Posted on January 10, 2019
A while back I met up with my good friend Edna, who is an amazing photographer, to do a photography lesson on composition. To be honest I don’t know why she does lessons with me because her work is amazing already but I’ll take any moment to teach anyone who’s passionate about photography and getting better with a camera.
Photograph by Edna
Photograph One – Edna V.
Photograph One – Edna V. – BREAKDOWN
The photo is really well balanced from the top and from the bottom. This is important in when composing a shot because you never know when your client may want to purchase a print. I always teach my photographers to shoot for print and this shot was perfectly shot with that in mind. The pose / body also forms a triangle and that is important to note because the human eye is attracted to simple shapes and if you can create those simple shapes through human poses you have won the eye. I also encouraged her to shoot from an angle so we can get the leading lines formed by the bridge and rails. This helps the viewer follow the lines to your subject.
Photograph Two – Edna V. – BREAKDOWN
Often you find yourself near a set a stairs and want to pose your subject on the steps, which is what we did here. If it’s a long stairway I always suggest to sit the model 3 to 4 steps up from the bottom to allow some space above the head. In the photo above my student Edna gave enough space to frame the subject in the stairway. This setting was perfect for applying repetition, which is another important tool to use in composition. I was able to help see the shape in the body and the repetition of the stairs for the composition.
Kudos to my student Edna, as mentioned before, she’s already an amazing photographer and sharpening up her composition skills will just make her better. You can view here work her at this link: swankyfoto
If you are interested in photography lessons please fill out the contact form below.
Category: Learn Photography Tagged: ben briones, ben briones photography, ben briones studios, bill schupp, bill schupp park, learn photography mcallen, learn photography south texas, learning photography mcallen, learning photography mcallen texas, learning photography rgv, learning photography south texas, lessons in photography, McAllen, mcallen learn photography, mcallen texas photographer, mcallen texas photography, photo lessons, photo lessons rgv, photographer in training, photography lesson, photography lesson rgv, photography lessons, photography lessons edinburg texas, photography lessons mcallen texas, photography lessons rio grande valley, photography school, photography studio, professional photographer, rgv, rgv learn photography, rgv photographer, swankyfoto
Posted on November 1, 2018
Last Friday I gave an off-camera flash lesson to my student Jennifer. She had recently bought a new studio light and wanted to learn how to use it. My friend Paula was kind enough to volunteer to our model and she got a free photo shoot out of it!
Some of the things we went over during this lesson was learning how to expose to the ambient light and use the studio light for fill learning how to place the light and understanding the power outputs of the light and how to adjust your exposure fore them.
I wanted to show off some of the amazing photos she was able to get!
PHOTOS BY JENNIFER TREVINO!
ISO 100 85mm f3.5 1/125
ISO 100 85mm f3.2 1/125
ISO 100 85mm f4.0 1/125
ISO 100 85mm f10 1/125
ISO 100 85mm f9.0 1/125
ISO 100 85mm f6.3 1/125
ISO 320 85mm f5.6 1/125
ISO 100 85mm f3.5 1/125
If you are looking into getting photography lessons please fill out the form below.
Category: Learn Photography Tagged: ben briones, ben briones photography, ben briones studios, mcallen photography lesson, off camera flash, photo lessons, photo lessons edinburg, photo lessons mcallen, photo lessons rgv, photography lesson, photography lessons, rgv photographer, rgv photography lesson
Posted on October 7, 2018
Last week on Thursday a friend, Audrie Barrera, and I had a private photography lesson at Balanced Brew Coffee in McAllen, Texas. Audrie is a videographer and owns Audrie Barrera Films, where she focuses on commercial videography and special events. She has also been dabbing into photography by request of her clients so we had our own little photo session with some of Balanced Brew Coffee’s menu items just to sharpen her commercial photography skills. Here are our best shots.
Photo Credit: Audrie Barrera, Ben Briones
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Category: Community Tagged: Balanced Brew Coffee, Balanced Brew Coffee mcallen, Balanced Brew Coffee mcallen texas, Balanced Brew Coffee mcallen tx, Balanced Brew Coffee shop, Balanced Brew Coffee shop mcallen texas, Balanced Brew Coffee shop mcallen tx, photo lessons, photo lessons rgv, photography lessons, photography lessons rgv
Posted on August 25, 2018
Understanding exposure is important when learning photography. A few weekends ago Sara and I went to the McAllen Convention Center so that she could practice photography. So that the lessons could be as accurate as possible we had the same camera setup; Canon 60D with the Canon EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens. We also used a Sekonic L-308s Lightmeter to try to get realistic exposures.
The lesson was to understand how Shutter Speed, f-Stop and ISO work together to take a picture. We went through how each one works and what it’s used for and then we began practicing in different areas around the Convention Center. On the photos below you can see the settings and a small description of what we were trying to achieve.
I have been giving photography lessons for over 4-years now but don’t really advertise it. I like to think that some of photographer’s I have hired and worked with learned from me but who knows haha. Currently I have 3 students this year who I meet with to give lessons to. Each student is a different level in their photography so I always try to provide unique lessons for what they seek to learn or improve on.
Canon 60D – 1/160 sec at f/7.1, ISO 640 @ 100mm (EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM) – Cropped Shade Portrait
Canon 60D – 1/250 sec at f/4.5, ISO 100 @ 33mm (EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM) – Layered Low Angle Portrait
Canon 60D – 1/250 sec at f/4.5, ISO @ 47mm (EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM) – Low Depth of Filed Reflective Head Shot
Canon 60D – 1/8 sec at f/4, ISO 100 @ 35mm (EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM)- Slow Shutter Portrait
Canon 60D – 1/1000 sec at f/3.5, ISO 200 at 28mm (EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM) – Foreground Low Depth of Field Portrait
Canon 60D – 1/1000 sec at f/3.5, ISO 200 @ 35mm (EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM) – Low Depth of Field Layered Portrait
Canon 60D – 1/1000 sec at f/3.5, ISO 200 @ 28mm (EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM) – Low Depth of Field Foreground Portrait
If you are interested in photography lessons please fill out the contact form below.