As a broke college student trying to build a portfolio, I’ve had to be resourceful and creative in finding products to photograph and equipment use. This is part one of showing a few of my favorite images taken with affordable products and equipment.

This time, I created a set of flower portraits that slightly reference A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The equipment used for this shoot was acquired over my 7+ years of working as a portrait photographer in San Antonio. I photographed these images with my Canon 60D that I bought used, a Canon 50mm F/1.8 lens ($125), my Canon Speedlite 430EX III-RT Flash ($249), a Neewer 43-inch reflector ($16.99), and a Neewer backdrop stand ($66.99).

For the backdrop, I wanted to use something warm and simple, but I didn’t have the budget to get a real, fabric backdrop. Luckily, I have a Walmart down the street from my house (God bless America, right?), where I was able to find a quick solution to my problem. This recycled brown paper JAM wrapping paper ($4.99) was the perfect brown neutral I wanted for the portraits. For the flowers, I bought 4 different kinds of flower bundles ($4/each).

I shot each portrait bouncing the flash on my camera off the walls or off the reflector to light my subject. By using ETTL (the flash adjusts power by the light it reads through the lens, based on the camera’s settings), I was able to use a shallow depth of field to create the soft look in the portraits and blur out the background.

About the Photographer:

Elizabeth Leland is a senior at The Art Institute of San Antonio where she is earning her BFA in digital photography. After picking up a camera in 2007, Elizabeth developed a love for interacting with people and making genuine connections through the lens. Elizabeth continued to grow in photography and took every opportunity she could to learn from small business owners, established photographers, and teachers. She has worked happily as a portrait and event photographer for most of her career, and found her passion in commercial photography.