Hi

I found a very nice site about sexy ligerie photography tutorials, it is called smokingstrobes.com, site writer Michael Zelbel is kind of a master in using small flash units for those kind of photographs, probably the best sharing photographer in that area that I can recommend. In his site you’ll get lots, tons of info about lingerie photography in a funny and easy way, including videos, diagrams and examples

I want to inroduce you to two movies shared on his site and his YouTube channel:

First one is about photographing lingerie in your bedroom.

In this setup Michael uses only one flash and a Translucent Shoot Through White Umbrella. This setup is preaty easy and fast forward as you may see in the video bellow, Michael let you all the data to replicate this setup in your home or ourdoor shootout:

• Camera settings: 50mm Lens, F/2.8, ISO 100, manual WB 10000k.
• Shooting from above.
• One flash light: 100cm Translucent Shoot Through White Umbrella and a 58GN speedlite (something like the Canon 580EX, YN560 or Nikon SB900) at 1/32 power open wide for 28mm.
• Whenyou want to add some more lighting atmosphere to the setup, Michael added another flash to the models right setup for 1/32th power of a 43GN (like the Canon 430EXII or the popular YN460II). The flash shoot through a yellow colored bedside  lighting lamp, if you don’t have one you can just use a sunny gel filter.

Second video is all about using a high key setup for shooting those sexy photographs.

Michael used here the corridor as the location for this high key setup, you can actually use any part of your house, as you only need the white surrounding for getting the high key effect. How this is made? simple!!!

Using 3 flashes as you need a  big lighting source to paint the background with white light (used two of the here) and one flash to add the light into the model front.

Two Canon 580EX at 1/4th full power painting the background in white light zoomed wide open at 28mm.

One Canon 430EXII at 1/16th full power, zoomed at 80mm to create a good light directed to the model.

Camera: ISO 320, F/8 for a good depth , manual WB 5800K, about 2.6m from the model.

Remote control : Michael used here a sophisticated digital remote trigger , but when using manual modes for all flashes, I use normal budget triggers.

This is it, very simple, about 5 minutes videos to let you a good idea on how to shot lingerie setups!
I’ll be happy if your share that page in case you liked it.Any comments are welcomed!!!

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Hi, this time I want to introduce you with Tomasz Nowak (photography site and facebook page), Tomasz shoots weddings and children in Poland, but as I found out is a very talented strobist photographer. I first met this simple studio setup on strobox (a source for many ideas for any level photographers). Tomasz uses here a basic two light setup, the main light is made of two entry level YN460II strobist style flashes in a softbox front left side of the model (in the next post you’ll see how he fixed them in) and another YN460II as fill hair light through a snoot from the back opposite model’s side .

So lets dig in and see how its done!!!

Here is a simple sketch (I must say the he is also talented with sketching those)

This lighting setup is pretty easy to do:

• All the shots were shot with Nikon D700 and 85/1.8@f2.8, 1/200 and ISO 400.
• Softbox with 2 YN460II at 1/8th Power rather than having one Yn460II at 1/4th Power (so getting fast recycle times).
• Hair light YN460II with snoot from behind to get some good separation from the background.

Here are some general tips from Tomasz:

• some of the shots were done while the models were in motion, so i wanted to shoot couple of frames one after another. One speedlight  flash set to ¼ power recycles rather slowly but two of them, both set to ⅛ power recycle much faster. and I was able to shoot more frames at a time.
• a standard studio flash wouldn’t be helpful in this situation. Most of them recycle only to level of the required amount of power, so you’re not able to shoot a series of images because of recycle time.
• We have different situation when using speedlights – they always recycle to full power – that means if you have a flash set to ⅛ power you can theoretically shoot 8 frames before it’s empty.

Here are some more images taken in that set, we’ll be happy if you post your thoughts  here .

Your email:

 

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We had an article about panning photography a couple of month ago, you can read it here – Panning Photography.

