Last week we sent out a few copies of the video to several intermediate and commercial photographers, as well as a local art director.
Today we received two new reviews of the “Creative Lighting for People Photography” lighting video. Additional reviews will be posted as soon as they arrive.
When we think of portrait lighting, the first lighting modifier that comes to mind is the softbox or octabox. While these two modifiers are very effective, Tim and I prefer to use variations of the octabox or perhaps the nylon panels.
The panels when used as we did in the video below, offer a very soft light quality for elderly subjects. Or, we may use the same panel setup for beauty lighting.
For the creative senior portrait, I might suggest the octabox ring light modification. This ring light modification looks great for fashion, musicians and editorial portraits as well.
The Zeroplusplus Photography Blog is about creative lighting techniques for the frugal photographer. Frugal does not mean cheap lighting. Frugal means being resourceful with what you have to work with. Tim and I show you the lighting modifiers and techniques we use for our commercial projects. And we like to show lighting examples that we use everyday…modifiers and lighting not so obvious to the casual observer.
1) DIY Nylon Panel – soft and diffused lighting for $50
2) Bare Octabox – mimic the 10am or 2pm Sun
3) Grided Octabox w/ToughFrost Disc – removes the center hotspot
4) DIY Octabox Ring Light – ring light shadow without the harshness
Early on in our careers, Tim and I assisted many commercial photographers, and were very fortunate to learn a variety of lighting modifiers and lighting techniques. The “Creative Lighting for People Photography” video tutorial demonstrates the 50 most popular lighting techniques we use for our commercial photography.
Aimee - Octobox Ring-Light Modification
Melissa - Naked Octobox Modification
Aimee - Nylon Panel System
Melissa - Nylon Panel System
In 2001 I spent 2 years as a part-time digital retoucher for a very large commercial lab. During that time, I learned a great deal from the expert retouchers, those with 10+ years of experience. Later I learned color management and ran the massive 60″ Roland 12 color inkjet printers. It was my paid film photography to digital photography education.
As I discuss in the Creative Lighting for People Photography video, the retouching step is really the second step in my digital workflow. Everyone has a different workflow and methods, use what works best for you.
My point is, sure I can retouch the hell out of an image. But my clients rarely need extensive retouching. For portraits and fashion work, 95% of the time I can get away with the batch processing you will see in the Creative Lighting for People Photography video. For modeling agency models portfolios I do even less, the plastic skin look is “OUT”.
Six years ago I stumbled on this camera setup technique on the Moose Peterson website. He discovered that by changing the sharpness, saturation, and tone (contrast), to the lowest values, the camera histogram displayed additional room at the shadow and highlight values.
Later I learned that this happens because our camera histogram isn’t based on the linear RAW data. The preview/histogram is based on the rendered gamma-corrected JPEG produced by the camera…of the image we just shot. By changing the 3 settings mentioned above, I “trick the internal camera processor”, resulting in a much lower contrast image, with additional detail in the shadow and highlight areas. I may even expose differently given that the camera histogram looks different as well.
The one light high key portrait lighting technique is perfect for fashion catalog photography. The lighting diagram below explains this simple lighting setup. A 400w/s monolight will work, but 600w/s or more is recommended for this lighting setup.
A lookbook is a portfolio or catalog of images that represents one line of a designers products, such as a spring fashion line. Lookbook and catalog photography is something that one can shoot in every city, small or large. Prom dress and wedding boutiques have new designs every year.
The location fashion shoot presents additional requirements over the studio fashion shoot. For this location shoot we needed a gasoline generator to power our 1000w/s Photogenic mono lights and we needed a semi-private public beach access. Tim and I spent the morning meeting with the two wardrobe designers and scouted the West Seattle Alki Beach later that afternoon.
Our two lighting modifiers consisted of a 22″ Beauty Dish and a large 5′x8′ Ripstop Nylon Panel. We also used a combination of the two modifiers in unison for a very nice light quality that you should try for outdoor portraits! Watch the video and pay special attention to the image of the yellow dress and purple dress. This BD/Nylon Panel combo provides a beautiful soft light quality and the skintones just glow.
This video features Seattle wardrobe designers, Kimmi Designs and Mac Fashion House. Our friend, Kay Matthews did the hair and makeup styling.
We use very simple lighting, less is more and appears natural. No photoshop fixes for lighting, just a simple film curve and color toning.
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I just watched 3 Markus Klinko photographer clips on Hulu.com and wanted to share them with you, kinda funny if you ask me. Thank goodness Tim and I are much more relaxed when we shoot, lol.
Markus Klinko, Indrani, and the entire crew come together to make this photoshoot happen. The videos begin with a short infomercial, just bear with it.
Zeroplusplus took a break for a few months, why you ask. To be perfectly honest, we wanted really wicked new content. We tested new software and shot new lighting setups, and tested filters that do not suck.
Meanwhile, I thought that I would entertain you with 2 very humorous videos that were sent to me recently. I don’t have to provide any further introduction, other than photographers and artists pointing fun at cheap and unrealistic clients. We have all had those at some point in our careers.
The Vendor Client relationship – in real world situations
What is fashion lighting, what is glamour lighting, what is portrait lighting? Basically, it is all the same. What sets the images apart is how we style the wardrobe, the makeup/hair styling, and how we pose the subject.
We can use a octabox for fashion, glamour, or portraits. We are lighting with the same modifier and simply changing the wardrobe, the makeup/hair styling, and how we pose the subject. A lighting modifier does not determine what kind of image we shoot. Read on and see the images below for a better explanation.
I have stated this several times before, so let me say it again. When I have a shoot, whether it is fashion, glamour or portrait, I light them all the same. It is not like I wake up one morning and say, “today we do fashion lighting”.
Allow me go into more detail and explain myself. It amuses me when folks on photography forums ask what fashion, glamour, or portrait lighting is. Maybe they are asking us “What is great lighting” instead, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt. What determines the image genre is not the lighting, it is the pose, the wardrobe, and the makeup/hair styling.
