Guest Post: Unlocking Creative Potential: How Experienced Photographers Can Leverage Adobe Express

Foreword: I ordinarily don’t share guest posts like this, but when Adobe reached out with an idea for an article explaining the potential of Adobe Express, I was intrigued. Why? Simply put, I’d never heard of Adobe Express, so I thought this might be an opportunity for me to see what it does as well as hopefully sharing some useful insights with you guys along the way.

Unsurprisingly, many of you within my community are already taking advantage of the tools Adobe Express has to offer. So although I’ve not used it myself, based on what you guys are saying, I’ll certainly be checking it out.

Still not sure what Adobe Express does? Here’s an example of what many of you are already using it for…

So if you’re someone in need of a design tool for everything from adding text to images, publishing social media posts and even adding AI artwork both from your phone and desktop, it seems like Adobe Express has you covered.

But here is what Adobe themselves has to say…

Unlocking Creative Potential: How Experienced Photographers Can Leverage Adobe Express

Photo via Adobe Stock

In the dynamic world of photography, the essence of creativity isn't just captured through the lens but also in the post-processing phase. Adobe Express, formerly known as Adobe Spark, emerges as a beacon for seasoned photographers looking to elevate their visual narratives. This article hosted by Jake Hicks Photography delves into the myriad ways in which experienced photographers can harness the capabilities of Adobe Express to refine their art, streamline their workflow, and engage more profoundly with their audience.

Introduction to Adobe Express

Adobe Express stands out as a versatile, user-friendly platform designed for quick and efficient photo editing, graphic design, and web page creation. It combines an intuitive interface with a robust set of tools that cater to the needs of professional photographers seeking to enhance their digital content. From refining images to designing visual assets for branding, Adobe Express offers a comprehensive suite of features that empower photographers to unleash their creative potential.

Streamlined Workflow for Enhanced Productivity

Quick Edits and Batch Processing

For photographers juggling multiple projects, efficiency is key. Adobe Express enables rapid adjustments to photos, including cropping, resizing, and applying filters, without compromising on quality. The platform's batch processing capabilities allow for the simultaneous editing of numerous images, significantly cutting down post-processing time and enabling photographers to focus more on shooting.

Seamless Integration with Adobe Creative Cloud

Experienced photographers often rely on a suite of Adobe products. Adobe Express seamlessly integrates with Adobe Creative Cloud, providing a smooth workflow across applications like Photoshop and Lightroom. This integration allows for the easy import and export of projects, ensuring that photographers can effortlessly transition between detailed editing in Photoshop or Lightroom and the broader design functionalities of Adobe Express.

Creative Expansion Through Advanced Features

Sophisticated Design Templates

Adobe Express offers an extensive library of design templates that cater to a wide range of creative needs, from social media posts to marketing materials. These templates serve as a springboard for creativity, allowing photographers to customise and create compelling visuals that complement their photographic work.

Brand Management Tools

Building and maintaining a cohesive brand is crucial for professional photographers. Adobe Express's brand management tools enable the easy creation of branded content, from logos and color schemes to fonts and templates. By ensuring brand consistency across all visual assets, photographers can enhance their professional presence and connect more effectively with their audience.

Engaging with Audiences through Dynamic Content

Interactive Web Stories

In the age of digital storytelling, engaging with audiences requires innovation. Adobe Express's web stories feature allows photographers to create interactive, mobile-optimized web pages that showcase their work in a narrative format. By integrating photos, videos, and text, photographers can tell more compelling stories, engage viewers, and increase their online visibility.

Social Media Optimisation

Social media platforms are pivotal for photographers to showcase their work and engage with their community. Adobe Express simplifies the creation of social media content with optimised templates and scheduling features. By efficiently managing their social media presence, photographers can reach a broader audience, engage with followers, and promote their work more effectively.

Adobe Express is not just a tool but a gateway for experienced photographers to explore new horizons of creativity and efficiency. Its comprehensive suite of features offers the flexibility to edit photos, design visuals, and engage with audiences on a deeper level. By integrating Adobe Express into their workflow, photographers can not only streamline their processes but also expand their creative expression and connect more meaningfully with their audience. In the ever-evolving landscape of digital photography, Adobe Express stands as a vital ally for photographers aiming to transcend the ordinary and captivate the world with their visual stories.

Unleash your photographic potential with Jake Hicks Photography. Explore the art of colour and light through online workshops, tutorials, and mentoring sessions to transform your visions into stunning realities

I thank Adobe for sharing their article with us and if you have any questions, please drop them down below. Have you used Adobe Express yourself? How are you using it in your own workflow? Let me know as I’m always interested in hearing how you guys are using these tools.

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Small LED Light Tubes: Godox TL30-K2 Review

If we put aside the fact that the photographic industry is seemingly obsessed with these progressively more complicated and seemingly AI-generated product names for a moment, the TL30 from the K2 pack is actually a pretty good light. Now that the ‘man shouts at clouds’ section of this review is out of the way, I can happily speak as to why this is a very powerful and versatile little light in the right situation.

*The little TL30 LED can be brought in unbelievably close to the subject and can result in some gorgeous light drop-off, even in tiny spaces!*

To clear up any disclaimers right out of the gate, I reached out to Essential Photo here in the U.K. and requested this product to test and play with. As I normally do with these products, I offer to talk about it and share my thoughts, but once I’m done, I’ll send it back. So to be clear, I am not being paid to write this.