In General panning is all about capturing images while the main photographed object is in some kind of move, what kind of movement? Any type, it can be a car just passing  by  or driving away, a scooter or an athlete running. Panning is known by effect created by following the photographed object while this camera movement to keep track of the main subject creates a blurred background behind the photographed model. To achieve this you have to shoot at slower shutter speeds than you would have if you just wanted to shoot a clear image.

The two key points to great panning effect:

1.The camera and the photographed subject are moving together synchronized as one body.

2.The camera’s shutter speed has to be slow enough to let the panning effect take place. Not to slow so the photographed object will be blurred too and not to fast so the blur effect will be created.

You can see that both rules mentioned above are kept. The first – being in sync with the model isn’t so hard in this case, as we sit in opposite sides of a carousel, so we actually move together , but the trickiest part here is to set the proper shutter speed , this one was perfect at 1/25th sec and a wide 24mm, but the lens is Canon 24-105 f/4 with IS, so if you don’t have IS so should set your gear at least a half stop faster. The fun thing here is that you can do this trick with almost any pocket camera that will allow you basic manual settings.

If you’ll try slower shutter speeds you’ll get a decent amount of blur on your object, this what you might get if you go at 1/8th sec:

So what about you? Show me what you can do!

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Hey, I wanted to share with you a very talented photographer, Ben Sant, based in the USA.

Ben has on his blog some very useful behind the scene tutorials for portrait and fashion photography using small of camera flashes, like we all love to use.

I include here two of his videos, one covering some tips on one of his winter fashion shots. en has a very unique way to explain stuff and a fresh approach to photography, so I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy this.

On the winter set he mainly uses only one flash, trigger and a 43 inch studio umbrella (and a boom stand), this type of studio equipment is very affordable and I’m pretty sure most of you reads own this combination.

This video covers two basic concepts:

1. Underexposing the background about 1 stop for getting black and contrasted shadows.It is very important to under expose the background when photographing snow. Snow is one of the trickiest modes the camera’s light meter can face , so Ben tips us to check the images histogram while shooting so we don’t over expose the snow.

2.Lighting up the model with the main flash. Ben uses a Nikon SB-800 and a 43inch fordable umbrella on a book lightstand pointing the model from above.

Bottom line-

I really like Ben’s work and I’m pretty sure I’ll post about him in he future as he has another couple of great videos both outdoor location and indoor.

You can keep track with  Ben’s work on his video channels and blog (I’m listed to all three!)

Blog

Vimeo

YouTube

Big Ben comment and tips to this post: (04/12/2011)

I am quite humbled and honored to have been featured here in DIYphotographystuff.  I started created behind the scene and lighting tutorials several years ago when one day I sat down and reflected on how difficult it was to learn the technicalities and basics of photography.  It is a cutthroat industry where secrets are rarely shared in fear that one day we may become each other’s competition.  With the advent of digital imaging and death of film (in a profitable) photography business, more and more people are picking up ever easy to use DSLR’s and trying their luck at profiting in photography.  While perhaps we may be the death of our own kind; which is a completely different discussion, I decided that a “no secrets” approach in educating novice and amateur photographers would be the decent thing to do.  As a cinematographer, it was really no extra effort to bring my film crew along with me on my conceptual portraits and strobist-oriented shoots.

If there is one concept and point to be gained, it is to get your camera out of manual and “semi” manual modes i.e.: Av, Tv, P, etc. and get into Manual mode.  Learn the basics of exposure and how The Big Three- ISO/ASA, Aperture, and Shutter affect each other.  Learn to capture images using natural light before moving in to off camera and artificial lighting.  Once you are comfortable with getting around in all types of natural light, you may step into strobes and speedlights.  Again, learn to use them in Manual mode, not TTL!

1.  There is no need to buy the newest and most expensive flash on the market.  All you need is a flash with a Manual mode, adjustable power output, and a sync port to connect your radio trigger or other device.  Old Nikon SB-24′s, 25′s, etc. will do just fine and cost less than a 100 USD.

