The Pro Photo Business Forum

Each week the PPBF gives its readers a new challenge designed to help their studios grow. Sometimes the assignment involves shooting, and sometimes the assignment calls for a particular action to be taken. Whatever the assignment, you can be sure we will do our best to help you grow as a professional photographer, and not just as a photographer.

Congratulations to Last Weeks Challenge Winner, Michael Bromley Photography!

This Week’s Challenge:

Create An Executive Portrait!

When I went to college, I already knew I was put on this planet to be a photographer. My goal was simple. When I graduated, I wanted to be so prepared that I could take on any kind of photographic assignment. Food, architecture, family, landscape.

Well, this is what I want this month’s challenge to do for you. This is the PRO Photo Business Forum. If you are an amateur photographer, then this is going to bring you one step closer to becoming a professional, and unless you are an extremely successful professional photographer, you are going to need to take whatever kind of job comes your way. So lets get you prepared.

This week, I want you to photograph an Executive Portrait. Your finished portrait does not have to be created in a studio. It can be done in someone’s office, or wherever you like for that matter. It should be sellable.

Approach this assignment like a real shoot. Not that it is part of the contest, but I want you to also think about how you will be delivering this image to your client. Will it be on a DVD, or will you send them a link allowing them to download their image directly from their computer? How long a turnaround time will you promise your finished product in?

First Place Prize:  Three Months of Free Access to the PPBF.

If you are already a member, then your current subscription will be extended by an additional three months. Access will also be granted to all the goodies in The Swag Bag!

Our first place winner will also receive a $50 lab credit to BWC Photo Imaging! This can of course be used to produce prints for your client from your Executive Portrait session.

How To Enter:

1) Complete the assignment and place the results on your own blog, linking back to the challenge post.

2) Post a comment on this blog entry that you have completed the assignment with a link back to your blog entry. A link will be posted at the bottom of this assignment pointing back to your blog entry, thus creating a reciprocal link and helping with your SEO.

3) The winner of the assignment will be posted in the following weeks assignment.

We would love it if you can place the Weekly Challenge Icon at the beginning of this post in your blog post to show your readers your participation in the weekly challenge.

Here are the entries for this week’s Weekly Challenge!

Houston Photographer Jonathan Golden has completed the challenge!

Each week the PPBF gives its readers a new challenge designed to help their studios grow. Sometimes the assignment involves shooting, and sometimes the assignment calls for a particular action to be taken. Whatever the assignment, you can be sure we will do our best to help you grow as a professional photographer, and not just as a photographer.

Congratulations to Last Weeks Challenge Winner, Kristen Bourdon Photography!

Judging by PPBF Print Competition Chairman, John Tucker:
This week’s winner was submitted by Kristin Bourdon of Kristin Bourdon Photography.

The slightly out-of-focus, shirtless boy with sunburned cheeks, sunglasses, standing in the harsh sunlight against a blue sky while holding a sharply-focused crab with a wet hand, speaks boldly of summer fun at the beach. Without a doubt, I knew immediately this was a beach image. Nicely done, Kristin!

Runner-up, Leanne Wildermuth!

The sharply-focused bone with the dog staring intently and in anticipation makes me think this could be an ad for a particular dog treat. Well executed shot, Leanne!

Thanks to all who participated,
John Tucker
PPBF Image Competition Chairman
John Tucker Photography

This Week’s Assignment:

Create a portrait with two or more light sources!

I think it’s safe to assume that the participants in the PPBF Weekly Challenge are all professional photographers, or are striving hard to become one. This weeks challenge is gong to help push you on your way if you are striving to become a professional.

The truth is, if I worked as fast as I could, I could complete a very nice bridal portrait session in less than ten minutes, but this will leave my client feeling as if she has received no value from me. So, with each shot I take, I really examine how the light is striking my subject. Do you know the names of the different types of portrait lighting?

Broad lighting: The main light completely illuminates the side of the face turned toward the
camera.
Short lighting: The main light completelyilluminates the side of the face turned away from the camera.
Butterfly lighting: The main light is placeddirectly in front of the face and casts a shadow directly under the nose.
Rembrandt lighting: This is a combination ofshort and butterfly lighting. The main light is placed high and to the side of the face turned away from thecamera and produces a triangle of light on the side of the face in shadow.
Split lighting: The modeling light is placed tolight completely one side of the face while placing the other side of the face in shadow.
Rim lighting:The modeling light is placedbehind the subject and places the entire face in shadow.

Really think about lighting your subject as you are doing it. Let your client see you are thinking about the lighting, and you will instantly add value to your finished portrait before it is even created. Is the light bringing out the natural features in this subject’s face? Are you making sure to remove possible unflattering features by keeping them in the shadows?

