Photography Blog DigitalPixels.net

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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)

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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

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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.

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So, we already know that direct flash from your built-in flash gives unflattering results, to say the least. Using your speedlight in the same way won’t change much. I did mention that you can redirect the light by rotating the head of your flash gun and bouncing the light off ceilings and walls but you’re still very limited in your creativity. So what’s a photographer to do? I’ll tell you. Get that speedlight off your camera to unleash its full potential!

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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…

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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.

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