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Five ways to improve your lighting skills

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To produce photos of a certain look, we need to know exactly how to use the light. In this video, Hans Rosemond gives you five tips that will help you improve your lighting skills in no time.

What I particularly like about this video is that these are not “technical tips” about types of lighting and where to put them. These are the guidelines that will help you get the right mindset and attitude when it comes to lighting the scene. And when you master those, you’ll master any kind of lighting setup you need for the shoot.

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6 ideas to help you start using color gels

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The use of color gels expands the possibilities and helps you create plenty of different looks. If you’re just discovering color gels, Ted Sim of Apurture shares eight ideas for using them. These will give you some inspiration why and how to add color to your shots. And while Ted focuses on moviemaking, you can also use gels to add color and change the mood of your photos.

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Spekular is the light that does it all for photographers

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Spekular is spectacular! Hmmm – a little over the top? Not really. I recently had the opportunity to put this new LED lighting system from Spiffy Gear to the test. Spiffy Gear are the folks that brought us the Light Blaster (buy link).

Spekular is a modular lighting system that can take on all kinds of shapes depending on your needs and this can save you money and the time needed to pack and set-up light modifiers especially when you are working on location. Spekular comes as a kit of 4 LED sections. Each section is built with aluminum and ABS plastic. The sections can be configured using the included hinged connectors or with the accessory extension kit.

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7 ways to improve your portraits with a reflector and white foamcore

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5-in-1 reflector is a super-handy tool for both bounding and diffusing the light. Arron Nace from Phlearn shows you seven different setups you can create using a single light, with the addition of a reflector or even simple foamcore. Both the reflector and the foamcore are pretty cheap, yet they are versatile and can help you create a whole lot of lighting setups. Check out some of Arron’s suggestions for using them for portrait photography, both in the studio and outside in the sunlight.

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The Strobist offers up some advice for those starting out with flash

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David Hobby is the man who started off the whole strobist movement. He literally is the Strobist. It’s been a while since we’ve seen him on video, and he took a bit of a break from the site for a while, too. He is now back, with a new free Lighting 103 course, focusing on colour.

The Phoblographer caught up with David recently at the Fujifilm Festival in New York City. Naturally, out came the camera, for David to impart some of his wisdom. Specifically, it’s aimed at those thinking about, or looking into getting their first flash.

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The Aputure MX is the brightest mini on camera light in the market

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A new light is coming from Apurture soon, and it contains a whole lot of brightness in the size of a credit card. Although it’s not officially announced yet, they showed off the prototype on Cinema 5D.

The light is named Amaran MX, and despite the size, it seems really powerful. It’s five times brighter than its predecessor Apurture M9, and it comes along with some other improved features.

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Lessons on properly lighting dark-skinned actors from “Insecure” director of photography Ava Berkofsky

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How to properly light the model depends on several aspects, and one of them is skin color. Insecure’s director of photography, Ava Berkofsky, makes the actors in the series look fabulous. In this 2-minute video, she shares her lessons on properly lighting the dark-skinned actors to achieve the best results.

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Photonicz is a Strobe/LED hybrid that can take a splash and keep working

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So, this is an interesting, if rather unusual idea. Photonicz is an LED based strobe (a world’s first, apparently) designed to offer the advantages of both strobes, and modern LED technology. Lots of power, lightweight, portable power through V-Mount batteries, weather sealed… It sounds ideal. But, it does kind of just look like a giant heatsink with an LCD bolted on.

The product is currently being funded through Kickstarter where they say they’re ready to start tooling and production. On paper, they look quite impressive. They boast flash durations as fast as 1/50,000th of a second, with up to 30 pops per second at full power. Full power, they claim, is the equivalent of a 2500Ws traditional strobe. It also offers high speed sync for a whole bunch of camera brands.

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Watch 3 photographers shoot the same model with off camera flash

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After seeing Jessica Kobeissi’s ‘3 photographers shoot the same model’ video, where she and fellow photographers Irene and Ruby challenge each other to photograph a model with a time limit in several locations, I was inspired and motivated to say the least. It was such an interesting concept that I decided to give the challenge a go with my friends Eli Infante and Jeff Antons . I was excited for several reasons; It was going to challenge us as photographers, I was curious how the photos turn out, and, most importantly, because we’d be doing the challenge using off camera flash (OCF).

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How to create strong dynamic portraits using only one light and a beauty dish

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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.

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