Become a SUPPORTER and learn photography techniques, post-production and lighting setups from over 150 educational tutorials led by MaXu.Tutorials are spoken in Italian — but since the videos are hosted on YouTube, you can turn on auto-translated captions in your preferred language.
Let's take a detailed look at how a monolight flash is built. Plenty of useful insights to get the most out of these precious allies of every photographer who wants to get serious.
How to avoid one of the most common mistakes among beginners (though even experts make it sometimes): flattening the perspective of the person you're photographing... I'll teach you NOT to do it.
I reveal how a glamour photo is shot in the studio. Lighting setups, the power settings used, and a pinch of fun.
The snoot is a very useful accessory for directing a specific "beam" of light onto a particular part of our set. Useful for putting "accents" on objects, items of clothing, etc... I also use ...
The Beauty Dish is an accessory that can make the difference in your photos and give them a truly professional look. I use a 70cm diameter one with the accompanying honeycomb grid. ...
The Maxilite Reflector is an accessory I use quite often. It's useful both for lighting the background and for lighting the subject from behind, as an effect light. I use it mainly ...
The Bowens Backlite Reflector is an unquestionably useful accessory for lighting the background evenly. It can be used with any studio flash that has the "S-Type" bayonet ...
Bowens Fresnel 200 spot attachment. An accessory that costs as much as the monolight flash it gets attached to. Useful if you just want to put a "spot" of light on a precise point... in all other ...
The striplight is a very useful accessory in still life and fashion photography. It produces excellent light for lighting people from head to toe, or objects, even those with a translucent ...
The quartz lamp is one of the most widespread continuous lighting systems. They are generally sold with practical barn doors, which let you aim the light beam with precision ...
In this video you see the 500W IANIRO Photoflood lamp with a clamp mount. A "normal" continuous light lamp that's hard to use with any accessories other than the barn doors. There's al...
A "flag" is something you place between the light and the subject, or between the light and the lens. In this case we are talking about flags used between the light and the len...
This video course is essential for understanding the differences between the various studio flash modifiers: how much light they put out and how much gets "absorbed", what the effect is on a model's...
So here we are with a comparative test between an accessory for speedlights, the Ray Flash, and an accessory for studio flashes (with a Type-S mount), the Bowens Ringlite Converter. Both are mean...
The softbox is probably the most common accessory in studio photography. It produces beautiful, gradual shadows that make the photographed subject look "soft". Always remember that the sof...
This video course explains how to set up a room to build your own little home studio. The short side of the room should measure no less than 3 and a half meters. The ceiling...the high...
Have you bought your softbox, at least 80x100cm? Good job, you've made an excellent purchase. It doesn't matter whether you're using continuous light or flash, the principle (as shown...
The 120° Wide Angle Reflector is a reflector dish I use very rarely, since I rarely use umbrellas and even more rarely use it on its own. The good thing is that if you buy the 2-flash kit from...
The Grid Reflector is undoubtedly a useful accessory. It can be used as a hair light, or in product photography. Bought as part of a kit, it can also be used w...
The Bowens Softlite Reflector is essentially a beauty dish, 38 cm in diameter. Its diffuser is called the "Grid Diffuser". I use it mainly in portrait photography, in the "clamshell" setup...
A lamp with a fresnel lens produces a very concentrated, powerful light, thanks precisely to the light passing through its concentric-ring lens. It's widely used in cinema, television...
With Black Foil we can mask our light sources to create original, distinctive effects, both on the subject and on the background. The light source needs to b...
The Bowens Universal Spot Attachment is an accessory that lets you project shapes onto a background. It's quite expensive and it also soaks up a huge amount of light; in fact I have to use it with a monol...
Black Foil, also known as Cinefoil, is a material similar to a fairly thick sheet of aluminum foil and is often used in the film industry to create light masks. Main characteristics: it's fireproof, bl...
The Dome XXL is a "window light" that produces very even, soft and diffused light. It measures 2 meters in height and 1 in width, and 2 flash units go inside it. Light absorption is...
