Meet Victor, he was kind enough to come into the studio last week and let me work on some different lighting techniques.

The image above was less about lighting and more about using the circa 1977 Nikon 105mm 2.5 manual focus Ai lens. A very inexpensive lens that is as sharp as they come. You can get some great results with it but you'll need patience, at least for me, 8 out of 10 images that I shoot with it are out of focus. I feel confident that's more my fault than it is the lens' fault. I’m hoping to get to 7 out of 10 with practice.

This was shot with one light, an AlienBee 400; it's in a 4-foot octabank, far right and slightly behind him feathered somewhat towards the backdrop. He’s about three feet away from the backdrop and the octabank is about one foot from his face, right out of the frame. In order to shoot with the lens wide open at 2.5 I've brought the power all the way down to 1/32 on the AB, I think I’m shooting around 1/125 of a second with ISO 125. It looks a lot like this:

The next image was a completely new and experimental lighting set up for me.

This is a two-light set up. The idea here is to use the 4-foot octabank right above Victor, about 10 feet high and about three feet away from him pointed downward and then under exposed 2 stops. I put the second light right in front of the octa with a 10-degree grid on it and used it to expose his face correctly. When I say right in front, I mean that the back of the AB with the grid spot is touching the center of the silk on the octabank. It looks like this:

Although both AB 400s are set to their lowest power of 1/32 and they are basically the same distance away from my subject, there is still two stops between them. The octabank sucks up a good bit of light before throwing it back out and the grid spot just spits it all out in a very narrow beam. This one is shot at 2.8, 1/160 of a second, ISO 125 with a 50mm lens.

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This is a series I did over the weekend for a family member. Senior portraits I guess, I mean, she's a senior and these are her portraits. We only shot for about an hour. We ended up, by accident, at two different abandon grocery stores. It could have been anywhere really, a parking lot or parking garage, an alley, a park, main street anywhere, a bridge, a field, a backyard, creek, river, lake, ocean, it didn't matter.

I have to admit that although I love shooting in the new studio and I think the possibilities associated with having the space are endless and enormously valuable to the growth of my business, there is still a great deal of excitement linked to just grabbing some gear, jumping in the car and driving around looking for opportunity. It's all around.

I went one light for these. It was an AlienBee 1600 and the Vagabond. I mainly used a 24x24 softbox and 40-degree grid. With the exception of the last one, I added a Nikon SB-80 to bring out the cinderblock wall in the foreground.

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Lots of people keep journals, mine just happens to be visual. To help keep me creative, interested and inspired, to help keep what is familiar, unique, I've been shooting pictures with my iPhone and Holga cameras for the past few years. Which has lead me to start experimenting with a lot of different cameras, iPhones, Holgas, point-n-shoots, disposables and now a Polaroid.

It’s not always about the tools, sometimes it’s just about the vision.

The above images are some recent work I’ve been enjoying with an old-school Polaroid Sun600 and PX 600 Silver Shade Instant Film. It has to develop in the dark. I kinda miss those days.

Check out The Impossible Project if you're into the Polaroid thing.

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Nothing to see here, just showing some personal work shot and edited with the new iPhone4.

Last fall I posted a blog on five must-have photo apps for the iPhone, at the time I was using an iPhone 3G. I’m still currently using those five apps as my go-to photo apps, so naturally when I received my iPhone4 last month I wasted no time taking pictures with it and running all the photos through some or all of those apps.

I can’t speak for anyone else using an iPhone4 but I’ve been happy with mine.

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It's been a long and winding road trying to decide where we wanted to set up our home base on this crazy adventure of being a self-employed editorial and commercial photographer. Without the safety net of a staff position we wanted to be sure we were making the best choice for us as a whole. In the end, we decided to set up our camp in the Upstate of South Carolina. Centered in the middle of Asheville NC, Charleston SC, Charlotte NC and Atlanta GA. After all, this is where our friends and families are.

