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Jake Hicks Photography
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What's the Best Projector to Buy for my Next Photoshoot?

Technique Tuesday What's the Best Projector to Buy for my Next Photoshoot 2019.jpg
This image was all captured in-camera in a single frame thanks to the power of using a projector on set.

This image was all captured in-camera in a single frame thanks to the power of using a projector on set.

There are quite literally hundreds, if not thousands of different projectors out there to buy right now. They can range from £10 to over £10,000, but which projector should you invest in for your next photoshoot?

If you’ve ended up here, then I’m assuming you’re using your new projector as a light source in your next photoshoot. If on the other hand, you’re after advice on what projector to buy to watch the footy on (that’s soccer to the less informed ;) ), you’re in the wrong place.

The reason I make this distinction is because we as photographers need to use these projectors for a purpose they weren’t necessarily designed for. Consequently we need to be looking at specific factors that apply to us as photographers, not us as viewers.

For the purposes of this article, I’ve broken down the 5 key factors we should be considering before purchasing a projector for our next photoshoot. They are as follows:

  1. Luminance

  2. Throw Distance

  3. Contrast Ratio

  4. Resolutions

  5. Connectivity


Art of Projection

A screenshot of the mammoth contents list from my new Art of Projection workshop PDF.

A screenshot of the mammoth contents list from my new Art of Projection workshop PDF.

Full disclosure; I’m writing this article as I’ve recently announced my new ‘Art of Projection’ workshop and as a result I’ve been sharing a bunch of images that were taken with a projector. As a result of this, I’ve been inundated with messages and questions about what projector I use and what I recommend. For my Art of Projection workshop, I’ve written a jumbo PDF of notes and at nearly 50 pages it covers everything you could possibly want to know about using a projector in your photoshoot. This article peeks at a few of those pages from that workshop PDF and it’ll help give you the basic knowledge on what to look for before purchasing a projector specifically for photography.

Want to learn more about using projectors? Check out my workshop dedicated exclusively to just that Art of Projection

Want to learn more about using projectors? Check out my workshop dedicated exclusively to just that Art of Projection


5 Projector Features to Consider

1. Luminance

For photography, brightness is going to be a key factor and in the projector world, brightness is measured in Lumens. Again the projector industry has a colossal range of choices, and lumens in a projector can vary from 50 lumens for one of those crappy iPhone projectors, all the way up to cinema stye projectors with a whopping 25,000 lumen output!

But let’s talk photography here for a moment, what does luminance translate to for us as photographers? Take a look at a page from my PDF below as it shows two photos, both of which were taken at 1/60th second, f.4, ISO 100.

The Art of Projection II luminance eg small.jpg

In the side-by-side images above, we can clearly see the dramatic difference between two projectors. On the left we have a cheap LED projector with a ‘supposed’ luminance of 1800, and on the right we have a 3000 lumens projector. The difference is quite literally like night and day.

From my point of view, luminance is the key driving factor when deciding on what projector to purchase. For example If everything else was perfect on the projector, but it had a low luminance output, I’d abandon it immediately. My personal recommendation is to look for a projector touting a minimum 3000 lumens. As you can see from the shots above, having 3000 lumens allows us to capture a projected image at 1/60th of a second at f4 and ISO 100. These are usable settings on our cameras that aren’t making compromises with higher ISO noise or blurred shots with slower shutter speeds.


2. Throw Distance

Throw distance is another term that is fairly unique to projectors as we don’t apply this same way of thinking when comparing lighting modifiers in photography. Basically throw distance quantifies the size of the projected image based on how far away the specific projector is placed from the wall. For example, let’s assume you have a small living room that is only 3m long. You wanted to buy a new projector to watch some movies on but the one you like will only produce a 1m sized image when placed 3m away from the wall. Chances are this wouldn’t be ideal, so Instead you’d be looking to purchase a ‘short throw’ projector that could project a 3m sized image when placed 3m away from the wall. A much bigger image size for the space you have.

This sounds more complicated than it is, but then again the projector world tries to complicate it further by using their universal system of ‘throw ratios’ to supposedly help their customers decide.

