Shooting Family Holiday Portraits with Continuous LED Lighting

It’s that time for the year for celebrating togetherness and if you’re fortunate enough to be with family during the holidays of this more than challenging year, it deserves a photograph.

From portrait photographer, Jiggie Alejandrino, this video talks about and demonstrates the use of continuous LED lights for ambient lighting when shooting holiday portraits with a backdrop at home or in the studio.

Family portraits can be quite tricky to light since each individual in the shot has to be lit evenly with the others and each of them are also potentially going to cast shadows (and hotspots). That’s why a strong but diffused light source (or light sources) can be very beneficial for such a setup.

In the video, Alejandrino makes use of multiple units of the Nanlite Forza 60 in combination with this Sony A7r IV and Sony Zeiss 50mm f/1.4. He also notes that having continuous auto focus with active eye tracking can be quite handy for when kids are moving around. In fact, during the shooting demo, Alejandrino let his youngest son take over the shoot with all the settings and lights in place showing how the setup is automatic at that point. From there, the photographer can focus on capturing candid interactions in frame. If you’re shooting a set for your own family, this setup can allow you to have an enjoyable session with your loved ones.

Nicco Valenzuela's picture

Nicco Valenzuela is a photographer from Quezon City, Philippines. Nicco shoots skyscrapers and cityscapes professionally as an architectural photographer and Landscape and travel photographs as a hobby.

Log in or register to post comments
1 Comment

You are very good at working with, and teaching, your kids!