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Lighting setup: bounced top light

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Studio lighting can be tricky, but in reality shooting, in a big open studio space with all the fancy modifiers and stands is a damn sight easier than shooting in a small, cramped on-location space.

“But Jake, surely all professional photographers get to shoot in nice big, bright, airy studios all the time right?”

Wrong. In fact part of the job is having the ability to shoot almost anywhere and for those of us who end up shooting fashion and editorial style work, we need to shoot in some very awkward spaces. From underground nightclubs, fancy bathrooms, or even smaller European homes, all of these small spaces present a multitude of problems and if the client wants to shoot there, it’s your job to make it happen.

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5 modifiers for photographers on the move

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A little while ago I was teaching one of my lighting workshops and one of the attendees was looking to implement some of the set-ups I was sharing into his workflow. Seems simple enough right? Well it turns out this photographer was a Formula 1 trackside shooter that needed to get portraits of drivers and crew. As you may well imagine, there is limited time to setup a photoshoot in a busy pit-lane on race-day, so he was after lighting modifiers that would be suitable for his slightly more ‘run-and-gun’ portraits.

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How to use V-flats to create three different beauty lighting setups

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When shooting in a studio, you can use V-flats in a variety of ways. In this video, Lindsay Adler  shows you three simple setups you can create for beauty photography using V-flats. Each of them requires subtle changes in the setup, yet they’ll all give you drastically different results.

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Here’s a detailed guide to prepare you for your actor headshots

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Your actor headshots, combined with your actor showreel, are the foundations of your actor profile. They are without shadow of a doubt a key marketing tool for your acting career. It’s important to prepare yourself in order to get the most out of your session.

If you are reading this it is because you have booked or you are thinking on booking a headshots session. In this article I’ll try to answer most of the common questions that we usually receive on how to prepare for your actor headshots session.

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How I did this pink & red studio shoot: a step-by-step breakdown from planning to post-processing

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Shooting for yourself is something I talk about a lot, I talk about it a lot but I have struggled to do over the last 12 months.

In 2016 I shot maybe 20-30 shoots which were for myself to try new skills, develop my work and give myself a break for the paid work I was doing.

In 2017 I did only 4 shoots like this. Now a little of that is because I was a victim of my own success, my commercial work grew massively and became my biggest photography year on earnings and hours worked. This meant my own personal work had to take a little bit of a back seat. Well not a little, it wasn’t even in the back seat, it was left at home in a cupboard which was locked and nailed shut!

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This is how different softbox placement affects your portraits

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When photographing portraits in a studio, you can create many different looks using only one light. Depending on how you place it and how big it is, a softbox can significantly change the look and mood of your photos. In this video, Jay P Morgan discusses different factors of softbox placement. And when you learn how they affect your portraits, you’ll know exactly how to achieve the look you want.

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Make a simple DIY bokeh background for under $10

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Christmas is over and you may want to pack up the decorations for the next year. But before you do it, there’s a simple, cheap DIY project to try out. In this video, Joe Edelman shows you how to make a bokehlicious background for portraits with the stuff you probably already have at home. And even if you don’t, you’ll need about $10 for this build.

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Light modifiers compared: when to use beauty dish, softbox or umbrella

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There are different ways to modify studio lights and adapt them to your shooting needs. In this video, Manny Ortiz compares three popular modifiers: a beauty dish, a softbox, and an umbrella. He uses all three in the studio to show you what to expect from them and how to use them to achieve a nice, flattering light.

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