Ben Briones Studios
Professional McAllen Photographer
The importance of Pre-production for a high profile portrait!
Posted on January 13, 2019
A week ago at work (South Texas College) I was assigned to photograph the college president. The school president’s schedule is always very tight. I got lucky that she was already going to be taking photos with The Monitor Newspaper in the morning so I was able to piggy-back on that. She was scheduled to be interviewed and photographed on a Monday so the Friday before I did some location scouting and light testing.
I asked a colleague to sit in and recommend locations since she is the facility manager. I was only going to have about 5-10mins with the president so I had to have a simple setup. The lighting equipment I used was the Canon Speedlite 600EX‑RT Flash, mounted and controlled by PocketWizards FlexTT5 Transceivers and diffused by a Westcott Rapid 26″ Octa Softbox. The camera I used was the Canon 5D MK III with a 70-200mm 2.8 Sigma lens.
Of all the locations we tested out we only used two. When you are photographing high profile subjects you want to make them travel the least possible and make them feel as comfortable as possible. My colleague joined me Monday to assist me with lighting and hair for the president. Make sure to take assistants with you when doing these type of portraits. Of the two locations used only one photo was selected and published. View the shot below.
If you would like a photography lesson on pre-production please fill out the form below.
Photography Lesson at Balanced Brew Coffee – McAllen, Texas
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 
If you are looking into getting commercial photography for your business please fill out the contact form below.
Photography Lessons with Sara Yanez – McAllen Convention Center
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.