The projectors throw distance is often displayed as two numbers separated by a colon. For example 1.5:1.

The first number represents the projector being 1.5 feet from the screen and the second number represents 1 foot of screen length.

…exciting so far right?! So for every foot of screen length you wanted, you’d have to move your projector 1.5 feet away. As a guide; the smaller the first number, the smaller the room you can project a larger image in.

And yes, the projector world works in feet not metres to measure this metric.

Don’t worry though, I understand that there are a few of you out there that have still not passed your Differential Geometry PHD and for some unfathomable reason you still can’t pre-visualise simple shape and size in 3 dimensional space from a basic 3 digit ratio alone!!!! ….Not just me then?!

Thankfully, Mr. Hicks has run the numbers and has dialled in a few ratios and built a 3D space to help visualise some of these ratios for you. In the images below I’ve built a 6m x 5m room and placed the projector 2m from the wall in each of them. The resulting red rectangle on the wall in front is the size of image you’d get from the ratios displayed.

The Art of Projection II throw distance eg small.jpg

I’m hoping the example ratios above will give you an idea of what to look for but as a general guide; the smaller the first number, the smaller the room you can project a larger image in. So the 1.2:1 throw distance above, produces a far larger image than the 1.7:1 projector for example.


3. Contrast Ratio

Woohoo! More new ratios to learn! Thankfully contrast ratios are far easier to explain than throw ratios though. Essentially the contrast ratio is the difference between the darkest black point and the lightest white point in the image and they are displayed like this as an example; 3000:1.

A contrast ratio of 3000:1 means the brightest part of an image will be three thousand times brighter than the darkest part.

Essentially, you want to be looking for a larger number at the front as this will mean a stronger contrast within your projected shot.

But what does that look like in reality? Below I’ve pulled another page from workshop PDF where I compare a cheaper projector with a terrible (and unknown) contrast ratio, with a more expensive projector with a 3000:1 contrast ratio.

The Art of Projection II contrast ratio small.jpg

Having these side by side comparisons are a great way to actually visualise what some of these figures really translate to. Simply saying ‘this projector has a 3000:1 contrast ratio’ means absolutely nothing to most of us. Is that good? Is it terrible? Before I started looking into this, I had no idea either so you’re not alone if this is all news to you.

The image above clearly shows a pretty dark black point and fairly bright white point from the 3000:1 projector. In comparison the crappy cheap projector displays a muddy black point and a grey-at-best white point and this will ultimately lead to very washed out results.

The cheap projector I was using as a comparison was stating that it had 3000:1 contrast ratio in it’s sales jargon. Now I’m no genius, but even I know that’s utter nonsense. I won’t get into it too deeply here, but be very wary of dodgy no-name-brands selling projectors online. If the price sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. I didn’t mention it earlier, but I saw this same crappy projector being sold as a 3000 lumens projector too. It’s simply lies and they should certainly be avoided

Back to contrast ratios though and my advice is to look for one with at least 3000:1. There are a bunch of mid-range 5000:1 projectors out there too and I would assume that they would be even better.


4. Resolutions

Finally it appears that we’re heading back into familiar territory with terms like ‘resolutions’ right? The short answer is ‘yes’, resolutions mean the same thing here in the projector world as they do in the photography world. Basically the higher the resolution, the better the quality of the projected image will be.

Below I show you what two different resolution projector images look like up close.

The Art of Projection II resolutions small.jpg

The top image above shows a 1280x800 projector and the bottom image shows an 800x480 projector (native resolutions). Now on first inspection, your photo-brain may be thinking

‘huh, that 800x480 image looks pretty sharp, I think I prefer the hand icon in the bottom image’

Ultimately, this will be down to personal preference, but hear my thoughts on this. That hand icon does ‘appear’ sharper in the bottom shot, but it’s a visual illusion really as you can also clearly see far more pixels as a result. Ask yourself; ‘do I want chunky pixels to be visible in my shot?’ I’m going to go out on a limb here and say ‘no, you don’t want those ugly-ass pixels in your shot’.

