10 Print Magazines You Should be Buying and Why

Technique Tuesday Facebook Thumbnail 10 print mags.jpg

When was the last time you watched a bad film? I mean, like all the way through. I'm guessing the answer is a very long time ago, unless you're counting coming back late on a Saturday night and watching the intro to Sharknado (I swear I'm not making that up - Check it Sharknado) and passing out only to be woken up by the credits song, as actually 'watching' a bad film.

The reason we no longer watch bad films is that we all now have 'on-damand' TV and movies. There used to be a time back at the turn of the century where we would watch whatever the Sci-Fi (now Sy-Fy [don't ask]) channel movie at 9 was. A lot of these were terrible but occasionally there would be an absolute gem of a movie playing that we'd never heard of. But we don't get that now, we get to choose what we 'think' we like based on the marketing we've received up until that point hence the questionable meteoric rise of the superhero genre. We are all busy people, we're not about to start risking the waste of time a bad two hour movie might take. On-demand TV and movies is amazing don't get me wrong but there is a cost to this convenience.

Big, bold magazines like V are renowned for their love of colour and is a constant source of inspiration myself and many others.

Is the JHP style really the love-child of 90's Japanese Anime and late night Sci-Fi Channel?!

Back in the 90's when we used to watch what was scheduled for us, we would be far more experimental and open to TV and movies because we had no choice. In fact it may have been the Sci-Fi channel that introduced me to anime back in the 90's, anime as a genre that can easily be argued as playing a huge and fundamental role in the colouring of my entire photographic style to do this day. Would I really have watched a 'cartoon' at 9pm on Saturday if I and another choice?

Video and Spotify Killed the Radio Star

The same thing is strangling the music industry of new talent too. A very good friend, and the guy that helps out on most of my shoots is also a 20 year music industry veteran and music producer. Dan le sac explains how he got his first break with his first big hit in the music industry all those years ago.

"We only got traction and noticed thanks to radio. If the radio hadn't played our track we'd have never gotten our music into the ears of so many listeners, it's how young talent was found back then. But nobody listens to the radio anymore."

Dan goes on to explain how the rise of 'on-damand' music like Spotify is obscuring new talent,

"Everybody listens to their 'favourite' tracks on Spotify as much as they like, we no longer get to hear new music that radio DJ's have curated for us."

Curated Content

Magazines like Hunger magazine are often curated by well established industry professionals. Hunger magazine for example is the latest in a long line of successful style magazines from renowned fashion and portrait photographer Rankin.

The internet is amazing, please don't misunderstand my love for the internet and what it's done for the photographic industry but there are consequences to the choices it has afforded us. There are in fact too many choices, there's all the music and cinema in the world out there already and everybody in the modern world has complete access to it immediately... like right now.

It's crazy to think that you are still reading this when you could be reading 'The Catcher in the Rye' or binge watching the latest series of Game of Thrones but that's literally the quality of content that I'm competing against for your incredibly valuable time.

But you've chosen to read this because you've probably read one of my previous posts or articles before, as a result there's an element of trust being shared here. You trust me, based on my previous work, that I'm going to share something worthwhile with you in exchange for your time. You my friend are reading curated content.

The Magazine Industry

Magazines like Wylde magazine not only pride themselves on great content but also on great image delivery. Their magazines are huge and beautifully printed so picking up and viewing some of the industries best fashion images in this detail is an exp… — Magazines like Wylde magazine not only pride themselves on great content but also on great image delivery. Their magazines are huge and beautifully printed so picking up and viewing some of the industries best fashion images in this detail is an experience often missed from simple online image consumption.

The magazine and publishing industry is famously on its knees with its eyes slowly glazing over, surely nobody is still buying dead trees in 2018 right? Well you'd be almost right but here's why I think you should still be collecting carbon copies not downloading digital digests.

I mentioned what curated content meant previously, the fact that it is a collection of content that comes from a trusted source, and here's where the magazine industry has it's final card to play and the sole reason it's still hanging on in there long after the final bell has been rung.

The print mags that are still left in the 21st century know their sh*t! If there's a print mag on the shelves today then they must be doing something right to stay there and that is simply down to their quality of content.