So…

We've been breaking in the new studio space for the past few days. Located at 12 Rutherford Road in Greenville SC, close to downtown it's 1800 square feet, has 14-foot ceilings, and comes with two bathrooms and a dressing room. Having the space will allow us to start building sets, work when it's raining and have a place to educate and be educated. It gets us out of the coffee shops for meetings and gives us an opportunity to create our work under a controlled environment.

The above shots are from a white-seamless set up we did over the weekend with a few Upstate film and theater actors. With the exception of that last droid, that's yours truly.

Interested in a Studio Tour? email info(at)iancurcio(dot)com

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Getting big portraits with little gear isn't as hard as you might think it is. You need a little imagination, that's all. The above image took all of 5 minutes to set up and execute. It was about 5pm, a 100 degrees and we were in the backyard. The below image shows the simple set up, a "28" Westcott softbox", "AlienBee 1600", a "Vagabond" and a box of instant mashed potatoes. It was also shot with a circa 1977 manual focus "105mm 2.5" lens that cost me about $100.

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It's tough times out there. No one will argue that statement, especially not a working photographer. Jobs are far and few in-between and competition is in full swing. I shoot more assignments nowadays were I'm standing next to a soccer mom or Nascar dad with a Nikon D3 and an SB-900 hanging around his or her neck then ever before. As an old newspaper photographer I used to gaffer the name on my cameras so I wouldn’t draw attention to the professional equipment I was using. I'm still doing that today but not for the same reasons.

I poke fun but the situation is a serious one. The old "don’t take $200 assignments" truism is a painful one. As professionals and even the professionals-in-the-making we have to educate or clients and future clients on the value of great photography.

Photography is not much different that anything else out there. You have your Mazda and then you have your Mazarati. There are buyers for both. If you give your client a Mazarati for the price of a Mazda, you're not only hurting yourself but you are hurting your industry. Know how to turn down a job. We simply can’t shoot a $2000 job for $200. It doesn't matter how badly we need to pay rent.

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Anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm a big fan of using lights. I think understanding how and when to setup strobes gives you an advantage over the photographers who do not. It gives you more options and when you need to be visually creative, having and understanding your options is a valuable tool. It also gives you control; there is something to be said for being able to walk into a situation and owning it because you understand how to light it.

But not all assignments are going to require you to light them; some are going to require a different set of skills. Skills like remaining calm while being at the mercy of variables you cannot control and being able to wait patiently for the perfect shot.

While on an editorial assignment last month, it took me two days to get these two shots while it really only took me a few seconds to shoot each one. It was the prep work and waiting that took so long. Waiting for the rain to stop, waiting of the sun to be in the right location, hoping the wind would stop blowing, these were all variable that I could not control. That car you see in the bottom picture, I had to wait for that, there was no big production. Just me and a camera. The skyline shot, I asked forgivness later and not permission first as I scouted out and climbed random rooftops in Charlotte's South End to get that picture. It took patience.

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We had a great group of people come out for the lighting workshop in Charlotte this past weekend. We kicked it on the streets of Uptown for about 9 hours before calling it a day. A big shout out to Anthony and Sarah for hanging out and modeling for us while we explored different lighting techniques and to the security guard who simply looked the other way and didn’t bother hassling us.

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Here are a few images from the shoot I had with David Crow of Floracopeia a few weeks ago. David is a world's expert in the field of botanical medicine, natural health and ecological sustainability and an expert in the Ayurvedic and Chinese medical systems.

He needed a variety of different images to use for his Web sites, promo materials and press kit. He had seen the work I had done for one of his business partners (and long-time friend of mine) here on the East Coast last summer. He had a very specific idea of what he was looking for and wanted to shoot in the San Francisco Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park.

The trip worked out well and was considered more of a working vacation than a full-on assignment. I stayed 4 nights and 5 days with friends and family and was able to offset the cost of the trip by working for one afternoon.