As always, we have tons of choice and options when it comes to projector resolutions and here’s a few of the more popular ones. Full HD - 1920 x 1080, HD Ready - 1280x720, WXGA - 1280 x 800, XGA - 1024 x 768, SVGA - 800 x 600 and WVGA - 800 x 480.

I’ll go into this in more detail on the course, but essentially I’d advise looking at projectors with a minimum resolution of 1280 x 800.


5. Connectivity

Guys, we are gonna finish strong with an easy one, and it’s almost as if I tacked this one on the end to make it a list of 5 and not 4. Connectivity is simply referring to how you get the image you want to project, into your projector. You may have an image on a P.C., laptop, phone, USB stick etcetera. But how do we get that image from our device and onto the wall in front of us?

Below is a diagram of some of the more common inputs associated with both new and old projectors.

The Art of Projection II connectivity small.jpg

Most projectors will have way more input ports than you could ever need, so chances are you’ll be fine with whatever you get. But I will say that many older projectors do not have a HDMI input port. I personally use the HDMI input with my setup and it’s a very simple plug and play system and I probably wouldn’t consider a projector that didn’t have one.

The reason I mention this here is because I often recommend picking up a cheap secondhand projector on eBay. eBay often has some great deals on secondhand projectors and as an item that you may not be using all of the time, it makes a lot of sense to save some money on it. But whilst you’re searching on there, keep an eye out for those projectors that don’t have HDMI as they will likely be very old and their bulb may not be particularly bright. Older bulbs will lower luminance over time as well as the contrast ratio too so be wary of that in your purchase.


Closing Comments

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So there you have it, there’s my 5 tips on what to look for when purchasing a projector for your next photoshoot.

  1. Luminance - Look for at least 3000 lumens.

  2. Throw Distance - The lower the ratio the better, but a 1.2:1 - 1.5:1 will be fine for most rooms.

  3. Contrast Ratio - I’d recommend looking for a ratio of around 3000:1 or higher.

  4. Resolution - Pixels are bad, so look for a resolution of at least 1280x800.

  5. Connectivity - This depends on what you’re using, but I recommend HDMI as essential.

If you’re looking to purchase a projector for photoshoots then I hope this helps. As a guide, I’ve personally found that I can find all of these things on secondhand projectors for around £150-£200. Which in my opinion is a bargain.

Failing all of that, if you quit photography, you still have a half decent projector to watch the footy on ;)


Want to learn more?

As I mentioned at the top, all of these snippets have been pulled from just 5 of the 50 pages from my new ‘Art of Projection’ workbook. If you’re interested in learning more about using a projector in your photoshoots, then please feel free to take a look at my new course here.

This new workshop covers all new techniques and ideas and the potential for creative options when using projectors in photography is seemingly limitless. As a result, I can’t wait to pass them along and see what you all do with them.

ART OF PROJECTION

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THANK YOU

Thank you as always for checking out my article and spending a little bit of your day with me here. If you have any questions about this one then feel free to let me know in the comments below. I can’t promise to have all the answers, but I’ll certainly do my best to answer what I can. Thanks again for stopping by.


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Sunday 10.13.19
Posted by Jake Hicks
Comments: 5
 

Using a Projector in your Photoshoot - Remastered

Technique Tuesday Using a Projector in your Photoshoot 2019.jpg

Edit: Full disclosure; this article is simply a modernised version of an older one I posted a long time ago. That original article can be found here, but it still remains among my top 5 most read articles to date. This remastered edition simply updates some ideas as I get ready to start teaching my new ‘Art of Projection’ training. If you’d like to see some more examples of my more advanced projector shots, then you can find them here and further reading on the topic can be found on my ‘Art of Projection’ page.


This shot was taken of the lovely Jaye using a projector and one other ambient light. Settings: 85mm lens, 1/100 second, f2, ISO 100, WB 3400.

This shot was taken of the lovely Jaye using a projector and one other ambient light. Settings: 85mm lens, 1/100 second, f2, ISO 100, WB 3400.

