THESE PDF COPIES ARE FREE COURTESY LIGHTING ESSENTIALS AND THE TALENTED PHOTOGRAPHERS FEATURED INSIDE.
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...
January 11, Raymond Prax Shoot
A tunnel, a model, 4 lights and a creative photographer... That's a great combination. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnkD1Co3CtI] Ray and Megan often shoot together. Megan is a wonderful photographer as well. They conspired to creates something fun in a...
Shooting At Sunset on the Beach with Two Strobes
The sun was very low on the horizon when Briana put on the black swimsuit. I had been eyeing this tower for a while as we shot on the beach. At this point I knew it would be dark enough to be interesting. The shot is a normal exposure for the sky and background....
Umbrella Basics
Basic Umbrellas Part One Umbrellas are a staple of the lighting arsenal. You can certainly see them in use more and more as they regain some respect after the decades of SoftBox as king. I love umbrellas and have quite an assortment of them. Umbrellas come in...
A Beauty Dish and Cheyenne
A beauty dish is one of the most fun, and unique light modifiers for people shooters. It's very 'poppy' light, combined with a focused throw of light makes it ideal when you want to create a definite direction to the lighting. Most beauty dishes are metal parabolic...
Playin’ in the Studio When it is 115 Degrees Outside.
I wanted to do some playing around with hot lights and chose my Lowell Omni and a Home Depot work light. I kept them without modification (no umbrellas or softboxes.) Hard light is tricky, but it can really keep you on your toes when you are looking at the light and...
One Light, and a dash of Photoshop
This is a fun little project. I shot Briana in the studio and recorded most of it on Video. I took the video, did very little editing and added a soundtrack of me explaining what I was doing. You see all of her posing as well as hearing me giving directions along with...
Glamour in the Studio with Briana
This set of shots was done to show how to use some of the tools simply and easily when in a studio setting. I used very simple tools, a softbox and some reflectors and a hot light with cookies and fill cards. The shoot was a lot of fun and you can see how many ways...
Minimalist Shooting
Sometimes we get too caught up in having the latest and greatest and forget that the at the core a lens and a camera are what we use to create images. I refer to it as minimalist shooting, and I do it occasionally to bring me closer to the base... find my center, so...
Simple, Yet Dramatic Light for Headshots and Portraits
This is what I refer to as my "Classic Glamour" light. Single light, with large umbrella, shiny fill card and two large fill cards close in on both sides. I can control the fill by moving the shiny card up and down. In this shot it is right out of frame. I keep the...
Single Light Fashion
This is a single light approach with a large softbox. I chose the large box because of the incredible texture of the dress. I wanted a nearly liquid look to the fabric and the large surface of the box would reflect nicely on it. The box spilled too much light on the...
A Selection of Headshots with Different Styles
I thought it would be good to discuss a few images from the past. You can tell by the hair and makeup that these are not recent images, but I thought I would share a few interesting lighting schemes that are easy and fun to deploy. The goal for the lighting for me is...
One Strobe, a Diffuser and a Touch of Natural Light
These shots were taken on location in a dance studio. There was a lot of light bouncing around in there, but not enough for pretty headshots. I set up the shower curtain hanging from a boom. Since the client was my wife, it was fine to use these materials without a...
One Large Light on Location for Portraits
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 people types. I would literally have only a few minutes with each and they would be nervous so working the light in many different ways...
Mini Workshop: Location Portraits and Glamour: 9/1/07
I didn't realize until too late that I had chosen the Labor Day weekend for the workshop date. I had lots of interest, but only a few folks could actually make the date. Rather than cancel, I took it as an opportunity to change up the workshop to a totally location...
Glamour Lighting: lots of fill
This lighting is a staple of mine and creates a beautiful, soft, glamour light that wraps around the face. Keeping the umbrella this close gives some fantastic highlights in the hair and a very bright, kick to the eyes. Notice in the movie that the photographer moves...
Creating Good Headshot Lighting in ‘Bad Light’
There are times when the light simply sucks. We shot these at noon in May in Phoenix. Not the most perfect light at all. In fact, the harshness of the nearly top down light was brutal. This little soundslide movie will discuss how we did it. Enjoy
Using Gold Reflectors for Effect
I work with reflectors a lot. They are used for main light, bounced light, fill light, areas of light or color to be reflected back... all kinds of uses can be found for these versatile and lightweight tools. There are generally three different types of reflectors:...
LIGHTING ESSENTIALS IS UNDERGOING CHANGES
Hi... Lighting Essentials is undergoing a big overhaul. It will be live as we go along, with much better navigation and a much easier way to find what you need... Items are going up now and as we keep uploading you will see the site expand to its original glory...
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