Photography Lighting

One of the most fundamental parameters of lighting is the height at which you place the light. This excellent video will teach you everything you need to know about properly placing a light source or reflector at the right height. 

Ring lights have been around for a while, but recently they haven’t been as trendy as they used to. Except in the YouTube beauty industry where many influencers rely on these, day in and day out, to create their content. I recently tried the Angler Circo LED Ring Light to see how good it was.

We've been fans of the Fiilex P360EX for years now. It's dimmable, color shiftable, and it accepts Profoto accessories. The only problem? It's not that bright. Fiilex had an answer to my power problems in the form of the Q8 Travel.

In this week's lighting breakdown, I'll show you the setup I used for this editorial beauty shoot that let me create an angelic mood and make the most of the model's fantastic skin.

If you look at the work of the best studio photographers, you'll probably notice most of them use multiple lights to achieve their final results. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with that, you might be amazed at what you can accomplish with just one light, and this great video will show you every step in the process. 

When you're buying your first lighting gear, you have to make a decision before anything else: continuous lights or strobes? This great video will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of both and which is right for you.

Hair photography can be a pain to shoot. Having a good hair stylist is incredibly important to make sure you don’t end up spending more time than you should behind the desk for the retouching. When it comes to hair, you’ll already have to spend more time than you’ll like.

This is your chance to participate in the Flashlight challenge, prove you can make an amazing photograph with any light source, and have your photograph featured in an Fstoppers article all about you!

Photographer Michael Muller has been shooting the biggest names — often for the biggest movies — for more than 30 years. In this video, self-confessed lighting newbie Sawyer Hartman heads to Muller's studio to learn a few tricks of the trade.

In this detailed video, Basic Filmmaker gives you a complete overview of the things you need to know before investing in a lighting system for your video needs.

Godox is back at it again, this time offering Photokina a sneak preview of a soon-to-be released portable round head speedlight, offering a direct competitor to the Profoto A1.

Good lighting can do more than just properly illuminate your subject for a good exposure; it can help you tell a story. This super informative video will show you four lighting setups for cinematic silhouettes.

When you're first starting out with studio lighting, it's easy to become focused on getting the key light just right, but if you become too fixated on that, you can overlook the importance of the rim light. This great video will show you how to use a rim light to separate your subject from the background.

Interfit, the well known maker of studio flash units and flash accessories, has announced today the release of their new battery powered strobe the Badger Unleashed.

Sometimes it takes a deeper look at a master to bring us back to basics.

Light can make or break a photograph, and that's particularly true in landscape photography, where a beautiful scene can either be rendered rather blandly or resplendently depending on the light that's falling on it and how you make use of it. This great video will give you seven tips for making better use of light in your landscape images.

I have been a photographer for almost eight years, and to be honest, it has not always been fun. No career path is without its ups and down, and certainly, the creative industry is no different.

Lighting schemes should always have a purpose, whether it's to flatter a client, show the details in a product, or create a mood. In this fantasy portrait, my purpose was both to flatter the model and to create a sense of place. Let's talk about how it was done.

In this short video, Manny Ortiz gives a very quick introduction to three lighting modifiers that he uses in the studio — the beauty dish, octabox, and umbrella — and gives a short overview of their pros and cons.

Cheap and decent quality LED lights can be found online easily these days; however, sometimes, you have to make specific sacrifices in either quality or function to get those cheaper prices. That's when DIY comes in. 

When you're new to lighting, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to understand how to control multiple lights with the precision needed to create a polished photograph. This quick and great video will show you how to create a classic look using just one light.

The Profoto B10 is here, and it's one of the most exciting advancements in lighting that I've seen in years. 

Listen, I know what you're all thinking. "Whoa, it looks cool. The modeling light is even bi-color. But it costs how much?" I get it, but bear with me.

Of the many lighting techniques available to us as portrait photographers, using backlight with a simple reflector is one of the most versatile and least expensive methods you can choose. This method is widely used outdoors, but did you know that you can apply the same strategy to studio portraits?

We're heading into the realm of storybook fantasy with this week's Lighting Breakdown that blends natural and artificial light.

