Exposures Photography

classic portrait

2012-02-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

This is a good example of a classic portrait shot with one light, a 36" soft box using one Elinchrom 500.
This image has no post production touch ups to show how good a job a soft box can do even on a person over the age of thirty (you didn't think I was going to mention her real age did you). Knowing how to use your lighting in my opinion is more important than how many lights you have or how expensive your lights are.Of course if you need a ton power to illuminate a stage or what ever large area you need to light up, you would need more power and more lights. But again it comes down to understanding lighting and not just buying the most expensive strobes or which ever type of lighting you would use on the market.
I also find a great many purists shoot every portrait at 100 or 200 ISO (or ASA for you old folks), that not always necessary with the low noise camera's out today. Having some noise can offer a sometimes pleasant change from super sharp and clean 100 ISO shots, it's always good to try something different.
And on a final note just remember the definition of photography it's drawing with light.

Toronto Hip Hop band photo shoot

2012-01-16T16:42:00.000-08:00

Here's my favourite photo from a photo shoot for a hip hop band that I did last fall .This shoot was completely shot indoors in my photo studio and photoshop effects were done in post production.

The lighting used for this was a combination of soft boxes, barn doors, bare bulb light and snoots with my Elinchrom 500 strobes for those interested in lighting set-ups and equipment used.
In the post production I tried to create different moods and looks ranging from fantasy, grunge and modern to retro.
For the 2nd image below I tried using a fan to get the windblown look but between the hair extensions and hair spray she had put on her hair, the fan just wouldn't work, so I had to just go back to the old "swing your hand around and pose when you get to the camera" technique.

This photo shoot was shot with the clients using the shots for their website, promotional print materials and album cover art.

Shooting portraits of this type are always fun because I get to be more creative than say doing passport photos (which I do everyday).When working with other artists and having a good understanding of what they want and they see in the photos that we are heading down that road, the creative process gets pumped up and the results end up speaking for themselves.

Photo studio Isabel's portrait

2012-01-09T19:10:00.000-08:00

Here is the last portrait I did in my studio at the end of last year (Dec. 30, 2011). It was a great way to end the year with a subject like Isabel. She was great at following instructions and was able to show me a variety of expressions and was effortless to shoot. Great job Isabel your a natural. I think the results speak for themselves. Hard to believe that we were able to get this variety of shots in less than 40 minutes. My favorite is the one with the red scarf. For me, it's all about the expression in the eyes and there is probably a subconscious liking to photo's with scarves that date back to the first time I saw the famous Afghani woman in National Geographic. Maybe I am just trying to replicate it somehow but that's not going to happen.

That's all for now.

2011-09-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone this is my first post.
My name is John Carvalho and I do my shooting in my Toronto downtown photo studio.
I've been shooting portraits and I have been a wedding photographer for over 22 years.
I find lots of good blogs to be artistically motivating and/or greatly educational (wow I never thought of that). That said, I would like my first blog to just show my work. I want to hear your feedback but for now it's just baby steps until I get used to this.
So, to any bloggers out there leaving feedback, thanks in advance.
The pictures below are of Lily. I shot them a short time ago in my studio. The shoot was intended as a start for her model portfolio.Lily was a pleasure to work with. She followed direction to a "T" and was able to bring out her personality effortlessly which made for a great shoot. Oh and let's not forget that she is incredibly photogenic. Near the end of the shoot I asked Lily if she was any good at jumping? She told me she used to dance, so we went to town with that. My favorite image is of her jumping (dancing) with the yellow skirt (middle of the photos below).
For those interested in the equipment I use, right now I have a Canon 5D mark11 with a Canon 24-105mm lens or a Canon 70-200mm lens. My lights are two Elinchrom 500 w/s strobes, which I use with soft boxes, umbrellas, snoots, barn doors and a number of other light modifiers.

Thanks for reading and happy shooting.