We're certainly seeing an upsurge in behind the scenes tutorials. If you're looking for some great insight, look no further. I've talked about Nathan Elson's tutorials before, and I maintain that his series really stands out.
Rim lighting can be one of the most important aspects of creating a professionally lit shot, and it is something that can be easy to overlook when you are new to artificial lighting and focused on your key light. This fantastic video will show you how to create proper rim lighting for someone's body.
Photographers who do not specialize in portraiture or other genres involving working with people may not own dedicated professional lighting equipment suitable for the task. But almost every photographer owns a speedlight, and you might be surprised by how versatile they can be for lighting portraits. This great video tutorial will show you how to take effective portraits using a single speedlight.
In many of my shoots over the last year, I have opted to use only LED continuous lights over my strobes, and I can only see that trend continuing. Here's why I think you ought to consider LEDs if you haven't tried them yet.
A lot of more advanced portrait styles require the use of multiple lights to fully craft the images, but you might be surprised by how much you can still accomplish with just a single light. This great video tutorial will show you how to light and shoot this eye-catching black and white portrait using only a single strobe.
Successfully crafting light in photography is just as much about keeping it out of places it should not be as it is about controlling how it falls on your subject. This excellent video tutorial will introduce you to a fundamental tool for removing light from a scene, flags, and show you how they can improve your photos.
If you don't already have your own home studio, now might be a great time to start building one. With a little knowhow, it's possible to transform a regular room into the perfect place to shoot.
Did you think that having just one flash unit is not enough to create bright high-key portraits?
Lighting is often the difference between a boring scene and an interesting one. In this video, you get to see a full breakdown of the transformation of a scene from flat and common lighting, through to complex and cinematic looking.
Beauty images are a wonderful chance for you to find your personal style through your choices of lighting, posing, and editing. This excellent video tutorial will show you how a photographer used two lights and gels to create a unique beauty image.
You can produce great images with a wide range of lighting setups ranging from natural light all the way up to several lights. However, a three-light setup is often a sweet spot for a lot of photographers, as it provides a lot of versatility while still being relatively manageable. This excellent video will show you a range of creative three-light setups you can use for your own images.
Softboxes are by far some of the most commonly used lighting modifiers, but they are not perfect. One of the most useful ways you can augment a softbox's functionality is by adding a grid. This excellent video will show you how to use a grid on a softbox and why it will make your work easier and better.
It can be easy to think that you need complex multi-light setups to create professional portraits, but you might be surprised by just how much you can accomplish with a single light. This excellent video will show you three different portrait looks you can create with just a single light.
A white product on a white background is a very common and popular look in product photography and a fantastic challenge for any photographer looking to improve their lighting and post-processing skills. This great video will teach you how to light, shoot, and edit a white product on a white background.
It is rare that a photographer will shoot studio portraits using a bare flash, but that does not mean you can't do it. In fact, you might be surprised by how you can accomplish with a bare flash, and the skills you will learn in practicing this will come in handy in a wide variety of situations outside the studio.
By now, most of the countries around the world are under full lockdown or about to undergo lockdown. At the time of writing, my country (South Africa) would be one of the latest to undergo lockdown. Tensions seem to increase the day before the actual event, as people question what they'll be doing with themselves while locked in a house for three weeks or longer. Luckily, it doesn't need to be as scary as you think, especially if you're a photographer.
You don’t need a big studio, and you don’t need to travel to an exotic location to create incredible photos. All you need is a space to work in, even if it’s a small one.
Photography equipment can be pretty daunting at times, especially with such variety and costs attached to it, but out of all of the gear, lighting is perhaps the most confusing area to buy into.
Considering that a fairly large portion of you may find yourself, like me, staying home due to current events, I thought it might be a nice moment to discuss one of the best ways you could be spending your time.
You can’t polish a turd, but you can do your darndest to make sure all your ducks are in a row, photographically speaking. To prove that you can make anything look good, I'm shooting an old potato. Surprisingly, it doesn’t take a lot to make your images sing, so here’s my top four tips to make any subject look good.
Continuous LED lights have made a ton of progress in the last few years, and they have become more powerful and versatile than ever, making them a viable alternative to strobes in a lot of situations. In this review, we will take a look at the Broncolor LED F160, a compact, high quality option.
Photographer Aaron Anderson has done it again, and this time, it’s with Paralympic gold medalist Noah Elliot. The collaboration was an incredible process, though Anderson admits that it might also possibly be one of the hardest productions they’ve worked on.
Long-time friend of Fstoppers, Pye Jirsa, goes over how to properly light a scene for the punchy and dramatic look, or the balanced and natural look when using flash.
As visual artists, one of the most powerful tools we have to tell our story is color. In todays article, learn the importance of using contrasting colors to create depth in your frame and draw your audiences eye straight to the subject.
It seems like over the last 10 years, more and more photographers, retouchers, and influencers have been accused of promoting distorted and unrealistic body image expectations to children and the general public. As a photographer, I was curious if retouching with Photoshop was more or less deceptive than using face-altering makeup. Today, I put my social experiment to the test.
There's a lot of different reasons why someone would need a new headshot, but producing one with a pure white background may not be the simplest task.
Shoot-through umbrellas are some of the cheapest and quickest lighting modifiers to work with, and despite often being cast aside for other modifiers, they can still produce great photos in a range of scenarios. This awesome video will give you four tips for working with shoot-through umbrellas.
Pye from SLR Lounge is once again visiting us in Puerto Rico. In this four-minute video, we each teach a quick and easy two-light setup.
Product photography doesn’t have to take a lot of equipment nor the most expensive lighting or camera gear to create highly polished images. Take a look at this breakdown showing how product photography taken with high, mid, and almost no equipment still delivers highly valuable results.
The ultra-clean, perfectly lit white background look is in high demand these days and is an important skill to have in your toolbox. In this video, learn how to create that aesthetic, no matter what budget you might be working with.
