Creating good silhouette figure images is fun and a neat type of image you can add to your portfolio. Silhouettes emphasize shape and form, stripping away details and letting the viewer’s imagination fill in the blanks. There are more than a few ways to create silhouettes. One approach involves using flash lighting against a white…
When using flash, adjust your shutter speed to control the brightness of continuous lights in your exposure. Continuous lights include ambient lighting, natural light, lamps, LED lights, and so on. Here’s the deal: let’s say you’ve got your flash dialed in for a perfect exposure on your subject, but that cool lamp in the background…
One of the most important elements that can make or break a portrait is lighting. Lighting can dramatically alter the mood, feel, and quality of a portrait. While there are various lighting setups and techniques, understanding the basics—Key Light, Fill Light, and Hair Light—can significantly improve your portrait game. In this blog post and video,…
One of the most important concepts every serious photographer should understand is the exposure triangle. Here, I’ll break down the three components of exposure: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, and discuss how they work together to create an image in your camera. What is the Exposure Triangle? The exposure triangle is the relationship between three…
Here are 10 tips covering topics you should get familiar with when it comes to flash photography. I realize how frustrating flash can be; many of the concepts can be hard to get your head around. But the challenge is worth it. Take a look at this video and use it as a roadmap to…
Photographers know that creating a properly exposed image requires balancing three main exposure settings: ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. The optimal combination of these settings is based on the lighting conditions in your scene. But most people can’t just look at a scene and know exactly what settings to use. Even an experienced photographer’s guess…
In a portrait photography lighting setup, the key light is the foundation. This is the primary source of illumination for your subject. The “key” is also the light that provides the most information about your subject’s features and shape. It’s the way the key light casts illumination AND shadows across your subject’s face that gives…
Lighting modifiers come in all shapes, sizes, and styles. Here, we’ll focus on modifiers that provide diffusion panels that effectively make the light bigger relative to the portrait subject’s head. Shoot-through umbrellas, softboxes and simple light panels can all do the job effectively. You just have to select the best options for the way you…
The Godox TT685 manual contains important information on safety, specifications, features, and usage. It’s recommended that you read it. Unfortunately, the manuals included with gear like this aren’t the easiest to read and understand. So, I’ve put together my own version of a Godox TT685 user guide. The full text is titled, Ed Verosky’s Guide…