Lighting can make or break any kind of shoot, and having a deep arsenal of lighting techniques and methods can ensure the lighting invariably makes the shoot.

Not all of us have the luxury of an expansive studio space that we can fill with equipment and in which we can endlessly experiment. This great video shows to make the most of a very small studio space to light and shoot highly professional portraits.

Profoto just released a teaser video announcing a new product is about to be released. It may well be an updated B2 or a baby version of the B1X.

Making mistakes is part of learning, even if the criticism stings sometimes. And after seeing some of these common photography mistakes, I had to put my hand up and say, "guilty as charged." I guarantee you will too. 

When photographing commercial interior images, a common issue is an unsightly glare on reflective surfaces. Removing these reflections by compositing image layers significantly improves your images, separating you from the pack of "run-and-gun" real estate and interior photographers.

How many of the primary lighting patterns can you execute well? Here is an explanation of five of the most common lighting techniques used in photography.

In this week's lighting breakdown, I'm going to explain the three-light setup I used to create these striking portraits in studio.

Name brand speedlights — like a lot of things in photography — are absurdly priced, and although they carry the big brand names, they also lack in a number of key areas versus the lower cost, third party alternatives. Take a look at my reasoning for steering clear of the big camera manufactures brand speedlights.

Beauty can be a lot of fun to shoot and it’s fun to find different ways to light a face in a flattering way. We might not be perfect in real life, but on camera? On camera we can be as perfect as the lighting setup and editing allows us to be! Magic? No. We still need gorgeous models but a great setup certainly helps.

As more and more photographers are starting to dabble into video, the need for versatile yet affordable constant lighting gear is ever changing. Today I test the new Boling BL-50 lights to see if they could be the best bang for the buck.

In this week's lighting breakdown, I'm going to explain why and how I used a flash outdoors during midday to create this fun, casual portrait.

When photographing interiors, flash is your friend, but a friend who needs some management. While flash brightens rooms, reduces glare, and brings out true colors, it can also produce the frustrating issue of ugly shadows.

If you have ever found yourself wondering about basic home studio setups for your YouTube channel, look no further. In this crash course video for a home setup, we'll take a look at the fundamentals to get you up and running.

Trying to replicate certain looks, especially from our favorite films, is a great way to enhance our skills as photographers, but it's not always as easy as it looks. Gavin Hoey from Adorama TV gives us some great tips on how to light a scene like a film noir. 

Need something new to try in your photos? Tired of the same old props? Why not try a grenade — a color smoke grenade, that is. Sure, smoke grenades aren’t anything new, but if you haven’t used them before, they’re new to you.

For quite some time one of the only way to get color effects was through gels. However, the pain of having to carry around these different gels may be a thing of the past. The staff over at B&H tested out the Luxli’s new Timpani for color changing effects in still and video photography. 

In this article, I'm going to break down this dramatic lighting setup and explain why light placement and angle are important.

In this short video from Crimson Engine, cinematographer and director Rubidium Wu takes you step by step through how he lights his closeups for video.

Many of us own a five-in-one reflector of some sort, as they're cheap, versatile, and effective instruments. However, they're commonly misused, and this great video will help you learn to use them effectively to get the best results.

You don't have to look very far to see how popular and effective the use of colored light is in both still and moving image projects. Add these 10 lighting setups to your creative arsenal before your next video or photoshoot.

A lot of the time, being a photographer is less about pressing the shutter and more about being a creative problem-solver. This video demonstrates how a bit of ingenuity helped to create a convincing backdrop when the photographer couldn't find the location he wanted.

I use flashes a lot in my photography, whether a speedlite or in the studio with some big strobes and modifiers. But this is the first time I have ever used a drone-mounted flash.

The Westcott SkyLux LED is a studio light that offers lots of power in LED form, meaning no heat. It's a versatile light that can work for both photos and video, and today only, you can get it for half off.

Adorama TV is always bringing easy-to-understand tips and tricks to photographers with a plethora of education and tutorials. In the video, Gavin Hoey shows us how to adjust our lighting to where we are shooting our subject.

One of the most profitable pieces of equipment a professional photographer can own is also one of the least used today. It can be simple to use while being relatively affordable to purchase and can elevate your lighting immediately.