Make your subjects look their best with our professional portrait photography tips, covering lighting setups, location scouting and tips for working with models.
Creating great lighting for portraits can be hard work, especially when you are first setting out on your photographic journey. What lights should I buy, how do I set the studio up? In this video from B&H Photographic, portrait photographer Erin Manning gives us a comprehensive guide on basic studio lighting and how to use […]
A reflector is the quintessential tool for modifying light in almost every lighting situation. As long as the source of light is intense enough to be reflected you can use a reflector to bounce light, to lower the intensity of the light, or to add a bit of color to a scene. In this video, […]
The sun is the largest source of natural light we have. It’s sufficient for any type of photography, does not require a source of power, and lasts the entire day. However, the sun is also an unpredictable source of light, which means you cannot control it. As natural light photographers all you can do is […]
When you have a marketable skill that’s in high demand, spending a couple of hours doing your job for those who need it is sometimes more valuable than donating money to the same worthy cause. A couple of months ago a video made the rounds on the Internet showing a professional barber spending some of […]
Film editor and director Logan Kelsey’s short profile film on landscape photographer Marty Knapp is a stunning look into the man behind the lens. The video begins as Knapp explains his process of making a photograph, which hinges on evocative light: “By removing the color, something happens. We start paying attention to the lines, the […]
If you’ve spent time shooting people or products inside a studio then, chances are, you’ve shot a white background before. In this video, photographer Mark Wallace discusses a common pitfall of shooting subjects against a white background — lighting the background insufficiently so it appears gray instead of white. He offers a couple of solutions, […]
Let’s face it, lighting equipment can be pretty expensive once you add up all the power supplies, light stands, light modifiers, power packs, slaves and whatnot. This is where DIY and nice guys like Kevin Kubota come in. The video below explains how to make your own lighting scrims inexpensively with a quick trip to […]
In this video, photographer Peter Hurley shares some invaluable tips on how to make great portraits by mixing studio strobes with ambient light on location. This should be a fun watch for all you lighting enthusiasts who would love to get inside the head of a professional celebrity portrait photographer and find out the secret […]
This isn’t your typical family photo—unless your relatives include a llama, a shaggy cow, a black sheep (doesn’t every family have one?), a rooster, and a goat. But it really isn’t a family photo at all—more like a fashion shoot, according to photographer Rob MacInnis: Part of a series named “The Dog & Pony Show”, […]
Pro sports photography can often seem like an exhibition of lighting and equipment. However, if you choose the right time of day to shoot and use ambient light mixed with artificial lights intelligently, you can shoot with only one light and still make dramatic portraits. To demonstrate this, photographer Matt Hernandez brought a single light […]
