Profiles
10 Questions for Pye Jirsa: SLR Lounge Founder, Photographer and Lighting Legend
June 3, 2020
Inspired from a photo I saw by Sam Hurd, who used an in-camera double exposure, I wanted to put my own spin on the concept: I used a 4-stop square ND filter, holding it over the left half of image. I then used a flash to light the male subject from the left of the frame. For stylistic reasons, I placed a second flash on the ground at the top of the frame to simulate sun coming from the background. Both flashes had CTO gels to warm the color of the light. Check out a complete tutorial in the video below.
A big name in the wedding and portrait photography world, Pye Jirsa is the founder of photo education hub SLR Lounge and of the solution-based preset pack Visual Flow, and he is one half of photo and video studio Lin & Jirsa Photography. Jirsa is an experienced mentor and educator who has taught in many venues, including RF’s annual show, WPPI. Recently, he took part in a virtual conference hosted by Daniel Kudish of Image Salon.
Jirsa has shared a wide variety of knowledge with photographers looking to hone their craft, from his off-camera lighting know-how to making subjects pop in any environment, using a bridal veil for in-camera effects and creating a knockout group wedding portrait. His creative problem-solving particularly shines in the realm of lighting, where he has come up with ways to, for instance, recreate the “golden hour” effect without sun. He also created a tutorial for how he got the “night and day” effect in the shot above:
Today, we asked Jirsa to give us more insight on himself and his inspirations as he, like everyone, navigates and adapts to a changing world in 2020.
1. What is your perspective and experience with productivity right now? Is it something you’re diving into, reinterpreting, balancing?
Before COVID-19, I’d always maintained a fairly strict personal schedule. My actions have changed. I no longer go out, head to the office or see friends, like all of us. But, I still stick to my personal schedule and for the most part, it’s been business as usual, outside of not shooting for clients. Normally, I wake up around 4:30 a.m., but with three kids being homeschooled, I’m sleeping in a little these days [laughs]. So here’s how my new schedule is looking:
6:00 a.m. Wakeup routine: Drink 8oz cold water, cold head-only shower, get dressed.
6:20 a.m. Breakfast: steel-cut oats, 1 cup blueberries, 1 scoop of protein power and mix it up!
6:45 a.m. Bike ride (to the office when not in quarantine).
7:30 a.m. Shower, make coffee or favorite drink, sit down and grab my sketchbook.
8:00 a.m. Begin work at my home office and look at my to-do list that was already created the night prior in my mind-mapping sketchbook. (If it’s my turn for homeschooling, I shift my work schedule to an evening slot—see below.)
11:00 a.m. Lunch. Grab a meal prep. I prep meals each Sunday with the family for the week. Make lunch for the family. Hang out with the kids a bit.
12:00 p.m. Back to work. (If I’m homeschooling, again, I shift this back.)
4:00 p.m. Work stops, and I take over with the kids. Yen, my life partner, begins her work day. If it’s my day to homeschool, then this is when my work would begin.
8:00 p.m. Kids begin getting ready for bed.
8:30 p.m. Kids are in bed and can read until asleep.
10:00 p.m. Stop work if working in the evening.
10:05 p.m. Plan out next day’s schedule and begin wind-down routine.
11:00 p.m. Asleep.
I attribute my sanity to my productivity and the daily routine that drives it. Now, I just do most of it from home.
2. What’s the most surprising, unexpected or enlightening thing that has come out of this for you so far?
Time and space. It’s been interesting to see that I can be as effective while working remotely. On top of that, while my hours might be slightly down, my productivity has been way up. There’s something about the extra time and space that gives me more time with my family and more time to refuel. Even after we’ve come through the other side, I want to continue taking that time and space to maintain my perspective.
3. Are you planning on pivoting business at all on your end to make up for any lost revenue?
We currently have three businesses: wedding and portrait work through Lin & Jirsa Photography, online education through SLR Lounge and image-development tools through Visual Flow. While our wedding and portrait work is on pause, our other two businesses have diversified us enough to maintain revenue streams. Having two other business partners, this is something we prepared for several years ago. Justin, Chris and I are all former CPAs and come from a finance background. So we prepared our business to have a diversified income stream in case of any sort of catastrophic event. That planning has enabled us to handle this crisis without an immediate need to pivot. That said, we’re not through this yet. Eventually, if this crisis continues long enough, the photography industry as a whole will be a tough place to earn revenue. But, if that were to happen, most other industries would be facing a similar outlook.
4. Do you think your photo clients are ready to be marketed to yet?
Future wedding clients, yes. We haven’t really changed how we’re marketing our wedding work. We have allowed certain things, like flexibility should there be a need to change the event date. But I don’t feel like there should be massive changes in the way we market.
5. What’s been your most compelling read lately?
This is a tough one [laughs]. I read a lot! About a book a week on average. Right now I’m listening to Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell. He’s a personal favorite of mine!
6. What about the most absorbing thing you’ve watched?
Interesting question. Now and then I’ll get pulled into a great television or movie series. As a family, we’ve been revisiting the entire world of Harry Potter, reading the books together and then watching how the books are translated into the movie. For me personally, I’m super into Billions right now. I was just getting caught up on season 5!
7. What’s the best thing you’ve eaten since being in quarantine, and what’s the saddest?
Oh man, we are constantly ordering in [laughs]. We’ve been loving treats from our friends at Mr & Mrs Creamery. It’s a boutique dessert shop run by a close friend, James Lee. We’ve been ordering delivery from him for the past two months, and it’s starting to show! [laughs] I’m used to running lean and mean—these days not so much. I attribute that to James, as well as having my 40th birthday in quarantine.
8. What would be your advice for a photographer who wants to give their engagement photography a little more sparkle?
Absorb some education before your next shoot. I teach and educate because I love to learn. It’s that constant process of learning, reading and growing that helps me change things up from shoot to shoot. Sometimes I’m focused on photography education; most of the time, I am not. Regardless, it’s the education and growth that I experience between shoots that allows me to shoot the same location with a unique perspective, even when I’ve been there hundreds of times.
One piece of education that will transform the way you shoot is our WAVE process. We call it the Wall Art Vision Exercise and it’s part of an entire Business Training System on SLR Lounge for how to create a seven-figure photography business. However, I’ll provide a link where you can simply watch the WAVE training for free.
The WAVE is a psychological process that we walk through prior to each client’s shoot experience. It helps us identify specific images that the clients value and appreciate. It’s a piece of education that completely transforms how you plan and go about a shoot. I get each of these concepts from books that I read outside of the world of photography. Then I simply apply that knowledge to our business or the way that we approach shoots. I find that each book I read refines my process and understanding.
9. What would you say is the most common error or oversight in lighting that you have observed photographers make?
The most common error I see in lighting is not understanding the purpose or intention of the lighting. As photographers, we often have a tendency to think that there’s a “right type of light,” and usually we think that such a light is always large and soft. But in reality, there’s no wrong type of light; there’s simply a right type of light for the intended use. Soft light, hard light, specular light, diffused light, colored light—everything has a place and a purpose. The most common error is failing to think ahead when deciding what light to use. A photographer should think of the mood and intention they wish to convey, then work their way back to select the right type of light for that end.
10. What are you looking forward to most when the world finally opens up again?
Jiu-Jitsu. I’m relatively new to the sport but it’s my outlet in almost every way. For the most part, I don’t spend a ton of time with people outside of my family, so that part didn’t change much. The thing I felt the most was my inability to practice BJJ [Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu] during this time. It almost feels crippling in a weird way. That’s what I’m looking forward to most.