There's a new digital mag jumping up every day online but it's very hard for these new magazines to curate great content without a reputation or a readership, it simply takes time to amass the right contacts. As their audience grows so will the quality of their content that they can put between their digital covers. But what about the tried and tested print mags, if they've been around for decades with huge faithful audiences, what's their content like?

Well thankfully as you'd expect, their content is pretty solid and therein lies why you should be paying attention to them.

Not En Vogue

This article is not talking about the Vogue's and Harper's Bazaar's of this world as we'll leave them for the socialites. Don't get me wrong, they house the photographic greats like Patrick Demarchelier, Steven Meisel and Peter Lindbergh but we're after trying to see some new, fresh and experimental talent that may be viewing the world in a slightly different way to the same black and white 'fashion' images we see month in, month out.

10 Magazines that deserve your money and trust

It can be hard to find the new photographers in the modern world of the internet as we'll only see the work of the latest bronzed bottomed lady with fairy light bokeh in her glasses that Instagram shows us. There's nothing wrong with this type of work but if you're after more of an engaging fashion vibe you'll need to look elsewhere and a fashion magazine that has stood the test of time is the perfect place to start. A fashion mag that has proven it can weather the storm and has industry professionals curating the outstanding, current, relevant and influential work of tomorrow between its sheets.

Here's 10 print mags that I like to look for when I'm actually outside the house and not glued to the internet. These are all without question well worth your money but more importantly, your time.

V Magazine

Big, bold and beautiful. Large pages, well printed and great colours. V Magazine is the de facto American fashion magazine that has somehow managed to straddle the impossible line between hip and trendy whilst still keeping one toe in the socialite world. This is one of the more mainstream magazines and should be available in most half decent stores. So if you're after a breath of fresh air away from all the quaint European fashion brands, look no further as V is dripping in brash style. Oh, and did I mention it was big.

Find them here - V Magazine

Document Journal

This is a seasonal magazine that is a little more conscientious to the larger, more important issues of our world. Their pieces are nearly always incredibly well researched and backed up by thorough and excellent journalism. Don't let their highbrow content put you off though as their imagery is nothing short of breathtaking. Document is certainly one of the few outliers in the industry right now and a lot of their work is very raw and untouched so if you're after a fashion journal that is keeping it real, this is for you.

Find them here - Document

Interview

Interview magazine was originally founded back in the 60's by Andy Warhol and John Wilcock and although it has some big shoes to fill today, it's still going strong. It's gone through multiple iterations since the early years and although I find the issues a bit 'hit and miss' Interview still holds a lot of weight in the industry. The content is more current affairs and although the images are nice and big the paper quality is very poor so this is really one to browse before you buy.

Find them here - Interview

LOVE

LOVE is a bi-annual British style magazine (see how they don't call themselves a fashion magazine - thats how you know it's good) and although they only launched in 2009 it has seen tremendous success not only because it's a Condé Nast publication but because the editor in chief is Katie Grand. Grand has been a very well respected fashion journalist for many years and with her background as a stylist on seventeen Louis Vuitton shows among many others it's no wonder she's on the pulse of what works. LOVE magazine is unreservedly big, brash and beautiful. If you'd like a raw look at the other side of the fashion world then this is definitely worth a look twice a year.

Find them here - LOVE

VICE

Vice magazine should need little introduction by now as it's been going strong in one form or another for over 20 years. Although not a fashion magazine in any way, Vice is very much worth your time if you're looking for the art on the outside of our popular culture. In fact Vice prides itself on this very notion and although the content seems to be aimed at a younger, more carefree audience it's remarks like this that I feel sum up their ethos.

In an interview with The Guardian co-founder Shane Smith had this to say on Vice's political stand point:

"We're not trying to say anything politically in a paradigmatic left/right way ... We don't do that because we don't believe in either side. Are my politics Democrat or Republican? I think both are horrific. And it doesn't matter anyway. Money runs America; money runs everywhere."

If you're after a young look at what's coming down the pipe of future artists, this could be worth a look.

