 Tara R. Swartzendruber |
Lighting on Location I have two powerlight 1250's and two 350's I use for lighting backgrounds in my studio. I am being asked for more indoor on-location photography (homes, school theater, dance studio), and I am nervous about taking my lights on location. For one, I don't have a light meter; I know what works best in my studio; and 2, is this good equipment for most situations (I also have umbrellas and a XL softbox)? Most of the time when I see people talking about location flash, they talk about extra speedlights. I don't have this. So, will these work, and do I need to buy a flash meter to know how to set them on location?
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Clayton T. Williams |
I don't know much about the specific lights but I can tell you that instead of a flash meter you should get a white balance card. Carlton and John Siskin helped me with this and the white balance card helps a ton. This on in particular comes with a dvd that shows you how to use it and it works great. http://www.amazon.com/PhotoVision-One-Shot-Calibration-Collapsible-Exposure/dp/B000E44QNE/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1263383581&sr=8-18 Travis
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hi Tara, There is another consideration for shooting at other places. Insurance... A million $ policy runs about $500 a year and will cover your equipment if it is stolen or broken on a shoot, protect you if a client trips over your equipment and injures themselves and many other things. If you belong to the PPA or other professional photography association, you can get this insurance through most of them. I have my current policy through Hill & Usher. It's worth the $$ and the peace of mind knowing you & your customers are protected. Clayton's link for the White Balance card is what I am using and I like it better than using a light meter. There are also Colorright & Expodisc products for calibrating White Balance but the Colorvision calibrator works as advertised and is easy enough to use. I have my Alien Bee lights and also a 580EX & 430EX w/STE2 transmitter for a smaller portable light system. John Siskin did a test/comparison with speedlights vs strobes and the speedlights performed great. I am looking for that article but in the meantime - check this out, its got lots of great info: http://siskinphoto.com/blog/ I also have a plastic tub with snap on lid that I keep my strobe lights & backdrops in for transporting and a couple of long duffle bags for carrying my lightstands, backdrop stands, umbrellas, etc.. This makes me more efficient/organized and protects my equipment better. I may someday plop down the $$ for quality cases but my system works well and is much cheaper than the custom cases.
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Just read a bunch of stuff about expodisc & other WB calibration tools - interesting read.... http://www.flickr.com/groups/diyphotographynet/discuss/72157603931692288/ http://cameracrazy.hashout.org/2008/04/09/make-your-own-white-balance-disc/ http://www.garageglamour.com/forums/tech-talk-forum/35159-lally-expodisc-coffee-filter.html Carlton
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
Ok, again...I just want to understand....how does setting the white balance help me to know how to set my lights & camera for proper exposure (so the subject is not too dark or too washed out). I don't trust my screen (it's never quite right) and I can't bring my computer on location so how do I know right away that the exposure is correct?
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Tara, Your lights would be fine on location. I have dragged a batch of 900 series Norman gear around for years. I use surplus military ammunition cases to move the gear around. An alternative place to look for cases is Home Depot. Regarding exposure, I should also mention that tethering your camera to a laptop will give you more and better exposure information than anything you can get from a meter. If you have a Canon camera, the software was included with your software bundle. Nikon sells additional software for this. Regardless of which camera you have the ability to tether your camera to a laptop will improve your ability to control light. Here's info from one of my classes on setting exposure: I keep trying to find ways to say that you have moved into the land BEYOND metering. When you use a strobe meter, you get a response that tells you how to make a middle density, but it doesn’t tell you how to make it look right. There is no automatic way to make it look right, only the application of brains can do that. When I make a shot with strobes and a digital camera, the first thing I do is to put the camera on manual. The camera meter can’t read strobes, except for the proprietary strobe. So the camera meter is useless. I do not use a hand held strobe meter, it doesn’t give me enough information. The only things I pay attention to are the histogram and the proof image on the camera back, or, even better, an image on a computer tethered to the camera. More than metering these two tools tell you about your image. Let me suggest a plan for seeking the right exposure: This same technique will work if you are mixing strobes and daylight. If you practice this you will actually end up being able to find the right exposure quite quickly. This is the essential trick with strobes, to evaluate and change our images in search of the right levels for our lights and our exposures. With the histogram and the proof image on camera or in the computer we have better tools for creating the right exposure than any meter could give us, but it does take repeated testing. If you use a hand-held meter, you will get an answer, but very often it will be profoundly wrong.
