In five creative portrait shoots, photographer Sebastian Nagel shows how impressive portraits can be achieved on the go using lumen LED permanent lights:
Portrait shoot 1: Motorway bridge
Portrait shoot 2: Server room in the cinema
Portrait shooting 3: Kurhaus Wiesbaden
Portrait shoot 4: plane trees
Portrait shoot 5: Parking garage
Portrait shoot 1: Motorway bridge
It is cool and cloudy on this Thursday morning in February, which we chose for a shoot with photographer Sebastian Nagel. Our first session takes place at a highway crossing at the end of a play street near the Lauertal Bridge in Kaiserslautern. So we set up our equipment there while model Anna waits in the car because of the cold.
There are wooden walls and a small stone ruin on the side of the small bridge. But why exactly did the photographer choose this bridge? He explains: I like straight lines in photos. That's why the bridge works really well and we also have a good amount of air, which creates a perfect combination with Anna's curly mane.t.“
| cover | Shutter | ISO |
|---|---|---|
| 2.8 | 1/200 | 125 |
Nagel works with ours Lumen Sticks (RGB), placing one on the left and right of the bridge. Both lamps are at 100 percent, one in blue, one in red. Both lamps are aimed at Anna, but are slightly angled. In this way there is a slight grazing light on it and so the entirety of the colors in the picture are not overwhelmed, but have a little air overall. This results in a fantastic interplay of individual colors, especially in combination with the anthracite of the bridge..
Sebastian Nagel further explains that he chose red and blue here because complementary colors generally harmonize very well, which creates particularly beautiful reflections in the eyes. So we create a species Warm-cold contrast, which I personally always find very interesting in photos.“
He finds positive things about them Lumen sticks Among other things, they not only have a quarter-inch thread, but also a thread in the handle of the sticks Adapter for 3/8″ is housed so that you can easily use a lamp stand. Nagel has a tip for using the sticks with batteries:
(Note: this is the previous model. The new model of the Lumen Stick RGB has an integrated and non-removable handle with a ¼ thread. We recommend ours for mounting on a lamp tripod Spigot adapter)
„It is important that the batteries are always as close to the tripod as possible so that the lamp tripod does not tip over forward, which would be disadvantageous, even though the sticks are very robust. -- Sebastian Nagel
Portrait shoot 2: Server room in the cinema
Our next shoot will take place in a server room in a cinema where there are old projectors, but also lots of cables and cinema seats. The cozy old attic feeling hits us again, but what we're primarily interested in here is close-up portraits of Anna in order to test out our new bicolor ring light, which is named after Lumen ring Bicolor carries.
| cover | Shutter | ISO |
|---|---|---|
| 2.8 | 1/200 | 250 |
The Ring light we have this here 3,200 and sometimes at 4,500 Kelvin in action, which in Anna's eyes was fantastic Halo effect leaves behind.
The Lumen Ring Bicolor is particularly suitable for content creators, such as those active on YouTube or Instagram. Beauty bloggers appreciate it because it is special natural color rendering index (cri) of 95+ has.
Portrait shooting 3: Kurhaus Wiesbaden
Unfortunately, a model canceled our next shoot at short notice. Therefore, at short notice we had to bring forward another model named Laura, who was originally scheduled for a different location, but then stepped in to do several short shoots with us in Wiesbaden. For example in front of the Kurhaus.
The Kurhaus in Wiesbaden is a particularly beautiful building in the neoclassical style that was opened in 1907 and was described by Kaiser Wilhelm II as the most beautiful spa house in the world. It is difficult to verify the veracity of this statement, but one can definitely say that it is a beautiful building.
| cover | Shutter | ISO |
|---|---|---|
| 2.8 | 1/500 | 250 |
So it's a wonderful location for our shoot, which is not only helped by the building, but also by the fountains and lush green lawns. Here we use our brand new one Continuous light Lumen Pro, which is battery operated and is therefore very suitable for quick shoots. Set up in no time, shoot, take down in no time. We use it at 3200 Kelvin and 100 percent brightness.
Sebastian Nagel can easily explain why he uses the Lumen Pro: We need a lot of power, we work with 100 watts of power and also with an open aperture to blur the background a little. So we want to isolate Laura a bit and make her stand out from the background. We also used slightly warmer light to bring out a natural skin color. And he succeeded brilliantly, as the final pictures show. .
Portrait shoot 4: plane trees
The next short shoot takes place on Wilhelmstrasse, which has a pretty avenue of plane trees on one side of the street and is lined with numerous fashion shops on the other.
Back then the traffic was still very heavy and the many passers-by who passed by were curious to see what we were doing. That's why the mobility of the lights benefits us here again, as we can set them up and take them down particularly quickly before and after the shoot without disturbing anyone.
| cover | Shutter | ISO |
|---|---|---|
| 3.2 | 1/160 | 250 |
These are in use here Lumen Pro and that Bicolor ring light, with which Nagel sets a brightness that varies between 3,700 and 4,000 Kelvin levels and ensures that Laura stands out from her surroundings, but at the same time the plane trees form a natural frame around her. In between we change the side of the street so that we can capture passing car lights using the drama of red and blue lumen sticks. Here, too, Sebastian Nagel photographs with a very wide aperture so that he can create a particularly beautiful bokeh with the lights of cyclists and cars.
„So what's great is that they're so handy and light, and the battery life is simply brilliant. I've shot with them for three, four, five hours and the batteries always lasted without any problems. Logically, handling via the app is also really good. That everything can be controlled via Bluetooth. -Sebastian Nagell
Portrait shoot 5: Parking garage
Our last location is a parking garage. This is a particularly exciting shoot, not just in terms of color. Because the floor of the parking garage is orange-red and this also offers us a great escape into which Sebastian Nagel can take photos. But it's also exciting because it has to happen particularly quickly. We use this again Lumens Pro RGB at 4200-4500 Kelvin, where we illuminate Laura once from the back and once from the front. Overall, an exciting day of shooting with results that speak for themselves.
| cover | Shutter | ISO |
|---|---|---|
| 2.8 | 1/320 | 320 |