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...
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...
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...
Stella Pro 5000 & 2000 video light review - continuous lighting kit
My friend Kevin, or as his friends call him, Kevin, brought along his new Light & Motion Stella Pro 225 3-Light Kit (B&H / Amazon) to the studio for us to play with. The Stella Pro 5000 video light is powerful enough that you can use a softbox with it when shooting indoors. Where continuous lights really shine, is in how they allow you to adjust your lights in a WYSIWYG way. What you see is what you get - that's just how continuous lights work. That aspect makes video lights ideal when Read more inside...
Studio photography - Capturing movement with continuous lighting
The effect here, which makes me think of black flames, was the result of a slow shutter speed (1/20th) in the studio, using continuous lighting. The short duration of a flash pulse would've frozen the movement, so I needed continuous light for this effect. I used two Litepanels Astra EP 1×1 LED Panels (B&H / Amazon) that I bounced into a V-flat to soften the light. I also used another V-flat to partially block the light towards her feet for more light fall-off to the bottom. The photo below is a pull-back Read more inside...
Those of you who have followed the Tangents blog for a while, will have noticed that over time I've expanded the range of photography that I do - in addition to weddings and portraits, I have taken on commercial photography and corporate photography as well. This has included small commercial video shoots as well. One of these was a promotional video clip for a company - Buddy Bagz - to introduce their innovative variation on sleeping bags for kids.
The photo and video shoot was produced by Cheryl Galante, and the video edited by Wendy Read more inside...
Dramatic lighting effects for portrait photography (model: Jessica Joy)
For this dramatic Hollywoord Glamor inspired portrait sequence of Jessica, I used two Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights (B&H / Amazon). But there's more that happening here with the lighting than just the main light and the rim light. There is the splash of color in the background, augmenting the blue rim-light coming from behind.
Jessica's reaction to the first test shot was amusing - a surprised,"where did that come from?", when she saw the image on the back of my camera. The blue tones and Read more inside...
The beauty of continuous lighting, such as the Westcott Spiderlite TD6 (B&H / Amazon) , is that you can see exactly how the light falls on your subject. It is easier now to nudge your lighting to the best position, as well as your subject in how they should move or pose.
The Westcott Spiderlites can take a softbox, which gives you beautiful soft light. The downside of these lights, are that they usually aren't very powerful. Unless you are working with a tripod, you'll have to rely on higher ISO settings and wide Read more inside...