2.  Get the flash off the camera.  On camera lighting or bounce lighting is going to be flat and non dimensional as it is on the  camera axis.  Remember we are capturing images in a 3-dimensional world and changing them in to a 2-dimensional photograph.  Depth and Dimension have to be created by manipulating the direction, quality, and quantity of light.

3.  Get out and shoot!   You can read all the resources and literature out there.  But unless you are out in the field honing your techniques, expressing your artistic creativity, and challenging yourself you won’t go very far.

4.  Set an example and be professional.  My work entails me in shooting a lot of models.  Don’t be the typical “GWC” (guy with a camera).  If your intent is see beautiful people of the opposite sex in the nude or close to it, you’re in the wrong business.  Don’t use photography as a tool to get others to get in exploitative circumstances so you may fulfill your own private fantasies.  There are plenty of these guys ruining our industry as it is.  You’ll notice on my site there is no images of lingerie, oiled-up women in bikinis, or showing off there bits and nether regions. Although I am not against those concepts.- Fine Art Nude Imagery can be amazing…  But as there are so many GWC’s shooting these themes, I want to distinguish myself as someone who is different.  I’ve made my success on shooting what everyone else isn’t.  I find it wise that you do the same.

Resources:

I find the following site as avenues for inspiration and education:

http://www.fstoppers.com

http://www.strobist.com

http://www.deviantart.com

http://www.photovision.com

http://www.500px.com

And lastly check out Framed.  The have content for each day of the week.  The main episodes each Tuesday are something you don’t want to miss.  Check out my Monday segment titled “Equip Tips” to go into the geeky side of gear and hardware  http://www.framedshow.com

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This time I want to introduce you with Matan Eshel a very talented proffesional Photographer from Israel, mainly photographing landscape,portraits and fashion photography. You can see some of his beauty work in his online gallery – Matan Eshel Photography .

Matan writes here on his view on creating 3D view in photography, so please read and comment below for further questions or i

In our everyday life we see the world in 3 dimensions Height, Width and Depth. But unlike in reality pictures are 2 dimensional, the lack the 3rd and arguably the most important dimension, Depth.

Adding Depth to an picture can be done with a very basic but very complex tool… Light.

Light can give your picture Depth both figuratively and physically. Technically a picture is light. Or rather a picture is  light captured on by your camera weather its digital or film.
Lighting in 3D, or more correctly Lighting the 3rd dimension, what we will be talking about, It doesn’t matter how you light it, weather its Natural lighting, Studio Lighting or like what I’m will be using “Strobist Lighting”.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with concept of being “Strobist”. It’s using your run-of-the-mill flash off camera, and in that seemingly simple action, a whole new world of creative lighting is opens up to you. For those of you who want to learn the basis I suggest you read David Hobbie’s, Blog,  Strobist.Com. It’s excellent! And if you are gonna learn this stuff, learning it from the guy who practically invented it, is the way to go.

But time to get Down N’ Dirty and start talking about 3D lighting.
So how do we take a picture, that while has only 2 dimensions feels realistic and that has depth?
Like we said before Light, or the Lack of light. Lighting an Object in a specific way and creating shadows or just areas which are less lit can give us that depth.
I’ll show you how each photo was made, but  I’m going to focus on the Idea of “lighting in 3D” and less about the technical aspect because there are people, like David Hobby that explain far better than me.

So let’s get to the first picture,

Now aside from the Black/White conversion I didn’t do any Photoshop to the picture.
This very serious looking man is in fact my Dad, whom took a few quick shots of for an article I wrote at the time but it’s very relevant to us here, why?

