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Author: Iwona Krawczyk

  • Turn the Flash Away From the Subject

    I once spent forty-five minutes sweating in a cramped, windowless office, trying to justify why I needed a second Profoto light for a corporate headshot, only to realize the white drywall right next to the subject was doing a better job than my expensive modifier ever could. It’s a ridiculous waste of energy and gear…

  • Painting Light After the Fact

    I spent years assisting photographers who would spend three hours setting up a complex lighting rig, only to end up with a subject who looked flat, tired, or just plain lost. They’d swear by their expensive modifiers, but the truth is, sometimes the light just doesn’t cooperate with the person in front of you. When…

  • The Ceiling Is a Giant Softbox

    I once spent forty minutes in a cramped, windowless office in Warsaw, sweating through my shirt while trying to figure out how to bounce off a ceiling that was painted a hideous, light-absorbing shade of beige. I had a client staring at me, wondering why I was pointing my expensive strobe at the plaster instead…

  • Standing Further Back Changes the Face

    I remember assisting on a high-end commercial set where the client had spent more on glass than on the actual talent. They were obsessed with the idea that a 200mm lens was a magic wand for beauty, but all I saw was a photographer struggling to keep a subject from feeling like they were being…

  • Buildings That Lean Backwards

    I remember standing in a cramped, high-ceilinged hallway during a corporate shoot last year, watching a junior photographer scramble to swap out his prime lens for a massive, expensive tilt-shift. He was convinced that the only way to solve the problem was through high-end glass, but honestly, he was just fighting a losing battle against…

  • When the Light Cannot Go Where You Want

    I once spent three hours in a client’s spare bedroom—a space so cramped I could practically feel the wallpaper sweating—trying to figure out how to light a small room without turning the subject into a silhouette or a victim of harsh, bouncing glare. My assistant was sweating, the client was hovering, and I was staring…

  • A Setup You Can Build in Four Minutes

    I spent eight years assisting photographers who treated every shoot like they were prepping for a NASA launch, lugging in three different strobe kits and a mountain of modifiers just to take a single corporate headshot. It’s a complete lie that more gear equals better results; in reality, that complexity is just a way to…

  • Condensation Does the Damage, Not the Cold

    I once spent forty minutes in a freezing courtyard in Warsaw, trying to coax a decent portrait out of a client who was shivering so violently her teeth were practically a percussion instrument. I wasn’t worried about the sensor freezing or the shutter seizing up—I was worried about the sheer panic of realizing my battery…

  • Straight Lines Should Be Straight

    I remember a corporate shoot three years ago where I was tasked with photographing a CEO in a cramped, glass-walled boardroom. I had the best prime lens in my kit, but because I was forced to back into a corner to fit him in the frame, his head looked like it had been stretched by…

  • The Third Reminder Still Has to Be Polite

    I remember sitting in my studio last Tuesday, staring at a half-finished edit of a corporate headshot session, while my brain looped on a single, nagging thought: did I actually send that invoice? There is this pervasive, polished myth in the creative industry that you need a complex, multi-stage psychological framework or a specialized software…