Find them here - VICE

CR Fashion Book

In 2010 the editor of Vogue Paris resigned. That editor was Carine Roitfeld and after being the lead at Vogue Paris for ten years Roitfeld decided to produce her own publication that we know as CR Fashion Book (Not exactly the most imaginative name but I guess we now know why it's called CR Fashion). This is a counter publication to a lot of the big brand fashion mags so if you're after a slightly younger approach to the Vogue's of this world then this might be worth your time. I'll warn you though, this magazine is still very much the result of big brand advertising and with the first SIXTY pages being dedicated solely to fashion adverts, there's a lot of Vogue still in here.

Find them here - CR Fashion

Treats!

Treats! magazine is best described as fine-art erotica. If that's not the type of 'fashion' magazine that interests you then I understand but I feel it deserves a significant mention here as it houses some of the best collections of photography I've seen in a very long time, and consistently too. It is available at only a few locations but your best bet is a subscription. I have probably found more influential photographers in this magazine than any other in recent years and if anybody is familiar with and loves the work of Kesler Tran, you'll love this (some issues should really just be called the Kesler Tran Magazine). If you're after great imagery coming out of the golden light of L.A. then I can't recommend this enough. Treats is supposed to be quarterly but it's closer to biannually so I guess it just comes out when it's good and ready and not before.

Find them here - Treats!

Hunger Magazine

Hunger Magazine is Rankin's latest magazine. After launching the incredibly successful Dazed & Confused in 1992 and then RANK in 2000 (I absolutely love RANK magazine, it's very rare so I haven't featured it here - definitely grab a copy if you ever get the chance), then he published 'Another' Magazine in 2001 and then 'Another Man' Magazine after that. It's fair to say that world renowned fashion and portrait photographer Rankin loves magazines. But it wasn't until 2012 that his latest publication Hunger was beset upon us. Hunger is biannual and is one of the absolute best places to check out the young, up and coming artists, creatives, stylists and designers of our time. It usually weighs in at around 500+ pages so it's like 6 months worth of magazines being released all at once but all for the price of one. If haven't seen this already, you must check it out.

Find them here - Hunger TV

Wylde Magazine

I'll be honest, I know very little about this magazines history or even when it started, all I know is that it produces a magazine with stunning content that is brilliantly and beautifully huge. The Wylde website quotes the size as 'super-size, high-gloss' and I'd have to agree. If you're after stunning fashion imagery printed on high quality paper and the bigger better, then look no further. This is the wild card on the list (no pun intended) as there's very little info out there on their background beyond the stunning images of the 'artier' side of fashion. If you see it, it's definitely worth a look.

Find them here - Wylde Magazine

Dazed (formally known as Dazed & Confused)

I actually no longer buy Dazed magazine in favour of some of the others I've mentioned here but it's because I took a look at their recent issue featuring the work of photographer Gareth McConnell that I even decided to write this article. Gareth McConnell's work is best described as artistic and he uses a camera like a painter uses a brush, it's a tool but also a fundamental player in the end result. It was McConnell's work that made me realise that I'd have never seen this type of work online whilst perusing my regular visual channels like Instagram. I needed magazines like Dazed & Confused to show me new work and whether I liked it or not, I was being shown work that I wouldn't have normally chosen to look at.

Above is the work of Gareth McConnell for his Christian Dior special in Dazed & Confused Magazine. More of his work can be found here at his site Gareth McConnell

Dazed & Confused along with The Face Magazine were staples of my pre-internet 90's photography influence, so if you're after magazine heritage it doesn't come much more established than this. Dazed & Confused was started in 1992 by photographer Rankin and editor Jefferson Hack and although it's changed and grown over the years, the fundamentals of it being a magazine that uses creativity to empower a younger generation by redefining the populous mindset are certainly still there. That might sound like lofty goals but you'll see what I mean as soon as you open it up. This is definitely worth a browse at the very least.

