Product photography with one monobloc flash and softbox and a cubus.Very simple lighting set up that is easy for starters and some samples.

Achieve ad-campaign worthy beauty images with this simple one-light setup.

DIY Studio Lighting

Traditional Lighting Setups - Mark answers a viewer’s question about broad and short light with regard to studio lighting. Join Mark in the studio as he walks through six traditional lighting setups. Learn the techniques used to create butterfly lighting and loop lighting, among others.

The many uses of the Beauty Dish.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/22014063[/vimeo]

A fun little skit the guys decided to put together with cheap LED light panels and a few Z96 LED video lights. The piece was done to show how lighting can set the mood.

More info on the gear here:cheesycam.com/​cheap-500-led-1000-led-and-z96-lights-in-use/​

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/24297023[/vimeo]

These 240 Color changing Dimmable LED lights disappeared before anyone knew about them, but they’re back with a few new options like Barndoors and a very cool AA to Sony NP battery style adapter.

More info: cheesycam.com/​hot-240-led-bi-color-led-video-lights/​

DIY Beauty Dish

Scott shows us how to make a very low cost modifier for our dedicated flash units. The beauty dish, so called because of the flattering soft rap around light that it creates on a subject, is a great addition to your light kit. This low cost DIY option allows you to build one quickly using off the shelf components many of which can be found at your local Home Depot or Lowes store.

On this shoot I show the techniques for lighting on location for some fashion and sexy model photography!

Glamour lighting trick

Tony Corbell demonstrates 1-light portraiture techniques using the Profoto D1

Behind the Scenes of a Strobist on location photoshoot with Conceptual Photographer, Ben Sant of BTS Photography. We go out to the shores of the Great Salt Lake to shoot 3 looks with just one speedlight coupled to one umbrella. You don’t need thousands in gear to get studio quality lighting.

In this week’s episode Mark Wallace explains the Inverse Square law and how it applies to photography and helps you calculate light fall off.

I used 3 monoblocs for the light.Two were used as rim lights to give pop to the hair and an other one through barndoors was used to illuminate her face and body, here is the lighting set-up :

Wind was done by assistant by waving a reflector up and down

Here are a few lighting diagrams from recent studio shots :

Bare monobloc studio flash positioned behind model, camera left.

Monobloc via shoot-through umbrella close to model , camera right.

2 bare monoblocs positioned behind subject.

Moving around a little

Bare monobloc high on lightstand, inclined, camera right.

Shot with 1ds mark II – 24 -70 2.8 L lens – Bowens 500 W/s Gemini’s

More diagrams  – speedlite flashes :

In it’s simplest terms a high key image is a bright image full of light and mostly white tones whilst a low key image is a dark with minimal lighting and rich in black tones and lots of shadow areas. Let’s explore these two dramatic lighting alternatives.

The gear we use to shoot reception detail shots at weddings!

There are ways that we can modify the on-camera flash to control our lighting. We can bounce our flash from ceilings, walls, or off of reflectors and Mark will show us how.

An instructional video on how to make the best DIY beauty dish.

In this episode Mark has some simple lighting tips that can help to improve your photos in different natural light situations.

Photography : Studio Lighting Setup with DIY Ring Light

full blog post here: http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2010/10/studio-lighting-setup-with-a-homemade-ring-light/

Check out Anouk Matton’s dancing video test :

Scenes come from one long shot testing light

]]> http://www.digitalpixels.net/2010/06/lighting/dancing-anouk-filmed-with-5d-mark-ii-modeling-lamps-lighting-setup/feed/ 0 http://www.digitalpixels.net/2010/03/lighting/light-painting-at-night/ http://www.digitalpixels.net/2010/03/lighting/light-painting-at-night/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:44:08 +0000 admin http://www.digitalpixels.net/?p=7665

Light painting is the process of photographing at night and illuminating the scene by moving the camera, or a handheld light/torch. The actual source of the light doesn’t need to appear in the photo, but the technique gives you the flexibility to cast light on only certain aspects of a scene.

It can lead to some really stunning effects!

continue

Since one of the most important aspects of photography is how to control your lighting, today I’ll be explaining how to perfectly light a scene for a warm, dramatic effect. We’ll be using grids – hard lights that are more controllable – and the subject to be used will be food, because it is usually shot with hard lighting.

Step 1: Items Needed

Dishes:
Find yourself a place setting, that looks good with whatever food you are going to shoot. My girlfriend likes sushi, so that’s what I decided to shoot here. I went to a local market and picked up the place setting in this shot which seemed to work well. I like to keep the dishes simple so they don’t make the shot too busy.

continue

Even on a cloudy day, when you step indoors, the level of the light drops by more than 5 f-stops. So, on that same cloudy day when the exposure might be ISO 100 at 1/60 at f/8, indoors the exposure suddenly becomes ISO 400 at 1/15 at f/4. On a sunny day, the difference is even greater.

Why is there so much less light inside? Outdoors, the sun creates a huge amount of light, and even when the sun isn’t directly hitting the subject (as on an overcast day) the sun lights the clouds making the entire sky one giant, soft light. When inside, the roof and the walls block virtually all of the light. Even if you have four 3-foot by 5-foot windows, the light coming into the room is still limited. Exceptions obviously exist, such as skylights and when direct sunlight is streaming through a window.

continue

Three point lighting is often the best way to create a flattering portrait, shoot a great headshot and make an interview on video look professional. Here is the essence of three point lighting:

Key Light This is your primary light source.

Fill Light This light adds illumination to the shadow side of the face. The amount of fill used will determine how dramatic the shot will look. Using a lot of fill looks more flattering on most faces, while using little or no fill will give a more dramatic appearance…

Backlight – This light hits the subject at the back of the head, carving them out of the background. When you would like the subject to look more glamorous or important, a backlight can be a great way to go.

Background Light – A fourth light is used to illuminate the background. Sometimes the keylight can be used to light both the subject and the background. If you only have a few light sources, sometimes you have to get creative.

continue

I think what will be surprising for many of you watching today’s tutorial will be the utter simplicity of the set-up. I’ll show you a small shooting space, a simple background, and a very easy one light portrait technique.

For me, it’s never about spending thousands of dollars on lighting gear. I’ve always sought out the “easiest to use” cost effective lighting I could find. I’ve never been impressed with photographers showing a “gazillion” dollars worth of gear to shoot a portrait.

continue

Chris Burfoot discusses both pop-up and California Sunbounce reflector panels

Chris Burfoot explains flash duration and camera sync speeds

Chris Burfoot teaches how to mix Flash with ambient sunlight outdoors

Chris Burfoot demonstrates the Elinchrom Octa, a giant softbox, used as a white background.

+  demonstrates the Elinchrom Octa, a giant softbox, used as a huge ringflash for fashion and lifestyle portraits.

I got myself a universal off camera shoe cord at Calumet that should be compatible with ALL the speedlites.

It’s a handy tool for shooting off-camera, and a nice balancing effort while holding a 1ds mk II with a 24/70 in the other hand. ETTL shouldn’t be an issue.

Since I work with both 550ex and 580ex speedlites and I don’t wish to buy several overpriced cables per unit, this seemed a nice choice.I was worried about the communication between the flash and the camera not being from the native facturer but I was told that’s just electronics and ETTL should work as usual  ( I want to use this in events where there is only a small fraction of time to get the shot and no time to go all manual )

So we tested this with Laura and here are some results :

Av Mode – 1/160 sec – f/6.3 – ISO 400 – 24-70 lens @ 43 mm.Ettl + 1.

Shot in AV mode with the ambient light underexposed , using the sun as rimlight.

Flash is set on ETTL +1 and Flash Exposure Lock is performed on her face.Flash held via off shoe cord on camera left.Color filters added in post.

Flash is set to high-speed sync.

ISO 400 – 1/500th sec – F/7.1 – 24-70 lens @ 57 mm.

I’m pretty satisfied for this initial results with the off camera shoe cord.

Soon I’ll be testing an inflatable softbox I found lately :

Enjoy this behind the scenes look at BYU Photo during a photo shoot that breaks the bank. Using the new Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5, BYU Photo was able to freeze the action of the piggy banks shattering when hitting the ground at 1/8000 of a second.

Terry Watson shows his technique for doing Smoke Photography

Taking photos and lighting in hotel rooms :

Camera flashes produce intrusive bursts of light that disturb or dazzle. We present a prototype camera and flash that uses infra-red and ultra-violet light mostly outside the visible range to capture pictures in low-light conditions. This “dark” flash is at least two orders of magnitude dimmer than conventional flashes for a comparable exposure. Building on ideas from flash/no-flash photography, we capture a pair of images, one using the dark flash, other using the dim ambient illumination alone.

We then exploit the correlations between images recorded at different wavelengths to denoise the ambient image and restore fine details to give a high quality result, even in very weak illumination. The processing techniques can also be used to denoise images captured with conventional cameras.

continue

Consider if the subject in the foreground was holding a piece of the white background seamless paper next to their face with only the key and fill lights on. When the exposure for the face was correct the paper would be reproduced as white wouldn’t it? Not 255.255.255 blown out white, but something in the range of 240s which makes it look like what it is, a piece of paper not the blazing sun.

Let’s say you measure the key and fill for exposure by pointing the meter at the camera dome-up and get a reading of f/8. Now leave the key and fill on and put the meter on the background near where the head appears in the viewfinder and take a reading.

continue

Want full control over the light and shadows in your photography? Understanding how light works is necessary, and this paper will attempt to explain how to affect the lighting, shadow quality, and apparent shininess of your subject.

The light source has 4 properties that affect the lighting of the scene.

1. Apparent size
2. Distance from subject
3. Intensity (brightness)
4. Color temperature

The subject has 2 properties

1. Surface reflectivity
2. Surface roughness

continue

Metering with your digital camera: Incident v.s. Reflected. Covers metering tricks with these two techniques and shows how to improve exposure in your images.

Kerry Garrison from CameraDojo.com demonstrates how to use a light meter to get good exposures during a quick product shoot.

Light-Test.com brings you uploaded lighting test photos from assistants and photographers

light-test.com

How to use lighting grids for professional studio photography

Using strip lighting in the studio

This is a clip from a full length video that will show you how to set up and begin to use your studio lighting

The swivel (or umbrella holder) is designed in a way that the umbrella does not go exactly 90 degrees into the shaft. It is tilted upwards a bit – this is done since the flash mounted on the swivel is not 100% aligned with the center of the umbrella. If the insert was angled at 90 degrees, light from the flash would hit only the top of part of the umbrella, creating uneven light.

