Lighting Seminar Info - Click

Table of Contents

Beginner advice
Common questions on studio lights & photography
Over-exposed images
Modeling lights- on or off
Beginner's depression

Beginner advice

Back to Top

I am a novice to studio lighting. I am wondering if your lighting book will be a good start for me? I have been an amateur photographer for many years and I recently got hooked on studio lighting. The creativity just fascinates me. I am thinking about buying some studio equipment. I would appreciate your comment on equipment that you recommend (not too expensive!!). I have been thinking about getting into studio photography as a side business. Do you think it's achievable for me, or is it just a dream that I won't be able to do? I know it's hard to master studio lighting and probably takes years of practice
Thank you so much.
Jason

Dear Jason
With regard to my book, this is not intended to be a commercial but you asked the question so I must respond. My Studio Lighting Made Simple Book was written to be easily understood. There are many photographers who have posted comments in the photography forums after getting it. I am sure that any of them would be delighted to give you their unbiased comments. There are also around one hundred comments shown that have been sent to me about my book. You will find them by clicking on the link that is part way down the page describing my Lighting book. I wrote the book with all photographers in mind. Beginners to veterans. You see, I don’t believe that there is a difference between beginning lighting and advanced lighting. Either you know or you don’t. The variable is how consistent you do it and with what degree of precision. I firmly believe that lighting is very easy to learn IF it is presented in a simple and visual way. This is how I try to teach it in my classes and seminars and also in my books. I really do want you to get it. To me, if you don’t learn when I teach, it is I who have failed, and not you. The burden is on the instructor to make knowledge available to the mind of the student in a way that can be easily absorbed and more importantly be put into practical use. 

In our new digital photography age, it seems to me that confusion is everywhere and countless opinions on line and elsewhere are all different and ultimately confusing to the beginning image maker. I believe that change is a good thing but we don't need to reinvent the wheel each time we have a change in how we do things. We should adapt as much of what has become standard and reliable to whatever is new to make the learning curve shorter and less painful.

With regard to equipment, please save your money until you have more knowledge. Many very nice and well meaning photographers will recommend all sorts of equipment. The equipment will not make you into a photographer. You can practice lighting in your home with a desk lamp. Understanding where the light goes when photographing a person is very important. This is why I have a chapter in the Lighting book dedicated to various lighting patterns that the professional portrait photographer works with. Without these, you are just dumping light onto the subject with no specific goal in mind. Until you begin buying equipment you can practice the patterns with a household light as mentioned above. You can use something simple such as a white poster board to return some of the light back into the shadow side of the subject to practice controlling the fill light. You don't need an expensive reflector from a camera store or even the one that I sell to do this. The idea is to reflect light. White cardboard will do this just fine while you are learing. Later you can get something more suited to the task but for now, something simple is just fine. It's not critical what you use. In my seminars I actually bring up a person wearing white and move them back and forth near the shadow side of the subject to demonstrate the most basic principle of returning some of the main light back into the shadow side of the face. This of course is to control the shadow side illumination as it relates to the highlight side of the face.

When you feel the need to buy lighting equipment I will recommend a simple power pack system but for now I think you should concentrate on some of the basic principles of lighting the human face with a small, hard light source. Once you feel you have learned some or all of the basic lighting patterns such as loop, Rembrand, butterfly and so on, you might wish to begin working with a variable size light source, more specifically a diffusion panel. A diffusion panel is a frame with transluscent fabric on it. These are available from many suppliers including me. I feel mine have real advantages for the reasons listed in the product area of my site. It simply sits near the subject and allows you to easily control the size of your light source. No other lighting device gives you control like this. Not a soft box or an umbrella or another fixed size light source. Bring the light closer to the materal and the light will be smaller from the perspective of the subject. Move it away from the fabric and the light becomes larger from the view point of the subject. Small light sources provide hard light that makes for harsher shadow edges and an overall harder look. Large light sources create a soft light that makes the shadow edges very soft and diffused giving the image a very gently soft look. You could say it gently wraps around the subject because of how large it is. Now imagine how many different sizes are inbetween small and large. One device that lets you make an unlimited number of different qualitys of light is the diffusion panel. Now that is control! For this reason I do not care for any fixed size light source. I want to be fully in control of the look of the portrait. If you have a fixed size light source such as an umbrella or soft box, the light quality will be the same every time you use it. Sure you can make great portraits with these fixed size light sources but you will have no control over their size and as a result will be very limited in your creativity. The size they are today is the size they will be tomorrow. The only thing that changes the quallity of light is the size of the light source. Only a diffusion panel does this well. To read more on this topic, click here.

