Learn about Lighting

What kind of lighting equipment do you need for your photography? Read these guides to lights, reflectors, and other types of lighting equipment.

All Lighting content:

  1. Using Flashes to Create Light That Looks Natural

    Using Flashes to Create Light That Looks Natural

    Tutorial Intermediate

    Back in college, I was taught there were two ways to light a subject with strobes or flashes. You can make the light part of the story of the image, showing...

  2. Smoke and Mirrors: Boosting Your Strobe Count on the Cheap

    Smoke and Mirrors: Boosting Your Strobe Count on the Cheap

    Tutorial Intermediate

    Not all that long ago, I was in the unenviable position of having only a camera, lens and flash. While the popularity of one-light tutorials and DVDs...

  3. Quick Tip: Choosing Ambient Lighting for Your Workspaces

    Quick Tip: Choosing Ambient Lighting for Your Workspaces

    Tutorial Beginner

    Lighting is important for actual image making itself, but what about the rest of the process? For the final images to look right, all the pieces of the...

  4. 3 Great Ways to Utilize a Light Cube

    3 Great Ways to Utilize a Light Cube

    Tutorial Intermediate

    It’s common to think of a light cube (also known as a light tent or photo cube), as simply a tool for shooting products to sell for eBay. Many light cubes...

  5. Three Shots, Three Lights: Bare Bulbs Edition

    Three Shots, Three Lights: Bare Bulbs Edition

    Tutorial Intermediate

    Time for another round of three shots, three lights! This time, I'm not just looking at three lights in general, but specifically what's achievable with only...

  6. Quick Tip: Like the Beauty Dish Look? Try This Softbox Trick!

    Quick Tip: Like the Beauty Dish Look? Try This Softbox Trick!

    Tutorial Beginner

    If you're wondering about stepping your portraiture game up with a beauty dish, but not sure if the investment is worth it to you yet, I've come up with a...

  7. Shooting Portraiture at Night: A Practical Tale

    Shooting Portraiture at Night: A Practical Tale

    Tutorial Intermediate

    I love night shooting and night photography. I think it's the ambience that comes from a dark blue environment dotted with yellow-orange lighting. It's like...

  8. Freezing Action With an Einstein Monolight

    Freezing Action With an Einstein Monolight

    Tutorial Intermediate

    Introduced in 2010, the Paul C. Buff Einstein has been rapidly growing in popularity as tales of its capabilities spread via the popular photography blogs....

  9. The Versatility of the Humble Beauty Dish

    The Versatility of the Humble Beauty Dish

    Tutorial Beginner

    Unless you're very new to modifiers, you've likely heard of a beauty dish, but do you know what it is, what it does, and how it can help your portraiture? In...

  10. Three Different Portraits Shot with Three Lights

    Three Different Portraits Shot with Three Lights

    Tutorial Advanced

    Wondering why you should add more lights when you like the images you get with one or two? Are you trying to figure out if you can justify the expense of...

  11. Shooting a Red Hot Chili Pepper: Flaming Food Photography

    Shooting a Red Hot Chili Pepper: Flaming Food Photography

    Tutorial Advanced

    In this tutorial, I'll show you how to do some commercial food photography and set it on fire! I'm going to take you through a step-by-step process of food...

  12. Build A Triflector for Only $50

    Build A Triflector for Only $50

    Tutorial Intermediate

    Triflectors are a staple in beauty shooting and are applicable to a variety of studio applications in the headshot and portraiture area. Instead of a table...