Perhaps you are interested in eventually building your very own home photography studio. Let's look at some useful tips 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 have a soft box, an umbrella, or both in the room. A soft box is a small box that connects on top of the flash, the small flash tube fires its light out, which is reflected from the insides of the walls of the soft box before passing through a translucent material that goes over the front of the soft box, shattering the light in all directions.
An umbrella is very similar to a soft box with the main difference being that some of the light coming from the flash is able to pass through it, and the rest reflects off it. You can use it both ways to get different lighting effects. When you put the umbrella onto the head of the flash, you will have a spill kill. This is a circular piece of metal that fits around the end of the flash. We call it a spill kill because it prevents light from spilling out beyond the umbrella. This stops light from shining onto the walls and the ceilings, which can completely waste your photography efforts. The whole purpose of a home studio is for you to be in 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 what we call modelling lights, which are simply tungsten bulbs that are always on. By adjusting the output you can make the light level go up and down. It enables you to see what the light is going to do at different outputs. As you adjust the exposure you can see how the shadows change around the model or object you are shooting.
If you are using a flash, it will be necessary to use a flash meter. There are trial and error ways of doing it but they are not precise and it takes a long time to explain. Firstly, you start by adjusting 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 have to know what the sync speed of your camera is. Don't point the invercone directly towards the flash. It is best if you point it towards the position of the camera. If you've decided to buy a home studio kit, it will probably include 200 or 400 watt second lamps. Using the flash meter you can measure the aperture. F8 is usually a good aperture to use.
If you're working with some older lights, the voltage may be different to newer electronic devices and can break your camera, so it is recommended that you don't connect your camera directly to older lights. Instead you can trigger photoelectric cell triggers on them using your pop up flash on your camera. So that this doesn't interfere with the lighting of the photo, you can set the flash on your camera to be a very small fraction (around just 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 towards the subject, with the umbrella between so that the light penetrates through the umbrella, the room will be a lot brighter than before. You'll need to readjust your exposure settings before taking the picture. Doing it this way will obviously create softer lighting than with the soft box, but the lighting will still be harder than having the light bouncing out of the umbrella (with the flash facing away from the subject).
A very popular method 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 apparent. Having one light shining towards the subject from one location and another light from another location will help to soften up the shadows. You might decide to let some of the light shine off one of the side walls. If you watch out for these small details you will be able to notice some really 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 each light source. In this situation, I recommend that you do point the invercone at the light. If one is around say F8 and the other is about F8.5 it will be good enough, because the difference is so small. If you're lucky enough to have lights that are on sliders, then by simply moving them forward or backward by a few inches will enable you to make tiny changes.
If you are planning to create subtle shadows, you can use a set up known as Key And Fill, where you basically have one light that is the key light (main light), which will create some shadows on the subject's face. You can then use the additional light to soften those shadows. You should start by setting up the key light before the additional light. This light should be almost in line with the point from where you position your camera. Next, set up the fill light to soften up those shadows. You should play around with the position of the fill light, but it will most likely be pointing toward the model roughly at a right angle to the direction of the camera. If the key light is roughly F16 for example, and your fill light is around F8, this should be good.
The next thing to check is the overall exposure. Shine both lights together, ensure you aren't standing in front of the key light, then measure the exposure at the place where the subject is positioned using your 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 taking the time to set it up, you know that light will remain constant at least a few hours, unlike natural light from a window which is constantly changing with the direction 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 have a soft box, an umbrella, or both in the room. A soft box is a small box that connects on top of the flash, the small flash tube fires its light out, which is reflected from the insides of the walls of the soft box before passing through a translucent material that goes over the front of the soft box, shattering the light in all directions.
An umbrella is very similar to a soft box with the main difference being that some of the light coming from the flash is able to pass through it, and the rest reflects off it. You can use it both ways to get different lighting effects. When you put the umbrella onto the head of the flash, you will have a spill kill. This is a circular piece of metal that fits around the end of the flash. We call it a spill kill because it prevents light from spilling out beyond the umbrella. This stops light from shining onto the walls and the ceilings, which can completely waste your photography efforts. The whole purpose of a home studio is for you to be in 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 what we call modelling lights, which are simply tungsten bulbs that are always on. By adjusting the output you can make the light level go up and down. It enables you to see what the light is going to do at different outputs. As you adjust the exposure you can see how the shadows change around the model or object you are shooting.
If you are using a flash, it will be necessary to use a flash meter. There are trial and error ways of doing it but they are not precise and it takes a long time to explain. Firstly, you start by adjusting 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 have to know what the sync speed of your camera is. Don't point the invercone directly towards the flash. It is best if you point it towards the position of the camera. If you've decided to buy a home studio kit, it will probably include 200 or 400 watt second lamps. Using the flash meter you can measure the aperture. F8 is usually a good aperture to use.
If you're working with some older lights, the voltage may be different to newer electronic devices and can break your camera, so it is recommended that you don't connect your camera directly to older lights. Instead you can trigger photoelectric cell triggers on them using your pop up flash on your camera. So that this doesn't interfere with the lighting of the photo, you can set the flash on your camera to be a very small fraction (around just 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 towards the subject, with the umbrella between so that the light penetrates through the umbrella, the room will be a lot brighter than before. You'll need to readjust your exposure settings before taking the picture. Doing it this way will obviously create softer lighting than with the soft box, but the lighting will still be harder than having the light bouncing out of the umbrella (with the flash facing away from the subject).
A very popular method 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 apparent. Having one light shining towards the subject from one location and another light from another location will help to soften up the shadows. You might decide to let some of the light shine off one of the side walls. If you watch out for these small details you will be able to notice some really 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 each light source. In this situation, I recommend that you do point the invercone at the light. If one is around say F8 and the other is about F8.5 it will be good enough, because the difference is so small. If you're lucky enough to have lights that are on sliders, then by simply moving them forward or backward by a few inches will enable you to make tiny changes.
If you are planning to create subtle shadows, you can use a set up known as Key And Fill, where you basically have one light that is the key light (main light), which will create some shadows on the subject's face. You can then use the additional light to soften those shadows. You should start by setting up the key light before the additional light. This light should be almost in line with the point from where you position your camera. Next, set up the fill light to soften up those shadows. You should play around with the position of the fill light, but it will most likely be pointing toward the model roughly at a right angle to the direction of the camera. If the key light is roughly F16 for example, and your fill light is around F8, this should be good.
The next thing to check is the overall exposure. Shine both lights together, ensure you aren't standing in front of the key light, then measure the exposure at the place where the subject is positioned using your 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 taking the time to set it up, you know that light will remain constant at least a few hours, unlike natural light from a window which is constantly changing with the direction of the sun.
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