Still, with no assistants and keeping true to having the trip pay for itself, I needed to travel light. No checked bags. So I carried the gear I needed, a body, a few lenses, a couple of Speedlites and the various cords and adapters in my ThinkTank backpack. The Manfrotto 6' Retractable 5 Section Lightstand, as well as the 33" shoot-through umbrella folded neatly into the bottom of my suitcase. And that was it, two bags, all the gear I needed to complete the job and I was able to carry it all onto the plane with me.

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One of my favorite modifies (or light-shaping tools) is the 45" Westcott Convertible Umbrella. If I could only have one modifier it would be this one. It’s like having several modifiers in one and it's only $27.95. You just can't beat that.

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Before heading out to San Francisco last week to work on a commercial shoot, I had made the decision to work on a self assignment as well. You know, one of those GOYA assignments that are motivated by nothing more than the urge to create what you want to create with only the restrictions you've given yourself. And I gave myself plenty.

Working for newspapers and travel magazines I've always had to go out and shoot strangers in the streets. It's either grip and grins for the newspapers or low budget magazine assignments where they need someone doing xyz but can't seem to come out of pocket for a good model. Editors and DOPs are too often saying "just find someone who's already doing xyz and use them". It doesn't matter if it's someone shopping, cycling, dining in a restaurant, whatever; nine times out of 10 it's a stranger already in that situation. And it's our job as assignment photographers to be able to approach them, make them feel comfortable and get a great image out of it. In order to do that we have to feel comfortable ourselves and that's what this project was about.

So I decide that I would get up-close and personal with the different people of SF. My goal was to shoot 12 portraits of 12 strangers in 6 hours and I did it. Knowing that I wanted to be able to light my subjects if needed and I would be moving around the different neighborhoods alone and without an assistant, I chose my lighting set up carefully. I used one Speedlite attached to a monopod with no modifier, that was my set up.

I also chose to shoot exclusively with a 20-35mm lens. I did this for several of reasons; first, I wanted to feel comfortable getting into their space and I wanted them to feel comfortable allowing me into their space, after all, that's what the exercise was about. Second, I wanted to be able to show some of the environment that each subject was in and the wide angle allowed me to do that. Third, being close to my subjects allowed me to easily light them from above or the side holding my Speedlite on the monopod. And forth, I walked around the Mission, Castro, Haight-Ashbury and Golden Gate Park without ever allowing any of my gear to leave my hands. It was very minimal, a camera in one hand and a light on a stick in the other.

It did and always does get easier as I went along. I found that about half the people I approached would say yes while the other half would say no and of the half that said no, all of them were very polite and respectful about it.

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One of the things I enjoy the most about providing a service is that I have the option to take advantage of the barter system. As a photographer, especially for aspiring photographers, bartering can be a great tool. It's a great way to add to your portfolio and it's the perfect way to hand pick your assignments. Don't misunderstand me here, this is not shooting for free or undercutting other photographers, this is a straight up trade; my service/product in exchange for your service/product. I've bartered, a year's worth of haircuts for me and my family, I've bartered a credit to some of the best farm-to-table restaurants around, I've even bartered plane tickets and vacation time across the country and they're all assignment I'm proud to show, blog about and put into my portfolio.

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1. Just because you shoot something doesn’t mean you have to show it. If you want to market yourself as a commercial photographer and you just shot the best wedding of your life – don’t show it in your portfolio.

2. There is a fine line between being a versatile photographer and the jack-of-all-trades. You don’t have to specialize but don’t let your portfolio be all over the place either.

3. Show the work you want to get hired to shoot even if you have to shoot self assignments to get it. If you show food in your portfolio, you’ll get asked to shoot food. If you show family portraits in your portfolio you’ll get asked to shoot family portraits. Don’t worry, those jobs you don’t like to shoot but pay you, will still come.

4. Don’t self edit, even the best photographers can get emotionally attached to an image that’s not their best. Everyone needs a good editor on their side and it’s not your mom.

