The main problem with using an on-camera flash is the same as using the built-in flash, the light goes straight at the subject and flattens features and can cause red-eye. With an on-camera flash you almost always want to use a diffuser if sh ...

Point your camera at a subject, check the meter, and press the shutter release button. The camera clicks. Later, you review your shots on the camera's LCD display and take a look at the histogram. Both the meter and histogram show you version ...

Outdoor portraits can offer a sense a drama or romance that can be hard to achieve in a studio setting. The early morning or evening sky can serve as a stunning backdrop for a portrait. The trick is in lighting your subject properly. T ...

We’ve mentioned in previous posts how in-camera metering can be very unreliable. It can meter the scene differently even if the subject and lighting do not change. In the series of photos below, I left the camera at evaluative mode and took t ...

In this episode of Digital Photography One on One, Mark Wallace [SnapFactory.com] explains Key Shifting and how your shutter speed affects exposure when using an external flash. Questions Answered: 1) To get the best results when usin ...

"This is a DIY project I have had in mind for a while now. When I purchased my studio flash heads, they came with a couple of small softboxes. Although I prefer to use translucent umbrellas whenever I can (small, light, easy to transport), th ...

"Photographing and processing smoke can be a frustrating experience. The guide covers everything from properly setting up a mini studio to processing your images in Photoshop. Both web and PDF versions of the guide are available. "For ...

"Light ratios are confusing because there is more than one way to describe the difference in intensity between lights and because incident readings used to infer reflected highlight-to-shadow ratios. So first let's start by defining terms:" ...

Shooting in full manual mode will always be the best way to get the most creative shot since you are in control of everything. But there are instances when you just do not have the time to fiddle around with the proper combination of ISO, ape ...

"It's almost a magician's art: giving form to an object that's essentially invisible. Lighting and photographing clear glass objects and giving them real visual appeal is one of the hardest tasks you'll ever face in a studio." "How's i ...

An important concept to understand when dealing with studio lighting for portrait photography is contrast. Contrast is the difference in the amount of light that falls on the dark areas of a scene and the amount of light that falls on the hig ...

The first thing you have to ask yourself before choosing the flash setting for your umbrella is, how big do you want your light source to be? But before we get to that, let's make sure we all know what we mean by "zoom setting." Re ...

So, we already know that direct flash from your built-in flash gives unflattering results, to say the least. Using your speedlight in the same way won’t change much. I did mention that you can redirect the light by rotating the head of your f ...

Consider if the subject in the foreground was holding a piece of the white background seamless paper next to their face with only the key and fill lights on. When the exposure for the face was correct the paper would be reproduced as white wo ...

If you want to take ultra modern style portraits with the pure white backgrounds, but think you can't because you only have one studio light think again. Experts may tell you that you need five lights comprising main or key light, fill light, ...