photography: combining video light and daylight
photography: combining video light and daylight for photography
An image from the most recent workshop, held in Jersey City - our model, Catherine, lit by a combination of daylight coming in through the window, and a video light held aloft. The careful use of the different color balance of daylight vs video light, gives this image its arresting palette. I did make sure that her face was mostly lit by video light, for a uniform color there. The camera was set to Tungsten WB - the preset appropriate for a video light. The background is the Manhattan Skyline. It is blown out because Read more inside...using two video lights
using two video lights for photography
Video lights as a way of lighting still photography portraits is something that I've mentioned more often on this blog of late. When the subject and setting is such that a more dramatic way of lighting would work, then I quite often use video lights. This image is from the recent workshop in Philadelphia, and someone held a single video light to the right and above me. The angle that the light should be held at, is guided by how I want the shadow under her nose to appear. I prefer the shadow to appear as loop lighting or as butterfly Read more inside...bounce flash vs video light
bounce flash vs video light
With the recent posts on using video light for stills photography, the question comes up why one would want to use video light over flash. Two of the main advantages are that you see exactly what you're going to get; and also that video light gives a certain dramatic quality. With video light the fall-off to the edges of the spot is fairly abrupt. But it is exactly this quality that lends itself so easily to giving you that dramatic lighting. With the photo at the top, I use bounce flash to light the model .. and the entire scene. That's the Read more inside...Video light portrait
A portrait of Amy, one of our models at the recent workshop in Brighton, UK. Here we used a single video light on her. I love the dramatic quality the light imparts, and how you can flag the light with the barn-doors to create a specific fall-off to the light in the background. The strong vignetting helps in giving it that dramatic look. In figuring out the direction of light, and how to place the video lighting, I am largely guided by way the shadow of the subject's nose is falling across her face. I then direct the model and the person who holds the light, to move slightly if Read more inside...
using video light for portraits
using video light for portraits
In reply to some questions on using video light for portraits, here are some images of Sasha, a model who brought an entirely appropriate sense of the dramatic to the photo session. With vintage clothing and hats, the video lights appeared a good choice for lighting. For this session, I had an assistant who held up two Lowel ID-lights (affiliate), each with barn-doors to flag the light and stop light spill .. and in this way get a lot of control over the direction and placing of the light. The one light was used to light up our model, Read more inside...video light & boudoir photography
using a video light for boudoir photography
An image from a boudoir photo session today. I ended up mostly using a video light (or two) for the directional and dramatic quality of the light. I tried on-camera bounce flash a few times, but even when I carefully flagged and bounced the flash, there were a number of times where I found that the bounce flash just evened out the light too much. Sometimes it is soft light, and sometimes it just becomes flat light. With the video light (held up by my assistant), I was able to ask my assistant to flag the light and drop the light off Read more inside...embracing tungsten light
wedding photography - working with incandescent light sources
As a wedding photographer I obviously shoot all the time in ares lit by tungsten / incandescent light sources. With modern D-SLRs and fast lenses it is no problem to actually use tungsten light as my main light source. The photo above from a recent wedding, is a typical image where I used an existing incandescent / tungsten light source for a beautiful but simple portrait. Here I photographed the bride by the light of a lamp in the living room. No flash was used - just the lamp and whatever other ambient light existed Read more inside...- « Previous Page
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