Creative and business resources for photographers – ProPhotoNut

I lit this shot with my ancient Bowens Prolites. Light is light and they are still banging it out some 16 years after I bought them new. I used 2 3/4 back lights (500ws), a soft overhead key (1000ws), a gelled up background light (1000ws) and a 1995 Lastolite tri flector to complete the look. Intimate, intense, attention, and an unusually high viewpoint define the style. A pose that implies vulnerability gives the shot tension.

We started the session with beauty dish key lighting. The kick light was bang on the 2 point line for symmetry. A grid fitted 750ws head provided the background illumination. 3 lights, 2 hard and one soft made up the rig. A gnat's of reflector was used to provide fill on the right of shot. You can see it in Laura's eyes.

Blue light on a grey background is the effect I produced here. All the photographs in this feature were shot against a grey paper background roll I rigged in open interior space. Same lighting rig as shot 1.

One light shooting is my favourite as it's shockingly simple. A Wafer 100 provided the light and I stood on a small step ladder to get the shot.

Those of you who know me will understand that I'm not a fan of tilted pictures. When I shoot straight down I'm happy to let anything go. One light heaven.

I next demonstrated 3 point lighting. 2 3/4 back lights and a soft ground level key light. Here we made the grey background nearly black. Nearly black is so much better than black in a shot like this. It stops it from being too stark.

I've never seen a loop of knitted fabric become so versatile. I love Laura's look it is effortlessly chic. It's interesting to note that she hates looking at pictures of herself. I have a theory about this...

One light exposed beyond limits. The background of this shot is the front surface of my soft box. It's the only light used for the shot too. Don't try this on film.

As above. So easy to shoot it's criminal. There's evidence of a stray light on camera right. It should not have been on and Marko or Luke could easily sort out the shadow created by it. Never the les you can see what I'm shooting.

Getting hotter and hotter. I feel this shot was taken in Spain on some beach but it could easily have been shot in your kitchen, at your local Scout hut or WI hall with just 1 light and no background roll at all.

When I rig a shot I look at one light at a time to see exactly what it's doing. Here there are 2 hard lights at equal intensity. The light grey background is true black here.

Hard key, hard kick and hard background lighting without reflectors or compromise delivers an edgy look. It's brave to shoot with just hard lights but it has it's rewards.

This shot and the one above was lit with my battery powered Broncolor Mobil kit. A bit of reflector was used for this frame to lift Charlotte's left cheek.

Exposure gone wild. Every now and then I open up the lens another 3 stops to see what happens. Forget an exposure meter. It's seat of the pants stuff.

Pretty in pink. Shout it out with colour and tone.

Powder blue is great too. The background for all these shots is the same grey background just lit or not.

We finished the session with a full length 2 shot. Independently keyed and with their own backlights, this shot used 5 lights. The power balance of the key lights needed a slight tweak as can be seen but this is easily tweaked in Photoshop. All these shots are straight from Lightroom.