ARCHIVED ARTICLES
On Location with Small Strobes and a Model Who Can Fly?
Let's look at a way to create some interesting, and somewhat 'ethereal' light on location without taking 200 pounds of lighting gear with us. We are going to use two strobes to 'sculpt' the subject and a bit of careful angling to get the image we want. Backgrounds...
Recent Workshop Attendees Show Off Some Great Work
Photograph by Yolanda Pucinski One of the coolest things I think can happen is when I see some work from a workshop attendee that is really getting great. We can open eyes in a workshop, and teach some skills as well as some solid technique, but it is the student that...
Performance and Posing, Part Two
Briana is back with Part Two of the Posing and Performance Column. Be sure to read her first columns and be looking for more as she helps photographers and models work together to create exciting imagery. Also be sure to check out the Lighting Essentials Magazine for...
Our Big Trip: Part One, Houston, Chicago and Boston
Our trip to the East was a really fun experience. I want to share a few of the images we made on the trip and discuss them as far as lighting and generally what we were doing. This trip took us on planes, trains, automobiles and boats. Every mode of transportation......
Using the Sun for A Hairlight: Some Variations
The sun is a wonderful light source as we all know. It provides hard, direct light, diffused light, bounce light... heck, it's an allover lighting machine. There are many ways to use the sun for main light and fill, but today we are going to look at a few ways to use...
Make Your Own Reality to Add Drama
There are times when the light you have doesn't match the light you want. The drama of moody skies are rendered useless if they are overexposed and the muddy, dark skin tones of heavily overcast days can make the most competent Photoshop Guru moan in agony. What to...
Shooting Food On Location – With a Twist
My client called and needed a job turned around right away. Her client needed their entire menu shot for some collateral and web materials and the previous shooter had not been able to do what they needed. The images had to be attractive enough for menu use, arty...
Performance Over Posing: Part One
It’s Second Nature: Now, for me, performance is second nature. It’s at the roots of my craft and my nature. Now, it’s not always a good performance. Sometimes it’s downright cheesy, but… it’s often different than what others expect. (A few photogs out...
Using Lighting and Posing to Create the Effect You Want
Light can be the most important part of a photograph, but the model and her pose aren't far behind. You all recognize my friend Briana. We went on a shoot a few weeks ago to show some different posing ideas for her upcoming DVD and some lighting things for mine....
Lighting Essentials July Desktop Calendars
Here are two new desktop calendars for you. A sporting model out to set the land speed record, and Briana in the tropics on a mysteriously dark evening. Either one you choose, your July calendars are more fun with Lighting Essentials. More content to follow quickly,...
Muse or Inspiration: The Model’s Role (Pt2)
Muse in the Studio - A Brief “How to†Guide:(part two of two parts) Okay, enough philosophy, let’s make this simple. Here are a few things I “feel†when I’m modeling. Yes, “feel.†I don’t go and think about these steps when I’m modeling… I just...
Muse and Inspiration: The Model’s Role
A Two Part Article By Briana Shaker Part I What is a muse? The romantic poets knew. The ancient Greeks did as well. Now it's time for models and photographers alike to learn. Quite simply, the muse is she (or he) for whom the artist creates or in whom the artist finds...
The Rigorous World of Macro Beauty Shots
Coming in this close can be a nightmare for the unsuspecting. Makeup must be perfect, hair perfect, every nuance of light has to fall to give the feeling of fresh and natural. And the skills in the toolset must be honed very tightly. It goes without saying that...
Hey, We Got Freebies Too!
Yes... we got free stuff. Who can't use a great desktop calendar? And when it features a lovely model like Briana, you can't go wrong. We have two June, 2008 calendars available in many desktop sizes. I will also give a lighting tutorial for each of the images after...
Natural Light Headshots: Keeping it Simple
In Mexico we had wonderful white Casitas to stay in courtesy of the Las Palmas Resort. They provided some remarkable shooting areas as well as natural light bouncing off all the white walls and railings. I personally love natural light for all kinds of portraiture,...
