Photography: Using light fall-off to illuminate your subject
John collects vintage … oh, everything. His entire house filled with collectibles – it is like stepping out of a time-machine into a different era. I joked with him that the only two things in his house from the 21st century is his fridge and his dog! Most impressive in a way, is John’s workshop where he maintains his two vintage era motorbikes and a Model A Ford. The tools in his workshop are all authentic to the era and are hand tools - no electric tools - and they work. The way John describes it, it actually makes sense Read more inside...
Posing and lighting technique - posing in relation to the lighting
When taking a portrait, the pose needs to suit the lighting. And vice versa, the lighting needs to be done in relation to the intended pose. Especially so when the lighting is dramatic. This is such a key idea - lighting and posing are tightly correlated. Started again: you pose the participants in relation to the light. You light the people you photograph, in relation to how you position the light.
When lighting a couple, I tend to favor the woman in terms of flattering light. So in setting up a pose, the lighting Read more inside...
Off-camera flash: Rim-lighting and the intentional use of flare
For these promotional photos for aspiring model twins, Carina and Carolina, we went to a park. There are certain things I look for when working on an location, that I know will immediately give me a better chance at successful portraits. My book, Lighting and Design for Portrait Photography, looks at exactly that thought-process throughout the 60 chapters in the book.
The technique here should be quite obvious by now:
A long lens (a 70-200 used closer to the longer end), compressing the perspective.
Shooting Read more inside...
Photography tip: available light portraits - that sweet spot of light
A regular theme on Tangents, is using interesting found light sources while shooting portraits on location. For example: using sunlight reflected off a traffic sign.
With this straight-forward portrait of Irene, a photographer friend in New York, I want to show a neat little trick here - helping your subject understand exactly where you want them to stand.
Here we had random reflections of glass structures in Manhattan, giving random spots of lights. I wanted to use one of these spots of lights here as Read more inside...
Lighting and Design in photography: (de)-constructing an image
For me, Design in photography relates to the way an image is constructed at the time of shooting. Composition and content. Lighting. Every element which forms part of a successful and eye-catching photograph. Some of the elements in the photograph are pre-visualized, some of it a kind of serendipity that is then expanded on at the time. Some of it might only be understood afterwards in looking at the photograph. My latest book, Lighting and Design for Portrait Photography, looks at exactly that thought-process Read more inside...
Boudoir photography: Couples boudoir - gesture and connection
With portraits of a couple, the way they connect with each other is often the main factor whether the image is compelling. It could be through gesture and touch. The gesture might even be subtle - if a couple snuggles in, they don't have to look at each other - it's entirely possible to give that sense of connectedness, even with a downward glance. As long a it looks like they are concentrating on each other or responding to each other, it works.
With the image at the top, Olena and Austin are directly looking at each Read more inside...
While on a trip to Denver, I had some time free to meet up with my friend, Lynn Clark, one of the best boudoir photographers in Denver. I had asked her to be a subject for my next book, Lighting & Design, and she indulged me. I want each portrait to reveal something of the person I am photographing, and also have some interesting snippets of info for anyone who dips in the book, and of course, for anyone who follows the Tangents blog.
So while Lynn is an accomplished boudoir photographer, I didn't want to go with the obvious idea of Read more inside...
I'm a bit of a fan of Profoto gear. When I first started looking at the more serious on-location lighting systems, my initial purchase was the Profoto 600R. I was drawn by their reputation for reliability and features such as consistent color balance even when you change power settings. The wide variety of light modifiers, as well as the ease of use and setup also had me favor Profoto, even thought it is the more expensive system on the market. Of course, the sleek elegant look of Profoto gear also counted. As far as lighting gear goes, Profoto even looks Read more inside...
Controlling off-camera flash with a gridded stripbox / softbox
With this photo session of Carina and Carolina, (yes, they are twins), I decided to start off with a landmark spot in New York - Staple Street. That bridge walkway between the two buildings, and this surprising alley has somehow become a landmark. Yet, it works. That walkway makes a perfect frame at the top of photographs.With the tall buildings in Manhattan, you usually get brighter areas or sky towards the top, or you get more buildings in the background. But here, you get that neat visual border. Nice!
Shooting on Read more inside...
During this photo session with Austin, I wanted to get a spot-light effect on, similar to that of a video light. Now, I have played around with various speedlight grids before, but never liked the result. Speedlite grids generally they concentrate the light to the extent that the direct light from a speedlight, becomes too concentrated and hard. For dramatic light, I really like the look of a video light, with that dramatic quality to the light, and with more defined shadows. I do want that fall-off in the light as the light spreads Read more inside...
