Leo Kowal Photography, Photography Tutorials, Music and More!

How to Take Night Pictures of Your Yard Haunt or Prop

Posted on 03. Apr, 2009 by Leo Kowal.

0

Taking a picture of your yard haunt during the day simply doesn’t do it justice. You can take pictures with your camera’s built in flash, but that also takes away from the spookiness. We all want to give our pictures that ghostly feel that you can only get from darkness, but taking pictures at night can be very challenging because of the lack of light. Night photography usually ends up smudged, blurry or way too dark. With the right equipment and technique you’ll be taking brilliant night shots with very little effort!

Continue Reading

Winter Shopping Shoot for iStock

Posted on 03. Apr, 2009 by Leo Kowal.

0

The last two years we did shopping related shoots for iStock as Christmas seems to be one of the most popular times for stock photography. I always approach my shoots from a customer’s and designer’s perspective. Its safe to say that designers love photos on white backgrounds just as much as photos on single colored or themed backgrounds. It just depends on what that designer is looking for at any given moment. A good designer can take a subject on a pure white background and place it on anything, hence the argument that white background images are better sellers.

Continue Reading

Outdoor Jack O’ Lanterns

Posted on 02. Apr, 2009 by Leo Kowal.

0

Shooting Jack O’ Lanterns in the studio is fun, but I’ve never had more fun shooting gourds then the time I shot them outside with a fog machine. I usually start carving Jack O’ Lanterns around mid September and continue all the way through Halloween. While shooting in the studio, I thought about how cool it would be to shoot the Jack O’ Lanterns on hay bails with some creepy fog in the background.

Continue Reading

Witch Hazel Portraits and Gallery Event

Posted on 02. Apr, 2009 by Leo Kowal.

0

The idea for this started just like every one of my Halloween shoots. I just wanted to shoot Halloween related stock and just started going down the list of things I could possibly shoot. Mary and I decided that she would make a great witch… we were right! We went to a local Spirit Halloween store and found all of the fixins for a witch: fake chin, fake nose, special glue for the fake parts, wax for missing teeth, makeup and a witch hat and gown.

Continue Reading

Portrait Session with Jovon Burkes

Posted on 02. Apr, 2009 by Leo Kowal.

0

I recently had the honor of creating a promotional poster for former Bowling Green Falcon’s linebacker, Jovon Burkes. You can see Jovon’s stats by clicking here. Jovon needed a flyer and poster for birthday party / charity event. The theme of the party was “A Black and White Affair” so what better then to shoot on a white background.

Continue Reading

Jack O’ Lantern Photography Techniques

Posted on 01. Apr, 2009 by Leo Kowal.

0

Do you have a design project or a website that needs a beautifully captured Jack-O-Lantern on a clean black background? This tutorial is for the amateur and semi-professional photographer. Beginners will have a hard time with this, but are encouraged to read on and learn more about studio photography as well as harnessing the full potential of a DSLR camera. This tutorial includes its share of photography terminology and may cause nausea in those not accustomed to it. You have been warned!

Continue Reading

Downers Grove North vs. Glenbard East 04.01.2009

Posted on 01. Apr, 2009 by Leo Kowal.

0

I’ve been anticipating the warm weather for many reasons. Shooting baseball being one of them. This varsity game between the Glenbard East Rams and the Downers Grove North Trojans was originally scheduled to be played in Lombard, but when I arrived at the Rams’ home field, my foot sank about 4 inches into the infield dirt.