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Jake Hicks Photography Techniques Archive 2018
Stop Using Tape to Attach Your Gels - Use Magnets Instead
If you’re like me and you’ve tried to attach gels to your lights in the past, you’ve likely resorted to using one of the many types of sticky tapes available. But sometimes its the simplest things that work best. Try magnets instead.
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 003
"Stay Inspired" is a weekly post on my Facebook Page where I share the work of an inspirational photographer or artist every Thursday. I've been doing this every week since 2013, so there is now a vast number of outstanding creatives from all genres and disciplines that we've looked at over the years. In fact I’ve been doing it so long now that even I’ve forgotten some of these great artists so why not try and collate them all into one place for not only myself but for you as well.
5 Things Photographers Can Learn From the Old Masters of Painting
Art has arguably been around almost as long as humans have. The moment we learned to mark something for others to see and interpret, the moment art was born. Thankfully for us photographers, we needn’t go quite that far back to begin learning from the history of art, in fact we only need go as far as the ‘Old Masters’.
Are you Colour Blind and how Good are you at Determining Colour?
I wanted to briefly look at the subjectivity of colour. This is a colossal subject, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts on how colour is perceived by each of us and is it really that important?
Do I need to be Calibrating my Lenses and How do I do it? PLUS: How to use Nikon's Hidden Auto Fine-Tune
The title says it all! It’s about to get real nerdy!
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 002
"Stay Inspired" is a weekly post on my Facebook Page where I share the work of an inspirational photographer or artist every Thursday. I've been doing this every week since 2013, so there is now a vast number of outstanding creatives from all genres and disciplines that we've looked at over the years. In fact I’ve been doing it so long now that even I’ve forgotten some of these great artists so why not try and collate them all into one place for not only myself but for you as well.
5 Professional and DIY Light Painting Tools For You to Try
Since the recent release of my new Long Exposure Portraits tutorial from RGG EDU, I've been inundated with messages and questions relating to the light painting section. Questions like: 'What's the best light paining tool to use? 'Where can I get them?' 'Which ones did you use in your video? With this in mind, I sought to put together this guide to answer all of these questions and more.
TWiP Talks: Creative Lighting and Coloured Gels with Jake Hicks
In this interview we discuss the importance of an audience. Is it more important for you as a photographer for your images to have a little impact on a lot of people, or for your work to have a lot of impact on a few?
Is the Sensor or the Lens to Blame for Poor Image Quality?
We love to moan about sensors and their quality versus other sensors. But are they really to blame? I spent too long with a terrible camera when I was in fact blaming my lenses. Here’s the results and how to avoid the same thing.
Colour Banding and Gel Modifiers
For those of us that have dealt with colour in any way digitally in the last decade, we are unfortunately all too familiar with the dreaded colour banding issues. If you're not sure what colour banding is, then it's the visual 'stepping' of colour that happens in digital files. I see a lot of complaints about banding online and although this is often part of the problem, I see one other major culprit of severe colour banding and that's lighting.
DIY Cheap Coloured LED Lighting for £20 - Lighting Setups Included
So what if you're interested in simply playing with some LED lights? What if you just want to test out some cool lighting ideas but don't want to jump in at the deep end and invest a whole bunch of money on them just yet? You’re in the right place!
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 001
"Stay Inspired" is a weekly post where I share the work of an inspirational photographer or artist every Thursday on my Facebook Page. I've been doing this every week since 2013 so there is now a vast number of outstanding creatives from all genres and disciplines that we've looked at over the years and it would be a shame to not try and collate them all in one place for not only myself but for you as well.
Behind the Scenes on my New Lighting Video Tutorial - Long Exposure Studio Photography
On June 22nd I headed to St. Louis, Missouri to shoot my second lighting tutorial with the video production powerhouse that is RGG EDU.
LEE Filters Maters of Photography - Interview & Image Discussion
The latest in our Masters series features editorial and fashion photographer Jake Hicks discussing three of his images with LEExposure Editor Ailsa McWhinnie. Jake selects three images which demonstrate his bold use of colour and signature style.
Fixing Discolouration During the Dodge & Burn Retouch
This will thankfully be a quick little technique on how to fix an issue that can be incredibly infuriating. This discolouration issue I'm referring to arrises when you're using the dodge and burn retouching technique and the frustrating part is that it only presents itself once you've finished doing all the retouching.
LEE Filters - Portrait Lighting at Home with Jake Hicks
Editorial fashion photographer Jake Hicks demonstrates a range of creative lighting effects that can be easily set-up in the home. He starts with a key light, then he adds a fill light followed by two hair lights. Then he introduces LEE coloured gels and finally achieves some gel flare with a LEE Soft Focus camera filter.
