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This is why you should use soft light for portraits and how to make it

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The choice for shooting hard vs soft light is quite an easy one for many people. But if you don’t understand what the difference is, what difference it makes to your subject, or how to create it, soft light can be a bit of a mystery. Soft light is fantastic for portraits, though. It’s particularly flattering, especially to ladies, and isn’t that difficult to understand.

This video from Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter walks us through how to get it and why we need it. Caleb uses his lights for video, although the principles are exactly the same for photography, too.

What you wear as a portrait photographer matters more than you realise

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Many portrait photographers obsess about the clothes their subjects wear on a shoot. They’re often asked to avoid certain colours, or patterns, or given a colour scheme to try and follow. But what about the photographer’s clothes? And this isn’t a matter of how professional you look in front of your clients. It’s all about the light that reflects off you and back toward your subject.

In this short video from the Koldunov Brothers, we see a practical demonstration of two different scenarios. The first shows the impact of our subject wearing differently coloured clothes and how it reflects off their skin. The second shows how the photographer wearing clothes of varying colour and brightness can present on the subject and affect the final image.

This Moon Terminator Illusion explains why light can appear to bend the wrong way

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And no, the Moon Terminator is nothing to do with Arnold. The “terminator” in this case is the line between the lit and dark sides of the moon. During those times when the moon and the sun are in the sky together, there’s something odd about it. The line defining the lit side of the moon doesn’t line up with the sun, the thing that’s lighting it.

This video from YouTuber Vsauce attempts to explain the phenomenon of the Moon Terminator illusion. A camera is used to explain some of the various principles involved. It’s well worth watching, as it also goes some way towards also explaining some of the issues photographers hit regularly. Understanding the causes of them can help us to resolve them.

Here’s how to use light to convey different emotions in your work

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There are plenty of factors that can convey the emotion want to express through your image. While light is one of the essential components for creating a photo in the first place – it also contributes a lot when it comes to the emotional impact. In this video, Jay P. Morgan shares four aspects of light that help communicate the emotion in your work. He will teach you how to use them and turn light into a powerful tool for conveying emotions in your photos and video.

Group of photographers donate solar lamps to people living without light

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I often mention the issue of whether or not photographers can “change the world”. It’s something we could speculate about, but what I firmly believe is that you can at least change someone’s world, or to put it simply – improve someone’s life. And it’s precisely what a group of photo enthusiasts is trying to do.

Joined through Epic Photo Tours and guided by Herb Leventon, this group changes the world of those who live in darkness. They have donated over 400 solar lights to the people from remote villages who live without any light once the sun sets. And of course, they have documented it in a series of beautiful images from different parts of the globe.

How to build DIY color-changing LED wand light for $30

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Ice lights give nice and soft light for photography and video, but they can cost quite a lot and only come in one color. Their cheaper version called wand light changes colors, but there’s a catch. Out of 360 LEDs on the wand, only 40 of them can change to various colors. So, Jordan Thornsburg from Macroscope Pictures shows you how to bring cheap, versatile and powerful together in this great DIY project.

In this video, you’ll learn how to build your own DIY wand light, which gives out powerful lighting and changes colors as well. You can use it both in photography and video, as a light source or for special effects. I imagine light painting with this would be quite awesome, too. The components cost around $30 altogether, but you can make it extra fancy for 15 more bucks and add a Wi-Fi enabled LED controller so you can control the light with your phone.

These 3 basic principles will help you light anything

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Understanding light is one of the main conditions for successfully illuminating our subjects in photography or videography. Matthew Rosen from KINETEK explains some basic principles of lighting, and how to apply them on different types of surfaces. It’s explained in a simple way, with comprehensive examples, so it will be very useful and easy to follow for all the newbies.

The production model Light L16 product photos are out and pre-orders shipping in July

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The Light L16 is a unique oddity amongst cameras. If you’ve never heard of it before, it uses an array of 16 cameras and lenses to create “DSLR quality in the palm of your hand”. Whether that claim is true or not remains to be seen. But see we will, and quite soon now. First announced in October 2015, Light L16 will enter into its Expanded Beta phase in May, with pre-orders starting to be shipped in July.

Thanks to our friends at Light Rumors, we also get to see the first product images of the final production camera. It’s had a little bit of a redesign from the original shown in 2015, and more closely resembles the prototypes we saw in a video last July.

How a photographer recreated The Dark Side of the Moon album cover in camera

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No matter if you are a fan of Pink Floyd or not, I’m sure you know the cover of their iconic album The Dark Side of the Moon. After all, as photographers, you are familiar with the phenomenon it depicts.

Young photographer Mason Maxwell turned that phenomenon into a photo that pays a tribute to one of Pink Floyd’s most famous albums. He created a surprisingly accurate replica of the cover, using sunlight, prism and cardboard. It sounds fairly simple, but it was more complicated that you would think. Mason shared some details of taking the shot with us, and it was quite a challenging process.

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