In five creative portrait shoots, photographer Sebastian Nagel shows how impressive portraits can be taken with the Lumen LED permanent lights:
Portrait shoot 1: Autobahn bridge
Portrait shoot 2: Server room in the cinema
Portrait shoot 3: Kurhaus Wiesbaden
Portrait shoot 4: plane trees
Portrait shoot 5: Parking garage
Portrait shoot 1: Autobahn bridge
It's 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 motorway crossing at the end of a play street near the Lauertal Bridge in Kaiserslautern. So there we set up our equipment while model Anna is still waiting in the car because of the cold.
At the small bridge there are wooden walls and a small stone ruin on the side. But why exactly did the photographer choose this bridge? He explains: I like straight lines in photos. That's why the bridge works very well and we also have a good draft, which makes 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 each on the left and right of the bridge. Both lamps are at 100 percent, one in blue and one in red. Both lamps are aimed at Anna, but at a slight angle. In this way there is a slight grazing light on it and so the totality of the colors in the picture is not overwhelmed, but has a little air overall. Above all in combination with the anthracite of the bridge, this results in a fantastic play of the individual color tones..
Sebastian Nagel goes on to explain that he chose red and blue here because complementary colors generally harmonize very well, which results in particularly beautiful reflections in the eyes. So we're creating a kind of Warm-cold contrast, which I personally always find very interesting in photos.“
He finds positive in the Lumen Sticks among other things, that they not only have a quarter-inch thread, but also in the handle of the sticks Adapter for 3/8″ is housed so that you can easily use a lamp tripod. Nagel has a tip for using the sticks with rechargeable 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. For mounting on a lamp stand, we recommend our Spigot adapter)
„It is important that the batteries are always as close as possible to the tripod so that the lamp tripod does not tip over, which would be unfavorable, even though the sticks are very robust. -- Sebastian Nagel
Portrait shoot 2: Server room in the cinema
Our next shooting takes place in a server room of a cinema, where there are old projectors, but also lots of cables and cinema seats. We're getting that cozy old attic feeling again, but what we're primarily concerned with here are close-up portraits of Anna to try out our new bicolor ring light, which bears the name lumen ring bicolor carries.
| cover | shutter | ISO |
|---|---|---|
| 2.8 | 1/200 | 250 |
The ring light we have a hand in this 3,200 and at 4,500 Kelvin in action, which in Anna's eyes is a fantastic one halo effect leaves.
The Lumen Ring Bicolor is particularly suitable for content creators, such as those active on YouTube or Instagram. Beauty bloggers appreciate him because he is a special person natural color rendering index (cri) of 95+ has.
Portrait shoot 3: Kurhaus Wiesbaden
Unfortunately, a model canceled at short notice for our next shoot. Therefore, we had to prefer another model named Laura at short notice, who was originally planned 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 neoclassical style, which was opened in 1907 and was then described by Kaiser Wilhelm II as the most beautiful Kurhaus in the world. The veracity of this statement is difficult to verify, but one can definitely say that it is a beautiful building.
| cover | shutter | ISO |
|---|---|---|
| 2.8 | 1/500 | 250 |
So a wonderful location for our shooting, which is not only favored by the building, but also by fountains and lush green lawns. Here we use our also brand new Steady light Lumens Pro, which is battery-operated and is therefore very well suited for quick shootings. Set up in no time, shoot, dismantle in no time. We use it at 3200 Kelvin and 100 percent brightness.
He can easily explain why Sebastian Nagel uses the Lumen Pro: We need a lot of power, work with 100 watts of power and also open the aperture to blur the background a little. So we want to release Laura a bit and make her stand out from the background. We also used a slightly warmer light to bring out a natural skin tone. And he did it brilliantly, as the final pictures show. .
Portrait shoot 4: plane trees
The next short shooting takes place on Wilhelmstraße, which offers a pretty avenue of plane trees on one side of the street and is lined with numerous fashion shops on the other.
At that time the traffic was still very heavy and the many passers-by watched curiously what we were doing. That's why the mobility of the lights benefits us again here, because 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 Lumens Per and the Bicolor ring light, with which Nagel sets a brightness between 3,700 and 4,000 Kelvin levels off, ensuring that while Laura stands out from her surroundings, the plane trees provide a natural frame around her. We switch sides of the road in between so we can also capture passing car lights with 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 drivers.
„Well, it's super good that they're so ultra handy and light, and the battery life is just awesome. I've already shot with them for three, four, five hours and the batteries have always lasted without any problems. Logically, the handling via the app is also really good. All of this can be controlled via Bluetooth. - Sebastian Nagell
Portrait shoot 5: Parking garage
Our last location is then a multi-storey car park. This is a particularly exciting photo shoot, and not just in terms of color. Because the floor of the car park is orange-red and here too we have a great escape in which Sebastian Nagel can take pictures. But it's also exciting because it has to be done very quickly. Again we use that Lumens per RGB at 4200-4500 Kelvin, whereby we illuminate Laura once from her back and once from the front. All in all, an exciting day of shooting with results that speak for themselves.
| cover | shutter | ISO |
|---|---|---|
| 2.8 | 1/320 | 320 |