When you decide to take the step from natural light and start shooting with artificial lighting, you may not know where to start learning. Daniel and Rachel from Mango Street have teamed up with photographer Daniel DeArco to introduce you to the basics of studio lighting. And when they do it, it seems less scary and it will help you successfully take the first steps.
How to create strong dynamic portraits using only one light and a beauty dish
The whole “one light” thing always seems to be a popular topic. And it’s not really surprising. Every day new people are getting into flash. Buying just a single light and learning to master it is the usual recommendation. And it’s a great way to start. The next logical step before buying more lights is to try out a couple of different modifiers. And what better modifier than a beauty dish?
Photographer Joel Grimes likes working with beauty dishes. So much so that he even put his name on one. The Westcott Rapid Box, designed by Joel, isn’t exactly the cheapest beauty dish out there. But, it does illustrate the principles. And while you won’t get the exact same look, you can get pretty close with any similarly sized beauty dish. In this video, Joel shows us how he likes to use it.
Three modifiers to improve your light when working with on-camera flash
The camera’s hotshoe is generally the last place you want to place a flash as your main light source. Sometimes, though, it can’t be helped. It’s common at weddings and events where you’re constantly walking around looking for the shot. It’s more about the memory than the quality of the light. Although that doesn’t mean we should neglect it entirely.
This video from photographer Ed Verosky shows us three ways we can modify the light coming from a flash on top of our camera. Ed admits that none of these solutions is ideal, but then putting a flash on the camera isn’t ideal, either. But these can go some way towards reducing that harshness of a bare, direct on-camera flash.
Photographing a model in sunset with only one strobe
Combining natural light and flash can be tricky, but photographer Axel Rivera shared a perfect example of such image with us. He shot this gorgeous portrait in quite tricky conditions – it was during the sunset, the model was backlit, and he only had one strobe. But he did a great job, and he kindly shared his setup, tips, and tricks with DIYP.
How to use split color lighting in your photography
There is a progression that takes place in the journey that is our lighting knowledge. At first it is learning the ways of ambient light (read: I don’t want to buy a flash). As our career progresses we decide to buy our first flash and throw that sucker straight on the camera, only to question why the shadows on faces are gone… along with the artistic merit. Soon after that we discover a site like Strobist and point the flash at the ceiling and realize our first “Eureka” moment as a photographer. From there we buy our first off camera strobes and it is all downhill…
Watch how technology changes: Kodak’s vintage commercial shows their innovation from the ’60s – the Flashcube
Apart from new digital solutions in photo and video technology, it seems that this year the analog and “back to the roots” approach caused the most reactions. After CES 2017, we’re left with many news and impressions. With all the innovations, it’s still something vintage that made the most of us thrilled. It’s launching something new, which is actually old. Yes, I’m talking about Kodak bringing back Ektachrome, and possibly even Kodachrome.
This made me think about the “old days” and how technological innovations in photography were observed back then. And then I saw this video. It’s over 50 years old Kodak commercial, showing their latest technology at the time – the Flashcube.
Did you know flash photography can harm baby sea turtles?
Flash photography is harmless more often than not. But there are times when the powerful flash of cameras can do damage to things, both living and inanimate.
One of the latest examples detailing how flash photography can harm a living creature is shared in a recent PSA given by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
According to the announcement, taking flash photos of sea turtles can interfere with the reproduction habits of the reptiles by disorienting the mothers while making their nests, which house the little ones throughout the incubating and hatching process.[Read More…]
Watch How This Photographer Creates High-Action Images with Stroboscopic Flash
Stroboscopic flash photography is basically putting your camera on a slow shutter speed and firing bursts of strobe lighting to freeze moments in action for a “double exposure image” on acid, so to speak. When David Einar was booked for a shoot with the Linköping Hockey Club in Sweden, he wanted to convey the full sense of action embodied in the fast-paced game. So he turned to the stroboscopic technique to create adrenaline action in these incredible images.
Tric for iPhone: New Device Will Allow You to Use Speedlights with Your Smartphone
The iPhone wow-ed us all when it first came on the scene in 2007, and over the years we have seen how photographers, both amateur and professional, have used it to create some pretty stunning images. Even as far back as 2010 the guy at FStoppers amazed us with their iPhone fashion shoot using a 3gs. But, there has always been the limitation of not being able to pair off-camera strobe lighting with the little device.
Those days are over, thanks to Tric, a new wireless flash trigger for the iPhone system.
BTS Look At How The Mesmerising “Parallax” Superbowl Commercial Was Photographed
Blair Bunting had all of three days to play around with his new Profoto B1 lights before he set out to photograph that awesome parallax Superbowl commercial for National Bank of Arizona. In case you missed it, you can watch it at the bottom of the post, but first, you can take a look at how he captured the ultra high definition moving photos in the 12-minute long behind the scenes clip he just posted over on Vimeo.
Bunting calls the gorgeous technique parallax, a term he borrowed and explains like this:
“What is parallax? Think of when you were in grade school and you had to do one of those cheesy plays…there is always a part in that play where some kid is on a boat made of a tricycle and cardboard, and they are in the rough ocean. In order to create this imaginary ocean in the elementary school cafeteria, they use whats called parallax. This is where they have on set of blue waves on a stick in front of the kid and one behind. The movement of these waves back and forth creates in your mind the idea of the ocean.”
To pull this off, he called on his Nikon D4s‘s burst mode and the wicked fast high speed sync capabilities of the B1 flash units. Check it out:[Read More…]
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