 - Jyan L. Crayton Contact Jyan L. Crayton Jyan L. Crayton's Gallery |
Posing, Background, and Lighting If using a a small room as a studio, how many feet should a subject be from a background and how many feet should the subject be from the lights? Does turning your flash always result in shadows? Maybe I should use two lights instead of a flash and a strobe? Also, will the light from inside someone's home make a color difference when my strobes flash? Thanks.
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Maverick Creatives |
Wow, Jyan, you are really asking how to become a lighting technician here *smile*. Photography is about light. Therefore, lighting is a matter of experimentation and personal choices. What is good for some is terrible for others. As a general rule, a subject is placed around 6 feet from the backdrop. That allows for some backlighting, hairlights, etc. Many good photographers use one light - however, two and three are more common. The battle with shadows can never be won; it's a matter of understanding where and when to use shadowing to your advantage. A portrait without definition (shadowing) is very bland; the school picture comes to mind. Use what you have available and get creative; you are now entering a whole new world of photography. Regards, Gary.
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Mark Feldstein |
First, Jyan, you need to fire up those modeling lights you were asking about earlier to see how harsh the shadows are and where the light is falling on your subject. As Gary said, getting your subject about 6' off the background is a good place to start. How far the lighting is from the subject, however, depends on a number of factors, including how powerful your lights are, what sort of light-modifying devices you may be using, like umbrellas, softboxes, or the size of the reflectors, and the look of the photograph that you're trying to create. It also depends on the f-stop you want to be working at along with the speed of your film. For example, a faster film will let you work at higher f-stops OR will also allow you to back your lights off from the subject a bit to allow you to work at a similar f-stop with softer or more diffused lighting. Also to some degree, the size of lens you're using enters into this. With a short telephoto, say 105mm on 35mm equipment, or 150 on medium format, you can back the camera off the subject and, hopefully, the lights to give the person more space, rather then making them feel like they're hemmed in by equipment. This tends to result in a more relaxed looking victim ... errr ... subject. LOL Finally, while you'll see a lot of formulas for portrait lighting, my suggestion is for you to start with one light, experiment with it, maybe using a fill card of some sort opposite that light to bounce some lighting back into the scene. You can back-light someone using a second light to visually separate them from the background, and a third light - say, for a hair accent light. If you control your main light carefully, using light modifiers or even just sheets of foamcore to prevent spilling of light past the subject and onto the background, AND use a darker or even black background, any shadows you were producing before Gary and I gave you our "excellent" advice - LOL!! - should be minimized or nearly non-existent. Oh and BTW, while Tungsten and halogen modeling lamps both use filaments, and it's true that a watt is basically a watt, the older modeling lamps used an Edison type, threaded base, like a household lamp. The newer halogen type lights still use a filament but the gas used inside the lamp and the filament allow them to burn brighter, at more consistent temperatures and tend to last longer than standard tungsten lamps. You're right in that you have to be careful what you're shopping for and what you're buying ... always, with anything these days, I think.
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- Jyan L. Crayton Contact Jyan L. Crayton Jyan L. Crayton's Gallery |
WOW GUys, Thanks for this information. You really explained it well and this info will help out extremely. ANd yes I'll keep experimenting until I get the shots i'm looking for. I really want to take this photography to another level. ANd you both just helped along my path. Again, thanks for all this info. Jyan
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