One Flash and One Fill Card on Location
Getting really nice, soft light on location can be a challenge. Too often photographers use their naked flashes for fill and end up with something more harsh than they expected. Using a flash to fill in ambient light can be far more subtle and rewarding. For this shot...
Welcome to April: A March Review
March was a tough month for us as we moved the site from a traditional web site to a WordPress backend. We are starting to feel pretty good about it. It meant a loss of visitors for a few days and we lost our statistics for 4 days, but it is obvious we have reached...
Shooting Earrings Without a Net: Guest Post by Josh Targownik
On a recent popular forum post, Los Angeles photographer Joshua Targownik posed a challenge. Faced with the following job he wanted to figure the best and fastest way to get the job done. He also wanted to get some killer lighting on the product to make it really pop....
One Light Setup with Two Versions of the Light
Yesterday I shot Jordan for her mom's Irish Step Dancing Wig catalog. Today we got together for some pics just for her. This was the first time she had shot without a wig on... so it was a lot of fun. I have known Jordan since she was about 9, so it was also fun to...
One Light Portrait with White Background
One of my clients is a wig importer for Irish Step Dancers. There's a niche for you. I shoot a couple of times a year for her. In this case we are shooting some styles she wanted to update before setting up her online store (another of my projects...) and we used her...
Two Light Workshop One, Part Four
Our last shot in the hat series. This was a shot that used one light for a background and the other for a dramatic front light. The two lights we used in this set are a Norman Beauty Dish and a silver/white Zebra umbrella. The beauty dish was used as a background. I...
Classic Setup for Photographing Jewelry
Classic, for me anyway, method that I shoot jewelry. Most of the time my clients want clean, easy to see pieces that show off the finish or the stones. I find that large soft light with lots of fill works to deliver the smooth highlights and well lit jewels. You can...
Single Umbrella Headshot and White Background.
Asked to shoot 40 non-models at an upscale salon was quite a challenge. I needed a light that would serve many different faces and body types. I would literally have only a few minutes with each and they would be nervous so working the light in many different ways was...
Two Light Workshop One, Part Three
This shot was something Briana wanted to do. We have tried to shoot the fedora many times and never gotten around to it. This time we wanted to make a go of it. She wore faded, ripped jeans, a black top, black hat and black gloves. With the red lips it was really...
Getting A White Background with Speedlights
Using your small camera flash for professional results is entirely possible and a fantastic option for those who travel a lot or want quick setup/teardown times. Today's modern flash units give out a lot of power and they are easily adapted to working with a...
Two Light Workshop One, Part Two
The Two Light Workshop rolls on with this cowboy hat look on "Miss Briana." We shot some with a western shirt and some with bare shoulders... both are represented here. One of the things I wanted to do was to create a bright light on her face and a quick dropoff. I...
Two Light Workshop One, Part One
This is a series of two light shots we did using hats as the theme, and a clean, simple studio background as the setting. For this set of shots we only used one umbrella and one beauty dish. There will be instructions on how to do this with your equipment as well. I...
Creating a Shiny Look
The thing about the corset was the glossy, shiny look. I wanted that shine to be smooth and liquid, a wide and smooth highlight that would set off the face of the model and the textures of the rest of the image. I wanted a dramatic light on the face however, so using...
Single Small Strobe Portrait Directly Into the Sun
This shot of Megan was done for my portrait book. Megan is a Doctor and an accomplished photographer. I wanted a portrait that would be different than some sort of modeling or professional headshot. This location is near the studio and off the beaten path. It is along...
Creating a Mood with Flash and Photoshop
Sometimes you find a location or a situation that you just know that you can do more with by creating the world the way you want it. In this case, the alley was ok, but it didn't get me excited. I saw the shot in my mind with the post process in place. In other words,...
Announcing the Portland, Maine Workshop
I am very excited to announce that we are doing a workshop in Portland, Maine on Wednesday, June 18, 2008. It will be a full day workshop with models, lunch and lots and lots of lighting and shooting. There will be a pre-workshop meetup on Tuesday, June 17th. I am...
A Quick Look at Balancing Flash at Sunset, Quickly
This shot presented itself after a harrowing drive through the Santa Barbra area to get to the beach before the sun went down. (I am not advocating driving like a madman, but... I'm just sayin... we had no time.) When we arrived, the sun had already dipped and we had...
Audio Interview with Ken Epstein
Here is a discussion with Ken Epstein on web sites, Web 2.0 sites, and how he keeps really busy at his Phoenix Studio. You can visit Ken's website here. We haven't launched his new site yet, but you can see what he does here. Ken is a busy commercial shooter in a...
Versatile Softlight for Portraits
Sometimes you need a simple, easy and quick way to create soft, pretty light for portraits - especially if there is a large group of portraits that are going to be presented in a similar fashion. Whether staff or employee photos, pageant and events, or simply a family...
Beating the Sun with a Small Flash in a Miami, Arizona Alley
When I saw the alley I knew I had to make a shot there. The sun was coming straight down the little alley way and creating this nice little reflection in the water. The clouds were amazing and very dramatic. I began by finding the shot with Hayley. I moved her from...
Serendipitous Light
I have spent a lot of time talking about small strobes lately. It seems that small strobe mania has swept the land. And that is fine. It is nice to see photographers of all levels start to adopt sound lighting priniciples. But sometimes we forget that it is simply an...
Fill Flash on the Beach with Action
A few weeks ago we looked at doing some fill flash at dusk. We covered some good techniques for blending the light so that it is subtle and looks more controlled than a big bright flash feeling. In this tutorial we are looking at working with a very bright sun. It is...
Fill Flash: Two Examples
Fill flash is a wonderful tool for opening up shadows and creating some light where the situations call for it. In using fill flash we many times refer to 'Ratios.' The ratio refers to the amount of light that we add to the ambient. If you think of them as f-stops it...
Simple Setups For Dramatic Lighting
Making dramatic headshots isn't hard if you know some simple tricks & have a light... or 2. This video tutorial starts with a simple one umbrella and fill card headshot. I consider it a classic glamour look with flat light and dramatic fall off on the sides. We...