The reason I requested this little light in the first place, was to test some theories on light drop-off, specifically with LEDs in this case. I know long-time readers will have heard me mention this a few times over the years, but using LED lights (specifically panels and tubes) is very different when compared to strobes.

Real groundbreaking thinking so far, right? “Yes, Jake, strobes and LEDs are completely different. We get it!” But no, I’m not talking about flash durations or power outputs, I’m referring to light spread and light drop-off and why this is so fundamentally important for us to fully understand where it differs with different lights.

LED Lights and Their Unique Light Drop-Off

I have already spoken about this LED light drop-off at length in the past, so I won’t bore you with the details once again, but if you’re interested you can take a look at my previous article on it here Lighting Setup: Affordable LED Tubes

The main point I want us to be mindful of as we look at these little TL30-K2’s (catchy right?), is that they’ll enable us to throw light onto a very small area without it spreading to unwanted areas like the background. You can see more of what I mean from the diagram below which shows the drop-off of LED light from tubes versus the drop-off of a single point strobe.

*Click to enlarge:* On the left, we have a single point of light from a flash and on the right we have an LED tube. The brightness is measured to be the same at 50cm from the source at f5.6, but you’ll see that this drops off differently between the two light sources.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that the tube is spreading light far more evenly over a larger area here, granted the tube pictured above is far larger than the 30cm one I’ll be testing, but that smaller size will actually work in our favour in this instance as we’ll be able to control a very even spread of light in a very small area, namely the body.

Before we start nerding-out about lighting theory though, let’s first look at the lights I’ll be testing.

What are these TL30-K2 LED tubes exactly?

The TL30 refers to Tube Light and that it’s 30cm in length. The K2 part refers to the fact that it’s a 2 light Kit. The individual tubes are 30cm long and are capable of producing colours from the full RGB spectrum as well as white light ranging from 2700K to 6500K. They weigh in at only 0.30Kg and have a battery duration of 60 minutes at full power.

I opted to get the 2 light kit so I could play with mixing colours, plus this kit comes with a ton of additional accessories that certainly enable you to get the most from these lights in almost any situation… including underwater!!!

What Accessories are Included in the Two-Light-Kit?

Tube Clamp (TL-C2 Retaining Clips)

One of the most important accessories is the tube clamp. This clamp sits snuggly on any part of the tube before you firmly secure it in place. On the rear, you then have 2x 1/4 inch thread holes to easily mount the tube to a variety of light-stands, clamps and tripods.

Tube Extender (TL-M2 Coupler)

Each of the LED tubes has a 1/4 inch hole in each end that allows for the tubes to be connected to one another to effectively extend their length. Each tube can be connected via this two-disc thread that sits between them. Each of these discs moves independently meaning you can screw the tubes together firmly and align them to the correct position very easily.

Tube Grids (TL-G30 Grids)

These grids are attached via three elastic straps that enable them to be secured snuggly to the LED tubes. A little fiddly to put on and I usually just skip the middle strap, but the grids do stay in place and don’t droop down once they’re positioned. They can also be used along with the tube clamps and although they don’t look pretty when in place, the clamp doesn’t hinder the grids from channelling the light in any way.

*The tubes with the clamp and grids together. It looks ugly, but neither product stops the other from doing its intended job.*

Waterproof Bags (TL-W30)

A nice bonus to have in this kit is the waterproof bags. I say it’s a ‘bonus’ as this won't be something a huge number of people will need, but I think it's great to have this included, even if it’s just to combat weatherproofing concerns. The bags seem fairly durable, but thin enough for you to easily use all of the buttons….. just not the dial! They also have an easy-to-use and firm closing mechanism, meaning there is no concerns when it comes to wondering if you’ve closed the bag properly or not. These waterproof bags are generous in size too, meaning you aren’t fighting to get the tubes in and out either. Again, I can’t see myself using them, but they’re certainly nice to have.

Additional bits…

The kit also includes a few extra bits including wrist straps that screw into the ends of the tubes and of course, the USB to USB-C charging cables. You charge the lights via a USB-C port in the base of each of the tubes (pictured above). Lastly, you also get 6 metal plates. I’m not entirely sure how often, if ever I’d use these, but they are designed to be stuck onto surfaces via their adhesive pads and then the LEDs are supposed to be attached to them via their internal magnets. I will just add that these magnets in the tubes are surprisingly strong and they have no trouble at all when it comes to holding themselves both vertically and horizontally to any metal surface. Not a mandatory feature, but I could see it being useful in more places than you think. Edit: I just tested it and they even stick themselves to my C-Stand upright and even on the thinner boom arm too. Like I say, these magnets are pretty strong!

Controlling and Adjusting the Tubes

You’ll be very pleased to know that these lights are very simple to control, plus you won't have to go through numerous menus to get to where you want to be. Each tube has 3 buttons; Power, Mod and Dim. Plus it also comes with a thumb wheel/adjustment dial. Hold the power button down to get going and then simply hit the MOD button to switch between each of the 3 white light, RGB and effects modes. From here you can then adjust each of the relevant values by turning the wheel and then adjust the brightness by first hitting the DIM button before again turning the wheel. Pressing the wheel in can also allow access to further adjustments.