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
Thank you. This is the most detailed info I have found on the trial and error of strobes on location. I really didn't know where to start and how best to evaluate. To follow, I have a couple questions for clarification. 1. I assume it's best if the laptop has been calibrated. 2. I generally have my shutter on 1/125 in studio and work with aperture from that point. I change my ISO based on my background also (white = 100; black = 200). This seems to work the best for me. Do you think these would also be good starting points on location? 3. say I'm shooting school play scenes. Will my lights be enough...will I need all four...would I turn off all stage lights? Thank you!
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Tara, 1) Yes 2) I’m not really sure why this works for you. I base my exposure on the subject, and the light falling on the subject. I always customize my light for the subject. If something works in your studio, it should work on location. 3) I went to grammar school in Hollywood. My high school was the location of Room 222 (old TV show) while I was there. It has been used as a location for film and TV constantly. Every production we did, and I was in the drama classes, was carefully lit. If you use your strobes, you will destroy the light that was designed for the scene. So for a production with carefully created lighting I would use an ISO of about 400 and f4 at 1/60 as a starting point, with out strobe. If your school is doing something more primitive, then I might use the strobes. I would use your more powerful strobes and set them so they lit the stage from well above the actors' heads. The light needs to come down and across the stage. This will take time and careful consideration to set up. Just like stage lighting.
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
May I ask exactly what you mean by "I base my exposure on the subject"?
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Tara, Each time I do a portrait, it is a custom experience. So each time I work with someone, I look at how the light defines the person’s face. I ask myself about the quality of the light, as well as the quantity. I will usually adjust the position and size of the lights. I may also adjust the color. I may use one light, and I may use many more. I do the adjustments while the camera is tethered to a laptop. When everything looks right, I will remove the tether from the camera and start to shoot. I have to say that I am pretty quick at doing adjustments at this point. I think portrait photography should be like jazz music - different each time it is performed. Other people have other ideas.
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Sarah D. Perreten |
Hi Tara- Here's from a non expert! The best advice is to sign up for a course with John. He is more than generous with his help and knowledge, very thorough....really holds your hand when you need it. He's a truly great teacher. Sarah Perreten
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Tara R. Swartzendruber |
Thanks, Sarah. I will likely do that. Seems like there's always so much to learn! :)
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Bruce A. Dart |
Hi all, Location portraiture is vastly different than theater lighting, and I see John has already made that point. I learned a lot from a theater professor who, after berating me for using flash, taught me how theater photography was done. Set up scenes just prior to dress rehearsal, starting with the last scene first so no costume changes were necessary when done and they could move right into scene 1. If I didn't have enough light, he brought up levels -- in the same ratio -- until I could get the shot. Portraiture is another ball game. And there ought to be whole courses on metering as there are on lighting and posing. Even with digital, I prefer a meter as a starting point that gets me closer to the right exposure more quickly. Just as if you don't know what you are looking for in a histogram and how to adjust, you similarly need to know where to point the meter and how to adjust lighting ratios to get he desired effect. With the digital technology, most of us have gotten pretty lazy and rely on the camera back. If you understand histograms you CAN use that method quickly. Each photographer has their own way of doing things and as long as you can produce the desired results it doesn't matter. Another method I call the F Stop method, is two lights of equal power set at one F stop apart give a flattering 3:1 portrait ratio (one at 8 feet, fill, and one at 5.6 feet, main, etc. My first week long portrait class spent 50 hours working with lighting patterns on the face and at the end of that time we had not covered metering or ratios!! Bruce
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Bruce and others, The thing about meters is that they are expensive; an inexpensive Sekonic flash meter is still about $200. When I used film I shot a Polaroid of everything (that means everything) I did in the studio. The Polaroid bill was thousands per year. I made a better first guess with the meter, so it saved me money. With digital there is no cost for making an extra capture, so the meter will never pay for itself. Many of my students already find the cost of monolights daunting, adding is a meter is adding cost. Also the meter is the cause of many bad pictures. People set up the light meter it and do what the meter says. They don’t look at the camera back, just shoot. The important thing is to get people to closely examine the light in the shot. One way to do that better is to tether the camera to a laptop, so you can see the images larger. Canon includes the software for this with their cameras; Nikon includes it with some cameras. Tethering is a great way to learn to control lights. I also wanted to add this link to an article that gives some information about ratio and other portrait lighting: www.siskinphoto.com/magazine/zpdf/hard-softlight.pdf Thanks, John Siskin
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