Find them here - DAZED

Print Vs. Digital

So that's my top ten list of magazines I urge you to check if you ever get the chance. I still believe print is important and I will continue to buy my favourite magazines to enjoy them but what's more important than the medium is the content. Fantastic magazines like Treats are very hard to come by in the U.K. and without spending $25 for each one to be posted from the U.S. I opt for the digital copy. It's far from the same but at least I get to enjoy these magazines in some form rather than not at all. I've included the links of all the magazines so why not meet them halfway and purchase their digital copies at the very least.

In Conclusion

I mentioned at the top that curated content comes from a trusted source, a source that has proven its worth and has earned the right of your time by default. A lot of the magazines that I've mentioned here have done this tenfold, the magazines and their editors have proven this by not only their content but by weathering the horrific downfall of print in recent years with tried and tested content that ultimately maintains the trust of its readers. Even some of the younger magazines that have only been around for a few years so far, their fresh faces and young age is in name only. Magazines like CR Fashion book may have only released issue one in 2012 but the editor at the helm Carine Roitfeld, had a successful decade leading the incredible Vogue Paris prior to that, plus decades of industry experience as well. These are curators to be trusted.

In fact a lot of the older magazines like Dazed & Confused that were crushing it in the early 90's are the inspiration for a lot of great photographers you likely already follow today. If it was good enough for them, its likely good enough for us too.

What's important to a take from all of this is making a little extra effort to expose yourself to new and sometimes confusing content. No, you're not going to love absolutely everything that these magazines publish, no you're not going to understand why they published that out of focus blurry mess, but that's okay, remember they thought Andy Warhol was mad once too.

We as creatives have to keep exposing ourselves to new and original content if we ever hope to grow not only as individuals but as a collective. Instagram is not curated content, we have to experience the rough with the smooth to get perspective and to feed the creative beast. Imagine how many great songs would be missing in the world if there was no heartache.

Thanks as always for reading all of that guys, I appreciate your time more than you'll ever know.

Now go check out Sharknado :D

Any questions, pop them down below and although I've waffled on for long enough, I still missed so many great mags. Let me know your favourites as I'd love to discover more great magazines like these :)

:WARNING: Sponsored by JHP below :D

If you're interested in any of my work and would like to know more about how I created some of my shots then why not check out my workshops. Here you can find out everything there is to know about Gelled Lighting, Long Exposure Flash Photography and my entire Post-Pro Workflow. Jake Hicks Photography - Workshops

I've also just released a brand new 22 hour complete Gelled Lighting Tutorial video. I go over everything from studio lighting setups with gels to being on location with gels plus I also go through my complete retouching and post pro workflow. For more details and complete breakdown of everything that's include check out my Coloured Gel Portraits Tutorial

I also offer comprehensive coloured gel packs. These collections of gels are what I use day to day to create some of the most highly saturated colours around. If you're looking at getting into gelled lighting or need to get stronger and richer colours in your coloured gel work why not check out my Jake Hicks Photography Gel Packs

First Impressions - Spekular Modular LED Lighting Video

I few weeks ago I mentioned that I had gotten my hands on some modular LED lighting to test. Well I finally had chance to have a quick play with them and this video shares my first impressions of my time with them :)

I go through what a modular LED light system is, plus I discuss some of the various uses there are for it.
I also share my images after using them with coloured gels, and talk about how I set the shots up and what ultimately makes these lightsunique in my opinion over any other lighting that is out there right now.

If nothing else, take a look at the shots as they are unlike any other lighting I've used in the past so the results are likewise pretty interesting looking.

If you're even remotely interested in LED lighting then take a look. But even if you know nothing about LED lights, these are definitely a creative option to look at from a portrait lighting point of view.
As always, I understand you might not want to listen to me waffling on so I have included handy time codes in the description plus links and discounts* etc if you're interested.
*As a side note this is not an ad, I don't get any kickbacks on these, I'm simply just sharing my thoughts on them :)

After you've checked the vid I'd be interested to hear what you guys make of them though. Do you think they look interesting enough to try? Do you think you could use these in your current portrait shoots? Or would you never ever use LED lighting to begin with? Let me know here or on the vid on YouTube.

Links Mentioned in the Video:

Spekular Website

Essential Photo Website - Discount code HICK5-OFF (The S in Hicks is a number 5/five).