Take a close look at the picture, now it might have different issues with it, but what I want you to focus here is on the light and the lack of light in different parts of the picture. See how shadows created giving the sense of texture? it is the lack of light in the some parts of the photo. Such as the shirt, the shadow to the side of right on the head, the shadows in his forehead. Those elements help you define depth in a 2 dimensional photo. Now let’s jump over real quick to the technical side, the set-up is rather simple a reflective Umbrella located to the left tilted down towards my subject.
Here is a picture:

Ok, so let’s break it down why did I place the lighting there? Approximately 45 degrees from the subject (it’s a bit warped I shot the set-up with a Super-wide angel lens).  Placing the light at an angle to my subject, and not with On-Camera Flash allows me to move freely without having to worry about the lighting. But the main point here is that placing the flash at an angle allows me to create shadows and the harsh light on my subject. Placing light at different angles weather it’s sideways or Up/Down can and in most cases will change the whole picture. it will also Make or Break a picture.
Since I wanted to give my Dad a certain look, a harsh, very serious look I chose to use strong shadows that would show off his “Personal texture”.

What did you Use?
I used a Nikon SB 28 with a radio transmitter (Cactus V4 to be exact) as my light source and placed it on a light stand. The Flash was pointed into a reflective Umbrella. What is a Reflective Umbrella?
Quiet Simply, Exactly what it says, the internal Part of the umbrella is reflective and bounces light back, it helps you control where the light is going to hit. it also makes your light source bigger.
If you are unfamiliar with them I suggest you read about them on link I gave you at the beginning, there is a whole article dedicated to them.

But let’s take it a few notches up, and get more a little more technical to help understand the idea behind all of this. Here we won’t just be using shadows to define an object, but also use different “Levels” of light. What do I mean by “Levels”? Levels refer to the intensity of the light as it falls onto the object. In this picture you will see how the light falls differently on different parts of the object. This picture has a much more complex set up but the idea is the same to use light to define an object.

It’s not easy but take a few moments and try to see if you can reverse engineer the picture, reflections are normally the best way. You look long enough and try to analyze it you can see that it isn’t a single light source. But the idea here was that shadows and the and different levels of light would help me define the bottle and give it a feeling of depth. By the way has been Photoshoped but no changes to the lighting were made mostly contrast, cleanup and color. And the picture isn’t a hidden ad, it’s just to prove a point

As you get better and more familiar with lighting reverse engineering photos will be easier and will help you better understand how a picture was made. It’s also a good way to practice your lighting, a good website I highly recommend is Strobox.com , it’s a community site where people not only share their photos but how the made the photo, how the light was positioned, it  helps a lot.

Anyway back to the picture of the wine bottle…
Figured it out yet? Don’t feel bad if you didn’t like I said it’s rather complex…
Here is a picture of the set up

First the Gear that i used:

1. backdrop – a reflector turned to its black side to used to as a background
2. Front Light – A Nikon SB 26 with Rogue Honey-comb on it to focus and to light the label
3. Back Light – 2 Nikon SB 28′s with Laccolite Hotrod Strip Softbox
4. Base – Simple black cardboard that you can buy anywhere with a sheet of plastic to give it some additional strength.This is a 3 light set up, I’ll break it down to 2 parts:

• “Carving in light” – shaping
  The first part are 2 of my most trusted flashes, Nikon SB 28′s in long softboxes (Lastolite Striplights) , positioned at both sides of the bottle slightly to the back (I’ll explain why in a bit why they are position to the back). Those lights are designed to define the outlines of the bottle, take a look at the picture again, see those 2 white strips at the sides of the bottle? Those are the 2 flashes in softboxes on either side, here is a photo just using those 2 lights
• 

See how the sides of the bottle are well lit and yet how the center of the bottle is getting less light?, that is  exactly is why I positioned the Flashes slightly to the back.
For those of you Unfamiliar with softboxes, they are pretty much the same Idea as the reflective umbrella but just another step Forward. They increase the size of your light source and allow you control just as the ordinary reflective umbrella but to a much greater degree, they are considered a must for every studio photographer.

Back to the picture at hand, I wanted define the edges but without getting too much light on the center, because I wanted to center to be at “A higher level” then the sides so the label will be clearly visible.