So the umbrella is tilted upwards a bit. However, the swivel is one and mounting options are many – you can use big or small umbrellas, place the umbrella in different positions within the shaft or shoot through only half open umbrella. Since the shaft if fixed, sometimes you’ll end up with the light going only to the top or bottom half of the umbrella – this is why you’d like to place the flash as close to the umbrella axis as possible.

continue

This video explains how the flash works on your camera and how it is controlled in photography to make correct exposures

This snoot making article has one of the best effort to result ratio. You usually use a snoot when you want only a small part of a scenario lighten, while keeping the rest of the scenario light free see the picture at the end of this article.

In this article Leann Wrightsman will show you how to make a “Snoot” for your speedlight flash with easy to find items you may even have around the house!

First, get the stuff you need- Get gaffer’s tape and foam paper. Look in the craft supply area of Hobby Lobby or Michaels to find the foam paper, and if you have friends at the local theater (plays not movies) you can often get a bit of Gaffers tape at no charge.

Then make the first incision and “stitch” – Cut the foam board so the “long” side will fir around your flash; then Place the gaffer’s tape smoothly along the short end of the foam paper.

continue

You like Ring Flashes but you can’t pay the price? I have a solution for you, and it doesn’t involve stealing one from a store!

Make your own for a very very cheap price, about 20 euros. The only thing is that you need to already have a cobra flash. Ok, so let’s get started.

What you need.

* A plastic bowl (not too thick) whose base is about 8 cm of diameter. Your lenses need to be able to go through.
* Another plastic bowl, but slightly smaller, but not under 8 cm. It needs to get inside the big bowl, but your lenses will also have to go through it.
* A piece of pipe (PVC gives the best results in term of weight and toughness) about 5 cm long and 8 cm of diameter.
* Some aluminum foil
* A pen
* A ton of big tape
* A cutter
* And you’ll need some hard glue.

continue

DIY DSLR Ring-Flash Videos

My latest enthusiasm in photography has been nightwork and lightpainting. A lot of my work is done with a simple pen torch, a flashlight and string, but I wanted to create a broad stroke of colour, a paintbrush rather than a pen effect.

Having seen some inspiring ideas online, I decided to try putting one together. The best I had seen had involved paint rollers, but I couldn’t work out how I would use them, so I decided on a simple “light on a stick” design.

continue

A video discussing the quality of light in photography, using a one light source lighting set-up.

However amazing the vision of a photographer may be, however sharp their lens and regardless of the number of pixels on their camera’s sensor, the shot can only succeed if the lighting is right. It follows that we should commit both thought and budget to our lighting equipment.

Studio photographers know this and typically spend far more on lighting than on cameras and lenses, but some people take the opposite approach and although they’re often prepared to spend far more than they need to on cameras and lenses, they sometimes underrate the importance of light and try to economize on the equipment that will actually make a real difference to the quality of their work.

continue

There is so much talk on some forums about the ’softness’ of shoot-thru umbrellas and how much it works to provide a soft light. And there is certainly some truth to that statement… especially with umbrellas at a distance.

We are going to examine a couple of shots we did with both in the same light. I also shot the setup so you can see how simple it is, and what I am referring to with the light.

continue

Photographing cars with one speedlight flash and softbox

Photographing people wearing glasses – dealing with reflections

What lighting setups should I use?

A guide through several lighting set-ups for studio work.

Annie Leibovitz and Sean Connery photo shoot for Vuitton behind the scenes video

Walk into most professional photographer’s studios and you’ll be confronted with truckloads of lighting equipment. To the average hobby photographer it’s enough to make your mind boggle – and for your stomach to turn as you think about the cost of it all.

Most of us can’t afford a full lighting rig – however what if there was a way to experiment with the type of lighting gear that pro photographers use without spending too much money? What if you could make it yourself.

continue

Here is a great lighting simulator to plan and test your portrait lighting with one light source + fill light if wished

How to create the high key image outdoors

1. Set up a white diffuser or diffusion panel behind your subject like a backdrop. (Make sure the sun is behind diffuser but not necessarily low in the sky)

2. Set up a second diffuser above your subject.

3. Take a meter reading of the subject while he/she is within the created tent by setting your meter to around 1/125 second and holding your meter just under your subject’s chin with the incident dome facing the camera position.

4. Set the f/stop setting on your camera according to the meter recommendation. Be sure to experiment with the look by adjusting the exposure up or down to taste.

continue

The main problem with using an on-camera flash is the same as using the built-in flash, the light goes straight at the subject and flattens features and can cause red-eye. With an on-camera flash you almost always want to use a diffuser if shooting straight on. There are a wide range of diffusers such as my favorite, the Gary Fong Lightsphere. What you really want to achieve is a larger light source to help prevent harsh shadows. Without a diffuser, your best bet is to aim the flash at something you can bounce the light off of such as a wall, ceiling, foam board, reflector, or even a white shirt.

In a pinch, I have seen napkins, sheets, playing cards, index cards, and small children used to bounce light. A diffuser like the Gary Fong Lightsphere works well because it not only send light towards the subject but will bounce light from all directions softening shadows very nicely. This type of diffuser is great for event photographers (like weddings, etc) because you can’t always set up an optimal lighting setup during an event like that.

continue

The first thing we need to do is to connect the lights to your camera, for this we are going to need what is called a PC Sync port. On most Canon DSLR’s the PC Sync port is on the left side of the camera under a rubber flap. In the image here you can see the PC Sync port and the end of a PC Sync cable. In my typical setup I will have the main light plugged into the PC Sync port to fire it and the other lights will automatically fire at the same time because they have a built-in optical slave that will fire the flash when another flash is detected. Since this happens far faster then the mechanical shutter, the effect is that all of the lights fire at exactly the same. There is a limit of how fast the lights will sync to the camera but we will address that in a moment.

If you are unlucky enough to not have a PC Sync port on your camera then you will need to purchase a hot shoe adapter. The recommended one is the Weim Hot Shoe Adapter which sells for about $50 at most places. This will got into your camera’s hot shoe (when an acessory flash plugs in) and has a PC Sync output port on it.

continue

Inside each lens is a diaphragm that can open and close, the size of the opening at any given setting is what we refer to as the aperture setting. On our cameras we refer to specific size settings as f-stops such as f/2.8, f/5.6, f/11, etc. While the obvious value of adjusting the aperture is to control how much light enters the camera, there is a secret hidden world beneath the hood that we will need to get a grasp of as well, but let’s start at the basics first.

For a given ISO setting and shutter speed we can adjust the amount of light entering the camera by adjusting the aperture, a smaller diameter (higher f-stop value) will allow less light in, while a larger aperture (smaller f-stop number) will allow more light it. If we refer to the Sunny 16 rule, we know that on a bright sunny day, if we are using ISO 200 and a shutter speed of 1/200th then we will get a good exposure at f/16. As the sun goes down and there is less light, we need to allow more light into the camera, we can do this by opening the aperture up (again, using a smaller number) to allow more light in. This sounds easy enough right?

continue

The most popular studio lighting accessory? Hands down, the square softbox. Whether mini 12×12-inchers or 50×50-inch monsters, these boxy lighting tools are often the first thing to greet you when entering any portrait studio.

But does the square (or almost square) softbox deserve its popularity? For me, the answer is “no.”

Although square softboxes put out a relatively soft-edged or “wraparound” light that’s flattering to people and objects, unless baffled (and therefore dimmed), they often throw a ball of light that’s hotter in the center than the edges. And this ball shines straight ahead in a broad, fat swath that makes it tough to finesse — useful but sloppy.

continue

Pocket wizard strobist – The Strobist Jet Pack

First thing was to place a black Bristol board on the table and then place a clear nylon sheet on top of it. (Actually, the first step was to convert my leaving living room table into a portable studio, but the wife was asleep so we were fine with it).

Then I placed the doll on the table and adjusted my Nikon SB 26 with a gelled gridspot and a radio slave. I set the flash to tightest zoom so the flash and gridspot will work together. (No point in having the flash on wide if I am trying to restrict light).

If you look at the setup image, you’ll also notice it is yellow – this is the light coming from the the leaving room lamp. I didn’t care much about it as I used high shutter speed, so only “flash light” made any impact on the sensor.

continue

Quantity

Among all the aspects of light, quantity is the easiest to control and manipulate. In fact, most of the controls found on your camera is designed for this function. The quantity or amount of light is controlled by your camera’s ISO, shutter speed and aperture. If there’s too much light then you get overexposure and too little will leave you with underexposure.

The photo below illustrates deliberate overexposure or what is called high-key. It shows how a photo would look if large amounts of light is allowed to hit the camera sensor.

Color/Temperature

Different types of light have different colors. We don’t notice these difference so much because the human eye is designed in such a way that it will automatically negate slight color changes in light. Cameras, sad to say, are not as evolved and are susceptible to all sorts of color casts.

The color or temperature of light is measured in degree Kelvin (K) in a scale which runs from 2500K to 10000K. Light which has a higher Kelvin temperature (5000K and up) has a blue color cast to it. It is also described as being cool. Lower temperatures (2700K or below) have a yellow/red cast to it and is said to be warm.

continue

“

The artificial lighting learning curve for most photographers starts with a built-in flash or external flash mounted above the viewfinder. The photographs they take with a single flash look flat and boring because they lack shadows to create the illusion of depth or look unflattering due to the position of the shadows to the side of the head and nose.

The first step a flash user can take to improve the the lighting is to change the direction of the light. Not by moving the light a few feet to one side – which only creates dark distracting shadow – but by simply raising it a foot or more above the lens. Raising the flash above the lens was a trick discoved by wedding photographers about 40 years ago. When the flash is raised straight up the head shadow disappears behind the shoulder the one created by the nose is hidden out of sight directly below it in a full face view or out of camera view in an oblique pose.

continue at Nova.org

I just love gridspots. The amount of light control that a gridspot will give you is incredible. So, a while back I ordered some honeycomb grids from saxonpc. It is with two of those gridspots that I took the image on the left, but first thing first. In fact Saxon PC is specializing in making computer cooling solutions, little did they know that their honeycomb is just perfect for light control. OK, they knew, they made a site for it. Yet it was fun to say “little did they know”.

One of the first projects on DIYP was a coroplast made gridspot, which totally rocked, but getting those nice black honeycombs tickled so much and I caved in.

In fact this solution is very similar to HonlPhoto’s 1/4″ and 1/8″ gridspot solutions. If you are willing to settle a bit on the looks and spend a few minutes modding, you can save a few Dollars. Not that a few dollars will take you anywhere today.

continue

What I’m aiming for is the article I wish I’d found when I first got my camera, to help explain the relationship between three critically important parameters: the ISO speed, aperture (or f-stop number), and shutter speed.