Jason, getting into business is as easy or as difficult as you choose to make it. It’s like building an airplane. You can choose to build a 747 from scratch and you will probably encounter some pretty severe financial and technical problems. On the other hand, you could get into hang gliding and be aloft before you know it with less headaches and fewer expenses. It is a good principle to remember. We must walk before we can run and we need to be able to run before we can fly! I strongly recommend that before starting up a full or part time business that you develop your interest as a sincere hobby and get your skills up to a point where you are doing better work than amateur photographers and are moving closer toward professional quality work. During this period your hobby should support itself. Yes, some investment is required to get into professional photography but it is knowledge that will help you make the really sound decisions as to where and how to spend your money. There is much to learn before making the big decision as to what kind of lights to buy or which didital camera is best for you. You must determine what will best serve your needs for the kind of work you will likely be doing.

Get my book on light if you feel comfortable doing so. When you call to order you can ask me questions while you have me on the phone. Then, begin making yourself familiar with the basic principles of lighting. Learn to see light and shadow. Learn to recognize the many lighting patterns that you see in magazines, and photography books that feature portrait work. I especially recommend that you buy or borrow some of the PP of A loan collection books if you know a professional who has some. They are a wealth of inspiration and a huge source of wonderful work to study. Jason, begin with your mind. It is the most wonderful and valuable piece of photographic equipment you will ever learn to use. Resist the temptation to rush down and buy equipment based upon emotion and the talented sales person who sells this stuff for a living.

You said “I know it's hard to master studio lighting and probably takes years of skills and practice...”. This is just not true. Many photographers do indeed take years to develop their craft but with the correct attitude on your part and if you avoid the temptation to inundate your mind with too much random information from many different sources which may not always be accurate, you will accomplish your goals in a comparatively short period of time. You need patience and to focus on your goal of becoming a master of light, and not a master of collecting gadgets and equipment. You can do anything you desire as long as you remember to walk first. You also need not feel alone because as long as I am here, you may write to me via email for technical help and advice whever you need it. - Scott

Back to Top

Back to Top

Scott, I recently purchased the Novatron 60-V400 2C Kit. Studio lighting is completely foreign to me and I am so confused I hope you can help. I am totally lost and overwhelmed. Noted below are my questions.
Thanks so much, I appreciate your time and advise.
Mark J.

Q. All of the diagrams that came with the kit illustrate only how to set up using 1 flashhead or 3. My kit has 2 heads. What do I do?

A. Using 2 heads is as easy as using one or three. You simply have to decide what you want each head to do. The most common head assignments are, main light, fill light, hair light and background light. To get the most use out of the two that you have, I would recommend using a reflector for a fill light. This would be a large white panel that reflects light. With a reflector fill you can use your two powered lights as a main and a hair light. For your hair light you will need to use a set of barn doors. Avoid the temptation to buy a snoot.The barn doors are far better than a snoot because you can control how much light comes out of them. A snoot is not controllable. I wouldn't use one under any conditions. Control is what will make you a great image maker. Your main light at first will probably be an umbrella that came with your kit. It’s fine to start with but I do recommend that you consider a diffusion panels which will give you extreme control and flexibility with your lighting. Once again you can read about them in the area called “Equipment we use.”

Q. What is the best way to set lighting up for portraits and table-top product shots?

A. There is no simple answer for this question. All portraits are lit uniquely using general guidelines that are learned through study and experience. You must first learn the principles of where lighting goes on the human face. Once you have a grasp of that, you will understand where to place the lights in order to achieve the look you desire. Understanding what portrait lighting looks like is the first step. Studying images and breaking them down as to what parts are lit and what parts are in shadow is part of the learning process. In my lighting book I have a series of face portraits showing each of the patterns as done using a small light source. I use a small light source so the shadows are easily seen and understood. You can practice at home using nothing more than a desk lamp with the shade removed. In doing this you are not focused on the fact that you are using “studio lighting equipment” which can be a little intimidating at first. This way you can concentrate on the light and the shadow. 

Commercial product work is far more involved and again has no single answer. Using large light sources like diffusion panels is a step in the right direction but you really need to study many commercial images and observe where the various lights come from. Each product you photograph has a unique shape, color and texture and must he handled according to it’s particular characteristics.

Q. Of these two heads that I have, is each head specific, such as main, accent, fill, or background etc. or is that only as it pertains to placement of the lights? Which one is considered to be the main light?

A. The two heads that came with your power pack will each receive half of the available power from your power pack. If your pack has 400 watts of power, 200 watts will be delivered to each head when the pack is set at full power. You may use any head for any position.

Q. One head has switches on it with (-2), and (-1). What do these settings mean and how do I determine how the switches should be set?

