Studio Lighting

[Toe Knee"F"]

Hey all, I just purchased an Interfit EX 150 Home Studio Flash Kit. The kit contains 2 Flash Heads, stands, a Soft Box, a Umbrella, Lamps, and cords. It's a pretty nifty beginer kit and sells for around $380.00. I also picked up a Smith Victor Radio Flash Trigger Kit that includes a transmitter and reciever for $110.00...a hella lot cheaper than the Pocket Wizard, and seems to work just fine.I've never done the "Studio" thing before, but have always wanted to try it. Is there any way you should set these lights up, or is it mostly trial and error? And... I finally get to use my Photovision calibration target!!
Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated...
Also, I noticed on a few experiments, rhat the subject seems a little blurry, any fix for that?

[Ronald S. Jr.]

Without a light meter, studio lighting is indeed trial and error. As I've said before, one has to remember that with studio lighting, there is normally but one key light or main light, and the rest are just accent or fill lights. That is to say, there's only one light to light the subject, and the rest are just to control the shadows created by the key light.

As to the "fuzzy subject", there's a million things that could cause that. What was your camera settings?

[Toe Knee"F"]

Thanks Ron, guess I'll have to pick one of them up(light meter) The Camera settings are as follows:

File Name IMG_6173.JPG
Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Shooting Date/Time 6/1/2007 1:50:59 PM
Shooting Mode Shutter-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/50
Av( Aperture Value ) 4.0
Metering Mode Partial Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 100
Lens 70.0 - 300.0 mm
Focal Length 92.0 mm
Image Size 2816x1880
Image Quality Normal
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Focus AF
Picture Style Portrait
Sharpness 3
Contrast 0
Saturation -1
Color tone 1
Color Space sRGB
Noise Reduction Off
File Size 509 KB
Custom Function C.Fn:01-0
C.Fn:02-0
C.Fn:03-0
C.Fn:04-0
C.Fn:05-0
C.Fn:06-0
C.Fn:07-0
C.Fn:08-0
C.Fn:09-0
C.Fn:10-0
C.Fn:11-0

[Ronald S. Jr.]

Just a side note- I never liked that portrait picture style. Seems to make people too pink. Now..unless I'm shooting RAW, I like to turn the WB to "Flash" when I'm shooting with strobes. Warms it up a bit.

[Cannibalized]

I always wonder why people shoot in shutter priority when shooting non moving models. it just doesn't make sense to me. if you were hand holding 1/50th is kind of slow, for me anyhow. I'm like the norm where I don't hand hold below 1/60th. Why not try manual or aperature priority with some compensation. and move your lights around more to experiment.

Thanks Ron, guess I'll have to pick one of them up(light meter) The Camera settings are as follows:

File Name IMG_6173.JPG
Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Shooting Date/Time 6/1/2007 1:50:59 PM
Shooting Mode Shutter-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/50
Av( Aperture Value ) 4.0
Metering Mode Partial Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 100
Lens 70.0 - 300.0 mm
Focal Length 92.0 mm
Image Size 2816x1880
Image Quality Normal
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Focus AF
Picture Style Portrait
Sharpness 3
Contrast 0
Saturation -1
Color tone 1
Color Space sRGB
Noise Reduction Off
File Size 509 KB
Custom Function C.Fn:01-0
C.Fn:02-0
C.Fn:03-0
C.Fn:04-0
C.Fn:05-0
C.Fn:06-0
C.Fn:07-0
C.Fn:08-0
C.Fn:09-0
C.Fn:10-0
C.Fn:11-0

[savona]

Tony, Studio lighting is tricky (Did you ever notice I love shooting outdoors?). It takes a while to get the hang of it (like years for me). Dont get yourself down over it, I am sure you will get the hang of it VERY quickly. What I would suggest is ask some defined, not so broad questions. As people answer them you will peice it together.

Good luck and dont forget to keep us updated with some shots!

[demarco3670]

Lighting is fairly easy.....when you get your set of lights there is usually a guide to walk you through the process...i found that the more i worked with it the easier it became...check out some of my recently uploaded pics...some of thelights where used behind the drops and some were used to the left and right...with the pic you posted i would have put the light all the way down and pointing it to the part of her face that is exposed....but not full force...you have to play with it...you don't want her face to bright....do a few test shots and go from there


you can also find some great lighting guides off the net or in book stores

[Adaptive]

Just a side note- I never liked that portrait picture style. Seems to make people too pink. Now..unless I'm shooting RAW, I like to turn the WB to "Flash" when I'm shooting with strobes. Warms it up a bit.

Shooting in studio I typically use one of the following WB settings.

In order from most used to least used:
- Custom WB
- Kelvin
- Flash
- Auso

- Custom: Learn to use your gray card. Your camera will figure out everything according to the gray card and make the color temperature the most accurate as possible. It really works amazing, if you've never tried it you will be amazed at your results.