As I mentioned, there are only 3 modes to cycle through so getting to where you want is very fast. The first image above shows the White Light mode and then above on the left is the RGB mode and on the right are all the video effects like lightening, TV flicker etc.

The Godox Light App

Don’t forget that these tubes all have Bluetooth connectivity too which enables you to control them via the Godox Light smartphone app. I personally don’t have the patience for controlling my lights via an app unless I have to, but the Godox Light app is supposed to be pretty good and if you’re using these lights up high or in hard-to-reach places, apps like this can make your life an awful lot easier!

….but how bright is it?!

Now I know all my strobe brothers and sisters are trawling this article looking for this little smattering of data that shows you how weak this latest LED light is. Well, here you go…

Power Output: 8w
Brightness: 740 lux

Super useful, right? I mentioned it at the top, but yes, LEDs are indeed very different when it comes to their outputs and you’ll often read power values that don’t translate well, if at all, to what we’re familiar with in our strobe world.

So instead of the tech-specs, let’s look at how bright this is in practical terms.

*The above image was captured at f2.8 / ISO 200 / 1/60th sec*

Above we can see a practical result in a language that we all understand. I measured the power of the light at 100% at a distance of 50cm, 100cm and 150cm away from the LED using a light meter and here are my findings.

At 50cm away the light measures f2.8 at ISO 200 and 1/60th sec. It drops off consistently from there and you can see that in the above photo.

*I know we’re talking about power outputs in this section, but just look at how clean that light is on the wall!*

At this stage, you may be surprised or even disappointed with what you’re seeing. After all, f2.8, ISO 200 and 1/60th sec at 50cm away is not bright, but remember, this is a tiny LED tube and we’ll be using it specifically as a key-light or at the very least, very close to the body. Every light has its optimum job and although this won't be lighting any big spaces on location, we can still utilise this tiny package to create some unique lighting styles.

Not convinced? Take a look below and see how I intend to use mine.

Using the TL30 to take portraits

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last couple of years while playing with LEDs, is to always test it out for yourself. With so many of these LED lights, it’s always the same concern; ‘will it be bright enough?’ You look at the spec sheet and many of them look like they’ll do nothing, but when you use them, you quickly find out that they’re far more capable than you initially thought and a lot of this comes from how they distribute light.

But enough specs and theory, let’s see the shots from my initial tests…

Clicking on any of the images below will fit them to your screen

The Initial Test

I started off by actually joining 2 of the TL30s together via the included screw attachment from the pack. I then used this now 60cm tube as my key-light and set it to pure red (Hue: 0 - Saturation: 100). I positioned it above the model and just out of shot so I could shoot underneath it. To complement this red light, I added a large blue light behind me via my Rotolight AEOS 2 Pro in a R120 softbox (AKA big soft light).

Camera Settings

Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - 24-70mm f2.8
Shutter Speed - 1/60th
Aperture - f2.8
ISO - 200
Kelvin - 5500K
Focal Length - ~40-58mm

Points of Note

The one thing I was keen to test with this light drop-off, was just how quickly the light would dissipate. What I mean by this, is how quickly the power of the light becomes effectively powerless and we can really start to see that here when we look at how close the model is to the background. Edit: I’m looking at the 3D diagram again now and in reality she may have been even closer to the background than is shown here. My point is, that the light from this very bold red key-light barely touches that background at all and it’s kept only on the model before it drops off entirely.

Looking Closer

To really demonstrate what I mean, I shot the same test image below with both a regular strobe with a basic reflector dish attached and then with the TL30. I made sure that the mannequin forehead was light metered at exactly f5.6 between each shot and both lights were positioned at the same distance from the subject too. What’s important for you to observe here, is just how much light is being spread/spilt onto the background behind the head. As you can see, the strobe spreads a lot of light back there, but the LED tube has almost none at all. You should also note just how similar the lighting between the two faces is here too.

It’s this incredibly tight light control that an evenly distributed light source like an LED tube or LED panel has that’s so important and it’s what I hoped to find when I requested this TL30-K2 lights to test.

Nerd-Note: I had to use a reflector dish on the strobe to try and make it a little fairer on the strobe. With no dish, the bare flash bulb threw light all over the studio and this resulted in the background being far brighter than it is here. Plus, due to the nature of lighting never happening in a vacuum, that bare bulb bounced light around the studio and ultimately that light filled in a lot of the shadows below too.

*Click to enlarge: A practical light drop-off comparison between both a strobe and a small LED tube.*

What about just one TL30?

I knew you were all just dying to ask that, and if I were you, I’d be dying to ask that exact same question!

Yes, the above shots were taken with 2x TL30s joined together and I did briefly test what just one of them solo looked like as a red key-light too.

This shot looks very similar to the earlier shots where I used 2 tubes joined together above, right? Yes, you’re not imagining things, the two resulting shots look very similar and that’s purely down to the size of the subject being clearly covered by one light when brought in close like this. So regardless of whether you only have one tube or two, you can still achieve the same look. The only core benefit of the two tubes is each of them will need be emitting slightly less light compared to one on its own.

The White-Light Alternative

I get it, not everyone is as obsessed with the crazy, bold colours as I am, so for the normies out there, here are some white-light alternatives.

