Number 1

Lighting Setup: Projection Backgrounds

This being number 1 actually surprised me a lot. Why? Well, firstly this is a very niche setup that requires a decent amount of kit before you can even begin to play with it. Secondly, this is a very creative setup. Broadly speaking, you get far more views on very basic articles as that encompasses most readers' skills. For example, my all-time most popular article by a mile is one on whether 50mm or 85mm is better for portraits. So to have this very creative and slightly trickier setup at number 1 is amazing. My best guess as to why it comfortably made it here, is due to the rise in projector usage. Even though I’ve been using and recommending people to use projectors for years, there’s still very little info on how to use them in more creative ways.

If you missed this article the first time around, definitely give it a look as I walk you through a shoot where I worked with a singer to capture a ton of variety in a short space of time thanks to the versatility of using a projector on set.

Lighting Setup: Projection Backgrounds

Number 2

Lighting Setup: Affordable LED Tubes

Long-time followers of my work will know that I’ve shot with these LED tubes a lot in the last year and although I’ve used them on several shoots since this was first published, this article talks you through how I went about problem-solving how to work with lights in frame and provide some DIY solutions on how to secure them in shot.

Plus this article also looks at how affordable these LEDs are. Many LED tubes are extremely expensive and although we sacrifice a little brightness and white light quality with these more affordable ones, there are some further benefits beyond actual cost savings too.

If you missed this very popular article from last year, definitely check it out as along with the actual setup, I also share my thoughts on the LED light drop-off versus flash too.

Lighting Setup: Affordable LED Tubes

Number 3

Lighting Setup: Using a DIY Scrim in the Studio

I think if you were an aspiring writer and wanted some quick tips on how to grow your article's popularity, one of my top tips would absolutely be to include ‘DIY’ in your title! Photographers LOVE to spend tons of money on camera gear, but when it comes to lighting and lighting modifiers, they’ll happily break out the toilet rolls and washing-up liquid bottles to save a few quid!

Last year's number 3 article isn’t quite that ‘Blue Peter’ (1980s kids rise up), but it showcases a few setups that use a DIY scrim to soften the key light along with diagrams and examples of what and where to buy your money-saving modifier, this article demonstrates just how much a scrim can change the quality of light in your portraits. If you’ve never used a scrim before, definitely check this one out.

Lighting Setup: Using a DIY Scrim in the Studio

Number 4

Rotolight's LED Flash Duration

As a more ‘mature’ gentleman myself, there has been a very rare occasion where I wasn’t completely up to speed on the latest and greatest technological innovations of our fine art form. Putting aside the fact that I still use a DSLR for a moment, one area where I have been hugely interested in its future advancements is lighting. Spoiler alert, that future is not flash.

Along with many of you, I’ve progressively been switching a lot of my lighting from flash to LED. But this switch wasn’t as simple as you might think. Yes, LEDs offer a ton of benefits, but there are also many aspects of that switch that we need to consider. For example, with LED panels, the inverse square law principle that we’ve all lived by for decades is completely turned on its head. Another very interesting aspect that’s changed with LEDs, is flash duration. I think it’s easy to assume that flash happens instantaneously, but that’s far from the truth. What happens to flash when we no longer need to ignite gas to create that bright burst we’re used to, how do LEDs do it?

This article looks at the flash duration of LEDs and I try my best to explain exactly what happens when you ‘flash’ an LED light. If you’re even remotely interested in the science behind photography AKA a nerd like me, then you should absolutely check this article out if you missed it originally.

Rotolight's LED Flash Duration

Number 5

Godox Spotlight - It's in my top 5 best lighting modifiers of all time!

I’m very happy this article squeezed into the top 5 last year as although it was first shared later in 2023, I’m glad to see it gained some traction. Why am I happy this made it in? Simply because this Godox Spotlight modifier is truly remarkable and likely one of the most versatile modifiers I’ve ever used. And as the title suggests, this modifier is easily in my top 5 favourite modifiers of all time!

If you know anything about this type of modifier, you’ll know that it's an extremely hard-light modifier, how on earth can it be versatile? This is where the article was interesting for me, as although there are scores of people talking about what this can do to channel and carve very defined hard-light looks, this modifier can also produce some of the softest light I’ve ever had the privilege of using. If you’re somewhat suspicious of how that’s even possible and missed this article when it was first published, be sure to take a look at the full article as I share tons of setups for both very hard-light light shots as well as super soft-light shots.

Godox Spotlight - It's in my top 5 best lighting modifiers of all time!

Closing comments…

Did you recognise any of those articles? Miss any of them when they were originally posted? Either way, this is a nice little catch-up on some of my more popular posts from the previous year and not only is it a handy reminder for you guys, but it’s also a useful process for me to see what type of content is more popular than others.

More often than not, these annual reviews see some surprises for me in the Top 5. Not articles that shouldn’t be there, but more often I’m surprised at certain articles that didn't make it, articles that I thought would be popular, but weren't. This year didn’t see me surprised at what didn’t make it, but I was still very surprised to see that number 1 article being taken by that very creative projector setup. Maybe that’s a sign I should be sharing more of those types of arty-farty setups! :D

Were there any surprises in there for you? Are there articles from last year that you thought should have been here? Also, do you have any suggestions for future articles this year? Let me know and as always, thank you for checking them out.

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JHP Livestreams…

If you give any of these setups a go, I’d love to see how the shots turn out, so feel free to share them my way. One way to do that is via my livestream. I livestream every other Tuesday night via my YouTube channel and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. Jake Hicks Photography on YouTube

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The Slow Death of Creativity in Modern Photography

Is photography all the same today? What makes one image different from one another when not only technology allows us to rely on features that trivialise traditional skills, but the pool from which many learn new skills, is so easily accessible?

At a surface level this automation of foundational skills and us all having permanent access to a global knowledge pool that is continuously updated sounds amazing, but are we all becoming the same? If we all have the same tool and the same knowledge, do we run the risk of producing very similar work?

Photography has never been easier

Nearly all modern digital cameras are objectively good today, but even older cameras are excellent and arguably one of the greatest digital cameras ever made, the Canon 5D MKII can be picked up for less than £200 toady!

The barrier to entry for photography is extremely low today as almost any digital camera made in the last 20 years is objectively excellent and due to their popularity, even cameras that are only a few years old can be acquired relatively cheaply. In fact, one of the best digital cameras ever made was the Canon 5D MKII and that can be picked up for less than £200 second-hand today! Of course, all of this doesn’t even include the fact that we all own a mini-super computer coupled with an excellent camera in our pockets at all times. Almost anybody today can jump into photography and thanks to digital technology, there are no additional and recurring costs like there used to be with analogue film. Once you have your camera, you’re good to go.

Of course, owning a camera doesn’t mean you know how to use it. Right? Modern cameras have done away with the need for you to learn the skill of focusing, nor do you need to be a human light meter and remember things like the ‘Sunny 16’ rule. In fact, for the most part, pointing your camera in the general direction is quite literally all you need to do to get a great image, especially if you’ve ‘forgotten’ to turn off the film emulations the shot you’ve just taken is cover-worthy straight out of the gate.

