Are you serving up “Light Mixers” or “Light Mix Ups”?

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Mixing light is one of the most important skill sets you can have in your tool bag. As a photographer is your ability to light a scene naturally or artificially is a testament to your skill and knowledge as a photographer and Artist. Your images should always include a baseline photographic technique. One lighting technique is mixing foreground and background ambient light commonly referred to as “Light Mixing.”

Mixing light is nothing new the process has been around for years. Photographers like Rocky Gunn and Monte Zucker used “Light Mixing” in most all of the images they created.

Here is my example:

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Photo: Michael Kendrick

This image was taken fresh of my studio manager’s, Micheal Kendrick, camera. The concept is simple, match the background ambient light with your foreground lighting. What you use is up to you and there are a wide range of light sources like reflectors, strobes, and flashes that you can use.

Light mixing is an application I learned from an old pro (LOL, older than me). He use to say “If I can see your flash then you haven’t achieved the right ratio in your flash to ambient light. As a pro or emerging pro you mixing light is a skill set that you should definitely master use when needed.

Here is a more detailed explanation on YouTube, warning the presenter is a little dry, but he know’s his stuff.

Want more Business: Build Value and Close

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Do you want to attend a free class on how to build value and sell?

This process might vary but the elements will still exist. Go to an auto dealership and pay close attention to the questions they ask you. In the first 10 mins, most auto sales persons will find out if all the decision maker are present. Second, present features of their product that are important to you and then narrow you down on a choice. Third, find out what you can really buy; check your credit. And fourth, ask you for a firm commitment to buy that day! During the entire process their goal to close you on commitments to buy.

I sold cars 22 years ago, my sales manager then John, would always ask me “Do you have a firm commitment to buy, did you outright ask them to buy the car today?” I was the top grossing Salesman for 3 quarters that year.

How does this relate to you? 

Selling is selling whether you are selling hot dogs or airplanes the concept is the same. Most people lack the  business they desire because they seldom ask for it. Car sales persons are trained to ask for your business and money during the entire buying process. “There is no such as a be back” in their business.

Try this out: Ask a new client that you are presenting to, “How can I earn your business today?” First one answer is the loser.

The important parts:

  •  Your product or service “has got to be” value driven and targeted at the right buyers or “you won’t be able to close a door!”
  • Make sure your clients spending expectations are inline with your product or service
  • And last, don’t over sell a client they will never come back and if you are in business for the long haul you are going to need them.

The Pretentious Photographer

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The pretentious photographer is a person does not know he or she is going to lose future business.

5 years ago I photographed a client for a business card photo and we just shot a replacement photo yesterday. I was honored to see that the client was still using one of my photos, and amazingly she still looked the same.

Over those five years this same client has referred some great business my way. When I asked her why she came back to my studio and why she referred business to me, the first thing she said was “I like you, your work is good, and you are not pretentious.”

The “pretentious part” caught my attention and here’s why. In my teachings, I cross paths with all types of characters, posers, and wanna be’s, yes I just said it. These are the same people who ask me “How can I become a better photographer, how come I can’t get business?” In some cases, if it’s fitting, I tell point blank! “work on your people skills.” “Understand who you are and what you are projecting out to your clients. If its bad work or service, fix it.”

In photography people work with businesses they like and service that delivers, it’s a fact. If you are arrogant, cocky, selfish, a poor service provider, a short cutter, or worst, a smoking mirrors type, then people are not going to work with you long, you may make a few bucks in the short run but you are not going to last.

The solution, remember this, no one is perfect and we all make mistakes and you are only as good as your last day and how other perceive you!

Thank you Shelley for the business, I appreciate you!

Did your Guest Dress for the Occasion?

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(Re-print) In Photography, Weddings on August 1, 2009 at 5:00 am

There is nothing worst than a great photo of the bride or groom or both walking down the aisle only to have a guest in the background improperly dressed. There are all types wedding but your guest attire should match your wedding theme.

If you are planning a wedding and know there is a good chance that some of your guest may show up wearing jeans and dress jacket or something less than formal wear, and your wedding is formal seat them on the outer aisles out the main camera view. Weddings ceremonies happen so fast that most photographer have only seconds to capture a moment and you don’t want a person in a tee-shirt in the background of your photo.

One photographer wrote in her blog about the time she was photographing a wedding at an up scale country club.  The ceremony was outside, mid-day, and the sun was really strong and direct. “Shooting” a wedding or any photo in harsh sunlight can be a nightmare.  Based on the photographers account of the story, the best photo opportunity, without blowing out the highlights, was to capture the bridal party in a shaded spot with a flash as they walked down the aisle.  The problem was there was man seated close to the aisle who was wearing a white hooded sweat shirt.

Here are three solutions to avoid this problem; note in your invitations that there is a standard of dress (don’t assume that everyone is going to dress the part), hire a wedding coordinator, or if your budget is tight, appoint someone to monitor your seating arrangement for every row that is close to the aisle. There is no sense in looking like a million dollars only to be upstaged by a hooded sweat or tee shirt.

You can email him at keith@keithbdixon.com and visit his consumer web site at www.keithbdixon.com or the commercial site at: ww

A Re-post from 2009- Mentors Are Essential To Photographers

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In 2009 I wrote this article for a blog about the importance of mentoring.