5. Be socially active. Use social media. Talk about yourself and your work. Act like you already have the job. Create a blog and update it often with worthy information. What good is it to have a banging portfolio if no one knows about it?

6. Spend the $10 to get a domain name because an online portfolio with yourname.someothershit.com isn’t worth looking through.

7. If you have an iPhone or any smart phone and you’re not carrying your portfolio on it you’re wasting an opportunity to show your work to everyone you meet.

8. A gallery with more than 18 image is too big and less than 8 is too small.

9. Consider having multiple portfolios or Web sites if you have multiple interests.

10. Update often. Don’t be stale. Keep things fresh.

I'll be taking in Richard Ellis' lecture for the SC Chapter of ASMP at The Art Institute in Charleston South Carolina on Saturday, February 27th. After that I’m going to be taking part in student consultations beginning with a round-table discussion on the basics and techniques of what makes a good portfolio. If you live in the area I hope to see you there.

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I'll be teaching a two-part-off-camera flash workshop at The Light Factory in Charlotte NC on April 10th and 17th. First and foremost this workshop is about taking your flash off of your camera and either holding it, putting it on a stand, taping it to a wall or setting it on top of something and sticking stuff in front of it. From there we'll just keep digging deeper. It's about how to get magazine quality photographs with a minimal amount of equipment. It's about why lighting an object isn't much different than lighting a person. It's about lighting landscapes. It's about adding light, mixing light, coloring light, choosing light, shaping light….light light light.

It's about walking into a space and lighting it from the ground up. I come from a background in editorial -assignment photography. I'm usually alone, rarely do I have an assistant and I've almost never been to the place or met the person I'm about to be photographing. I assess the environment, person and/or object and the lighting quickly becomes subject and location-driven. It's about coming up with epic ideas and executing them on the spot.

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I've been looking at photography like music lately. I've heard musicians say they can hear the sound in their heads but they're not satisfied until they can get that same sound to come out of the speakers. Well I feel the same way about lighting a photograph. There are times I can see the light in my head and I'm not satisfied until I can see that same light in my prints. As photographers we need to learn to "feel" our light, much in the same way a musician "feels" their music.

No doubt we need to have our technical skills down. A musician doesn't just pick up a guitar or sit down at a piano and start producing timeless music without an understanding of the chords or notes, without knowing what A, B, C, D, E, F and G means. A photographer isn't going to pick up a camera and start creating mind-blowing images using flashes without an understanding of shutter speed, aperture, ISO, flash power and flash-to-subject-distance.

And in the same way musicians forget about all those technical aspects of music when they're grooving along and feeling the music, photographers need to be able to put all the technical aspects aside when shooting and groove along as they're feeling their light. You don't think Jimmy Page or Elton John knows each note by name as they are hitting them do you? They feel those notes, they feel what is coming next, they aren't always thinking about it. It's true that not all great musicians can read music and I don't think it's necessary for all great photographers to be able to spit out math equations all day long either. We need to learn our tools and then we need to feel with them.

I understand that can be easier said than done. I cannot tell you how many times I've been trying to find my groove when lighting something and I just keep failing at it miserably. It's during those times I start to doubt myself as a photographer. I think I suck and I have no business trying to put my name out into the industry's wave of professional photographers. But the truth is that not even the best musician can walk into the studio and complete a Grammy-award-winning album in one take. Hours are spent trying to perfect those sounds, tweaking those rifts, changing this and changing that and lighting anything in photography whether it's a person, building, plate of food, whatever, is exactly the same. It takes time, practice, trial and error and in the very end, even the most perfectly-technical lit picture isn't going to resonate with your viewers at all if you aren’t feeling your light.

Disclaimer: I shot the above photograph of Radiohead’s frontman Thom Yorke at Bonnaroo in 2006 and did not light it. Those are stage lights and I was one of about 50 photographers stepping on each other for the first three songs.

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