Yes, your modern camera can all but walk the dog and render differential geometry of the shapes you point it at, but it’s still far from making any real creative decisions, right? It obviously can't create art, right?

We’re all artists

We as humans have an innate sense of beauty and yes, I mean everyone. At its most elemental level, we all agree that sunsets, puppies and tropical islands are beautiful. But from here, we start to diverge. Some may think babies are beautiful, flowers in bloom, maybe brunettes, fast cars and even knives and guns can be beautiful to some. Herein lies the sense of self that makes us unique from one another and when we translate what we personally perceive to be beautiful to our own work. This is our art.

Our ability to appreciate beauty is in all of us. Beauty is certainly subjective, but there our many staples of beauty we all agree on like sunsets, cute animals etc. The image above is taken from my as yet unreleased Colour 2.0 workshop, but on the left it shows images synonymous with beauty, but as we move to the right, our personal definitions of beauty may differ.

This innate sense of beauty is far stronger than you think too. Somehow you instinctively know what colours go well together, or at worst you definitely know what colours don’t go together. You know what tastes bad and what tastes good and whether you play an instrument or not, I could play you a note on piano and you’d somehow instinctively know if it was out of tune. So with your innate notion of beauty and your unique code of preferences, you're able to create art. Right?

Yes, anything created and viewed by an audience can technically be deemed as art. For many, the intent behind the work is a stronger signifier of what art is, but for the most part, all of us are very capable of art as we all have a unique voice and vision. But is that uniqueness being eroded today as we're all funnelled into what’s ‘trending’ at any one time? If we are all being inspired by a collective source, do we lose our unique vision?

Foundational Art

Human history has given us incredible artists. The early Renaissance of the 1400s gave us work from artists like Domenico Veneziano and Filippo Brunelleschi as well as many others. They largely pioneered the idea of perspective and Chiaroscuro, two incredibly fundamental tenets of nearly all art today. As the Renaissance period unfolded, we got geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo in the early 1500s and although I’m sure they need little introduction, they made huge strides in understanding light-play and extremely detailed dimensional work. As we moved into the early 1600s, the baroque style emerged with Caravaggio producing work with heavy contrast and deep colours, work that not only holds up today but is arguably still unsurpassed. The 1800s saw the birth of neoclassicism, a style heavily driven by a need for realism as the Ancient Greeks saw beauty existing in the natural form. The work created by artists of the time like John William Godward and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres is nothing short of breathtaking as their ability to render skin in pale tones and soft light is incredible.

*Domenico Veneziano - The Madonna and Child with Saints c. 1445–47*

*Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa c. 1503–1516*

*Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel - 1508–1512*

*Caravaggio - Saint Jerome Writing - c. 1605–1606*

*Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres - Grande Odalisque - 1814*

*John William Godward - Mischief and Repose - 1895*

As we leave the twilight years of the 1800s and move away from the work of the ‘old masters’ we enter the 1900s and of course not only the introduction of modern art, but the heretical discipline of the devil worshippers now known today as photography.

Most of us are all too aware of the work of many of these more modern artists. In fact, most of this work is so iconic that we not only know the name of the artist but the names of the individual pieces they created. Work like Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’, Paul Cezanne’s ‘Les joueurs de cartes’ (The card players), Monet’s ‘Water Lillies’, Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ and Picasso’s ‘Les Demoiselles d'Avignon’ (you’ll know it when you see it). There are countless others I could list here, but the point still stands, that although all of these works are over a century old, we’re not only aware of them, but know them well.

*Paul Cézanne - Les joueurs de cartes (The Card Players) - 1892–1895*

*Pablo Picasso - Les Demoiselles d'Avignon - 1907*

From here we even know world-famous works that explored expressionism and abstract art from artists like Wassily Kandinsky and his ‘Yellow-Red-Blue’ as well as Piet Mondrian’s ‘Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow’. And if we look just over our shoulders we can still almost taste the pop-art era thanks to the likes of Andy Warhol and his ‘Campbell's Soup I’.

*Piet Mondriaan - Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow - 1930*

Andy Warhol - *Campbell's Soup I - 1968*

Although the photographic discipline is still in its infancy if compared to art in general, we still have many prominent artists who made strides where others hadn’t gone before. Nearly all know Ansel Adams, but most should also know other early pioneers like Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Irving Penn and Helmut Newton. As I say, you should all know those names, but they were all from the very early 20th century, as we move forward, we get far fewer influential names appearing. I’m sure David Bailey and Annie Leibovitz is among the ones we know, maybe even Mario Testino - Personally, I’m not sure whether we should include artists who are famous for depicting other famous people, but the old masters painted lots of famous people of the time, so I’ll allow it. If it was up to me, I’d absolutely put Nick Knight amongst this lot and if you’ve somehow not heard of this incredible photographer, that only lends more credence to my next point. Why do we know a huge number of names from only the first half of the 20th Century? Are there simply fewer great photographers today?

*Henri Cartier-Bresson - The Var department. Hyères, France - 1932*

Ansel Adams - *The Tetons and the Snake River - 1942*

*Annie Leibovitz - Leonardo diCaprio - 1997*

*Richard Avedon - Dovima with elephants - 1955*

***Devon Aoki for Alexander McQueen - 1997***

The end of ‘household names’?

So where does that leave us today? Where are the Caravaggio’s and Van Gogh’s today? Where are the Picasso’s and Mondrian’s, where are the Avedon’s and Bailey’s?

I find it hard to believe scholars will be looking back at one of the most ‘famous’ ‘artists’ of the 21st Century, only to find out they were a TikTok star.

Of course, you could argue that it’s simply the discipline that’s lost popularity. Today we have cinema and computer games and there are certainly household names to some degree in those fields. Everybody has heard of Steven Spielberg and Quinten Tarantino from cinema and to a lesser extent, Todd Howard and Hideo Kojima in gaming. These are undoubtedly huge names, but they are also the figureheads of major productions and studios. I’m sure none of them would claim to have created what they have alone and some of these artists sit atop the hard work of hundreds, if not thousands of other contributors and artists. Many film directors are famous, but they couldn’t light their way out of a dimly lit room. Is their art really theirs alone to own? If I had a great idea for a painting and I hired someone else to paint it for me, am I still the artist?

So, has original art from the individual artist reached its saturation point? Have all the new revolutions in art been discovered and shared? Have we really seen the end of household names like David Bailey and Mario Testino? If so, why?

Insane or just an artist?

I mentioned at the start of this article/thesis/manifesto that photography has never been easier thanks to not only a very affordable entry point but also extremely intelligent technology that removes a lot of the guesswork and foundational knowledge that was historically required to even see a useable image in the past. I also said that even though we have all this technology, it still can't produce art, after all, that is still a fundamentally human trait (put your pitchforks down AI zealots). So why aren’t we seeing any revolutionary work like we used to? To be clear, I’m not saying that incredible new art isn’t out there, but will it be remembered in a hundred years. let alone two hundred years?