To lead with, the easiest way I think to approach these three things is to understand physically what they mean inside your camera. So, here we go.

• ISO speed: A measurement of how quickly your camera’s sensor absorbs light.
• Shutter speed: A measurement of how long your camera’s shutter is open for when you take a shot.
• Aperture: A measurement of how wide the shutter on your camera’s lens opens up when you take a shot.

For completeness I should note that ISO speed is not specific to digital cameras with sensors. On film cameras, a particular roll of film will have a specific ISO speed that it is rated for. Fortunately for DSLR users like us, we can change the ISO speed without having to change film. All three of these parameters affect how light gets to your camera’s sensor to create an image, so let’s start looking at them in more detail.

continue

Low light…it can be a photographer’s nightmare. But here are some basic techniques that I use daily to overcome this obstacle. Some of this may sound mundane, but I am surprised constantly by how many photographers do not understand these basic principles.

First, let’s talk about lenses.

For those of you who do not already know this, we refer to lenses in terms of how “fast” they are. This is kind of a misnomer, but what it really means is his: how big is the aperture? The larger the aperture, the more speed you can get out of the camera…hence…how fast it is. The absolute minimum aperture for exposing images in low light should be f2.8. If you have a lens that has a smaller aperture opening than this, your ability to capture sharp images will be drastically reduced. Most “kit lenses” are f3.5 to f5.6, and most of them lose aperture as you zoom in (the closer you zoom, the smaller the aperture becomes). This can spell certain doom in low light. So the first, and most important tip is to invest in quality lenses. Invest in lenses that are f2.8 or faster…f1.8 or 1.4 is even more preferred.

Second, let’s talk about film speed (ASA) or CCD speed (ISO).

In a nutshell, the larger the ASA or ISO 3, the “faster” that medium is at exposure. This becomes very important in low light situations. The downside is that the higher the speed, the more “noise” one can expect. As a rule of thumb, I typically use ASA/ISO 200 for sunny days outside, ASA/ISO 400 for indoors with good lighting, ASA/ISO 640 for indoors with medium light, and ASA/ISO 800 for indoors with low light conditions. I have found that anything higher than a speed of 800 produces too much noise for what I do.

Third, let’s talk about Shutter Speed.

In low light conditions, even with a professional flash mounted, I have found that anything slower than 1/30 produces blurry images. Human movement in that time frame (both the camera operator and the subject) is just enough that the image will be blurry at 1/20, so I try to never step below 1/30. The only exceptions are when I mount the camera on a tripod and I am shooting a stationary object, not humans, unless you are trying deliberately to capture their movement, but that’s another discussion.

Fourth, let’s talk about Flash.

Rules of thumb for flash photography in low light conditions. If the ceiling of the room is low and light in color, I set the flash to TTL (through the lens), point the flash head at the ceiling and I use the diffuser. This “bounces” the light around the room and produces a really nice effect for evenly distributed lighting. In rooms where the ceiling is low, and a darker color, I do the same thing, but remove the diffuser. In high ceiling, lightly colored rooms, I set the flash to it’s full power manual setting, point the flash head at the ceiling, and use the diffuser. The down side of this is that it will take longer to recharge the flash unit, but the payoff exceeds that I think. In the same room with darker colors, I use the manual flash, point the flash at the subject, and if the subject is close, I use the diffuser…if the subject is more than about 10 feet away, I remove it.

Now let’s put that all together.

In low light situations, we want our lens open to it’s “fastest” aperture…preferably f2.8 or faster. The reason for this may surprise you, but, the main reason is that so you can expose the background correctly. Did you hear that? It’s right…the background. Why do we want to do that you ask? I’ll tell you why. Anyone can get a picture of a person in a dark environment with the background completely black. That takes no skill at all. But show me the photographer that can light up the background in a dark room, and expose the subject correctly, and that is the professional. Next, we want to make sure that we are using the right film speed (ASA 800) or CCD speed (ISO 800). Lastly, we want to make sure that our shutter is set to the right speed (1/30). Anything slower will blur. Use the flash as described above, and you will be on your way to taking better images in low light conditions. Of course these tips are not set in stone, but they do offer us a starting point that should help the user make progress. And as always, practice makes perfect!

About the author: Lee Randall Stewart is a professional wedding photographer with offices in Newport Beach, CA and Honolulu, HI. His work has been seen all over the world in numerous wedding photography editorials and magazines, and he remains one of the industry’s leading professionals. To see his Newport Beach based website, please visit http://LeeRandallStewart.com and to see his Honolulu based website, please go to http://HawaiiPhotoStudio.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Stewart

1) Setup your single light source (It can be a continuous source, a low power strobe or a 100 watt flash).

2) Make sure you use a very large light modifier for your source, such as this homemade light panel, a very large shoot through umbrella, or a large softbox (I like the 60 inch convertible white satin umbrella – about $38.00). But remember, any translucent white shoot through umbrella should work just fine as long as its big (at least 40 inches).

My examples below will show both my 31 x 47 inch ebay softbox as well as my 60 inch shoot through umbrella as the main light source.

continue

In this lesson we show how to set up and shoot the perfect portrait every time. With a few simple tips and tricks, you can rig your portrait gear to save time and make those school portrait jobs a snap.

• The concept of the string method
• Creating a basic portrait set
• Setting your gear for consistent results

continue

With only a couple of well placed lights and a little imagination, shooting a fashion portrait can be easy.

Lighting Equipment

* Photoflex Boom
* Photoflex BoomStand
* Photoflex HalfDome2 Small White (strobe)

* Photoflex LiteDome Medium 24x32x17
* Focusable Spot Light with Gels

We set up a Medium LiteDome and strobe head on a Boom and Boom Stand.

continue

In the studio you use a low-key or high-key background to create contrast between the background and the face. Which key is most effective for the background is mostly influenced by the tone of the clothing, which needs to blend into the background so as not to overpower the face in the photo. Outdoors, by manipulating the balance of ambient-to-flash with EC and FEC or manual shutter/aperture and flash power, we can render the ambient-lit background normal (perfect match), darker and low-key (underexposed) or lighter and high-key (overexposed) while retaining normal exposure on the face of the subject

When flash is used outdoors there are two factors contributing to the exposure which can be controlled independently. Because the duration of a flash is so short the shutter speed of the camera has no effect on the flash* lit foreground of a photo taken outdoors with flash. Changes in shutter speed will however affect the ambient exposure of the background. That fact allows the background to be made lighter or darker with shutter speed while the foreground is keep the same.

continue

In the world of fashion and high-end portrait photography, lighting is the key to professional-looking images. Having the ability to control the light that falls on your subject allows you many different ways of expressing an idea photographically. It can also greatly transform the way your subject comes across in a photograph. In this lesson, I will illustrate differences between hard and soft lighting, positioning of light sources and the importance of developing the shot.

• Using a large, soft light source
• Using reflectors to control contrast

continue

Set the ISO to 400 – this gives you much greater latitude with the strobes.
Set the aperture to f/6.3 as a good starting point. With wide-angle lenses, DOF is not really a problem.
Adjust the shutter speed to expose for the windows. Generally, for a “blown-out” window effect, 1/80th or slower will work. To bring in a view completely, dial up to your camera’s maximum sync speed (usually 1/250th) and only then start stopping down the aperture. Once the windows are exposed properly…

Add an off-camera light to one side or other of the camera. Bouncing from a wall or the wall/ceiling joint results in a much larger apparent light source, and thus yields softer shadows. However, watch for hot spots! In particular, reflections in windows, mirrors, and glass cabinets are problematic. Hot spots on the ceiling are also common, but can be fairly easily dodged/burned out if the light can’t be re-positioned.

continue

Lighting and photographing two-dimensional objects such as framed paintings and prints so that they look professionally rendered can be considerably more challenging than in other types of photography. The challenges have mostly to do with lighting issues and camera perspective, but once you’re aware of how to tackle the potential hazards of two-dimensional copy work, you’ll be surprised at how easy it can be.

* Positioning Camera
* The limitations of built-in flash
* The limitations of using household lighting
* Creating an even light source
* Balancing the light
* Controlling perspective with different lens settings
* Changing out artwork

continue

Why start with just one light? Because you can get amazing portraits, that’s why. Did I mention less equipment, less complication, less cost, and less time? Oh, and once you’ve mastered portraits with a single light, using more lights is pure gravy. I have lots of lighting, but I break out a single light more often than I get out multiples. Many of you reading this have yet to really get into this lighting stuff, so you probably only have one flash. So it makes sense that the first article where we get into lighting setups would focus on portraits with just a single light.

The first thing you should do is read Metering For Flash if you haven’t already done so. This will teach you the process for getting the exposure right with the flash and camera in manual mode.

continue

more

The angles of the human face and body people consider visually pleasing are universal regardless of the medium. Movie directors and cinematographers are masters of lighting and facial angles which make the human face appear natural and three dimensional.

They in learned the techniques from the poses and lighting used in paintings by master artists. A knowledgeable photographer can use these same “classic” facial views and poses to great advantage, even in candid situations, to improve the appearance of people they photograph.

A 2/3 view of the face is created by turning the face away from the camera just to the point at which the skin visible at the side of the far eye disappears from view. When this is done the shape of the far eye and cheekbone become apparent and make the face appears more three dimensional and thinner.

continue

For better or worse, my goal is for this experience to serve as a sort of template for how I approach a new lighting technique.

This week deals with first attempts to reverse engineer how people were getting that cool, controllable 3-D tonality in their shadows, specifically by using ring flash.

continue

Natural Lighting
Artificial lighting
Lighting Angles
How many lights do you need?
Lighting Ratios

Photography is the art of illusion, tricking the viewer into thinking an image reproduced on a two-dimensional piece of paper or a computer screen is natural and three-dimensional. The third dimension in a photograph is created by the contrast between light and shadow.

If a subject is illuminated with the light at or near the camera lens there will be virtually no shadows and the resulting image will look flat. Moving the light source away from the camera lens position will create shadows and the illusion of depth. But because the range of brightness film or a digital camera can record is limited, the detail in the shadow areas will be lost unless some method of “fill” light is used. Fill light can be provided two ways: 1) a reflector which redirects the single light source into the dark shadows, or 2) a second light source.

continue

This week we are going to look at using one speedlight with no modifications… no umbrellas or softboxes to modify the light, just the bare strobe. This can sometimes seem like pretty harsh light, but there ways to use the single light that can create a very modern, clean and sometimes become almost not noticeable.

