This year for Christmas I wanted to surprise my father with his dream car, an original Chevrolet Camaro convertible in hugger orange with white rally stripes. Being that I'm a photographer I decided to photograph the car and give my father a framed print of the car before I revealed that I am actually giving him the car.
In this article I would like to share some of the basics and tips for those of you who enjoy shooting beauty portraits with controlled artificial lighting.
Make sure to check out my previous articles of this series: Secrets to Crafting Top-Quality Beauty Portraits: On Location Lighting and Composition and visual balance.
I am continuing my series of articles about creating stunning Beauty portraits and I would like to talk about on location lighting today. Please note that not only are we talking about advertising Beauty photography, examples of which you may see in the cosmetics section of a department store, or in fashion magazine ads, but we are also talking about simple female Beauty portraits that many of you are probably often hired to photograph for your female clients locally.
When you're successful you get tons of requests, but sometimes there's that one that captures your interest and intrigues you. That's what happened recently to Benjamin Von Wong. A woman by the name of Nicole emailed Benjamin's agent asking what she thought was an impossible favor, to be featured in one of Ben's magical and dream-like sessions, on very short notice.
Stock Photographer Yuri Arcurs definitely went big with this experimental photoshoot, to see if it would be possible to shoot a fast moving fighter jet, and actually light it up with flashes. This behind the scenes video shows us how difficult it was to pull off, but that the end result justifies the elaborate and at times frustrating work.
It's been a while since we've released an Fstoppers original video, so today we want to take you behind the scenes with Mike Kelley. If you've been following Fstoppers then you know he's been a writer with us for a while and is also one of the most talented architectural photographers in the country. Mike's workflow and style is truly incredible and the amount of hours he spends on creating just one image is - as cheesy as it sounds - a work of art.
I rarely use gels or modifiers on my speedlites because I am lazy and in a hurry on wedding days. I just fix the color issues in post. However today I was notified that a new product was posted on Kickstarter. Meet the MagMod, a simple magnetic band that mounts to your flash allowing modifiers to be slapped on and off. Check it out, I just backed the project myself.
Max Riché, a commercial photographer based out of Paris recently shot a huge project for the Red Bull Media House using the same concept as his "Becoming and Athlete in One Photo" series. Shooting trail-biker Petr Kraus against a black backdrop and using light painting techniques, some strobes and then later bringing all of the images into Photoshop he created these awesome fluid-movement series of photos.
As a wedding photographer, the engagement session is probably one of the best ways to get to know your clients before spending 8 or more hours with them on their wedding day. These sessions are about the two of them as a couple and how they fell in love. Most of my sessions are held about 2 hours before the sun sets, but what about when you have a couple that wants to shoot at sunrise? I have to admit, I hardly ever get up any earlier than 9 AM most days, so the thought of being functional at 6 AM was terrifying. But the results? The light was beautiful and completely worth it.
Umbrellas have been a staple light modifier for decades. But if you’ve ever wondered why there are so many types, or how the light quality from your strobe is affected by the size, lining, fabric or shape of the umbrella, then this post is for you.
Guest writer, Corey Rich is primarily an outdoor/adventure photographer, but last winter he decided to do something totally different and shoot CrossFit—the masochistic athletic craze sweeping the nation. More than anything, he was keen to experiment with heavy-duty artificial lighting in an indoor environment–not exactly what he's known for. His goals were simply to elevate his lighting skills, unlock his creativity in different ways, learn some new things, and have fun in the process.
A small team based in Melbourne, Australia wants to change how you view your studio lights. They say their new invention, the LED Light cube, offers answers to age-old problems. Their Cube has no recycle time, better control over light output and no external battery packs. Due to The LED Light Cube using an LED model rather than a filament, the Cube can just as easily double as a video light as well as a flash. Sounds cool right?
This is the second part of the article on how to learn to "read" lighting in photography. If you haven't read the first part yet, please start here: How To "Read" Light In Photography - Part 1.
And for those of you who have been waiting for the second part, let's jump right back in and see what other cues we can use to breakdown lighting in other photographers' work.
Just recently Zach posted a guest article on 3 Nightmare Lighting Environments and How to Photograph Them with tips from top shooters Lindsay Adler and Erik Valind. This simple behind the scenes video takes a look at some amazing tips not only covered in the article, but in their book, Shooting in Sh*tty Light. You can catch their creativeLIVE workshop starting tomorrow.
One of the first very important skills I acquired in my Australian Photography course was the ability to breakdown lighting and determine approximate camera settings in images taken by other photographers. If you understand how the direction of light and its degree of diffusion are controlled and how they affect images, it should be easy for you to train yourself to "read" lighting in the images you see in magazines, on billboards and in your favorite photographers’ portfolios.
