© James Weber

If you’ve been keeping up with Ian Ruhter’s Silver & Light series, you’ll definitely want to check out James Weber. Like Ian, James is using Profoto’s powerful strobes as a way to rejuvenate the wet plate collodion process.

“Wet plate collodion is a chemical process as much as it is a photographic process,” writes James. “It’s getting back to the darkroom which adds a uniqueness to each image. It’s using large format cameras and lenses that are 100+ years old. It’s using crazy, huge aerial lenses from World War II to get amazing large plate portraits. It’s getting back to the roots of the first recorded images. It’s part Breaking Bad, mixing up the chemistry, and part Ansel Adams trekking up mountains with a large format camera to get the shot. The process slows you down so that you take in all of the minute details of your subject before you shoot. Because of this necessary attention to detail, it’s made me a better photographer. To me, it’s the most fun you can have with a camera.” (more…)

Photographer Morgan Moller has written a great blog post in which he gives a detailed account of a recent shoot with musician and renaissance man Marques Toliver. Morgan begins from the very beginning, explaining how the shoot came to be and how he prepared, and goes on to describe how he utilized the Pro-7b and the Beauty Dish to create a number of portrait set ups.

“It was the first time using Profoto gear, but I know now why I’ll rent them in the future,” concludes Morgan.

Recommended read if you are curious about the Beauty Dish or just into portrait photography in general.

Soft, even light is all well and good, but sometimes you need some extra punch. Mark Wallace of AdoramaTV presents this tutorial, showing you how to use a grid to make portraits pop.

He uses a Profoto D1 Air with a 5 degree grid as his key light, which highlights the model’s face. A 4×6 Softbox is employed for fill, with two smaller 2×3 Softboxes as hair lights. Wallace demonstrates how to position the key light to avoid awkward shadows on the background and under the model’s chin, then takes a few shots. Check out the video for more tips and to see side-by-side comparisons of the same portrait, both with and without the grid.

Read the article and see more of Mark Wallace’s Exploring Photography series.

All videos and quotes in this post are used with permission and ©AdoramaTV, all rights reserved; story is ©Profoto. Please respect and support photographers’ rights. Feel free to link to this blog post, but please do not replicate or repost elsewhere without written permission.

Connie Brown | © Brad Trent

It’s been a while, but we’ve featured Brad Trent’s excellent blog, Damn Ugly Photography, before. If you’re curious, Brad came up with the name for his blog when asked to fill out the name of his business at the New York Photo Expo. He posts a ton of behind-the-scenes content of what he’s working on and mixes it up with daily music posts as well.

Recently, he shot artist Connie Brown for The Wall Street Journal in her studio. Brad wanted “a bright, airy look,” but when he got on location, the studio was in shade. What to do? Set up your own sun!

Brad used a Magnum Reflector on an Acute2 as well as a standard reflector outside two of the studio’s windows. He writes that they “were amazed at how realistic the results were.”

Read the full post on Damn Ugly Photography and check out more of Brad’s work at bradtrent.com.

All images and quotes in this post are used with permission and ©Brad Trent, all rights reserved; story is ©Profoto. Please respect and support photographers’ rights. Feel free to link to this blog post, but please do not replicate or repost elsewhere without written permission.

Today we release our new flip book for portrait photographers! 

So, what is a flip book, you might ask? Well, it is like a magazine, but with videos and links. You can read it on our computer, your tablet or your smartphone.

Our latest flip book contains plenty of tips and tricks from established portrait photographers such as David Bicho, Dixie Dixon, Tony Corbell and Andrew McGibbon.

It also contains everything you need to know about the D1 monolight and its compatible Light Shaping Tools and accessories.

In short, if you want to take your portrait photography to the next level, click here.

There is also a special US version available here.