In this video I share my top three props
for shooting great portraits in a small home studio.
Hello I'm Gavin Hoey and you're watching AdoramaTV brought to you by Adorama,
the camera store that's got everything for us photographers and this video, well
it's all about props. Specifically the three types of props I use most often
here in my small studio. So that's going to be sunglasses, hats and fabric.
Now props are fantastic for a whole bunch of different reasons.
If you're working with a model who's perhaps less experienced props are
really handy because it gives them something to hold and interact with, but
even experienced models appreciate props. I often find that a prop will spark an idea
that I hadn't even thought of and take my shoot
in a whole new direction, but moreover, props are just plain fun.
So let's get this out of the way and get going on my first prop.
Sunglasses; they're an essential prop for every studio and I've
I've got a little selection of mine, right here.
Now sunglasses can work wonders in your pictures but there's a few things you
really need to know and I'm going to start with the one that most people
don't talk about but I think is most important; hygiene.
If you're using the same sunglasses over and over again,
make sure you clean them thoroughly between shoots.
To that end, well I would also clean the lenses with a lens cloth
because if you hand over some nice clean lenses,
you'll save yourself a load of time in photoshop.
So that's a really good idea.
Next thing is lighting. Lighting sunglasses can be problematic.
You're going to get reflections from the surface of the lens.
Now you can deal with that, in fact I've got a whole video,
right here on AdoramaTV, on how to remove reflections
in camera from sunglasses. You'll find it on the Adorama Learning Center.
Having said that reflections on sunglasses can also look good.
Although you can choose and get hold of, really easily,
a great range of sunglasses, particular in places like ebay,
when you customize them, they become something different.
So in this case, I've got two customized ones,
where we've just stuck some little beads on this one
and some rhinestones on this one. That makes them absolutely unique,
like no other sunglasses and that adds a new layer of excitement.
Of course models love to use sunglasses because, well if they're less confident, it gives
them something to hide behind but all models like to use them because it gives
them something to hold and interact with. That's always a good thing.
So to help me do this I've got Fern in the studio again who's going to make some
absolutely brilliant pictures, aren't you? Yeah.
Yes this is going to be great fun!
So let's get our first prop in and start shooting.
What do you think, stick with the hat? Yeah, no, I don't think it's a fashion
statement I'll be keeping, but hats as a prop, are a really great thing
to have in the studio. So I've got a small selection of hats
that we have here. We've got more than this knocking around.
Give a model a hat and you'll give them a different character.
They will interact with the hat and you never know where
you're going to go, what ideas are going to spark off.
It's amazing how changing a hat changes the look and feel
of your shoot, and that's completely different, now that is,
yeah, that is a bit ridiculously big and heavy but that's
the great thing about hats. Hats don't have to be sensible.
However, there's a few things you do need to know about hats.
Let's start with hygiene. Once again you need to keep your hats
clean and tidy. if your hat is dirty
and smelly throw it away. Get a different hat.
Next, you need to think about lighting. Hats with brims cast shadows.
The bigger the brim, the bigger the shadow,
however, you can also use that to your advantage
and create some really interesting pictures.
Finally there's the hair issue. Hats mess up hair and that can be a really
bad thing if your model spent a long time getting their hair right.
So do check with your model before you give them a hat.
Have somebody on hand to redo the hair, look for stray hairs,
and of course it works the other way. It can actually
cover up bad hair as well. So maybe I should put this back on
and well, let's get Fern in and let's do the shoot.
My last prop is perhaps the least obvious prop
but the most useful thing that I've got in my studio.
It's fabric and I've got loads of different types of fabric in the studio.
Now earlier on we did the shoot with the sunglasses and I
had a gelled light to change the background color but if you don't do
that you can just hang up a piece of fabric that's colored and bingo you've got
an instant new colored background. So that's kind of nice. I got some black as
well, blacks always really useful. I've got this lovely sequins material.
This is beautiful, it has a lovely shimmer to it, which is absolutely fantastic,
but fabric isn't just limited to creating new backgrounds you can wrap fabric around
your subject and then you've got a brand new set of clothing effectively.
I love this stuff, this is sort of netting. I've got all sorts of different colors, very, very,
light floaty fabric. You can give this to the model
and they can interact with this.
You can, well you can hang it up and they can kind of look through it
or you can just to throw it over the top of them and
and now they're kind of moving around,
models are much better than that, than I am.
Fabric is just a wonderful thing.
I like lengths that are at least three meters long. That normally works quite well.
Off cuts and bits and pieces I collect whenever I see them, in fact
I can't really think of a bad thing to say about fabric.
Get some! Ok let's go get
this out of the way, get Fern back in and get shooting.
Fern did a brilliant job as the model in this shoot.
She was a great sport trying on all the different hats, sunglasses
and backgrounds, and hopefully that's given you some
great ideas of things that you can do with props in your studio.
My final tip however is, don't overdo the props.
It is possible to go too far with props.
Yes, that was one pair too many.
Now if you want to see more videos from myself and the other
amazing presenters right here on AdoramaTV,
you should be clicking on that subscribe button.
I'm Gavin Hoey Thanks for watching.