A video recently posted by COOPH, “5 Photo Hacks with Your Umbrella,” provides photographers creative inspiration for a tool that is typically seen as single purpose. Chances are, you will finish it feeling inspired.
The inverse square law is one of the most fundamental and important rules when it comes to lighting in photography, and understanding it can make you a better photographer. This excellent video will introduce you to the law and show you how its affects your work.
Softboxes are some of the most fundamental and versatile lighting modifiers out there, and they are a great tool for anyone looking to learn how to use artificial lighting and build their skills. This educational video will show you five different ways to use softboxes and give you some helpful tips for using them.
One of the most versatile techniques any photographer can learn is how to bounce light. This great video will show you an application of bounce flash to create indoor portraits with a more natural look than might be achieved otherwise.
A common challenge for many portrait photographers is shooting people in a room with very strong ambient light. This tutorial and demonstration video gives a good solution to that, as well as to the challenges of shooting in front of a mirror.
One of the funnest ways you can spice up a standard portrait is to add gels to your lights. This video will show you how to use them to create color portraits that help your subject really pop.
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.
One of the most fundamental artificial lighting techniques is the use of fill flash. It is a versatile technique that can quickly and drastically improve your on-location photos. This helpful video will show you the basics of fill flash, both why and how it is used.
When you are new to artificial lighting, you might not have the equipment to tackle complex multi-light setups, but that does not mean you will not be able to produce professional results. This great video will teach you how to create professional portraits using just a single light.
Shooting interviews is the bread and butter for a lot of videographers, especially those who work in the commercial sector, from in-house corporate communications and internal marketing, to brand awareness and customer testimonials. Most of these setups would require high-key or fairly neutral lighting styles, but what if the client needed more drama?
Whether you're shooting landscapes, outdoor portraits, or even architecture, natural lighting conditions can make or break your shoot. But what do you do when the sunlight doesn't cooperate?
Using rim lighting can be a great way to create a portrait with a very different look than the more standard shot. If you have not tried it before, this great video will show you how you can use rim lighting (even in a small space) for portraits and walk you through some problem-solving associated with the technique.
Before I knew anything about flash, I ranted at everyone about how I was an available light photographer. Now that I understand flash, I can safely say that I understand available light.
How much gear is too much? And is there such a thing as having too little gear on hand?
When you're on location, being able to take great images with minimal gear makes life a lot easier; knowing what you can do with just one light is where a lot of folks start, and for good reason. Check out these great setups for when you're on the beach with a one-light setup.
In this video, Mark Wallace explains how to take high-contrast images. He also explains some key terms that you should think about when you shoot this type of portraits.
Product photography is a highly intricate and precise genre in which you have to be able to control every last angle and reflection. This helpful video discusses how the table on which you are shooting can affect the results while demonstrating on a wine bottle.
You might not think speedlights are that flexible in terms of the quality of light they can output, but with a bit of ingenuity and an understanding of the basics of light, you can get both hard and soft light out of just a single speedlight. This helpful video will show you how it is done.
You might not think there is a huge difference between the way a white and silver beauty dish will render your subject, but they can make quite distinct looks in your portraits, and it is important to know which look you want before you choose one to use. This great video explores the differences between the two.
If you have not tried light painting before, it is a fun and challenging way to experiment and create unique images or augment your existing lighting. This great video will show you how to get started with the technique.
A white backdrop is an incredibly versatile piece of equipment, and a must have for any studio photographer. But if you want to mix things up a bit, and you don't want to fork out for another background — like one of these beautiful hand-painted ones — or you just want to have some creative fun, making a gobo is a fantastically adaptable alternative.
Lighting night exteriors can be a challenging task, because to make them look real you might need quite a lot of light sources. In this lighting tutorial you will learn how this suspenseful phone booth scene was filmed.
Rembrandt lighting is one of the most classic and fundamental lighting techniques in photography, and you will still see it used quite commonly today. This great video will show you how to create a Rembrandt lighting setup for portrait work.
There are numerous articles that are discussing the advantages and disadvantages of hot lights and LEDs. Knowing these, I want to share my opinion from a practical standpoint.
Filters are an essential part of any professionals toolkit and Polar Pro has built up a great name over the past few years in the filter industry. From the ease of use, quality, and performance of their products, Polar Pro is expanding into new realms to help filmmakers and photographers at a higher level.
