Studio Lighting

Photo Shoot Tips

Fashion Portraits with Movement

There are so many visual tools that photographers have available to influence the viewer’s experience with a photograph. Things like using diagonal lines to guide the viewer’s eye to the point in the photograph that is most important. The idea of using foreground objects to frame and highlight your subject.…
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TOGCHATS

How To Improve Your Portrait Lighting With a Circle and Some String

Episode #221 of the TOGCHAT Photography Podcast - Recorded October 14th, 2020
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

The Importance of Catchlights for Portraits

If you are going to shoot portraits, don’t overlook the importance of catchlights. They’re a small detail that can easily make or break your shot. So what’s the big deal about catchlights? Catchlights play an important role in creating dimension and depth and in adding life to a portrait by…
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Photography Gear

Compact Studio Strobes – Godox MS200 & Godox MS300

These are two extremely affordable studio strobes from Godox that a lot of photographers don’t know about. Certainly when we think of Godox flashes and strobe lighting we think of the AD200 Pocket flashes and the AD400 and AD600 studio strobes that run on lithium batteries. We know that Godox…
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Shoot Breakdown

Photo Shoot With Celebrity Magician Matthew Furman

My tagline says I Shoot People and that’s exactly what keeps me motivated as a photographer. My camera is my ticket to meet and interact with people. People that I would otherwise never have the opportunity to experience. Throughout my career I’ve had the opportunity to photograph numerous magicians on…
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Shoot Breakdown

Fashion Portraits With Cellophane

I’m always on the lookout for things that I can drape around a model, or turn into an outfit, or place over a light source to change the color of the light, or even turn into a background. As a result, I make frequent trips to local fabric stores and…
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Shoot Breakdown

Sci-Fi Inspired Four Light Fashion Portrait Tutorial

What can we create with four strobes, some blue gels, a big fan, and a gorgeous model with incredible eyes? Two unique sci-fi fashion portraits. I’m going to show you how I did it and share with you why it’s important to emotionally LET GO of your work once you…
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Photography Gear

The Honey Badger by Interfit Photographic

I was wrong. A few months back I wrote this article and told you that I thought the Paul C. Buff DigiBee was potentially the most underrated flash unit on the market. I was simply wrong — for a bunch of reasons that all involve the Interfit Honey Badger from…
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DIY Photography Tips from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

DIY Strip Light Modifier for Speedlights

Grab your Jedi robes and your stuffed Ewoks, because I’m about to show you how to make a bigger, brighter, light saber than any of the ones you see in the Star Wars movies–perfect for photographing Princess Leia. These lightsabers are even daylight balanced and great for shooting portraits both…
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Photography Gear

Smith Victor CooLED Lights

In this article- Part 4 of my LED light series- I’m gonna show you some lights from the Smith Victor CooLED series. These include three LED studio lights that look more like studio strobes that you can attach modifiers to like you do with a strobe. I’ll also add a…
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Shoot Breakdown

Self Portrait Tutorial

How I shot my self portrait for social media and my photography website The task: I got a new pair of glasses and that means it was time to update my profile photo for my website and social media. When shooting a portrait, ask yourself: WHO is the subject? Me!…
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DIY Photography Tips from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

DIY Christmas Light Portraits

When my wife made her annual pilgrimage to the Christmas in July sales, it got me to thinking about Christmas lights and wondering what kind of DIY Christmas light portraits and beauty shots I could do with some cheap LED lights. You know that when it comes to lighting portraits…
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

Beauty Dish Lighting from an Umbrella

The irony of a beauty dish is that it makes harsh light that is not really that beautiful… unless, of course, you use it properly. I’ll break it down for you and even show you how to make your own very portable DIY Beauty dish for less than $7. Go…
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Photography Gear

DigiBee DB800 by Paul C. Buff

I honestly think the Digibee – the DigiBee DB800 by Paul C. Buff, to be exact – is the most underrated flash unit on the market today. This DigiBee DB800 has been on the market for just about a year now and I will admit that I just started using…
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DIY Photography Tips from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

Portrait Lighting Arrangements With DIY LED Studio Lights

Now that you have your own DIY LED studio lights- or you maybe you are planning to build a set- you need to learn how to use it. I’ll walk you through a dozen different ways that I use these lights, plus I’ll give you some not-so-obvious tips that I…
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

Direct Flash Glamour Shots and Beauty Portraits

If you have tried using direct flash without any modifiers or, even worse yet, put a speed light on top of your camera and aimed it straight at your subject, or even if you haven’t, chances are you’ve heard that direct flash is not a good idea when you’re photographing…
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Shoot Breakdown

How To Shoot a Fitness Magazine Cover Shot

Have you ever thought about shooting a fitness magazine cover? You know, the ones with the white background, clean, crisp commercial lighting, three quarter length pose, really fit and sexy subject who looks really happy. . . sound familiar? You see these all the time when you’re in the checkout…
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

How To Shoot a Casual Portrait With One Light and One Modifier

The casual portrait is taken in a studio… Which is not exactly a casual setting… So what does it really mean? For me it starts with an attractive subject, photographed in simple casual clothing, in a relaxed posture with simple, flattering light. This is a shot that I would do…
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Photography Gear

Light Blaster by Spiffy Gear

Stop! Don’t move! Now click that “like” button, or I’ll blast you with my Light Blaster! I bet you’re wondering ‘What the heck is a Light Blaster?’ The Light Blaster is a strobe-based image projector that will let you to turn a simple backdrop into an exciting new background with…
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

Photographing People With Glasses – How To Avoid Glare in Eyeglasses

One of the most common questions I receive: what’s the best lighting to use for photographing people with glasses, so that you don’t have reflections or glare on eyeglasses? The answer is easy… and I can use any kind of lighting arrangement I want to. I just set my lights,…
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Photography Gear

DIY Fluorescent Studio Lighting

I have received an incredible response from the article and video series that I produced about the DIY Fluorescent Studio Lighting Set-up (See original video below). I have also received TONS of questions about the fixtures and how to use them so it is time to write a quick follow-up…
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

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…
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

Dramatic Beauty Portrait – Shot With 2 Lights

Here is a recent dramatic beauty portrait lighting technique that I did at the end of a modeling portfolio shoot. I did the shot with just 2 flash heads and one of them; was BOUNCED onto the ceiling. The model is a young 16-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio who traveled here…
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

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 peek 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…
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

Backlit Beauty Lighting Setup

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…
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

Equipment and Lighting for Shooting the Female Nude

Planning KISS IT! = Keep It Super Simple Especially for your first few shoots… select a simple concept or lighting style and don’t try to over do it. The majority of my fine art nudes are shot with one or two lights. Even when I am not using the models…
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Photography Lighting Techniques from Joe Edelman (Cr.Photog.)

Create a Connection by Lighting for Mood With the Female Nude

I am a fan of the KISS IT (Keep It Super Simple) method of lighting and shooting. So with that in mind let’s jump right in and look at a few lighting set-ups that I routinely use to create lighting for mood when shooting fine art nudes. What does “Lighting…
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