Was digging through my archive looking to see if I had any shots floating around I’d forgotten about. I came across this little gem.

What I really love about this is its entirely done with a ring light, despite it not having ring lighting characteristics. There shouldn’t be any shadows on his face (sides of nose). It should be flat, but yet there they are.

The secret to this… I was about 2 inches from his face. The hole for the lens allowed the ring to actually light from the sides instead of kick so flat… Yep, lighting geek here all the way.

Double Rainbow

loving the sky today

This was such a fun shoot with Amberley Harvick of the Block Agency.

We did a few looks, but this was definitely my favorite. Something about how simple it is really works for me. It doesn’t hurt that she’s simply adorable and such a pleasure to work with!

Been all over everywhere lately and haven’t posted a thing.  Well…its time I fix that.  This is a shot I did a few weeks ago with Amberley Harvick of the Block Agency.  Amazing girl, super sweet, and simply adorable. 

Finally finished setting up the new studio. Check it out!  Also, this is the perfect place to showcase my newest service.  Google Business Photos.  I think they’re pretty cool!

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Had a great shoot with Deborah Olague of DO Mokume.  She makes the most amazing rings.  Check out the rest of her line at www.mokume-gane-metals.com

Photographer: kyle g. mclaughlin, studio kgm inc.

Been a busy week this week.  Got to work with several of my favorite people.  This, for instance, was shot for Meg and Sara’s new natural dyed scarf company #SouthernHue.  Keep an eye out for a big launch coming soon from them!

Styling/Art Direction: Sara Dailey and Meg Davis

Photography: kyle g. mclaughlin, studio kgm inc.

Model:  Harry

Behind the scenes of the latest shoot for Olia.  So much fun!  Looks like this will be my last shoot at Marathon… our new studio is almost ready!  I can’t wait.

Yep.  I try to find the right backdrop for whatever best fits the shoot.

For shooting in the studio I’ve got a couple dozen rolls of different colored paper.  If that lets me down, I can just paint the wall or wallpaper a couple sheets of foam core. 

If I’m going for more of an environmental looks, I just drive or walk around and see what I can find.  If I find a location that fits the feel of the project, we’ll just shoot there.

I still bring all my studio lights and modifiers for wherever I’m shooting.  I just make sure to keep a lot of extension cords in my kit and have a battery pack I can use if I can’t find a plug.

Photographer:  kyle g. mclaughlin

Stylist:  Meg Davis

Designer: Janelle Janske-Wilkerson

We never know what we’re going to get when we have just a little bit of merch and free range to do with it as we please.  So much fun!

I just finished shooting for Slumby. They make a really cool kids product. Its been a while since I worked with kids, so it was a long day, but a whole lot of fun. Now it’s time to hop on the editing.

Model:  Cedric Williams

Photographer: kyle g. mclaughlin

Model: Linda Winkowski

Hair and Makeup: Bryin Smoot

Stylist: Curt Tornow

Photographer: kyle g. mclaughlin

This crew was such a delight to work with.  Linda is absolutely amazing.  Bryin knew exactly what we wanted and was a master with a piece of foam core.  He would swing it just right, and I’d snap when the hair had the perfect amount of burst to it.  Its hard to believe, but Curt managed to put this entire outfit together with a really bad junior’s prom dress and a handful of random pieces of jewelry.  It’s amazing how a whole shoot can come together with about 15 minutes of brainstorming and some random scraps we pulled together after wrapping early from an e-com shoot.

As for lighting.  This is your basic old hollywood lighting.  Used a fresnel spot to light the whole seen.  Raised it as high as the high roller allowed and aimed it at Linda.  The white sweep was probably 10 feet behind her.  This allowed for that great gradient on the background.

Model: Salome Steinmann

Hair and Makeup: Mizzie Logan

Photography: kyle g. mclaughlin

Mizzie did a wonderful job of creating that awesome color range.  Thinking to put the lashes only on the bottom was also brilliant.  Then Salome brought her intensity and the shot just worked out great!

As far as lighting, this was a super simple setup.  Used a medium Softbox off to the side.  When we started, I started with a silver card for fill, then went to a white, then ultimately killed all fill and ran with a black card to cut anything.  I had Salome turn just enough to get the right amount of catch light in her eyes.  Really fun shoot!

Model: Salome Steinmann

Hair and Makeup: Mizzie Logan

Photographer: kyle g. mclaughlin

I’m currently in the middle or reworking my website.  One aspect of the site that’s going away is the blog I had integrated, but rarely updated.  Because I find this setup much more convenient, I’m re-posting the articles and moving forward here.  This is one such re-post.

White shooting a church for AboutVase, I had one of those accidental shots, that reminded me of the magic of light.  That’s actually why I got into taking pictures in teh first place. The suprise of what shows up on film as opposed to what you see.

Anyway, I was doing a lighting test and didn’t have an assistant. Typically in this situation I’ll opt for the self timer and sprint approach to test shots. It works great, but guessing the focus is always fun.

As I was doing my test, the camera fired early and I missed my mark. No problem, it’s digital, I’ll shoot another.  But wait…. this test shot was a little different. what resulted was completely different than what I had expected…. a ghostly, half present me.

What happened here?  Let see, I was wearing a dark shirt with light stripes. so, when flash fired it reflected on the stripes and my head, but none of the darker areas…. that makes sense. But why are the dark parts transparent and not just underexposed. ive used this same lighting set up dozens of times with people in dark clothes and never had this happen… So what was different this time? Ah Ha, No Assistant!

When the strobe fired early, I knew the test shot was no good, so I immediately rushed back to snap another test. However, my exposure was rather long, so when I moved back to the camera, the shutter had not closed. this allowed the ambient light to continue to fill the frame, including the dark areas of my shirt. this made me look semi-invisible. Cool.

i know its no great picture, but i thought it was kinda neat, so i figured I’d share.

Shooting Fashion on grey in this style is extremely similar to shooting on white.  As you can see, the octabank, fill cards, and model are all in almost the same positions.  The major difference is subtracting the background lights and the softbox fill on the front. 

The key to this lighting, however, is spacing.  Notice how everything is lit off of one source.  Typically if the model is a little over or underexposed I would simply turn the packs up or down.  However, this does not work with this set.  The background for these shots are actually that same white cyc wall.  If you change the pack to correct exposure you’ll augment the whole image.  Instead, all you have to do is move your model closer or farther from the light to find the right balance. 

In addition to this, I have also moved the key light in a little bi more and aimed it closer to the model.  This castes a little more shadow on her nose and gives the picture a little more edge.  To compensate for this adjustment, I had to move the camera back a bit so that I could keep the box out of frame.

There are a few thinks you want to make sure to be aware of when shifting from white to grey.  For instance, when things are lit on white, other things that are bright tend to not be as obvious.  They disappear in the lighting.  On grey, this is not the case.  A glossy lip, shimmer makeup, or a little forehead shine are now the first things you see when looking at a picture.  Switching to a little more matte is a good solution to these problem.  On the flip side, sequined blouses now really shine and show up, whereas on white they sort of fell flat. Also, hair-holes and fly-aways are much less distracting on grey.  The stark silhouettes are often distracting.

Ultimately its a really simple lighting that reads clean.  In my opinion, most products also look more expensive on grey.  Something about blown-out, stripped-out white pictures just seem to look a little boring and kind of cheap.

Fashion On Grey