In Photography on July 28, 2009 at 2:13 am

Having a mentor is one of the most important elements in the growth of a photographer.  As photographers we generally develop our skill sets through our practical experiences, seminars, organizations, workshops, and trial and error, and that is not enough to survive in todays business climate.

One of the best investments you can make in your career is to apprentice for a veteran photographer who specializes in your craft, here’s why!  Skill, training, and education are a critical part of every photographers foundation, however, that will only take you so far. Mentors are coaches, consultants, and most of all nurturers.

As with any industry there are ups and downs and having a coach to inspire you through lean times is critical; it could mean the difference between great work or failure.  Photographers who have survived through several decades of economic swings understand how to make adjustments and thrive.  A good mentor will teach you survival skills you can not learn in book, class, or on a video.

Photography is a huge investment in terms of time and money and could break drive you into debt.  There ton of resources out the will tell how you should run your business but the problem with relying on these boiler plate methods is that they maybe outdated, static or a generalized solution. Although most are helpful they only provide a starting point.  Mentors help to make sense of the choices you might make as you start to grow your business.

Growing pains are some of the most emotionally difficult issues to deal with in photography. As new photographer the all sorts of challenges you will have to deal with for example collecting on aging accounts receivable, finding good help, and working long days can be emotionally draining.

Mentors make sense of emotionally difficult business issues and nurture you.  A good mentors is invaluable for their ability to share their thought processes, workflows, and business theories and this why mentors are essential!

This BIO was created in 2009

Keith B Dixon is a full-time freelance editorial and wedding photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a lead photographer for MD News Greater San Francisco, and covers 3 markets for ProAgent Magazine, a green online digital publication, with circulations over 30,000. Both magazines are business and lifestyle publications.

Keith has also worked as the primary photographer for the North, South, and East Bay areas for Broker Agent Magazine, which was a real estate and lifestyle magazine for the Real Estate Industry. In addition, he has worked with Eric Mower & Associates, an East Coast PR Firm, on projects for Kodak.

You can email him at keith@keithbdixon.com and visit his web site at www.keithbdixon.com

Is Composition is King

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I rarely hear new photographers talk about composition in their work because to most it is foreign concept but composition is king. Next to the exposure, composition is one the most important elements in a photograph. Good composition will create flow and energy in your image and keep your viewers eyes moving through your work and emotionally charge them.

Here’s the technical definition:

Composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art or a photograph, as distinct from the subject of a work. It can also be thought of as the organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art.

The term composition means ‘putting together,’ and can apply to any work of art, from music to writing to photography, that is arranged or put together using conscious thought. In the visual arts, composition is often used interchangeably with various terms such as design, form, visual ordering, or formal structure, depending on the context. In graphic design and desktop publishing, composition is commonly referred to as page layout.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_(visual_arts)

Here are a few examples, I photographed last night around 8pm, of how cropping your image can change the composition of what you see. In this first image, I photographed the normal prospective that most would consider.

Although the main point of interest, City Hall, is “dead center” the image still works because there leading lines and the building has a strong presence in the image against the dark sky. The problem here is that the image is static, or flat. Your eyes go to the building then stop dead in the center.

In this second photo, I cropped it so that I could add a new level of composition to the photo. Notice how your eyes go to the building, up the tower, and work back down and through the image and you can see more detail.


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Although part of the building is cut off it feels like we are forced into the tower section? This is the power of composition.

How important is composition:

“Effective images are those that command attention and communicate some feeling to an audience. Capturing a “feeling” and your viewers’ attention is a demanding task that requires practice, experimentation and study.

Studying the basic elements of visual design and understanding how they work will help new photographers improve their composition, but simply following rules does not guarantee success.

Furthermore, how an audience responds to an image depends on their past experiences (memory), interests, and what it is that they are looking for. This is why the same picture often receives a variety of responses from different viewers.

To create effective images a photographer must understand the way people respond to various kinds of visual organization. This involves learning the vocabulary of design, viewing examples of artwork that utilize effective design elements, and actively implementing components of design into the process of photography.”

Source: http://photoinf.com/General/Robert_Berdan/Composition_and_the_Elements_of_Visual_Design.htm

Golden Gate Bridge Mentoring Session

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This morning I when out on a mentoring session at 5:30AM with one of my students to photograph the Golden Gate Bridge from a vantage point on the Marina Green.

(See the exact location below it Goggle Maps)


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The goal was to teach my student the importance of patience, timing, and preparation.  Often times I notice a lot of new and amateur photographers will generally arrive on at location and start photographing with little consideration for the latter 3 elements. Essentially they just snap away.

When you prep, time, and wait for a specific moment in the creation of your images you with enjoy your work more and it will allow you to really focus on creating and absorbing what going on in the environment.

Here is a one of the images I was able to create from the session:

Welcome to my new blog

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Hello all and thank you for visiting my new blog for 2012. Considering all the information Online I appreciate you taking time read and support my new blog and photography adventures. My sole purpose for this blog is share photographic techniques, classes I am teaching, projects I am working on, and my processes and approaches to creating my images.

Thank you again
Keith