If you need to shoot simple still lifes, the CubeLite is an accessory that can come in very handy for taking photos free of unsightly shadows. Using it is quite simp...
The Bowens High Performance Reflector is a decidedly useful accessory when you need a lot of power. It is in fact the accessory that "produces" the most light of all. Compared to the Maxil...
The three-phase method: Introduction. How do you take a correctly exposed, focused and perfectly framed photo? Simple! I rely on my "3-Phase Method". Once you get ...
The perfect exposure? IT DOESN'T EXIST! Or rather, yes, it does exist, but only in one case. If we fill the frame with an 18% neutral gray card, lit in a perfectly uniform ...
There are multiple focusing methods on your camera, and they force you to make choices: Autofocus or manual? Single shot or Tracking? Automatic focus point or ...
Image composition is undoubtedly a fundamental aspect of photography. It's what people call: "Having the photographer's eye." Some people, even without any technical foundation, ...
Camera light meters are calibrated to measure the light that reflects off 18% neutral gray. In all other cases there is an error, which can be small or large, depending on the color ...
The classic beginner's mistake. Since the focus point is classically in the central position, it gets used as if it were a rifle sight...so you aim at the center of the head and sh...
Dear beginner friends, now that you have unboxed your new camera and taken your test shots of the cat, the time has come to TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR CAMERA ! :-) Manufactur...
For a great outdoor portrait I recommend using a lens that gives you a shallow depth of field. This way, unlike an environmental portrait, we'll have ...
Outdoor photos, architecture and landscape shots...how do you tackle them ? The wide-angle lens definitely rules here....and the wider the lens, the more fun it gets. ;-) Watch out for perspective distor...
This is the second part of the video course...obviously watch it after the first one ! ;-) For greater stability we use a tripod. Tripods fall into several categories: - Cheap knock-offs. Lig...
WARNING ! THIS VIDEO COURSE IS IN TEXT FORMAT ONLY. THERE IS NO ASSOCIATED VIDEO. Talking about wedding photography in general is certainly not easy, mostly because every photographer has the...
Going on vacation with a camera is by now standard practice for virtually everyone. Photographers who own a DSLR will probably want to bring their own gear along, but this...
Photographing a model on location with the help of the ambient light is certainly a fascinating experience for "putting to the test" our skills as photographers. First of...
Snow offers some excellent photographic opportunities... the thing is, we have to push our equipment to the limit of its capabilities to produce shots that are not too ordinary. ...
At the end of the video course "The Photo Revealed: Glamour with Eva in purple lingerie" I had fun taking a few photos with my Canon G10 compact camera, to find out how big the difference ...
The Canon Eos 550D is undoubtedly a remarkably successful entry-level camera in terms of image quality, so much so that its update (the 600D), announced in these days...
Lens calibration is a useful procedure for anyone who wants to get the most out of their gear. Until a few years ago the only option was to send everything in for serv...
At first I was very skeptical about using the iPhone, especially from a photography and video standpoint. I have to say, though, that owning one has won me over. After all, it really is very conv...
Let's compare the queen of cameras, a Hasselblad (3D II with a 50mpx back), and a 22.3 Mpx Canon 5D Mark III. To give the Canon a bit more "punch" we equip it...
In this video course we will look at how to take beautiful photos of a model with 2 very simple table lamps, which I bought at a well-known department store. The photographic equipment we n...
In this video course we will look at a classic situation that every beginner photographer tries their hand at: a slightly risqué photo of their friend/girlfriend/wife, taken however with the few me...
A simple setup: two 1000W quartz lamps with softboxes, one light on the background. Always remember this concept: place at least one light from behind. It will give your subject three-dimensional...
One of the most popular setups for a "beauty" portrait is without a doubt clamshell lighting, which I've renamed Roman-style the "Mussel Setup". This setup calls for two ...
This time we have to photograph a model dressed in black on a black background. An intriguing "challenge", because if we get the light placement wrong, we'll end up with the unpleasant result of the dress...