A. The reducing switches cut the output of that head by one f stop (-1) or two f stops (-2). This can be used creatively to control the amount of light reaching a particular area of the photograph. When you have more than two heads and can use one for a background light, you will find these switches useful in making the light on the background less prominent without changing the shape of the lighting pattern that you placed on the background. For example. It is common to place a pleasing glow on a dark background over the shoulders of your portrait subject. It adds a nice bit of separation between the subject and the background. By using a colored gel over the background light you can add a nice splash of color that can be complimentary to the colors your subject is wearing. When the background light is several feet away from the background, the pattern of light is much larger than when the light is very close to the background. If you will think about light as if you are spray painting it will be helpful. If your spray can is up close to the wall you are painting, the paint will be intense and in a small pattern. If you pull the spray can away from the wall, your spray pattern will be far less intense but much bigger. Light works exactly the same way. Think about light as if it is a liquid and some of its mystique will disappear. 

When you are first learning to use your studio strobes, I strongly recommend that you use masking tape and tape the switches on the heads in the full power position and leave them there until you have mastered the basic concepts of working with strobes. Adjusting these switches in the early stages of learning about lighting will only add confusion confusion to the process and lengthen your learning curve.

Q. What are modeling lights and when are they used?

A. The modeling lights are the incandescent light bulbs that you see in the center of your flash head. They are there to illuminate your subject so you can see where the light is going to go when the strobes fire and the photograph is made. The strobes are the clear glass flash tubes located around the modeling bulb. They receive a large but very brief jolt of power from the power pack when you make an exposure. They produce the flash of light that lights the subject to make the exposure. The modeling lights are there so you can see what you are doing when placing your lights around your subject. Without modeling lights, you are essentially blind as to precisely where the light will go when the photograph is made. It’s just like a laser sight on a gun. The bullet is going to go where you see the red dot. Without the red dot, you must guess as to where the bullet will go by generally pointing in that direction. Just like the red dot, your modeling lights show you where the strobe light (bullet) will go when you fire. They remain on at all times. Don’t worry about them recording on your image. You would have to use a very long shutter speed in order for the modeling light to become a significant part of the total exposure. A final note about modeling lights. If the room you are working in is not essentially dark, the modeling lights will be of little value because you will be seeing their light mixed in with the ambient light in the room where you are working. The room needs to be as dark as possible so you can see where the light from your flash heads is going.

Q. How do I meter the subject when it is strobe lighting?

A. When a strobe fires you can say that an event or incident has occurred. The incident being the flash of light that is used to light your subject. Taking meter readings of incident (flash) light requires you to set your meter in the incident mode. Your meter is usually connected to your power pack mono light using a sync cord. This is the same kind of cord that connects between the power pack and your camera so that when you press the shutter release button on the camera, the strobes will fire. Likewise when you press the button on your meter to take a reading, the strobes will fire and your measurement is made. It is more convenient to connect two sync cords to your power pack at the same time so you don’t have to keep taking the cord off the camera and putting it on the flash meter. To do this, simply get an AC splitter. This is the little block that you plug into the AC wall outlet that gives you several extra sockets. Plug this into your power packs sync receptacle and then plug the two sync cords into it with their other ends connected to your digital camera and flash meter. 

Alternatively, you can get a set of Pocket Wizards which allow you to be wireless. They work well and keep wiring to a minimum in your shooting room.

Your meter would usually be set to the ISO rating that your camera is set at. If this matching combination does not give you consistently correct exposures, then you need to do some testing to determine what the correct working ISO is for your camera/meter combination. Just like film in the old days, digital cameras are not all created equal so you may have to do some testing, look at your histograms and adjust your working ISO up or down on your meter to get consistently correct exposures. It's not a difficult process but it is necessary. Once you have settled on your proper working ISO, you should not have to worry about it again

Taking correct meter readings is not difficult. In brief, point your meter toward the main light, (the light that provides the main source of lighting on your subject) and take your reading. I realize that this is probably going to be contrary to what many have told you but the fact remains that with digital photography, we need consistent exposures more than ever and getting consistent flesh tones requires that we expose the same way for every image. If we vary the ratio between the main light and the fill light for a different look and expose based on meter readings taken with the meter pointed at the camera (fill light) then the all important flesh values will be different. For this reason, I teach my students to always maintain consistent exposures by metering toward the main light. 

The fill light always goes behind and near to the camera. If you are using a reflector fill, it is placed on the opposite side from the main light at eye level to the subject and as far out in front of the subject as possible without being seen in the viewfinder. The f stop reading on your meter is what you set the aperture on your lens to. That is the basic method of metering. All your lights remain on (contrary to what you may have been told) so your reading reflects the proper information that will match the conditions when you actually make your exposures.

Q. Is it best to perform a reflective or incident reading?

A. Reflective readings are not generally used for most portrait situations. The reflective light coming from a subjects skin will cause variations in exposure depending on if the person has light or dark skin. Consistency is what you want in professional photography and reading the light itself rather than reflected light is far more accurate.