Coloured Gels

DIY GoPro Ring Light for under £10

Technique Tuesday Facebook Thumbnail DIY gorpo ring light.jpg

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.

The original problem I had to solve was the fact that the GoPro cameras are tricky to use in conjunction with additional lighting on the go. Ordinarily you don't need additional light when you're windsurfing in seas of the Caribbean or hang-gliding over the cliffs of Yosemite, but for those off-days when you're not risking life limb for YouTube views, it's nice to put the GoPro to use in other areas too and that's where I encountered my problem. How to light a video portrait whilst on the move?

With your feet firmly planted on dry land, the GoPro is also an incredibly versatile video camera and in the newer models like the GoPro Hero 6, the manual functionality is pretty impressive too, so not why use it? It's not just for extreme sports after all.

I had to shoot some short filler video sequences of other people and also film some selfie-style pieces to camera as well. The issue comes with the lighting of the person in the shot, sure you can adjust and compensate the exposure a little in the camera settings but balancing the ambient light and the subject light was becoming tricky whilst on the move. This is where the ring light came in to save the day as it did a perfect job of seamlessly lighting the subject whilst still looking natural enough with the ambient light behind the subject whilst they moved through their environment.

We don't have the final footage to share here just yet but here's myself illustrating the results with the ring light turned on and the ring light off on the street via a couple of stills below.

**Raw GoPro Hero6 shots taken without ring light attached.**

**Raw GoPro Hero6 shots taken WITH ring light attached.**

It should be pretty clear to see that when the ring light isn't switched on, the subjects face is pretty dark compared to the surroundings (and pretty unflattering if I might add). But when the ring is turned on, the lighting on the subjects face is completely transformed. The light is a lot more 'forgiving' on the subjects complexion but it's also fairly similar to the surrounding environmental light, making this a very useful tool to have in your bag if the need arises, especially as it will only cost you a tenner.

What do you need?

GoPro

First up you'll obviously need your GoPro. I'm guessing that if you're checking out this article then you already have one but in fairness this little tech-combo will work on any mini-lensed camera like a phone for a example. I'll share images of the mobile phone alternative down below if you're interested.

The ring light I'm using here is actually specifically designed for the GoPro Hero 3+/4 and 5 Session cameras but it works fine on my GoPro Hero 6 as you can see here with a little help.

Your Ring Light

Obviously you'll need your ring light and here's the one I used with some links below. Like I mentioned above, this one is designed for the slightly larger lens housing in the older GoPro's but works absolutely fine on the newer Hero6 like you see me using here.

I've provided a link to the cheaper Chinese version here which is exactly the same product but will take a couple of weeks longer to arrive, or pay a couple of quid more and get it in a couple of days.

Cheap + Long arrival time (product posted from China)

Almost as Cheap + Get it in a couple of days (if you're UK based)

Your Power Pack

Once you have your ring light you'll soon realise it's completely useless without some power and oddly enough the ring light is USB powered. I say oddly as it's unlikely that you'll be using this ring light and GoPro combo with a laptop tucked under your arm. The next best thing is a mini USB power bank and thankfully, once again they can be obtained very cheaply.

The power packs actually provide a couple of benefits; firstly they don't require you to be plugged into anything leaving you to move around freely without hindrance and secondly, they're actually pretty lightweight. I think had this setup required AA's or AAA batteries the whole thing would be a lot heavier. Plus as a bonus point, the power bank acts as a mini-handle whilst attached so it makes the whole item a lot easier to hold and manoeuvre around.

Plus these power banks can be recharged as many times as you like so you only have to buy this one battery and you're done. Remember that this will also power and recharge any device that has a USB cable like smart phones and tablets etc so it's always going to be useful on or off the camera.

Here's a link to the one I used 2600 mAh USB Power Bank

Attachments

This is as basic as it comes really, just grab a bunch of elastic bands and you're done. Try to obviously get some that are going to hold the items together fairly firmly though. The ring light does actually come with a velcro strap that wraps around the camera and does a pretty good job of holding it on. The only down side is that it covers the screen on the back. If you're not bothered about seeing the screen then just use that instead.