*Click to enlarge: Here we can see that I’ve changed the key-light to white-light and that I’ve also added a second tube to camera left. Again, this is set to red.*
*Note: The Set.a.Light 3D software I use to make these diagrams currently doesn't support small LED tubes, hence why the diagram shows the longer versions.*

For this set, I’ve changed the key-light above to white light (4500K) and then I’ve added a second TL30 to the side of the model and this is now set to red (Hue: 0 - Saturation: 100). For this one, I also decided to move her a little further away from the background due to the red light below needing to be pulled further back to remain out of shot.

Alternative Fill

Lastly, I simply switched the red fill-light to be in front of the model instead of to the side.

Again, here I moved the white light up a little higher to get more spread down the body. This also helps prevent any white light from spilling down onto the backdrop behind her which would in turn wash out the blue colour. To avoid this, I moved the model and all of the lights a little further away from it.

The power of this light, is its size!

Early on in this article, we spoke about its concerning power output. The specs told us it was an 8w light! If you’re a studio shooter, you’ve likely got some flashes that are 500w, maybe even 1000w! How can this 8w light even be usable?

I hope you’ll agree now that those 8ws can be deceiving. You’ve just seen a bunch of portraits all very well-lit and my camera settings weren’t anything too crazy to achieve them. Yes, I was at 1/60th at ISO 200, but don’t forget that the LED tube was also only set to 20 (out of 100) in terms of power. I do not doubt that if I’d been bothered by either the ISO 200 or 1/60th sec I could easily have given that little light more power.

But the beauty of this little light is not its versatility, far from it. In fact, I got this light to test because of its small size not in spite of it and it’s this small size that enables me to bring that light extremely close to the subject's face to get some truly beautiful and very controlled light.

Uncontrolled light

To illustrate my point, what happens if I pull the light further away from the subject? By doing so, I’d need to increase its power to still properly illuminate the model. But in doing so, I now create a situation where the light is no longer controlled and this results in light spilling and spreading around the set.

In this example here you can clearly see the red light spilling onto my background behind the model. This isn’t terrible in itself and if you like the look, by all means, go for it, but it does show you how uncontrolled the light can be if not brought in close to the subject and the power brought down to compensate.

A similar look would also happen if we had a far larger tube here too. If we use my 100cm tube here, even close to the model, it’s likely that it’d spill onto the background too. Again, the TL30s power lies in its small size.

Featured Model: Little_b1989

Light Spread

It’s also worth noting the effective illumination angle of these TL30 tubes is about 180 degrees. I also own some 100cm LED tubes and always use those lights ‘in-shot’. and you can see the results here, but see how those tubes seemingly spread light from everywhere? That is very different to these TL30s as the angle of light spread is closer to 180 degrees rather than the 360 degrees you see in those other images. This is not a problem as I never intend to use these TL30s in-shot as I do with my longer tubes, but I just want you to be mindful of that in case you were planning to use them in-shot yourself.

Click to enlarge: I’ll speak about this later in the article, but LED lights are often about the right tool for the right job. Yes, those tubes throw light in all directions, but that also gives you far less control of your light too. The 180 spread of the TL30 ensures the light goes only where you want it.

Final Thoughts on the TL30-(K2)

At this stage, I think you’ve likely made up your mind with regards to this little light, my only hope is that your decision wasn’t purely based on the power output alone. Is it a ‘powerful’ light? No, but it’s more than powerful enough for the job it’s trying to do. I got this LED tube to illuminate small areas of the body with clean-looking light and to do it with precision. I had hoped that’s what it would do and thankfully it did it extremely well.

If you’re still on the fence, then here are a few bullet points to help you out.

Full RGB Colour Spectrum - As you’d expect, truly more colours than you’d ever need.
Detailed Saturation Adjustments - Bold colour not your thing? Don’t forget that this light also has a saturation dial for all colours and its increments are as small as 1%!
Kelvin Adjustments - This isn’t the biggest Kelvin range at 2700K-6500K, but it has enough adjustability for most needs.
G/M Tint Shifts - The Kelvin mode also allows for Green and Magenta shifts which is ideal if you’re ever matching lights to fluorescents.
Video Effects - I don’t even use these, but I know a lot of videographers that do. If you need a flickering fire or TV lighting effect for a video, this light has tons to choose from too.
Very Easy to Use - With just 3 buttons and a dial, this light is very simple and quick to use. Plus, with only 3 modes to cycle through, you won’t be wasting time trying to find what you want either.
Useful Accessories - Most of the time, these kits contain fillers to simply try and add value, but this kit really does contain some very useful accessories. Among them are the light-stand clamp, grid and even the waterproof bag.

LEDs are more flexible than you think. Sure, you’ll need to adapt your thinking from years of strobe use, but the effort will be rewarded with a better quality of light. Plus, there are certain instances where LEDs can offer something unique. In this image, the red light is coming from the little TL30 we’ve been discussing. See how the light is going both up and down the model thanks to its tube shape?

Closing Comments

If you’ve read all this nerd-speak so far, you likely think I’ve lost my mind. I get it. I really am getting into the weeds of understanding the dynamics of light drop-off with this one and for the most part, you’ll be able to take a lifetime's worth of portraits and never need to know all of this. But for those of you who want to dig a little deeper and for those who want to control complex lighting AKA coloured lighting in small areas like the human body, understanding lighting drop-offs based on the size of the light source and not simply via the Inverse Square Law, will certainly help you to achieve that.

