Jake Hicks
DIYPhotography
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Jake:
How to create a vibrant portrait using simple full cover gelled lighting
Controlling gelled lights can be tricky. We all struggle with washed-out or even muddy colours occasionally and the core reason for this, is your coloured lights overlapping and mixing. The golden rule of coloured light is: you can only add a gel to a shadow. The reason I repeatedly say this, is because coloured light […] → Read More
Lighting Setup: Pastel Coloured Light and Gobos
Ever since I started to use coloured lighting, I’ve always battled with the issues that many of us face when combining multiple colours and if you’ve shot with coloured gels in the past, I’m sure you’re familiar with what I mean. Images involving multiple coloured lights can sometimes look messy or display muddy colours that […] → Read More
Photography's "cool kids" are leaving Instagram... Is Vero the best alternative?
It’s inevitable that Instagram will no longer be the main place new creatives share their work. Some of you, like me, may think we’re already there, especially given some of the recent decisions made towards a very heavy-handed push towards video and a very open move away from stills. But regardless of the choices made […] → Read More
How to shoot portraits in natural light and enhance them with LED lights
The vast majority of us learn photography with the aid of natural light. Whether we started years ago with our parent’s film camera, or whether you found your passion for photography thanks to your smartphone, natural light was most likely the sole source of light in your shots. For many, making that first step into […] → Read More
How to use a ring light with colourful backdrops for amazing portraits
I share a lot of lighting setups on here and every time I do, not only am I trying to share something unique, but I’m also trying to share something that’s practical and easy to implement for as many people as possible. For the most part, I think I achieve that and although not everybody […] → Read More
Follow these five tips when working with new models
We all start somewhere and if you’re a new photographer learning the ropes, you’ll likely prefer to get some practice in without having to hire a professional model for every single new idea or piece of kit you want to try out. Don’t get me wrong, I highly recommend you pay for models when trying […] → Read More
How to shoot a clean and simple coloured fill portrait in the studio
Sometimes you just want a clean and quick setup to start a shoot off the right way. Sure, you may have a ton of creative ideas in store for later on in the day, but they may be new ideas you’ve never tried before or they may be more experimental. If that’s the case, I […] → Read More
Lighting setup: Indoor swimwear shoot
Shooting swimwear outside in natural light is nearly always the best solution, after all, the bright, crisp sunshine is an easy-win when it comes to making swimwear look good. But what if an outdoor shoot simply isn’t practical or even possible due to location and of course weather? In this article I’ll discuss a simple […] → Read More
Make your own DIY diffusion filter with this simple trick
I’ve been using diffusion filters on my lenses for many years, but recently LEE Filters, the brand that makes the one that I use, ceased production of them. Here’s a cheap and easy DIY alternative… If you were curious about the LEE Softs filter, you can see the results of me using them here Using […] → Read More
How to set up and recreate caustic lighting for portraits in the studio
Don’t be alarmed! Yes, the title of this article may seem a little bizarre, no it’s not helping my SEO, but I assure you that there’s actually a scientific reason behind its ‘caustic’ name. For many years I’ve played with the idea of recreating various lighting looks that many of us may know and love […] → Read More
How to shoot long exposure portraits combining flash and continuous light in the studio
Sometimes it can be great to flex your skills and show off your lighting prowess, but we can often run into the danger of the image being more about the lighting technique rather than the look of the final image itself. This is something I always try and hammer home when I’m teaching new techniques. […] → Read More
Lighting setup: Textured fashion lighting with coloured gels
I spent many, many years working in a busy studio that focused on quantity over quality. As photographers working there, we did our best to push back against this where we could, but sometimes you only had 20-30 minutes with a client to achieve a handful of different looks and sadly this invariably led to […] → Read More
Lighting Technique: How to photograph people with top-down sci-fi lighting
I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to hear that it’ll be a short and sweet one this week ;) Nothing mind-bending or buried in lighting theory, just a simple 2 light setup with some colour! – (famous last words). The idea behind this look for me was to create a sci-fi style of light coming […] → Read More
Lighting setup: Combining hard and soft light
Trigger Warning: Yes these shots are of a young lady in her underwear and no that is certainly not necessary for this setup to work. Truth be told; we were working on a separate shoot and model, Grace kindly allowed me to quickly grab some of these shots to illustrate this article and lighting concept […] → Read More
How to shoot portraits outdoors with a DIY dappled natural light background
I’ve posted a few natural light setups and techniques recently and although this setup isn’t as tricky or as involved to achieve as those, this is a nice little idea to play with if the occasion arrises. The good news is, you barely need any kit to make this work and truth be told, I […] → Read More
Lighting setup: Modifying the sun for natural light portraits
I live in the U.K., so offering natural light portraits to my clients is far from a smart choice. We have almost no clue when or even if the sun is going to come out and help us on a shoot here in Britain, but for those rare moments where the sun does bother to […] → Read More
How to use Photoshop's Channel Mixer to colour grade your images
There are a lot of ways to colour tone and grade your photos in Photoshop and although I primarily use Curves to colour tone my shots, a powerful tool that I’m starting to use more and more is the somewhat under-utilised Channel Mixer. Every couple of weeks I Live Stream via my Facebook Page and […] → Read More
How to use Photoshop's Channel Mixer to colour grade your images
There are a lot of ways to colour tone and grade your photos in Photoshop and although I primarily use Curves to colour tone my shots, a powerful tool that I’m starting to use more and more is the somewhat under-utilised Channel Mixer. Every couple of weeks I Live Stream via my Facebook Page and […] → Read More
Lighting setup: How to use colour gels outdoors
You don’t often see photographers using gels outdoors in natural light, but why? I think one of the core reasons you don’t see too many natural light gel shots, is that you need a lot of power and control from your lights to make gels visible in daylight. Whenever we’re outside during the daytime, sunlight […] → Read More
How to use scrims and strnobes outdoors in bright sunlight for amazing portraits
So before my regulars start to suspect that I’ve been kidnapped and forced to write this against my will, yes this is indeed a lighting setup article that involves natural light! But don’t worry, we’ll quickly skip over the easy, beginner daylight setup and move on to the adult version that combines gels and strobes […] → Read More