We will take a look at a group of images that use only one strobe, in different ways. I want you to try some of these shots when you get a chance. I use a stand or a human boom (assistant) to position the light, and it is very important that it is positioned perfectly.

continue

Flash photography basics video.

Shooting in full manual mode will always be the best way to get the most creative shot since you are in control of everything. But there are instances when you just do not have the time to fiddle around with the proper combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed. On these occasions, you have to rely on your camera’s metering system to get you the correct exposure.

All light meters, including in-camera meters, are designed to give you a reading that will make the subject have the same tone as a 15% gray card. Manufacturers designed meters to give you an average reading on an average or neutral subject. This is very important to keep in mind when relying on your camera’s different metering modes.

continue

Capturing movement in images is something that many photographers only think to do when they are photographing sports or other fast moving subjects.

While there is an obvious opportunity in sports photography to emphasize the movement of participants – almost every type of photography can benefit from the emphasis of movement in a shot – even when the movement is very small, slow and/or subtle.

The reason for movement blur is simply that the amount of time that the shutter of a camera is open is long enough to allow your camera’s image sensor to ’see’ the movement of your subject.

continue

Let’s establish a few ground rules for what we are going to be doing. First, this isn’t an ETTL, CLS, or any other kind of electronic exposure control in the flash unit. We are talking about manual settings. Manual is where the power is.

We also must make a few demands for the units themselves: They must have variable power, some way to fire them off camera (Sony strobe units are pretty proprietary I have seen) and they should have some sort of “Zoom” for the light. This last part isn’t mandatory, but it does offer some great flexibility.

continue

Sometimes people look at my images and think that the more unusual lighting effects are created in post, but it’s all done in-camera.

I did this with the Hummer shot to get the detail that was missing behind the axle stands that were retouched out in post. I also shot a separate exposure for the crash test dummy background in the Chevy Malibu shot.

I do composite different exposures together when it’s necessary, though. I try to light everything in one go. But if there are little bits or pieces that need to be shot separately to get them perfect, I’ll do that and then composite them into the main exposure later in Photoshop.

continue

photos © Tim Kent Photography

The fourth time-based manipulation I frequently use is zooming through the exposure. And last month we pulled that technique out of our as.. bag of tricks during the “stone soup” shoot in NYC.

As you can see, one came from back camera right and another from underneath the puppet. These gave a more 3-D look to our guys. Also, I gelled those flashes with a 1/2 CTO and a fluorescent green combo, which gets you a neat, sodium vapor feel without going all of the way there. Sort of the way sodium vapor looks to the eye, rather than to the camera. It is more logical. Straight white light would look weird and contrived in this environment.

continue

There has been some great articles and interest lately on long exposures so I thought I would put together a hodgepodge of techniques and then turn it over to DPS readers to see what they can come up with. I’ve broken this slow shutter shoot-out into 3 categories. When you submit your photograph, do it under one of these styles. I’ve thrown in a few of my own as examples into the article just to give you an idea. Get a tripod, set your cameras to shutter priority and fire away.

Light is what makes up your photos. Perhaps too often we limit ourselves to the normal diffused lighting we are used to seeing. Locking your camera down on a tripod and setting it for a slow shutter speed allows you to manually get some movement on the lights in your scene. Experiment with flashlights, rope lights, candles or anything handy. In the picture here I had a friend sit perfectly still in a completely dark room.

continue

By now, most of you have read many times as I have walked through the process of balancing my flashes and ambient. I want to get past that.

Today, I want to accomplish two things:

1. To set you up with a way of quickly understanding and/or communicating how a given photo was balanced, and

2. To stop having to repeat walk-throughs on this process every time we mix flash and ambient. Which is just about every lit photo we shoot.

continue

We’ve mentioned in previous posts how in-camera metering can be very unreliable. It can meter the scene differently even if the subject and lighting do not change. In the series of photos below, I left the camera at evaluative mode and took three shots at different focal lengths. I shot in AV mode with the ISO at 400 at f/5.

You can see that the camera’s meter fluctuates depending on the focal length I was shooting in. This should not be the case since I’m shooting the same subject under the same light. You might think that the difference is not that big but I’ve seen cases where the meter will fluctuate to almost a full stop depending on where you zoom in.

continue

When going through the more advanced websites about lighting, you’re bound to run into a lot of terms you’re not familiar with. In this article, we’ve compiled some of the most mentioned equipment and techniques photographers today use to modify light coming from a hot-shoe flash or studio light.

Barn doors have four leaves or doors that act to shape light. This is usually used to prevent light from spilling into where its not wanted or to block the light from hitting the lens.

continue

When ever we use a light source to illuminate an object, that object is being hit with multiple “rays” of light. Some of those rays are hitting the object in the place which is nearest to the light source, and some of the rays are hitting the subject where is furthest from the light source. OK, nothing new until now.

As a crude generalization one can argue that the light that falls on the closer side to the light source will be brighter then the light hitting the furthest side. This is because the light will scatter more when it makes it long journey to the far side. (This is not true for focused beams and laser, but this thumb rule can be applied to most studio lights and strobes).

continue

Hand Held
This is, without a doubt, the cheapest option. You’ve already got a hand, so why not put it to use? The idea is to hold your camera in one hand and your flash in the other. While this gets the job done, it can sometimes be a more daunting task than one would think.

First off, you’ve got both of your hands full. So, if you need to make an adjustment on either the camera or the flash, you’ll have to shuffle your equipment around. And when you’re holding several hundred dollars worth of equipment in your hands, the last thing you want to do is carelessly shuffle things around.

continue

One thing that seems to baffle a lot of new photographers is understanding the term “stop” as it pertains to a measurement of light. We see this word used over and over with regards to shutter speed, aperture, film speed, filters, lighting, and other ways that light is used. You may hear a phrase like “you should expose one side of face 1-2 stops under the lit side of the face and expose the background 1 stop under the main subject”.

For many people that’s about like asking them to solve a complex calculus problem. So what does it all mean and how do we use this information? That’s exactly what we are going to look at in this article

continue

I’ve been using the EV (Exposure Value) button on my camera more than any of the other buttons so I thought I would share with you why and when I use it. Remember that I shoot with a Nikon so shutter speed and aperture are controlled with the front and back wheels not buttons . But before I get into that, let me briefly explain to you WHAT the EV button is and what it does.

To put it simply, the EV button allows your to quickly underexpose (darken) or overexpose (brighten) your image. How it works is pretty simple. When you’re taking a photo, the camera’s job is to adjust itself by changing the shutter speed and/or apperture to properly expose your shot so that it’s not too bright or too dark. Some cameras do this better than others but that’s another story. When you play with the EV button, what you’re doing is telling the camera to either brighten or darken the photo from the optimal exposure it perceives.

continue

Studio photography lighting tabletop glassware

I have used all 1/2 inch CPVC pipe and fitting on the whole project. The sizes here will make a nice desktop Light Box, you can make it any size you want or need. Just remember you will need 2 pices the same size for the width and 2 of the same size for the depth. The 4 legs will all be the same. I did not use the cleaner on the pipe before I glued it, I just don’t plan on running any water thought it so I see no need for it. The glue holds just fine without it.

Cut all pieces that you need. After you have cut all your pipe pieces you will need to clean the burrs from the ends of each pipe. The inside is not important but the outside should be clean and free of burrs. Set them on end and check that all the pieces are the same length. If needed sand or file them to the correct length.

continue

Studio Product Photography Tips Video.

I have always loved using off-camera camera flashes and want to extend my arsenal of different flash modifiers. In this first round I will concentrate on the type you can mount directly on the flash. I may return to umbrellas, softboxes, diffuser screens other larger modifiers later.

I have started assembling a flash modifier kit. You may remember my home made snoot from my coin podcast. Snoots are one kind of modifiers, but there are many more: filters, grids, flags, and gobos to mention some. Diffusers can also be counted, but are on the border if you look at modifiers in a more traditional manner. I will not make this a flash photography 101, but just briefly touch on each type, and then return to each in later posts.

continue

There are a lot of situations where I “need” RadioPoppers. It’s not for shooting people five feet away who are making me point my camera directly at the sun. You can do that without Poppers. What I do want them for is shooting around corners, where I might have a flash in the next room or in an alley that wouldn’t fire if I was just using the regular i-ttl capabilities of my gear.

Or I may be 50 yards away, trying to shoot a nice portrait at dusk under ambient conditions that change by the moment where I have to balance the flash differently as the twilight fades. Poppers let me do that Even more frequently, I might have strobes set up on stands to shoot a wedding party, and to loosen everyone up I will move in very close to shoot right in their faces (this always cracks up bridesmaids, for some reason) and once you get outside that 30-degree visibility window with normal i-ttl you’re not able to rely on the system to give you good exposures. For some of those situations I can use my Pocket Wizards, and believe me I still will rely very heavily on those in my pantheon of lighting tools.

continue

While down in Florida last month, I found out that my parents’ next-door neighbors (and good friends) were selling their house. I was a little bummed, as they are good folks and you hate to see them leave.

But I was even more bummed when I saw the point-and-shoot specials the real estate agent had thrown up on the “for sale” page.

We only had one working flash. But certainly we could do better than that…

continue

If you have ever shopped for a flash or read a review, you may have noticed a section of the spec called the guide number or GN. While this value is a measurement of power that the flash has and allows you to compare flash models, is this number useful to you at all?

In this article we dig into the guide number and see how we can use this number help us dial in our flash and camera settings using some math instead of just guessing and retrying until you get what you want. Using the information presented in this article you should be able to use the guide number to calculate the best f/stop setting as well as determine the maximum range that your flash can be effective at.

continue

Point your camera at a subject, check the meter, and press the shutter release button. The camera clicks. Later, you review your shots on the camera’s LCD display and take a look at the histogram. Both the meter and histogram show you versions of how your images are exposed and both are quite useful. But while they do have a lot in common, they work quite differently. This week we’ll take a look at how they compare.

The meter registers whatever you point it at. It only knows what it sees right now and has no memory or what you pointed it at even a moment ago. It also doesn’t see anything outside its field of view, an area that may not even cover the entire frame depending on how you have it set. As a spot meter, it may only see a one degree circle in the center of the frame, totally oblivious to whether anything beyond that is over or underexposed. Even on matrix or “evaluative” metering, the whole frame may factor in to the exposure calculation, but not every part equally. It does all this in an attempt to help you emphasize what you think matters most in a shot while not totally neglecting everything else.

continue

For part four we are going to look at making simple changes to our photos in post production. We are going to change the composition of our photos shot on pure white or pure black. We will also look at a way to add some color back into the background on the images shot on pure white.

