Intro by Skip Cohen

It's a new episode of Walk Through a Wedding with Justin and Mary Marantz as they take you through some of the ingredients for great candid images of the flower girl.

After you've watched the video, check out Justin and Mary's images from real weddings. I love the points they make in every episode, but when they walk the talk, the images and techniques are even better!

If you're not already on Profoto's FREE newsletter list of subscribers, click the link below. This way you'll never miss a beat...or a video! Plus, this is the link to watch any of the past episodes, just in case you missed any.

Intro by Skip Cohen

It's "Profoto Friday" and every week I love wandering through their archives looking for content to help you raise the bar on the quality of your images. What I love most about today's pick is how it covers the basics of lighting a car, but it's more than that.

I realize most of you aren't car photographers, but at some point in your career as a professional photographer you're going to get hit with something totally out of your comfort zone. Cars aren't exclusive to the challenge of lighting something big and neither are warehouses, like the one below.

Thanks to Tim Wallace's skill set and Profoto, here's your look behind the curtain. It's not magic, just a terrific understanding of lighting dynamics, great gear and a short trip inside Tim Wallace's head. 

There's a lot of incredible content in the Profoto blog and well worth your time to wander through and see the other gems they're sharing to help you raise the bar on the quality of your images.

And, if you haven't seen it yet, check out the latest video with Brian Marcus and the new Air Remote TTL-N for the B1 now available for Nikon shooters.

by Fredrik Franzén

Lighting a car is not easy. Cars are big, they are reflective and they have almost no flat surfaces. Luckily for us, Tim Wallace, who some call the world’s greatest car photographer, is happy to share some invaluable tips and tricks with us.

“When lighting a car it is always best to start very simple, don’t over-engineer it, and build your light up gradually,” explains Tim, who used four Pro-B3 battery generators, two Zoom Reflectors, two Softbox 1×6′ RF and an Air Remote to create the image below.

Take five minutes and learn from one of the best in the industry how to do it yourself. You will not regret it. Check out our designated Tim Wallace page at the Profoto website. Here you will find another two videos with striking images and insightful tips and tricks.

Intro by Skip Cohen

It's Profoto Friday and as usual I've been wandering through their archives. I love the "how-to" quality of both this post and the behind-the-scenes video below. Just about every new photographer owns a reflector, but so often they fail to take full advantage of its potential.

Each month Profoto highlights one of their accessories in their Light Shaping Tools line. Put into a post on their blog it becomes a good little tutorial. The challenge for so many photographers today is making their work look different and in turn, better, than their competitors.  Here's just one more ingredient.

A big thanks to Profoto for their never-ending support in helping photographers raise the bar on the quality of their work. And, if you haven't watched it yet, check out three minutes of Brian Marcus on the streets of NYC with the new B1 Air Remote TTL-N for Nikon shooters. It's a kick to watch with some remarkable images.

by Fredrik Franzén

Each month we highlight a certain item in Profoto’s rich assortment of Light Shaping Tools (previous articles can be found here). This month we talk to Portuguese fashion photographer Frederico Martins about our new Profoto Reflectors.

Born and raised by the owner of a clothing store, fashion is not only Frederico Martins profession. It is in his blood. Today, he is an awarded fashion photographer who counts renowned publications such as Vogue, Elle, Maxim and GQ among his clients.

Frederico started his career shooting surfers, and ever since, he enjoys using the elements of nature and available light to his advantage. This is also the reason why he prefers working with reflectors.

“Working with reflectors is a more natural approach,” says Frederico. “You can forget about batteries, carrying heavy equipment and adjusting the color temperature. You get a natural look and feel with very little effort.”

Frederico was recently asked to do a cover story for Elle about a solitary girl wandering around the island of Fuerteventura. Knowing that he would be out in the sun on location, Frederico brought a number of different Collapsible Reflectors.

“The Collapsible Reflectors have handles and are sturdier and more rigid than other reflectors I’ve worked with,” says Frederico. “I often shoot on quite windy locations, so rigidness is an important factor. Having so many different textures to choose from is also good.”

The different textures can be used in different ways for creating different effects. So, how did Frederico use them on Fuerteventura?

“The white side reflects the light in a very natural way, so I mostly used it for lighting up and controlling the shadows,” he says. “It’s very straightforward and definitely one of my favorites.”

“The silver side was used when I wanted a strong, slightly underexposed image with let’s say darker skin tones and a deep blue sky. In these cases I placed the reflector quite far from the model, so that I got a low powered yet shiny light that brought life to the darker areas. I also used it in some shots to create the catch light in the model’s eyes.”

