On-camera bounce flash for beautiful portrait light
On-camera bounce flash for beautiful portrait light
Here are several portraits of a model, Koko, taken during a workshop in my studio last week. She was phenomenal with her posing. Just on all the time. I will post her IG account lower down. The lighting -- notice how soft and even it is, but with a gradual contrast to the one side of her face. No hard flash shadow. Just big, soft, directional light in the studio. All achieved with on-camera bounce flash. Just the one light. No Fong Dong! No MagMod boob! No Rogue Flash bender! Seriously calm down with that unnecessary stuff. You Read more inside...Camera & flash settings : high-speed flash sync & off-camera lighting
Camera and flash settings : high-speed flash sync & off-camera lighting
I recently had the pleasure of photographing a remarkable young dancer from Slovakia, Sara Sobolova, who was visiting New York on a 2-week long training event for ballet dancers. Her mom arranged for a photo session in New York since this is her first time here, and because, let's face it, New York is a big deal! This is one of my favorite images from the sequences we shot in various spots in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Below is the pullback shot to show the lighting -- a Profoto B10X flash Read more inside...Dramatic and dynamic lighting for group photos
Dramatic and dynamic lighting for group photos
This group photo appeared as part of a sequence of images, for a story on the CEO for a financial magazine. The group photo was a composite of a number of photos of the individuals. For a first attempt though, I took a safe shot first of the group with two Profoto B1 flashes bounced into the hallways behind me (photo shown below) … but it kinda looked dull in comparison to the final collage image which the client much more preferred. For this collage / composite photo, I had my assistant light each person individually with a Profoto Read more inside...Compact, portable off-camera lighting : Profoto A2 flash
Compact, portable off-camera lighting : Profoto A2 flash & Clic softbox
Very often when I use off-camera lighting on location, I'm not among for dramatic lighting, but rather using the off-camera lighting to enhance the existing light. I want to get a cleaner, slightly more punchy look - but one where the use of flash might not be that immediately obvious. To this end, I love using light-weight portable off-camera lighting. Something compact that is easy to carry, and easy for my assistant to hold up. When working in Manhattan, the use of a light-stand might get you in trouble in Read more inside...studio lighting : gridded stripboxes and gels
Studio lighting : gridded stripboxes and gels
Working with Uncured, doing promotional photos of the band members. They wanted a variety of photos in the studio, but with a dramatic look and with splashes of color. With that in mind, we kept the lighting consistent ... but changed out the gels for the various sequences. The idea was to get a variety of looks in terms of the colors and how the light fell ... and be able to make the changes quickly, without requiring long setup times. The pullback shot will show the lighting setup: -- Two lights high up against the background to Read more inside...Colorful, dramatic portraits in the studio with continuous / LED lights
Colorful, dramatic portraits in the studio with continuous / LED lights
It was a thrill to work with the band Uncured on their promotional photos. They are focused! I expect them to break out and be huge. During this photo session we mostly worked with the usual Profoto flashes I have in the studio. The brief was to create dramatic photos of the band. I used gridded stripboxes which were gelled. This gave the desired effect. (I will post some of the images in a follow-up post here.) But for one sequence of photos (of which three images are shown here), I changed it up with some Read more inside...Posing with your camera?
“Why do all chefs cross their arms in photos?” I photographed a corporate event in Manhattan a few weeks ago, hosted by a prominent London-based marketing group. One of the fascinating presentations (by EatBigFish) was about “Blanding” - when branding of so many companies conform to a consistent idea of what branding should look like. This slide summarized many of the themes in the presentation. And I immediately thought of how photographers do the same thing on their websites — posing with their cameras as if to prove they are photographers. It’s a crutch! As photographers we need to Read more inside...