The first thing we are going to do is change our composition. When I’m shooting on a pure white or pure black background, I shoot 95% of those images vertically. I fill the frame with my subject as much as I can. I want to maximize the image area they take on the sensor of my camera so that I have more options for enlarging the photo later if I want. If I want a lot of negative space in the final photo, I’ll add that in Photoshop later because it is easy to create white or black space and still have a full frame of the subject. Imagine the area of your camera’s sensor for a moment with the photo above on it as it is captured…

continue

I normally talk about the importance of using a flash when taking shots into the sun to give sufficient light to add features to your subject but there are also times when making your subject featureless apart from their outline against a bright background can be most effective – or when in other words silhouette is a worth exploring.

Silhouettes are a wonderful way to convey drama, mystery, emotion and mood to the viewers of your photos and often stand out in an album because of the combination of their simplicity but also the story that they convey. I love them because they don’t give the viewer of a clear picture of everything but leave part of the image up

continue

Studio portrait photography with one light source video.

Studio lighting basics for shiny metal and reflections.

We’ve taken our white seamless BG and made it pure white. The task set before us now is to get a few more visual options out of that white seamless paper or simple white wall we are shooting against.

When I got my first studio space I had few resources to fill it up with backgrounds and stuff that studios should have. The very first thing I bought was a roll of white seamless paper. I had to start using it with two lights. One on the subject and one on the background. That’s all well and good but I needed to have the ability to get as many looks out of that one background. These are some of the simple and effective techniques I still use to get some different looks from a single background.

continue

Want to photograph a moving subject so that it’s not blurred and yet preserves a clear sense of motion, rather than seeming frozen in space? Try stroboscopic flash. Like high-speed flash syncing and wireless TTL flash, it’s one of those seemingly byzantine flash techniques that most photographers never get around to mastering. Here’s what you need to know.

Stroboscopic flash uses multiple flash pops to capture a moving subject relatively sharply and repeatedly as it travels across a single frame. A feature of many high-end flash units, stroboscopic flash requires working at night or under very low ambient light.

continue

Classic Three Light Portrait Video

I felt challenged today to see if I could shoot a full length portrait on a plain old white seamless background with a single battery powered light source. There is this thing I do with barebulb flashes that blows the background to white and I use an adjoining wall near the subject to catch light from the bare bulb to bounce back to light the subject’s face.

The challenge I gave myself today was to shoot without a light stand. I figured I would try placing the bare bulb flash on the ground behind my client and use those bi-fold cutter doors as reflectors to catch the light from the flash and bounce it back to the front of the subject. I taped the Sunpak 120J and Pocket Wizard with white tape to further conceal the rig in case I was in the frame. The challenge was to not have to remove anything in Photoshop.Here is the taped rig…

continue

Umbrella or softbox in the studio video.

Fireworks Displays are something that evoke a lot of emotion in people as they are not only beautiful and spectacular to watch but they also are often used to celebrate momentous occasions.

Perhaps the most important tip is to secure your digital camera to something that will ensure it doesn’t move during the taking of your shots. This is especially important in photographing fireworks simply because you’ll be using longer shutter speeds which will not only capture the movement of the fireworks but any movement of the camera itself. The best way to keep your camera still is with a tripod

continue

“This is a DIY project I have had in mind for a while now. When I purchased my studio flash heads, they came with a couple of small softboxes. Although I prefer to use translucent umbrellas whenever I can (small, light, easy to transport), there are times when a softbox is a better solution. While I could use the studio head softboxes in some circumstances with my small strobes, there was no way of effectively holding the flash in place without a lot of jerry rigging. To this end, I wanted to design a softbox that would be light, reasonably strong and durable, adaptable (double diffuser, grid attachment, barn doors etc.) at a later date and have a quick and easy way to mount the flash.”

“While I achieved most of these goals, the finished softbox was a bit heavier than I would have liked and as is usually the case with these projects I figured out a number of modifications I would like to incorporate into my next attempt after it was finished. For now, I think I will label this as a ‘prototype’ and hopefully come up with something better for the mark II version.”

continue at DIYphotography

I’ve been receiving more and more emails asking for information about the softbox I use with the speedlites.

Several brands offer this package, I opted for the Chimera set as it was complete and had a larger box than the other brand at the time of purchase.

So, here are some details about what I’m using.

As you can see it is the Chimera PRO II XS softbox that I’m using.

Nice adapter ring is within the package I bought.FIrst time you might need to get the hang of it but after a few shoots you’ll be used to it and able to set the box up in less than 5 minutes.

It has an extra reflective screen for the inside, you can attach it via velcro :

The philosophy I have when shooting on pure white is that I want to light the BG and the subject independently from each other. Meaning; The light on the subject isn’t making a change to the exposure on the background and the light on the background isn’t making a change to exposure on the subject. As I talked about before, those cutters on the sides of the set are key to making this happen. The next consideration is keeping the subject a fair distance away from the background as well.

In this first example my subject, Thomas, is about 11 feet away from the white seamless hanging behind him. The closer he gets to the background, the more likely it is that light reflecting off of the seamless is going to add exposure to him in the final image. The further I get my subject away from the seamless, the less light coming in from the background will get to him. I’ll talk more about that specifically in a bit.

continue at Zarias

“Richard Avedon, Herb Ritts, and countless other great photographers have rocked the white background for decades. I recently went to a huge bookstore here in Atlanta and counted the number of magazine covers shot with a simple white background like we are going to investigate here. 87 COVERS SHOT ON WHITE OR A VARIATION OF A WHITE BACKGROUND. Eighty-seven magazine covers at one book store. Its everywhere and it is everywhere because it is simple and effective and makes your subjects pop. It beats the bloody hell out of any wrinkled up grey/blue/brown muslin any day of the week.

Walk into a Target store this week and look at the in-store signage. How did I learn to shoot like this? Because this is how we shot JC Penney’s catalogue clearance images when I shot for them. Need to add text and other artwork to a photo? A simple white background lets you do so all day long.”

continue at Zarias

580ex Speedlite flash in softbox, triggered by master 550ex speedlite flash.

continue for set-up and additional photos / speedlite articles.

Canon 1ds mark II camera, 24-70 mm lens.

Speedlite on manual power, 1/2

Shutter speed : 1/100 sec – aperture : f/7 – iso 200

Shooting with speedlites on the beach video

Canon 1ds mark II camera – 24-70 L lens @ 57 mm

1/160 sec shutter speed – f / 5.6 aperture – ISO 200

Shooting photos on the beach with a slave 580ex flash , triggered by master 550ex flash.

ETTL + 1 1/3 – Flash Exposure Lock on face area.Ambient light is underexposed.

continue for video and outtakes.

Download video

Photographing in the woods with Bert Stephani

“Not everyone gets a second chance with a team of Navy Seals. But, for photographer Morgan Silk, inspiration is hard to shake. It wasn’t enough that he’d shot the special forces as they reenacted a hostage rescue scene.Silk wanted to get down from the director’s platform, away from the commercial constraints and create his own intense, individual portraits”

.

“They may talk like anybody else, but Navy Seals sport some pretty intense gear. Silk wanted to focus on the power of their weapons, their special training. In order to let these elements emerge, Silk kept the setup pretty basic, blending natural and artificial light. “I just wanted to concentrate on the subject. I didn’t want to complicate it.” Silk shot with a Hasselblad H2 with a Phaseone P45+ back tethered via Capture One software to a MacBook Pro. He used a 80mm lens and an exposure of f/11 at 1/60th of a second. The lighting was straightforward: a beauty dish directly above the camera acted as the key light,”

continue at F-Stop

This lesson shows a very effective method for shooting a full-length fashion shot in the studio using strobe lights and large soft boxes. This shot was lit with a 5-foot OctoDome³ and strobe as the main light, a large LiteDome and strobe as the fill light, and a focusable continuous light as a background light.

topics covered

• One light with a bounce fill
• Basic two light solutions
• Using Dome accessories
• Spot lighting the background
• Manipulating strobe and continuous lighting simultaneously

continue at PhotoFlex

Using a Ring Flash

When it comes to photographing jewelry, there are different approaches to consider with regards to how each particular piece will come across.

Your choice of background is one consideration. Another is whether or not to include props within your shots. Still another is establishing a lighting style that is either soft or higher in contrast.

This demonstration shows how softboxes can be configured to achieve various contrast levels when shooting jewelry.

continue at PhotoFlex

“Photographing and processing smoke can be a frustrating experience. The guide covers everything from properly setting up a mini studio to processing your images in Photoshop. Both web and PDF versions of the guide are available.

“For first timers, photographing smoke can be an extremely frustrating experience! Capturing delicate wisps of smoke is as challenging as it is rewarding. The key to success is having a basic understanding of the overall setup; that is, the camera in relationship to the lighting and background. Fortunately, you don’t need a lot of expensive photography gear to capture exceptional shots. In this guide I walk you through the process of setting up a mini studio to maximize your time while getting great shots.”

continue at PaxtonPrints

“Maybe you are a professional portrait photographer trying to separate yourself from the high school senior market or maybe you are a parent just wanting to impress your children. Either way, this simple project can be great fun and produce professional results for photographers of all skill levels.”

“A couple of months ago I was doing a portrait session in the studio with an 8 year old boy. I was shooting him with his football on a high key white background. I asked him to throw the ball up in the air. As he did, I fired off a shot. After reviewing the images, I noticed what a great job the strobes did in stopping the movement of the ball. It got me thinking that this could come in handy when shooting high school seniors.”

continue at PopFoto

As in all things you need to know your tools so you can pick the best one for the job at hand. The goals for different styles vary and if you plan to shoot a variety of styles you’ll need a wide variety of modifiers.

Any light source will produce a pure white or pure black. The character if its light is defined by what is in between; how smooth or abrupt the highlight-to-midtone shadow transitions are.

The highlight to mid-tone transitions are the most important for portraiture because the front of the face contains tones only in that range. Three variables affect the character of the light. The apparent size of the source, the distance from the subject, and the transmission / reflection characteristics of the modifier.

continue at Super.nova.org

” One of the most common approaches in portrait lighting is to use the softest possible light and to maintain good detail in both the highlight and the shadow areas of the photograph. This kind of lighting usually involves more than one light and the effect is often a highly flattering, idealized look. In this lesson we decided to step away from the standard technique of portrait lighting by attempting to create a more dramatic look. ”

“In the following examples, we used only one light source, but varied the type of light modification being used from one shot to the next. One important point to remember is that none of these shots are meant to be the right answer. Rather each one serves as an example of the quality of light that you can achieve using these different lighting tools.”

continue at PhotoFlex

“This is the guide I wish someone had written for me when I started 3 months ago. It’s much shorter than photography books that cover the same topics because it’s a computer geek’s guide. I skip right over the basics of using a camera because you can guess your way through the basics or even read your camera manual (wimp!).