There are literally thousands of different ways to modify your light in photography, but you’d find it difficult to find one that offers more versatility and variety in look than the humble projector.

The projector is something that has fallen out of fashion in recent years what with HD and 4K T.V’s flooding the market, but in the 1960's and 70's nearly every household owned one.

Back then, one of the most common ways to take photographs was by shooting with E6 film or as it was more commonly known, slide film or transparencies. This slide film produced 35mm transparencies that would be loaded into your projector, you'd set it up on your new smoked glass and chrome coffee table and then the full glory of your Kodachromes would be projected huge onto the nearly white wall in the lounge as you gazed in wonderment from the cosy confines of your deep shag pile carpet.

Even as a child in the 80's, I remember my father digging out the projector and shining the holiday snaps up onto the screen to go through them. It was actually an incredibly impressive way to view your shots and it's crazy to think that we traded that immersive 6 foot by 4 foot viewing experience for swiping through our latest and greatest shots in the palm of our hands. Surely we missed the point somewhere along the line where convenience trumped experience.


These are what our old photo albums looked like. A rack of transparencies ready for the projector.

These are what our old photo albums looked like. A rack of transparencies ready for the projector.

OG Projector

Fast forward to the present and very few homes still have a projector. We've all opted to view our holiday snaps on our phones and maybe sometimes our T.V.'s if we're feeling really organised. That being said a lot of people still have their old projectors up in the attic somewhere languishing in obscurity, I know my father did, and I nabbed it many years ago to give it a new lease of life as a photographic light/modifier.

Using the projector as a light source in your photography opens up a whole world of possibilities and once you start off down the path of projecting different images into/onto new images, you'll soon realise the potential the projector has to add something unique to your shots.

When I was at University studying photography, I had a lot of fun experimenting with projectors. If you get the chance, I highly recommend you having a rummage in the loft or asking your parents/grandparents if they've still got their old projector hanging about. If they do, dust it off, change the fuse and have a play with it.

When you're using just a projector to light your shot, it's a bit easier to light your subject. You just choose the image to project, set it up, expose for that one image and you're done.

When you're using just a projector to light your shot, it's a bit easier to light your subject. You just choose the image to project, set it up, expose for that one image and you're done.

My fathers old projector that I found in the attic when I was at Uni. Still going strong. Fully complete with that suspiciously familiar red dot ;)

My fathers old projector that I found in the attic when I was at Uni. Still going strong. Fully complete with that suspiciously familiar red dot ;)

The properties of a projector to be aware of when using them in conjunction with photography are first and foremost the ‘slides’.

If you want to use a projector to shine an image into your scene then you first have to buy some E6 film, find an old 35mm camera (learn how to use it), shoot your shot, send it away for a fortnight to be processed, wait around for it to be delivered and then and only then can you delicately place your precious 35mm transparency into a slide mount, pop it into your projector and finally shine it into your scene!

(…that's a lot of steps!). It’s pretty safe to say that firing up your old projector is not going to be a quick and spontaneous idea, but if you've got a well thought out shot and an awesome image to shine into it, then the results it can produce are very cool indeed.


The modern projectors are digital, they can be plugged into nearly every digital device and project any image that you want. The version you see above was old when I got it and so it still only had that VGA cable, but they’re nearly all HDMI now.

The modern projectors are digital, they can be plugged into nearly every digital device and project any image that you want. The version you see above was old when I got it and so it still only had that VGA cable, but they’re nearly all HDMI now.

Going Digital

So what if you don't have two weeks to spare and the patience of a saint, but you'd really like to use a projector in your shots? Welcome to the digital age.

The modern alternative to the old slide projector is of course the digital projector. This infinitely more advanced projector can now literally shine any image you could possibly think of into your shot and if you have the right cable, you can shine that image from any device you like. Your T.V. your laptop and even your phone.

The digital projectors have come down in price a lot in recent years too and their main reason for existing now is for home entertainment. I've had mine for many, many years (I’ve since updated this one with a couple of new ones since then too), but the brightness is still ok.

