If you've ever tried to film something, you probably know what it's like to try and cobble something together with a bunch of borrowed and/or homemade gear. I know the first music video that we ever shot we done with a "borrowed" shopping cart, a camera on loan, and some shop lights. Shanks FX, which appears to be a part of PBS Digital Studios, put together this great short video about how they light various environments creatively using less than $150 in flashlights and accessories.

An easy lighting setup for any photographer to have in their arsenal that creates a highly sought-after look would have to be three point lighting. It’s classic, it’s easy, and you can achieve several highly stylized looks in only mere seconds by moving a light or two.

Creating an even, flattering light in the studio doesn't have to be difficult. In this tutorial, I will show you three simple parallel lighting hacks to make portraits that everyone from the boardroom to Broadway will love.

Godox’s line of flashes, including the incredibly popular AD200 and V1, have become a mainstay of the on and off-camera lighting market. They’ve become so popular, in part, thanks to the surprising value and feature set offered at each price point. As a result, the AD100Pro, a new addition to the line, has quite the legacy to live up to. Has it earned a place in photographer’s bags?

Recently, Spiffy Gear had released a very unique-looking light named Spekular. What caught my attention was its ability to combine, shape, and separate one single "light" in so many different ways. From my perspective, having the variety of options for on-the-go shooting held value. I ended up taking the LED light kit for a spin. There were some aspects I liked and some that could use some improvements. Let's dive in.

If you are new to artificial lighting, you might wonder why some photographers employ complex multi-light setups for some portrait work. This great video shows you the difference between what you can accomplish with a single light setup versus using multiple lights, which will illuminate why more complex setups are often preferred.

When you are new to working with artificial lighting, it can all seem a bit overwhelming and foreign, but it does not have to remain mysterious forever. This excellent video tutorial will teach you a clean three-light setup that you can use for commercial portraits and more.

If the idea of creating multi-light portraits makes you feel the least bit intimidated, this tutorial is for you. Music photographer PJ Pantelis delivers a clear and detailed lesson on how to create professional headshots using just two lights and a reflector.

Created for the creative, MIOPS is a promising new accessory used to easily trigger your camera or flash unit for high-speed photography scenarios. The MIOPS team have launched a Kickstarter to acquire funding for their new high-tech device in which they declare is “not the first trigger in the market, but it is going to be the best.”

When it comes to portrait photography, most professionals employ a range of lighting equipment to dial in the exact images they are looking for no matter where they are or when they are shooting. That being said, you will be amazed what you can accomplish with natural light and the knowledge of how to shape it to your needs. This great video tutorial will show you how to create professional portraits in a garage using just natural light and a few modifiers.

Thomas Dagg loves Star Wars. Each and every Star Wars figure and ship he owns, he can recall the name, where/how he got it, and their roll in his burgeoning imagination. His childhood wouldn't be the same without the galactic adventures, and as an adult he has paid tribute to the galaxy far, far away in photographs.

A great portion of my business is spent on architectural photography. My technique involves using a mixture of ambient light, flash, and tungsten hot lights blended and masked together in post to create well lit images that are time consuming to shoot and often frustrating to edit. I'm always looking for other techniques and resources to incorporate that will allow me to work more efficiently and/or improve my images. This week I found such a technique right under my nose.

There are shooters who spend 100's if not 1000's of dollars on courses to learn what you can learn in these two videos from DEDPXL. In them commercial, editorial photographer Zack Arias goes into great detail on how to light your subjects with a seamless white background set up. Learn everything from studio dimensions, light and model positioning, camera and light settings, post production, equipment use, taking the background from black to white and more tips and tricks then you can retain in one viewing.

For anyone who appreciates the use of flash, there comes a point in photography work when you want more power than a standard speedlite can offer. Many strobe options provide more power, but require you to be tied up to power outlets. Few strobes offer a simple portable lighting option. Many would contend the Profoto B1 is currently the best self contained portable strobe on the market. That may be changing with Impact's newly released strobe, the Venture TTL 600.

