with Christine! She’s so awesome! We recently
did a big fashion editorial shoot with some major brands and to get ready for
the shoot we did a few test shoots to dial in the look we were trying to
create. The final shoot went really well, with styling by Sydney Ross, the best
hair and makeup artist in Montana by a long shot. We can’t share the editorial
images until they come out in print, so until then I’ll give you a few teasers
from our test shoots. Stay tuned for more!</div>
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It’s been a busy spring! I’ve launched the new headshot
website <a href="http://www.pbheadshots.com/">www.pbheadshots.com</a> and have been doing a lot of editorial work lately.
I’m really excited to show the cover shoot I did recently with some celebrity
athletes in Nebraska. While all of this is going on I’ve been designing new
websites to separate the various types of photography that I do and will be
rolling them out later this summer. Stay tuned for a lot of changes soon.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;">Tips for photographers: This is a two light
portrait, with a large key light camera left to create the dramatic shadows and
falloff. The second is a small beauty dish nearly on camera and set about 3
stops darker than the key for a very slight fill light. I’ve been using this
setup a lot lately because of it’s simplicity and versatility. I was turned on
to this type of lighting by reading books by Gregory Heisler and Dan Winters,
both of whom often use a hard light source nearly on camera for fill. Check out
their books for tons of amazing insights.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-8571539319769415212016-03-31T23:58:00.001-06:002016-04-07T02:44:58.375-06:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – RYAN’S EDITORIAL PORTRAIT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Ryan is the unofficial future mayor of downtown Billings so
of course he needs a badass portrait for the Time cover story they’ll
eventually run on him! Well maybe not, but he still needs an awesome portrait
fit for a magazine editorial. Thankfully he knows a guy! Thanks for the sitting
Ryan!</div>
<br />
People are asking me about these editorial portraits, and
they’re asking if people in Billings Montana really want or need a portrait
that looks like something out of Vanity Fair. Why wouldn’t they?! Who wouldn’t
want a portrait like these? If you’re going to have a portrait made, why not
strive to match the best talent in the world, right here in Billings? I think
we can do it. I’m putting in the time and honing my skills and so are my
teammates, like Sydney Ross, a top level hair and makeup artist that’s as good
as anyone you’ll find New York or LA. Together my team and I are out to prove
that badass, modern and stylish portraits aren’t only reserved for people that
live in the major markets, you can get them right here in downtown Billings
Montana. For bookings please visit our new headshot and portrait website here:
<a href="http://www.pbheadshots.com/">www.pbheadshots.com</a>.<br />
<br />
Tips for photographers: These portraits are inspired by all
of the studying I’ve been doing thanks to my mentor, legendary photojournalist
Kenneth Jarecke (who is on instagram now as @kenneth.jarecke). The three
influences that inspired these portraits are Marco Grob first and foremost with
the flagging and key light technique used, and Dan Winters and Gregory Heisler
with the use of on axis fill light from a ring light, or something similar. For
the headshot, the key light is a large silver bounce umbrella only about two
feet away from Ryan’s head to the camera right. This key light is flagged with black
foam core to create the shadow on Ryan’s left ear (camera right). Flagging the
key light side of the face is a very cool technique that I learned from studying
Marco Grob and Dan Winters and for me, it opens up broad lighting patterns
where I’d otherwise prefer short lighting if it weren’t for the flag. The on
axis fill is a silver beauty dish about a foot higher than the camera and you
can see the central catchlight in the eye. For more drama I set the fill light
pretty low, two or three stops less power than the key light. I don’t use a
light meter (although I just got one). I eyeball my histogram and test each
light individually. Behind Ryan camera left there is an 8 foot silver reflector
for a subtle kicker light on the right side of his face (camera left). Behind
Ryan and camera right is a strip box and 8 foot silver reflector to replicate a
similar amount of kicker light on the left side of his face (camera right).<br />
<br />
The full body portrait is inspired by Annie Leibovitz, both
in the lighting and in the use of my hand painted background and floor. Annie often uses big soft lights, such as the
Photek Softlighter. In this case I simply added a white diffusion sock over my
large silver umbrella. I still used a big piece of black foam core to flag the key
light, but I opened up the angle a bit so it’s not as side on as in the
headshot. The shadow from the flag is not as prominent because the light is so
soft, but the main thing I like about using the flag in this way is that it
keeps the catchlight from spilling out of the pupil and into the white of the
eye, which is a common problem when side lighting in the way that Annie and
these other guys do (Mark Seliger for instance). Out of frame camera left is a
wall of black foam core to eat up the key light and keep the shadows dark.
Lastly, the same silver beauty dish about a foot above camera the camera for
the on axis fill I’ve been loving so much thanks to Greg Heisler and Dan
Winters.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-72988375506659785012016-03-25T10:38:00.002-06:002016-03-25T10:38:57.147-06:00HOW TO GET A BADASS HEADSHOT IN BILLINGS MONTANA! TIP 3: GO HORIZONTAL AND CROP THE HEAD!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I cannot stress enough how important a great looking
headshot is these days. There is simply no getting around the fact that most
potential customers will get a first impression of you online before meeting
you in person. To make the most of those first impressions you need the best
looking headshot you can get, which will help your potential customers make a
human connection with you, even through a computer or phone. If you think about
it, your headshot will be used a lot, and not just in marketing. You can use it
for your profile photo on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. and on
your website. You can even use a headshot on your business cards and in your
email signature to make a human connection every chance you get. Because it’s
so important to have an awesome headshot I’m giving everyone my best headshot
tips, so everyone knows how to get the best headshot they can get, whether they
book with us at <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank">Paul Bellinger Photography</a>, or with someone else. If you’re new
to the blog, <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2016/02/how-to-get-professional-headshot-in.html" target="_blank">you might want to check out Tip #1 here first</a>, and follow the
links to Tips 2 and 3.
Tip #3 is below.</div>
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<div>
Tip 3: Go horizontal and crop the head! This is a great tip
because almost anyone can do this right now without even having to get a new
headshot, just crop the one you have and tell your photographer to shoot
horizontal next time. If you’ve looked around on this blog, or on my website
you’ll see I only show horizontal headshots when it comes to professional
business headshots, and they’re all cropped very tightly into the head. Why
have we gone for the horizontal head crop? The main reason is because today’s
devices are almost all horizontal, with widescreens being the new standard on
computers, TVs, and mobile devices. As a result, most web developers and social
networks display horizontal images more prominently than vertical images, with
more real estate devoted to horizontal images. So if you have a horizontal
headshot you increase the chances people will see it, and people are more
likely to take note of it and make a human connection if they do, because
you’ll be utilizing as much space as possible. But why the tight head crop? For
the same reason we want your headshot to appear as big as possible, we also
crop off the top of the heads and most of the body, so more real estate is
devoted to what we really want people to see: your eyes! Cropping the head is
necessary to make the eyes as big as possible in the photo and we don’t want to
waste unnecessary space on the background above the head. It’s all about the
eyes! The look in a person’s eyes is what tells the whole story about who they
are, and that’s why looking into someone’s eyes is such an important human
connection. By giving as much real estate as possible to your eyes, your
chances of making a human connection will dramatically increase. That’s also
why we want to keep headshots cropped very tightly around the head, and not
include much of the body at all. Vertical headshots and portraits tend to
include far too much of the body, making the eyes too small to make a human
connection with the eyes. Take a look at your current profile pics, if you
can’t see your eyes very clearly then you need to crop it tighter!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
For these reasons, the horizontal head cropped headshot is
very popular right now, it’s the biggest trend in headshots in the major
photography markets in New York City and Los Angeles. So naturally people are
associating a horizontal headshot with being very modern, while the vertical
headshot is starting to look more traditional and maybe even old-fashioned. Cropping
into heads is also very common, it’s very popular in magazines, especially
fashion magazines. Just look at any magazine rack and you’ll see head crops
everywhere. Again the head crop is thought to be very modern and in fashion. Just
as an FYI, I always include the whole head during my sessions and deliver
cropped and uncropped versions, just in case anyone needs the top of their head
for something! If you didn’t read it already, <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2016/02/how-to-get-professional-headshot-in_17.html" target="_blank">check out Tip #2 here!</a> </div>
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Tips for photographers: This is my favorite setup for
headshots. I<a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2016/02/how-to-get-professional-headshot-in.html" target="_blank">’ve written about the lighting setup here</a>,
so you’ll have to read about it there. But I want to mention here that I
generally prefer some type of beauty lighting setup for headshots, which means
a lot of soft light that is flattering for all skin types. To get the light as
soft as possible you bring the lights as close to the subjects face as possible.