Yes, everybody is capable of making art, but what makes some art ‘better’ than others? What makes some art stand out and be remembered?

Art is often the product of the self as I mentioned above, it’s what makes it unique, but for it to be really unique it has to stand apart from the norm and outside of the populous. It has to be revolutionary.

Why do you think many of the legendary artists I mentioned above died penniless? Why do you think they were often seen as mad or treated like pariahs? You don’t get to be unique AND hang out with the cool-kids. It’s simply not possible. If you’re producing work that is outside of the social norms and standing out, you’re doing something unique and original. This is why much of that historic art is heralded today as it was often well ahead of its time, this is why many of those artist were never famous in their lifetimes and many only scraped by. Van Gogh only sold a single painting in his lifetime before committing suicide at 37, yet in 2022, his ‘Orchard with Cypresses’ piece, sold for a record-breaking $117 million!

Claude Monet, the founder of French Impressionism, had his work at the time described as “formless, unfinished and ugly”. Consequently, he and his family lived in poverty for much of their lives, yet In 2019, his Meules (Haystacks), sold for $110.7 million.

These artists were producing work that was far from trendy, they were producing work that was very personal and unique to them and in certain cases, this work was different, because they were different. Many scholars today herald these great artists as geniuses, but the line between genius and insanity is often dangerously thin.

*Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889, Vincent van Gogh - Famously Van Gogh cut off his own ear, before then posing for a self portrait. Genius artist of his time, but was clearly troubled.*

Van Gogh, who as I mentioned earlier tragically committed suicide at 37, famously cut off his own ear, wrapped it up, gave it to a prostitute and then went on to paint a self-portrait. Genius? Absolutely. Would you want him babysitting your kids? Maybe not.

Caravaggio was a convicted criminal who spent time in prison. He was also notoriously violent and even stabbed a man to death over a tennis match before going into exile while continuing to fight and paint. -I swear I’m not making that up and although I’m not trying to ‘romanticise’ it, movies have been made with plots far worse than a rouge artist on-the-lam from the law fighting and painting his way across the Roman countryside!

Picasso, who in my opinion is arguably one of the most influential artists in human history, was also known to be a ‘bully’ and ‘womaniser’ and I'm being kind here.

Einstein was clearly a genius, but that came with a brain that worked differently to yours and mine and he’s famously seen as being ‘quirky’ or ‘eccentric’ today, yet he was reportedly often ‘dishevelled’ and did everything he could to avoid socialising. Today many diagnose him as being autistic, but those eccentricities of the time made him different to most.

Andy Warhol, arguably one of the most famous artists in recent memory, was also frequently reported to be exploiting those around him for his art, misogynistic and abusive towards women. Andy Warhol has had an immeasurable impact on the art world, but there are certainly those who felt used during his stratospheric rise.

And, have you met David Bailey?

I’m not saying that you need be clinically insane to be an artist, although, yes, it certainly helped Salvador Dali. Nor do you need to be a womanising asshole and yes, you can still be all of those things and still not produce a single goddamn thing of note. But to create something different, it certainly appears that being different can help make you stand out and I’ve not even mentioned the horrendous curse that afflicts so many phenomenal musicians. Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell and Ian Curtis all committed suicide often at the height of their success and that’s just the few in recent memory with a surname beginning with C!

In Susannah Butter’s article in the Standard, she discuses if we should “judge the work not the man”.

Cancel Culture

If the likes of Picasso or Warhol were alive today, would they simply be ‘cancelled’? This is tough to answer, right? What is the true cost of great art? Was Warhol reportedly a dick because he was famous thanks to his art, or was his art famous because he was an extremely driven individual with a seemingly limitless passion that simply wouldn’t take no for an answer?

This is often easier to answer in hindsight, but what would we have lost if Picasso had been ‘cancelled’? What is the human cost of Caravaggio’s talent? He killed a man whilst trying to castrate him over something as benign as a tennis match? Is, arguably some of the most influential contributions to human culture, worth a man's life?

Cancel culture has no doubt stopped some heinous acts from happening, but are they also stopping culturally relevant art from being created? Right now you’re likely either chuckling at the absurdity of the very notion that art is more important than stopping laws of decency and actual real laws being broken, or you’re thinking about trying to cancel me for even suggesting it. But if we cancelled every socially awkward misogynistic lunatic murderer we came across, how much art is left?

*Excerpt from The New Yorker where Joan Acocella wrote a piece about Andy Warhol titled* *‘Untangling Andy Warhol’*

Don’t misunderstand me here, we as the populous today should absolutely stand up for those who may not have a voice. Violence and mistreatment towards others should never be an acceptable cost of art. If we want to call stamping out bullies, ‘cancel culture’, then so be it. My point here is not to argue against cancel culture, far from it, I simply want to highlight that historically, great art has come from people who may appear different to you and I and we shouldn’t always be so quick to categorise them as social outcasts for that.

The Era of Homogenised Art

A quick search on YouTube for ‘Studio Portrait Lighting Setup’ yields several pages of similar looking results. To be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with most of these, but with most being under 10 minutes and only 1 being longer than 20, are we really teaching or just simply showing you what to do?

I’ve spoken about how great art has historically come from those who are at odds with others. Sure, mental illness was sometimes a catalyst for this, but many artists were simply a product of their time and surroundings. For the most part, they learned their craft via personal experience. Today we quite literally have the resource of global knowledge in our pockets. There is no denying that this reserve of knowledge is incredible, but what happens when we all drink for the same well?

The internet is clearly a vast resource, but it’s now becoming so vast that tools are in place to make sure we can actually find what we’re looking for. You and I know these tools as algorithms and as amazing as they are at delivering us what we ask for, they are designed to please and when that happens, that’s the only content the next person who looks for the same thing gets. In its simplest form, this is the start of a trend as the algorithm repeatedly serves the same supposedly engaging content to multiple users. This is great and (mostly) harmless when we need a little endorphin hit with our morning coffee. After all, remember when I said we all have the same baseline appreciation for beauty? A quick cat video, a beautiful shot of a sunset, easy wins for all involved and we can all enjoy the same great things together. It becomes more problematic however when we want to educate ourselves on a topic we aren’t familiar with.

If I want to learn about photography, I don’t know what I don’t know, and here in lies the problem many self-taught artists can run into. What on earth do you search for?

Historically, many young artists would be taught by the previous generation. Years ago, mentors would share their decades of hard-earned knowledge with their pupils and in recent memory, you went to college or university to again learn from the previous generations. Today, you have inexperienced artists teaching other inexperienced artists as they are the ones who are leveraging the tools of the internet to their benefit.

Before you ‘x’ out of this in fear of listening to ‘yet another grumpy old man shouting at the moon’, hear me out for a moment longer.

Let’s put aside the fact that there are thousands of terribly inaccurate hours of inexperienced knowledge being shared for the moment. In fact, let’s just assume that this free knowledge is actually sound and useful and not just a grab at jumping on the latest trend for now. If that's the case, then we really do have a wealth of information at our fingertips. This is great, but we still need to be equipped to look for it and like I said before, we simply don’t know what we don’t know. How do we know what to look for and better still, how do we know where to look?

