lighting

How to Use Street Lights to Improve Your Night Street Photography

Nighttime street and urban photography can actually be easy. Street lamps (your ready-made light sources), can effectively provide all the light you need for your photos. The illumination gives you compositional ideas and options for taking great shots.

How to Create Natural Light with Strobes: Big Modifiers and Bouncing Flash

Natural light is one of the easiest ways to shoot portraits with minimal gear. More often than not natural light is soft and flattering to the face. Yet, a photographer who is able to create natural light in the complete absence of it is valued highly. That is of course with strobes. Here’s how you can easily create natural-looking light with flash.

11 Popular Light Modifiers Compared: Which One Is Right for You?

Picking the right light modifier is often crucial to the success of the image. With hundreds of different modifiers to choose from, there is really nothing you can’t do. However, a wide choice often ends up confusing or possibly scaring photographers.

Learn 21 One-Light Portrait Setups In Less Than Six Minutes

Sometimes photographers may be in a situation where they only have a single light source at their disposal during a portrait session. The good news is there are many ways you can use a single light to create unique and dramatic looks for portrait work as Dima Metkin demonstrates.

The Ultimate Guide to Softboxes: The Anatomy of Light Shaping Tools

Softboxes are among the most popular light shaping tools. Few photographers have never shot with softboxes, and more often than not a softbox is a go-to modifier for beginners. In this article, I will break down the anatomy of a softbox, from physics to possible applications for it. Read on to become a master of using softboxes.

Which M43 System Has Held Its Value Better, Olympus or Panasonic?

Previously, we looked at which line of Sony's full-frame mirrorless cameras is most popular. Before that, we checked out which DSLR system held its value better over time. This time, we explore data from two Micro Four Thirds companies -- Olympus and Panasonic -- and see which system has held up better over time.

You’re Using Your Ring Light Wrong

At some point during the history of the influencer, the ring light became an accessory de rigueur, fueled by the availability of cheap Chinese-made devices. The original ring light was invented for dentistry by Lester A. Dine in 1952 because of its ability to cast an even light with diffuse shadows in a confined space. An ideal solution for photographing teeth and gums.

Dramatic Portrait Lighting Made Simple

Street portraiture provides the opportunity to capture so much of the urban textures and patterns that give a city its look. The brick walls provide great leading lines as well as murals and large wall art that set a dramatic tone to any image.

A Low-Cost Lighting Technique for More Controllable and Dynamic Shots

Sometimes all it takes to bring a shoot to the "next level" is a little DIY work and a couple of cheap accessories. In a recently published video, videographer Alex Perri goes over how he used an affordable light shaping modifier along with duct tape and cardboard to create some iconic film-noir looks for a short film he produced for fun at home.

A Detailed Tutorial on How to Pose Couples During Photo Sessions

I am a professional wedding, portrait, and fashion photographer and have been photographing couples for nearly three decades and I have been teaching photography for over two years. My goal with this video is to provide simple but very effective posing tips when photographing a couple.

Using an Infrared Flash for Stealthy Street Photography

Street photography is one of the most appreciated genres in photography. By showing daily life in a new way, it can speak to everyone. That explains why some of the most famous photographers are street photographers: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Vivian Maier, Martin Parr, Diane Arbus, or Joel Meyerowitz. They created iconic pictures by finding the right moment to catch the interesting details that no one else could have seen.

Review: set.a.light 3D Makes Learning and Seeing Light a Piece of Cake

Lighting is one of the most complex topics in photography. There are literally hundreds of light shaping tools and countless scenarios they apply to. No wonder many photographers are reluctant to learn lighting, despite it being one of the core skills any photographer should have.

How NOT to Light Your Portrait Photos

Light can be one of the most challenging topics when it comes to learning photography. It takes a lot of trial and error to understand light, as there are very few resources available that teach light beyond setups.

How to Photograph Couples: A Detailed Tutorial

I am a professional wedding, portrait, and fashion photographer, and have almost three decades of experience photographing couples. I created this video to provide lighting, posing and location tips and tricks in a few different scenarios to give photographers some inspiration on how to photograph couples.

Why You Should Upgrade Your Speedlight to a Studio Strobe

I’d argue that nearly all of us owned a speedlight at some point before we owned a studio strobe. When we’re looking to dip our toes into supplemental lighting, strobes seem like a big investment. It just makes sense to pick up a cheap speedlight to play with, right?

The Secret to Amazing Cityscape Photos: A Magic 15-Minute Window

After shooting cities all around the globe for the past 15 years, I managed to publish seven coffee table books featuring cities like Paris, Venice, Los Angeles, and New York. I learned the hard way when was the best time to shoot and want to save you the time and effort so you can make the best photos of cityscapes possible.

Are Expensive Light Modifiers Worth It?

There have been thousands of articles written about cheap and expensive lights, cameras, and lenses. To me, the light is not as important as the modifier.

Lighting Setups Are Nonsense — Here’s How You Really Learn Light

When starting out, you will inevitably stumble upon someone telling you to use a three-light setup for portraits and a beauty dish for fashion photography. I think that’s a whole bunch of nonsense. Lighting setups don’t teach you light -- they only confuse you and derail you from progressing.

How to Make a DIY Portable V-Flat

Having a portable V-Flat in your photography kit can provide a unique tool when creating images for your clients. A V-Flat can be used as a background or a tool to bounce or absorb light on your subject.

5 One-Light Modifier Setups: Portrait Lighting in 10 Minutes

In this article and video, you’ll get five one-light studio setups, and we’re going to do it in less than 10 minutes. I’m using a Profoto A10 for this setup, but you can use any flash. I’m also going to limit our modifiers to just the basics, so we’ll mainly use an umbrella. For all of our setups, I’ll give you other options, regardless of what I’m using.

5 Window Light Portrait Positions

I'm Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens. In this article, we’re going to show you how to set up the five lighting portrait positions using the window and how to control the light.

Godox Unveils Cylinder-Shaped AD100Pro Pocket Flash

Godox has announced the compact AD100Pro Pocket Flash strobe, which features high-speed sync (HSS), wireless control, TTL, and a modeling lamp powered by a 2600 mAh battery. All in, battery included, the tiny strobe weighs only 524 grams (~18.5 ounces).

How to Photograph Your Own Eye

The world of macro photography is full of fascinating subjects, but eyes and irises have got to be among the most mesmerizing ones. As with most captivating subjects, capturing it can be quite a challenge.

6 Professional Tips for Awesome Product Photography

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of shooting some product photography for my friends over at HDK Snowmakers. They are a snowmaking machine manufacturer for some of the country’s largest ski resorts and specialize in hyper-efficient machines that keep skiers on the slopes, while not guzzling up tons of water.

Lighting 101: Everything You Need to Know About Light Fall Off

Photographer Gavin Hoey recently produced a video for Adorama TV that tackles a critically important subject for photographers: light fall off. Mathematically captured by the so-called Inverse Square Law, it's vital that photographers understand this property of light, especially when working with strobes.