Bringing the lights close has the added benefit of creating very fast falloff, which
slims the face and creates dimension, ensuring that your portraits are
flattering but don’t ever look flat. For the most part, all you need is one
light with the biggest soft light modifier you can get (a big white umbrella is
nice and cheap), and a reflector or two, which is what you use for “clamshell
lighting,” the traditional standard for beauty lighting (Google it!). For
people that want to look at little more badass, I like to adjust the ratios of
my lights to create directionality and shadows, but I’ll leave that tip for
another day.<div class="MsoNormal">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-85472983757072136232016-03-14T13:47:00.000-06:002016-03-14T15:13:58.002-06:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – A PORTRAIT IS PRICELESS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div>
In my view, portraits like this are priceless. This is my
Dad, and this portrait lays everything to bare about who he is at this time in
his life. It’s an iconic image for me and my family, and I was blessed to make
it. Photography is truly a blessing and I am very thankful it is my profession.
It wouldn’t have been possible for me to get to where I am today without the
help of many, and my family most importantly. For all of those people I am
grateful every day.</div>
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<div>
If you’d like to book a portrait session or a creative
marketing consultation with me please contact me through my website
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a>.</div>
<div>
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<div>
About this photo: I made this portrait before a documentary
film screening my Dad and I attended in downtown Billings. My Dad has been a
willing subject as my portraiture has evolved over the last few years. He was
one of the first subjects in <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2015/10/billings-montana-portrait-photographer_19.html" target="_blank">my VIP series here</a>.
For this portrait, having only 15-30 minutes to set up and shoot, I decided to
draw inspiration from one of my favorite legendary photographers, David Bailey,
who is known for shooting very quickly. He is also known for using a white
background and no fuss lighting. It was a very refreshing way to shoot, keeping
things simple and getting a great result.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Tips for photographers: This is a very simple one light
lighting technique that actually requires two lights. I think of it as a one
light technique because there is only one light on the subject, a 22 inch silver
beauty dish with white diffusion sock over it. The light is about three or less
feet away from the subject and a foot or two higher than the subject’s head
camera right. I’ve complicated matters slightly by adding a black flag in between
the light and the subject, to block some of the light hitting his left ear
(camera right). The flag is a piece of black foam core clamped to a light
stand. The second light is on the background to make it a bright white, and
some of that light is reflecting back onto the subject, creating a rim light
you can see on his right ear (camera left).<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-22370495549871849872016-03-09T12:57:00.000-07:002016-03-09T12:57:34.595-07:00BILLINGS MONTANA PHOTOGRAPHER – DOWNTOWN BILLINGS FROM THE LOWER RIMS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-KBT853J/0/XL/A7ii_20160305_31560-Edit-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20billings%20blue%20purp-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
Every now and then I see a sunset breaking and run up the
hill in time to make a few pictures. When I do, my favorite subject is downtown
Billings. It looks so cozy and quaint from this distance. You can’t tell if the
buildings are empty or not. You can’t see how dirty or clean it is, or how many
homeless people there are. Billings is more than just a pretty city on the
banks of the Yellowstone, but sometimes it’s nice to remember that we are
blessed with geography if nothing else. My wife and I live very close to the
rims and we love to explore the “no mans land” on the Eastern side of the rims
with our dogs. Billings has so much to offer, we are fortunate to make this
place our home.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Paul Bellinger photography is a full service portrait studio
in downtown Billings Montana. We specialize in wedding and portrait
photography, please visit <a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/">www.paulbellinger.com</a> for weddings, and
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a> for portraits and commercial photography.</div>
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<div>
Tips for photographers: This was one of those, “Wow it’s
going to be a great sunset,” grab your camera and run kind of shoots. I didn’t
bring a tripod, a sign I was more interested in the adventure of hiking on the
rugged cliffs behind my house than I was in making serious pictures. But I
guess when you’re a professional photographer every photo is serious. This
image is a composite of four exposures, blended into a panorama in photoshop.
This is a crop from an even wider view. I made the exposures with a Sony A7ii
and Zeiss Loxia 35mm.<div class="MsoNormal">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-90702481004102470262016-03-04T10:45:00.001-07:002016-03-04T10:45:50.289-07:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – OUR BOY SALA IS ALL GROWN UP!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-d7wBtnT/0/X2/A7ii_20160122_20412-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20sala%20backlit%20bw-X2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div>
He’s all grown up but Sala is still injury prone! He runs
around the backyard like crazy, patrolling our fence line. He loves being
outside and goes out for about 6 hours a day. He’s in great shape from so much
exercise, but he’s constantly running into things and getting cuts and scrapes.
He broke off his dew claw a few days before this portrait and we were on the
way to have the bandage removed at the vet’s office when I thought it would be
a fitting time to make his portrait. It’s fitting because being injured and
playing though injury is a major part of his character. We found this crazy pup
in the Piney Woods outside of Nacogdoches TX and he’s grown into a strapping
young man! We’re happy we found him and adopted him, he brings a lot of joy to
our family, even if his name does technically mean “Moron” in Hindi.</div>
<div>
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<div>
Beautiful, timeless studio portraits are a specialty of mine.
I’ve put in countless hours of study and practice to truly understand the art
of portraiture and I am constantly pushing to get better and evolve. When you
book a portrait sitting with me you aren’t just getting me for the few hours
that we’re together, you’re getting everything that I’ve put into my craft, culminating
with my best performance to date, at your sitting. Let me put my passion into
your next portrait, visit <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a> for more information.</div>
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<div>
Tips for photographers: Well there is a lot of different
lighting going on here. The first two portraits are a 3 light setup, with the
key light a large soft box in front of and above my pup. You can see the
catchlight in the top of the eyes. The bottom catchlight is created by a silver
reflector on the floor in front of Sala. The other two lights are two kickers
from the back on both left and right sides to create some edge lighting around
Sala and help his dark fur separate from the black background. Both of the
kicker lights are bare strobes with the standard 7-inch silver reflector on
them, and are about two feet higher than Sala’s head, which is probably too
high but the stands were at their lowest and I was too lazy to switch out for
smaller stands. We had a vet appointment to make after all.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The third portrait is lit with a window to the camera right
of Sala and few feet behind him. There is also a silver reflector camera left
to reflect some window light back on to Sala’s face. The catchlight you see in
his eye is the window. The fourth portrait is lit from behind with the window
that has a piece of white diffusion fabric over it. Just behind me on both
sides of the camera are two 8 foot high white reflectors as well as the small
silver reflector camera right. It’s amazing how much you can do with a window!<div class="MsoNormal">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-90910074646760654342016-03-02T22:51:00.000-07:002016-03-02T22:51:21.015-07:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – FASHION TEST WITH CHRISTINE!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-Kv2FZN4/0/XL/A7ii_20160128_21991-Edit_paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20christine%20window%20headshot-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
I mentioned on Instagram (@PJBellinger) that I should post a color
version of Christine’s headshot, because her eyes are insane! Christine is a fantastic
model based in Billings but who works around the world. She’s represented by Rocky
Mountain Entertainment Agency and Images NYC, and probably a few more. We only
had an hour to meet for a quick test shoot, so we’ll definitely have to plan a
more extensive shoot soon. Stay tuned for that.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank">Fashion photography</a> is one of our specialties at Paul
Bellinger Photography. Models and actors frequently need new headshots and new
images to add to their portfolios. Get in touch to book your portfolio or
headshot sitting at <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a>.</div>
<div>
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<div>
Tips for photographers: This is a really easy lighting
setup. Christine is facing a big window and has a white reflector behind her
for a background. She’s surrounded by black on both sides, a black wall camera
right and black 4x8 foot reflector on the camera left side. I’ve got black
curtains on my windows so I can make them bigger or smaller to soften or harden
the light or to move the light to one side or the other. The catchlights in her
eyes give away the size and position of the window light.<div class="MsoNormal">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-72027437867371478252016-02-29T22:53:00.000-07:002016-02-29T22:53:37.718-07:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – FASHION PORTFOLIO SITTING WITH LESLIE!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-m87W9Pt/0/XL/A7ii_20160205_27694-Edit-2%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20fashion%20photographer%2C%20leslie%20house%20gritty%20bw-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-G4Rpjd8/0/X2/A7ii_20160206_28035-Edit-2%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20fashion%20photographer%2C%20leslie%20house%20gritty%20bw-X2.jpg" /></a></div>
Meet new model Leslie! She’s recently returned from a trip
to LA for an international modeling competition that she pretty much cleaned up
at, with a number of first place finishes and lots of call backs. She’ll be
signed with a major agency soon if she keeps up the good work! I always like
working with inspired young people like Leslie. I wish her the very best of
luck in her endeavors!<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Yes we do fashion photography at Paul Bellinger Photography!