We need some form of direction and impetus to form a knowledge structure and simply copying money-see-monkey-do is rarely a great catalyst for creativity.

Historically this structure has come from our mentors and whether that was professors or elders sharing wisdom with the previous generation, they had been where we are now and they had the experience to understand what was valuable to grow and sometimes what we need to know isn’t always what we think it is.

I’ll admit, I’ve been extremely fortunate with my education. I was blessed with incredibly enthusiastic and very creative tutors and mentors, but they didn’t always teach me things I liked or even wanted to learn.

For want of a better term, I was ‘classically trained’ and by that I mean I was taught how to paint, draw and ultimately read a scene in front of me. I was taught those skills well over 20 years ago now, yet I still use those same skills today. Paint, charcoal chalk or camera, I was taught how to read the light and view light and shadow objectively. I was taught to look at dimension through light to see how light sculpts depth and texture as it transitions to shadow and more importantly, I was taught how to interpret that into my own work. I appreciate this may seem very airy-fairy to some, but I assure you, my ability to create new ideas today comes from my ability to accurately render light in my mind before even picking up the camera and ‘hoping for the best’. That skill was given to me a long ago and it's a truly invaluable one to me in my work today, but even with what I know now, I couldn't search for that skill online today.

It’s often in the areas we think we don’t need help that often helps the most. I had assignments that made me go out and shoot street portraits of strangers. Approaching strangers and asking to photograph them is hard (granted it was more bizarre approaching strangers with a camera in the late 90’s than it is now), but it taught me to rapidly build rapport and quickly understand a character in a short space of time before taking a portrait of them. I also had to learn architectural photography on a large format 5x4 bellows camera. I had zero desire to learn about how to photograph a building, but the skill involved in trying to make a building look straight when photographed from the street is substantial. Not to mention the battles with focusing on an upside-down and inverted image on a ground glass plate with a black cloth over my head on a busy street and couple that with the exposure latitude of large format E6 being about half a stop! Note that modern cameras have an exposure latitude of 15 stops today! You really have to be dialled into what you’re doing to take that one shot. Did I enjoy it? Hell no! It was horrendous and I don’t recommend that absolute madness to anyone, but did I learn a lot about checking and verifying a scene? Absolutely. Did I learn about parallax, perspectives and composition within repeating patterns? Absolutely.

It’s this very broad base of knowledge that ultimately makes us unique and its this uniqueness that allows us to unsurprisingly create unique art.

Hell, I’m loathed to admit it, but even the ceramics course I hated probably taught me something about light and texture, just don’t tell my tutor that.

The internet is clearly incredible, but when it's designed to repeatedly feed us pleasing content, especially when it's from those who are young and inexperienced due to their ability to leverage that algorithm in their favour over more experienced artists who are out of touch with the latest delivery platform, we have an issue when that content is supposed to be educational. We're left with a generation of children teaching other children and this trend may well continue as technology and its delivery method changes faster than the knowledge being gained.

The well of the internet is not quite as deep as we’d like to imagine as 'trends' are the only knowledge that makes it to the surface and what’s worse, we don’t even realise what we're missing below.

In the words of a great sci-fi icon who was concerned about the proliferation of the self being lost into a sea of digitisation, “Overspecialise, and you breed in weakness. It’s slow death”. (20 points to the cultured few who know who said that).

The homogenisation of knowledge seems amazing at a surface level, but it’s most certainly a slow death for creativity.

Mistakes are the seeds of creativity

I’ve just spoken about how the younger generation is the first in human history to actually teach one another art. I also mentioned that we all like to simply ‘Google it’ over actually trying to learn something for ourselves. I get it, if someone else can tell me now over figuring it out for myself, that saves me time, but that shouldn’t be the way we learn how to be creative.

Put aside for a moment that you’ve essentially walked up to a total stranger on the digital street and asked them to teach you something, but I assume the goal when Googleing for someone to teach you something, is to copy them, right? I’m not judging, but if you’re being told, you’re not technically learning how to do something, you’re simply copying them.

Think about the distinction between being taught how to do something and then being given an assignment to put said skill into practice over simply watching something and then copying it. What did we really learn here that set ourselves apart from everyone else doing the same thing?

The tool we photographers use today is just so good that imagery begins to look the same when we simply copy one another. As I mentioned at the start, even bad cameras are amazing today, so the gear isn’t really setting us apart. Photography isn't like many other mediums as their tools require far more skill to use than ours does today.

If I got you all into a room and gave you all a pencil and asked you to draw the apple I'd placed on the table, all of those sketches would be vastly different. If I’d asked the same of you, but instead of a pencil I gave you a modern camera, how different do you think the results would really be? Copying is not the skill it used to be, but implementing learned skills in a project of your own making, however, will ultimately yield very different results from one person to the next.

Sadly though, you may not always be happy with those results.

Fear of failure is in all of us. It sucks. But it’s also an extremely necessary part of the individual creative process. When we make a mistake, it’s in our very nature to want to make a change to that process and ultimately, to get a different and hopefully better result. This change is us doing something new and this action is the very seed of a creative decision. Mistakes are quite literally the seeds of creativity, yet I see so many young artists being afraid to make them. I get it, we all want to be brilliant straight out of the gate, but getting it ‘right’ isn’t always what we actually need to make us better artists.

One reason the newer generation may be hesitant to make these necessary mistakes, is their desire to share absolutely everything they create with the world. Don’t get me wrong, I think that’s an amazing attitude to have, but don’t let the fact that a bunch of unqualified strangers may not like what you share stop you from making bold work.

I know I’m not the only artist who has grown and developed a look or idea from what was originally a mistake or undesired outcome. Mistakes are a very necessary evil and we as artists should never be afraid to make bold decisions with our work or be shy to try something new, just in case it doesn’t fit with what our online audience of unqualified strangers thinks. Ultimately, we don’t have to share everything we create and it’s not your audience's right to see everything you make. Just be sure to microwave all your old hard drives containing all those HDR portraits you took in the early 2000’s or the vultures will try and repackage them as ‘unrelesaed art’ when you’re gone as they did with Amy Winehouse and the Beatles!

What an incredible time to be alive as an artist!

If you’ve waded this far through all of the doom and gloom above pertaining to the current state of art, I assure you I’m not exasperated with the creative process just yet, far from it. In fact, this is a truly incredible time to be an artist and there are undoubtedly some unbelievably talented artists out there right now and I thank the modern state of the internet for being around so I can simply find that art and enjoy it.

If you're an artist today, then your barometer for success will be different to someone else, but if some form or fame is a part of that success to you, then remember that Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime and even if you have a moderate audience today, more people will see your art than saw Shakespeare’s during his lifetime.