I skip any advice about composition or artistic technique because there are better guides that cover those (though I might give it a shot next month). I use terms without defining them because I assume you can use Wikipedia if you need more detail.”

“Focal length is the most obvious way in which a lens affects a photo: it controls the angle of view, and hence how much of the scene is included in your photo. The reason that it is measured in focal length rather than degrees, is that the angle of view yielded by a certain focal length depends on the size of the camera’s image sensor.”

continue at BernieCode

“The camera metering system reacts to the amount of light reflected from the scene in the viewfinder and computes the camera settings needed to make a nominally correct exposure. What is adjusted depends on the mode the camera is in:”

“Metering systems can also apply some program logic to make assumptions about the content of a scene and its relative importance. Consider two landscape photos with sky at the top. In the first the sky fills the upper 2/3 of the photo and the darker foreground 1/3. In the second the sky only fills the upper 1/3 and the darker foreground 2/3. Now based solely on how the photo is framed, odds are that in the first photo which is mostly sky it is most important, but in the second which is mostly foreground.”

continue at Super.Nova

“The physical law of light states that “the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence“. The angle of incidence is the angle that light is striking a surface. The angle of reflection is the angle that the light is reflected, or bounced”

“To get a correct reflection in your subject, you need to know how to position your reflector to direct the light from your original light source.”

continue at PhotoFlex

“Learn how light works to model a 3D face in 2D using window light before spending a lot of money on lighting gear. It costs little beyond your time and will will save you money in the long run because you’ll understand intuitively what you need and be able to get better results with less. ”

“You need a window with soft indirect light. A north facing window has that all day in the northern hemisphere. South of the equator use a south facing window”

continue at Super.nova

“Typical indoor ambient light, for instance, might be about 1/60th at 4/f at ISO 400. So If I shoot you in that light, available only, you are going to be properly exposed. You’ll still probably look pretty bad — we nailed the quantity, but the quality of the light is likely ugly as it comes from overhead fixtures.”

“So let’s move from the hypothetical to the practical and do a little exercise in walking the ambient exposure up a little bit to see the effect of various shutter speed on the flash/ambient combo.”

continue at Strobist

“Bounce is a great alternative to direct flash, especially for people pictures made under low ceilings or near white walls. As its name implies, you bounce the flash off a nearby surface rather than blasting it directly at your subjects. Bounce creates much softer light for highlights and shadows that better convey the shaping of a person’s face.

Also, when shooting groups two or three people deep, a ceiling bounce can provide much more even lighting front-to-back than direct. Further good news: bounce is an effective way to prevent redeye.”

continue at Popfoto

“I shot in the middle of the afternoon to use this portrait as an example of how to light an outdoor portrait with a couple of small flashes on a sunny day.”

“Being able to create a speedlight-lit photo like this any day, rain or shine, is a pretty straightforward process, if you take it one step at at time.”

continue at Strobist

“The concept of diffusing light to control image contrast is the focus of this lesson. This is where the birth of the soft box came from. By controlling the raw light with a large fabric reflector then applying levels of diffusion material inside, this reflector gave photographers a level of control, portability and convenience unheard of in the past.”

“You can take several avenues in applying this concept to your images. In this lesson, we will look at the soft box in all its configurations and explain how and why this concept works so well, then take it a few steps farther. We will apply secondary diffusion in front of the soft box to further control the contrast range.”

continue at PhotoFlex

” Single Flash Limitations :

A single direct hot shoe flash regardless of where it is positioned will create sharply defined dark shadows because the size of the lightsource is small and there is no secondary light source to “fill” and modulate the tone of the shadows. ”

“When a flash is raised directly above the lens, the head shadow falls down behind the shoulders out of sight. The potentially distracting nose shadow falls below the nose in a full face view or behind the nose in an oblique view where is it barely noticed.”

continue at Super.Nova.org

“We live in a world of off-axis light. The sun does not stay right behind us. Our lighting fixtures at home illuminate us from above and other various angles. And we are constantly exposed to imagery – both still and moving – that makes use of very sophisticated off-camera lighting techniques.”

“Yet so many photographers, when they take the time to compose and illuminate their photos, settle for the bland, flat, on-axis (i.e., on-camera) light. Because that is the path of least resistance.”

continue at Strobist

“It’s almost a magician’s art: giving form to an object that’s essentially invisible. Lighting and photographing clear glass objects and giving them real visual appeal is one of the hardest tasks you’ll ever face in a studio.”

“How’s it done? By concentrating only on the outer edges of your subject, you imply its full shape.

Step One: Forget frontlight. This tool, so essential for nearly all studio subjects, is useless with clear glass. Instead, go with side- or backlighting.”

continue at PopPhoto

• Advanced glass photograpy techniques

“Taking good quality pictures of glass objects can seem intimidating. However, there are some simple techniques which even amateur photographers can use to obtain dramatic results with minimal effort. The following examples show several basic setups that should allow anyone to achieve results they can be proud of. The first technique is a favorite of many hired professionals who need to get instant, fast, clean shots of clear glass photography. ”

continue at TabletopStudio

hit continue for video fragments and result image.

video fragments :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GocMtUSJBUQ[/youtube]

In this lesson, we will look at how the efficiency of a light reflector works. To illustrate this, we will employ the line up of umbrellas from Photoflex: the RUD, a white translucent umbrella, the RUT, a white translucent umbrella with a removable black cover, and the ADW, a white opaque umbrella.

What we mean by the “efficiency” of a reflector is the amount of light that reflects onto our subjects compared to the amount of light that passes through the material. This is important due to many factors, the most important being wear and tear on your gear. A more efficient reflector requires less power to get the results you want and will speed up the recycle times on your flashes enabling you to shoot faster and get the shot you want.

continue at PhotoFlex

Here are a few lighting diagrams from studio photos :

Monoblock bounced in silver umbrella, single light source, no reflectors.High on lightstand, close to model

“Few decisions can push your photography to the next level like investing in serious, off-camera lighting. But what type of light? Your choices include exotics like HMI and LED lights, but the most popular today are tungsten, daylight-balanced fluorescents, and strobes in two formats: AC- powered studio lights and DC-, battery-powered location strobes.”

Studio Strobes: Why Choose Them
“Each type is suited to specific applications, so making the right choice will put you on the fast track to lighting success.”

continue at PopFoto

DIY Photo Studio Product Lighting

“Knowing how your digital camera meters light is critical for achieving consistent and accurate exposures. Metering is the brains behind how your camera determines the shutter speed and aperture, based on lighting conditions and ISO speed. ”

“Metering options often include partial, evaluative zone or matrix, center-weighted and spot metering. Each of these have subject lighting conditions for which they excel– and for which they fail. Understanding these can improve one’s photographic intuition for how a camera measures light. ”

 continue at Cambridgeincolour

“When shooting portraits outdoors, it is often necessary to control or modify the natural light in order to achieve the most flattering results. In a high contrast, outdoor lighting situation, many photographers resort to using fill flash to reduce contrast and bring detail into the shadow areas.”

topics covered:

• Compromising with High Contrast Light
• Using an On Camera Flash as a Fill Light
• Using the LiteDome xs Kit
• Increasing Versatility With The Small LiteDome Kit
• Experimenting with Side Lighting

continue at PhotoFlex

” One of the first hurdles in learning off-camera flash photography in the manual mode is knowing where to set your flash for that first test exposure. For beginners, it can almost seem arbitrary or random.

More experienced photographers, on the other hand, always seem to get it pretty close on the first try. ”

continue at Strobist

“The aim of this article is to introduce you to the versatility of your new Paglight whilst exposing the secrets of good lighting in such a way that you can continue to build on your skills and enjoy the situations and challenges that beset all photographers.”

topics covered include :

• The Modelling Light
• Soft Light
• Rim Lighting
• Front Lighting
• The Standard Three Light Set-up
• Artificial Light Only
• Mixing Artificial Light With Daylight
• Determining the Lighting Requirement on Location
• What is Polarisation of Light?

continue at Paguk.com

I’ve done comparison testing with all 18 of the possible ambient / fill metering combinations on my Canon 20D and having been shooting seriously since the late 1960s using every meter type and method there is including Sunny 16. Regardless of the metering mode we select with our in-camera Through The Lens (TTL) metering getting the exposure correct is a three step process 1) let the camera metering make its best guess, 2) evaluating that guess, and 3) second-guessing the camera.

An axiom of metering is: The less one measures the more they need to know how to interpret the reading. For example a hand-held one-degree spot meter or the 5 degree metering spot in the camera can produce a precise measurement of light reflectance from that spot, but translating that reading into a correct exposure requires knowing that the indicated exposure will simply reproduce the spot as gray.

continue at Super.Nova.org

“Light ratios are confusing because there is more than one way to describe the difference in intensity between lights and because incident readings used to infer reflected highlight-to-shadow ratios. So first let’s start by defining terms:”

“INCIDENT RATIO : An incident ratio expresses the difference in intensity between two or more lights based on a meter reading taken at the point the light hits a reflective surface.

REFLECTED RATIO: A reflected ratio expresses the difference in intensity between the light reflecting from the highlights vs that reflecting from the shadows of the same three dimensional object of similar tone like a white ball or the front of the face. The reflected ratio is also referred to the highlight:shadow or H:S ratio. A 2:1 H:S ratio indicates that the highlights appear twice as bright as the shadows.”

Lighting Ratios at Super.Nova.org

“We discuss three lighting options with our portrait studio continuous lighting kit. The kit consists of 3 lights including the “key”, “fill” and “back” or “hair” light. The “key” and “fill” lights use “bounce” umbrellas to soften the light and reduce shadows. The “back” light does not use an umbrella and can be used as either a hair highlight and background light. Using Barndoors on the back light can help narrow the light for specific lighting control like a “hair” light and other effects. ”

continue at AlzoDigital

“Have you ever sat down to a plate of food and thought, “This would make a great photograph”? When the food, setting and lighting all come together, the combination can make for a beautiful scene worth photographing. Some photographers are so inspired by such scenes that shooting food is all they do.

It should be pointed out, however, that shooting food isn’t typically as easy as it looks. This lesson focuses on some of the preparation and lighting techniques commonly used in making simple, elegant food shots. ”

continue at PhotoFlex

Photos with the speedlites and the softbox :

click continue for more photos and flash set-up images.