Recently, Godox launched the V1Pro, an upgrade to the popular V1 flash. But with the V1 already at the top of the pack, was there much to improve? In this review, I’ll be comparing the Godox V1 and V1Pro to determine which you should consider adding to your flash photography kit.

If you are fan of DIY projects or are on a budget, this tutorial shows you all the steps for creating a simple yet effective globe light modifier for Paul C. Buff (RIP) strobes like AlienBees and Einsteins. Unlike many other DIY modifiers, this globe actually attaches the exact same way the retail modifiers do. Best of all, you can buy everything you need for under $25!

It's rare that any piece of photographic equipment is versatile and affordable enough that I recommend it to everyone, but the GVM-600S Ring Light is one of those rare products. If you shoot photos or videos, you should buy this light.

Exposure compensation is a tool that every photographer ought to know how to use effectively. In this video, learn exactly how it works, when to use it, and how to use it.

Shooting off-camera flash is one of the most important skills you can learn as a photographer. In this video, you'll learn exactly how to do that during the evening and see some wonderful portraits made using the techniques contained herein.

Warm smiles and serene sun flares seem to be landing on the shoulders of portraits all over the internet nowadays. Complimented with beautiful bokeh from a shallow depth of field, the allure of a sun-kissed image image is easy to see. What happens when mother nature doesn't seem to be on your side? In this article, I am going to show you how to master "faking" sun flare.

Oh, what's that? I'm using flashes to take a portrait? Well let's turn those bad boys up to 11 and make that subject pop! When you're first learning to light with flashes, the temptation can be overpowering to drown out all the ambient light in your scene to make your subject stand out. I'd argue that, at least for environmental portraiture, sometimes subtlety with flash is a more compelling way to go.

Nighttime portraits are a great way to shoot some very unique and creative images that can really set your work apart from others. This great video will show you five helpful nighttime portrait lighting tips and techniques.

The Russian photographer and mother, Elena Shumilova, is making a big splash again by sharing some great photo advice. In early 2014, her whimsical photos of her children went viral and inspired parents and photographers all around the world. For the first time since she her images exploded on the scene, she allowed cameras into her home and gives some great tips for others to capture images of their children.

Lighting equipment can quickly add up in cost, but you do not always need top-level equipment and multi-light setups with esoteric modifiers to get great results. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to get professional portraits using nothing more than a simple speedlight and an umbrella.

Over the years Yongnuo has built quite a reputation as an affordable and competitive product to the big names. Now nearly a year after their last trigger update, Yongnuo is announcing its latest version the RF605 trigger, which comes with some nice features that may pursuade you to upgrade if you are holding on to the old versions.

Continuous strip lights have become quite popular for portrait and video work in recent years. Nonetheless, they can be very expensive. In this video, Joe Edelman walks us through his process in creating a full studio kit of strip lights for a fraction of the price.

If you've ever shot a portrait of someone wearing glasses, you know it can be a particularly infuriating experience. Instead of resorting to posing tricks or wasting time correcting the glare in Photoshop, understanding the simple physics behind why these reflections occur can enable you to quickly and effectively eliminate them.

The humble beauty dish is a studio favorite but it is not often the first modifier most reach for when heading outdoors. Most beauty dishes are not all that portable and can add significant weight to your kit. With a few collapsible beauty dishes currently on the market you can now easily take that gorgeous light with you anywhere. Joel Grimes shows you how to make the most out of using a beauty dish in an outdoor setting.

We’ve studied how direction and angle can drastically change the quality of light produced from your umbrella. We have also seen examples about how distance can change the umbrella light falling on your subject.

Now it’s time to look at the big picture. Let’s take a peek at how our umbrella is actually producing light across the whole image, not just the subject that you chose. In Umbrellas 103, we’re going to study fall off, and compare the type of light produced by four different shoot thru and reflective umbrellas.

If you’ve ever wondered why you might use a giant umbrella instead of a small, collapsible model, this article is for you!