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$33,000 Hasselblad vs iPhone comparison shows the importance of lighting over camera

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We often see the “expensive camera vs smartphone” comparisons, but they’re not typically performed with this level of attention to detail. Especially when it comes to the lighting. But if you’re photographer Karl Taylor, the lighting is very important, especially when it comes to comparing images from one camera to another.

Karl recently photographed a custom Harley Davidson motorcycle in his studio using his 100-megapixel Hasselblad H6D-100c medium format camera. But with the lights already set up, he decided to give it a try with the iPhone, too, to see just how similar the images could look.

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Follow these three tips to create dramatic portrait lighting with a single light

Lighting is one of the key elements in photography. It can make it or break it, and it adds a lot to the story you want to tell with your image. In this video, Adorama teams up with Emily Teague who talks about the use of dramatic lighting in portraits. She tells you about how to use it, and gives you a lighting demo to show you her simple setup for dramatic, moody portraits.

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The must have tool for color addicts – the Rosco MixBook

Color.  Such an important tool to help bring a time, place, or even emotions into an image.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have something that makes working with color easier? Inside this little package is a new tool by Rosco called “Mixbook“. To help creators pre-visualize gel and LED colors.

Essentially Rosco has digitized the old gel swatch books, as you can see in my reenactment of a Rosco scientist at work. Note the old gels from my swatch book flying around as the new Mixbook arises from the smokey pot.

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Watch and learn the difference between “YouTube lighting” vs “cinematic lighting”

I thought this was quite an interesting video. It’s an interesting take on how we light for different subject matter. It isn’t saying that one method of lighting is necessarily better or worse than the other, just that the goals of the shoot are very different, the final use for the footage is also very different and so the lighting needs to be different.

In this video, filmmaker Tyler Stalman shows us how we can light both ways using the same equipment. But as well as simply showing us, he also goes into the why of how we light these two things differently and the motivation behind it.

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Watch to learn the how and why of lighting male portrait subjects

Lighting human subjects can be pretty tricky sometimes, especially when you’re used to photographing people of one gender and you try to photograph somebody of another. You’d think they’d all be lit the same, but that’s not the case, as wedding, portrait and fashion photographer Jerry Ghionis demonstrates in this video.

It’s not difficult to light male subjects, but there are a few misconceptions out there. Jerry wants this video to help “demystify lighting male subjects once and for all”, with a bunch of tips and tricks he’s developed over the past 20 years using minimal gear.

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This software lets you test movie lights without leaving your home

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It’s no secret that we use Set a Light to test our photo lighting before we start a shoot. (We talked about it here, here, and extensively here). We even used it to play around with models under lockdown. While I used the software quite a bit for photo projects done with strobes, it lacked in the cinema section. But now, they released a new version, and I am blown away by the possibilities it opened.

If you want to play, there is a trial version in this link; if you need some motivation, though, read on.

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The 2020 DIYP Holiday Gift Guide Megathread

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With all of our 2020 Gift Guides now posted, we thought we’d pop up one more just so you have a handy link to all of them in one place. We’ve covered cameras, lenses, lighting, tripods, sliders, gimbals accessories and more in our guides this year and we’ve seen quite a few cool new toys in 2020 – as well as one or two old favourites that still reign supreme.

What are you getting the photographer or filmmaker in your life this year? What are you hoping to receive?

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How to turn one light into several for dramatic black and white portraits

When it comes to using just a single light source in the studio, there is a lot of great content out there, and we’ve covered some of it here on DIYP before. Often, when you want one light to look like several, though, you usually need to think about multiple shots and compositing in post – whether it be for stills or video. But you don’t have to.

Photographer Jiggie Alejandrino recently showed us one way to shoot dramatic portraits with just one light but now he’s back again with a new tutorial. This one adds even more drama and produces some very impressive results that most people would guess used at least two or three lights. But nope, he just uses one speedlight for these.

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