Jake Hicks: Step-by-Step Creative Portraits

On this video tutorial by photographer Jake Hicks and Bowens lighting we look at ways to make a more creative portrait shot with lighting and different accessories.

Hicks start with the lighting and a 21 inch beauty dish in the front and a softbox also in front of the model beneath. He will also uses two lights from the back with colored gels.

In this first part we look at how the image look without the color gels and after adding them (certainly a huge impact on the image). Hicks also adds a fan to give the model’s hair a little bit of a more interesting dramatic look.

The finial step is a bit controversial (at least from our perspective) and it has to do with the lens which Hicks uses – the lensbaby composer pro which blurs the bottom part of the image (we actually preferred the “normal” looking version – but this might be a matter of personal taste and artistic freedom).

You can find many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on and LensVid as well as more specific lighting tips here.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.