Models and actors, book a portfolio building sitting with us today to get your
career off the ground! Please visit <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a> for more
information.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tips for photographers: Both of these images were made with
window light. You can do a lot with a window! In the first image Leslie is facing
towards the window that I am sitting in and she is only about 4 feet from the
window so the falloff is pretty quick, highlighting her high cheekbones with
darker falloff around the edges. She’s surrounded by black on both sides, a black
wall on one side and two 4x8 foot black reflectors on the other. The black eats
up the light, ensuring that no light is bouncing around to fill the shadows. In
the second image the window is camera right and the curtains are closed down so
that only a narrow strip of light is coming through. By shrinking the size of
the window light I’ve made the light harder and the shadow cast by her nose is
creating a defined Rembrandt pattern. Again I used the black 4x8 foot
reflectors out of frame camera left to prevent the window light from bouncing
off of anything else in the studio and filling in the shadows. By doing this I
ensure the shadows are as dark as possible. I love the drama of dark shadows
and I think it’s especially fantastic in black and white and with a model with
such dramatic features as Leslie.<div class="MsoNormal">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-33951165386140543402016-02-17T01:12:00.002-07:002016-03-25T10:39:59.102-06:00HOW TO GET A BADASS PROFESSIONAL HEADSHOT IN BILLINGS MONTANA! TIP 2: DITCH THE BLUE BACKGROUND!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-M5GJmb3/0/XL/5DMIII_20160130_22940-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20headshot%20photographer%2C%20arley%20headshot-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
<div>
A great looking headshot will make a powerful first
impression for people who find you online. If your headshot looks professional,
modern and stylish, you will make a great first impression. How do you get a professional,
modern and stylish headshot in Billings Montana? Well of course you can come to
us at <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank">Paul Bellinger Photography</a>, and we can show you. But since we can’t
service the entire city I’ve started a headshot tip series here on the blog for
people that can’t get a sitting with us. <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2016/02/how-to-get-professional-headshot-in.html" target="_blank">Tip #1 is about looking your best, and you can find it on the blog here</a>. Tip #2 is below.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tip 2: Ditch the blue background! The blue background is all
too popular in Billings these days and it’s ruining a lot people’s headshots.
The speckled blue background with the extreme spotlight/vignette and hair light
is the worst offender. It looks dated, plain and simple. It’s a look that was
popularized by Lifetouch in the 80s and 90s for high school yearbook pictures
with a ton of hair light to highlight the massive hair of the day. So the first
problem is that blue background is not modern, it’s not stylish, no matter how
professionally it can be done. In fact, any colored background will inevitably
look dated and will be associated with a particular era (the brick wall
background for instance, is very 80s). The second problem with the blue
background is another problem that all colored backgrounds have: it’s
distracting. When people browse your website or check out your profile on
LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, etc. they are only going to look for a few seconds,
and you want them to connect with your face for as many of those seconds as
possible so they start to feel like they know you. As soon as they make that
human connection, you’ve got a chance. But when you have a colored background
the eye immediately gets distracted away from the face and onto the background,
so no connection is made in those brief few seconds and they move on to the
next candidate. So to reiterate a point made in Tip #1 nothing in your headshot
should compete with your face for attention. No jewelry, clothing, hair/makeup,
or background should attract more attention than your face.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So now that it’s clear you shouldn’t use a colored
background, and especially the blue speckle (or brick wall), what kind of
background fits the criteria of professional, modern and stylish? Keep it
simple! There are only 3: black, white, and gray. There is a reason these are
the background colors preferred over the generations by the great master portrait
artists, they look timeless, which means they always look both modern and
classic and can never be pinpointed to a single era. But why did the great
masters start using black, white and gray to begin with? Because these neutral,
colorless backgrounds do not distract the viewers attention away from the face,
making the face the true centerpiece of portraiture over the ages. Pick up any
fashion magazine today, and you’ll see black, white and gray backgrounds are
ubiquitous. So in conclusion, <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank">when you’re looking for a headshot photographer in Billings Montana</a>, make sure to request a headshot on a black, white or gray
background, and ditch the blue background. <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2016/03/how-to-get-badass-headshot-in-billings.html" target="_blank">Read Tip #3 here!</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tips for photographers: This is the same headshot lighting
technique <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2016/02/how-to-get-professional-headshot-in.html" target="_blank">I discussed in the previous post here</a>.
The only difference is that I’ve turned the background light off, so now the
white wall is going gray. I love gray! You can adjust how dark or light the
gray is by adjusting the distance between the subject and the background. When
you move the subject closer to the background you also move your lights on the
subject closer to the background and the white wall becomes a lighter shade of
gray. Move them farther away from the background and it’ll go a darker shade of
gray until it eventually goes black if you move far enough away from the
background. Enjoy!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-38286752421272851082016-02-13T19:03:00.000-07:002016-03-25T10:41:21.144-06:00HOW TO GET A BADASS PROFESSIONAL HEADSHOT IN BILLINGS MONTANA! TIP 1: LOOK GOOD!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-5N22zxz/0/XL/5DMIII_20160204_26672-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20eric%20headshot-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Everybody needs a great headshot these days. Most new clients
will meet you online before ever meeting you in person and your headshot makes
the biggest first impression. So it’s very important that wherever people can
find you online, your headshot looks professional, modern and stylish. I’ve
been telling this to people in Billings Montana for over a year now, but it is
apparent that what I mean by “professional, modern and stylish,” must not be
very clear, because I’m seeing a lot of people with unprofessional, dated, and
lame headshots. If you come to me for your headshots I’ll show you what I’m
talking about and give you a headshot that will make the best first impression
possible for you and your business. But I know that not everyone in town can
afford the luxury of having me as their headshot photographer, so I’ve put
together some headshot tips so you can still get a badass headshot. I’m
dropping the tips one at a time and here’s the first one.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tip 1: Look good! This one is on you, put some effort into
it! Do everything you can to come in for your headshot session looking great
and looking like you want to look. Whatever your personal style may be, make
sure your clothes fit how you want them to fit, and are not wrinkled. If
necessary, get a haircut, get groomed, or book a professional hair and makeup
artist for your headshot session so that you’ll look your absolute best. If you
book a headshot session with me you’ll have the option of having a professional
hair and makeup artist in the studio, keeping a close eye on your hair while we
shoot so your hair looks amazing. I work closely with my favorite hair and
makeup artist Sydney Ross, who is one of the few true professionals in Billings
at camera-ready makeup and hair. We do this all the time and we know how to
make sure you look flawless on camera. We also do a pre-consultation with our
clients about what to wear. In general I advise neutrals, gray, black, white,
off white, and earth tones. Bright colors, patterns and accessories are
distracting and we want your headshot to feature YOU, not your clothes. Your
look should compliment your personality, not compete with it. That’s it! The
rest is on your photographer! Unfortunately I see a lot of photographers doing
headshots that either don’t know how to, or simply aren’t doing their damnedest
to make their clients look good. I’ll tell you what to look for and what to ask
when picking a headshot photographer in the next tips, but I’ll let you in on a
little secret right here: a good camera doesn’t make a difference if it’s not
in the hands of someone who has carefully studied the art of the headshot. Any
photographer can give you a mediocre headshot, but <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank">only a headshot specialist who knows how to make a great headshot can truly make you look your best</a>. Be sure to
follow along! <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2016/02/how-to-get-professional-headshot-in_17.html" target="_blank">Tip #2 is here!</a> <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tips for photographers: This is a four light
setup, three on the face and one on the background. The light setup is the
right triangle setup made popular by Peter Hurley, the headshot king. Using two
stripboxes and a small softbox I make a right triangle with lights and shoot
through the triangle. I use a stripbox and the softbox to create a 90 degree
right angle with the softbox on bottom. A second stripbox makes the hypotenuse
of the right triangle. Some people use this setup and keep the lights all at
the same power, but I personally like to have a definitive key light so that
the direction of the highlights and shadows does not get confused. The key light
is the vertical stripbox (as opposed to the angled hypotenuse stripbox). In
this case it is camera left and is about a stop brighter than the other the two
fill lights. The catchlights in the eyes make the setup very obvious, so look
closely and you’ll see exactly how my lights are placed. Bring the subjects as
close to the lights as possible while still keeping the catchlights fully
within the colored part of the eye (don’t let the catchlights leak into the
white of the eye, it’s not pleasing). The background light is a bare strobe
with 8 inch reflector right behind the subject. I light the white wall to the
point that the white starts to get blown out on the histogram. Make sure to
keep the subject about 10 or more feet from the white wall or the background
light will bounce and backlight your subject.</span><!--EndFragment-->
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-17640076737603013512016-02-07T10:18:00.001-07:002016-02-07T10:25:47.118-07:00BILLINGS MONTANA PHOTOGRAPHER – HAPPY SUPER BOWL!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-8hq54xB/0/X2/A7ii_20151011_4343-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20nebraska%20helmet%20purple-X2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div>
Today is the Super Bowl and I’m up way earlier than usual on
a Sunday! I’ve got fresh coffee, beautiful morning light, and a smoker filled
with pork. I’d say that bodes well for the day ahead! When the pork is ready
I’m off to Ken’s for a day full of football, family, and of course, abusing his
massive photo book library. In honor of the football season, I’m posting one of
the few football photos I made this year. This is an outtake from a helmet shoot
I did with Ken Jarecke for Hail Varsity Magazine. The Huskers were unveiling an
alternative uniform against Northwestern, and had been struggling, so I wanted
to make something a bit ominous. We lost. But oh well, today is about the Super
Bowl!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
I love the super bowl, regardless of who’s playing, but it’s
always a little bittersweet because it’s the end of football season. Strangely,
I feel more reminiscent about the year that’s past on the day of the super bowl
and not on new year’s eve, when the year literally ends. It’s the end of the
2015 season, so it’s kind of like 2016 starts tonight at midnight. The ball
drops when the game ends and we look forward to a great year ahead. 2016 came
early for Nebraska fans this year, as the season ended on December 26 when the
Huskers beat UCLA in Levi’s Stadium where the Super Bowl will take place today.