“The translucent reflector was used as a diffuser. I put it over the model with the sunlight shining through, which gives you this nice, fresh and soft light. Of course, diffusing the light on the model steps down your exposure and gives you a somewhat brighter background. But that can be a good thing!”

“I didn’t use the black or the gold side on Fuerteventura, but the former is obviously used to flag off light, and the gold side is great when shooting black & white. It gives you these really nice, almost bronzy kind of feel.”

“My personal favorite, however, is the sunsilver side. “It’s not as cold as the silver side and it is not as obvious as the gold side. It’s right in between and I think it’s just perfect. A lot of the beautiful, warm skin tones you see in these pictures were created with the help of that.”

See more of Frederico’s stunning images at his website.

Using the sun silver side.

Using the white and black side and then the white side.

Images copyright Frederico Martins. All rights reserved.

Today's video from Profoto USA and Brian Marcus is all part of an SCU "Daily Double" with a new podcast with Brian recorded just a couple weeks ago. We always talk about great images that speak for themselves. While great images do speak for a photographer's skill set, they don't share a lot of the background about the photographer and those key milestones in their career.
 
The Profoto B1 became the world’s first off-camera flash to do TTL with both Nikon and Canon cameras. Nikon shooters attach the Air Remote TTL-N (released today) to their camera’s hotshoe, Canon shooters the Air Remote TTL-C (released last year). Both get to shoot with TTL and without any cords, and with plenty of power, speed and light shaping options.

This post is part of two part piece featuring Brian Marcus. His insightful podcast is just a click away! It's well worth listening to after you've had a chance to watch Brian work his magic on the streets of his favorite city...New York!

A big thanks to Profoto USA for their support of education, but even more for great products.

Intro by Skip Cohen

There's so much diverse content in the Profoto archives, you simply never know what you're going to find.

What pulled me into this post first was the idea of shooting on a rooftop in Dallas, but then I was drawn to Pepper Yandell and his crew's first behind-the-scenes video. Sheila and I are both fans of every Fast and Furious film in the series, so I know it's just not just "a guy thing"! LOL

The images for the shoot were all done with one or two D1 Monolights and while I know very few of you do commercial work, think about the behind the scenes video. How would you tell your story?  All I know is that for me, when I grow up, I want to be Pepper Yandell!

To check out more of Pepper Yandell's work, just take a trip to his website.  As always, a big thanks to Profoto for their never-ending support of education! Check out their blog when you have a minute - there's a ton of helpful information from some of the finest artists in the world!

by Fredrik Franzén

Cruising around downtown Dallas – shooting, shooting and scouting for even more locations to shoot – young and hungry car photographer Pepper Yandell and his crew somehow managed to also do their very first behind-the-scenes video. And it is pretty amazing.

“The photoshoot was for AutoSource Dallas and HRE Wheels,” Pepper told the guys over at Fstoppers in a recent post.

“AutoSource gave me the keys to their 1,200HP Jotech Stage 6 Widebody Nissan GT-R repainted in Lamborghini’s Verde Ithica color, and my current favorite car, the Ferrari 458 Spider. I already had some locations picked out, and then we scouted out the rest as we were cruising around town. The first location was simply some containers we stumbled across as we were driving down the street from AutoSource. The second location was my buddy’s warehouse, the Dallas Automobile Storehouse in Addison, TX. The last location was this shut down, under construction hotel + parking garage my friend Nathan, the construction manager, got us access to.”

Note that even though Pepper had a crew with him, most of them were busy filming the video and doing the bts shots. The final stills (which you will find below) were done with only one or two D1 monoglights, which were repositioned between each exposure and layered in post-production to give the cars that glittering, larger-than-life feel.

Considering that this is Pepper and his crew’s very first behind-the-scenes video, we cannot wait to see what they will come up with next…

For more information, check out Pepper’s website or his Facebook page.

Intro by Skip Cohen

Photographing the first dance is on every wedding photographer's shooting list, regardless of the number of years of experience they have as a photographer. If the images are great, there's rarely a wedding album that doesn't have at least one image from the first dance.

In this new episode of Walk Through a Wedding, Justin and Mary Marantz take you through some of the ingredients for great first dance images. I especially liked their comments about photographing the event through the eyes of a guest, as if a photographer wasn't there.

If you're not already on Profoto's FREE newsletter list of subscribers, click the link below. This way you'll never miss a beat...or a video! Plus, this is the link to watch any of the past episodes, just in case you missed any.