Newer projectors are all a lot brighter as standard now than they used to be, but be mindful that you certainly get what you pay for to a certain extent, and the key thing to look for if you're in the market to get a projector is the brightness. A digital projectors brightness is measured in lumens and they vary hugely.

For example; you can currently pick up a £50 digital projector on eBay with a brightness of 150 lumens, but for a £150 you can pick up a secondhand one with a brightness of 3000 lumens. That is quite literally like night and day and the extra money for the extra brightness is definitely worth it in my opinion.

That extra brightness will allow you to shoot at faster shutter speeds and at lower ISO's, both of which are crucially important when photographing people or other moving objects.

The digital projector is what I use now and that's purely for convenience over anything else. I can find any image I like and shine it into the scene from my phone. If I don't like the way it’s looking, I can simply change it immediately. Like I mentioned before, with this level of convenience, it opens up any digital image on the planet to be immediately shone into your shot (allowing for the terms of copyright law and fair use or derivative works in your country of course…. ;) But that’s a topic for another day).


I simply plug my digital projector into my old phone and have access to any image I want instantly.

I simply plug my digital projector into my old phone and have access to any image I want instantly.

Brightness

So now that we understand all those benefits, what's some of the downsides that we should be wary of when incorporating a projector into our shots?

The first thing is power. The power of the light (or lumens) that most projectors put out is pretty dismal by comparison to what we’re used to as photographers. And remember that brightness will be heavily influenced by the type of image you shine.

If you shine an image of a shadowy forest into your shot its going to be very dark as an output. Alternatively, if you project a bright blue beach scene instead, it’s going to be a lot brighter.

Here's a totally arbitrary figure to give you some idea of what I'm talking about. An average brightness image shone onto a white wall may give you 1/60 second exposure, f4 at 200 ISO. Like I mentioned earlier though, you can now get a lot brighter digital projectors, but I wanted to give you a ballpark figure of brightness.


One thing to watch out for when using a digital projector is the pixels that are projected onto the skin.

One thing to watch out for when using a digital projector is the pixels that are projected onto the skin.

The Dreaded Pixel-Problem

Another thing to bear in mind with modern digital projectors is that they shine pixels. As a result, you will literally see lots of tiny squares in your projected image.

If you’re not careful this can look awful and it’s one of the biggest reasons you don’t see more people using projectors in their shots in my opinion.

For this pixel-problem alone, I prefer the older slide projectors as they don't have this issue at all. They simply shine light through your slide film and the only thing you'll notice on the models skin is the film grain from the original transparency, and seeing as most slide film has super fine grain anyway you shouldn't even notice anything at all.

Start off using a projector with easy shots like ones with a lot of white space in them. This will not only make it easier to position the projector for a more flattering light, but it will also limit the amount of awkward white balancing you'll nee…

Start off using a projector with easy shots like ones with a lot of white space in them. This will not only make it easier to position the projector for a more flattering light, but it will also limit the amount of awkward white balancing you'll need to do later on.


Colour Temperature

One last thing to bear in mind of course is the colour temperature of the image you are projecting. It's not too much of an issue if you're shooting with just the projector alone, as you simply shoot RAW and play with the white balance and colour casts afterwards in post until you're happy.

Shooting with just the projector alone is the best place to start if it’s your first time experimenting with a projector. Choose an image that’s nice and bright, preferably with large sections of white, and just project that directly onto the model and white balance the image the best you can later on.

This shot was taken using the older analogue projector, you can clearly see that even when zoomed in that there is no pixels on the face and the projected image is far clearer.

This shot was taken using the older analogue projector, you can clearly see that even when zoomed in that there is no pixels on the face and the projected image is far clearer.

Balancing the Colour

The colour temperature of the projector does become an issue however when you're using the projector in conjunction with other lights.

If you were to just shine white light from the projector onto a white wall, I’d advise setting up a custom white balance profile for the best results.