• “The Punch” – the key light

Now it’s time to light the key element of the picture, which in this case is the label of the wine, I used a 3rd flash using a Honey-Comb (Or Grid) which is used to focus the light in a round pattern to light. Honey-Combs/Grids are part of Constrictive Lighting – Limiting and controlling you light with great precision. In this Case I used a Rogue Honey-Comb which is a wonderful little product I was asked to try out. The flash here is quiet close to the bottle to get as accurate as I could but without the Honey-Comb it would have blasted the whole bottle, and that would defeat the whole point of this exercise. As I said before the honey-comb limits the light and also shape it in a round pattern the center of the bottle. The honey-comb was set to 16 Degrees -When using Grids or honey-Combs you will often see a degree number that specifies exactly at how constrictive it is. O.K after that not-so-short explanation let’s see what we got.
here is the final result

The front flash adds another level of light and defines the label
The Honey-Comb restricts the light from going to places we don’t want it to go.

What I want to say here is whether its multiple light sources or a  single light source, can help you create different levels of light, shadows and tell whole stories just with light.
Always keep in mind when you are shooting with artificial lighting (whether it’s in an environment with or without natural light), where your lighting is in regards to you subject, if it’s a person moving around or an object, because it is that light that will define your subject and will help you express yourself in the picture.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this piece…

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1. 5 Basic studio lighting setups Hey, wondering the web I found this nice site (I...

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Hey, wondering the web I found this nice site (I don’t remember how I  got there, probably from one of the forums). It has some great content and very nice video tutorials (although they start with some annoying commercials, but I guess we have to make your living somehow…). One of those great video tutorials is about a subject that we all like – portrait photography setups. In this one you will get 5 setups to learn from and you may see how the pros (video taken by Nick Carter- photographer and Kamara Innis – model ) are doing their work.

The Video:

So what can see and learn from this video? Here is a quick review:

1. Head shot – Very easy to do setup. Actually is based on only two lights: main light and umbrella(simple 33″ Black & Silver Black umbrella)  to the models right and a softbox to brighten her white background. Very easy and very popular portrait setup for professional head shots. Nick is using here a Canon 50mm f/1.2 on a Canon 20D (an awkward combination  ;-)  ), that gives a very good combination for studio head shots.
2. Half body shot -For this setup Nick simply changes the light setup, the umbrella (simple 33″ Black & Silver Black umbrella) will light the background and the soft box will light the model.
3. Full body shot – Nick changes the lens on his “amazing” Canon 20D to the better lens for the full body shot Canon 24-70L, While the lighting setup remains the same.
4. BW picture – For more dramatic look, Nick changed the background to a black one and now using only one light.
5. Natural light – Natural light, is what you thing it is. In this shot Nick posed the model near to a big bright window and let the creativity do the work. You can try to under expose the light and get on effect or overexpose the light and get a completely different look.

The bottom line:

great video Nick!!!

You don’t have to over lght a scene to get great  looks!

Go and try it with you own flashes and strobes, I will post my shots soon, you are wolcome to do it too!!!

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Hey,Nice to see you guy reading me again,if this is your first time here ,you could register to my free Email RSS feed so you wouldn’t miss the next tutorial.I saw this kind of picture in a post written by a great studio photography named Robert Seale.In his article he wrote about how he photographed Lance Armstrong in his studio.As I don’t like Lans to much (I ride the bike,but don’t like the drugs thing in his sport),but I got the sympathy for his work in the research about cancer.Back to our tutorial,Robert used some big lights in his Lans shootout,180cm softboxes that I don’t thing the most of you guys keep at home to get really amazing shot.I asked my self how can I do it in the budget way that I like so much?So instead of the 180cm octagon softbox I’ll try to use the 30cm DIY shoebox softbox that I made a couple of weeks ago to get “similar” results.

P.S – If you get Lans to your studio I recommend to hide the shoebox softboxes and try something else…

Lets see what we got and how I made the shots.

What I used for the shots:

• Two DIY small softboxes made from shoebox.
• Two tripods (left- studio tripod and right- camera tripod) .
• Flashes triggered by : left flash-cable and right flash-radio trigger (didn’t had the batteries to operate the left side receiver,so used a cable).
• Two Canon speedlites : left-Canon 580EXII and right-Canon 550EX (you can use any flash with manual power settings).

