Perhaps you are interested in building your very own home photography studio. Let's see what the best ways are on how to go about this.
First of all, it is recommended to use a fairly small sized room with neutral white walls. White walls guarantee that the light remains uncoloured, so that your models don't get coloured by the light (imagine if your walls were shocking pink for example...).
You may decide to use a soft box, an umbrella, or both tools in the room. A soft box is basically a small box that fits to the top of the flash, the small flash tube shoots out light, which is reflected off the insides of the walls of the soft box and then passes through a translucent material that goes over the front of the soft box, refracting the light in all directions.
An umbrella is very similar to a soft box, the only difference being that some of the light from the flash can pass through it, and the rest will reflect off it. You can use it both ways to get different lighting results. When you put the umbrella onto your flash head, you will have something known as a spill kill. This is a round piece of metal which fits around the end of the flash. It is called a spill kill because it stops light from spilling out beyond the umbrella. This prevents light from shining onto the walls and the ceilings, which can completely destroy your photography efforts. The whole aim of a home studio is for you to have control of the light.
Let's have a quick look at the differences between the light coming from the soft box and the light coming from the umbrella. Flash heads have things called modelling lights, which are simply tungsten bulbs that are on all the time. As you adjust the output the light level goes up and down. It enables you to see what the light is going to do at different outputs. As you change the exposure you can see how the shadows change around the person or object you are shooting.
If you are choosing to work with a flash, it will be necessary to use a flash meter. There are trial and error ways of doing it but they are not accurate and it would require a lengthy explanation. Firstly, you have to set the ISO speed on your flash meter to match the ISO speed on your camera. Set your flash sync speed to be fast enough. To do that you would have to find out what the sync speed of your camera is. Don't point the invercone directly towards the flash. It is best if you point it at the position of the camera. If you're buying a home studio kit, it will probably include 200 or 400 watt second lamps. Using the flash meter you can find out the aperture. F8 is a decent aperture to use.
If you're using an older set of lights, the voltage may be different to modern electronic devices and can break your DSLR, so it is recommended that you don't connect your camera directly to older lights. Instead you can trigger photoelectric cell triggers on your lights using a pop up flash on top of your camera. So that this doesn't interfere with the lighting of the photo, you will be able to adjust the flash on your camera to be a tiny fraction (say around 2%) of its normal output.
By working with an umbrella instead of a soft box, you can allow some light to escape through the umbrella, reflect off the walls and ceiling of the studio and make a softer overall lighting effect, instead of having virtually all of the light reflect back onto the model or subject we are shooting (the result of using a soft box). The shadows on the person's face will not be as strong when using an umbrella as they would if you use a soft box.
If you turn the light around to shine directly at the subject, with the umbrella between so that the light goes through the umbrella, the room will be a great deal brighter than before. You'll need to reset the exposure before taking the shot. Doing it this way will still create softer lighting than if you just use the soft box, but the lighting will still be harder than letting the light bounce out of the umbrella (with the flash facing away from the person you are shooting).
A common way of setting up your lighting is 'flat light', which will remove textures and shadows by using two or more flashes. Shadows on a person's face will make their wrinkles and imperfections more noticeable. Having one light shining on the subject from one direction and another light from another position will soften the shadows. You might decide to let some of the light shine off the side wall. If you watch out for these small details you will be able to notice some very interesting results.
To set up the exposure with multiple lights, you'll need to do one light at a time to guarantee that the light is even from both light sources. In this situation, you should point the invercone at the light. If one is roughly F8 and the other is about F8.5 it will be good enough, as the difference won't have much of an effect. If your lights are on sliders, then by simply moving them forward or backward by a few centimetres will enable you to make tiny adjustments.
If your aim is to create some soft shadows, you can use a technique known as Key And Fill, where you basically have a light that is the key light (your main light), which will cause shadows to form on the model's face. You can then use the other light to soften those shadows. It is best to start off by setting up the key light before the additional light. This light should be almost in line with the position from where you position your camera. After that, set up the fill light to soften the shadows. You should experiment with the location of the fill light, but it will probably work best when pointing toward the model approximately at 90 degrees to the direction of the main light. If the key light is roughly F16 for example, and your fill light is around F8, this should work quite nicely.
The final thing to check is the average exposure. Turn both lights on, make sure you're not standing in your own light, then measure the exposure at the place where the subject is positioned with the flash meter. You can then set this on your camera.
By making use of a longer lens and standing a bit further back, you can ensure that no unwanted light enters the camera directly from the lights.
By learning how to meter it and spending time setting it up, you know that light will stay constant for a few hours, unlike natural light from a window which is constantly changing with the direction and intensity of the sun.