For example, all of my projectors sit just off the Kelvin scale, so adjusting the Kelvin alone isn’t enough to get the best results and I have to shift the ‘tint’ as well to get a cleaner, more natural white. On top of that, my results show the projector bulbs being on the warmer side (colour wise and closer to tungsten in terms of white balance). As a result, if you're using a projector as well as flash in your shot you'd probably have to use a CTO (Colour Temperature Orange) gel on your flash to compensate.

But before you all breath a sigh of relief and think that was easy… all that unfortunately changes when you decide to project coloured images through your projector. This is where it can become a bit tricky.

For example, if I was to shine an image of blue water through my warmer coloured bulb, what white balance should I set my camera to and what colour correcting gel should I use on my flash?

This is a bit of a minefield I'm afraid and there's no easy answer, suffice to say that you'll just have to do a little experimenting with each of specific images you choose. I will add that many Auto White Balancing settings on camera today are nothing short of incredible, so unless you really want to get everything absolutely perfect, AWB will get you most of the way.

Another thing that I like do is take my images that I'm going to project into editing software beforehand and add some blue to the image before I project it. This helps when I'm balancing the projector light with the flash afterwards as the projected image is already on the blue side as comes through the slightly warmer bulb. Again, this will vary on your specific projector and the more expensive, cleaner, newer bulbs will have less of this issue to deal with.


Want to learn more about using projectors? Check out my workshop dedicated exclusively to just that Art of Projection

Want to learn more about using projectors? Check out my workshop dedicated exclusively to just that Art of Projection


I get my projector up on a light stand and perched on a Manfrotto laptop plate. This enables me to get the projector above the models eye level.

I get my projector up on a light stand and perched on a Manfrotto laptop plate. This enables me to get the projector above the models eye level.

Setting up your projector

Brilliant, so we're all set with some basic theory on do's and don'ts. We've got our image that we want to project so let's start to think about setting up the shot.

Always try to treat your projector like any other light source in your shot. By this I mean think about the angle and height of the projector placement. All too often I see people using a projector by placing it on the floor, table or chair next to them. Not only does this cast huge shadows up the wall behind the subject, but it also creates that horrendous up-lighting on models that is never flattering. Always get your projector above the models head height to create a far more flattering look.

Also remember that a projectors light is an incredibly hard light source because of it's focused beam coming from a tiny point. The least you can do is position it at a flattering height and angle to the model.

Getting the projector up high is actually harder than it may first seem, but I sit my projector on a laptop plinth from Manfrotto (essentially just a plate that screws to the top of light stands and tripods). I can then attach this to a tripod or even a light stand to give me even more height. Of course you can use anything you want though and stacking up on a table or shelf behind you will serve the same purpose.

The next thing to consider is the projectors distance from the model. This distance is determined by what coverage of projected image you are looking for on the model of course, but if you are looking to shoot a 3/4 length shot then you're probably going to have to get your projector about 8-10 feet away to cover that area. Most digital projectors are designed for home-cinema use and they are getting better and better at throwing a larger image in smaller spaces than ever before.


You can clearly see how much of a difference it makes when you add additional light onto the model to eliminate the projected image.

You can clearly see how much of a difference it makes when you add additional light onto the model to eliminate the projected image.

That's pretty much it, you're done and if you aren't planning on introducing additional lighting to the shot then you're all set to start shooting away.

But if you are looking to add some extra light in there, for example to wash out the projected light on a models face, here's where the fun begins.

First off, you’ll need to be careful that the light you're shining onto the model doesn't also fall onto the background too. If it does, then it’s going to wash that projected image out.

For the shoot I've shared here, I had my light directly above the model and literally pointing straight down onto her. The main reason for this was simply space if I'm honest. I couldn't get the light any higher because of the ceiling in the way, but if I could have, I probably would have put it a little higher and brought it further away from her to soften the hardness of light a little.

I'm still really pleased with how the shots turned out though. The modifier I had on this light was simply a reflector dish with a small grid/honeycomb attached. With this grid I can very easily control where the light goes and I can easily ensure no light spills onto the background.

