When shooting without flash, you try to use the light in your environment that works best. When shooting with flash, you often shoot inside and focus on altering the lights pointed at your subject. But often we forget that you can use the environment to help create a natural look with artificial light. In this […]
Whether you’re trying to save a few dollars or just enjoy building your own equipment, you may like the following video, which shows us how professional portrait photographer Tristan Penner (tristanshea dot com) built his own portable portrait studio with supplies that can be found at most hardware stores. The setup consists of three panels, […]
Complex photo shoots call for complex lighting. That’s why Jay P. Morgan shows us exactly how he sets up his seven different lights for this shoot, which features Jodie Sweetin (of Full House fame) posing as a beauty queen in a disaster kitchen. Here’s how he does it: The idea for this photo shoot began with Sweetin, who […]
How do you make an athlete look his or her best? Michael Corsentino from Behind the Shutter demonstrates how to create dynamic lighting setups to illuminate and flatter athletes in a studio environment. There are a lot of takeaways from this informative 16 minute video. Here are a few highlights: Cross Lighting As the diagram below demonstrates, […]
The photo tip for today is about using “short lighting” and “broad lighting” patterns in your portrait photography. Flat lighting will ruin your portrait photography! Caution: An on-camera flash aimed at the subject will produce flat lighting. Bounce the flash off the walls, ceilings, off a reflector or something else. Never aim it directly at your […]
Studio lighting isn’t as difficult as it may seem. In fact, with just two lights, you can create several different types of shots simply by repositioning them. Here’s how: The first step, according to Scott Kelby, is to get a big, soft light. He’s exclusively using a dual Westcott package, which includes a large softbox and slender […]
It’s easy to overthink studio lighting and become convinced that you need elaborate equipment setups that include multiple strobes and reflector panels, all meticulously positioned and expensive to boot. However, as portrait photographer and Adobe Photoshop expert Glyn Dewis explains in the following short tutorial, making compelling portraits with just one light source is not only easily possible, but also incredibly effective. Watch his technique […]
A lot of times, it’s the simplest of tips that have the biggest impact on the work that we do. Today, we’re going to explore this with a recent video from photographer Daniel Norton, showing us a quick useful tip on lighting ratios: The video is pretty straight-forward and involves some trial and error on […]
What do you do when happen to shoot a great looking portrait image of yourself? Share it on social media, of course. But then when you have a lot of rave reviews your next step should be to share the behind-the-scene tips on how you managed to make the image. That way you get a […]
Do you shoot portraits with umbrellas? Most professionals opt for softboxes instead—but to overlook the power of umbrellas is a huge oversight. At least that’s what Daniel Norton thinks. In this video, he explains why: Norton shoots six different 41″ umbrellas, keeping both his camera and model in the same positions to illustrate exactly how different each […]
