Lighting How To

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Ron Leach  |  Dec 07, 2017  | 

The holidays are upon us, and in this tutorial you’ll learn how to shoot festive candlelit portraits and add an “instant snow effect” in Photoshop. You may even want to use this technique to create personalized Christmas cards for family and friends.

Ron Leach  |  Feb 15, 2018  | 

Unless you’re a professional portrait photographer with a well-equipped studio, the best way to make pleasing people pictures is to keep things simple and either shoot outdoors under good light, or use a basic indoor setup at home. In this tutorial, you’ll see how to do the latter with a technique that delivers dramatic results.

Ron Leach  |  Dec 20, 2017  | 

How often have you captured what you thought was a great photograph, only to learn later that your “money shot” was soft and destined for the trash? We all miss focus on occasion, especially in low light, but the quick video below will help you keep those mistakes to a minimum.

Ron Leach  |  Mar 15, 2018  | 

The video below provides a rare opportunity to pick up several valuable tips from one of the world’s preeminent nature and wildlife photographers. In less than four minutes, Frans Lanting explains how to shoot great landscape photographs any time of day, as the quality of light changes from dawn to dusk.

Ron Leach  |  Jan 28, 2021  | 

Valentine’s Day is barely two weeks away, and one great way to help your loved one celebrate is by asking her to pose for a vintage style lingerie shoot. If you’ve never tried your hand at this type of photography, this quick tutorial will help you do it right.

Ron Leach  |  Sep 08, 2017  | 

Have you ever wished you had a few serious strobes and light modifiers so you could shoot professional looking portraits? If so, save your cash because in the video below you’ll learn how to turn your bathroom into a giant softbox and use window light to work some magic.

Ron Leach  |  Jul 05, 2017  | 

Whether you’re shooting indoor portraits by window light or using available light outdoors, an inexpensive reflector is one of best tools for dramatically improving your results. In the five-minute video below, photographer Mark Cleghorn demonstrates everything you need to know to get the job done.

Ron Leach  |  Nov 14, 2017  | 

If you’ve been following our product reviews, you know that one of the benefits of today’s advanced lenses is that they are designed to minimize lens flare, ghosting and other stray light artifacts. But what if you could use these light anomalies to create attractive portraits with a unique look?

Ron Leach  |  Feb 28, 2018  | 

The eye-opening video below is the latest in a series of tutorials by a British pro, demonstrating how to recognize good light and use it to create dynamic imagery. In this episode, photographer Sean Tucker explains how to use reflected light when shooting on the street.

Ron Leach  |  Mar 09, 2018  | 

It’s easy to become intimidated by the myriad of lighting methods available, especially if you’re a photographer who likes to shoot with natural light. And if there’s only one lighting technique you need to understand, you’ll find it in the five-minute video below.

Ron Leach  |  Feb 07, 2019  | 

Hand-held light meters seems to have fallen out of favor as most photographers have made the switch from film to digital. But these powerful tools can be just as important today, as they were with our 35mm cameras.

Ron Leach  |  Mar 07, 2023  | 

What if we told you there’s an easy-to-used tool that helps nail exposure with every image you shoot? There is, and it’s called the histogram. Unfortunately it’s often overlooked.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Dec 27, 2024  | 

Whether the holidays bring out your “Humbug!” or your “Ho, ho, ho!” there’s one thing you must admit: it’s the most colorful season of the year. Except maybe for spring. And autumn. Anyway, all seasonal colors are just begging to be zoomed, blurred and pleasantly smeared. Smartphone users: you can play too.

Ron Leach  |  Jun 22, 2023  | 

Yesterday we featured a primer on exposure bracketing, explaining how to get the light right by shooting three images of the same scene, and merging them during the editing process. Today you'll learn how nail exposure in the camera by using the oft-ignored histogram that you can set to appear on the rear LCD.

Ron Leach  |  Nov 01, 2023  | 

Getting the light right is perhaps the most essential component of all great images, whether they're captured indoor or out. But there's another crucial component that can really add depth and impact to a photo, namely the thoughtful use of shadows.

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