Q. How far should the light head be from the umbrella?

A. Generally, you place the umbrella shaft in the strobe head and pull it out just enough so that the umbrella is fully illuminated from edge to edge. To slide the umbrella in closer to the flash unit than this will reduce the effective size of the light source and render your portraits a bit more harsh looking. This harsher look is a result of the more defined shadow edges which are caused by the now smaller light source.

Q. How do I know how to set the power reducing control on the power pack?

A. Most power packs have a control that allows you to vary the power. Most mono lights also have a knob that allows for continuous variation in the amount of light that you can call upon. This gives you tremendous control over the f stop you make exposures with. Choosing the f stop allows you to control the depth of field in your image. This is not complicated at all. For ease of understanding, lets pretend that your pack is a 600 watt model. Dialing it down to 300 watts will provide you with 300 watts. Changing the power gives you the ability to control what aperture you use which in turn gives you control over depth of field (the amount of image area that is in focus in front of and behind the place where you are focused).

Q. The Shutter speed of my Cannon is 1/125. How do make sure it is in sync with the lights?

A. Your camera has many shutter speeds but only from the sync speed down will your camera sync with your strobes. The sync speed is specified in the owners manual of your digital camera. Any speed at or below the sync speed will work but you don’t want to go too low or you will see motion blur if your subject is move during the time that the shutter is open. A sync speed of about 1/60th to 125th is generally a safe choice for general portrait applications.

If you will take one step at a time and keep your learning focused on the science of light rather than on the equipment used, you will grow in your knowledge much faster. Letting yourself be influenced by every new opinion that you hear at the camera store will only serve to frustrate you and blur the road toward your goals. - Scott

Back to Top

Click the cover to learn more about
Studio Lighting
Made Simple

Back to Top

I took some pictures of a 40 mile race this weekend. The pictures looked overexposed, but I only use natural lighting. Do you have any idea of what I did wrong?
Tammy

Miss Tammy your exposure difficulties could be caused by a number of different things. If your camera was set to an automated mode, then it was doing the thinking for you. I never recommend that because you can't learn by letting a microchip think for you. I realize that there are occasions for setting the camera to program or automatic exposure. I do it myself at my daughters birthday parties. For serious portrait work and important situations where you must be on the money, working in manual is what I recommend. You are in control and can learn from the experience as well as make sure that the exposures are right on the money by looking at your histogram.

Your histogram is a truly important think to keep an eye on. Understanding your exposures by studying your histogram is essential. Once you get your exposure correct by testing with your hand held meter and establishing a working ISO, you should remain consistent unless lighting conditions or differing backgrounds are causing the exposures to vary. This is where you come in as a photographer. You learn through experience to recognize what you are looking at and adjust accordingly. 

If you are in a situation where you must rely on the internal metering of the camera then you have to test and observe and adjust your controls so you have consistent exposures. Keeping your curve on the histogram from hitting either end of the graph will insure that your exposures are correct. If your images were very over exposed your histogram will show the curver running into the right side of the graph. Keeping exposure correct requires your attention to the histogram, the lighting and background conditions of the scene. Most digital cameras will allow you to compensate for over or under exposures when in automatic modes. Check your owners manual for details on how to do this but remember there is no substitute for you being the photographer and being aware of the conditions under which you are working and compensating for them as needed. - Scott

Back to Top

Back to Top

Even though this question was answered in the common questions Q & A above, it is such a common question that I feel I should include it as a topic all to itself.

Question: When I am making portraits of people in the camera room with my studio strobes, should I shut my modeling lights off when it's time to take the photograph or leave them on? Will they effect the image if I leave them on?

Answer : When you work with studio lighting equipment that has both flash units and modeling lights in the same head, they are intended to be used with all of the lights operating. The modeling lights are there so you can see what you are doing, where the light is going, where the shadows will be, where the hair light is, the background light and so on. Without the modeling lights you might as well put a blind fold on. You cannot see what you are doing. If you are working in a room where the ambient light from windows or other lights in the room are interfering with your ability to see where your lighting is, you have a problem. Your camera room should be dark like a darkroom. If it's not, then you have no idea what you are doing and will never learn the art of lighting. Your room must be dark and your modeling lights must be on at all times so you can see continuously what your lighting is doing even if your subject moves around.

When you are ready to take the photograph, you don't shut the modeling lights off. Their total output is dramatically less than your strobe output so they will not record as a significant part of your image. Think about it. It would really be a pain to have to turn of the modeling lights before all of your images are made. Bottom line? LEAVE THOSE BABIES ON!

Back to Top

Click the cover to learn more about
Studio Lighting
Made Simple