What kind of lighting do you use as a portrait photographer? Softboxes are great and popular, but that also makes them potentially overused and boring. If you want to spice up your portrait lighting, you can look into expanding your toolbox beyond the softbox and into other kinds of lighting.
Almost anything can be used as a light modifier. As long as it interacts with light in one way or another, it can be considered a light modifier. In this article, I will show you how to build a do-it-yourself (DIY) softbox with things you likely already have around at home.
Umbrellas are perhaps the most under-appreciated light shaping tool around. Due to their low price and wide availability, they are considered by some to be only for those who are beginners. This couldn't be further from the truth.
When it comes to photography, depth refers to the balance of what is in and out of focus. The right depth creates a sense of space and helps draw the viewer in, and adding depth to your product photography will help the product pop.
Can you think back to a time you were taking photos in a dinner scene and they just look "flash-y"? Why does flash never look natural? Well, in order to make flash look natural, you have to make flash part of the natural lighting scenario. Here’s how.
When Profoto released the B10 and B10 Plus, they made headlines for how portable and powerful they were. That was 2018. In 2021, Profoto takes the concept of a portable powerful battery-powered strobe further by launching the B10X and B10X Plus.
I've shot thousands of pics of insects without flash and tens of thousands with flash. When the lighting is bright and sunny, the results can be good without flash. But when I venture out in pursuit of photo ops, I often encounter poorly lighted situations which are better with flash. If you study the work of experienced insect photographers, you'll find that most of them use flash.
Just about a year ago Westcott expanded on its new wireless flash lineup that started with the FJ400 by offering new sizes and power outputs. After listening to user feedback, it launched the FJ200 as a more compact and travel-friendly light system... and it's awesome.
Nikon recently announced that it is collaborating with Nissin and Profoto on speedlights and studio lights. Is this an admission of the not-so-secret reality that lighting products are actually quite cheap?
Creating a do-it-yourself lighting setup for dappled natural light backgrounds isn’t as tricky or as involved to achieve as some setups and techniques, but it is a nice little idea to play with if the occasion arises.
Think you know the inverse-square law? How much of a "law" is it actually in the practice of photography? We are taught that the inverse-square law is the holy grail of understanding the laws of light. Some condense all the wonderful knowledge about light concepts to the inverse square law only. In this article, I want to invite you to take a step back and see how the inverse square law is wrong. Sometimes.
The most complex scenarios one can get in lighting are black on black and white on white. These scare most photographers, regardless of the genre. If black absorbs light and white bounces, how can you achieve natural-looking results with just one light?
Nikon has announced a partnership with lighting manufacturers Nissin and Profoto, but it's not clear what that might mean for customers.
There have been a lot of interesting light solutions for creatives released in the last few years, but they were either a slight improvement over a previous generation (like the Profoto A1 to A1X) or something to serve a niche corner like the Lumee from Spiffy Gear. Nothing has been really groundbreaking... except perhaps for the StellaPro Reflex from Light and Motion.
The Aptolux MP-1 is a portable, lightweight, and modular lighting system that has the ability to change its size or shape depending on the need. The company says it prevents the need to buy multiple lights and is highly repairable if damaged.
One of the hardest things I experienced as a beginner was not knowing how to create a simple lighting setup. I’d always imagined elaborate lighting setups of three to six lights or more, and it’s why I began to shy away from working in a studio.
In this tutorial, we share our lighting setup for a piece of glass stemware using minimal gear. To mimic this shot, you will need a black background, stripboxes, and speedlights.
Parabolic light has become increasingly popular among fashion and portrait photographers. With so many options to choose from, a photographer may get lost or not understand the modifiers at all.
When it comes to headshots, there is perhaps no better source of information and guidance than the man who has made an empire out of the practice. In this five minute video on the, Peter Hurley quickly breaks down his favorite tips to light the perfect headshot.
Sony has launched two new shoe-mount, speedlight-style strobes for the Alpha system: the HVL-F60RM2 and HVL-F46RM. Both are capable of continuous 10 frames per second flashes or have sub-two second recycle times at full power.
