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Jake Hicks

Why Godox Spotlight is in my top 5 best lighting modifiers of all time

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Salacious article title aside, this lighting modifier from Godox is amazing and yes, it really is in my top 5 (maybe top 3) best lighting modifiers of all time… but why?

I’ve been shooting in the studio for over 20 years and during that time, I’d like to think I’ve worked with a huge range of modifiers. No, my opinions on certain modifiers don’t always align with everybody else’s, but I do like to give strong reasoning as to why I love or hate certain light shapers and as I discuss the Godox Spotlight here, I aim to do just that, as although this is arguably one of the best modifiers I’ve ever used, that does come with some very strong caveats.

Create movement with Rotolight flash and ambient lighting

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We all know what long-exposure photography is right? I think we all have a rough idea, but long exposure shots can vary from half a second to show light trails from moving cars’ headlights all the way to multi-hour exposures of galaxies in the night sky.

But regardless of the content, the core premise of long exposure is the camera’s shutter being open for an extended period of time. But it’s this long shutter duration that often puts many photographers off.

Using Rotolight LEDs with Natural Light

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In the last year or so, I’ve started to work with LED lighting more and more, and for good reason. The LEDs that I use have about 16 million different colours, they have a fully adjustable Kelvin spectrum, they’re incredibly simple to use with their what-you-see-is-what-you-get ambient light, and they can even flash as well if I ever need it. I am, of course, talking about my Rotolight LED lights.

Lighting setup: Gelled portraits, or how to color-grade in-camera

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Gelled lighting can be tricky. It either totally dominates a shot or the colours get washed out and lose impact. In this deceptively simple lighting setup, I show you how to add an in-camera colour wash or global colour grade to your shots that adds a colour harmony to a portrait without overpowering it.

5 Bizarre Photo-Tech Relics You’ve Forgotten About

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I ordinarily share nerdy lighting setups and techniques, but with it being a very busy week for me, I thought I’d share something quick and lighthearted instead. Hopefully, you’ll still appreciate this quick jaunt down this photo-related memory lane.

Recently an old friend and I were chuckling over some long-forgotten photo tech that looks pretty damn bizarre in hindsight! So here are 5 of the more commonly known ones that, for better or worse, many of us still remember.

Comparing strobe and LED flash duration

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We rarely see any big changes in the flash lighting world, but one area that is constantly evolving rapidly is LED lighting. One of the more interesting innovations we’ve seen come out of that field is LEDs that can also flash. But what does that really mean? How are LEDs actually flashing and is it a feature you need?

As many of you know, I’m currently a ‘Master of Light’ for Rotolight who are a U.K. based LED lighting manufacturer. Essentially that title means Rotolight deem me decent enough to use their lights to their fullest potential and that I have the ability to share my thoughts on them via socials and in-person training. But why on Earth would they choose me? After all, for the past 20 years I’d been happily using my flash heads alone, I’d never really used an LED light before and for good reason. Until now.

Lighting setup: Simple long exposure LED portraits

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Long-exposure photography has been around as long as photography itself, but it’s had a tentative relationship with its audience over the years.

20+ years ago when I was shooting analogue film, long exposure was fairly common, even though it was pretty risky to do without the instant feedback of seeing the resulting image. Then digital came along and with it, a brand new world of creative options opened up in the form of Photoshop, consequently, some of the more traditional creative skills fell by the wayside.

Lighting Setup: How to light your portraits with £50 LED tubes

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In the last year or so, I’ve experimented with and tested a huge range of LEDs lights. From the $15,000 Panalux film production monsters to the versatile Godox S-fit compatible heads to the incredible Rotolight panels. But this week I take a look at the other end of the pricing spectrum as I play with the very affordable PixaPro RGB tubes.

Lighting Setup: How to build and use a DIY Scrim in the Studio

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There are quite literally thousands of lighting modifiers on the market today, but which ones are good, which ones should you avoid and… can you make some of them yourself?

In this article I want to discuss: what a scrim is, what a scrim does, and how you can make a very simple scrim for yourself if you like the look it provides.

How to create a realistic vintage lens effect in Adobe Photoshop

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I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a fan of post-pro effects on your photos. Cheesy filters and overlays NEVER age well, and I try and always keep my Photoshop to basic blemish removal and colour grading for that reason.

But recently, I came across an issue where digital pixels were present in my photos as a result of my using a projector. Yes, I could have used a 4K projector with smaller pixels at the time of taking the shot to eliminate them, but that didn’t happen. As a result, I was looking for a way to reduce or hide the pixels present on my model via other means, and a Photoshop solution seemed like a sensible choice.

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