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How to inexpensively take your lighting for social media to the next level

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Lighting isn’t something that many of us take into consideration for our social media. Sure, if we’re posting photographs of our clients to social media, they’re already lit anyway, but if we’re shooting images or videos that are just for social media, it’s usually ignored. Because, well, it’s just social media, right?

Well, there’s a lot you can do in terms of lighting for social media that’s fairly simple to achieve. You can do it with some relatively inexpensive gear and it’s pretty easy to set up, too. In this video, Mark Wallace walks us through a number of different types of lights and lighting setups to show how we can get the most out of our setups for social media.

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Can you get away with shooting without light modifiers?

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When we talk about studio lighting, we always talk about light modifiers as well. They’re an integral part of using artificial lighting, but does it mean you should use them absolutely all the time? In this video from Adorama, Mark Wallace addresses this topic through a set of examples. He takes photos in his studio with different modifiers to show you what each of them does, so you can see for yourself whether or not you can get away with omitting them.

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Here is how the position of light changes your portraits

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The position of light in relation with your subject can significantly affect the atmosphere of your shots. Depending on where you place the lighting, you can completely change the mood of the scene. In this video, Mark Wallace of Adorama teaches you the basics and gives you a quick preview of how the placement of light affects your portraits. If you’re new to portrait photography, you’ll find this especially useful.

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Here are some essential lighting terms in photography you need to know

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Learning how to use artificial lighting in your photography can be overwhelming for any beginner. Apart from familiarizing yourself with new equipment, you also have to study how light behaves in different scenarios. To help you start with studio photography, Mark Wallace of Adorama TV teaches you a few essential lighting terms you’ll need to grasp to succeed.

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Shooting travel videos with a drone: here are some do’s and don’ts

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So, you want to take your drone to your travels and add a new perspective to your travel videos. It sounds like fun, but before you do it, you need to be prepared. Mark Wallace from Adorama TV has brought his DJI Mavic Pro to travels around the world and he’s learned a lot about shooting travel videos from the air. In this video, he shares his experience and the lessons he’s learned. They will not only help you get great drone shots on your travels, but also help you do it safely and legally.

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This is what each of the lights do on a studio portrait set

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Shooting portraits in the studio with flash can be daunting to newer photographers. They look at the setups like the one above and have no idea what each of the lights is doing, how or why. This video from photographer Mark Wallace is a primer to flash-lit portraits in the studio.

Mark explains what each light is, its purpose, and how each of them contribute toward the final shot. It’s a great breakdown showing you exactly what everything does. No matter how many lights or what lighting setup you’re using, the same principles apply.

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Get creative with your portraits using a piece of silver window screen mesh

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A few days ago, we showed you Cheesycam’s tutorial on making large frames for gels or diffusion with screen door kits. Well, those kits often come with some mesh.  Mesh which may now be laying around in your garage doing not much at all. Now, thanks to photographer Mark Wallace, we have a photography related use for the mesh, too.

In this video, Mark shows us how he uses the metal mesh from window screens to add something a little different to a portrait session. It will probably render the mesh unusable for its originally intended purpose, though. But you didn’t really need it for anything else, did you?

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How to shoot great portraits with flash in a tiny space

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We all get short on space sometimes. Perhaps you’re just starting out and don’t have a huge area to shoot in. Maybe you’ve been asked to photograph a friend in their home, or you just want to get some photos of the kids. Whatever the reasons, it’s not impossible to produce great portraits in a very small space.

Mark Wallace uses a small French hotel room to show us how he utilises a small space in this video. Using only a single light, Mark gets a good variety of different looks, from quite tight head shots to three quarter verticals.

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The Where To Start Chart Is An Ultimate One Stop Educational Tool For Learning Photography

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If there’s one thing we I love more than kittens and infographics, it’s flowcharts. And Mark Wallace has made the ultimate, interactive flowchart aimed at educating photographers one step at a time. Wallace, who aside from being a great photographer, is well known for his awesome teaching style, having produced 100’s of informative video tutorials for AdoramaTV. Wallace has come up with a great way to help keep all those videos organized into an easy to follow photography guide, by way of the Where To Start Chart.

The flowchart starts by asking photographers simple questions about the photograph they are taking and, based on their answer, the chart then guides them to the next step they should take. (Just like any good flowchart does.) However, The Where To Start Chart ups the ante by making each of the questions link (should you choose to click on it) over to Wallace’s corresponding video tutorial. So, you’re not only being told specific steps to take, you are also learning why you should be taking them. Now that is helpful.

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