Exceptional photos start with great lighting! While stunning photographs are comprised of multiple elements, the quality of lighting often makes or breaks an image. Mastering this aspect takes practice, but you can get there with some experience and the right equipment!
Thankfully, there’s a fast-track option—the LVL Up Studio System is a revolutionary lighting setup that will streamline your next picture day and boost sales. With it, you can guarantee consistently perfect lighting with every picture you take while significantly reducing your set-up and breakdown time.
Acclaimed photographers Tom and Mario Muñoz of LVL Up Imaging and Muñoz Photography wanted to create a solution that maximizes efficiency without sacrificing quality. Sounds like every volume photographer’s dream, right? This dream became a reality when they developed the LVL Up Studio System to replicate the control and artistry achieved in their studio, on location in volume settings. Tom and Mario know the value of simplifying their workflow, so they’re also proud PhotoDay partners!
Keep reading to learn more about how LVL Up and PhotoDay can transform your volume photography business like never before.
How important is lighting, really?
If you’re wondering why having a stellar lighting setup is so critical, to put it plainly, lighting is the most important part of any photograph. It sets the mood of the images and affects how the subject looks more than any other factor. Good quality lighting also makes the entire process easier and more efficient—from your own post-production workflow to increasing sales.
You may already have a lighting setup you love but want to simplify your equipment before scaling your business. Perhaps you’re new to photography and want to learn everything you can as fast as possible. Or maybe you’re a seasoned portrait photographer interested in expanding into the volume school market.
Regardless of where you are on your journey, LVL Up can help you achieve your goals through their inventive lighting solution.
What makes LVL Up’s lighting system unique?
To understand why Tom and Mario’s invention is so ground-breaking, let’s explain what a traditional lighting rig might look like. An ideal lighting setup needs three main components:
- A large soft light source for the main light
- A large soft fill either from a strobe or bounced light
- A separation or hair light to add dimension
Instead of having three separate lights, diffusers, stands, and variable spacing, The LVL Up Studio System comprises one lightweight, collapsible diffuser screen and two reflector screens. With the screens in place, you only need one light to capture beautiful, powerfully lit images. Plus, the entire setup is easy to carry and can be assembled at lightning speed.
"You set this up in literally five minutes, and because your highlight comes from the shadow, you get consistent, three-dimensional lighting without having to change it based on the subject.” - Tom Muñoz
An Innovative Solution for Volume Photography
The LVL Up System is remarkable because it solves multiple common issues volume photographers face, particularly on school picture days.
Save Time & Money
Time is money! LVL Up users save precious time and money by decreasing their setup and breakdown time to under 5 minutes. Traditional lighting and backdrops can take an hour or more. Not only does LVL Up make picture day easier, but it means you and your team can arrive later and leave earlier—so you can focus on that prized work-life harmony.
Additionally, you can work efficiently with a smaller staff since you’ll only need one system per photographer. Get ready to save money in every aspect of your business.
Consistency is Key
The system creates consistent lighting with its one-strobe solution. Utilizing one light eliminates misfires from additional strobes, which can interrupt your picture day flow. You can say farewell to the days of time-consuming retakes.
Consistent images also make for easy, streamlined editing. You’ll save time and reduce headaches during post-processing.
Level Up Your Image Quality
Due to its consistent, bounced lighting, the LVL Up System will improve your image quality by providing a significantly softer look to the subject’s skin. It also practically eliminates troublesome eyeglass glare. While you can also spend time fixing these things in post, why not solve the problem when you press the shutter?
With online selling, impeccable image quality automatically means increased sales. The better your subjects look in the photos, the more likely they will buy them!
Private & Efficient
The intuitive wall design helps create a private mini-studio vibe for each subject while they’re being photographed. Whether you’re using just one station or have five stations lined up in a row, your subjects will feel comfortable, naturally leading to more relaxed interactions and better poses and expressions.
Easy to Use
Last but not least, the LVL Up System is so simple to use that onboarding new staff becomes a total breeze. You’ll be able to teach almost anyone how to take a high-quality picture with it in seconds.
LVL Up & PhotoDay: A Powerful Match
During picture days, LVL Up integrates seamlessly with PhotoDay. Our Capture app’s facial recognition capabilities eliminate manual check-in and tedious data matching, enabling photographers to interact with students and focus on creating a relaxed atmosphere from start to finish.
The beautiful, consistent lighting provided by the LVL UP Studio System enables foolproof Color Corrections and crisp Knockouts to streamline your post-processing with PhotoDay.
Our backgrounds feature also allows you to offer multiple digital backgrounds for your customers to view and choose from so you can generate even more sales.
During checkout, customers can add on PhotoDay’s AI retouching service, which magically softens and smooths skin, removes acne blemishes, and evens skin tone without affecting permanent scars or freckles—all with the click of a button.
“[Using PhotoDay Capture] allows the photographer to spend less time checking in data…and more time to engage with the actual student to create the photography experience we need to get that expression and emotion so we can quickly get on to the next student and let them get back to class.” - Tom Muñoz
The First Step to Refine Your Lighting Process
For volume photographers and studios wanting to improve the overall quality of their work, the first thing to do is invest in lighting and education. The LVL Up Lighting System is the most versatile system available to date. It replaces virtually all light modifiers with one simple and easy-to-use solution.
If you’re an established studio looking to scale your business, consider simplifying your current lighting setup. Reducing your rig's complexity will minimize set-up time and significantly minimize onsite mishaps, retakes, and adjustments.
Investing in quality equipment will provide your studio with consistent results and make it easier to scale your business over time. If your team is experiencing difficulty getting repeatable, consistent lighting from location to location, the LVL Up system could be the perfect investment for your studio.
In all types of photography, lighting is everything. For volume photographers, well-controlled light creates efficiencies that will impact every facet of your business.
Are you ready to make your next picture day unbelievably simple and efficient while capturing balanced, perfectly lit images with every click? You can explore all of LVL Up Imaging’s products at www.lvlupimaging.com. Learn more about Tom, Mario, and Muñoz Photography at www.munozphotography.com.
If you’re new to lighting, check out A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Photography Lighting on our blog to learn more about the basics.
Join thousands of photographers and studios as they modernize their business with PhotoDay. Create a free account to transform your studio with online galleries, e-commerce shopping, direct-to-door order delivery, sales tax remittance, post-processing services, and much more. We promise work will start to feel less like work and more like what you love.