To create backlit silhouettes you need to build a strong contrast between the background, generously lit, and the subject, in shadow. So aim the lights toward the background and, if nee...
To light this beautiful guitar properly we use rim lights and backlights. In practice, the only main light source is the 180cm stripbox positioned on the righ...
A glamour lingerie photo with 3 light sources. - Beauty Dish on the model, in a frontal position at 45° - Maxilite from behind, at 180° from the beauty dish - Maxilite with a colored gel for the ba...
We make a few small changes to the "Carola - Pink Lingerie" set to take this glamour photo. So we move the main light back, behind the model's position, and remo...
This time we shoot with the flashes at minimum power so we can use an aperture of f/2.8, in order to get a shallow DOF. 3 light sources: - 70 cm beauty dish with honeycomb grid on the ...
A simple lighting setup for a photo that's striking nonetheless. Softbox on the right with a flag beside the model to keep the light from reaching the background. On the right side we have a panel ...
How do we make this black guitar really stand out ? We light it from below too, using the Softlite Reflector ! ;-) This gives us 5 light sources+1 panel: - Softbox 100cm . Main light. Positio...
4 light sources for this beauty shot: - softlite reflector as the key light, fairly close to the model - striplight for the hair, from behind - on the background: - backlight with a lilac gel - snoot...
Here's the secret behind a photo that's guaranteed to impress. We have a guitar amplifier head resting on a surface made of clear plexiglass with a black velvet cloth underneath (all of it...
A snare drum from a drum kit. A somewhat tricky object to photograph, since it usually has circular reflective surfaces that mirror the whole studio. To photograph them at their bes...
The classic catalog shot on a white background. Sure, you could tackle this with fewer light sources and still get good results. But since I have them... I us...
A photographer's "skill" is also measured by how well they manage to bring out the best in their models. While photographing Tess I noticed that with frontal light the camera absolutely loves her fa...
Photographing a mirror is certainly tricky. Especially when our mirror is a guitar! Obviously, if we photographed it the "normal" way we would be reflected in the mirror. We nee...
Let's teleport Martina to Mars! To create this striking effect we need to use studio flash light, which with its 1/1000 of a second flash duration manages to freeze our...
Sometimes you may be asked to shoot a "Cinema" portfolio. In these cases I would recommend using continuous light, the same kind used in the movie industry. So Ianiro Varibeam and Arri 650W...
To make the smoke (produced with a smoke machine) stand out, the best solution is to light it from behind, with hard light, on a black background. That's why in this video tutorial we use one...
If you have a good fast prime lens, using it at almost maximum aperture can give your photos a very interesting appeal, especially in portrait, glamour and artistic nude...
For many photographers, stock photography is their primary source of income. It basically involves photographing objects or people that companies all over the world can use to advertise...
Photographing glass objects is a challenge that is difficult and fun at the same time. Glass reflects images, so it should be lit from behind or from the side, for two reasons: - to prevent lamps...
A metal box is an absolutely fascinating object to photograph. Its reflectivity means you can "have some fun" creating dark and light areas, simply by moving panels...
Lighting the model from behind is always very fascinating. You can play with the light intensity (by working the apertures) to get very different effects. With wide apertures the model...
We use the High Performance Reflector... an accessory that produces "hard but not too hard" shadows, to make these shots eye-catching. Complementing it on the model, the mini striplight for the hair...
Another video course with Vicky and the Bowens High Performance Reflector. This time we use it in 3 different ways, always as the only light source on the model, without using panels or anything else...
If we want to light an interior space like daylight, at a not exactly ideal time of day, a really good idea is to use a very intense light source positioned outside the window...
Indoor glamour with a single light source. Once you have found a suitable spot in the house, all you need is a medium-sized softbox (continuous light or flash, it makes no difference) to place b...
As pointed out many times, when shooting with flashes outdoors you usually get excellent results by slightly underexposing the ambient light (from 1/3 of a stop to 1 stop) and then li...
In this video course we use the Bowens Universal Spot Attachment... a rather expensive little toy that, however, lets us give our images that extra something in terms of...