I started the year sitting at a bar in London, watching my beloved Huskers from
across the pond. I missed the season opener for only the second time in 10
years, and we lost the opener for the first time in my lifetime. Of course I
feel guilty about it, but just like the players, I have to put it behind me and
focus on the 2016 season, and not missing another opener.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
For the record: I want Denver to win the Super Bowl and make
the AFC West proud, something that I hope my Kansas City Chiefs can do next
year. I’m also throwing my good karma behind Denver because some of my best
friends and family are Denver fans, so I want them to be happy. For people who would say that I should hate Denver because they are the Chiefs rivals in the AFC West, I just don't have the energy for that and I've always been all about loving my own teams rather than hating on someone else's. I do like
Carolina a lot too, just by the way they play, I love teams with good defense
and a running attack/mobile QB. What self respecting Nebraskan doesn’t? I’ve
been rooting for them in the NFC all season (along with the Seahawks for my bro-in-law). I also like Cam Newton and I hope
he gets a chance to dab against Denver’s #1 ranked defense. I think we’re in
for a good one and I’m not making a prediction. Happy Super Bowl!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tips for photographers: Photography can be so strange
sometimes. Why did I light this helmet like this? I was heavily influenced by
the modern masters Marco Grob and Dan Winters around this time in 2015 (still
am) and was doing a lot of portraits inspired by them. So I lit the helmet like
I was lighting faces at the time, with hard light and flags. The Huskers were going to unveil this helmet
against Northwestern, whose colors are purple, so I tried to put a purple-ish
light on the front of the helmet to signify the upcoming game. The red light is
for Nebraska, since there isn’t a lot of red on this helmet I decided to add
some. Nebraska was off to one of its worst starts in history so I wanted to
keep the overall image dark and ominous. The key light on the N of the helmet
is a bare strobe, flagged to create the pattern you see and only highlight the
N, while keeping the rest of the helmet black, as it was a matte black helmet.
It was kind of fun playing around with this helmet and I’m thankful to Ken
Jarecke and Hail Varsity Magazine for the opportunity. www.portraits.paulbellinger.com<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-50290410023763550552016-01-01T23:16:00.000-07:002016-01-01T23:16:53.319-07:00HAPPY NEW YEAR! AND HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY WIFE!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-2BPtXQV/0/XL/A7ii_20151224_11855-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20wifey%20bw-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
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Happy New Year! January 1 is a special day for me because my
wife and I were married in India on January 1, 2010. It’s been six years and I
have to say that convincing her to marry me was the best decision I’ve ever
made. She makes my day, every day. We spend a lot of time together and yet we
can’t get enough of each other. We’re blessed. We had an amazing 2015 and 2016
will be just as awesome. 2015 was a year of travel and adventure and I
accomplished a lifelong goal to visit all 50 US states with a roadtrip to
Alaska. I also visited 5 different countries in 2015, and that is a personal
high for one year but I look forward to breaking that number routinely in the
coming years. 2016 has a tough act to follow, but the possibilities are endless
when you face everyday with the love and appreciation of a lifelong partner.
Thank you to everyone who has made this dream life possible, and most
importantly, my amazing beautiful wife Nisha!</div>
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Tips for photographers: Looking at the nearly 60 blogs I
wrote in 2015 it’s obvious that I’ve got my game face on when it comes to
improving my technique and vision. I’m shooting constantly and fine tuning my
skills. I can’t be satisfied and I won’t be. I’m coming close to mastery of the
tools at my fingertips but I don’t think my vision will ever stop evolving and
right now it’s still advancing quickly. I’m speeding out of control on the
“road to seeing” to use Dan Winters’ phrase, but my foot is still on the gas
pedal. I’m looking forward to the road ahead. Cheers to 2015 and making 2016
the best year yet! This picture? She’s facing a big window behind me at my
studio. <a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/">www.paulbellinger.com</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-15978190394571340682015-12-30T23:55:00.001-07:002015-12-30T23:55:43.042-07:00MONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER – SNOWY MOUNTAIN ENGAGEMENT SESSION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-Nhnrq5r/0/XL/A7ii_20151108_6261-Edit_paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20wedding%20photographer%2C%20LS%20east%20rosebud%20creek-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
I had a blast running around in the Beartooth Mountains with
Elizabeth and Scott for their engagement session in East Rosebud! I’m always
inspired when my clients have as much love and respect for nature as I do and
want to head the mountains for any kind of photography session. But East
Rosebud is a special treat because it is truly one of the most beautiful places
on the planet. I have traveled far and wide, and seen many of the most famously
beautiful mountain ranges, and I can tell you that East Rosebud is as pretty as
any of them. Thank you Elizabeth and Scott for a wonderful day in the
mountains!<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It’s the end of the year and it’s been a busy one at Paul
Bellinger Photography. Thank you to everyone who helped us make 2015 amazing
and we are looking forward to another outstanding year in 2016! If you’re getting
married in 2016 and looking for a great Montana wedding photographer please
visit <a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/">www.paulbellinger.com</a> for more information on booking. Our studio is located
in downtown Billings Montana and we travel worldwide for weddings.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tips for photographers: This picture was made with the Sony
A7ii and Zeiss Loxia 35mm f/2 at 3.2, 1/320 and ISO 400. My standard tip for
shooting in the mountains is to use a long lens, so this is an interesting case
where I broke that rule. I usually shoot with a 70-200 lens most of the time
when I’m around the mountains because I like the way the compression pulls the
mountains in and makes them look gigantic. But when you get this far up East
Rosebud creek you’re IN the mountains and a long lens will only let you show a
single peak or two. In order to show the epic environment around us I had to
opt for a wider lens. Notice however that I did not go crazy wide with a 14mm
or anything like that, which would have made the mountains look much smaller
and further away. There were some “standing in on a rock with nearly freezing
white water around you” considerations to factor in as well, so it can be
difficult to use the long lens when you don’t get to stand anywhere you want.<div class="MsoNormal">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-52695494840225966052015-12-20T23:40:00.000-07:002016-01-14T18:15:32.862-07:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS HEADSHOTS THAT AREN’T BORING!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-PgbwSzF/0/X2/A7ii_20150915_70066-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20keoni%20triple%20light%20bw-X2.jpg" /></a></div>
Everyone needs a good-looking headshot these days! With
profile photos on several different social media accounts, your headshot may be
seen by potentially thousands of people before they ever meet you in person.
Your headshot makes an immediate impression so it’s important that your online
presence is carefully curated to create the impression you want the world to
see. The world has changed and boring headshots aren’t going to work anymore! You
need a headshot that will stand out from the crowd of boring profile pics and amateur
looking cell phone selfies. Lucky for you it’s easy to stand out for the right
reasons if you hire a professional portrait photographer, especially if you find
a photographer that understands the art of the headshot. When you find the
right photographer make sure and give them some creative leeway, after all
you’re hiring them for their taste and expertise, don’t hamstring them by
requesting a boring “safe” look. Let them make something exceptional for you.