Yesterday, I showed you the process of pre-producing a successful photoshoot and used a recent session as an example on all the steps it takes to put together a successful session with a large team. Today, I put together a breakdown of the entire production and post production process on creating a successful portrait session and a behind the scenes look into what all goes into it.
When we talk about on-location mixed lighting we usually mean shooting with light sources of different nature, such as natural ambient light and artificial, or shooting with lights of different color temperatures (tungsten, fluorescent, flash, etc.).
There are dozens of cool effects that one can achieve when mixing ambient light with controlled lighting, but today I would like to talk about mixing lights in studio - impulse (i.e. strobe or flash) and continuous. I love this technique and hope my article inspires you to try it out too.
There are times when I find myself shooting the same stuff or using the same lighting setup over and over again. Repetition helps to improve and fine-tune my skills, but sometimes it just feels boring and degrading, let alone useless for my portfolio.
But as much as I dislike feeling stuck and repeating myself, I now realize how such times in fact help me to become a better artist and shooter. It's usually the desire to entertain myself and experiment that leads me to new personal artistic discoveries. It's when I'm bored and want to "spice it up", I start searching for new lighting ideas, tricks and techniques.
I have started to see a trend with using projectors to add some flair to photos. However most portable projectors do not pump out the brightest light and cannot run off batteries alone. Meet the Light Blaster. A new tool that uses your speed light and lens to project slides in your photos, from backgrounds, special effects, and anything else you can dream up.
Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday that has seen a spike in exposure in the United States the past few years making it a perfect subject for a photoshoot. Follow Jay P. from The Slanted Lens as he takes you behind the scenes of his latest shoot featuring a model dressed up as a Calavera (sugar skull) posing in an eerie cemetery backdrop.
One essential part of almost every wedding day is the rings. Not only are the rings a symbol of a couple's love and commitment to one another, they also usually cost a good deal of money. Capturing an amazing picture of the rings can not only wow your clients, it also adds great value to your portfolio. The best part is, getting a fantastic ring shot can be simple and quick.
Summer is upon us, which means fireworks. Previously, we have discussed using alternative methods to get smoke-like effects in your photographs. But using flour can make for a messy clean-up and smoke machines require electricity. Smoke balls, however, are cheap, come in a variety of colors and require nothing more than a lighter.
I find athletic themed shoots to be especially interesting considering the amount of effort and expertise that goes pulling off that one perfect shot. Follow James Quantz Jr in this behind the scenes video as he takes on the challenge of shooting the South Carolina Gamecocks.
As photographers, we usually use two different techniques to capture our images: The first is freezing the moment and capturing the split second we are witnessing. The other option is using a long exposure, to show movement, changes, or show things we don't normally see with our eyes. But what if you combined these two concepts - freezing a moment while adding movement? Check out these creative and unique portraits using this technique.
Wyn has been featured on Fstoppers quite a few times. Why? His work is outstanding. He comes up with some really cool concepts for shots. From using LED's on a basketball shoot to powder with Gymnasts. He does it all perfectly.
Last week I did a photo shoot for Leo's Wisdom, which is a company that makes handmade, high end jewelry. The purpose of the shoot was to provide the client with product shots and lifestyle images for their promotional needs. Their mood board for the shoot was filled with images depicting lush locations and high society. But we were shooting on a rainy day in Columbus, Ohio. So we made lemonade.
You submit your assignment images each year as a staff photojournalist at a major newspaper and never place in the prestigious Picture of the Year International competition. Then, years later as a freelance photographer, you win first place for a body of work that was undertaken solely as a personal venture. This is the story of Bob Croslin's self-assigned "Grounded," a portrait project of injured birds undergoing rehabilitation at a sanctuary in western Florida.
NYC-based commercial photographer Kenneth Volpe sat down with the good folks over at Profoto to give some insight on the way he lights his images and a bit of his philosophy when it comes to his photography business, Transposure. With Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Engineering, Kenneth is a guy that definitely understands fine light and exhibits it in the way he makes his photos. Check out the full write up over at
Posing multiple people can be a difficult task as it is, but throw in parkour performers into the mix and the shoot can quickly become tedious, but if done correctly the results can turn out nothing short of amazing. In this video Benjamin Von Wong walks you through the lighting set up he used to bring a three dimensional feel to the photographs. He also explains the different composing techniques he uses to get the posing and composition spot on for the shoot.
We received over 1000 submissions from our readers to our new POTD contest, and yes, we looked at every single one of them. There were some brilliant entries and it was incredibly tough to select the top 30 for the month of April, but they've all been chosen, and you can check out the gallery here
