Mishka's Studio - Selection and Usage of Lighting Gear

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“A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange 

Last month I wrote about tripod selection, and this month it's about selection and placement of light sources

Since we only have daylight for half the day, and assuming you get home and want to photograph your lady, you will need artificial light to compliment or replace sunlight.

What does it take to get those vivid well lit photographs?  Have you had your camera for a while, and wonder how to get better lit shots?

It's about sun light and artificial light that gives us those moody shots or vivid portraits. Learning to control the light and not have it control you is a key to getting great shots! 

Let's look at a good lighting set up shown below

Now you can see the key and fill light in front of the subject. This is where you can use 2 large diffusers and aim it onto the subject.

A backlight is sometimes used, but I use this ontop of the subject so it illuminates the backdrop well. By cleverly placing key and fill lights,

you will achieve very dramatic shadows and lighting effects. When I take my pictures I will do many test shots first then decide on light placement based on this.

I look for soft shadows, and try to light up the doll face which can and often is occluded by hair. Move the light and see what you get.

Also get those stray face hairs away! - also did you comb her hair? - if hairs are everywhere - use what ladies use - hairspray or just water in misting bottle!

This takes me about 5 minutes nowdays since I have a decent workflow and know what to look for. Years back, it was more of error after error that gave bad pictures,

and not enough lighting causing blurry pics.

 

Below is an example of a simple set up I use. The umbrella diffuser is not critical, but I do vary this with an incandescent bulb to get some wamer color on the subject.

Also, you can use gel light which can be colored and shine a nice set of colors on the backdrop. Be creative. Many times I use the sun as natural light and I really find that it gives me the best shots.

So I film mostly during the day now. A few lights added accent where the sun don't shine. Besides the sun, I will use between 1 and 3 extra lights depending on sunlight.

ALL my shots are metered. I first take an exposure, then decide on what aperture and exposure time gives me the best look, then place the camera on manual remote fire,

and also manual focus. I take most shots at F8-F32 and exposures around 0.5sec - 8 seconds. The camera sits on a tripod and there's a 6 sec delay to reduce camera shake.

Some pics I'll use F1.8 and 200mm to get those great Bokeh frames shots I like, but those are very artistic and less portrait oriented.

Click on image above for full gallery

You can also photo during the day and use a simplified light setup just to assist in reducing hard shadows. Remember examine the scene well to fix problems before commiting a 2 hour photo shoot.

So where to buy this stuff?

Here's a kit you can buy from Amazon. Just search and you'll see many kits like this for ~$100. Adarama also sells these, so just get something within your bedget and with good reviews.

I won't go into color kelvin of lights, as that is a preferential taste, so just have fun.

Anyway, hope this helps. This month I'm showing a few pics I took several weeks to a few months ago using some of these ideas.

Click photo for gallery and full-size images.

Till next time

Mishka

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Comments

Great information ... wish your blog was around 2 years ago ... keep'em coming yes

Hi Mishka, thank you, I have thought about buying some kind of lighting kit like this but I hesitated. Not anymore. Chris