Every one of us gains knowledge and inspiration from various sources. As photographers we tend to identify and appreciate the work of other photographers, we are visual people, it is in our nature to be attracted and inspired by certain images. I have a love of travel and a keen interest in portraiture and the telling of tales through faces and settings. This does not really reflect in my stock photography, at Microstockhelper we shoot what we perceive to be in demand in the stock photography market and what we feel will be best for the business. On a personal level I am drawn to and inspired by the work of a few photographers, among them are Steve McCurray, Annie Leibowitz and Joey L.
I first came across Joey’s work when I watched a video about his trip to Indonesia and photographing the Mentawi Tribe. At the time I was living in Indonesia (now in Cape Town) and just starting to develop an interest in
A family friend who is a wedding photographer recently contacted me and asked if I would help teach him some lighting techniques and post production workflow in order to help him get into the world of Stock photography. Please note that it is not essential that you have a studio, fancy lighting or the best equipment in order to submit to stock agencies, you can start with as little as a Nikon D90 and a 50mm lens. Donavan Whyte has always wanted to shoot more fashion style images and hence his desire to master studio lighting. So he decided to fly me up from my Cape Town Studio and spend a day and a half helping him out.
I was happy to see that he was somewhat prepared for the shoot, arranging 4 models, makeup, props and
Here is a video tutorial I made about helping you isolate studio shots using gradients and layer masks.
This is the finished image, as you can see the gradient is much smoother than what the video recording software showed. Here is the lighting setup and it was all shot in our new cape town photography studio.
Being the world best selling stock photographer and in my mind one of the most successful photographers of our generation, Yuri Arcurs has the budget and the vision to build his dream studio. have a look and this video to see what is possible through microstock photography. learn how to get started in stock photography and sign up here for free today!
