Strobe Lighting

We here at Fstoppers are all about 'Behind The Scenes'. We are dedicated to finding the best behind the scenes content for your viewing pleasure. Most photographers usually have their videographer buddies film their shoots for videos, but Larry Perez and the people over at Kanga Marketing went a step further.

Brad Wilson, a commercial and fine art photographer who splits his time between New Mexico and New York, recently released this video of him shooting exotic animals in a studio. Take a look at how Brad works with giraffes, elephants, alligators and more to create breahttaking studio portraits of animals that are never seen in this environment.

David Honl, photojournalist and the mastermind behind the Honl line of lighting gear, put together this hilarious behind the scenes video involving a cavewoman, spaceman, mind-altering drugs, and speedlights (which, besides getting a few chuckles, manages to pack some educational punch as well).

There are a few ways to photograph motocross in action, but one of the best is to use a high powered strobe. For his latest shoot in NamJi, South Korea, Manchul Kim takes a couple of strobes to the track and sees how close he can get to the action.

Phlearn.com just released this behind-the-scenes video which shows how to light, shoot, and process a shot in the style of Dan Winters. By reverse-engineering the light and color that Winters uses (and using a little Photoshop magic), you'll be able to replicate one of his most well-known shots of actor Tom Hanks.

In a world filled with portable speedlights and 3200 watt power packs, photographers might overlook another critical feature of their studio lights: flash duration. Basically flash duration is the time your strobe light contributes to the exposure of your photograph (flash actually can act as "constant light").

Kevin Winzeler, a commercial photographer based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, had an amazing opportunity this summer to travel to New Zealand for one of his advertising shoots for Altra Footwear. He shot both in the studio for the initial product shots, but he also took the shoot outdoors in some amazing New Zealand locations for some actions images, as well. 

Sam Kaplan, a New York-based product and still life photographer, was inspired to create a series of photographs of an object that is often enjoyed in the bedroom rather than on a gallery wall. Sam decided to change all of that, and his series 'Insert Here' takes the taboo and transforms it into an exploration of line, form, and color: Dildart, if you will.

Northern Virginia Magazine wanted a fun and different approach to an ad for their bargain locator website, Specialicious.com.

In this lighting lesson, Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens offers a very cool DIY effect; how to make smoke lay on water. Achieving smoke and wind in photography are two very difficult tasks that Jay P. made very easy by showing this step by step process. Have you guys ever experienced with smoke and wind? If so, share your images and how you did it in the comments below.  

If you've ever had to photograph a large group of people, you probably understand how difficult it can be to capture every single person looking great. Imagine if that group photo was made up of 12 of the worlds richest Billionaires! That's what photographer Michael Prince did when he had to photograph the cover of Forbes Magazine during the 400 Summit on Philanthropy back in June.  

Adorama TV has been mixing up their youtube channel lately, and this week features the TTL acrobatics of Joe McNally. Joe walks you through a typical street portrait as he accentuates the natural ambient light with a single speedlight gelled red. The more useful tip Joe gives is how to control the spill of your large softlight with an "egg crate" or softbox grid.

Cat Cora, a well known celebrity from the Food Network show Iron Chef as well as Bravo TV's Around the World in 80 Plates, was arrested for drinking and driving in Santa Barbara, California. It looks like this particular police station has taken a few lighting lessons from Peter Hurley. Anyone care to take a guess at the lighting setup?  

In this behind the scenes video, photographer Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens shows us how he shoots zombies through a car using a Kessler shuttle pod. The camera movement is the most crucial part in making this commercial. The Kessler pod has to stay high enough so that when they move through the car, it will not shake the camera.

Jay P Morgan has been getting a lot of press recently for both his creative imagery and his informative behind-the-scenes videos, and for good reason: they're chock-full of great information and Jay shows everything from his lighting setups to post-processing tricks.

Have you ever been walking through the mall or flipping through a magazine and found yourself breaking down the lighting of all the advertising images you see (or at least trying to)? I seem to be doing that all the time, sometimes without even realizing that I am doing it. Well one photog's images in particular always leave me guessing.

It's pretty crazy to think just a small change of focal length can drastically distort your subject's face. In this behind the scenes video , Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens goes into detail to show us each change and how it effected the model's appearance.

In this behind the scenes lighting lesson, Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens does something we might not often think to do: he uses the natural sunlight and turns it into moonlight-like light for this 1920's "speakeasy-themed" shoot. Believe it or not, he was able to achieve moonlight all in the camera - no post processing involved.

Remember Justin Wojtczak? If not, make sure you watch this video of Patrick surprising him with the news that he won the Fstoppers 2011 BTS Contest. Well Justin is back with his latest behind the scenes video. In this BTSV Justin takes a bride into a creek in the woods of Georgia and shows us how to shoot on a budget. 

