Lighting How To

If you’re interested in portrait photography, you’ve likely had to decide whether to shoot your subject with natural window light or artificial light from a flash or strobe. Most photographers will admit that neither is “better” than the other; they’re just different and suited for different subjects, different situations, and different tastes.

We reviewed the Profoto B1 500 AirTTL battery-powered studio light earlier this year and while we, generally, loved this portable strobe solution the one thing missing was high-speed sync. Profoto corrected that this morning by offering a new High-Speed Sync (HSS) feature to the B1 that’s available now via a free firmware update.

Light is a precious commodity in close-up and macro photography. The closer you get to your subject, the more light you lose through lens extension. Move to within inches of the subject and your camera or body may block the existing daylight. Also, the closer you get, the more depth of field you lose, so it would help to stop down. All of this translates to a need for additional light—in other words, a supplementary light source. What’s more, when shooting live critters and wind-blown plants, we may also need that light source to freeze subject movement, or at least provide shutter speeds that are fast enough to contain movement. To meet these needs, I’ve often turned to a macro ringflash and, alternatively, a macro twin flash. An economical alternative is an LED ringlight.

LED lighting is all the rage with the cool kids and why not? It’s continuous and that’s important for new photographers or anyone wishing to capture hybrid—video and still—imagery. It’s also literally cool, with no eyebrow-melting hot lights making subjects uncomfortable.

I’ve photographed seashells in various ways—against black velvet, on a beach with a sandy background and in tide pools. The most dramatic way to photograph them is with strong backlighting. When you place a bright light directly behind the shell, it suddenly seems like it is glowing from within. The colors are intense, the form of the shell is beautifully defined, and all of the detail in the structure is revealed. The results are even more dramatic when you use a black background, as I did in (#1).

Here's a tutorial for photographers who’d like to try their hand at portraiture, but lack the specialized skills and expensive lighting equipment they think are necessary. As you’ll see in this video, all you really need for great results are the quick tips below and a large window.

It’s one of the eternal debates in photography: which is better, shooting with a flash or with just natural light? Two professional photographers who we have featured on Shutterbug many times recently tried to find in a “Natural Light vs Off Camera Flash Challenge.” The results might surprise you.