A different chapter

Understanding and mastering LEDs is a very different chapter in the broader book of lighting knowledge. Yes, many things are the same, but the more I use LEDs the more I realise there are aspects of lighting that I’ve simply always taken for granted or simply overlooked until now.

This isn’t a new problem either as I went through a similar rediscovery when I transitioned to flash from hot-lights. All of these lights are like instruments. The notes stay the same, but you need to learn the intricacies of each instrument as you move around them.

Understanding the difference between points and planes of light

As I stated earlier, I’ve used flash extensively over the years and due to its design, flash nearly always emanates from a single point. From here we modify that single point in a variety of ways, from a large soft-box to a hard snoot. The resulting light is fine, but soft-boxes can produce hot-spots and the channelled and bounced light of a snoot can cause rough and even double shadows. Flashes are fine, but they are jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none when it comes to lighting and that’s absolutely fine for the most part. After all, you can very happily take many amazing images with flash, it’s just that when trying to do very precise lighting with colour, flashes can be tricky to fully manipulate.

LEDs are far from perfect though and the biggest most obvious flaw of LEDs is that they’re almost impossible to modify. The shape of the LEDs, whether it be a panel or a tube, is the shape of the light you’ll get. No lighting modifier can turn an LED panel into a viable snoot. But this lack of flexibility means the quality of light you get from that panel or tube if used as such, is truly remarkable.

Quality vs power

These little LED tubes won’t outright replace any of your strobes as they simply don’t do anything that your strobe already does. But your strobe also cannot do what this little light can do either.

I think as the years go by, LEDs will get brighter and brighter and for many, only then will they dare to even try LEDs. But like it or not, I really do see us switching to LEDs and as we do so, we’ll have to remember that it’s the right tool for the right job. One LED light won’t be as versatile as one strobe, but using the right LED for the right job will always produce gorgeous results and those will always speak for themselves.

Your thoughts?

As always, I truly appreciate anyone who reads all of my nerdy articles. Hopefully, you’ve learned something new or even better you’ve been inspired to test your own theories and ideas on this. If you do, I’d love to see or hear about them and always feel free to share your work via my Facebook Pages -Share-a-Shoot- post every Monday. Although the calibre of work being shared on there now is so high, I’m starting to feel pressured…. which is never/probably isn’t a bad thing! Also, if you have any questions about any of this, feel free to fire away below.

Products Used

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.

TL30-K2 RGB LED Tube

A 2 light LED kit that includes 2x 30cm full RGB LED tubes plus a whole host of useful accessories including grids and mounting clamps.

TL30-K2 Two Light Kit Link

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.

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

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TWiP 835: Is AI the new Microstock?

It’s always a great honour to be invited onto TWiP (This Week in Photo) and as you can see by the episode number, it’s been going on for a long time! In this episode, I was chatting with hosts Frederick Van Johnson and Alastair Jolly as we discussed AI in photography.

Yes, I’m sure you’re all bored-to-tears about the discussion surrounding AI and its impact on photography, but that aside, I still think we worked through a lot of interesting topics. Is AI really that bad? Is it really taking our jobs? What effect is it having on our general perception of images? What can we as photographers do to make our work stand above that of AI?

If any of that sounds like it might be of interest, be sure to check it out and thanks once again to Frederick for having me back in the show ❤️

To watch the full interview check the video below or visit the This Week in Photo website here

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Lighting Setup: Hanging Bulbs Portrait

I’ve been shooting for a long time now, but there are always some lighting setups that I’ve never gotten around to shooting. I’m sure we all have ideas for setups that may languish in an ‘inspiration folder’ somewhere on our hard drive and this hanging lightbulb shot was certainly one of them for me.

There’s nothing too tricky about this shot which is nice, but it did involve a little prep work as it requires a few unique items that I ultimately made myself to get the look I wanted. Again, this wasn’t too tricky and you can do it fairly cheaply if you cut the occasional corner like I did.

The Setup

As always, let’s jump into the shot we’re looking to achieve and then I’ll go over exactly how I achieved it and share some of the problems I encountered so you won't have to. I’ll also do my best to provide alternative options for as many of the items used as I can. I know we’re in this transition period right now where many of us have moved on to LEDs but there’s certainly a huge number of people still using strobes and I’ll do my best to offer up solutions to those that are.

*Bring everything together with a forest of lightstands!!!!!*

Click on any of the images above to enlarge them

TL;DR/ADHD/Artist Setup Explanation

Suspend your lightbulbs around the subject
Place key light just out of shot in front of subject - set to 10,000K
Add hair light on opposite side behind subject - set to 2000K
Set camera to ~5000K

What You Will Need

Key-light - You can use whatever your preference for portrait key-light is here, but a beauty dish is ideal if you're shooting with strobes, or like me, I simply used the diffusion dome on my Rotolight AEOS 2 Pro light as it provides gorgeous soft light that is extremely controllable when brought in very close to the subject like this.

Hair-light - Again, you have plenty of scope to use what you’d normally use for a hair-light here. If you're shooting with strobes then an optical snoot will give a lot of fine control of exactly where the light will fall. Failing that, a gridded reflector dish or even barn doors on a reflector dish will work.