Flash is set on ETTL , compensated between 1/3 and 2/3, ambient is underexposed by one stop on the portrait below the set-up shots :

It’s easier with a studio strobe, but the speedlites should not be underestimated, nor their mobile functions.

Using the 70-200mm 2.8 Is L lens for a nice background blur :

exif photo 1 : 1ds II camera – 1/250 sec – f/4 – AV mode – ISO 200 – 73 mm with 70-200 mm 2.8 L IS lens

exif photo 2 : 1ds II camera – 1/250 sec – f/4 – AV mode – ISO 200 – 153 mm with 70-200 mm 2.8 L IS lens

added photo :

previously : ‘speedlite with softbox’

previously : ‘speedlite with silver umbrella’

Shooting with speedlites on the beach video

click continue for set-up and additional photos.

We moved the flash from frontal position to a position of 45 degrees from the model, direct light.

“The thing that should strike you from this exercise is just how different a three-dimensional form can look when lit from different angles.

1. Light has depth of field.
2. With enough light, you can turn a white wall black. ”

continue at Strobist

The Ray Flash is the first commercially produced ring flash adapter designed to turn a speedlight into a ringflash. While ringlight is nothing new around here, up until now you have had to either go the DIY route, or lug around a much bigger piece of gear.

continue at Strobist

continue for more resources

“The Ray Ring Flash creates a unique ring flash lighting effect: a three-dimensional shadow-wrapped look around the subject. Because ring flash light originates from a circle around the lens, it produces a virtually shadowless look on the front of your subject, while producing a soft even shadow around the edges. ”

Ray Ring Flash Adapter for Canon and Nikon at Expoimaging.

Full press release :

WATSONVILLE, CA, April 7, 2008—ExpoImaging Inc., developer of innovative camera accessories, including the ExpoDisc Digital White Balance Filter and the ExpoAperture2 Depth-of-Field Guide, today announced the U.S. availability of Ray Flash: The Ring Flash Adapter. Designed as a portable and lightweight adapter for a hot-shoe flash unit, the Ray Flash replicates the unique lighting effect produced by heavy, tethered, powered studio ring flash units.

“The Ray Flash: Ring Flash Adapter is truly unique because it creates ring light lighting effects simply by attaching it to your existing hot shoe flash,” said Erik Sowder, president of ExpoImaging, Inc. “Lightweight and portable, the Ray Flash is the only product of its kind. It’s a great accessory tool for your strobe because it enables the photographer to easily achieve a high fashion, studio portrait look while on location.”

Because the ring flash light originates from a circle around the camera lens, the Ray Flash creates a distinctive lighting effect, producing a virtually shadowless look on the front of the subject, while leaving a soft, even shadow around the edges. The versatile adapter is ideally suited for fashion, wedding, portrait, journalist and macro photography, as either a main or fill-in light.

“The Ray Flash is one very cool piece of gear,” said lighting expert David Hobby in his review of Ray Flash on Strobist.com. “It’s small, lightweight, maintains all of the flash’s TTL functions. Best yet, [the latest Ray Flash design] loses only one stop of light as compared to direct flash. That last bit alone puts it head and shoulders above any [Do It Yourself] versions I have seen or tried. With that kind of output, it is even usable outside during the daylight at modest portrait distances.”

The Ray Flash relies on the hot-shoe flash to generate its light and automatically takes advantage of a camera’s TTL metering capabilities. The adapter easily slides over the front of a camera’s flash unit and locks into place for easy, secure use. Weighing only 16 oz., the Ray Flash contains no electronics, batteries or flash tubes and does not require any cumbersome cables.

Current models of the Ray Flash are designed to fit the Canon 580EX (MKI & MKII) and Nikon SB800 flash units. With a 4 1/8” internal diameter, the adapter is large enough to accept almost all professional lenses from both Canon and Nikon. The Ray Flash will retail for $299 and is distributed exclusively by ExpoImaging, Inc. in the U.S..  The Ray Flash will be available through photo dealers nationwide as well as at www.expoimaging.net.

About ExpoImaging, Inc.

ExpoImaging Inc. develops and markets innovative camera accessories and is the pioneer in digital white balance filters. Ray Flash: The Ring Flash Adapter, ExpoAperture2 Depth-of-Field Guide and ExpoDisc Digital White Balance Filter are available at select photography dealers worldwide, or online at www.expoimaging.net.

“I used 3 flash unites in 2 different flash groups, Group A + Group B. (Remember, this is TTL folks). Group A 1:1 and Group B 1:4. We had 1 Radiopopper transmitter attached to the ST-E2 and 3 Radiopopper receivers attached to 580 EX II’s. ”

continue at FlashFlavor

Radiopopper

“Using pretty much the same lighting set-up; natural window light, along with a Westcott Daylight Fluorescent Spiderlite with a 24×32 softbox as a fill light, and a small handheld white reflector to fill in the shadows xon the opposite side of the light.“

continue at Scott Kelby

“Warm up your eye and compositional brain using the sunlight properly, then convert to using your strobes to make a composition that you need for your concept or for drama. You must first understand the importance of balancing your subject and background brightness/contrast before you go blazing in with a photo flash!”

When working in broad sunlight with photo flash like this, you must continue to remember that your eye’s natural education is what all your photographic images will be judged upon. Meaning, you have to fake something that looks believable. In my last post on managing photo flash I talked about bending the strobe light to match the sunlight. In these pictures, I used a different approach in the bright mid-day Texas sun. Let’s take a look at some of my warm-up shots before I got to using flash…

continue at Makelightreal

“To really understand the concept of balancing light, many of you will have to expand your concept of a so-called proper exposure. After all, you are creating a scene that has precisely the tonal range that you want it to. You can use this ability to compress the tonal range of a photo, or to expand it. It’s up to you.”

continue at Strobist

“In portrait photography, it helps to have a sense of imagination, vision, composition, and at times, a sense of humor. Interaction with your subjects is paramount and maintaining that interaction while simultaneously juggling the technical aspects of camera and lighting production is a skill that even the best photographers continue to develop. ”

It is therefore crucial to know and be comfortable with your equipment, both camera and lighting, so that you can focus on being creative while working with your subjects.

While it helps to have an assistant (or two) to help you with the technical aspects of a portrait shoot, even more important is to work with straightforward, easy-to-use gear. Digital cameras have helped to take a lot of the guesswork out of photography, particularly in portrait sessions, and once you are comfortable with a good digital camera, it becomes almost like an extension of yourself. Likewise, a simple, dependable, continuous lighting system can be an extension of your vision.

continue at PhotoFlex

“Just recently, I became the proud owner of a new dining room table. Not a massively exciting announcement you might think (and you would be right), but what was getting me excited was the fact that it had a frosted glass top. While my significant other was wondering where to put it and what to do with the old table, I was thinking I wonder what would happen if I stuck a flash underneath it??

The answer at first was a little disappointing but after a while I was getting some pretty good results, particularly with bottles and containers of liquid. I was finding that with light coming from underneath it was helping light up the liquid and giving it a nice glow. The only problem I was having was the table top itself. The glass was dimpled, not smooth, and while that gave a nice effect, it was not ideal for every shot. The answer of course was a spot of DIY!

continue at DIYPhotography

One day I was at my local photography store I saw one of these  light tents. It consisted of a collapsible white fabric box with a hole in the front and 3 lights – used for photographing small objects in photographic studios.

Materials Needed:

A Box – It could be any size you want as long as you can light it! I prefer it to be as square as can be. You can find boxes anywhere for free. I got mine from work in which they throw out anyway. You can also find boxes in the back of strip malls, grocery stores, appliance stores or basically any place that makes or sells products. Thicker the better! (Free)

continue at Digital Photography School

Outdoor portraits can offer a sense a drama or romance that can be hard to achieve in a studio setting. The early morning or evening sky can serve as a stunning backdrop for a portrait. The trick is in lighting your subject properly.

This lesson shows how to use just a couple of lighting fixtures to achieve great outdoor portraits.

We set up a Photoflex StarFlash 1000 Mercury 5′ OctoDome Kit for our main light.

It is important to use a light source that is large enough to cover your subject. Here the 5 foot OctoDome³ is perfect for giving us adequate light coverage for our model.

Continue at PhotoFlex.

Before you shell out the money for a new camera, you’ll most likely want to learn about what the camera is capable of doing. “Will the image quality be good with this camera?” “Will this camera perform the way I want it to?” “Will I be able to make good prints from this camera?” These are all important questions to ask. But there’s also one very important element to any great photograph that a lot of people overlook: the lighting.

You may have the most expensive camera in the world, but without understanding a thing or two about lighting, you’ll most likely experience frustration with inconsistent and mediocre results. However, if you have some good lighting tools and know the best ways to use them, you can create stunning images with the most modest of cameras.

This lesson examines why photographers use soft boxes, illustrates the differences between various sized soft boxes, and demonstrates how to use soft boxes most effectively.

Understanding how softboxes work – part 1.

Understanding how softboxes work – part 2.

Studio photography is easy because you can get exactly what you want. Studio photography is hard because you can get exactly what you want.

Soft light, hard light, hair light, background. Everything is under your control. If you are a tremendously creative person who knows how to use studio equipment, you’ll get wonderful results. If you are uncreative, you’ll have very flat and boring results. If anything is wrong with the lighting balance or exposure, you’ll have nobody to blame but yourself.

Decide whether you want your studio to be floor-based or ceiling-based. A floor-based studio means that you have lightstands for the lights and background supports for the background. All of these supports are very lightweight because they are designed to be portable. You’ll be treading very carefully and/or you’ll be knocking things over.

continue at Photo.net

If you want to take ultra modern style portraits with the pure white backgrounds, but think you can’t because you only have one studio light think again. Experts may tell you that you need five lights comprising main or key light, fill light, hair light and at least two background lights, and who on earth can afford five studio flashes? The secret lies not in throwing money at the idea, but at flexing the old brain power.

The only photographic equipment you’ll need in addition to your single light is a meter capable of measuring whatever your light is to within a half f/stop accuracy. Use an ambient light meter if you have a continuous light source or a flash meter if your light is some sort of flashgun.  The only other thing you will need, which can’t be home made is a single mirror tile which will cost you about 3 from most DIY centres – and even that isn’t actually vital, it just adds the finishing touch.

Studio Lighting on a budget at Ephotozine.

The first thing you have to ask yourself before choosing the flash setting for your umbrella is, how big do you want your light source to be? But before we get to that, let’s make sure we all know what we mean by “zoom setting.”