The internet is a truly incredible tool for not only sharing your work with a worldwide audience but also as a tool to learn from other artists from around the world. At no point in human history has so much human knowledge been so readily available to so many. But as the internet grows moment by moment, it will become harder and harder to be truly surprised and inspired by it as we will individually struggle to find qualified knowledge that sits outside of the popular or ‘trending’ ideas.

If you’re a young artist today or even a new artist looking to truly develop your one voice amongst the noise, I’d urge you to seek knowledge from artists that truly inspire you or at the very least, artists that have been doing it significantly longer than you have. Don’t be too quick to simply chase the 'likes' and online approval if you have an interesting idea you want to pursue. Remember, they all told me I was mad for turning beautiful young ladies bright blue and pink all those years ago too. Now everyone does it and it's the norm. Never be afraid to make mistakes and never feel like you have to share those mistakes if you don't want to.

Closing Comments

Sadly, I don’t have some master solution to all of this that I’ve been waiting until the end to share. This article was an amalgam of ideas that I’ve had swirling about in my ADHD artist's brain for some time and simply put, I just needed to get them out, if only as a way to exorcise them and move on. One of the original thoughts that triggered all of this was the notion that household artist names will likely never be a thing again and I was simply curious as to why that was. In hindsight, this is not necessarily a bad thing, far from it. In fact, there are likely far more artists alive today making a successful living at what makes them happy, what makes them get up in the morning, and what inspires them, than ever before and that’s simply incredible!

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts though. Do you think this is the death of household names for artists? If not, whose work today do you think will be remembered in a hundred years? I’ve been puzzling on this myself and the closest I got was, Banksy. His work is a perfect storm of the time. His bold, very graphical style is instantly digestible and it transcends all language with his very easy-to-understand messages. Plus, his work is of the people. It’s mostly made on public streets and is accessible by all. There is no gatekeeping, no admission fee nor pomp surrounding meaning or class and this work came at a time when the internet made the world a much smaller place. With all this in mind, I do not doubt at all that Banksy’s work will be discussed in a hundred years. Who knows, maybe his pieces will be encased in perspex, walls ‘n’ all, in art galleries for future generations to marvel at why on earth we thought giant rats scrawled on walls was ‘art’.

But, again, I’d be interested to hear thoughts on who you think we’ll remember when we’re gone.

Lastly, I just wanted to clarify that this piece wasn’t supposed to be an ‘elitist’ post that diminishes the hard work that many extremely successful YouTubers and other online artists do. As I said, if you make a successful living doing what you love, you should absolutely do it. Nor am I trying to undermine the ‘self-taught’ artists out there who use YouTube as a way to enjoy practising their passion. Education has never been this free and the internet (although not completely free), now enables so many people the possibility to enjoy their passion and to see what’s possible with their tool of choice. Again, this is an amazing time to be an artist and I have great respect anybody who has the passion to pursue what they love.

JHP Livestreams…

We actually discussed this topic in detail on one of my recent livestreams. I livestream every other Tuesday night via YouTube and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. Jake Hicks Photography - YouTube

Further Learning

If you’re interested in getting some very detailed and thorough training on some more advanced lighting principles, be sure to take a look at my online workshops. Here is testimonial from one of my clients last week:

"Jake has a remarkable style of photography and I was absolutely happy when I learned that Jake shares his knowledge in workshops and one-on-one online sessions. Iooked two sessions on the topics gel- and cinematic lighting. Here is a bit of spoiler: My expectations were not only met but exceeded. Jake impressed from the very first moment with his friendly professionalism and was able to convey the various concepts using theoretical principles and practical examples. Jake devoted a lot of time to this, always responded to my questions and was able to answer any unclear points with his comprehensive expertise and on the basis of his broad experience. The numerous hints, tricks and practical tips guide me in my everyday life as a photographer and are helping me to achieve better results. With this in mind, I can recommend Jake's courses without reservation - they are instructive, inspiring and enriching."
Tobias B - Switzerland

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Lighting Setup: Rotolight LED Triadic Colour Portrait

With Rotolight announcing their latest powerhouse LED light the Anova Pro 3 (check it out here), they asked me to share some of my lighting setups and techniques that showcase what this new light can do.

As anybody who has taken even the most cursory of glances at my portfolio will know, I love colour and what originally drew me to Rotolight was exactly that, a LOT of colour! I’ve spent a very long time using coloured gels on my strobes and although I’ve been collecting gels for well over a decade, I’m still a long way off collecting the 16+ million colours that Rotolight has packed in every light!

Colour is great and a wide variety of them is even better, but all the colours in the world are only as good as the light that produces them. If the quality of that light is patchy, inconsistent and plagued with uneven brightness like hot-spots, it’s never going to look good. But again, the quality of light from the Rotlights is exceptional and from the very first test shot I ever took, I knew that they had something special.

So with all that gushing aside, let’s look at how these qualities combine in one of my all-time favourite coloured light setups, my triadic portrait light technique.

The Setup

At its core, this is a very simple setup to achieve. No fancy modifiers are required, no specialist kit is needed to support the lights and it can all be achieved in smaller spaces like home studios. All you need is 3 lights and a white wall or background. That really is it, but don’t let its simplicity fool you as this setup certainly packs a punch.

TL;DR/ADHD/Artist Setup Explanation

Place/hide the smaller Neo 3 Pro behind the model and aimed back towards to white background
Position your Anova Pro 3 key-light in close and up above the model
Bring in your AEOS 2 Pro on the floor as a fill light

Watch the Video

This setup was filmed as part of a video showcasing some of the new features of the new Rotolight Anova Pro 3 light. To see the complete breakdown of how everything was shot, check the video below.

What You Will Need

3 Lights - As I mentioned above, 3 lights are all you need for this setup and ideally one of those needs to be small like the Neo 3 Pro as this makes it far easier to hide that light behind the model.

White Background - This needn’t be complicated and a simple, clean white wall will be fine. Failing that, I’ve achieved this look with a plain white window blind behind the model. Remember that we’re not shooting full body, so we can get away with far shorter backgrounds if needed.

Modifiers… if you want - Typically when I shoot this setup, I simply don’t need any modifiers. Yes, I use the diffusion domes that come with my Rotolights (they actually never come off the lights), but you really don’t need anything when the quality of the light is this good straight out of the box. If you wanted to use some modifiers though, this particular set was shot with a small 55cm softbox on the fill-light and a Smartsoft box on the key-light. The background light simply had its diffusion dome attached.

Camera Settings

Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - 24-70mm f2.8
Shutter Speed - 1/125th
Aperture - f2.8
ISO - 400
Kelvin - 4800K
Focal Length - ~48mm

The Results…

Click to enlarge any of the shots below.

Breaking it Down

Background Light

When setting this up, I often start with the background light as once that’s in place, I can leave it and not touch it again. Here I’m using the smaller Neo 3 Pro to hide it behind the model and I simply have its standard diffusion dome attached. Remember that you can adjust the amount of vignette (dark corners) on the background by bringing that background light closer or further away from the background. In this shot, I had the Neo 3 Pro very close to the model to limit some of that vignetting. For reference, the background light was set to 16% power.

