Photography Blog DigitalPixels.net

Why start with just one light? Because you can get amazing portraits, that’s why. Did I mention less equipment, less complication, less cost, and less time? Oh, and once you’ve mastered portraits with a single light, using more lights is pure gravy. I have lots of lighting, but I break out a single light more often than I get out multiples. Many of you reading this have yet to really get into this lighting stuff, so you probably only have one flash. So it makes sense that the first article where we get into lighting setups would focus on portraits with just a single light.

(more...)

(more...)

The angles of the human face and body people consider visually pleasing are universal regardless of the medium. Movie directors and cinematographers are masters of lighting and facial angles which make the human face appear natural and three dimensional.

They in learned the techniques from the poses and lighting used in paintings by master artists. A knowledgeable photographer can use these same "classic" facial views and poses to great advantage, even in candid situations, to improve the appearance of people they photograph.

(more...)

For better or worse, my goal is for this experience to serve as a sort of template for how I approach a new lighting technique.

(more...)

Natural Lighting
Artificial lighting
Lighting Angles
How many lights do you need?
Lighting Ratios

Photography is the art of illusion, tricking the viewer into thinking an image reproduced on a two-dimensional piece of paper or a computer screen is natural and three-dimensional. The third dimension in a photograph is created by the contrast between light and shadow.

(more...)

This week we are going to look at using one speedlight with no modifications… no umbrellas or softboxes to modify the light, just the bare strobe. This can sometimes seem like pretty harsh light, but there ways to use the single light that can create a very modern, clean and sometimes become almost not noticeable.

(more...)

Flash photography basics video.

On location with speedlights, a model and a videographer. A warm, well, mostly warm December day and we are shooting in Tempe, Arizona. I will share the setups with you and also what I was thinking and working with here. Briana is the model, check out her Model Behavior column here.

(more...)

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, aperture and shutter speed. On these occasions, you have to rely on your camera’s metering system to get you the correct exposure.

(more...)

Capturing movement in images is something that many photographers only think to do when they are photographing sports or other fast moving subjects.

While there is an obvious opportunity in sports photography to emphasize the movement of participants - almost every type of photography can benefit from the emphasis of movement in a shot - even when the movement is very small, slow and/or subtle.

(more...)

Let’s establish a few ground rules for what we are going to be doing. First, this isn’t an ETTL, CLS, or any other kind of electronic exposure control in the flash unit. We are talking about manual settings. Manual is where the power is.

(more...)