Being a successful photographer or videographer requires a good understanding of the fundamentals, with perhaps nothing more foundational than the behavior of light. This excellent video will show you four fundamental aspects of light that you should definitely know.
Using artificial lighting for on-location portraits can go a long way to balancing out the exposure of your images and improving the look of your photos. But are speedlights or monolights the right choice? This great video examines the usage of both to help you decide the right one for your work.
When you think about crafting a lighting setup, you probably think about it from the standpoint of adding light. However, as important as it is to know where to add light, it is just as important to understand when and how to take away light to better shape your subject. This excellent video will show you three lighting setups using the black side of v-flats.
If you have ever wanted to create dark and moody images of people or food, then this video will help you understand how to light them.
Continuous LED lighting has come a long way in recent years, and while there are pros and cons to shooting with strobes or continuous lights, LED technology has definitely shifted the balance a little. How useful is continuous lighting for a studio portrait shoot? This video aims to find out.
You can improve your photography dramatically by merely practicing a little product photography. And no, you don’t have to be a product photographer to benefit from this practice. Portrait, architecture, macro, and even landscape photographers can all benefit from a little product photography practice.
Half the fun of studio lighting is that you get such granular control over the lighting that you can bring ideas to fruition that simply would not be possible with just natural light. Such is the case with this video, which will show you how to create these eye-catching shots using slit lighting.
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.
It may be a statement that you've heard many times before, but it's the photographer that makes the picture and not the camera. Here's how a little bit of knowledge along with some cheap kit can turn your images from looking amateur to professional in a few simple steps.
I love scrims. I don't actually remember the last time that I did a photoshoot without one. In this video, I go over the different options as well as how I build my own scrims.
Soft and beautiful lighting is the quintessential ideal for many portrait photographers, but what do you do when you need to work quickly in multiple locations?
They say RGB lights will make you get rid of old-fashioned color gels. This article shows exactly the opposite. You should keep your gels and even buy more.
V-flats are one of the most useful lighting items a studio photographer can have. In fact, they can allow you to create much more complex lighting setups just by shaping a single light. This great video will show you how you can create three different lighting setups using just a single strobe and some v-flats.
Gina Manning Photography has been working with the Bruno Magli team for two seasons now, shaping their brand and new campaign and collections visually. I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest an incredibly collaborative and artistic relationship that has led the way for us to make the art I love seeing in the world!
In my never ending pursuit for the perfect lighting modifier, I tested shooting beauty with a 7” reflector as my key light.
I just finished shooting my first video for Levi’s and it was a learning curve of note.
Once you have mastered the basics of how artificial lighting works and what you can accomplish with it, it is time to move on to more complicated multi-light setups to better bring your creative ideas to fruition. This great video will show you the process of creating a three-light portrait from start to finish.
If you are new to artificial lighting, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to understand how all the technical terms and processes come together to create a successful photo. One of the most important concepts is flash sync speed, and this excellent video will show you why it matters and how to work with it.
Aputure has revealed details and specifications of its latest release. Unveiled at IBC 2019, the LS 600d LED light is the company’s most powerful continuous light so far, in what they are calling “600 watts of raw LED power.”
Shooting out on location in a busy environment like New York City can be extremely difficult. When dealing with police, public safety, traffic, and pedestrians, it can often be near impossible to create the look you want without sacrificing your lighting. The way videographer David Geffin tackled these issues in his latest project, "Let's Dance," is pretty brilliant.
When your only strobe dies on location, you'd better be prepared.
In a new announcement from Profoto, the company’s first ever studio lights for smartphones have been unveiled. The C1 and C1 plus are small, portable, handheld bulbs that can be used to enhance any casual phone snaps.
Before I even get into this review, I just want to state that I absolutely love flexible LED light panels now. I have properly been missing out on how brilliant they are. From now on, anything I shoot in a studio environment will be shot with a flexible LED panel.
As high quality RGB Led light panels become cheaper and more compact, more and more photographers and videographers are finding just how useful these little lights can be. In this video, I compare the new Falcon Eyes Pocketlite F7 light to my favorite RGB light panel as we explore a few unique lighting setups any photographer can create on the fly.
If you’re looking for a complete educational series on using flash photography from indoors to outdoors, there’s a brand new free tutorial that you need to check out!
