The ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner today follows along with professional portrait photographer Tony Corbell as he walks through setting up and taking outdoor portraits of a girl using ambient light sources and flash light together.

Although technically a day late (I’m currently out of town for a family emergency), our ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner today looks at how to best use natural light as a portrait photographer. We’ll follow along on a photo shoot with photographer Judy Host as she walks us through how to find and use natural even light for outdoor portraits.

In today’s ‘Photography Thursday’ edition of Video Corner we continue with episode 11 (only 1 more left!) in season 2 of “dSLR Know-How with Tamron” by looking at using reflections to add, reduce and eliminate light.

Earlier in the year, our ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner’s worked through a 3-month series called “dSLR Know-How with Tamron” as we looked at some of the basic features of dSLR’s. Today, and for the next 12 weeks, we get to enjoy season 2 of the “dSLR Know-How with Tamron” series in our ‘Photography Thursday’ videos. This season, we’ll get some more applicable tips to actually improving our photography - for instance, the video today briefly looks at light, and how to use it properly to create better photographs.

The ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner this week discusses how to control specular and diffused highlights - specifically in product photography (though the concepts discussed can certainly be applied to portrait and other types of photography). The video is a little higher-level than normal, so if you’re a beginner photographer, you might want to bookmark this one and come back to it later.

Today, in our ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner, we tag along with a professional portrait photographer during a photo shoot that specifically makes use of natural, reflective light. During the photo shoot, the photographer uses a Canon 5D Mark II, a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM Lens, a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens, and several Lensbaby lenses.

Our third installment of Video Corner discusses the basics of lighting for photography. Instead of trying to answer the question “what lights should I buy?” (besides, it’s different for everyone), the video looks at some basic lighting principles that will assist you when buying lighting for your photography. The video takes a look at hard light versus soft light and the effective size of lighting. It also briefly touches on light modifiers, contrast and lighting position.