Skip to main content

Stretching The Photography Dollar

Having built my skills as well as my arsenal of photography equipment from the ground up, I have always had a fond appreciation for discovering new ways to stretch my investment dollars and time while avoiding the cheap feel or look.

With this in mind, I recently have been working on collecting studio equipment such as strobes, umbrellas, back drops and various support systems. As I was recently shopping around for backgrounds, I quickly realized they are not cheap. A trip to a few local camera shops in search of 26 foot muslins quickly produced expensive results.


After shopping around, I reached the conclusion that I could spend $150 on a high quality cloth background or $40 on a 10ft roll of paper.

I was left wondering what I should do, then it hit me! Stretch your dollar!

I decided on the more expensive up-front option and purchased a 26ft cloth muslin. My rationale was that the cloth would be more durable than paper, easier to store, convenient to transport, and was long enough to cover a seat/stool with room to spare. Most importantly, it could be flipped over to reveal a second side which offered a second shade of color that could be used to add versatility to my background selections.

The samples above were shot with the same cloth background.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Golden Rule

Photography: Julian Rance Makeup: Monique Branch Model: Erika Chase The Golden Rule is a theme created by make-up artist Monique "Mo" Branch.  After working with Monique on several themed shoots, we decided to kick things up a notch and go in a different direction.  Not only did we call on our muse, Erika , but we also decided it was time to place Mo in front of the camera.  With that in mind, Mo decided to focus on contrasting skin tones, but added a unique twist that included flakes of gold and bronzer that created subtle golden highlights on her and Erika .

Pen Tablet vs. a Mouse for Photo Editing

For a little over a year I have been using a Wacom Intuous4 pen tablet to edit my images and absolutely love it.  As a digital photographer, I enjoy the entire creative process from the moment I power up my Nikon D90 to the final clicks in my Apple Aperture software and now that I can remove the restrictions of using a traditional mouse, I'm having more fun with my digital work flow.

New Studio Space

I would like to announce a wonderful business partnership that has allowed me to secure a studio space just south of Charlotte. I'm looking forward to expanding my creative process as I now have a workspace that is dedicated to photography. I'll make sure I post a few updates such as images and video as I continue to create works of art.