Dark Backdrop - I used a hand-painted backdrop here, but it turned out there wasn’t enough light in most of the images to actually see any texture on it. This was fine and I didn’t want it to be distracting anyway. If you don’t have a hand-painted backdrop, any dark grey backdrop will be absolutely fine here, but I'd avoid black.

Assortment of Vintage-Stye Bulbs - These are the only somewhat unique items in this setup. I did end up making all of the hanging bulbs myself and if I can do it, I assure you, you can do it too. I’ll outline the DIY method I used below.

A Lot of Haze - This is somewhat optional, but I really do recommend you try and add some atmosphere to your shot in some way. I used a smoke machine (AKA SmokeNINJA), but a normal smoke machine can also work. Alternatively, if smoke really isn’t an option for you, you can choose to use lens filters to get a very similar effect and I’ll discuss those later on as well.

Camera Settings

Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - I used a lot of lenses on this setup, but I recommend a longer lens like an 85mm or 105mm
Shutter Speed - 1/50th (I’ll explain why later on)
Aperture - f2.8
ISO - ~50
Kelvin - 5000K
Focal Length - 50 - 105mm

You should notice that a lot of these camera settings are all over the place and that’s simply due to how much I was experimenting with when I was shooting with so many older, vintage-style lenses. That said, I have outlined the starting settings that I recommend you begin with.

The Results

Click to enlarge any of the shots below.

Model: Lucia Kosta

Makeup: Tumsilt Makeup

Designer: Jolanta Pilinkaite Designs

Breaking it Down

DIY Hanging Bulbs

I think it’s safe to say that the hanging bulbs are the star of this particular show, but most of you won't have a bunch of these vintage bulbs on strings (I’m resisting the urge to say ‘hanging about’ here). I was the same, so I looked at how to make them myself. Here are the steps I went through to make mine.

1. How many do I need? - I actually mocked up this lighting setup using the 3D studio tool Set.a.light3D (that produced the 3d render you just saw above) and from there I was able to work how many bulbs I would need to fill the frame with a certain about of depth in mind. I landed on 7 bulbs, but seeing as one was often hidden behind the model, you could get away with 6.

2. What should the bulbs look like? - This would seem obvious, but trust me, there are so many options when you search ‘vintage style bulbs. I got mine from eBay as they were the cheapest place I found with reasonable shipping times, but there were a couple of factors I wanted to consider when actually deciding.

Firstly ‘cost’, I was buying 7 of them so I did want to be sensible with the individual price.

Secondly, the size of them. I knew these bulbs were going to be ‘in-shot’ so I didn’t want them to be tiny little fairly-light looking things. Alternatively, I knew they couldn’t be too big as I wanted the model amongst them.

Ultimately I landed on the old ‘T10 E27 40W RC’. A real classic bulb to be sure and although I don’t need to explain why this is such a fan favourite to your refined selves, I will just briefly go over the aforementioned Enigma code for the uncultured few still in the dark.

The T10 was perfect due to the fact that it was long enough to make an impact in shot, but not so wide that it would give the model third-degree burns every time she breathed in and out.

The other core reason was it being very good value at £1.45 per bulb from China and as long as you’re prepared to wait a little bit for it to arrive, you wont finder a better deal than that.

The E27 simply refers to it being screw fit and this is important to remember when purchasing your holders.

40W refers to the fact that its 40 watts. This isn’t too important, other than that you’ll need to remember that fact if one of these bulbs accidentally and immediately breaks as soon as you remove it from the packet and need to urgently buy another bulb from a closer seller that also sells 60w versions. FML!

Pro Tip: Buy more than 7 bulbs on your initial purchase!!!!

3. Bulb Housing - Again, this feels like it’ll be obvious, but once again there are a million and one options. I went for …. wait for it… the cheapest one I could find.

Again, we’re buying 7 of them so I wanted to keep it cost-effective whilst still looking somewhat cool. And by cool I mean it didn’t look bright white and plastic…. I got halfway there. Sadly, the sexy-looking metal ones were considerably more expensive so I decided to leave it and just go for the black plastic, clean-looking design.

7 of these cost about £20

4. Cables - I’m sure you’ve worked out a running theme in my choices here, but yes, once again I tried to do this as cheaply as possible, so cheap in fact that I actually made my life considerably harder in the process. Let me explain. I knew the cables would be hanging in shot, so I didn’t want some dirty old white plastic cable dangling there, so instead I went for that cool-looking braided vintage-style cable. Unsparingly this is more expensive than your regular fridges extension cord so I decided to buy enough ‘fancy’ cable to hang in-shot and then splice it into cheaper crappy cable for the sections that were out of shot.

I purchased 10m of the vintage-style cable for £21 and 10m of the flat black flex for ~£7. Like I said, that cheap cable, really was a lot cheaper.

5. Cable Joiner - One extra expense in splicing the cables like this was a cable connector. I'd have to splice the 2 cables on all 7 strings and to do that I needed a cable connector/joiner. Thankfully these are very cheap.

I got mine for ~£3.

6. Plugs - Lastly, I of course needed plugs to actually plug all of these hanging bulbs into the wall. I’m sure there is a far better solution to the one that I had, namely, I just purchased 7 plugs for all 7 of my hanging bulbs, but I’m sure the more electrically minded among you will know of some way to attach all these stings to fewer plugs.