Now What?

Once you have all the pieces, simply hang them off one another and you're done :D

Step 1

Attach the power bank to the side of the GoPro like you see here with a couple of sturdy elastic bands.

Step 2

Attach the ring light to the front of the GoPro via the attachment points provided.

Step 3

Lastly simply wrap the remaining cable around the 'handle' that is the power bank and put a final elastic band at the bottom to stop it from unravelling. Make sure to leave enough cable at the the end so that you can plug it into the power bank to turn it on.

You're Done

JakeHicksPhotography (11 of 17) step 4.jpg

It really is as simple as that. You now have your ring light attached alongside the power bank that doubles up as a handle too.

One last tip, in the settings of the camera of the Hero 6 (not sure on other models) you can adjust the exposure compensation. This is the best way in my experience to manage any brightness issues you might encounter and I had mine at between EV-1 and EV-2.

For those that are interested, the brightness of this LED lamp is measured at f2.8, 1/60th sec, ISO 400 when the camera is at arms length from the face (approx. two feet).

Bonus Tip

For those without a GoPro or if you just wanted to use the ring light with varying cameras, here's how I attached mine to my iPhone.

JakeHicksPhotography (13 of 17) iphone ring light.jpg

So there you have it, a perfect little ring light for your GoPro for under £10 which actually does a really good job of lighting the subject at arms length when you're on the move or on location with surrounding ambient light. I'm not sure how long the battery lasts as I haven't run mine out yet, but seeing as it's a just a handful of small LEDs I think the battery life will likely easily match that of the GoPro anyway.

As always if you have any questions or something doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them when I can. Thanks for reading guys and enjoy.

:WARNING: Oh look, some amazing ways to spend that money I've just saved you await below :D

Social Media Analytics Year on Year Post - Instagram Vs. Facebook

So another year down and yet another yearly round-up of ‘Top Ten images of 2017’. Yes I know every monkey with an iPhone in the last 24 hours has shoved these ‘best of’ posts down your throat and yes I know that we all feel obliged to ‘like’ them so I apologise for yet another one.

For me though, I do genuinely do this list for myself in the hope that I may glean some knowledge from the results. There’s no short-cut to it either on FB I’m afraid because you have to manually select them yourself but I t think it’s worth doing if you have some similar data to look at.

Why bother?

Well I think that us as image creators have to admit one thing; If we’re posting on social media then it’s because we value an ‘audience’. Without getting to existential about this, I personally believe art doesn’t exist without an audience, so to understand your art you should at least consider who your audience is and what they like. Remember your clients were all your audience before becoming a client.

Is Facebook still a relevant platform to display work?

This was and still is a big concern of mine. We are becoming culturally conditioned to ‘drive-by’ like the occasional post we see. The newer generation wants to be anywhere BUT where their parents are hanging out so as we still use FB, they’re obviously flocking to Instagram. I use Instagram (occasionally) but I don’t enjoy it. I can’t get a meaningful discussion going with you guys there like I can on FB, nor can I write posts like this, it’s simply not built or designed for it.

Surely Instagram is where the audience is though right?

Well yes… and no. Let me share some numbers with you; my Instagram following has grown by about 8000 in 2017. Conversely my FB following grew by about 4000 in 2017 compared to about a 7000 growth increase in 2016. This is conclusive proof to me that the FB growth is slowing down dramatically compared to a huge and ravenous growth on Instagram.

Facebook Page following growth is slowing dramatically year on year.

But it’s the ‘wrong’ growth I’m afraid. Sure I get 10-15 message requests from models a day to shoot but that’s not my business model at the moment. In contrast, I very rarely get FB model request yet I often get commercial businesses and potential clients reaching out consistently on FB.

So I’ll let you guys decide where you want to focus your attention but for me, I’ll be continuing to focus on my interactive and client friendly FB page.

Do image ‘likes’ matter?

I was genuinely surprised if I’m honest, I really thought that image ‘likes’ had dropped off. Thankfully the contrary turned out to be true. In 2016, not a single top-ten image crept into the 400+ zone whereas 2017 saw all of the top 5 scooping that accolade and even into the highly coveted 500+ realm!