When we are outdoors, using speedlights (shoe-mount flashes) is always very convenient. They are reasonably powerful, lightweight and run on regular AA batteries. As seen on other occasions...
To process the RAW files of your photos, I always recommend using the software distributed by the manufacturer of your camera. This is because, although Lightroom ...
Pay close attention to this VideoCourse, because in it I'm going to explain a FUNDAMENTAL concept for using Photoshop: Layers. What are layers in Photoshop? Let's look at a ...
One of the "great things" about Photoshop are the plug-ins... simple tools that let us improve our photographs with just a few clicks. One of the ones I use most frequently is defini...
If you shot your session photos in RAW (if you didn't, I'll have to rap your knuckles!) and you were careful enough to take at least one photo with the 18% neutral gray card, the o...
One way to "develop" a RAW file is to use the Adobe Camera Raw software, which comes with Photoshop, being an integral part of it. Shooting in RAW gives us ...
What do we mean by vignetting? A lens's vignetting is the falloff of light at the edges of the image, especially noticeable when shooting at wide apertures. In theory vignetting...
We've finished our post-production and now we want to resize the photograph to post it on our website, or on facebook, or on some forum. To make it look nice, though, we also want...
For cleaning up the face in a Beauty/Glamour photo, one of the most useful and downright simplest tools to use is the "Spot Healing Brush". Especially in the CS5 version ...
It happens to everyone... you've been fiddling with and editing your photo for ages, and now you realize that.....YOU'VE OVERDONE IT!!! Cheekbones and under-eye shadows are gone, the skin is smoother than velvet and...
If we want to change the tone of an object, or of our image as a whole, Photoshop gives us the "Selective Color" tool. In this case we need to ...
For an accurate and precise face cleanup, I recommend using the Patch Tool. Using it is fairly intuitive. I roughly select the area with the "fl...
First of all, if you haven't done so yet, watch the first part of this video course. Ok. Have you already done it ? Then let's start by making this important setting right away: go to ...
I like this program because it lets me make changes very quickly to a uniform set of photos. For example, I noticed that this set of photos is a little underexposed....
In this video course we cover the "Clone Stamp Tool". This tool is one of the most widely used for photo retouching. The way it works is quite intuitive. With a brush (usu...
After cleaning up the face with the classic tools, covered in the previous video courses, namely: - Spot Healing Brush - Patch Tool - Clone Stamp we can move on to the fin...
Pay close attention to this video course, because in it I will explain a FUNDAMENTAL concept for using Photoshop: the layer mask. Without the ability to use this fund...
Let's make a nice postcard shot of Castel S.Angelo with a few plug-ins from the NIK Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete suite. As mentioned in the first part, to optimize the result we apply/exclu...
To blend two or more images together, the simplest method is to open them all in Photoshop, then click on one image and select all (Ctrl+A), copy it (Ctrl+C), click back on the main image and...
Darken/Lighten Center does exactly what its name says. With this plug-in we can do it very easily by marking our center with "Place Center" and then, using...
In this video tutorial I show how to use the POLARIZATION filter from the NIK Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete suite. This filter emulates the behavior of a polarizing filter, and I recommend using it...
To get a beautiful B&W (Black and White) photo, I recommend starting from a shot that was already taken with fairly contrasty light. To post-produce gorgeous B&W images I recommend...
Here's the second part of the video tutorial dedicated to using Silver Efex Pro. Basically, here we simply use the film-simulation presets, to get grain and cont...
- THE FIRST PART OF THE VIDEO TUTORIAL HAS NO VIDEO! - Color Management in digital photography is a very important subject, but it's just as complex and vast. To cover it exhaustively there are...
Watch this video tutorial carefully....its final "takeaway" is: USE sRGB !!!! Otherwise, if you want to complicate your life a bit, use Adobe RGB or ProPhoto, but only if you're fully aware of what...
To add a vignette and/or change the toning of your photo, use the STYLIZING section. With "Toning" you apply the toning. With "Vignette" you add a vignette (dark or...
