I have been working on some more stock photos utilising my favoured and reliable model, my son. The other week we did a shoot at home with the theme being ‘washing teeth’, ‘baking’, and painting. I have covered baking before, however, this shoot was going to be a selection of images that have been isolated on a white background.
At home I don’t have a studio, so I made use of the garden, and our kitchen. The set up was a large white sheet on the wall behind, a 60″ umbrella, and a flash set to slave to fire at the background sheet.
The key to this shoot, and any shoot where I use my son, is to make it a fun activity as opposed to me giving instructions on what I want him to do. This would not be fun, and it would lead to unatural images.
Painting
The trusted Ikea table was set up, the paints/brushes were out, and lights were set. I just snapped away whilst he was enjoying himself. The reason the garden was used was not only for the space, easy to clean, but it was cloudy and the light was nice and soft.
Baking/Teeth
Here I was in the kitchen and again the set up was similar to outside. The sheet was stuck against the back wall to keep it nice and white, and as well as the 60″ umbrella I also made use of a large reflector to make the images look nice and bright. I gave my son the ingredients and told him to just take his time and enjoy himself, which he clearly did.
For the teeth washing I was conscious that we had been shooting for a while so I really kept it simple and quick. I had him in his vest to look more like he was washing his teeth before bed, or in the morning.
The shoot over I took him out for a lovely lunch, which was polished off! I cannot emphasise more, that whomsoever you use, family, or otherwise, always reward them in some fashion for their time and efforts!
Post Processing
The post processing was simple. I ensured that everything was 100% in camera, so all I did in LR was to pop the colour, and sharpen. In photoshop I did the following:-
::Adjusted the levels
::Checked for areas where the background was not white
::Skin tidying/eye popping/skin softening using skills learnt from Scott Kelby’s book [click here]
And that was pretty much it! The images were saved and uploaded to Dreamstime [click here]
So, I would urge anyone who has an interest in selling their photos to read this eBook written by Nick Stubbs. Here I learnt what is required from a photographer to start a career in Stock Photography [click here].
Thanks for reading!
Todor
Other Useful Links:-
Portrait & promotional photography 
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