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How to create a vibrant portrait using simple full cover gelled lighting

Oct 27, 2022 by Jake Hicks Leave a Comment
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Controlling gelled lights can be tricky. We all struggle with washed-out or even muddy colours occasionally and the core reason for this, is your coloured lights overlapping and mixing.

The golden rule of coloured light is: you can only add a gel to a shadow.

The reason I repeatedly say this, is because coloured light doesn’t mix like regular colours. When we mix paints, the more colours you add, the closer you get to a muddy brown colour. Cast your mind back to preschool and you’ll know what I mean.

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Lighting setup: Textured fashion lighting with coloured gels

Feb 23, 2022 by Jake Hicks 1 Comment
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I spent many, many years working in a busy studio that focused on quantity over quality. As photographers working there, we did our best to push back against this where we could, but sometimes you only had 20-30 minutes with a client to achieve a handful of different looks and sadly this invariably led to you often reverting to the simplistic, yet professional looking white background shots out of necessity.

It was ultimately the repetitive nature of this white background work that spawned my gelled lighting that many of you know today. It really was a simple case of ‘shoot something different or go mad!’.

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Lighting Technique: How to photograph people with top-down sci-fi lighting

Jan 19, 2022 by Jake Hicks Leave a Comment
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I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to hear that it’ll be a short and sweet one this week ;) Nothing mind-bending or buried in lighting theory, just a simple 2 light setup with some colour! – (famous last words).  The idea behind this look for me was to create a sci-fi style of light coming directly from above. Couple that with some contrasting colour from below and a little separation behind and I’m done.

In my mind I wanted it to be smokey or hazey like those spooky 80s sci-fi movies. So either a misty night or even smoke from spaceship exhaust – think, ‘Close encounters of the third kind’. This isn’t strictly super-relevant, but early ideas like this can help you immensely when it comes to lighting a subject if you know what you’re trying to achieve first.

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Here is how to fix five most common studio portrait lighting mistakes

Nov 4, 2021 by Dunja Djudjic Leave a Comment
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If you’re just starting out with studio portrait photography, that’s really exciting! Still, things can get a little overwhelming since there’s a lot to learn. In this video, Kayleigh June guides you through five common mistakes beginners make when shooting portraits with studio lights. And more importantly – she helps you learn how to avoid them.

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Five things we can learn from cinematic lighting

Aug 25, 2021 by Jake Hicks Leave a Comment
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One of the bigger personal projects I’ve been working on recently is my Cinematic Studio Lighting course. During the process of writing the accompanying notes and shooting promotional images for the event, I’ve done a ton of research on how cinematographers and directors of photography work, think and plan their shots. I originally thought the two worlds of photography and cinematography would be fairly similar, but I ended up learning a lot more than I thought I would and I think that’s down to how cinematographers approach the setup of their image compared to many of us photographers, especially those of us who primarily shoot in a studio.

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Use this simple two-light setup for gorgeous and consistent portrait lighting

Aug 24, 2021 by Dunja Djudjic 2 Comments
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When shooting portraits in a studio with artificial lighting, the possibilities are endless. But if you’re looking for something simple, beginner-friendly, yet very effective, look no further. In this video, Manny Ortiz shows you one of his favorite beauty lighting setups. It uses two lights, a single light stand, and gives you beautiful and consistent lighting in every shot.

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Lighting setup: Classic editorial portrait lighting

Jun 23, 2021 by Jake Hicks Leave a Comment
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There will always be ‘classics’ in any industry. Sure these classics may not turn heads or make the headlines and they may even take a dip in popularity for a while, but these ‘classics’ will always be a timeless safe bet.

Fashion has its ‘little black dress’ and ‘tan trench coat’, cooking has its lasagne, burger, pizza, and many, many more. They’re always going to be winners in most peoples eyes and they’re as popular today as they were years ago, plus they will undoubtedly be popular for many years to come.

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How to create fake window light for still life and food photography

May 11, 2021 by Dunja Djudjic Leave a Comment
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Studio lighting gives you almost endless possibilities. You can even recreate natural, window light with a pretty simple setup. Joanie Simon of The Bite Shot shares with you how to create a studio lighting setup that mimics window lighting, and it’s perfect for still life and food photography.

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This is my favourite $1 lighting modifier

Sep 30, 2020 by Jake Hicks 1 Comment
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I’ve always been drawn to interesting looking light. The simple, soft and flat light of softboxes and other standard modifiers rarely hold my attention and I’ve often felt like that softbox lighting doesn’t exist outside of the studio. It’s always looked a little too clinical for me.

We’re shown interesting light all of the time when we’re observing daylight. Dappled light as it falls through leaves, dancing sparkles of light on water, rays of light through buildings and other structures, but we rarely try and bring that interesting looking light into the studio. In fact, many of us chase and covet this idea of ‘perfect’ light from a generic modifier and although there is certainly a time and a place for that, today I’d like to share a lighting technique that is a little more visually engaging.

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Can you get away with shooting without light modifiers?

Sep 21, 2020 by Dunja Djudjic Leave a Comment
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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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Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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