At Paul Bellinger Photography we specialize in badass portraits and headshots
that will help make your online presence pop! To book your sitting visit
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a>.<br />
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Tips for photographers: This headshot lighting is inspired
by Peter Hurley’s lighting technique. I initially set out to replicate the
Peter Hurley look, but then quickly got shadowy. So I started with
three lights on the face, to create a triangle catchlight pattern in the eyes
similar to one that Peter Hurley uses. Essentially I created a right triangle out of
light modifiers with a two or three foot opening in the middle to shoot
through. Bringing the subject close to the lights creates something of a big ring-light
pattern with quick falloff on the face and catchlights that can be very striking. But in my
opinion there is too much fill in the shadows when the subject’s face is
surrounded by big lights so I tweaked the ratios between the three lights until
there was a clear shadow pattern that creates dimension on the face. Camera
left I used a large 5 foot octabox in a vertical position perpendicular to the
subject’s face as the key light, with the power set about 3 stops brighter than
the other two lights, which will act as fill and catchlights. Underneath the
camera a few feet below the subject’s face is a 4 foot softbox pointing
straight up at the ceiling, creating a right angle with the octabox key light,
forming two sides of a right angle triangle. The third light acts as the
hypotenuse of the right triangle, connecting the other two on a 45 degree
angle. You can see each of the modifiers in the catchlights if you look
closely, although the key light is most prominent. To finish off the look I
added a silver reflector behind the subject out of frame to the camera right
that creates the edge light you see on the camera right side of the subject’s
face. See more headshots, including <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/search/label/headshot%20photographer" target="_blank">tips for photographers by clicking here</a>.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-15755957623940241322015-12-17T01:58:00.000-07:002015-12-17T02:04:44.443-07:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – TWO OF MY FAVORITE HEADSHOTS!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-qFqrD92/0/X2/A7ii_20151207_8197-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20ma%20and%20baba%20backlight-X2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-9WDRcN9/0/X2/A7ii_20151207_8221-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20ma%20and%20baba%20backlight-X2.jpg" /></a></div>
One of the blessings of being a portrait photographer is
making portraits of the people you love the most. All portraits are special but
portraits of the people you love are priceless. These are my wife’s parents, Ma
and Baba, and for going on six years now, they’re my parents too. They recently
made their second trip to the US for Thanksgiving and they spent over a week in
Billings Montana with us. I am very thankful that I got to spend about three
hours with them in the studio and we made some beautiful portraits that my wife
and her family and I will forever cherish. Ma and Baba are back in Hazaribagh
India now, safe and sound. Thank you to everyone who made them feel welcome
during their time here.<br />
<br />
Everyone needs a professional headshot as part of their
online presence these days! Your various online profile photos will be viewed
thousands of times more than your actual face will be! If you’re in business,
you shouldn’t settle for anything less than putting your best face forward and
you only get that from a professional portrait photographer. Visit
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a> to book a headshot or portrait in Billings
Montana.<br />
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Tips for photographers: Do you recognize this lighting
technique? It’s the same as the last post. I mentioned that I use this lighting
technique often because it’s so easy to set up and everyone always loves this
look (especially women). I mentioned to Ma that these would be her favorites when
we were shooting this look and sure enough, when it came time to pick her
absolute favorite image from her sitting, this was her favorite. Read the last
post <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2015/11/billings-montana-fashion-photographer.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-84569741094343267562015-11-16T02:53:00.000-07:002015-11-16T02:55:08.349-07:00BILLINGS MONTANA FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER – BEAUTY HEADSHOT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-bkF3mNQ/0/XL/A7_20150308_8257-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20Arley%20on%20white-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
I promised on Instagram that I would show the color version
of this photo on the blog so everyone can see Arley’s stunning blue eyes. She
is really a Montana treasure, and such a joy to be around and work with. I
can’t wait to work with her again soon on a fashion shoot that we are planning
now. Thank you to Sydney Ross for hair, makeup and styling, as always, you are
the best. We’re definitely trying to raise the bar for fashion photography in
Montana. It’s not just flannel and cowboy boots in a field of grass. We’re
inspired by the amazing fashion photography that is happening around the world
right now, and we want to show that we can make high quality work in Billings
Montana, or anywhere else in the world. Check back to for updates in early
2016! <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tips for photographers: This is one of my favorite window
light setups. It’s a go to lighting technique to start the day with because
it’s easy, starting with natural light always get’s your model relaxed, and
this soft lighting is great for beauty shots, which you want to get out of the
way right when the model comes out of hair and makeup. Arley is standing just
in front of a large window, with a piece of white diffusion cloth over it. I am
standing a few feet in front of her, and Sydney is holding a white styrofoam
reflector in between Arley and I that you can clearly see in the catchlight in
the bottom of her eye. Behind me is a pair of 4x8 foot white reflectors creating
a beautiful soft fill light that is flattering for all skin types. I made this
picture with the Sony A7 and Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 at f/2.8.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-3354983095904757882015-10-29T01:56:00.001-06:002015-10-29T01:59:26.133-06:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – BADASS HEADSHOT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Here’s another great example of a badass headshot that we’ve
made recently! The dramatic lighting and bright eyes make for a very striking
image that stands out from the crowd of boring headshots in Billings Montana.
It may be a little too dramatic for some industries, but it’s great for actors,
models, artists and anyone looking for an eye-catching edgy editorial portrait.
It would also make a great professional portrait for anyone wanting to convey
power with their headshots, such as lawyers, business managers and CEO’s. But the
main point is that at Paul Bellinger Photography we can make a headshot or
portrait that is unique just for you, so you will always stand out. Please get
in touch with us if you haven’t updated your professional business portraits or
corporate headshot in Billings Montana recently, we’d love to make something
just for you. <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a><br />
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Tips for photographers: We always make cool portraits and
headshots whenever my friend and talented photographer Zak Jokela comes to
town. We love to hang out in the studio and test different lighting setups. We
never test out new lighting techniques on paying customers, so we have to do a
lot of testing with models, friends, assistants, etc. to work out a new
lighting technique before using it on clients.</div>
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This portrait was inspired by Martin Schoeller and the
basics of the lighting setup are similar to his. The key light is a pair of 8ft
strip boxes just a few feet in front of the subject and the camera is actually
right in between the two strip boxes, which are parallel to each other a little
more than shoulder distance apart, pointed directly at the subject. So you
shoot this portrait standing in between a pair of strip boxes. Schoeller gets
his lights very close to his subjects’ faces, and surrounds them in black so
that the light falloff is deep and natural. We took it a step further by placing
a pair of black flags in-between the strip boxes and Zak’s face to deepen the
shadows on his cheeks and ears. It became our goal to silhouette the ears,
because I guess we don’t like ears to be lit anymore (see my previous post here
for more on that). One tradeoff for using these flags was that they cut into the strip boxes in the catchlights, making for narrower catchlights that what Schoeller usually achieves. Schoeller shoots very close to his subjects with a large
format film camera, so the depth of field is usually shallow. We replicated
that shallow depth of field by using the Sony-Zeiss 55mm at f/2.5 very close,
nearly at minimum focal distance. The background is just a 4x8ft white
reflector a few feet behind the subject. The falloff is so fast that you can
make the background go black pretty easily too, but we liked having the gray
background to create separation from Zak’s silhouette.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-49242575902607065912015-10-26T05:27:00.000-06:002015-10-26T20:05:02.928-06:00MONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER – A PORTRAIT STUDIO FOR YOUR WEDDING DAY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I love this portrait of Alysse and Dan on their wedding day
in Bozeman Montana! A beautiful portrait is so timeless, and so powerful! Sadly,
portraiture is a lost art in todays cell phone photo saturated world. So we
decided to bring a portrait studio to a few weddings this summer and make some elegant
portraits of our couples and their guests all dressed up and looking great.
This portrait of Alysse and Dan is one of my favorites. Their wedding was at
the Big Yellow Barn, so we set up the studio in one of the old stables! Adding
our studio lighting with such a cool location really made for a unique set of
portraits. Thank you to Alysse and Dan for an awesome wedding day and all of
their family and friends for posing for us! Thanks also to Zak Jokela for assisting
and second shooting this wedding with me!<br />
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The idea of a wedding day portrait studio is to make
timeless portraits of the bride and groom, and their guests, looking their
best, with beautiful lighting and posing from a skilled portrait photographer.
