Lighting

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LightingLighting NewsNews
Need a Light? Try Pelican’s Glowing ProGear 3310PL LED Flashlight for Outdoor Night Shoots
Cynthia Boylan  |  Sep 25, 2014  | 

A great tool to have in your gear bag or pocket when shooting at night or in dark areas in the rugged outdoors, the Pelican ProGear 3310PL LED flashlight flashlight was created to be tough, reliable and practical.

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Lighting
No Strings Attached With
Wireless TTL Flash
Jack Neubart  |  Nov 01, 2001  | 

Multiple-flash lighting is easier than ever with today's dedicated flash technology.

When in Madeira, while working on my Kodak Electronic Flash book (Silver Pixel Press), I found myself...

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Lighting
Off-Camera Flash - Controlling The Direction Of Light
Jim Zuckerman  |  Apr 24, 2014  | 
On-camera flash has a bad reputation—and for good reason. In fact, many photographers are turned off to using flash altogether because they don’t like the look of pictures taken when the flash is sitting on the camera. The images look flat, dimensionless, and many subjects look “pasty” with this kind of lighting.
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LightingPro Techniques
Off-Camera Flash; Create Directional Light With A Simple Setup
Steve Bedell  |  Mar 01, 2011  | 

Most of us know about making outdoor portraits using the small fill flash on our cameras. But these photos have a “look” that tells everyone they were “made with flash.” They have a flat, often harsh look to them. A more sophisticated technique that can be accessed with many new cameras is the use of off-camera flash; you can even use multiple units controlled directly from the camera. I use...

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Lighting
Off-Camera Lighting
Take It Off The Hot Shoe For Best Results
Jay Abend  |  Oct 01, 2004  | 

Photos © 2004, Jay Abend, All Rights Reserved

The look of flash photography has been a problem for photographers for decades. As we migrated from huge silver reflectors stuffed with flash bulbs to smaller and more portable electronic flash units, the look of on-camera...

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Outdoor/TravelLighting
On The Beach
How To Tame Those Tough Lighting Conditions
Steve Bedell  |  Aug 01, 2001  | 

I live on the East Coast, and I mean right on it. My studio is located about 8 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. People who live here love the beach, and of course the tourists who descend like swarming flies on a slain wildebeest every...

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Lighting
Our Five Photo Gadgets & Gizmos: Bend, Shape & Bounce Light
Cynthia Boylan  |  Sep 03, 2015  | 

30-Inch Moon Unit by Paul C. Buff: The 30-inch Moon Unit is a unique softbox-like device that attaches to the AlienBees (ABR800) ringflash unit with a quick-release rotating speedring. The camera’s lens can see through the center of the Moon Unit to achieve a unique large-source light on the camera axis. Using the ringflash with the Moon Unit produces subtle, controlled, almost indiscernible shadows and large appealing catch lights at modest camera-to-subject distances. Its minuscule depth and weight allow handholding right along with your camera, or you can use it as a conventional off-camera compact softbox. The Moon Unit is lightweight, compact and easy to assemble. It consists of a reversible gold/silver reflector surface in an octagonal shape, a removable front nylon diffuser (with a center hole), a removable black fabric mask to convert the octagonal shape to a circle, a rotating speedring, assembly rods and a special reflector that bounces the flash energy into the Moon Unit (instead of forward). The suggested retail price is $59.95.

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LightingLighting Reviews
Photo Lighting Review: Profoto RFi Speedlight Speedring
Steve Bedell  |  Aug 01, 2014  | 

We all know that dedicated flash units are amazing tools. They allow us to use not just one but several flashes with amazing control over the output and have the math figured out for us in the bargain. But unless we modify the light in some way we are left with a very small light source that can be very harsh, and while that may be fine in some cases, there are times when we need to modify the light to soften and shape it. With the Profoto RFi Speedlight Speedring, you now have the ability to do just that using the many modifiers available to you in the Profoto arsenal.