The one major benefit of making them all separately like this though, is that you have the ability to split each of the cables up and run them exactly where you want them. As you can see from the BTS above, there was a lot of messy cabling involved to string everything above the model and then back down to the floor and then to the power. So with that said, I still think I prefer having the separate plugs to give me that flexibility when arranging the bulbs, even though there is ultimately a lot of plugs to deal with.

I purchased 10x 13 amp plugs for ~£10

Total Cost*

Vintage Style Bulbs x7 = £10.75
Vintage Style Bulbs (spares) x2 = £3.33
Vintage-Style Fabric Cable 10m = £21.34
Regular Black Electrical Wire 10m = £6.97
Retro Bulb Holders x7 = £19.98
Cable Connector Block = £2.85
Electrical Tape = £1.95

TOTAL = £67.17

*Pricing as of 2023

The DIY Part

These steps aren’t very tricky, but they are fairly time-consuming when you have to do everything 7 times. You don't need any special tools either and a screwdriver will cover it. That said, I did end up buying a wire-stripper after the first couple of strings as that made stripping the scores of wires far faster.

Connecting the wires

As I’m a cheapskate and decided to buy nice wire for only half the setup, I had to splice the cheap stuff onto the nice stuff. To do this, simply use your wire connector and attach the vintage-style cable on one side and the regular flex on the other side. Just be sure to match the coloured wires on both sides. I then recommend wrapping the entire block in black electrical tape so it doesn’t look like a completely lethal fire hazard to the model and team when on set!

Wiring up the Bulb Holder

Again, this is fairly straightforward and you just have to strip the plastic sleeve off of the cable and attach it to the corresponding screw and then tighten everything back up. Many of these bulb holders will also have a tightening screw on the tip where the cable enters. Once everything is in place, be sure to tighten up that screw as it will take the weight of the bulb and not your connecting wires inside.

Attaching the Plug

Lastly, we just need to attach the plug. Again, nothing tricky here, it is just time-consuming. Just make sure you’re attaching the right colours to the right pins.

Disclaimer: Just in case it wasn’t abundantly clear, I am not an electrician and I do not claim to be able to advise you on any of this. You wire all of this together at your own risk.

Things to consider

Suspending the Bulbs

The setup itself is pretty straightforward, after all, I’m sure most of you have shot a portrait with a key and hair light before. The trickiest part for me was getting the bulbs to look good in the framing. I had 7 bulbs to think about and I wanted to showcase depth in the shot, meaning I wanted to have some bulbs close to the camera and some further away. Again, in principle this is easy, but I also logistically really only had 2 crossbars to suspend them from so the depth was managed via two bars crossing each other above the model and placing the bulbs along the length of them in a random way to make it look visually pleasing.

In the images above you can see that I clamped all 7 lights to only 2 crossbars. I would then place them in position and adjust the height of the bulbs to give them a more random look. This process will be easier if you have several additional crossbars or booms to attach the bulbs to. Regardless, I recommend getting this as close to in place before the talent actually stands there as this will take some back and forth.

One other aspect that is painfully obvious from the images above is how short the cables ended up being and you can see extension leads hanging from the stands as a result. This miscalculation happened due to me planning on having this rig closer to the ground. As it turned out, the model was taller and wore heels and I wanted the option to shoot wider if need be and I didn’t want to see the crossbars above if I did. If you can, maybe consider getting more of the cheap flex cable and making all of your strings longer to give yourself more options.

Choosing the White Balance

The white balance choice in this shot is crucial to the final image and in my opinion, failing to carefully consider what all of the lights and camera is set to will result in a very different image.

If we quickly recap the white balance settings we had:

Camera: 5000K
Key-Light: 10,000K
Hair-Light: 2000K
Bulbs: 2000K

With the camera set to ~5000K it makes the key-light on the model appear blue due to it being set to 10,000K. That is nicely contrasted by all the other Kelvin colours in the image as the hair-light is set to 2000K along with the hanging bulbs which are naturally 2000K.

It seems complicated, but remember, whenever you’re following any of my lighting setups, I’m never interested in what’s accurate, I’m only interested in what looks good. Here, none of the lights are set to the ‘accurate’ white balance of the camera and therefore all of the lighting in this shot is either cool or warm in relation to the camera.

Adding Atmosphere

I don't recall taking any images where there wasn’t smoke in the room so I can't show you what it would look like without it, but I do think adding some form of smoke or haze to this setup makes a huge difference.

*I used the handheld SmokeNINJA to add the haze and atmosphere to these images*

I used a SmokeNINJA to add the smoke here as it's a super-quick handheld smoke machine. Adding some form of atmosphere helps to give those bulbs in shot that gorgeous warm glow, plus it helps to force separation between the subject and background too. And by background I mean the bulbs further away compared to the closer ones as well as the actual background. The haze forces us to perceive an extra layer of depth when the bulbs further away appear slightly less distinctly than the ones closer to us. This all helps add depth to the shot

Getting Creative

Lens Filters

With everything finally in place, we can now afford to get a little creative with how we capture the shots. One of my favourite ways to do that is with lens filters. There are a lot to choose from, but here are some images where I was playing with some of my favourite filters.