In the first 2 installments we talked about theory... now let's see IN PRACTICE what needs to be done to get proper color management. ..enjoy the video! >>> TO WATCH THE VIDEO CLICK HERE <<<
The video explains the procedure for calibrating a monitor with the DATACOLOR Spyder Elite 3 calibrator. What happens at the end of the process? A profile file with the .icm extension is created and...
In some portraits, the light may reflect off the model's face or body in an unflattering way. In these cases it can be useful to apply a "powder effect". So: - Create...
Photoshop's LIQUIFY filter is a widely used tool for correcting/enhancing the physical features of portrait subjects. You can straighten noses, firm up breasts, slim down...
What is a High Key? A High Key is a photograph shot in a "high key", meaning the lighter tones take center stage. In a successful High Key, the factors that must be present are: - skin/hair...
Have you noticed that in magazine editorials and ads the photos are never shown "raw and untouched" — there's always some toning / lighting effect? In this video you can see how to...
Long legs are synonymous with beauty. Lengthening them in Photoshop is very simple. Using the rectangle tool, make a selection from just below the buttocks down to the bottom edge of the frame. With the S...
After cleaning up the face with the techniques covered in the previous 3 video tutorials, we can finish off our image by blurring the skin, making it smoother and more pleas...
An architecture photo where we use the Nik Software filters, Color Efex Pro. First of all we darken the building with "Gratuated Neutral Density", which emulates a graduated ND filter. We ...
The Levels adjustment is an excellent tool for extending the tonal range of your photo, especially when dealing with a photo dominated by flat midtones. I recommend app...
To cut out tricky subjects accurately in "automatic" mode — provided they stand out against fairly uniform backgrounds — there is a method that is a bit more complicated than usual, but very ef...
Portrait Professional 10 - standard edition - It's a truly powerful piece of software for extremely fast portrait post-production. In just a few clicks you can do what in Photo...
Nik Software has updated Silver Efex Pro to version 2, its plug-in dedicated to black-and-white lovers. The new version is now also available in Italian and is 64-bit. What ...
An extremely useful plug-in for improving your photos is without a doubt VIVEZA 2 by Nik Software. With this software, thanks to U-Point technology, you can improve the look of your photograph...
A very useful feature introduced in CS4 and enhanced in CS5 is Content Aware Fill, i.e. the ability to fill a selection based on its content. This way you can remov...
In this video tutorial I do a bit of post-production on the photos taken on vacation with the Canon EOS 550D and the iPhone 4 (check out the related video tutorials). I basically reuse the concepts already...
Nik Color Efex Pro has reached version 4, with an improved interface and lots of new features. There are many new features: - there are new filters, including the extremely useful Detail Extractor - there are presets for...
In another video tutorial I explained how to recover from excessive post-production while you are still working on the photo and therefore still have access to the original fi...
In this video tutorial we look at how to make the most of some Photoshop plug-ins that are so interesting that you can greatly improve a photograph practically without using Photo...
The Liquify filter. Every woman's best friend...but also a friend to men with a bit of a belly... :-) The Liquify filter is widely used to change, in a "natural" way, a person's...
WARNING! Before watching this video tutorial I would recommend watching all the video tutorials named: Photoshop - Plug-ins Part X. When I do the post-production of wedding ph...
One of the simplest yet at the same time most powerful adjustments for fixing brightness and contrast in Photoshop is the CURVES adjustment. Using it is fairly intuitive. The line...
If we have taken a photo at high ISO, we will definitely have an image with some digital noise. To remove/reduce it we can use Camera Raw (included in Photoshop)...
We can easily simulate the light filtering in through a window with the "Graduated Fog" filter in Nik Color Efex. We use the Rotation to tilt it so that it matches the angle at which...
Artificial intelligence makes many aspects of our work easier, including the post-production of our photos. I have devised an EXCLUSIVE METHOD to retouch the SKIN...
5-in-1 reflector panels are very handy to use outdoors. They're an inexpensive way to "manipulate" the existing light to suit your needs in a very simple and intuitive way....
