Cheap Prisms, Crystals, and Gels Can Transform Your Natural Light Portraits (Here's How)

Cheap Prisms, Crystals, and Gels Can Transform Your Natural Light Portraits (Here's How)

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: some of the most interesting effects in portrait photography don’t come from your camera body, your lens, or even your lighting setup. They come from a three-dollar piece of glass you hold in front of your lens. That’s not a hot take, it’s just something that gets proven over and over again once you start experimenting with in-camera optical effects. The problem most photographers run into is they don’t know where to start, or they buy one prism, wave it around a few times, and then toss it in a drawer because they don’t understand what each tool actually does differently.