portraits

Portrait Tips from a BCC Pro!

Jeremy Lebled

What is the key to great Backgrounds for Portraits?

Photo Courtesy of Jeremy Lebled

What is the key to great backgrounds for portraits you ask? Honestly its pretty simple! The key is “less is more” and to “keep it simple”. With Portraits you want to have as few distractions from the background as possible. When you have distractions and a bunch of clutter behind your subject it will take away from the photo rather than adding to it. To make a strong portrait you do not want to distract the viewer and take away the focus on your subject. So try placing your subject on a simple, uncluttered background from the start. If that is not possible. I would suggest to either remove as much as you can from the background. Or if you are outside try to position yourself and angle your camera in different angles so you do not get random people walking in the background and so forth. Another thing that helps when you are shooting around other people outside is to shoot with a telephoto/prime lens that has a fast aperture. That will help compress and completely blur out anyone or anything in the background. So lets recap! The key to great backgrounds is “less is more” and “keep it simple”. This will immensely help your chances of getting “the shot”. Which we all love getting! Keep shooting and stay safe.

Till next time..

All my best,

Jeremy Lebled – Bergen County Camera Specialist

Camera Tips from a BCC Pro: Outdoor Portraits

Jeremy Lebled

What time is best to shoot outside Portraits?

Photo provided by Jeremy Lebled

Many Portrait photographers chose to do their shoots early in the morning or late late afternoon for a few reasons. The first reason for shooting early, the light is just perfect! Getting up early to shoot in the morning. There isn’t as harsh of a light yet in the day. Compared to shooting closer to high noon or the early afternoon. Where the sun is higher in the sky and causes harsh unwanted shadows. You can get away with shooting during the day at that time as long as you are in a area with a lot of open shade. But ideally earlier in the morning is when you will get the best beautiful golden light. Secondly, the streets are usually completely empty. So there is little distraction for your model/subjects. You have a very small window of time before the streets or parks start to fill with foot traffic or regular traffic depending on where you are shooting. So make sure you get there early to scout out your location and be prepared! Another great time to shoot is closer to sundown. The lighting will once again be beautiful and golden. But the only thing to keep in mind is there will still most likely be a lot of people and potential traffic. So you will need to work quickly! Just to recap, the best time is the morning. Second best is later in the day towards sundown. But you can also get away with shooting during the day if you have to. Just make sure you find a nice area with shade. Be sure to have your early morning coffee ready, have some fun and take some beautiful images! Till next time..

All my best,

Jeremy Lebled – Sales Specialist at Bergen County Camera

Father’s Day Photo Night Presented By Canon

Alfred Hess

fdbanBring the family in to Bergen County Camera on Thursday, June 18th from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM for a night filled with fun and photography. While Mom or Dad learns how to use a Canon DSLR, the kids will get to design a custom photo mat. Mom or Dad can take a photo of their kids in our in-store studio and we’ll print a free 8×10 on a Canon Pixma Pro Printer. We’ll then mat the photo with the custom mat designed by your children for a great photo present for Father’s Day. Pizza and chicken nuggets will be served. Plus, we’ll have incredible deals on Canon printers available that night only!
Eventbrite - Father's Day Photo Night Presented by Canon

Free Focus Sessions – January 2015

Alfred Hess

Focus sessions are free and take place in the Westwood store from 9:30 am – 10 am. All sessions will allow for questions and answers. Please bring your camera and any images along that you have questions about. Feel free to use the comment option to make suggestions for future focus sessions.

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Hit the “Like Button” to let your friends know. Have suggestions for future focus sessions? Feel free to leave a comment. (Comments actually work now!)

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Here’s our upcoming Focus Sessions:

January 3 – Night Photography / Long Exposures

January 10 – Using Flash Indoors

January 17 – Photo Critique

January 24th – Take Better Portraits

January 31 – Winter Photography / Snow Photography

These are free events – bring a friend along if you’d like. Share with your friends on Facebook – Click the Like button below. Hope you can join us!

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Free Saturday Focus Sessions for April and May

John Tworsky

Focus sessions are free and take place in the Westwood store from 9:30 – 10 am and our Englewood location from 10:30 am – 11:00 am. All sessions will allow for question and answers. Please bring your camera and any images along that you have questions about.

Here’s the schedule for April and May

April 9 – Learn all about Micro 4/3s cameras then visit us for Olympus demo day in Westwood from 10 am – 4 pm

April 16 – Show us your Photos – Critique – please bring 2 – 3 images for an honest appraisal of your images and how to make them better. (printed photos only – no digital files please)

April 23 – Portraits with your Flash

April 30 – Landscape Photography

May 7 – Outdoor Sports Photography

May 14 – Photography at a Botanical Garden – a great preparation for our Longwood Gardens Trip on May 15

May 21 – Sensor Cleaning How to – Learn what’s needed to clean your sensor. This is a great skill to have as dust always happens when your are least prepared!

May 28 – Get Steady – Monopods and Tripods

These are free events – be sure to bring a friend along if you’d like.