*Click to enlarge* - Filter Used: **Prism FX Dream Filter**

This is one of the more subtle filters, but it’s very effective when you have lights either in-shot like I have here or at the very least, lighting coming back into the lens. If you look closely, you can see a distinctive glow around the bulbs which is a beautiful effect, albeit simple.

*Click to enlarge* - Filter Used: **Prism FX Flare FX Filter**

This Flare FX filter produces a very dominating effect and it's hard to miss. That said, once again this filter only works when there are points of light in-shot. Without them, you can barely tell it does anything at all. This effect is supposed to replicate the classic anamorphic flares we see in movies. It's very distinctive but it should be used sparingly.

*Click to enlarge* - Filter Used: **Prism FX Chromatic Flare FX Filter**

Lastly, I tried a far warmer version of the anamorphic flares from above and as you can see, it produces a similar effect, just in reddish hues instead of the colder blues. Once again, this only works when there are lights visible in-shot.

Artistic Lenses

As a studio shooter myself, there are limited visible effects when using vintage lenses in my work. Most old or even modern art-lenses display their unique traits and qualities at the edges of their frame and for the most part, the centre of the frame is left fairly untouched by their unique looks. This is great if you shoot a lot of work outdoors with tons of data at the edge of the frame, but in the studio, a lot of that look can be lost entirely when there's nothing but a neutral background at the edges.

With a setup like this hanging bulbs one however, there’s far more going on at the edges of the frame and that results in far more of the individual lens properties shining through. Take a look at some of the ones that I played with below.

*Click to enlarge -* Lens Used: **Petzval 58**

It’s tough to think of a more distinctive lens-look than the Petzval as that incredibly swirly bokeh is legendary at this point. This lens is not easy to use though and not only is it manual focus, but a manual focus that is adjusted via a form of rack & pinion! On top of that, the aperture is adjusted by dropping in metal discs with holes in them via a slot on the top of the lens. User friendly it certainly isn't, but its distinctive look certainly makes up for it.

*Click to enlarge* - Lens Used: **Lensbaby Velvet 56**

Click to enlarge - Lens Used **Nikon DC 105**

Another ‘art lens’ I tried was the Lensbaby Velvet 56. This is a far more modern lens and although the effect is less distinctive, a unique look is still very much there. If you’re not sure what you're looking for then I've included a more traditional style image next to it for comparison. The key areas you want to be looking at are how the lens renders edge detail and how it renders points of light. You should see that the Velvet creates those distinctive halos with its bokeh and of course, all the highlights have a very generous glow to them compared to the cleaner Nikon lens shot next to it.

Closing Comments

As I mentioned at the start, this isn’t a particularly tricky setup to get right, it just takes a little more preparation than normal. The only real stumbling block I see many having with this one is the Kelvin shifts and how you may be inclined to go after ‘accurate’ colour. I assure you this isn’t the best approach with this setup and with that in mind, just make sure you’ve selected the manual white balance over auto white balance on your camera.

With this slightly more creative approach to the final image, I’d also urge you to add other elements to the shot too. For example, don’t be afraid to add smoke, lens filters and even art-lenses to the final look and do your best to try and get most of this in-camera over trying to add these effects later on in post. I assure you, it’ll look far better getting it right in-camera first.

Lastly, now that you’ve made your hanging vintage-style bulbs, I’d urge you to test out other bulbs in place of the vintage filament ones. How about coloured bulbs, maybe even more abstract-looking bulbs? Give it a try and let me know how you get on.

EDIT

I received a couple of messages and comments regarding some areas that I didn’t cover (even though I said I would, so I apologise about that).

Shutter Speed 1/50th - One aspect was my use of 1/50th second shutter speed in some of these images. This is purely a subjective choice and there is no technical reason for me to do this beyond a certain look that I’m after. Many modern cameras have provided us with a very clinical and saccharine look to our imagery and although that can be fine in certain situations, the final image can feel a little stark, cold and even lifeless. With this in mind, I will often look for ways to bring a little realism or life back to my shots and whether that’s though my colour balance, lens filters, vintage lenses or even shutter speed, all of these aspects can help make an image feel a little more real by adding these perceived imperfections. Again, please remember that this a personal choice and it does not mean its objectively better. I’d encourage you to play with a lightly slower shutter speed from time to time and see if you like the added movement for yourself.

Using Strobes instead of LEDs - As I mentioned at the top and then failed to follow up on, you can absolutely achieve this look with strobes instead of LEDs, the only problem you’ll encounter is the power of the strobes being extremely bright compared to these 40w hanging bulbs. In my experience, by far and away the best solution to this is to use ND (Neutral Density) gels over your strobes to reduce their output. These gels are simply grey gels that reduced brightness without affecting the colour. These ND gels are very common in TV and cinema so shouldn’t be too tricky to get a hold of either. Applying these gels to your light will reduce them by several stops and they can easily be stacked for even more power reduction.

Products Used

Rotolight AEOS 2 PRO

AEOS 2 PRO Website Link

SmokeNINJA

SmokeNinja is a portable, handheld smoke machine that requires almost zero heating up time. You turn it on and in mere seconds you have plumes of smoke filling the set. Plus, this little thing can quickly produce enough smoke for even large rooms too.

SmokeNINJA Link

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

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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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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