It’s an elegant alternative to the wedding day photo booth. With the photo
booth the concept is to look silly for snapshots (similar to cell phone
photography), while our portraits are crafted for style, sophistication and a quality
suitable for making printed photographs. It’s a unique experience for most
guests because for most of them it will be one of the very few times they ever
step into a serious portrait studio. After the wedding these portraits make
great gifts for guests as well. Stay tuned to the blog for more wedding day
portraits coming soon and get in touch with us at <a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/">www.paulbellinger.com</a> if
you’re interested in having a portrait studio at your wedding reception.</div>
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Tips for photographers: The inspiration for setting up a
nice portrait studio on location at an event came from the Vanity Fair Oscar
Party portraits by Mark Seliger. I look forward to the portraits he does each
year, and if you follow him on instagram you can find some behind the scenes
photos and videos of the set and lighting that he uses. In this case we were
limited by the size of the stable we were shooting in. We set up a large,
6-foot silver bounce umbrella in the stable next door camera left and covered
it with a piece of white diffusion cloth so that it created a large soft light
as our key light. The key light was just a foot or two above head height, as
high as we could get it in the stable. For a fill light we used a 4-foot white
bounce umbrella behind the camera to the left also above head height. By
placing this light further away it creates an even fill, with little falloff
compared to the key light that is closer to the subject. We also had two 4x8 foot white styrofoam reflectors out frame camera right for fill on the shadow side of the subjects. These 4x8 foot reflectors also prevented a color cast from the key light bouncing off the other side of the wooden stable. It’s fun shooting
these portraits because they have to go somewhat quickly, but yet still require
thoughtful posing, so you’re working really hard and fast and for me that’s
exciting.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-11622019568975545282015-10-21T14:47:00.002-06:002015-10-26T05:33:46.600-06:00MONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER – PRETTIER IN MONTANA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Wow, there’s probably no prettier combination than a
stunning bride in the mountains! Add in a gorgeous dress and the perfect
bouquet and it’s a masterpiece. I’m very lucky to live in beautiful Montana, it
seems like everything is prettier here! Of course I’m spoiled to also be
surrounded by great people, Montanans and otherwise, that give me the
opportunity to photograph them in epic locations. McKenzie and Tyrel’s
Beartooth wedding at Emerald Lake was about as epic as you can get. They tied
the knot with an intimate wedding on the dock surrounded by their closest
family and Montana’s tallest mountains. This is just a sneak peek of the
beautiful bride and her bouquet from Katie at Mac’s Floral, who totally outdid
herself I must say. Stay tuned for more to come from this Beartooth Mountain
wedding. For more information about my wedding photography please visit the
<a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/" target="_blank">Montana wedding photography website by clicking here</a>.</div>
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I am lucky to be one of Montana’s most sought after wedding
photographers and I am indebted to my amazing clients for trusting me to make
the wedding artwork that will become one of their most cherished family
heirlooms. The pictures that I make at weddings will be looked at for generations,
perhaps forever, and that gives me a great responsibility as a wedding
photographer that I take very seriously. In return I give my everything for
each and every wedding. I will go anywhere and do anything to make the artwork
of your dreams. How do you dream of being photographed? <a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/">www.paulbellinger.com</a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-6970944281112627852015-10-19T01:56:00.000-06:002015-10-19T21:12:48.578-06:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – A FINE ART PORTRAIT SERIES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I’m very happy to show these three portraits from a new
series of fine art portraits. Portraiture is something of a lost art in
Billings Montana, being a small city in a remote part of the country, our
portraits usually consist of a person standing in a field, or on a gravel road
somewhere in bright sunlight, smiling at the camera. But elsewhere in the world
portraiture is thriving as an art that is far more complex and nuanced. Just
look at any magazine rack and you’ll see diversely crafted portraits
everywhere. Why? Because portraits are powerful, we make an immediate
connection when we see a portrait. The goal of this portrait series is to show
off the power of the portrait, to show that we can make fine art portraits in
Billings Montana that are made with the same techniques that master portrait
photographers are using around the world, and in doing so we can show Billings
that we don’t have to settle for anything less. To schedule a portrait sitting
please visit <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a>. Read on to learn about the
inspiration and hard work that went into making these portraits.<br />
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<div>
Tips for photographers: Well I imagine this will become a
long-winded story because it seems like I’ve been thinking about these photos
for months now, and it took five sessions to get comfortable with the lighting
setup and really start making portraits. It all started with Gregory Heisler’s
book “50 portraits,” which I’ve been reading for almost a year every time I
visit my friend and mentor Ken Jarecke, who always let’s me browse his library (as
long as I wash my hands first). A couple of months ago I read about a portrait
where Heisler was praising the use of a ring light to create a “shadowless”
fill light (p. 86). I made a mental note of it, but didn’t rush out and buy a
ring light or anything like that. Perhaps a month later I saw a portrait of
Kareem Abdul Jabar by Dan Winters on twitter and it was so striking to me that
I started an all out binge on everything Dan Winters I could get my hands on
(look at my twitter feed @paulbellinger to find a retweet of the Kareem portrait).
Of course Ken had Winters’ book “Road to Seeing,” so I spent a few hours with
it before buying my own copy soon after. I noticed that for a lot of my
favorite portraits, Winters often used a ring light too. There is a
strobist.com post about Winters that has a behind the scenes video of Dan
shooting Jack Nicklaus and even has quotes from Dan saying that he prefers to
use the ring light mostly for the catch light it creates, and less for fill
when possible (<a href="http://strobist.blogspot.com/2012/06/annotated-bts-dan-winters-shoots-jack.html" target="_blank">click here to view</a>).
I set about trying to replicate a Dan Winters look, specifically to achieve a
similar lighting effect as seen in his portraits of Tom Hanks and Benedict
Cumberbatch.</div>
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Analyzing Winters photos was the starting point. In the
photos of Hanks (<a href="http://www.danwintersphoto.com/#/P%20E%20O%20P%20L%20E/A%20C%20T%20O%20R%20S/21/thumbs" target="_blank">click here</a>)
and Cumberbatch (<a href="http://www.danwintersphoto.com/#/P%20E%20O%20P%20L%20E/O%20V%20E%20R%20V%20I%20E%20W/2/thumbs" target="_blank">click here</a>)
the key light is hard, casting a sharp shadow and it's coming from camera right. Hanks is short lit, meaning his
face is turned toward the key light so that the key light hits the short side of
his face first and casts a shadow on the broad side. The shadow pattern on the
broad side is a perfect Rembrandt triangle. Cumberbatch is broad lit, meaning
his face is turned away from the light so that the light hits the broad side of
his face first, casting a shadow on the short side, also with a tiny Rembrandt
triangle. Whether the lighting is broad or short is somewhat obscured in these
photos because there are shadows on both sides of the faces, but just look at
the nose shadows to determine the direction and quality of the key light. The
prominent shadow on the key light side of the faces is created by a flag,
something that blocks the light to cut the light down in an area of the frame
(I use black foam core but there are specially made flags you can buy too).
