Jerry Ghionis is a famous wedding photographer from Australia. He created this lighting tutorial in cooperation with B&H. Jerry covers different lighting situations (direct sun light, candles, on and off camera flash, window lighting, video light, LED light) by showing examples of his photo shooting. He shows that if you are creative with already available light sources, you may get great shots no matter what your location is. The masterclass is more for advanced photographers who know their photo gear. One of the tips he shares is how to use on camera flash. He does not mean the built-in flash in your camera, but rather a flash unit that you attach to your camera. The main rule is to bounce the light that comes from the flash off a wall or a ceiling. In order to do that you need to turn the flash head to the right angle at every shoot and change this position if you move around or go from horizontal to vertical framing. Even in a room with black walls you can still use this technique if you have something white, like a table or a reflector or your assistant’s white shirt. This tutorial is highly recommended for those who want to learn profy’s tricks and Jerry is generously sharing his experience with us.
Juan Pons demonstrates how you can take pictures of a waterfall so that the water looks like smoothly flowing. The only technique to use in this case is slow shutter speed because if you set a fast shutter speed, the water will be frozen in its movement. You will need a tripod to stabilize your camera. The shutter speed needs to be from 1,5 sec to 4 sec, it highly depends on how much water is falling down. If it is much water, you may get by with 1,5 sec but if there is a tiny waterfall, you had [...] Continue Reading…
If you have no light meter, Mark Warren can help you by giving advice on how to measure your flash exposure. Since e-TTL is not very consistent, while the manual mode ensures a very stable exposure. This is especially useful in a studio environment. First set your external flash to a wireless mode. It will be triggered by your on-camera flash unit. You need to configure your camera’s settings for the wireless flash control. Set your on-camera flash to behave as a trigger only which means that it does not contribute to the overall exposure. Change the flash mode [...] Continue Reading…
This video from DECONSTRUCTED gives an easy to understand explanation of how modern digital photo cameras work to produce images. Their main feature is to transform light into electricity. The light source emit photons that come to the camera through its lens. The lens diaphragm allows how much light comes to the camera and it is called aperture control. After the diaphragm the light hits a mirror and then through a prism to your viewfinder. The prism is used to make the image you see in the viewfinder right side down. When you press a shutter release button, the [...] Continue Reading…
Bruce Dorn explains and shows in this video tutorial how he uses speedlights with and without softboxes and umbrellas to shoot a bride and a groom in a large hall. He has a big shoot through umbrella equipped with three speedlights. His master flash on the camera (master) controls other speedlights via wireless radio transmitter. He uses a small softbox as his key light. If you have just one speedlight, detach it from your camera (you may use a Canon speedlight cord) and point it to some reflective surface. You need to mind the color of this surface because [...] Continue Reading…
Mark Wallace from Adorama TV explains what groups or zones are when you shoot with flash lights, either speedlights or studio lights. Zones are used to turn groups of lights on and off. It helps you save the time by allowing you to control these zones from your camera. Mark set up a lighting scheme in his studio to demonstrate how it all works. His model will be sitting still and by controlling the lights Mark is going to modify the lighting that comes to his model. This is extremely useful if you need to make photos of your [...] Continue Reading…
Photographer Phil Steele shares 5 tips on DSLR focusing, from basic to more advanced.
Set your focus point manually. In Auto mode your camera chooses which focus point to use. Any creative mode of your camera will allow you to manually control which focus point you need. Focus and recompose your image. If you do not want to mess with choosing a focus point every time you make a shot, you can select the central point as more sensitive and use it to get the focus of your subject by half pressing the shutter button and then recompose your frame to your liking. [...] Continue Reading…
Wedding Photographers Zach and Jody Gray show on set how they use off camera lighting in order to reach dramatic sky effect on your portrait photos in open air. They explain about the photography gear they use, for example a Westcott soft box 24×32 equipped with a battery powered 400 W light (you can use a flash light instead); a mono pod which gives flexibility but requires an assistant to hold it; a wireless trigger is .
They developed a 3 step system to get an amazing sky on your photo because if you expose on someone’s face, the [...] Continue Reading…
Notice changes in lighting and adjust to them. Sometimes you may forget to change your exposure if you move from the sunlight to a shade. After you made a photo, look at your camera’s screen to make sure it has not blown up or black areas. Instead of shooting hundreds of shots try to slow down and compose (frame) your image, tell your subject to change poses. It is also a good idea to limit the number of photos you will take in this session. Learn posing tricks - which poses are good for men or women. Look at other photographers’ [...] Continue Reading…
Shooting portraits using natural light is sometimes a challenge.
The best situation is when the sun is behind clouds and your model is lit with very soft and diffused light. This type of light is non-directional and it produces an effect of subject wrapping. There are no strong lights or shadows, therefore no details are lost. The unpleasant shadows under the nose and eyes are almost invisible. If the light is too soft, your model will lack any light accent and in that case you can use a fill flash.
When positioning your subject please remember that you [...] Continue Reading…