For these shots I actually ended up not using flash at all, I simply used the tungsten modelling bulb on my strobe to light her. I also used a CTB (colour temperature blue) gel on this light to cool down the colour a little. It might be reasonable to assume that I wouldn't need to do this as the projector is a warmer colour already. But in reality, the image I was projecting was so blue that I had to compensate a little (like I mentioned you just have to adapt on the day and see what looks best colour wise).

I also had the model really close to the background as well to reduce any weird shadows being projected behind her, but it meant that the placement of the additional light was even more crucial for the best results.


The setup shown above illustrates where I had the models light placed. It was quite close to the model and pointed down sharply to avoid any excess light spilling onto the projected image on the wall behind her. In this diagram the light next to the…

The setup shown above illustrates where I had the models light placed. It was quite close to the model and pointed down sharply to avoid any excess light spilling onto the projected image on the wall behind her. In this diagram the light next to the camera is actually there to represent the projector. Again, here you can see that I had the projector above the models head height so that any shadows would be thrown behind her and hidden below her shoulders. I also further increased this by shooting slightly up at the model which again ensured that there were minimal shadows distracting the overall shot.

Brightness and Model Poses

Now that we've placed our extra light, we need to look at the powers of them. Although you can adjust the brightness of most projectors, it's best to have them as bright as you dare without washing out the colour and then adjust the other lights around that. I had the modelling bulb turned up pretty high on my strobe to wash out the projected image and after I was happy with the power balance I finally got to start shooting.

Another thing to bear in mind when shooting is to direct the model around both of your light sources. The key light is now your light that is shining down on the model so your model should base their posing around that. As long as your projector has been set straight on and above the models eye level, you shouldn't need to worry about it anymore.


The modifier I used to light the model was simply a small gridded reflector.

The modifier I used to light the model was simply a small gridded reflector.

Final Points to Consider

Thats it, keep shooting and see what's working and what's not working, but the key here is to experiment with lots of different images and see what you prefer.

One final point to bear in mind is how much of an influence the projected image has on the overall shot. Try to tie everything else like fashion and makeup around it. In this shoot the model wore a swimsuit and was sprayed with droplets of water to match the look of the projected image of water behind her. All these little elements can really help sell a look.


When using more colour in your projected image it can get a bit colour heavy. This is what the shot looks like without any additional light on the model.

When using more colour in your projected image it can get a bit colour heavy. This is what the shot looks like without any additional light on the model.

Things to Keep in Mind…

1. Start off by choosing an image with a lot of white in it and only use the projector to light your subject.

2. Get your projector above the models eye-level to create a more flattering light and to hide any unsightly shadows.

3. Be mindful of the pixels that can be produced on the models skin from digital projectors. If it's a big project where the final image is likely to be blown up big, consider using an analogue projector to reduce this.

4. Be prepared to adapt to weird colour balancing issues on the day. The colours of projected images can drastically distort white balance. Adjusting an images colour in Photoshop prior to projection may be a handy workaround.

5. Tie your projected image and your subject together to create a cohesive look. Make sure the image you're projecting makes sense with what the models wearing and the idea you're trying to portray.


Many thanks indeed to my super patient model Jaye - Go check her out on her portfolio


Good luck guys and I look forward to seeing what you all come up with.

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Click on the images above to enlarge.


The Art of Projection

If you fancy taking your projector shots to the next level, feel free to check out my more advanced projection-based lighting techniques here on my ‘Art of Projection’ page.

All of the above images were captured in-camera and shot using a projector - Click here to learn more

All of the above images were captured in-camera and shot using a projector - Click here to learn more

Want to learn more about using projectors? Check out my workshop dedicated exclusively to just that Art of Projection

Want to learn more about using projectors? Check out my workshop dedicated exclusively to just that Art of Projection


THANK YOU

Thank you as always for checking out my article and spending a little bit of your day with me here. If you have any questions about this one then feel free to let me know in the comments below. I can’t promise to have all the answers, but I’ll certainly do my best to answer what I can. Thanks again for stopping by.


Thursday 10.03.19
Posted by Jake Hicks
Comments: 5