Remember, your flash was designed to provide coverage for a wide array of lens focal lengths when the flash is mounted on camera and firing in the direct mode. But that was (hopefully) way back in the dark ages for you. And most likely, you are now using the zoom function of your flash for more creative purposes.

continue

A lot of news photographers don’t think that they are allowed enough time to light pictures, so they rely on their hot shoe mounted flash or on moving their subject into the daylight. If your kit is lightweight and well planned, if it’s reliable and quick to assemble then you can light as much of your work as you want to. I tend to specialize in editorial portraiture, so that is the area of work that I’m going to talk about.

My basic kit is one Lumedyne 200 joule pack, one Signature head, two regular batteries, one stand, an umbrella, a Chimera softbox and a Pocket Wizard kit – all in one sling bag.

DG28′s Photographer education articles.

Hi and welcome to this edition of Workshop at the Ranch. When I get excited about a piece of equipment that allows me to make better pictures I want to tell everyone all about it and how to use it. This long and detailed Workshop at the Ranch article’s purpose is to present to you both a valuable tool for lighting and step by step instruction on how to use it. For several years now the Nikon SB-800 Speedlight system has been my trusty side kick for many assignments and photo shoots.

No other flash unit could compare to the technology, performance, and reliability that the Nikon SB-800 offered, that is course until the release of the Nikon SB-900 Speedlight. I hope this months article not only conveys some of the new and improved features of the Nikon SB-900 Speedlight, but also teaches you how to use them when making action images.

Dave Black

check what Tom did here with 4 sources of light to create a low-key dark settting.

Dutch text, yet clear graphical explanation to be found.

1. Set the ISO to 400 – this gives you much greater latitude with the strobes.
2. Set the aperture to f/6.3 as a good starting point. With wide-angle lenses, DOF is not really a problem.

1. Adjust the shutter speed to expose for the windows. Generally, for a “blown-out” window effect, 1/80th or slower will work. To bring in a view completely, dial up to your camera’s maximum sync speed (usually 1/250th) and only then start stopping down the aperture. Once the windows are exposed properly…..

Interior Lighting With Multiple Strobes.

Live-chat Interview with Scott Hargis about architecture photography.

A lot of people been asking me what are Color Temperature (CT) flash gels for and where they can find it.

On the first part I will be showing a very simple way where you can get them, in Europe, very fast and with everything you need to cover all CT areas.

On part two is all about practical examples on what and how you can use them on different situations to balance light and improve your photos.

Full color Temperature Orange (Ref.Lee 204) 10units
Plus Green (aka Window Green) (Ref.Lee 244) 10units
Half color Temperature Orange (Ref.Lee 205) 5units
Quarter color Temperature Orange (Ref.Lee 206) 5units
Full color Temperature Blue (Ref.Lee 201) 5units
Half color Temperature Blue (Ref.Lee 202) 5units
.3 Neutral Density – 1 stop (Ref.Lee 209) 5units
Flame Red (Ref.Lee 164) 2units

Flash gels for correcting color temperature, part I.

Flash gels for correcting color temperature, part II.

I have seen a couple versions of video from Annie Leibovitz’s Queen Elizabeth shoot. But this is the full segment, and has lots of interesting tidbits

Annie scouts rooms, making notes with a camera. This is common practice with pros, not so common with amateurs. I always try to have at least a point and shoot with me for this reason.

continue

Click here for speedlite flashes in softbox and umbrella set-ups with sample photos.

Studio lighting can be broken down into two categories, continuous and flash. While continuous lighting has two main advantages there are many disadvantages.
The good points of continuous light:

* It’s inexpensive, and makes a good starting point for anyone on a small budget.

* You can see what the light is doing and where the shadows and highlights are.

The main disadvantages of continuous light:

* It generally produces more heat than light, very uncomfortable!

* The light that it produces is not balanced to daylight.

continue

If you are a photographer and using flash (either for studio pictures or for outdoor shooting), you are probably aware of the problems that a hot-shoe flash introduces: the shadows of an object are crisp-sharp, creating an artificial look to the object. When dealing with studio lighting, you can use a softbox to diffuse your shadows and this is an acceptable solution, but for the amateur photographer it does have some disadvantages:

1. A softbox is very expensive. A simple softbox like this softbox from Arri, can cost several hundreds of dollars. (See our big DIY softbox version)
2. A softbox is big, and can not be carried around.

The amateur photographer can compromise and us a flash mounted softbox like this softbox from Lumiquest, or a stoffen box. The problem with this one (although a minor one compared to the “big” Softboxes), is the cost, nearing 30 dollars. Well, I guess that for some 30 bucks is no big deal (and especially no big deal for photography equipment), but I am going to try and do even better.

continue

An important concept to understand when dealing with studio lighting for portrait photography is contrast. Contrast is the difference in the amount of light that falls on the dark areas of a scene and the amount of light that falls on the highlight areas of a scene. Humans can see a wide range of contrast while film and digital capture devices are much more limited in the light level ranges that they can record. For this reason, we must use caution when lighting a scene, and consider the ratio of the amount of light between light and dark areas or the Lighting Ratio.

Due to the latitude of film and digital sensors, it is the photographer’s goal to find the exposure that strikes the appropriate balance between the highlights and shadows. You must begin by deciding the desired “feel” of the final image. If you wish to obscure shadow detail and draw attention to the subject, high contrast lighting may be most appropriate. On the other hand, you may wish to show detail in both the highlight and shadow areas which would require lower contrast lighting. Once you know the effect you wish to obtain, you can begin to identify the proper lighting ratio for the shoot.

Continue

Exposure bracketing

Fill flash

Area focus

Understanding white balance

Night Photography

Exposure compensation

Digital Photography One On One Episode 2 – Using a Light Meter.

Set-up photo :

Thanks to Gerard

The hardness of the light will generate dark shadows. The direction of the light will place those shadows in unattractive positions underneath the subject’s eyes and nose. One solution is to move the subject into the shade where he will be lit by skylight rather than sunlight. Skylight comes from a large source and is therefore diffuse. Diffuse light does not cast strong shadows. Skylight is also rather blue and, if you are using color slide film, you might have to place a warming filter (e.g., 81D) over the lens to get natural skin tone.

If your goal is to record a subject in front of a sunlit object then you can’t move him into the shade. There is too great a difference in illumination between shaded and sunlit objects. Photographic film and paper cannot handle the same range of contrast as your eyes. A picture that is correctly exposed for the sunlight object will render the shaded portrait subject as solid black. A picture that is correctly exposed for the shaded portrait subject will render the sunlit background object as solid white.

Light @ Photo.net

In this episode of Digital Photography One on One, Mark Wallace [SnapFactory.com] explains Key Shifting and how your shutter speed affects exposure when using an external flash.

Questions Answered:
1) To get the best results when using a Canon 580 flash unit on a 20D, should I stick to ISO100? Would you ever change the ISO for some reason? -Nigel

2) Can you please explain Key Shifting to me in regards to outdoor portraiture? Once I establish a meter reading on my subject of say f/8, what do I have to do to lighten and darken the background?

click here for the video

light : Monoblock flash head in large softbox
.Set almost at zenit , inclined.Single light source.

Monoblock on medium softbox, mid-high, single light source, reflected with silver reflector.

Possibly the most useful tool available in digital photography is the histogram. It could also well be the least understood. In this article we will look at what a camera histogram tells the photographer and how best to utilize that information.

Virtually every digital camera, from the simplest point-and-shoot to the most sophisticated digital SLR has the ability to display a histogram directly, or more usually superimposed upon the image just taken. (The Hasselblad H1, the latest generation of film & digital capable cameras, can display a histogram on the camera grips LCD while the image is separately displayed on the digital back’s LCD.) On most cameras though the histogram display takes place on the rear LCD screen, and most cameras can be programmed to do this both on the image that is displayed immediately after a shot is taken, or later when frames are being reviewed.

read more :
Luminous Landscape

DIY $10 Macro Studio

DIY:Macro Strip Lights

DIY:Digital EOS/Holga

DIY Heaven:The “Make” Photo Blog

How-To: One Synch Cord Fires Two Flashes

Get Your “Tinker Tubes” Plans!

Definitions

What is Dynamic Range?

What is the unit of Dynamic Range?

What is an HDR image?

But aren’t we confusing dynamic range with bit-depth here?

Shouldn’t 24-bit be higher than 16-bit? I’m lost with all those bit numbers!

High Dynamic Range Images

How do I shoot an HDR image?

Can’t I just create the exposures from one RAW file?

Why doesn’t my HDRI have the details of the exposures I created it from?

What are HDR images used for in 3D rendering?

Do HDR images have a gamma?

Are HDR images color managed?

Processing HDR images

What do you mean by dynamic range increase?

What is Tone Mapping?

Is RAW conversion related to tonemapping?

© hdrsoft.com

High Dynamic Range on Wikipedia

On-camera single light.

Wired Off-camera single light.

Wireless Off-camera single light.

Hotshoe FILL + Wireless KEY light.

Wired FILL + Wireless KEY light.

Hotshoe FILL + Wireless KEY light + Wireless BACKGROUND light.

Wireless KEY light + Wireless FILL light.

Wireless KEY light + Wireless FILL light + Wireless BACKGROUND light.

overview

Explore the world of off-camera lighting thanks to Strobist

Links to Strobist articles out of the Lighting 101 ( © Strobist ) :

Two Things Your Flash Needs to Have
Traveling Light
Light Stands
Super Clamps
Ball Bungees
Umbrella Stand Adapters

Synching: PC Cords and Pocket Wizards
Building a Pro PC Cord, Pt. 1
Building a Pro PC Cord, Pt. 2
Soft Light: Umbrellas
Soft Light – Wall/Ceiling Bouncing
Bare-Tube Style Lighting
Hard Light – It’s Better Than You Think
Balancing Flash Intensity With Ambient, Pt 1
Balancing Flash Intensity With Ambient, Pt 2
Using Gels to Balance Light Color
Cereal Box Snoots and GoBo’s
Textural Lighting for Detail Shots
Cross Lighting
Back Light as Main Light
Headshot in a Corner
Lighting for Glasses
Know The Flash
See The Flash
Be The Flash
Don’t Let Good Light Ruin a Photo
Keep a Lighting File

Here are some photos taken with hot-shoe speedlite flashes with compensated ETTL and using Flash Exposure Lock.

No diffusers, cealing bouncing or flash modifiers, just plain hard direct light …

check the links below for introductions and techniques on flash photography :

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

http://strobist.blogspot.com/