You may not immediately understand the relevance of this but let me also say that in 2015 and 2016, I saw hardly any uplift in individual image ‘likes’ whatsoever. Check both the 2015 and 2016 top-ten images below to see what I mean. This actually tells me that although new member growth is down by half this year, engagement and interaction is up massively year on year compared to previous years! This is great news to me and maybe the ‘like/love/wow’ system that FB introduced in recent times has encouraged people to interact more but some of my images even saw a staggering 25,000 person reach! There’s no denying that figure exists, we just have to make the right content to achieve it.

What about your snaps ‘tho?

So finally we can now take a quick look at the top ten shots of 2107 :D

Like I said a moment ago, what a huge uplift in image interactions this year. The top three all getting 500+ and the top five all getting 400+.

From a personal creative standpoint I tried to push my style in different directions last year. Sure it’s just another gel shoot-out but I was very adamant about trying some softer pastel looks and I was over the moon to see how well they were received b you guys especially as the pastel shots got three in the top ten including the number one spot.

Either my location work wasn’t as strong last year or my studio shots are simply just preferred, we had none in this list surprisingly. I’d like to do more this year but I personally love the challenge of location gels.

Of course I love working with all the models I have the good fortune to photograph but all of them here are simply exceptional without question. In fact Aly Sky gets the entire podium to herself this year and Maria Amanda also manages to equal her with three images in the top ten too, not to mention Lady Lauren competing with herself with a tied 9th spot. I can highly recommend any of these ladies and I guarantee you wont be disappointed by the results if you are lucky enough to work with them in 2018.

Thank you

So there we have it, JHP 2017 in numbers. Thank you to the one brave soul that will probably read this far down and to you I ask 'will you be focusing on Instagram or FB in 2018?'

Thanks as always to all the teams I worked with last year, you’re all fantastic :D But more importantly thank you to you guys, you’re the ones continuously interacting and engaging so seriously, thank you for that :)

This was YOUR favourite pictures of 2017, I’ll be sharing my personal favourites next week so we’ll see how different they are ;)

Have a great 2018 guys :D

Using Coloured Gels with your Lensbaby

Technique Tuesday Facebook Thumbnail Temp edge 80.jpg

Often a scene can be visually confusing, especially if there’s multiple colours and objects in focus that are fighting for our viewers attention. This simple technique that I'm sharing here uses a single dominant coloured gel to simplify the scene visually, then we can draw the attention of our viewer with our Lensbaby lens.

One of the key characteristics of this shot is the blurred focus effect. First impressions might tell you that this effect is created in post-production but in actuality this look is created in-camera with a Lensbaby lens. Lensbaby is a lens manufacturing company that specialises in making lenses that take photos with with very distinctive effects baked into every frame. These lenses create these effects without the need for editing programs and filters and the effects that these lenses can create range from user defined radial blurs, slices of focus and even swirly backgrounds, all of which are achieved with each and every shutter press.

In this setup we’ll be using the Lensbaby Sweet 50 in conjunction with coloured gels to grab the attention of our viewers by leading our viewers gaze exactly where we want it and by creating a uniform and less distracting colour palette with a single coloured gel.

Taking Control

What you'll need

1x Lensbaby Sweet 50
1x Camera
1x Light stand
1x Floor stand (simply resting the light on the floor will also work)
2x Flash heads or Speedlights
1x Key light modifier. Beauty Dish/Softbox/Umbrella
1x Fill light modifier. I recommend a small softbox.
1x Backdrop
(Optional Fan)
Some coloured gels. I used a blue gel here.
Photoshop

Setting up your camera

We will be shooting with flash so I firstly recommend you set your camera to Manual mode. Next we’ll set our shutter speed to 1/125th of a second to sync it to the flash and we’ll set the ISO to 100 or as low as your camera will go. If you can adjust the White Balance on your camera then set it to the flash setting (lightening bolt). We will be using a manual focus lens with the Lensbaby so we can’t set the aperture just yet and we’ll do that next.