I want you to use two or more light sources while taking a portrait. I want you to direct my eye using light. Don’t just make your portrait all about the expression of the subject as so many amateurs can only do. You know the portraits I am talking about? The ones where the entire frame is filled with the subject’s face, and the face is all smiles. Show yourself and your clients that you are a professional photographer, and that you know the secret to great professional portraiture is more than just expression…. it’s great light!

First Place Prize:  To Be Announced.

How To Enter:

1) Complete the assignment and place the results on your own blog, linking back to the challenge post.

2) Post a comment on this blog entry that you have completed the assignment with a link back to your blog entry. A link will be posted at the bottom of this assignment pointing back to your blog entry, thus creating a reciprocal link and helping with your SEO.

3) The winner of the assignment will be posted in the following weeks assignment.

We would love it if you can place the Weekly Challenge Icon at the beginning of this post in your blog post to show your readers your participation in the weekly challenge.

Here are the entries for this week’s Weekly Challenge!

Professional Photographer Michael Bromley has completed the challenge!

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

Each week the PPBF gives its readers a new challenge designed to help their studios grow. Sometimes the assignment involves shooting, and sometimes the assignment calls for a particular action to be taken.

This Week’s Assignment:
Subject Isolation With A Shallow Depth Of Field.

As photographers we are storytellers.  Our job is to provide elegant tools for our customers to tell their stories.  One way we can create a more elegant and polished story, and further define ourselves as professionals, is through the use of a shallow depth of field.  A shallow depth of field is a tool a photographer can use to draw the viewer’s gaze to a certain area in a finished portrait, making it more clear was to what the photograph is trying to convey.

This week, your assignment is “Shallow Depth Of Field”.  Tell a story, and make the subject of your story more clear through the use of a shallow depth of field.

And for this week’s contest, we have a prize for the winner!

First Place Prize:  Simply Selling

The winner of this week’s challenge will receive “Simply Selling” by Doug Box!  A $200 value!

How To Enter:

1) Complete the assignment and place the results on your own blog, linking back to the challenge post.

2) Post a comment on this blog entry that you have completed the assignment with a link back to your blog entry. A link will be posted at the bottom of this assignment pointing back to your blog entry, thus creating a reciprocal link and helping with your SEO.

3) The winner of the assignment will be posted in the following weeks assignment.

If you wish, you can place the following graphic above in your blog post to show your readers your participation in the weekly challenge.

Congratulations To Last Weeks Winner:

Professional Photographer Leanne Wildermuth – Artist By Nature

Second Place:

Houston Family Portrait Photographer, Aric C. Hoek of Solaris Studios

Here are the entries for this week’s Weekly Challenge!

Houston Wedding Photographer Bryan Lindsey has completed the Weekly Challenge!
Professional Photographer Leanne Wildermuth – Artist By Nature has completed the challenge
Houston Wedding Photographer Jonathan L Golden has completed the Weekly Challenge!
Professional Photographer Michael Bromley has completed the Weekly Challenge!
Memphis Family Portrait Photographer Clicne Ellis Photography has completed the Weekly Challenge!
Arkansas Wedding Photographer Michelle Posey has completed the challenge.
Collierville Family Portrait Photographer has completed the Weekly Challenge.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

Each week the PPBF gives its readers a new challenge to it’s readers designed to help their studios grow. Sometimes the assignment involves shooting, and sometimes the assignment calls for a particular action to be taken.

This Weeks Challenge:
Fill Flash

Have you ever looked at someone’s outdoor photographs and the face was so dark you couldn’t tell who it was? And don’t you just hate those “raccoon eyes” portraits? You know what I mean; the ones with big circles of shadow under your subject’s eyes?

This can really be a problem with outdoor portraits made with the sun shining behind your subject, directly toward the camera. If you photograph your subject and didn’t use a flash, chances are the subject’s face was too dark or had harsh shadows under the eyes.

You can really increase the quality of your photography with the right amount of fill flash. Fill flash will help to resolve this problem for you. This weeks assignment; use flash to illuminate your backlit subject.

The Process:

1. Complete the assignment and place the results on your own blog, linking back to the challenge post.
2. Post a comment on this blog entry that you have completed the assignment with a link back to your blog entry.   A link will be posted at the bottom of the assignment pointing back to your blog entry, thus creating a reciprocal link and helping with your SEO.
3. The winner of the assignment will be posted in the following weeks assignment.

If you wish, you can place the following graphic above in your blog post to show your readers your participation in the weekly challenge.

Links to completed challenges:
Houston Wedding Photographer, Aric C. Hoek of Solaris Studios has completed his challenge.
Professional Photographer Leanne Wildermuth – Artist By Nature has completed the challenge.