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DSLR NewsLightingMirrorless Camera NewsNature Photography How ToNewsOutdoor Photography How ToPhoto How ToPhotoshop How ToSoftware How ToVideosWildlife Photography How To
Photo NOISE: The Causes, How to Avoid It, Ways to Remove It (VIDEO)
Ron Leach  |  Jun 12, 2023  | 

Image noise can really ruin an otherwise nice photo with ugly artifacts that appear as random speckles of grain and unsightly variations in the brightness and colors of your shot. It's a rather common occurrence, shrouded in a common misconception, that's demystified in the tutorial below.

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LightingLighting NewsLighting ReviewsNews
Phottix Indra500 TTL Studio Light Review
Joe Farace  |  Jan 15, 2016  | 

Phottix’s 500 watt-second Indra500 TTL Studio Light merges speedlight and monolight technologies and is controlled by the company’s Odin TTL Flash Trigger that works with Canon and Nikon SLRs. (Indra is the Hindu warrior god of sky and rain.)

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Lighting
Posing & Lighting; Tips To Help Flatter Your Subject—Part 2
Norm Haughey  |  Sep 01, 2008  | 

The impact and success of a studio portrait is often the combined result of lighting, composition, body language, lens choice, camera angle, clothing, color, texture, and even luck. With a few portrait techniques under your belt, however, your luck will improve dramatically. There are many portrait-making methods that can help you develop your own style over time and ultimately...

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Lighting
Power Lighting On Location!; Studio-Quality Lighting With Minimum Gear: Four Masters Reveal Their Secrets
Jason Schneider  |  Aug 01, 2005  | 

If there's one thing that makes pictures shot by leading professional photographers stand out from the pack, it's lighting. But while it's relatively easy to get precisely controlled lighting effects in a well-equipped studio, these pros have to deliver consistent studio-quality results in the field--whether they're shooting on location in a dark...

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Lighting
Roundup Update: Dynalite, Interfit & Rime Lite, More News From The Lighting Front
Joe Farace  |  Nov 30, 2012  | 
The field of studio lighting equipment is a large one and advanced amateur and professional photographers have many different kinds of products to choose from. There are self-powered monolights, traditional power pack and head systems, or continuous light sources that let you see in real time the lighting effect that’s produced. The kind of photographer you are and the type of images you make determines the lighting system that best fits your working style and Dynalite, Interfit, and Rime Lite are three companies that produce systems for every photographic discipline.
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LightingPortraiture
Simple Lighting Makes For Effective Portraiture
It Is All About Highlight And Shadow
Monte Zucker  |  Apr 01, 2002  | 

Black On Black Is Easy
Still under cover, I photographed the church's Father Frank. I photographed him in black robes against a black background. My aim was to show detail throughout the portrait and separation between his robe and the background.

...

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LightingLighting NewsLighting Reviews
Smith-Victor FL700K Strobe Light Kit: An Affordable, Full-Featured Package
Joe Farace  |  Nov 15, 2012  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2012  | 

One of the first lighting kits I ever owned was a set of Smith-Victor Adapta-Lights that had screw-base sockets for photoflood lamps. Son of a gun, the company still offers Adapta-Lights as an entry-level solution for beginning portrait photographers who want to work with hot lights. On the other hand, if you prefer making portraits using electronic flash, Smith-Victor’s three-light FL700K Strobe Light Kit may be just what you’re looking for.

 

The FL700K Strobe Light Kit that I tested is designed for amateur photographers and aspiring pros and contains two FLC300 (320 ws) FlashLite and one 110i (110 ws) FlashLite monolights. The FLC300 monolights offer continuously variable flash power settings, a test button, a ready light, and an optical slave for wireless triggering and have an umbrella stand adapter that’s compatible with 3/8” through 5/8” light stand posts. To expand the kit’s capabilities, Smith-Victor offers more than 100 accessories and light modifiers for the FLC300 monolights, including softboxes, reflectors, snoots, grids, and barn doors. The 110i monolight has a full- or half-power setting, optical slave, small built-in reflector, and umbrella mount. When used together, all three lights give you lots of flexibility for lighting studio or on-location portraits.

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