A little while back I had the opportunity to do headshots for a guy that’s not only my friend, but also my SEO/SEM consultant. Charles Lumpkin is as good as they get in my opinion when it comes to paid search. If you’re looking for someone with that area of expertise, give him a call today. I don’t think I’ve ever been around him when I haven’t learned something.

Anyway, he came to me during the middle of a personal rebranding and asked for some headshots reflecting his new style. I knew exactly how I wanted to play this. With such a handsome subject, my job was a cakewalk.

Unfortunately the day we were shooting was also the main day of the Atlanta flooding. This sent us into his office for most of the day. Using a custom 6′ wide roll of seamless paper (and by “custom” I mean I ripped it off the end of a wider roll), I was able to grab these two high key images.

I especially like this next one. Maybe it’s the photo journalist in me, but I love shooting people while they’re working. He had some stuff to get done, so I just said “Work away while I shoot.” This is a shot of an actual expert in the wild.

Later that afternoon, the rain stopped. Sorry ladies, he’s taken.

This is one of my favorite locations. If you time it right, you can make it look like traffic stands still for your subject. Plus it’s always fun to stand precariously in the middle of the street waiting for the light to change.

Today I’m starting a photography tip series on keeping your photos sharp. I’m not sure how many episodes will end up in this series, but it should be fun.
daniel

Transcript:

Hey photographers, Daniel Roberts here for FreshEdgePhoto.com. Today we’re going to be talking about how to keep your photos really crisp and sharp, using the shutter.

Now, shutter speed is a… It’s just one of those things you’re going to have to get used to, to some degree, but I want to provide you with some tools that will give you a good guideline.

First, you want to make sure that your shutter speed is at least equal to the focal length of your lens. Now, that’s kind of for the old 35mm film days. A lot of the newer digital cameras are using crop sensors, so you’re going to have to multiply and do some math. Think 1.5 times roughly. So, if you’re using a 50mm lens… 75. So you wouldn’t want a shutter speed less than 1/75 of a second. My camera is full frame so with a 50mm lens you wouldn’t want it less than 1/50 of a second. A 200mm lens, like I’m using to record this with. It’s a nice long lens, so 1/200 of a second. Ok, so that’ll kind of keep your handheld shots from shake.

The second part to this is that at some point you’re just going to be shaky, so at that point it just depends by person. You’re going to get a feel for this over time, but try and keep it above 1/15 of a second. Somewhere in there is where most people start to get shaky. If you can prop up against something, that help. Of course there’s always monopods, tripods, and all that kind of stuff.

There’s your tip for the day. I hope you enjoy it. You can find more of me, Daniel Roberts, at FreshEdgePhoto.com. Thank you.