This use of the flag on the key light side of the subject is what drew me to
the Kareem Abdul Jabar photo in the first place, it has a very dramatic effect
that makes the face really stand out from the rest of the image. The edge of
the shadow is hard indicating that the light source is hard, and the flag is
relatively closer to the subject than the light source (the closer the flag gets
to the light, the softer the light will be one the flag and it will wrap around
the edge, casting a softer shadow).</div>
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<div>
Okay so that was a lot of information about the key light,
now for the fill light. Winters is a master at using a hard light source as a
key light, something that’s usually not recommended because it’s difficult to
do. He’s also a master of giving just enough fill light to bring up the shadows
and give his portraits the feeling of a classic painted portrait. Remember this
whole thing started with an idea from Heisler using a ring light as a fill
light and Winters using it for the catch light? Both of the portraits in
question show tiny catch lights in the center of the eyes, so we can guess it
was a ring light or another hard light source very close to being on camera. If
you scroll through Winters’ portraits you’ll see the ring light often as tiny
catch light right in the center of the eye. So the ring light provides some
fill, but this is supplemented by an additional fill source, a large and soft
light source also on the same axis as the camera, usually directly behind the
photographer at camera height. This super soft fill light envelops the subject
and softens up the shadows from the hard key light. I figured this out by Googling
“Dan Winters behind the scenes,” turning up a video of the Time magazine shoot
with Cumberbatch that we’ve been analyzing (<a href="https://vimeo.com/118149379" target="_blank">click here to view</a>). The
ring light and large fill light are shown at 55 seconds in the video. You can
also see this same basic setup in the Jack Nicklaus video linked on the
strobist page above. Lastly, in the pictures we are analyzing Winters uses a
background light somewhat dramatically to create a vignette and to separate the
subject from the background. The vignette is obvious and the separation is
clear, even the darkest shadowy edges of Hanks and Cumberbatch are visibly
separated from the background by a sharp line of contrast.</div>
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<div>
After figuring everything out in my head, it took five
sessions to get comfortable with the lighting and start dialing it in. To
start, my friend and lighting partner in crime Zak came to the studio and we
set up the lights using a bare strobe with small reflector as the key light. I
still haven’t bought a ring light, so we used a 22-inch metallic beauty dish directly
above the camera and slightly to the right to simulate the ring light catch
light. At some point we put the white diffusion sock on the beauty dish to
reduce it’s output as low as it could go. The fill came from a large octa-box
also just above the camera and to the left side of the camera. Due to my small
studio and the wider composition, we couldn’t fit it behind the camera so it
had to be slightly to the side. The background light is an 18-inch gridded
beauty dish a few feet above and behind the subject. I like my background
lights either above or to the side of my subjects so they don’t come into the
frame during full body portraits, but if you don’t have a nice boom stand then
you could easily put them on a regular stand behind the subject, or even on the
floor for poses like these.</div>
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<div>
It sounds like that should be it, but it isn’t. Finding the
right ratio between the key light and the fill lights is really difficult. If
you have too much fill the key gets washed out and is not as dramatic, but not
enough fill and the shadows go black. This is really what I love about Dan
Winters’ portraits, the shadows appear dark in contrast to the key light, yet
even the darkest shadows on Hanks and Cumberbatch’s faces are not black. In
dark hair, or on dark fabric, sure there might be some black in the frame, but
never on the face thanks to the fill light. I wanted as wide of an aperture as
possible to shorten the depth of field, but to achieve the right ratios we had
to be flexible. I like to start by testing each light one by one, starting with
the fill because it’s really the base, then the key and then background.
Sometimes I do it in a different order, but this is how I like it. The fill
lights were at minimum power and we were at f/8 ISO 50 so that was our base
exposure and we tested the key and background from there until we got them
situated right. It sounds simple but over the five sessions it was the fill to
key ratio that required the most tweaking.</div>
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<div>
Next come the flags on the key light. One vertical flag just
out of frame camera right creates a vertical shadow on the face and blocks the
key light from hitting the ear. From there we noticed the key light was
lighting up the hands of the subject too much, they were distracting from the
face, so we clipped a horizontal flag to the vertical flag to block the key
light from hitting anything below the subjects chin. We also felt the foreheads
were a little too bright, so we put another horizontal flag to cut the light
down on the forehead. The forehead flag is a little closer to the key light
than the other two, so its shadow line is a little softer. Overall our flag shadows
are softer than in the two Winters portraits we’ve discussed, because we chose
a wide composition where our flags can’t be as close to the subject. It’s a
tradeoff, you can make the flag shadows harder by bringing the flags closer to
the subject, but then your composition will be limited to a closer crop.
Dealing with three flags, I eventually found it best to put each one on a
separate stand so they can be adjusted independently. The nice thing about
placing flags in front of such a hard light source is that it’s pretty obvious
with the modeling light where your shadows will fall, so there is no guesswork. <a href="https://instagram.com/pjbellinger/" target="_blank">Follow me on instagram @PJBellinger</a> to see occasional behind the scenes photos.</div>
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<div>
These three portraits were made after thinking about this
idea for over a month, and from my fifth session with this lighting setup. I
put a lot of time in because I’m dedicated to mastering my craft. I did tests
with my friends, with myself, and my team, and each time I would look at the
photos and make notes on what I wanted to change. At first we had the subject
too close to the background, which was causing the fill to illuminate the
background too much, ruining our dramatic vignette. We broke down the entire
set and shifted it 90 degrees to better utilize my small studio. We surrounded
the set with black foam core to make sure there wasn’t any light bouncing
around, except for the white ceiling of course (wish I could paint it black!). It
was a labor of love and dedication and I’m only now comfortable with this
setup, but I’m not finished perfecting it.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-86360232404580512532015-10-05T23:38:00.000-06:002015-10-06T13:05:35.049-06:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – BADASS HEADSHOT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My brother in law Babu is awesome, so I thought it was only
fitting to make him a badass headshot when he was in town this summer. A Badass
Portrait (or Badass Headshot) is something new that I’ve been introducing to
Billings Montana. One of Montana’s slogans is that “Montana is for Badasses,”
so the badass portrait is one that made with an equal amount of badass as
Montana itself. Really, it’s an editorial portrait that can take on many forms,
whatever may be influencing me at the moment, or an idea that I come up with in
response to a specific subject matter. This particular look for a headshot is
inspired by Marco Grob, a renowned photographer who shoots a lot of magazine
covers. So just think of your badass portrait as your very own cover photo.
Book at <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a><br />
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<div>
Tips for photographers: This is one of my favorite lighting
techniques that I learned from studying the work of Marco Grob. I’ve written
about the basics of the technique in the past <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2015/06/billings-montana-portrait-photographer_30.html">here</a>. The most important thing about this lighting
technique is using a flag (black foam core in this case) to create a shadow on
the same side of the face that the key light is coming from (camera right in this case). You can make the
shadow hard or soft according to your taste, and you can make the shadow broad
or narrow, but try to at least reduce the exposure on the ear. The key light in
this case is a strip box very close to Babu, just out of the frame on the
right. Two beauty dishes are behind Babu on 45 degree angles to create the
kicker lighting. Other than that the set is closed off very tightly with black
foam core to absorb any stray light and keep the shadows dark with very little
light filling in the shadows.</div>
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<div>
I like shadowy portraits and I usually like short side
Rembrandt lighting for that reason. And that’s fine, the flag doesn’t change
much for short light Rembrandt lighting. But when the subject turns and broad
lights themselves, the flag reigns them in by putting a shadow on the broad lit
side of the face and obscuring the ear which could otherwise get brighter than
the face depending on the lighting setup. Don't understand the difference between short light and broad light? Read about broad lighting <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2014/12/billings-senior-portrait-photographer.html">here</a> and short lighting <a href="http://blog.paulbellinger.com/2014/12/billings-mt-corporate-headshot.html">here</a>. This headshot of Babu is an example of broad lighting with the key light.</div>
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<div>
This was one of my favorite sessions because Babu is a great
guy and part of my family, but he said something during the shoot that really
stuck with me. Using flags on light stands makes a cluttered set and you have
to constantly adjust them and the position of the subject to put the shadow
right where you want it. It makes for a longer shoot than I’d normally prefer
and would recommend using an assistant for that reason. But Babu said during the
shoot that he thought it was really nice that I was fussing so much over the
lighting and that “people must feel very important when they are photographed
by you.” That was a great complement even from an obviously biased family
member.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-27995329653702710712015-09-30T00:54:00.000-06:002015-09-30T00:54:08.217-06:00MONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER – RIHANNA IN LONDON<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-RCQt34Q/0/XL/A7ii_20150903_62295-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20ri%20ri%20picadilly%20circus%20bw-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-GsZhHL9/0/XL/A7ii_20150903_62294-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20ri%20ri%20picadilly%20circus%20bw-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-NZCvmtR/0/XL/A7ii_20150903_62299-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20ri%20ri%20picadilly%20circus%20bw-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
I had the good fortune of going to London recently for a
honeymoon shoot as part of Carrie and Jake’s wedding photography. We call it a
honeymoon session, or a day after session, and we offer worldwide travel for
these kinds of shoots, but this post is not about that. As usual, no matter
where I go or why I am there, I always like to make personal photos along the
way. I made these one night when my wife and I were at Picadilly Circus,
scouting some nighttime locations for the upcoming shoot. I really enjoy
shooting at night and searching out light to work with. I noticed these new ads
for Rihanna’s Puma campaign and thought they would make a nice soft light for a
night time portrait if the opportunity should arise. As I was looking around at
all of the lighting options, soaking in this busy corner at night, I made a few
frames of people passing by this Rihanna ad. Looking at the photos later found
it striking that three different women all had similar hairstyles and were each
carrying a purse on their shoulder in the same way. I think they go well together!