Key-light

For this shoot, I was using an Anova Pro 3 as my key and attached to that I had the ingenious Smartsoft box. If you’re not aware of what that does, then it’s a brand-new modifier from Rotolight that allows you to dial in the exact amount of diffusion you want, down to individual percentages! I placed the light up high and angled it down at about arm’s reach away from the model. On this shoot, I was using a boom to hold the light above, but if you don’t have one, simply place the lightstand just out of shot to one side and the setup will still work just as well. The key was set to 70% power.

Fill-light

For my fill-light, I was using an AEOS 2 Pro in a brand-new R55 Softbox. In fact, the softbox is so brand new, that I don’t even think it’s available yet. Expect an announcement very soon though. Essentially it’s a 55cm softbox with either 1 or 1/2 stops of diffusion. One nice feature of this new softbox is that it’s very deep which results in it being very directional, yet soft. I’m using it here to only light the bottom half of the model with that orange light, but you can still achieve this look with the standard AEOS 2 Pro diffusion dome too. Again, the light is brought in very close to the model and angled up slightly. The fill was set to 45% power.

Points to bear in mind…

Keep the key light up high and angled down. This minimises the spill onto the area where the fill light is aimed.
Be sure to manage the spill of the fill light by bringing it in close to the model’s feet.
Play around with how far from the background you position the background light as that affects the vignetting.
Be sure to set these lights up one light at a time to ensure light aren’t spilling onto another one.
I’ve used a triadic colour theory here, but be sure to play around any number of 3 colours you like.

Products Used

Although I am sharing my own personal thoughts and findings about the lights mentioned in this article, many of you will want to know that I am now a ‘Master of Light’ for Rotolight. As such, I have been given a discount code to share with you when purchasing any of their products via the Rotolight website. Use my code ‘JAKEHICKS10’ when purchasing and you’ll save a bunch of money. I’ve never earned a penny of commission on this though, so if you find a better deal elsewhere, go for it.

Anova Pro 3

The star of the show on this shoot was clearly the brand-new Anova Pro 3. This is the latest powerhouse light from Rotolight and it ships with a mountain of features that Rotolight customers are already used to, but this light is twice the brightness of AEOS 2 Pro, can be used in any weather condition including heavy rain, dust, sand and snow, plus it also comes with in-built Magic Eye technology to match any light and colour instantly. To learn more, check it out on the Rotolight website now.

Anova Pro 3 Website Link

Get it cheap - Back it on Kickstarted here

Rotolight AEOS 2 PRO

With the AEOS 2 PRO, the world is your studio. Combining the shoot what you see benefits of powerful continuous light with a High-Speed RGBWW strobe, AEOS 2 PRO offers unmatched versatility for photographers and filmmakers. Uniquely lightweight with an ultra-thin design, it’s never been easier to achieve beautiful soft light on the move.

AEOS 2 PRO Website Link

Rotolight NEO 3 PRO

Small but mighty, NEO 3 PRO is the brightest LED on-camera light ever made. Experience unrivalled power and industry-first innovations in a compact form factor you can take anywhere.

NEO 3 PRO combines the shoot-what-you-see benefits of continuous light, with a High Speed Sync RGBWW flash for unlimited creative possibilities.

NEO 3 PRO Website Link

Rotolight SmartSoft Box

The ingenious SmartSoft Box allows you to dial in the exact value of diffusion you need and incredibly that can be done in increments as small as a single percent. This is a modifier that does two jobs and ultimately never needs to leave your light as you simultaneously have a hard-light as well as a soft-light modifier and both are just a dial turn away.

Rotolight SmartSoft Box Website Link

Rotolight R55 Softbox

The brand new R55 Softbox is so new in fact, that it doesn’t even have a release date as of yet!

I expect it to be officially announced very soon indeed though, so keep an eye out for when it does. That being said, I was very impressed with it due to it being a reasonably deep softbox for its size. This meant it had a lot of directional light control, even without a grid. Definitely one to watch.

Thank You

As always, thanks for checking out this article. Hopefully, you learned something new, but if you have any questions or if something didn’t make sense, just let me know and you can reach out via the comments below. See you in the next one and stay creative until then.

JHP Livestreams…

If you give this setup a go, I’d love to see how the shots turn out, so feel free to share them my way. One way to do that is via my livestream. I livestream every other Tuesday night via YouTube and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. Jake Hicks Photography - YouTube

If you missed a previous stream, the VODs are all saved there too, so check them out!

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Creative Coloured Light with Silver Mylar

I’ve shared several silver mylar lighting techniques over the years so I’m sure most of you know many of the tricks to get the best from this very cheap, yet remarkable material. But if you’re new here or simply just need a reminder, what is all the fuss about when it comes to this incredibly versatile product?

As I mentioned, silver mylar is pretty cheap and you can get it from all of the typical online mega-corps, but you won’t find it in the usual photography category, or if you do, you’ll find it for ten times the price! Silver mylar is used for a variety of things from food storage, party supplies, helium balloons and even gardening, but what we’re using it for, is a way to create beautiful reflective patterns. If you purchase silver mylar from the gardening section, you’ll find it available in long rolls as the very pliable and highly reflective surface is exactly what we need to make the effect we’re after.

As I said above, I’ve already shared several techniques in the past that use this material, so if you missed them, I’ll share those at the bottom of this article for you to take a look at.

Adding Colour

I’m sure it should be no surprise by now, but I do love to add colour to as many of my setups as I can and this week's article is no different. Firstly, let’s take a look at the sort of shot we’re trying to create.

I’ll share a bunch more examples below, but these initial 2 shots give you some idea of just how much colour we aim to apply and how little white light we’re using.

The Setup

I know many of you like to check the set plan first, so below I’ll share what’s being used and where…

TL;DR/ADHD/Artist Setup Explanation

Set up a white background behind model
Place large sheet of silver mylar to camera-left
Position model fairly close to background
Point hard-light at silver mylar and set or gel it with a bright pink colour
Add a large diffused blue light like a large softbox to camera right and point it towards model
Place white light to camera-right, up high and slightly behind model and angle it down towards them

What You Will Need

3 Lights - As with more and more of my setups these days, I’m pretty much only shooting with LED lighting simply due to them being unbelievably easy and convenient to use. Of course, this setup can comfortably be achieved with flash too, so just translate what you need for the lights you’ll be using.

1 Hard Light Modifier - This is the light that is shone into the silver mylar and this needs to be very focused. By that, I mean that even though this light is placed on the right-hand-side of the set, this light should only hit the mylar on the far left and nothing else. An optical snoot or even a gridded reflector dish will be fine and I was using the Godox Spotlight on the Godox SZ150R full RGB LED light to get a very hard and controlled spot of light.

1 Soft Light Modifier - You’ll almost certainly have one of these and I was using a Rotolight AEOS 2 Pro LED light in their R120 softbox. A similarly large softbox or even a big white umbrella will also work.