To shoot both on location and in the studio, you can equip yourself with the Bowens 500C Travel Pak Kit. It consists of 2 monolights, 500W/s each, which can be used either with the cable for a standard...
Videos rated 1 star are designed to teach "budding" photographers. That is, those who have recently bought a DSLR, or plan to buy one soon. The topics covered will...
Videos rated 2 stars are designed to teach amateur photographers who want to "grow". That is, those who bought a DSLR some time ago and know how to use it with a certain awareness. In ad...
Videos rated 3 stars are designed to provide advanced information to expert, semi-professional and professional photographers, so as to let them in on "All my secrets". To th...
A workshop is a unique opportunity to learn while having fun. The genre of photography I usually offer is oriented towards portraiture, glamour and artistic nude. That is why we will work with one...
TEXT-ONLY VIDEO COURSE - NO VIDEO - Download the attached file to understand what "light from behind", "on-axis light", or 60° Right, etc. mean... basically the terminology I use in the video courses...
--- THE VIDEO COURSE LEARNING PATH --- The video courses were produced over the years and, even though they are "catalogued" with the famous little stars, I realized it could be rather...
TEXT ONLY --- NO VIDEO Today's flashes work in TTL mode (through the lens) . This means that to determine the intensity of the burst to be emitt...
Successful use of flash light outdoors means managing to find the balance between the natural light and the light emitted by our flash. Note: Outdoors I always recommend us...
This video course is the follow-up to "Outdoor Portraits with TTL Flash". In the previous video course we saw how to use a TTL flash mounted on the hot shoe. Now, to get more pleas...
The main problem with using Canon or Nikon wireless systems is that the requirements for using them properly are quite strict and place a considerable limit on creativity. To ...
When you're indoors and want to use your TTL flash mounted on the hot shoe, it's best to use it with the "Bounce Flash" technique, that is, you should bounce the flash burst off a...
When we use a TTL flash, we have to keep in mind that we have a tool that allows us to compensate, by emitting a burst of light, for the amount of light missing to correc...
When I shoot outdoors or at weddings I use 3 "portable" flash setups put together like this: - Canon 580EX II - Canon Battery Pack SPECIFIC to the Canon 580 EX - PocketWizard Flex TT5 - Manfrotto N...
In this video tutorial we put to the test this adapter for accessories with the "Type-S" bayonet mount used by Bowens accessories. If you're interested, it's called QUANTUUM BK-3, search for it on Google to...
May 2012 The first Canon shoe-mount flashes to use radio waves to carry the information needed to fire a remote flash in wireless mode are now available in stores...
Which is the fairest light in all the land ? Continuous light or flash light ? In truth, as pointed out many times, LIGHT IS LIGHT, what changes are the diffusers .... But if the diffusers are the sa...
A fundamental aspect of photography is the control of shadows. We can and must choose their direction, their presence and their hardness. To do this we use light sour...
Which of the camera's metering systems is best to use when I shoot indoors with studio flashes ? NONE ! You don't need it. Because the reading taken by the camera is NOT the o...
- A handheld light meter ... what is it for? It measures the light and gives us the right ISO, shutter speed and aperture values to expose our subject correctly. - A handheld light meter ....
The 18% middle gray card is useful for 2 purposes: 1 - Exposure 2 - White balance For exposure, using it is simple. Since cameras are calibrated to correctly expose...
This is a recurring question: "What shutter speed should I set when using studio flashes?". The key concept is this: the flash burst must be emitted while the shutter curtains are fully open...
To color a background evenly you need a Backlite with a colored gel. To get really good results, though, no "stray" light must spill onto the background, spoil...
Many of you have asked me about the difference between a speedlight (used in manual mode with a "simple" non-TTL trigger, or with a sync cable) and a studio flash, so here is a comparative te...
Reading and correctly interpreting a histogram is essential to understanding whether our photo is properly exposed or not. The camera's LCD can in fact be deceiving, since...
What happens to our photos once they are published on the web? Unfortunately it can happen that, despite our signature and the little copyright symbol, someone appropriates them to use them...