- Kelvin: Can adjust from 2500 to 5500 I don't remember off the top of my head how high and low you can go. But the lower the number the more bluer the picture is.... The higher the number the more yellow the picture is. This involves more trial and error to get it right but it works well if you're using blue or yellow or different colored backdrops because the background sometimes fools the camera into dumping more of either color into the shot, so shooting kelvin is like a manual override.

- Flash: This is kinda like auto white balance for using strobes or flash. Again if you're shooting with different background colors your colors will be off so you will have to switch to kelvin to correct for that. If you don't switch, prepare to do a lot of work in photoshop or lightroom to correct your color... Also flash doesn't always work that well outside, sometimes makes images too bluish.

- Auto: Basic and simple, kinda like point and shoot. It works fairly well but shooting outside can get a little hairy sometimes depending on conditions. Shooting on color backgrounds is kinda not a good idea because your colors will be off even though you may not notice. Shooting on black or white background you should be fine though as long as your subject isn't wearing some crazy color garmets, even then the garmets might be dull or not as vibrant as they should be. If you're beginner stick to Auto just to learn the ropes and play around, take it all slow and keep practicing there are a lot of things to learn with studio shooting.

[Adaptive]

I always wonder why people shoot in shutter priority when shooting non moving models. it just doesn't make sense to me. if you were hand holding 1/50th is kind of slow, for me anyhow. I'm like the norm where I don't hand hold below 1/60th. Why not try manual or aperature priority with some compensation. and move your lights around more to experiment.

Yes, always shoot in Manual in the studio. (I do anyways)

But being that he's just starting out he just doesn't know and it's alright.
Manual might be intimidating so like cannibalized suggested try aperture priority, AV mode.
If you are using hot lights it shouldn't be a problem, but if you are using strobes I don't know if this would work.

I read something about Smith Victor...
Wow haven't heard that name since like 1997!!
Didn't know they were even still in business!

[LuisV]

A bit late but I figured I would answer some of the questions.....

I will answer the most obvious issue first. You're right and the image is very soft. The reason for it is the shutter speed. You are way to slow to capture the shot. When shooting with off camera flash (ie. flashes that are not hot shoe or manufacturer TTL based) you must shoot in manual mode. In shutter priority, your camera is currently metering on the modeling and/or ambient light and making it's aperutre descision. Since the lens is likely limited at f/4 that's the best you can get.

When shooting with strobes you need to be in manual mode. The shutter speed when shooting with strobes (assuming the strobes are your only light source) should be at you camera's maximum x-synch speed. With you camera, I believe, it will be 1/200s. The next comment is where everyone that has not worked with strobes tends to give me funny faces. When shooting with strobes, the shutter speed is irrelevant to exposure. In other words, a f/4 these strobes will expose the image the same if you shot at 1/60s or 1/200s. The reason is that the strobes fire significantly faster than the 1/200s. Typically it's an order of magnitude faster. So why not shoot at 1/1000s? Well this is limited by another physical issue. Your camera's x-synch speed. That speed is the fastest shutter speed where the entire sensor (or file frame) is exposed to light by the shutter curtains. Any speed above that and the shutter curtains move across the sensor as a slit. I won't go into a lot there. It suffices to say, shoot at 1/200 and stay there. There are a few exceptions to this, but it's beyond the basics right now. What determines exposure in strobe shots is your aperture. The shutter speed, for the most part, will freeze your model and allow you to shoot handheld (usually).

So.... how do you figure your aperture without a meter. You get a grey card. Simply place the grey card in your lighting and shoot a photo with the card. Fill the frame with the grey card. Look at the histogram and see where the spike is. It should be in the middle or off to the right a bit. If you make the investment in a meter (I HIGHLY suggest that) then it's simple.... Again, remember, you are looking for the aperture.

About aperture. Here is the deal. For most lenses, you want to be at f/8 to f/11 to get the sharpest images out of a typical lenses. High end lenses shoot sharp in a wider range of apertures. So you want to set your lights power to get the aperture at that level. Of course, you have artistic choices here. If you shoot at f/4 you will blur the background a bit. Smaller apertures like f/16 will get more depth of field. It's up to you. I shoot much of my work at f/5.6 to f/11 in the studio.

As for WB. Here it is a matter of whether you are shooting JPG or RAW. With JPG you have encoded the color balance in the file. You want to set the camera where you want the shot. Warmer, cooloer, ect. If you are shooting RAW, I suggest you shoot a reference and then set the WB of the camera (Kelvin mode) to match your lights. This will give you a neutral starting point based on your lights and you can adjust the WB later in post. A word about color temperature and strobes. Cheap strobes will get you less consistent color than high end strobes. In other words, at different power levels, less expensive strobes tend to shift color a bit. They also may not fire at the same color each time event if the power level is not changed. While most don't care or notice, it can be a problem if accurate color is needed.

Skin Tones. OK related to the comments above, with portraits, you tend to err onthe side of being warm. So if you have to set WB, tend to lean towards a slightly warmer tone. Skin tones tend to render best that way.

I hope this helps..... if you have any questions.... hit me up. I'll be happy to help.