Last week I tried my hand at emulating Martin Schoeller's portrait lighting with a single bare-bulb speedlite. Though the experiment was technically a failure, it still produced a nice portrait. Since then, I have tried two more lighting scenarios before finally nailing it on the fourth (please excuse my OCD tendancies) and final attempt.
I have been following the amazing work of boudoir photographer Christa Meola for a couple of years now. Just a quick look at her portfolio and you will agree that her boudoir work is some of the best out there. Recently she posted a lighting diagram for a two light setup she has been using. Christa happens to use a nude model for the lighting setup so heads up.
Patric Bergkvist is making a strong case as one of the better Swedish liquid photographers with his fantastic handle on the ideal lighting in very humble shooting spaces. We featured his exploding coffee and milk photo tutorial in early February and now he is back showing how to make a perfect shot of Whiskey. Photo that is.
I am the type of photographer that doesn't stay up to date on the latest gear. Instead, I find what works for me and I use it until I hear about something that works better. This is why it was so hard for me to hand in my Pocketwizard Plus II's for the Radiopopper PX system. But boy am I glad that I did.
Plus II's are tanks. They are virtually indestructible. I used them for years with nary a misfire. But there was one thing they couldn't do. High speed sync.
As a wedding photographer I have learned that our shooting conditions are not always ideal. One of the places I dread most is the bride's dressing room. It is typically a hotel room with bags, shoes and every beauty accessory invented strewn across the floor. The lighting is never ideal and the decor just might be the straight out of your grandma's home. Read on below to see a simple lighting setup using two flashes that can help you create beautiful portraits even in not so flattering locations.
The great folks over at The Slanted Lens are back with another amazing tutorial. This time Jay takes you to Concord and Lexington Massachusetts at a recreation of a Revolutionary War battle scene to show you how to effectively light a composited image. He shows you how to shoot your background plates first, the main subject using a do it yourself motion rig and even shows you how to shoot explosions to help finish the image.
The other day Phlearn came up with a way to emulate Martin Schoeller's portrait lighting. I have been wanting to lock down Schoeller's technique for years now, so when I saw Phlearn's post, I was stoked. And they did a fantastic job. I even learned their cool Photoshop technique of adding natural looking highlights and shadows. The problem was that in order for me to try out their lighting technique, I needed two strip soft boxes for my strobes, which I didn't have.
Kickstarter product "LUMENATOR™" is a portable and battery powered LED light stick. The 1200 lumen bar has a dimmer on it so you are able to adjust the power. The bar will have attachments that allow you to change the white balance and even add on a color hue bar. Check out the Kickstarter video and see if this possible product will fit your needs and help back this project.
Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens has released a video that gives us a detailed look at one of the most basic aspects of portrait photography, the single light portrait. It's a very basic technique, but it's incredibly versatile set up that can be used to create many different looks. In this video, Jay P. Morgan is using a Canon 1DC and shooting video from which he will pull stills. It's a different way of shooting than we might be used to, but the end results are can look a lot more natural than posed pictures as the model is given much greater freedom to move around.
Guest writer, Julius Ise is a professional photographer based out of Germany. In January he traveled to the beautiful beaches of Miami. While he was there he called around to several modeling agencies to set up a shoot. This is a great example of shooting personal work. He was able to get some great shots for his portfolio while at the same time helping out the models at DecoModels.
Guest writer Brandon Cawood is the owner and head photographer at Flash Light Productions. He primarily shoot weddings as well as commercial and product photography. He spent most of his teens and early 20's playing in bands and touring the country. After he became a photographer, naturally one of his favorite type of shoots is band promos.
Skreened is an eCommerce company that specializes in on-demand screen printing. Shirts are their biggest sellers. Since each shirt design is unique, they needed a library of images with models in blank tees so they could overlay the latest designs in post. When they approached me to shoot for them, their main request was that these portraits be fun and energetic.
So, how do you shoot at the legendary Disney Concert Hall without breaking their rule of 'No Professional Photography'? You do it with finesse. Benjamin Von Wong was faced with the task of shooting the Trio Dinicu at the location without looking like a professional photographer. In this behind the scenes video he shows you how he accomplished that and also walks you through cleaning any distractions from your photo using Photoshop.
So much is done as computer graphics these days that I've grown to really respect photographers who still want to truly make an image. Last week Fstoppers twitter follower Patric Bergkvist asked us to take a look at an image he made, and I'm glad we did.
Our good friend Dave Lehl is at it again and this time he's moved out of the snow and into the skate park. To add a bit of flare to the standard skateboarding shot Dave taped sparklers to the bottom of the board and used smoke bombs to set the mood. Check out the full post to a link to the high res finished shots.