And of course I’m a huge Rihanna fan.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tips for photographers: Keep your camera with you all the
time. Countless photographers have given me this advice, countless times, but
it never fails to amaze me that the second I don’t have my camera something
catches my eye to photograph. I have recently started switching from Canon to
Sony for this very reason: my Canon is too big of a beast to carry around
casually and I found myself shooting on my iphone more than anything. When I
saw these new smaller mirrorless camera bodies for the first time I knew it was
the answer to my problem of leaving my camera behind, and I quickly settled in
on Sony as the brand of choice, specifically the A7 series of full frame
cameras and Zeiss lenses. Now I have a very small kit with the Sony A7ii and a
few Zeiss lenses that can go anywhere with me, and it’s the only camera I carry
when I’m travelling overseas. Often I will simply grab my A7ii with a 35mm on
it and go. I’m not saying you should switch cameras, but just do whatever it
takes to keep a camera with you and be ready for pictures when they happen in
front of you.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I am Paul Bellinger, one of Montana’s much sought after
wedding photographers. My studio is located in downtown Billings Montana, and I
am available for any wedding destination around the world. I put everything I
have into making the wedding pictures of your dreams, and I’ll go anywhere and
do anything to make those dreams come true. From the mountains to the islands,
there is no wedding destination too far or too difficult for me and my team of
wedding photographers. Get in touch with us at <a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/">www.paulbellinger.com</a><div class="MsoNormal">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-63459470677306173992015-09-29T13:40:00.000-06:002015-09-29T13:40:04.415-06:00MONTANA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER – EPIC BOZEMAN MONTANA WEDDING<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-9sPfX5K/0/XL/5DMIII_20150912_67071-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20wedding%20photographer%2C%20AD%20soft%20light-XL.jpg" /></a></div>
Wow, this was an awesome wedding from top to bottom. It was beautiful,
unique, and so much fun for everyone in attendance. Alysse and Daniel
definitely know how to throw a party in style. This is just one of the many
jaw-dropping views at the Big Yellow Barn outside of Bozeman MT. Consider this
a sneak peek of things to come. Special thanks to the bride and groom and all
of their family and friends for being so cool, Meredith Curtin and her team for
coordinating the day so wonderfully, and my army of one, Zak Jokela for
shooting along side of me.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tips for brides: This one is straight from Alysse and she coined this phrase. Instead of being "bride-zilla" just relax and be "bride-chilla"! Ha! I love that!<br /><div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/">Paul Bellinger Photography is based in Billings Montana</a> and
specializes in epic, fine art, wedding photography. We are dedicated to making
beautiful pictures and will go anywhere and do anything to make the wedding
artwork of your dreams. Contact us for your destination wedding here:
<a href="http://www.paulbellinger.com/">www.paulbellinger.com</a><div class="MsoNormal">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-24218915110525186942015-09-25T03:59:00.000-06:002015-09-25T04:20:09.178-06:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – VANITY FAIR ACTOR HEADSHOT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-4z8qcF3/0/X2/A7ii_20150824_61829-Edit-5%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20keoni%20final%20contrast%20bw-X2.jpg" /></a></div>
This was a fun headshot to make for
model/dancer/photographer Keoni, who is also a new assistant at Paul Bellinger
Photography. Keoni has been helping out in the studio and frequently sits in to
model for lighting tests so that everything is ready when clients arrive and
they can be in and out quickly. Usually the night before a client shoot I will
have Keoni come in to the studio and help me plan the shoot and set up the
various lighting arrangements that I will use the next day. But sometimes we
just like to experiment with new looks, such as this one, which was inspired
from an actor headshot in Vanity Fair by photographer Cyrill Matter. This is a
wonderful headshot look for people in creative professions, or anyone who wants
a very soft and approachable look, and it works well with formal or informal
clothing options. The lighting is crisp, yet the focus is soft, so it’s a very
unique look that will stand out from the rest of the crowd. Visit
<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a> to book a sitting in our downtown Billings
Montana portrait studio.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tips for photographers: The setup for this photo is inspired
by a portrait of Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis by Cyrill Matter in the September 2015
issue of Vanity Fair. Cyrill’s image is a crisp black and white with very
shallow depth of field, big soft front lighting with quick falloff and a little
bit of back lighting to highlight the edges of the actor’s face. I found the
look to be very striking, and it was the most remarkable image in the issue to
me, and so I bought a copy pretty much just for that one photo (the rest of the
issue wasn’t that great in my opinion). The Day-Lewis portrait is the first
image you see on Cyrill’s website here: <a href="http://www.cyrillmatter.com/">www.cyrillmatter.com</a>. The photo reminds me of a quote from David Bailey: “I just
want very sophisticated passport pictures really - which are quite hard to
do!" Mission accomplished Cyrill.<br />
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To replicate the look, my first thought was to use window
light so that I could shoot at a wide aperture for shallow depth of field, and
the catchlight in Cyrill’s portrait kind of looks like a window or a big soft
box directly behind the photographer, slightly to the camera right to give just
a touch of shadow on one side for added dimension. To create the edge light I
used two silver reflectors behind Keoni out of frame on each side (I use the
metallic side of the insulation Styrofoam you can get at a hardware store or
lumber yard). The background is a 4x8 foot white reflector about two feet
behind Keoni. I’ll post a bts setup selfie on instagram @PJBellinger if you’re
curious to see. This photo was made with a Sony A7ii, Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens at
f/2, 1/160<sup>th</sup> of a second and ISO 200.</div>
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Overall I like the look, it’s very clean and crisp, yet soft
and unusual with the shallow depth of field that will certainly stand out of
the corporate headshot crowd. It’s easy to setup and the shallow depth of field
makes retouching a breeze. The one drawback is that shooting with such shallow
depth of field makes getting the eyes sharp a little tricky, so you have to
know how to focus your camera very accurately. For studio work I always use
manual focus with the focus peeking feature and manual focus assist on the Sony
A7ii, which essentially zooms in on the image in the electronic viewfinder so
you can check focus very accurately, especially when the eyes light up with
focus peeking. I really like this feature and it’s fun to shoot in manual and
it’s also fun to nail the focus every time. These features are some of the main
perks of having an electronic viewfinder.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8019485071766389263.post-55782504297131846382015-09-21T20:54:00.000-06:002015-09-21T20:54:03.621-06:00BILLINGS MONTANA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – TWO SPECIAL PORTRAITS FROM ALASKA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-G22wz6D/1/X2/A7ii_20150730_57385-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20aunt%20bonnie%20bw-X2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/"><img border="0" src="https://paulbellinger.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-R8dSXtz/0/X2/A7ii_20150730_57356-Edit%2C%20paul%20bellinger%20billings%20montana%20portrait%20photographer%2C%20ken%20bw-X2.jpg" /></a></div>
I love to travel and I love to make portraits of the people
I meet along the way. It’s always special, but these portraits are extra
special because this is my grand Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Ken. Aunt Bonnie is my grandpa’s
sister, the aunt of my dad and his siblings. She’s always lived in Alaska since
I’ve known her and we don’t see her very often as a result, even though she’s
always been special because she’s the much younger and better looking only
sister of my grandpa and their brother. Bonnie and Ken graciously hosted my
cousin and I on our great Alaskan roadtrip when we were in Fairbanks for a day
and a half, showing us some warm Alaskan hospitality. They gave us the family
treatment, complete with hot breakfasts for two mornings and two hot showers
each. It was a relief after driving relentlessly for just over 4 days. They
shared some fantastic stories about my grandpa and my dad’s generation, and
they made time to sit for me briefly before taking us out to dinner. I’m very
happy to have been able to make these portraits of my family and these
portraits will always remind me of the importance of having beautiful photos of
the people you love, and I’ll never take it for granted. Thank you for sitting
for me Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Ken, and thanks for the hospitality you showed us!<div>
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Tips for photographers: These photos are lit using window
light with no modifiers of any kind. The room was basically white, but we
closed all of the other windows and doors and there was enough distance behind
the subject for the light to falloff into black. This was only possible because
I made the falloff extremely fast by placing the subject as close to the light
source as possible, which was basically in my lap. Yes these were intimate
portraits in more ways than one. Looking back at these photos I noticed they
looked a little different, with Ken’s having more contrast and detail and
Bonnie’s being a little softer. The apertures are 2.8 for Ken and 2.2 for
Bonnie, so I thought that was it. But then I noticed that I actually changed
lenses between these two portraits (which seems crazy remembering how fast
these were made), using the Zeiss 55mm 1.8 for Ken and the Zeiss Loxia 35mm 2
for Bonnie. The differences are pretty obvious so I’ll just leave it up to you
to decide which look you prefer. <a href="http://www.portraits.paulbellinger.com/">www.portraits.paulbellinger.com</a><div class="MsoNormal">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03783597995386506507noreply@blogger.com0