1 White Light - This light has a little flexibility with what modifier you use, the only stipulation is that none of this white light must either directly hit the background, or inadvertently bounce back into it. I’m simply using a bare Rotolight AEOS 2 Pro and I’ve flagged any potential light by wrapping the background-side in cinefoil (matte black tinfoil).

White Background - Use whatever you like here, but I simply used a white window blind as that was super quick and easy to set up. Alternatively, a white paper backdrop or even a white wall will work equally as well.

Silver Mylar - I’m sure this one was no surprise, but yes, this setup does require a large sheet (usually a roll) of silver mylar. I’m simply suspending it up high with a C-stand and boom arm.

Camera Settings

Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - 105mm f2
Shutter Speed - 1/125th
Aperture - f2
ISO - 200
Kelvin - 5000K
Focal Length - 105mm

The Results…

Click to enlarge any of the shots below.

Featured Model: Basia Panecka

Breaking it Down

Background

I’m using a simple white window blind here as they’re quick and easy to swap out and hang. You can use whatever you like here though and a white wall would of course be the easiest. The trick to positioning will be how close you have the model to it. We want her close enough to the backdrop so that the reflected mylar casts those beautiful highlights onto the background and her, but we don’t want her so close that she casts heavy shadows from the soft blue light in front of her. The only way to do this is to simply test it and move her closer or further back as required.

Silver Mylar

The star of the show is the silver mylar and as I mentioned at the top, thankfully it's not hard to get, nor is it particularly expensive. I recommend searching for it with ‘gardening’ and ‘roll’ in the phrase as that gives you the most useful results. I also recommend you get it in as wide of a roll as you can find. Often that’s 1.5m and then the length is up to you, but likely 10m is going to serve you well for a while. Prices do vary wildly, but a 1.5x10m roll should be around £20-£40.

Hard Light

I used my Godox Spotlight on a Godox SZ15R full RGB LED light and that was just for convenience as I can simply choose whatever colour I want without the faff of gels. You can of course use an optical snoot here or even a controlled light from a grid, snoot or possibly even barn-doors. The most important aspect here is that the light must be controlled enough to pass across the room without hitting the model and only hit the silver mylar on the opposite side.

Soft Light

Again, we have plenty of options here. I used a large softbox in the form a 120cm one from Rotolight as that houses my Rotolight AEOS 2 Pro light. But you can use any large softbox you like. Once again, it was just easy to set my RGB LED to the blue I wanted as wrestling with coloured gels inside softboxes is a real pain. It can be done, but it's a bit fiddly. If you don’t have an RGB LED light and instead have a strobe or speedlight, then I’d probably suggest a large umbrella, preferably with a white interior to keep the light soft. These are far easier gel than softboxes and are super quick to put up too.

The Silver Mylar Effect

The core look and effect we’re going for with this setup is the dappled lighting effect we have on the background behind the model. In this setup, it’s the bright pink pattern on the wall and the aspect I particularly love is how varied it can look from shot to shot if you set it up correctly.

As you can see in not only the model shots I shared above but also in the example background shots below, you can get a different look with each image you take and here’s how I did it.

The silver mylar dappled effect works because it's so thin. The sheet gets slight ripples and bumps in it and it's these imperfections in the surface that get reflected onto the background. One way to enhance the variances in the effect is by using a fan on the sheet as that movement from the wind will keep the mylar moving and fluttering and that in turn is what gives you the varied effect in each shot.

Points to bear in mind

Controlling the Mylar Light

This seems simple enough, but failing to keep the pink hard light off of the model before it hits the silver mylar will result in a terrible look. Firstly, it’ll likely be very overexposed before it bounces off of the mylar and secondly, it’ll be a very harsh-looking light that will overpower the other lights on her too. Using an optical snoot or even barn doors to keep it only on the mylar is key.

Controlling the White Light

The other core light to keep very controlled is the white light slightly behind. That white light can only fall onto the model and the reason it’s slightly back and up high is to stop it from hitting the silver mylar on the opposite side of the room. If it does, then it’ll bounce straight off of that mirror finish and wash out the other colours in the shot. Use a flag to keep control of it from falling onto the background too. If that white light hits the background, again the colours will be completely ruined. I used black cinefoil, but any flag will do.

Posing

As with so many of my lighting techniques, a synergy between pose and light is key. Sadly, models that I work with rarely have the luxury to dance and move about too much. That certainly makes their job far harder, but their failure to keep in mind where they can stand and look will often result in bad or sometimes unusable shots. In this setup, for example, the model can't move too far back as they’ll be out of the white light and they can’t move too far forward as they’ll move into the pink light that is firing in front of them. They also should ideally look to their left to be lit by the light that is ‘up-stage’ behind them. It can work with them looking the other way and I shared an image above where she looks to her right, but the lighting works best when they look to their left.

Variety

I mentioned this above, but using a fan on the mylar will result in the background effect changing dramatically between each shot. You may not want that, but I found it to be a great way to add variety to each of the shots. Of course, you want to keep it simple, just don’t use the fan.

Products Used

Rotolight AEOS 2 PRO

With the AEOS 2 PRO, the world is your studio. Combining the shoot what you see benefits of powerful continuous light with a High Speed RGBWW strobe, AEOS 2 PRO offers unmatched versatility for photographers and filmmakers. Uniquely lightweight with an ultra-thin design, it’s never been easier to achieve beautiful soft light on the move.

AEOS 2 PRO Website Link

Rotolight R120 Sofbox

A softbox is pretty much a must-have piece of kit for any studio shooter, so if you own any AEOS 2/Pros, this is certainly worth taking a look at. It comes with internal baffles as well as the eggcrate grid on the front. Plus, it has 16 sides making this an incredibly round and clean light source.

R120 Softbox Website Link

Please note that I’ve included affiliate links below for PixaPro and I will benefit (albeit minimally) from the sales of any of these products should you purchase them. To that end, please feel free to use my discount code ‘HICK5-OFF’ at Essential Photo to receive a discount on any purchase via their site.

Godox Spotlight

S-fit spotlight that can be very finely controlled via inbuilt blades or via a range of Gobos. Due to the large lens at the front, this modifier can also produce some of the hardest-looking light available.

Godox Spotlight Link

Godox SZ150R

Essentially this is an LED studio strobe. You can use it with any S-Fit modifiers like beauty dish and softbox you already own, plus you can also change this to any colour and any Kelvin you’d like. It’s only 150 watts though, so you will want to use this in a controlled studio environment.

Godox SZ150R Link

Silver Mylar

This is likely the most unique item on the list and although you probably don’t have some of this lying around, it’s not too expensive to get.

I grabbed a 10m roll on eBay for less than £20 and although you probably don’t need 10m, it was the best value versus options for additional uses down the road. By all means, take a look and get something more appropriate for your needs. Note that Mylar is used for a variety of applications from agriculture to helium balloons, so don’t expect to find it in a photo store.

Take a look below at some of my other silver mylar lighting techniques

JHP Livestreams…

If you missed a previous stream, the VODs are all saved there too, so check them out!

