Dramatic portraits: Hollywood Portrait Lighting
Dramatic portraits: Hollywood Portrait Lighting
Shooting for my portfolio in the studio with a model, Kimberly Jay, I wanted to create sets of feminine portraits that looked dramatic, and straddled the boudoir photography genre and had a Film Noir look to them. The classic look of Hollywood portrait lighting has long drawn me, and with a set of Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights (B&H / Amazon), it is a look that I am still trying to finesse. Other photo sessions where I have drawn on the Hollywood look: Lighting a vintage styled boudoir photo session (model: Read more inside...Photography composition: Tilted horizons in photographs
Photography composition: Tilted horizons in photographs
A disconcerting angle perhaps with this photograph's composition - still, there is a dynamic balance of sorts. Because Anelisa is 'upright' / vertical in the photo, it matches our sense that vertical and horizontal lines should be just that. Still, everything else is at a dizzying angle. While the horizon is at a slant, I placed her vertically in the composition, which hopefully creates a balance when we look at the photo. I am not particularly fond of tilted horizons or tilted photos (also known as the "Dutch angle" or Read more inside...Portraits with vintage lenses
Portraits with vintage lenses
That crazy bokeh there is via the Mitakon Zhongyi Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 (B&H / Amazon), taken at widest aperture, giving this wafer-thin depth of field. Even though this is a new lens, I would classify it as a classic or vintage lens. It is manual focus, and gives that delicious look to images exactly because of that DoF and bokeh. In terms of the composition, I like how the blue lights in the foreground is echoed by the same lights in the background. How this photo session with Anastasiya came about ... My friend, Parker J Read more inside...review: Spekular LED lighting kit
review: Spekular LED lighting kit
The most adaptable and versatile continuous lighting setup currently might well be the Spekular LED lights (B&H / Amazon). They come as a set of four LED sections (11.8" x 1.57") that can be connected in different ways - as panels or strips or geometric shapes. You decide. The Spekular website shows some of the options. The specifications of the Spekular LED kit only gives a dry idea of what these are capable of. Therefore, with this video review of the Spekular, I wanted to show some of that adaptability, and how these lights might be Read more inside...Flash with small softbox, vs. Video light
Flash with small softbox - vs - Video light
There are advantages to using a video light for photography, compared to using flash with a softbox or umbrella. The spread of light with a video light tend to be more contained, and hence more dramatic. However, if you use a small softbox with a speedlight, especially if it has a grid, you can get a similar tight spread of light. With this session we had our model, Madison, laying down on this glass floor of the old Union Station. It is lit from underneath, creating these repetitive pools of light. Just beautiful. Read more inside...Headshot photography lighting setups in the studio
Headshot photography lighting setups in the studio
As with most photography, lighting setups and diagrams are more suggestions than absolutes. There are 'best practices' that will help you get constantly good results - such as getting enough light on the eyes so there is a twinkle. Okay, call it a catchlight then. Other than a few guidelines, there is a lot of flexibility in the style of lighting, and also the gear used. In the accompanying article, headshot photography lighting on location, I showed a few examples of how I varied the lighting while out on location. This depended on Read more inside...Headshot photography lighting on location
Headshot photography lighting on location
Shooting headshots on location needs a different tack than working in the studio. Here I want to show some examples of lighting setups that I have used while shooting headshots indoors, on location. Since these examples are all from indoor sessions, the gear used might be different than when the session is outdoors. The logistics will also likely be different. So this discussion is contained within that framework - the lighting used when shooting headshots on location, indoors. There is a companion article that discusses some lighting setups Read more inside...Spekular – versatile continuous lighting kit
Spekular - versatile continuous lighting kit
I use a range of continuous lighting in the studio - it is essential for video of course, but even for stills, it is sometimes easier to work with continuous lighting than flash. When the Spekular LED lights (B&H / Amazon) hit the market, they caught my eye. What makes them unusual is that the kit comes as 4 LED bars which can be hooked up as a panel, or in any number of shapes up to 8 bars. The Spekular website shows some of the options. This kind of flexibility makes it a versatile continuous lighting kit. I have other Read more inside...Which image resolution – 72 dpi or 300 dpi?
Which image resolution? 72 dpi /ppi, or 300 ppi / dpi?
I feel that as modern photographers who shoot with digital cameras, there are a few basics which we absolutely need to know and understand. Some concepts that are so intrinsic to the digital format, that we have no excuse not to grasp them. One of these things would be the resolution of images - the image size. Not in kilobytes or megabytes (since this is rooted in a more archaic form where images were scanned) - but image resolution as in pixel dimensions. Megapixel size. That kind of thing. The confudled question often then Read more inside...- « Previous Page
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