Learning how to light a portrait can be challenging! However, in this class, celebrity photographer John Ricard will give you an easy-to-understand, comprehensive introduction to creating soft portraits that are flattering to the subject with umbrella light modifiers.
After explaining what to look for in an umbrella and showing plenty of examples at a variety of price ranges, you’ll get an inside look into John’s studio as he creates lighting setups and photographs his models. Learn how he sets up his umbrellas to achieve certain looks, how to adjust the light and umbrella to change those looks, and how he avoids common mistakes. Furthermore, you’ll see how a top-notch studio photographer interacts with his models during a shoot.
This course contains a 19-minute video.
- Light modifiers
- Overview of modifiers
- Introduction to umbrellas
- Purchasing umbrella modifiers
- Sizes
- Purchasing advice
- Comparing results with different types of umbrellas
- Setting up umbrellas
- Where to put the light source
- Setting up a scene
- Shooting with umbrellas
- Bounce vs. shoot through umbrellas
- Setups with different types of umbrellas
- General Tips
- Creating soft-light portraits
- Umbrella positioning
- Creating variety
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Suggested Prerequisites
There are no suggested prerequisites for this course.
Reviews
• DeanT • May 16, 2010
This is a good, basic introduction to using umbrellas for a single-person portrait. The video's host, John Ricard, is a NYC photographer who shoots a lot of Hip-Hop stars and models – and he does it well.
I gave this video only four stars because there were a few minor things that bothered me about the video.
Number 1 – When John shoots the model and shows the resulting photograph to illustrate one way to use an umbrella (such as at 4:20 with a silver umbrella and 4:30 with a white umbrella) the shots that are shown are not the shots he is shooting in the video. Obviously he reshot the photos afterwards. You can tell because the model is wearing different clothes in the video than in the photos. This is a minor point, I know, but it is annoying. Why were the illustration shots reshot? Did his original shots not come out so great? I don't doubt that the shots shown were shot using the same equipment and poses as in the video, but why not show the photos as shot in the video? The same thing occurs at 15:57 and 17:05 in the video, illustrating shoot-thru vs. bounce umbrellas.
Number 2 – John does not go into much detail as to why you would use a bounce umbrella vs. a shoot-thru. It would have been nice to find out in which situations one is preferred over the other. But as John says, most of this is personal taste. There are no hard and fast rules on using these umbrellas.
Also at the very end of the video, John mentions that you don't need to use expensive studio strobes (as he does in the video) to make flattering soft umbrella portraits. This is true. You can do the same with Speedlights and umbrellas. However, he does not go into any detail on this (I assume this is a topic for a separate "Strobist" video). He mentions that Speedlights have some advantages over studio strobes (portability, lower cost, etc.) but fails to mention their biggest disadvantages – lower power, lack of modeling light, lack of color temperature consistency as the batteries weaken, etc. Again, I assume this will be the subject of a separate video.
Still, this is an excellent introduction to the use of umbrellas for soft light portraits. John explains everything in easy to understand language without all the jargon and buzzwords many use to explain this stuff. This video is well worth the $1.99 if you're interested in an introduction to the use of umbrellas.
• tshidikhunou • June 18, 2010
I must say, i have watched a lot of Videos about Using Umbrellas and the Majority of these Videos concentrate on the Special Effects and all those crazy Unnecessary things. Buying Studio lights and being able to go through a Video like this is the best money well spent. The Video is short enough to be watched in ONE take and it also has enough information. The Illustrations have been rather wonderful and i am glad that you are able to provide videos like this for US. Thank you once again for these Videos. I will be searching for a lot more Videos on this site so as to purchase all of them. John Ricard, thank you.