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Light, shadow, highlight: A guide to window light portraits

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Window light portraits are something we all can do from the comfort of our own homes, Its quite amazing during this time of lockdown, actually having the time to observe the light around the home at different times during the day and how it can transform a room as the sun pops out from behind the clouds, so what a perfect time to learn and practice lighting during this downtime.

Using a family member, ornament or one of those polystyrene heads and spending time watching how the light falls on the subject and by turning the subject and seeing how that effects the light and shadows is priceless and the perfect way to understand lighting in our portraiture.

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The Ultimate Selfie – time to practice during this down time period

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Hey Folks the ultimate selfie not a post I thought I would write BUT I saw great value in sharing this even more so during this world pandemic which has hit this and many other Industries hard! as of writing this work has disappeared as it has for many and I now have more time on my hands BUT this is only temporary and it WILL get back to normal, just got to hang in there folks! So with all of these work responsibilities  being taking from us, take this time to have a breather, try and relax a little I know it will be hard but what’s the alternative right?

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How to use light, shadows and highlights for dramatic portrait lighting – Part 2

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Hey guys! In episode 2 from my Light, Shadow, and Hi-light series, I will take you behind the scenes of the image below. I will break down the lighting setup one by one and I will go through the camera gear used so you can easily recreate this look in your own style. Think of it as a great starting point.

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How to use light, shadows and highlights for dramatic portrait lighting – Part 1

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Hey, folks! Its a brand new year and one I am pumped for! 2020 is gonna be another great year! To kick this new decade off, I wanted to share with you some lighting setups and behind the scenes from a portrait session where we tried out a few different setups, if you prefer to watch the video you can check it out above.

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How to shoot high speed action photography with flash and a slow shutter

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With so many ways to be creative in photography, I get really excited with many ideas for a photograph. One area I find very interested is sports action photography, but with a twist. It’s great to capture that split-second moment and have that frame frozen, but I wanted to explore capturing the motion and freezing the action all in one go. Above you can watch the video of me using this technique with some karate students.

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How I photographed this $5 watch to look like a luxury product shot

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The cheapest watch I could find, that was my mission! I decided I wanted to create a magazine advertising image using a really cheap watch, my goal was to replace the luxurious and expensive aspect of the image with a unknown brand but still maintaining that feel of expense and luxury in the final shot, also to focus on the photography and the importance and impact it has on advertising.

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Getting creative with one light

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So you have just picked up your first light or you have had one light for a while now and you are wondering what more you can create with just that one light, well you can create LOADS.  I see many post/comments saying they can’t do that as they only have one light and while it is more efficient using more lights in certain situations it really is quite amazing what you can create with just one, so my best advice is to get out and shoot loads, experiment and fail as many times as you can, because honestly you will learn more this way and the experience gained will stay with you, In this post I will show you just a few ways I have created images with one light, now this is no tutorial more a post on ideas to try . If you want to jump straight to the video for this post click below.

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Lights, shadow and highlight – How I lit this dramatic portrait

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Creating a dramatic portrait, moody ,emotional, edgy, dark, the subject/model, scene and clothing help portray all of those but one ingredient that remains constant to help achieve the drama is light, shadow and highlight, in this blog post I cover how I lit this image I will show you the position of the lights and what modifiers were used.

If you want to jump straight to the video explaining it all here you go.

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How to create epic toy photography using tin foil and pillow stuffing

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Have you ever found yourself looking at your children’s toys and thought to yourself man that would look great in an image? Well I have, I do and I love creating images this way, trying to create a realistic/surreal image which tells a story from using nothing more than a piece of plastic.

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