I need some help...

I have never had luck in photographing my work for promotion on my website. It's never turned out well so I just don't have it up there. I'm really wanting to fix that problem so I can showcase to clients what I'm capable of twisting.

I've tried propping up the balloons and having them shot and they never look right, so this time I decided to just pose with them. Here are a few examples of the raw unedited images...









In an attempt to change it up a bit, I had my daughter pose with a wearable Tink costume:



My thought is that as a client viewing the balloons, that with me in all the shots (ir even my daughter) holding a balloon it might get very redundant. Is there a better way to go about this...?

Christopher

I take a lot of pics of my balloons with the kiddo's. As I said in my book (blatant plug) I don't think the quality of the pic is nearly as important as seeing a VERY happy kiddo with a good balloon. Just my thoughts.

And by the way -- GREAT PICTURES OF YOU!!

I agree with Carl, the best pictures are with the clients smiling faces on them. I need to get off my lazy butt and actually post some that I have on my webpage. I do have some on my Facebook page. Be that as it may, Ralph Dewey did write an article on BHQ about photographing balloons. It might have some useful information for you. Here is the link: http://balloonhq.com/column/dewey/apr07/

Great pictures of you, Chris. I think they really capture your personality.

Agree, you need the smiling faces to bring the balloons to life. A client will always take more away from the happy smiles than the figures alone.

I like the floating head illusion....

Black shirt on a black background?

How do you do perfect lighting for photographs?

If I could get the quality I see here I would be very, very happy. I'll keep trying....I think you did a great job...and yes, try to get the kids in them more often!

I'm currently photographing lots of balloons, here's what I've done. I hung a white sheet up in the garage. I backlit it with a few light boxes I had. Then, I lit it from the front with two more light boxes. In Photoshop, it's easy to take out the background, and then I use them on promo material, in addition to any studio or live shots. The pictures didn't come out great, but here's a couple pictures in low resolution: (p.s., I still haven't figured out how to post pictures so I just posted them on a page on the site.)

http://www.prestomagicproducts.com/balloon-pics/

Best Wishes,
Kevin

I have mastered the art of photographing balloons since starting this thread last year....

Oh, I didn't know. Any suggestions to share?

First, the BEST way is to just have shots taken of you in the field. That way, it's not just the balloons, but the happy faces that go along with them. As for studio shots of the balloons, I have found that hiring a great photographer with editing experience is KEY! Example:

The original shot:



Several things here...

I wanted Spike to have lots of personality in the image and not just "be a balloon." So we rigged him up with painters tape to the ceiling so he'd stand at attention. Also, I was out of White Link-a-Loons for his tummy, so I just used a white round which you can tell doesn't match the rest of the sculpture.

After the photographer's Photoshop Magic, the image now looks like this:



We spend so much money on magic props or balloons, yet we won't spend any money to have quality photo's done to showcase our work in the best light? Pay someone who knows how to do the stuff.

If you're in a bind and just want to shoot something quick, here's one I just did for this thread:

I put up a black tablecloth and put the sculpture in front of it and shot the photo. No editing was done to this image...



However, this isn't going to be seen my any of my clients. I would much rather create an entire Halloween themed shot and pay someone to get a great quality image.

My 2 cents...

Christopher,
Great photos, nice work!

While I do believe shots "from the field" are valuable and important, the BEST thing any entertainer can do is have a variety of shots. Some should be studio shots, some should be "from the field" ("social proof"), etc. A variety of shots is best.

Great work, I love the finished product of your dog shoot!

-Kevin

Excellent photos. I love the photoshop work.