Lighting

Learn How to SEE Light. Remember the Egg!

When I started telling the egg story in my workshops many years ago, I got the sense that people were just humoring me as they sat there nodding their heads as if they understood the message. So I went ahead and recorded a video to show what I was talking about when I told the…
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How to use a REFLECTOR the right way for better portraits

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Seriously – PLEASE STOP using reflectors to create crappy unflattering light. TV shows, movies, and unfortunately even YouTube photographers seem to think it’s really cool to do that low angle gold reflector that blinds your subject, makes ridiculously bright catchlights in the bottom of their eyes and puts shadows in…
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High Key Lighting With Three Studio Lights And A White Room

“High Key Lighting is a bright even light that is designed to eliminate most of the shadows in a photograph“ This set-up is a high key lighting arrangement that uses three studio strobes (You could also do it with Speedlight’s or hot lights) and it takes advantage of the studio space that has 4 white walls and…
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2 Light – Dramatic Beauty Shot

If you have been following my blog or my YouTube Videos you have heard me state over and over again… “Keep It Simple!” With that in mind here is a recent Beauty shot lighting technique that I did at the end of a modeling portfolio shoot. I did the shot with just 2 flash heads…
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Lighting setup for the Sci-fi Geisha Girl shoot

Sci-fi Geisha Girl! That’s the name that my makeup artist gave to her latest creation. Let’s take a peak behind the scenes at my lighting setup and I will show you how we did this beauty shot. Let me start out by saying that this is one of those pictures that an honest photographer will…
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Backlit Beauty Lighting Set-up for Portraits and Beauty Shots

Let’s take a look at how we can make a really cool portrait or beauty shot by putting ALL of the light BEHIND the subject. Wait! Did I say behind? Ok… we’ll make it work. If you have read any books or taken a class about studio lighting, you have had your head stuffed full…
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One Light Beauty Lighting – Light Your Subject From Behind

Beauty lighting behind the subject??? I know you are thinking the title is wrong. Even back in the film days the inside of the Kodak boxes had the Daylight Lighting Table that explained you should put the light behind the camera with the subject facing towards the light. If you have read many of my…
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Who says bounce flash is ugly?

“Never use bounce flash for portraits!” When I was a young photographer (back in the film era) I was taught that bounce flash for people pictures was not flattering and should only be used for event and news photography. Recently I did a Google search on the phrase “Bounce Flash” and got back more than…
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Create A Dramatic Lighting Setup With Four Studio Strobes And Gels

My goal with this set of images was to be able to create lots of drama and make a bold statement while still keeping things pretty simple. As always I have included a lighting diagram and I am also going to show you some simple variations on this lighting setup. For the images in this…
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