First of all, it is recommended to use a fairly small sized room with neutral white walls. White walls guarantee that the light remains uncoloured, so that your models don't get coloured by the light (imagine if your walls were shocking pink for example...).
You may decide to use a soft box, an umbrella, or both tools in the room. A soft box is basically a small box that fits to the top of the flash, the small flash tube shoots out light, which is reflected off the insides of the walls of the soft box and then passes through a translucent material that goes over the front of the soft box, refracting the light in all directions.
An umbrella is very similar to a soft box, the only difference being that some of the light from the flash can pass through it, and the rest will reflect off it. You can use it both ways to get different lighting results. When you put the umbrella onto your flash head, you will have something known as a spill kill. This is a round piece of metal which fits around the end of the flash. It is called a spill kill because it stops light from spilling out beyond the umbrella. This prevents light from shining onto the walls and the ceilings, which can completely destroy your photography efforts. The whole aim of a home studio is for you to have control of the light.
Let's have a quick look at the differences between the light coming from the soft box and the light coming from the umbrella. Flash heads have things called modelling lights, which are simply tungsten bulbs that are on all the time. As you adjust the output the light level goes up and down. It enables you to see what the light is going to do at different outputs. As you change the exposure you can see how the shadows change around the person or object you are shooting.
If you are choosing to work with a flash, it will be necessary to use a flash meter. There are trial and error ways of doing it but they are not accurate and it would require a lengthy explanation. Firstly, you have to set the ISO speed on your flash meter to match the ISO speed on your camera. Set your flash sync speed to be fast enough. To do that you would have to find out what the sync speed of your camera is. Don't point the invercone directly towards the flash. It is best if you point it at the position of the camera. If you're buying a home studio kit, it will probably include 200 or 400 watt second lamps. Using the flash meter you can find out the aperture. F8 is a decent aperture to use.
If you're using an older set of lights, the voltage may be different to modern electronic devices and can break your DSLR, so it is recommended that you don't connect your camera directly to older lights. Instead you can trigger photoelectric cell triggers on your lights using a pop up flash on top of your camera. So that this doesn't interfere with the lighting of the photo, you will be able to adjust the flash on your camera to be a tiny fraction (say around 2%) of its normal output.
By working with an umbrella instead of a soft box, you can allow some light to escape through the umbrella, reflect off the walls and ceiling of the studio and make a softer overall lighting effect, instead of having virtually all of the light reflect back onto the model or subject we are shooting (the result of using a soft box). The shadows on the person's face will not be as strong when using an umbrella as they would if you use a soft box.
If you turn the light around to shine directly at the subject, with the umbrella between so that the light goes through the umbrella, the room will be a great deal brighter than before. You'll need to reset the exposure before taking the shot. Doing it this way will still create softer lighting than if you just use the soft box, but the lighting will still be harder than letting the light bounce out of the umbrella (with the flash facing away from the person you are shooting).
A common way of setting up your lighting is 'flat light', which will remove textures and shadows by using two or more flashes. Shadows on a person's face will make their wrinkles and imperfections more noticeable. Having one light shining on the subject from one direction and another light from another position will soften the shadows. You might decide to let some of the light shine off the side wall. If you watch out for these small details you will be able to notice some very interesting results.
To set up the exposure with multiple lights, you'll need to do one light at a time to guarantee that the light is even from both light sources. In this situation, you should point the invercone at the light. If one is roughly F8 and the other is about F8.5 it will be good enough, as the difference won't have much of an effect. If your lights are on sliders, then by simply moving them forward or backward by a few centimetres will enable you to make tiny adjustments.
If your aim is to create some soft shadows, you can use a technique known as Key And Fill, where you basically have a light that is the key light (your main light), which will cause shadows to form on the model's face. You can then use the other light to soften those shadows. It is best to start off by setting up the key light before the additional light. This light should be almost in line with the position from where you position your camera. After that, set up the fill light to soften the shadows. You should experiment with the location of the fill light, but it will probably work best when pointing toward the model approximately at 90 degrees to the direction of the main light. If the key light is roughly F16 for example, and your fill light is around F8, this should work quite nicely.
The final thing to check is the average exposure. Turn both lights on, make sure you're not standing in your own light, then measure the exposure at the place where the subject is positioned with the flash meter. You can then set this on your camera.
By making use of a longer lens and standing a bit further back, you can ensure that no unwanted light enters the camera directly from the lights.
By learning how to meter it and spending time setting it up, you know that light will stay constant for a few hours, unlike natural light from a window which is constantly changing with the direction and intensity of the sun.
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