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Light, shadow, highlight: A guide to window light portraits

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Window light portraits are something we all can do from the comfort of our own homes, Its quite amazing during this time of lockdown, actually having the time to observe the light around the home at different times during the day and how it can transform a room as the sun pops out from behind the clouds, so what a perfect time to learn and practice lighting during this downtime.

Using a family member, ornament or one of those polystyrene heads and spending time watching how the light falls on the subject and by turning the subject and seeing how that effects the light and shadows is priceless and the perfect way to understand lighting in our portraiture.

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How to create a classic three-light beauty portrait lighting setup

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The three light setup has been a staple of portrait photographers for decades. There isn’t just one three light setup, though, there are several, with some slight variations, which can change the mood dramatically. In this photo, photographer Rob Hall used his three lights with various modifiers to create this portrait, and he’s shared with DIYP how he set them up in order to get it.

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5 ways to use an umbrella for stunning portraits

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The umbrella is one of the most underrated modifiers in photography, I think. It’s one of the first that many of us usually encounter once we start working with speedlights or strobes, and Bowens even used to include umbrellas in their strobe kits.

But we often feel that we “outgrow” them, in favour of softboxes and beauty dishes. This video from photographer Miguel Quiles, however, demonstrates that we shouldn’t be so quick to discount umbrellas. He shows us five ways to use umbrellas to get some pretty amazing results.

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This is how high your light source should be for photographing portraits

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One of the questions I often hear from people who are new to photography, particularly when using flash is “How high should my light be?”. It’s a difficult one to answer, especially if you’re shooting on location because there are so many variables.

The Koldunov Brothers break their usual silence in this 9-minute video to explore the topic. They offer a lot of tips with practical examples to show how different lighting heights and positions affect how the camera sees the subject.

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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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Apollo app for iOS creates cool lighting effects better than Apple’s Portrait Lighting

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If the iPhone’s Portrait Lighting already impresses you, then you better check out Apollo. This $1.99 iOS app adds immersive lighting effects that are–dare I say–better than what Apple’s version offers.

The Apollo app uses depth map from dual cameras to create the effects so, it only currently works with the iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus and X. Nevertheless, it does a great job at applying different lighting effects at any angle. In fact, you can even put a light source behind a subject to act as a rim light. You can add up to 20 light sources in one image and seamlessly adjust the color, intensity, and distance. Check out the short video clip below to see it in action:
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Two photographers going head to head, natural light vs. strobes

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Natural light or artificial light? Sure, it’s a matter of preference, but photographers Manny Ortiz and Jessica Kobeissi made an interesting challenge out of these two approaches. They had three rounds of photographing the same model in the same studio. Jessica used only natural light, and Manny added off-camera flash. Let’s check out the results and see which you prefer.

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