Lighting can be a complicated subject. From light sources, to modifiers, and color temperature, there are so many things to take into consideration. You probably know of many ways to alter your light with reflectors and diffusers.
There was a time when the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8VRwas thelens I used most often. I was mostly shooting portraits on location. Once I started moving toward the studio and to animals, I opened up my options. So, a 50mm and 105mm macro suddenly became my go-to glass. Now, I’m getting back out on location and [...]
After azoom feature appeared in DJI’snew Zenmuse Z3 drone camera, I knew it wouldn’t be long before we saw more. What I did not expect, however, was a camera that could give the range that this does. The recently announced Walkera Voyager 4 boasts a rather impressive 16x optical superzoom lens. This puts it way [...]
Astrophotography is one of those genres I love to admire from a distance. I’ve tried it occasionally and failed miserably every time. I’m sure most of it is down to my technique, although I’m going to blame clouds and light pollution anyway. I’d love to be good at it, but it’s just not going to [...]
One thing that can bedifficult to get across when taking pictures is a true sense of how large something is in real life. A skyscraperthat appears towering and imposing in person, can come across as unimpressive, or stripped of its majesty when photographed. Natural formations that inspire awe and self-reflection, often seem puny and insignificant when we go through our photos later at home or on our phones.
This is something I have had happen many times in my own journey as a... more
Chromatic aberration (CA) can be a pain, especially in high contrast situations. It’s also calledcolour fringing. It’s most common in inexpensive consumer lenses, but pro glassis not immune. Shooting at extreme wide or tiny apertures can introduce it quickly even with the best gear. You can take care of most chromatic aberrationwithin Lightroom or ACR. [...]
Ultrawide angle lenses are practical and fun. Almost every landscape, architectural, wedding or event photographer has one, as do many filmmakers. I have one, too. The problem with most of them, though, is barrel distortion. Usually, the wider the lens, the more of it you get. You can fix Barrel distortion in Lightroom, but it’s [...]
Thank you for your patience as we worked to fold the newly revised Lighting 102 module into the site, with all of the requisite cross-linking, etc. I know this probably resulted in a flurry of emails and RSS notifications to the site's subscribers. Apologies.
In Lighting 102, we have learned some of the basic physical controls that we can apply to light: angle, distance, size, restriction.
We've also learned how to identify and control the zones of light that fall onto our subjects: diffused highlight, specular highlight, diffused shadow, diffused highlight to shadow transfer.
But there is another control lever that is more complex, more powerful and more evocative than all of the ones listed above.... more
Restricting light is a powerful control. By taking light away, we can evoke character or drama or mystery or any number of other things. My friend Joe McNally goes as far as to distill it down to this:Read more