Colour Grading Tips and Techniques - Colour Grading with Intent
Colour grading tends to specifically refer to the colouring of video and in photography we often refer to this as colour toning, but whatever you're happier calling it, this process of making a conscious decision to apply a specific colour-look to an image in post production is an incredibly powerful tool.
6 Light Beauty and Fashion Lighting Setup
I know it's extremly trendy right now to say that 'one light is all you need', and although in certain situations this is true, a of the time extra lights will likely look better, or at the very least make your life easier.
Objective & Subjective Lighting - How I Teach Portrait Lighting
Being able to take a good shot and teaching it are two very different things. But can the way I explain lighting to my students be of use to you? In this article I discuss the differences and importance of ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ lighting.
Comparing the Image Quality - Nikon D850 Vs. Nikon D610
The results are in, here's a (much) closer look at the file difference between two generations of Nikon cameras. A colour and black and white file test between the Nikon D10 versus the Nikon D850.
Top 5 ways to achieve shiny skin in your photos
Shiny skin in photos is becoming more and more popular all the time and whether it's for sports, beachwear or even regular fashion, that metallic skin sheen is being seen everywhere. Here are 5 techniques that I use to achieve that maximum skin sheen.
Is a Personal Editing Style Just as Important as a Photographic Style?
After a community competition via my Facebook page, four winners were selected to have their shots retouched by me. The results were not to show who's better or worse but simply to highlight how important a post-pro style can be. All images and post-pro vids are revealed here.
Simple and Effective Two Light Setup for 'Shoot Throughs'
You may well be wondering what 'shoot throughs' actually are, but put simply it refers to anything that you photograph through in the foreground of your shot. In this article I share a simple but incredibly effective setup to put the shoot through idea to good use.
5 Things You Need to Do Before You Share Your Shots
You only get one chance to impress with your shots and I know we all get very excited to share an image as soon as we've taken it, but just take a few moments to check these 5 things are done before you do so and I promise you'll thank yourself later.
Affordable & Unique Designer Items for Your Next Photoshoot - Styling by Subscription
If you've ever tried to arrange and organise a fashion shoot on your own then you'll no doubt already know that there are fewer things more important to a fashion shoot than great looking clothing. Thankfully there's finally a simple solution.
Using Diffusion Filters - LEE 'Soft' Filters 1 to 5 Comparison Test
If you don't know or haven't heard of them, then diffusion filters are transparent glass or plastic sheets that go in front of the lens and they diffuse the light as it enters the camera. The resulting images taken with a diffusion filter have an appearance of reduced contrast that ultimately looks hazy offering a slightly dream-like effect.
Jake Hicks Photography - Photoshoot Contact Lists
The Jake Hicks Photography 'little black book' of contacts is finally out there! If you're after some contacts for your next shoot including makeup, hair, styling, designers, and locations and studios, then look no further.
What is Colour Contamination and Radiosity?
We get a little technical and nerdy in this post as we take a look at the finer qualities of lighting and try to understand how we can control our lights so that we can avoid any unnecessary colour contaminants.
How to Unlock Your Personal Photographic Style
If there's one thing that modern photographers struggle with the most then it's finding and defining their own style and loo with their shots. This article intends to show you that your style is already a part of you, you just need the right tools to unlock it.
5 Ways to Avoid Lens Flare with Studio Lighting
There are times when we love a little lens flare in our shots to add interest and depth, but there are also times when we absolutely need to avoid flare to keep the shot looking pin sharp and crystal clear. Here's 5 ways to avoid lens flare in the studio.
An incredibly simple setup but also a very creative one. If you're after something simple that doesn't require much kit but needs to add a lot of visual impact, then try this two light Pastel Wrap setup.
10 Print Magazines You Should be Buying and Why
Are print mags really dead? In this article I explain why they aren't and more importantly why they're so vitally important to my current inspiration process. Here's 10 print mags you really need to be checking out.
First Impressions - Spekular Modular LED Lighting Video
My first impressions after using the new Spekular modular LED light. A video reviewing looking at what this light can offer, that other LED lights cant.
DIY GoPro Ring Light for under £10
We all love to save some money and never more so than after the financial onslaught of Christmas. In todays post I look at how I cobbled together a couple of tech-items to make my DIY GoPro ring light for less than £10/$15.
Social Media Analytics Year on Year Post - Instagram Vs. Facebook
A look back over the previous year in digital reach to see where to focus online efforts in the year ahead. Should I be focusing on Instagram or Facebook?