BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

LIGHTING

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

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February 02, 2007

Lighting for a photo studio must be quite bright, that means far brighter than normal indoor lighting. We can accomplish this with ordinary incandescent lamps. These are sometimes called tungsten lamps because the glowing filament inside the bulb is made from the metal tungsten. Sometimes they are called constant lighting because they plug in the wall outlet and stay on until turned off. These will work but there are some disadvantages. They run hot heating up the room and the subject. In the process they consume lots of electricity and often the room becomes too warm and we are forced to counteract with lots of air conditioning. Often they are not bright enough for many applications so photographers purchase special photo flood lamps. These look just like ordinary bulbs but they are used in an over-volted circumstances. That means they are made to operate at a lower voltage, maybe 100 volts however we plug them into our standard 120 volt outlet. This causes them to burn hotter and brighter so they naturally burn-out after a few hours of operation. Additionally tungsten lamps run quite yellow as compared to sunlight. This poses no dilemma if we are taking black and white pictures but poses problems when shoot color. We don’t like the yellow cast they produce so we must counter by mounting a color correction filter on the camera. The filter is not necessary when shooting color negative film also a modern digital camera has internal software can automatically compensate so they can be used in this way.

We can use florescence lamps. They are not as bright as tungsten and they produce a strange greenish light. Different brands produce different color casts and the color changes as they age. They are OK for black and white and they can be used for color with a correcting filter but generally they are considered substandard. Modern digitals can correct with internal software. Some recent makers of studio lamp fixtures install the new compact florescence bulbs and the maker’s stance is they are “true color”. The jury is out as for now.

The old fashion flash bulb was once an option but sufferer the same color cast as tungsten lamps however they spared the subject the heat. To the rescue electronic flash, otherwise know as strobe. These devices use gas tube filled with a special gas that when hit with an electric charge flash ultra bright light that mimetic the sun as to color. One problem is, the flash is really quick so we must make sure the camera shutter is open when the flash occurs. Thus the unit is plugged into the camera which has a firing circuit to guarantee the flash and the camera shutter are synchronized together. Now for studio work we often use multiple flash units. These must be interconnected to make sure all fire with the shutter (synchronization). Sometimes it’s not practical to wire all the flash units together, in this case we use a slave unit. The job of the slave is to watch for the light of a flash unit (usually the one built into the camera) when it sees the flash it fires too. This make sure all flashes occur at the same time synchronized with the camera shutter and this synchronization makes sure all units contribute to the lighting the subject.

Some unsolicited advice: Your question shows you are a novice photographer. Don’t purchase anything yet, study and learn first.

Best regards,
Alan Marcus

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February 02, 2007

But in answer to your question now, yes there are what are called Mono lights. These lights plug in to household current and can act as a single light head or as you plug in more, in sync with each other to give you a more complete studio lighting effect. main light ,fill and back light.
Then you need to learn about diffusers as well.
If you go to the Studio Photography Thread will will see many others ask and make dessions to these questions and open andstart working thier studios.
I wish you the best of luck, if you need more help just ask,
Debby Tabb

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February 03, 2007

Hot lights are pretty much self-explanatory. They can be anything from a table or desk lamp to a lamp on a clamp or more pricey stand alone units. They can be left on all the time while you're working.

Strobes/flash units of course, fire or light up when you need them to but you need a way to fire them. They can be linked to the camera through a long PC cord to the pack or corded back to a single monolight. That monolight will trigger or signal other lights using infra red remote signaling to fire when you release the shutter. OR, you can use what's called a slave of one kind or another that uses a small transmitter radio frequency or some other way to trigger it's receiver.

While the hot lights can be plugged in and left on to produce continuous lighting, they get pretty warm depending on their output and aren't all that well suited for things like portraits of people or product shots of ice cream. :>)

Strobes on the other hand, usually have built-in modeling lights that can stay lit during set-up or turned off to look at other lights and give you an idea of how your lighting will look before the flash fires.

Also, there are lots of different kinds of light modifiers available that help you adjust and direct your lights to various brightness levels, intensities, etc., like softboxes, umbrellas, scrims, gobos, barndoors, reflectors, etc. etc. etc. But when getting those things, you need to know that one manufacturer's light modifiers might not fit a different manufactuer's lamp heads.

You can rent lights including strobes from a lot of local camera stores or bigger rental houses when you need them, even construction hot lights from a tool rental place. OR, if you decide to buy them don't buy garbage or cheap bargain lights with flimsy stands and poorly wired heads, etc. I recommend you stay away from new set-ups they sell on e-bay with all sorts of bells and whistles that will just break down in short order. Get a good, solid expandable system that will allow your lighting equipment to grow as your knowledge of it grows and your lighting needs also continue to grow. That way your inventory is getting larger rather than buying replacement parts all the time for the cheaper stuff that breaks. B&H in New York is one of the best sources of very good non-pro and professional-grade lighting gear.

Okie dokie?
Take it light. ;>)
Mark

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February 03, 2007

April

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February 03, 2007

let me add another consideration:

monolights etc. aren't very portable, nor do they pack away easily. That may be a problem if you don't have a separate 'studio room': you would have to build everything up each time and break it down again after your session is done. And taking the light for an on-location shoot, though possible, is even more cumbersome!

So I've got a "portable studio". It basically consists of 3x wireless 5600HS D flashguns on their own tripods (2 battery sets per), triggered by the pop-up flash on my camera (set to 'wireless' = IR), a 3' and a 4' silver/white Lastolite reflector. This provides plenty 'oomph', I can bounce and fake 'softboxes' and balance shadows, and endlessly vary combinations. The whole schpiel fits in a smallish suitcase, not hard to schlepp around, and is very simple to set up and break down again: perfect for locationwork.

A seeming downside is that you have no modelling lights (always-on lights). But, hey!, this is the digital age, so you simply do a test shot with the real light output from the flasguns, you chimp - on a laptop for a good view - and adjust if neccessary!

Indoors I shoot live subjects often with unsupported camera, because flash freezes movement anyway, and it enables me to move around freely, direct the scene, try different angles and viewpoints, or adjust the lighting.

This set also provides TWO backup flashguns for my 'primary' flashgun.

The combination of versatility, portability and power means that I can use this setup often, instead of it corroding away un-used in an attic or under a bed, as many light systems do in real life...

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February 03, 2007

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February 03, 2007

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February 03, 2007