June has been a busy month on Digital Photography School. There are three new (and very different) articles for you to enjoy and hopefully find use for.
How to Use a Photography Ring Light in Unconventional Ways
I’m rather fond of continuous ringlights for portrait photography. yes, I know that they give a very particular look and even weirder catchlights, but I love both of those things.
That said, there are a lot more uses for these lights than the standard technique. Take the fact that they are continuous and add a little bit of creativity and there are loads of ways to use them to make interesting, fun and sometimes ridiculous portraits. This article outlines five possibilities for you to try with your own ringlight.
Your Guide to Studio Lighting Equipment
If you’ve ever thought about setting up a studio of your own, you probably know how much there is to learn before you can even figure out what you should buy first. Enter this article, which serves as a primer to get you familiarised with the basics of studio lighting equipment. Need to figure out the difference between the umpteen billion different versions of softboxes? That’s covered. How about the difference between a gobo and a flag? Also covered.
As a bonus, you can get a glimpse into our set up over at Matrix Studio.
5 Reasons to Consider Aperture Priority Over Manual Mode
Right. Okay. This one needs a disclaimer. If you swear by manual mode and have committed to using it no matter what in any circumstance, this article is not for you. Don’t read it. Here’s a gallery of pretty pictures (all taken in manual mode) instead.
If that didn’t scare you off, this article outlines five circumstances where using aperture priority mode might give you an advantage. For example, if you find yourself in a situation where your subject is moving in and out of the light, aperture priority mode can help you compensate for that so you can worry about what your subject is doing.
I also go on with an attempt to dispel the myth that aperture priority (and shutter priority) are in any way automatic modes. They’re not. They do the same job as manual mode, just with less input from you, unless of course you apply exposure compensation at which point you are taking full manual control over your camera.
That’s it
That wraps up the articles for June. I hope you’ve enjoyed them and I hope (even more) that you found them useful to you in some way.
