Wedding photography lighting – Shooting in partial sunlight & shade
Wedding photography lighting - Shooting in partial sunlight & shade
I strongly believe that when you have the ability to control a photo session, that you pick your battles. You don't have to try and make everything work. Set up portrait shots in light that favors you. Of course, off-camera flash really helps you in being able to pick where you want that light that favors you. Solid advice that I adhere to, is to not have a person or a group of people half in the sun, half in shade. It's a recipe for disaster, or a tough battle to fight, lighting wise. But then, slightly Read more inside...Boudoir photography: Tips on posing & dealing with mixed lighting
Boudoir photography: Dealing with mixed light - daylight & incandescent
Boudoir photo sessions can be nerve-wracking - not just for your subject or client who undoutably feels vulnerable, but also for you as the photographer. You have to juggle speed in shooting, with meticulous posing and (hopefully) impeccable lighting .... and still keep the flow of the shoot going, and also keep your subject's confidence up. With this boudoir photo session in a NYC studio, I photographed my friend, Jessica Joy. I wanted to use this window of course, and incorporate the boxes. It all just Read more inside...Studio photography – Using a big gridded strip-box / soft-box
Using a large gridded strip-box / soft-box for portraits
There seems to be a natural progression with photographers exploring off-camera flash and studio photography. After the initial umbrella and softbox, the next purchase is usually a beauty dish, and then other esoterica such as ring-flash. Personally, I'd suggest that one of the first light modifiers anyone should get, is a small or medium sized gridded strip-box. A strip-box is narrower than the usual soft boxes, and the grid really helps contain the light spread. So you now have the ability to get relatively soft light, but Read more inside...Harder light sources in the studio – Flash & Continuous light
Harder light sources in the studio - Flash & Continuous light
With the recent photo session with Ulorin Vex in the studio, I played with variations of using harder light and using shadow as part of the image's composition. The first setup was similar to a previous photo session in the studio with Anelisa: smaller light = dramatic light. Ulorin Vex easily fell into poses well suited to this idea of using the shadow as part of the image's design. For this final image, I used a textured overlay to enhance the sun-drenched look. I also wanted to hide the texture of the wall a bit Read more inside...photography – inspiration, learning, and then adjusting & adapting
photographic style - inspiration, adjusting & adapting (model: Ulorin Vex)
Photography has a never-ending learning curve. I think this is even more true as the technology expands and accelerates. Sometimes I feel that we're running at full speed just to remain at a stand-still. That's just the technology that we have to acquire what we need to know about to do our work and art the best. But even with the techniques and methods we have as photographers - we should always be investigating and analyzing the work of others, learn, and then rework and adapt it in our own style. Even Read more inside...Boudoir photography with the 50mm lens
Boudoir photography with the 50mm lens
With shooting space often times so tight for boudoir photo sessions, there is the temptation to use a 50mm lens for tighter headshots on a full-frame D-SLR. Instead of stepping back a bit and using an 85mm lens or longer, a bit of visual laziness comes into play, and we rely on the 50mm lens too much. It really is too short a focal length for a tight portrait. I think many photographers are even too in love with their 50mm lenses, and use it without thought of how this would distort someone's face when used too close to their subjects. I Read more inside...85mm f/1.4 portraits in the studio
Studio portraits with an 85mm f/1.4 lens
Shooting portraits with fast lenses for that distinctive shallow depth-of-field look, works in the studio too. In fact, it works exceptionally well. But it is perhaps an unexpected way of working in the studio - the usual way is to work with apertures in the range of f/8 or f/11 for great depth-of-field and superb image sharpness. That super-fast aperture portrait lens - such as the 85mm f/1.4 - really focuses the attention exactly where you want it … Read more inside...Wedding photography – Big bounce flash
Wedding photography - Big bounce flash
In photographing groups with weddings, I have a preference to keep the light soft and even. This makes posing a large group easier, since you don't have to worry about odd shadows. A big light source, just off to my side, is the simplest way of lighting this. Previous articles described how to do this with speedlights and an umbrella. (Check links at the bottom of the article.) Often enough though, you'll find yourself in a scenario where one or two speedlights just don't have enough juice, and then you need to bring out something bigger and Read more inside...Use light & lighting to add impact to your photos
Use light & lighting to add dramatic impact to your portraits
Simplifying your composition is generally a really good way to add impact to your photos - remove visual clutter, and draw the viewer's eye to what's essential. But there's a converse challenge to this - when you have a location that isn't necessarily that interesting , how do you add more impact? Light and Lighting is an obvious way to do this. Create impact and drama in how you add light to the scene, and light your subjects. A recent article discussed this in relation to off-camera flash: using off-camera flash Read more inside...- « Previous Page
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