Dramatic Backlight on a Sunny Day
At the Mexico workshop we decided to do some morning shots on the Beach. Precilla and Jazmin wanted to do this hat shot and I thought it would be fun to use the dramatic sky as a compositional element. I had left my meter back at the casa and didn't want to walk back...
Even If the Sun Don’t Shine…
We were out the door fairly early, and the sky was slightly overcast. Briana had wanted to do this shot for the entire Florida trip and here it was the last day. I really wanted to get it for her. The sun didn't have any plans on cooperating though. I wanted the...
Using Light to Create Drama On Location
Briana and I were stuck in a small, hot and very mundane room while the thunderstorm unleashed lightning and torrential rain all over Anna Maria, Florida. She playfully challenged me to do a shot in the space that was, well, simply awful. I looked at the set she...
Manipulating Natural Light with Simple Tools
There are times when the natural light is simply so gorgeous you have to shoot it. And there are times when the natural light is very nice, but something can be done to make it a bit more, well, perfect. We are going to look at 4 examples of using modifiers to create...
Blending Strobe and Daylight for a Natural Look
This shot of Briana was taken at the New York City workshop and uses a method of flash and ambient controlled to look somewhat natural. Blending the two for portraiture can be very attractive and give the image a more natural look. We used the ambient light from...
Sometimes The Location is Not As Good As Promised.
We were walking up to the Hudson River and the light was glaring, too hazy to make out much and with little natural fill. The surroundings offered little in the way of background or texture and overall it was a disaster of a place to shoot at that moment in time....
Direct Sunlight Portraiture for Dramatic Effect
There is something beautiful about sunlight. It has a feeling that is so warm and natural and it can make people seem to almost glow. I love it so when I saw it happening in a studio in Detroit, I knew I wanted to take advantage of it. Briana had been posing for some...
Subtractive Lighting: Creating Drama with Contrast
There are times when you want to create more contrast in an image... mitigate the reflections or make sure that the shadows are as deep as possible. These situations can occur with natural lighting, but in the studio you may have to add a bit more to the shot to...
Scenes From a Workshop: Detroit, April 6, 2008
The Detroit workshop was a smashing success. The students all had a great time, we had wonderful models who worked really hard to make the images special, even braving cold wind to do it. Lynne's studio is a really smart little place in downtown Pontiac, and she...
One Flash and One Fill Card on Location
Getting really nice, soft light on location can be a challenge. Too often photographers use their naked flashes for fill and end up with something more harsh than they expected. Using a flash to fill in ambient light can be far more subtle and rewarding. For this shot...
Welcome to April: A March Review
March was a tough month for us as we moved the site from a traditional web site to a WordPress backend. We are starting to feel pretty good about it. It meant a loss of visitors for a few days and we lost our statistics for 4 days, but it is obvious we have reached...
Shooting Earrings Without a Net: Guest Post by Josh Targownik
On a recent popular forum post, Los Angeles photographer Joshua Targownik posed a challenge. Faced with the following job he wanted to figure the best and fastest way to get the job done. He also wanted to get some killer lighting on the product to make it really pop....
One Light Setup with Two Versions of the Light
Yesterday I shot Jordan for her mom's Irish Step Dancing Wig catalog. Today we got together for some pics just for her. This was the first time she had shot without a wig on... so it was a lot of fun. I have known Jordan since she was about 9, so it was also fun to...
One Light Portrait with White Background
One of my clients is a wig importer for Irish Step Dancers. There's a niche for you. I shoot a couple of times a year for her. In this case we are shooting some styles she wanted to update before setting up her online store (another of my projects...) and we used her...
Two Light Workshop One, Part Four
Our last shot in the hat series. This was a shot that used one light for a background and the other for a dramatic front light. The two lights we used in this set are a Norman Beauty Dish and a silver/white Zebra umbrella. The beauty dish was used as a background. I...