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10 Tips on shooting in small spaces like home studios

Whether you’re just starting out or have been shooting for decades, as portrait photographers we all have to shoot in small spaces from time to time.

From working in small home studios, to shooting out of your clients home, to photographing sports celebrities in corridors, to working with corporate clients in their offices, shooting in small spaces is just a part of the job. With that in mind, here are some quick tips on making the most of those small spaces.

Creative Setups for Small Spaces

One area that people claim holds back their development and creativity back, is their space. I argue that this simply isn’t an excuse as with proper light control, any sized space can produce engaging and creative shots. Take a look at some of the lighting setups below that can be achieved in almost any space, even as small as a corridor!

1. Simplest and Most Effective One Light Setup I've Ever Used

It honestly deosn’t get any easier than this one. A single light and reflector is all you need and this gorgeous looking light can be achieved in spaces as small as a corridor if need be. If youre after a clean and beautiful looking light then definitely check this one out as this is no gimmick setup, it genuinely produces some flawless looking light!

2. Lighting Setup - Pastel Wrap

If you’re feeling bold, then upgrading your looks to include some colour can instantly give your shots an engaging edge. This Pastel Wrap setup again needs almost no space and although it requires 2 lights, they need to be close to the subject for best results so this is an ideal setup for smaller studio spaces.

3. Lighting Setup: Foreground Flare

Some times adding depth to a shot can go a long way to suggest a bigger space than you actually have. Sure, shooting with a wide aperture to throw your background out of focus is a great way to simulate depth, but what about your foreground? This simple setup relies on you ‘faking’ a foreground element in your shot and we can easily do this with a variety of household items being held in front of your lens. Plus, this setup also shows you how to convincingly fake a window light as your key-light.

Gear that is perfect for small spaces

One of the biggest benefits of owning your own studio, is having all of your gear setup and ready to go. With all of that studio space, you can have a multitude of backgrounds in place and even specialist modifiers assembled and on-hand to use. But in smaller spaces or even studios on the go, what are some tips on helping to stay creative?

4. DIY Backdrops for Home Shoots & Lighting Setup

One of the most boring aspects of shooting in a home studio, is the lack of variety when it comes to backgrounds. There is really only so many times you can photograph a white wall behind someone. So with that in mind, here are some tips on staying creative with backgrounds and saving money whilst you do it.

5. DIY Mottled Backdrop

How about taking those creative backgrounds one step further by actually making your own, and yes, it’s super easy and extremely affordable. In this technique I share how I made one of those mottled backgrounds that emulate a ‘hand-painted’ backdrop look. Those types of backgrounds are seeing a resurgence as they’ve come a long way from the tacky 1980’s-style family portrait.

6. Miniature Boom

That’s correct, you read that right, a miniature boom! When shooting portraits we are often after a symmetrical light as that is often the most beautiful. One of the easiest ways to achieve symmetrical light is to place your key-light directly in front of your subject. Sadly, when you do this, your light stand is now in the way of your camera so you have to shoot around it, which in turn results in you losing that symmetrical look.

In a big studio we’d simply use a boom-arm to swing a key light in front of the model, but sadly that’s not possible in smaller spaces, so here’s the next best thing.

This mini right-angle bracket (ordinarily used for holding umbrellas) can be placed on your light stand to allow you to mount your light at a right angle. This now enables us to shoot underneath the light without it getting in the way of our shot. This ‘Quick Tip’ image above was from my ‘Quick Tips’ page that has tons of other useful bite-size tips like this, so if you’ve not seen it, go check it out.

Using small spaces to your advantage

Believe it or not, there are actually some advantages to shooting in small spaces. Can we use the low ceilings or the boring white walls of smaller home studios to actually help us? Below I’ll share some setups that not only work despite the lack of space, bu they actually thrive on it.

7. Lighting Setup: The Corona

Don’t let the name of this setup that hasn’t aged well put you off! As this setup can create some gorgeous looking light that requires a small home studio or space to really shine. With this technique I’m actually bouncing the light off of the white walls behind the subject and above them to create this very effective edge light. Take a look as it not only require very little space, but very little equipment too.

8. Super-Soft Lighting in Small Home Studios

I’ll be honest, one of the hardest aspects of shooting in small spaces, is other their low ceilings. For many setups I like to get hair lights or even edge lights up nice and high to throw light down on the subject. Sadly, that’s not always possible and I’ll admit to getting more than one model to sit down on a chair in the past to ‘cheat’ the look due to a lack of ceiling height. But with this setup, I show you how to actually use those annoying low ceilings to your advantage as you can create some truly gorgeous soft-light with this setup.

9. Lighting Setup - My Favourite £1 Lighting Modifier

Granted the economic crisis may have hit this title particularly hard from when I first shared it, but this technique is still unbelievably cheap to pull off! This setup follows on from the previous one in that we’ll be using that low ceiling to our advantage once again, this time however we’ll be getting a little more creative with the results.

Questions and Answers

If youre currently struggling with working in small spaces, I assure you that you’re not alone, in fact, there are so many people just like you that we actually discussed this topic in detail during one of my recent livestreams. If you missed it, check it out as I answered a ton of questions surrounding this very common issue.

10. In-depth discussion on working in small spaces

I recently hosted a livestream where we discussed this topic of shooting from home studios at length. When is a good time to rent a larger space? Do you need a bigger space? Should you own your own larger studio? Tips on bringing clients to your home and a lot more too. If you missed it, check the VoD on YouTube here.

Closing thoughts

As I mentioned, this is a very common topic among photographers and it’s not just reserved for those who are just starting out and feel trapped by the cramped confines of their home studio. A lack of space affects all photographers at one time or another and learning to work with your surroundings is simply part of the job… even if that means you somehow taking portraits in a corridor!

As always, if you have any questions then please let me know. Plus, don’t forget that I also have a free PDF containing 5 home studio setups via my Studio Lighting Books page too. Go grab that as it covers other setups not shared here.

And if that’s still not enough and you really want to take your knowledge of small spaces even further, I actually run a hugely popular workshop called ‘BIG Studio Lighting in small Spaces’. Like I said, you are not alone in struggling with this and there is a ton to know and learn on the topic. You can learn more on what’s involved and include via my Online Workshops page.

Thank You

As always, thanks for checking out this article and spending a little bit of your day with me here. I hope you found it useful and if you left with a little more knowledge than when you arrived, it’s been worth it.

If you have any questions or comments, or if something doesn’t make sense, by all means, fire away in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer what I can. Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next one.

Don’t forget to sign up to my newsletter to be sent all of these photo tips and techniques articles every month in case you miss one.

JHP Livestreams…

If you give this setup a go, I’d love to see how the shots turn out, so feel free to share them my way. One way to do that is via my Livestream. I Livestream every other Tuesday night via my FB Page and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. JHP Facebook Page

Missed the Livestreams? Check the VODS!

This year I’ve also been uploading my Facebook livestreams to my YouTube channel for those that missed them… or never want to touch Facebook again.

Watch my livestream VODs here: Jake Hicks Photography YouTube

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