Setting up your Lens

If you’ve never used a manual focus lens before then this might seem odd, but we have to adjust the aperture of the shot on the lens itself. A lot of these specialist lenses don’t ‘talk’ directly to the camera so we have to adjust aperture and focus manually. For this shot I went with f4 to offer me the best balance of depth of field versus lens blur. I’m also using the Sweet 50 Lensbaby lens so I’m going to position it at the angle you see in the image below. This will allow me to position the ‘in-focus’ area of the Lensbaby on the models face when I’m using the camera in portrait orientation.

Selecting and setting up your key light modifier

It's worth thinking about which modifier you'll be using for your key light. I used a 22" white beauty dish with a diffusion sock here but a small 60cm softbox or umbrella would work just as well. For this setup I positioned the beauty dish off to camera right, about arms reach away from the model and just above her head, angled down at about 45 degrees.

Setting up your Fill Light

I used a small 60cm x 60cm soft box on a floor stand but you could get away with resting this on the floor if you don’t have one. I placed it on the opposite side of the model as the key light so off to camera left. This will allow the fill light to colour the shadows created by the key light. I’ve also angled it up towards the models face.

Gelling your Fill Light

This is thankfully far easier than you might think. You don’t actually need huge sheets of gels to cover your entire soft box. As long as the flash tube is covered then your light will be gelled. I simply tear open the soft-boxes front diffusion panel to expose the flash tube and tape a gel on the inside. If you’re using a flash that has tungsten modelling bulbs then this will get very hot, I strongly recommend turning off or removing the modelling bulbs to avoid melting any gels.

Setting up the background

I’ve chosen a textured and mottled backdrop that isn’t too dark in colour. You can use what you prefer but I’ve chosen this as I want some visible texture in the background when I start to implement the Lensbaby blur. I also want my background to be light enough to take some of the blue gelled light so that the whole image visually ties together.

Jake Hicks Photography Main Setup Shot.jpg

Backdrop

You can use any backdrop you want but I opted for a background that would take some of the colour from the coloured gel and that also had some texture to blur with the Lensbaby.

Model

Position your model about three feet away from the backdrop. Not so close that the key light will cast a shadow on it and not so far away that no light from the coloured fill light will hit it.

Keylight

Beauty Dish. You can substitute this for a softbox or umbrella but you should position it above the models head, about 2-3 feet away and off to one side.

Fill Light

I recommend a small soft box here. Mine was placed on the opposite side to the model as the key light.

Final Image

Once you start shooting you're looking to obviously keep the models eyes in focus but you should now see that the bottom half of the image is blurred. Don't confuse this with being out of focus as this is actually the lens that is blurring it and as long as the eyes are in focus the image should look great.

Also bear in mind that the amount of blurring can be adjusted via the aperture of the lens as well as the amount at which you angle the lens via its ball joint. Wider apertures like f2.8 will create far more blur than smaller ones like f8. Plus more dramatic angles and tilts on the lens will produce far more blurring whereas less tilt will produce a more subtle effect.

If you're interested in trying out different Lensbaby lenses then here's a quick look at what some of them look like in the image below.

For a more in-depth rundown of the individual effects then check this previous article of mine on the subject 'Comparing the Lensbaby Lens Effects'

So there you have it, a super quick and easy lighting setup to try with gels and your Lensbaby. I really like this setup as it adds a lot of colour via the gel and that extra colour is a great way to add interest and detail for the Lensbaby lenses to show off their affects.

Definitely give it a go and as always if you have any questions let me know :)

I also have a discount code for anybody who is interested in picking up any of the Lensbaby lenses here in the U.K. via WEX Photographic

I have worked very closely with the fine people over at Lensbaby for many years and they have very kindly allowed me to share my discount code with you. If you decide to use my code to get some money off your purchases then I will also receive a few pennies for the beer fund so please feel free to use it if you'd like to :)

Use the code JAKEHICKS10 at checkout to get 10% off any Lensbaby lens at WEX Photographic.

:WARNING: Imagine if you had some way to spend that Christmas money you've just received! I have the answer to all of your photographer problems below :D