Lighting

3

Small Strobes – Quick and Dirty Lesson

I have written more than a couple of times of the ills of using matrix or evaluative metering along with TTL flash. Personally my opinion is that these “innovations” no matter how wondrous are more trouble and more work than they are worth. This has nothing to do with me not understanding how the controls and camera work. Of course they are useful in situations where you really really have to be quick and you have no time to think and you have to get the shot and you’ve...

08 February 2010 | Articles, General Photography, Lighting | , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments
10

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Hey I know this guy is super duper popular for his introducing the everyman out there to using flash (even though he talks cheap and actually uses expensive things and big lights now or like 12 SB900′s). I have to admit he has done some cool stuff way back but I just have to ask WTF lately? I am a little picky – I admit it. I think 99% of commercial images published today are at best mediocre – formulaic – flat – juiced up in PS. I blame...

08 February 2010 | Articles, General Photography, Lighting | , , , , , , | 10 Comments
10

Quick Lighting Tip – Why My Softbox Looks Different Than Yours

Yep every once in a while I write a post about photographic lighting. I only do this when I stumble across something that I think my answer a lot of questions really quickly. I much prefer the “hands on approach” that I use in workshops that I do every once in a while. I prefer this because you can learn more in 5 minutes actually relating to the distances/spaces/angles in person than you can in a lifetime of looking at diagrams and descriptions and resulting images. I guess video...

09 December 2009 | Articles, General Photography, Lighting | , , , , , , | 10 Comments
0

High Noon – Don’t Be Afraid To Make Images

We all know that mid-day is not the greatest time of day to be outside making images. Well maybe not everyone but most people that have been using a camera for more than a week. One reaction is either the conscious or subconscious decision not to make images during the mid-day doldrums. The other is to instantly turn on the auto fill flash – heck most consumer cameras automatically do this for you. For some of you searching to make better images at mid-day you can also go read...

06 June 2009 | Articles, General Photography, Lighting | | 0 Comments
5

Small Strobes – The Ups and Downs

I occasionally do workshops, some of them on lighting. All of the rage these days are workshops, websites, and photographers extolling the virtues and showing people what you can do with small strobes. In otherwords “hot shoe” strobes. I thought that I would share a couple of thoughts on the subject of small strobes. A couple of disclaimers first. Yes I use small strobes on occasion, I always have. I happen to use Nikon SB800′s and SB900′s (two each) and I think that the Nikon CLS is superior to...

29 May 2009 | Articles, General Photography, Lighting | , , , , | 5 Comments
19

Photography – I Love Art, I Cannot Stand The Art ‘Culture’

So here is my latest creation. I just happened to be playing around with a couple of lights in the basement while getting blasted. One of my favorite weekend activities. I perfectly captured the way my girlfried acts when I tell her that I am absolutely not refinishing the basement and no I do not want to see the latest chick-flic with her friends tomorrow. I think this is an awesome shot considering I had 5 martinis

23 April 2009 | Articles, General Photography | , , , , , | 19 Comments
3

Great Portraits – Simple Lighting

A while back I published a short article about a portrait lighting technique that I use a lot to one degree or another when making a portrait. To make a long story short the technique uses a corner as a background. The surface facing the light source will be light and happens to be on the shadow side of the subject. The opposite surface will be darker and on the highlight side of the subject.

20 April 2009 | Articles, Lighting | , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments
4

What is Important?

Interesting question. What is important – photographically. I guess if you make your livelihood from images, all of those that make money are pretty darn important. Even so… If you ask yourself the question “what images are important” as I have asked myself countless times while making images, while editing images, while being really bored and philosophical, and now amazingly enough, asked the same question by a reader that thinks that I might have the answer. I really don’t have the answer to that question. I have an opinion....

22 January 2009 | Articles, General Photography | | 4 Comments
7

Lighting Tip – The Power of Accent Lights

A few loyal readers have sent me emails asking how I lit this image. Originally posted in an article about interpretation of histograms, this kind of lighting set up is typical in lighting workshops that I host. Although I feel that this kind of thing is best seen and experienced hands-on, here is my best quick and to the point description of how this particular image was lit. The main light is to camera right. It is a 3′ x 4′ softbox that positioned very close to the model...

31 October 2008 | Articles, Lighting | , , | 7 Comments