If you're a sports fan, or even if you just like toned and tan bodies, you're going to want to pick up the next issue of ESPN (hits newsstands Friday). It's filled with some pretty sexy images of the United States' favorite athletes in nothing but their birthday suits.

Robert Gallagher knows his way around commercial photography. On this assignment, he puts Matt Kemp, a baseball player for the Dodgers, in front of the camera to shoot the cover of Forbes Magazine. As can be seen in the video, the studio set up includes 4 different lights. With a few assistants, Robert also manages to snag a one-light shot in the tunnel heading out to the field.

If you've ever wondered how you can begin transitioning from part time photographer to completely supporting yourself in your business, then you have probably considered shooting senior portraits. Sal Cincotta is an excellent photographer, and he is an even better businessman.

Pepsi Australia recently teamed up with Kelly Racing to produce the Pepsi Max super car. Photographer Chris Benny was hired to shoot the new car and lucky for us, he filmed a quick BTSV of the production. As with many shoots, the weather became a problem but Chris had a backup plan.

If you are into studio lighting at all you have probably heard about the D1 Monolight by Profoto. These lights are known for their size, flash consistency, and of course the wireless Air Remote system. In this video I'll take you through each of my favorite and least favorite features of this flash. If you are on the fence you may want to try renting these lights first. 

Days of preparation, hundreds of people, and 57 Profoto strobes culminated in just five minutes and forty-two seconds of fast-paced shooting. In photographer Art Streiber’s own words, “it was pretty huge, and a little out of control.” I’ll say.

Check out this amazing photoshoot by Dina Goldstein she titled "In The Dollhouse." Dina spared no expense as her team built set after set to complete this real-life Barbie and Ken series. Just like the last Barbie series we posted, this one is also a little twisted. Apparently you can't go wrong with Barbie series because these images have already gone viral around the web.

We've featured Tyler Stableford multiple times before on Fstoppers, as he seems to be one of the first to get his hands on all of the new gear before it hits the shelves. This time, he's at it again: working with action sports athletes high in the mountains of Colorado. However...the results left me scratching my head a bit. Read  

South Carolina photographer Clay Bolt is a professional nature photographer who has taken his love for the environment in an interesting direction. Clay started a program called Meet Your Neighbours which has inspired photographers all around the world to shoot small local animals on a mobile seamless white background. You probably don't have to travel far to take amazing nature photography.

You might remember Coco Rocha from her past ELLE controversy that we recently posted. She's definitely one of the industry's top models. This time, we take a look at the making of a cover for Target Style. How many shots does it take to get 'the' cover shot when you have a supermodel as your subject? Take a look and find out.  

If you’re a regular user of small flashes, you know how overwhelming it can be when it comes time to purchase modifiers for your lights. One of the more popular systems is David Honl’s line of accessories, based around his Speed Strap concept. I’ve reviewed and tested every piece in the line, and I’ve got all the info you could possibly want. 

Fashion photographer Melissa Rodwell has become a good friend of ours over the years. The New York based photographer lives and breathes fashion photography, and as you can see with her images it really shows. The self proclaimed "photographer who does not own a digital camera" teamed up with Kurv magazine to produce some very exotic fashion images.

Here's a fun Saturday morning activity for you - try your hand at lighting a virtual model in this Virtual Lighting Studio. It's pretty simple, and very addicting. For each light, you'll choose the source - a bare strobe, softbox, or ringlight. Then just decide the power, gel colors, placement and distance.  Maybe for the next version the virtual model won't be so creepy.

Our good friend Blair Bunting is at it again. This time Blair was hired to shoot the ad campaign for The Discovery Channels hit show River Monsters. The concept was relatively simple; to have the show’s host Jeremy Wade wrestling a giant fish in the shallow waters near South Beach, Florida. To do this Blair's team used a fake fish that was then replaced in post.

Most of you know Mark Wallace as the face behind Adorama TV. He's a very accomplished photographer based out of Phoenix, Arizona and we recently were able to share some drinks with him when we filmed Blair Bunting's Aventador video. Mark gave us a little glimpse about his 2012 Workshop Tour and now the details are finally able to be revealed.

National Geographic recently released this video of the creation of one of their cover shots. While there is no exact date on it, I'd bet that it was shot sometime in the early 2000s or late 1990s guessing from technology being used.

For the photographer who likes to travel light, it has always been a challenge to find flash modifiers that are both effective and easy to use on the go. ExpoImaging has long been making accessories, but their recently released Rogue diffusion panels for their popular FlashBenders will be a welcome addition to any strobist’s kit. 

As photographers, we are always in search of that new unique lighting modifier to add to our bag of tricks. I recently saw this video on Strobist where Amber Gray claims her Broncolor Para FB could actually reduce the amount of post production on her models.