Camera and flash settings:

• Canon 40D camera.
• Shutter speed 1/250 sec to kill the ambient light.
• Aperture f1/8 for depth of field.
• Iso 100.
• Lens Canon 100mm macro (love it!!!).
• Flashes into a DIY small softbox at 1/4 full power.

Setup no.1:

Both flashes set in both side of the model about head high.I tried to get uneven lighting pattern on the models face,so put the left light a little back while the right softbox got a little angle,that the reason why the left side of the photo is a bit darker than the right side if the photo.I wasn’t happy with the hair details , so I had to switch to set no.2.

Setup no.2:

Flash power stayed untouched,the only thing changed in this setup was getting the left light a feet higher and pointing it down,as I wanted to see some more hair details in the picture.I got the more detail thing I wanted,but unfortunately,as I used only two flashes I got less details from the left side of the models face ,especially from the chick.Lets see what happened in setup no.3.

Setup no.3:

Here I moved the left flash to the back of the model.This was for getting more definition on the head and give the model some mysterious look,us I  almost totally darkened the left side of his face.As you can see you get a lot of details about the head outline,but no lighting on the left side = mysterious look.

conclusions:

• If you want to keep the even light on the face and still get more details from the hair or get some head definitions use will have to add another light source to the party,or use some reflector on the “darker” side to add the light.
• Although I used the flashes in a long room (soon to me my home studio if my wife will let me) I still got some flash light at the back.If you want to kill that light you can or photoshop it out in a minute work or shoot the pictures on a black background.

Hope you learn something in that tutorial,and I wait to see your pictures and comments in here.

ENJOY!!!

If you are interested,this is the inspiration post from Roberts Blog,link.

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Part I of the Portrait photography routine series will cover the routine for using two flashes:

1. Flash to put light on the background.
2. One flash to expose the model.

The principals for taking a good studio like picture  are about the same for 1-1,000,000~ flashes.More flashes you have.More control you can get for your final result.More complicated work.(When doing it well) More professional result.

So lets start the routine for model shootout while using “only” two flashes:

1. Start by setting up your location:It doesn’t always has to be a pro white background.If you are looking for the white background,like in fashion magazine pictures,you can use a white wall behind the model.
2. Setup the fill light (background flash).Take a good exposure for the background.Before even setting up my main light,I expose the background the way I want.For getting a really bright white background I set the backgournd flash to relatively high output,in order to get it right (I recommend to expose the background two stops brighter than the front model in order to get it really bright).
3. Setup the main flash.After setting the fill flash its time to deal with the main flash.Put it up and try do shoot through some diffusion panel-softbox or an umbrella will do a good job most of the times.You could checkout our DIY softbox for a quick easy softbox.
4. Take some test shots.I usually take some test shots before letting the real model work.You could use a friend or assistant (a friend) for those test shots.Adjust the main flash correctly.It will be a smart idea to check your histogram for finding the sweet spot-well exposed background and model.
5. Start shooting.Now that we are finished with the testing shots it time to let the model in.

Let us know how those tips helped you,and share your tips with our readers!

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There are some popular and basic setups used for portrait photography.

The paramount lighting is a very popular lighting setup for shooting female models, also called sometimes Butterfly Lighting as the shape of the shadow it creates under the nose.This lighting setup is common glamour lighting style. It works best suites models with strong cheek bones and good skin.You usually don’t use  The paramount (Butterfly) lighting setup for shooting male subjects.

Main tips for this setup:

1. Place the main light high (above the camera/lens axis) and the fill light directly under it (under the camera/lens axis).
2. Keep the light close to the subject.
3. This setup is called the butterfly because it shapes a butterfly shadow under the models nose.
4. Be careful not to place their eyes in shadow.
5. Fill light is placed roughly at head height.
6. The fill light can be accompanied or even replaced by a reflector under the face of your model,to lighten the shadows under the chin and lower cheek.

Examples will be available soon.

Share your tips with us and place your comment here.

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