TTArtisan has announced a $56 Light Meter for Leica cameras that do not have a built-in metering system.
One of the most frustrating things I see is photographers limiting their knowledge of light to one modifier. So much so, that there are people who can build whole portfolios with just one single type of light. While this is not wrong, it must get boring for the viewer after some time. That is why I went searching for some of the most unusual light shaping tools.
Diffused and soft light are often used interchangeably among photographers. Indeed, to an untrained eye, the two can sometimes appear to be the same. Furthermore, modifiers such as softboxes that give both soft and diffused light make it hard to spot the difference. Nonetheless, diffused light is not necessarily soft, and soft light is not necessarily diffused.
How does renowned portrait photographer Albert Watson light his photos? With a foolproof three-light setup that makes his photos look amazing, of course! Except... he doesn't. In fact, setups are very far from what professional photographers do when they light their work. Here is what mindset photographers have when they light.
You don’t often see photographers using gels outdoors in natural light, but why? I think one of the core reasons you don't see too many natural light gel shots, is that you need a lot of power and control from your lights to make color gels visible in daylight.
Lighting as a thought process is fundamentally easy to apply to schemata. Water is not.
There are literally hundreds of different flashes on the market. With brands competing for attention and offering some very unique features, it is often hard to decide which flash to pick. What is more, buying a flash is sometimes like buying a whole lighting system. If someone buys Profoto they are likely to stick with it for a long time because it’s part of a lighting system, not just one flash.
Hi, this is photographer Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens. In this article and video, we’re going to take a look at how to set up a simple corporate portrait in a tight space.
Why is it so difficult to compare one light to another? It would be bad enough to say that watts, LUX, watt-seconds, and guide numbers aren’t directly comparable. And unless you’ve been around lights for a long time, these measurements won’t even make intuitive sense.
How do photographers freeze motion? With shutter speed, of course! This is something fundamental that everyone starting out in photography learns to do. If you’re shooting sports, for example, just crank the ISO up, set a high shutter speed, and expect a good frozen-in-time image. However, when using a flash, things are a little different. In fact, shutter speed is by far the worst way to freeze motion. Here’s why.
In this nine-minute video from Workphlo, photographer Dustin Dolby explains how to light catalog quality reflective product photos using just a single Speedlight.
If you’re just starting out with strobes, there’s more choice than ever to overwhelm you with! In this guide, we will help you systematically narrow down which lights are going to work best for your type of photography.
I'm photographer Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens, and in this article and 10-minute video, we’re going to talk about my favorite lighting when it comes to lighting any kind of product: top back light.
Of all the various factors and variables involved in photography, light is by far the most important one. Photographer Karl Taylor argues that control over light will actually supersede the quality of a camera.
One of the bigger personal projects I’ve been working on recently is my Cinematic Studio Lighting course. During the process of writing the accompanying notes and shooting promotional images for the event, I’ve done a ton of research on how cinematographers and directors of photography work, think, and plan their shots.
Well-known portrait photographer and YouTuber Manny Ortiz made this 5.5-minute video in which he shares his go-to beauty lighting setup that guarantees stunning and flattering studio portraits time and time again.
Godox has announced the updated V860III Speedlight (AKA the Flashpoint Zoom Li-on III R2 TTL). The new $229 76Ws Speedlight has all of the features from the existing V860II as well as several new and improved features, including a front-facing modeling light.
The beauty dish is one of the most commonly used light modifiers for beauty and portrait work, but being popular doesn’t mean that it’s an easy-to-use modifier without any quirks and intricacies. In fact, you can only harness the true magic of the beauty dish if you know the principles behind it inside-out. In this article, I will explain everything you need to know when using a beauty dish.
We all love soft light because it adds that dreaminess to food and drink photos that will always be great. However, recently I have been seeing more people use hard light in their food and drink photography.
People always have a love/hate relationship with Godox. For many, they are a cheap entry point to off-camera flash, offering massive bang for the buck. Others see them as cheap imitations of more expensive brands.