Ask Dr. LiveJournal: photo lighting

[beowabbit]

Hi. If I want to take indoor pictures with my digital camera (photo-shoot style rather than candid-snapshot style, but not professional-grade), and I don't want to be dependent on the flash or on sunlight through windows, what do I need in the way of lighting, and how much should I expect to pay for it?

Comments

[rivermyst.livejournal.com]

Have you just played with the existing portable lighting that you already have in your home? You might find that a little creative moving of lamps gives you a pretty good result when you need it.

[xauenmurph.livejournal.com]

I have used, and my ex the photographer has used, those metal reflector clamp-on lights that sell for about six bucks at hardware stores. Special film he used adjusted for tungsten filament color distortion; digital photographers can take out any amber or green (tungsten or flourescent) overtones in photoshop or some such.

[beowabbit]

Cool; thanks. I was hoping I could get away that cheaply/simply. I wonder if it would help to put broad-spectrum bulbs in them.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I've poked the photographer who took this pic... he'll come tell you shortly, I hope.

[ragingamazon.livejournal.com]

Using lights from a hardware store or household lights will give you an odd colored tint and less control than professional lights. You can probably get away with it if you do custom white balance since you are shooting digital.

I would suggest strobes lights (umbrella lights or soft boxes) as you can easily control your exposure and light ratio and you will not have to worry about tinting (as much). Oh, and you should get them with nifty radio slaves so you don't get tangled in wires; you don't know how nice slaved lights are until you have someone on set trip over a wire.

Places like zeff photo supply (www.zeffphoto.com) will rent equipment by the day and studio space by the hour and are usually good about working with your needs and space/budget constraints.

[beowabbit]

I would suggest strobes lights (umbrella lights or soft boxes) as you can easily control your exposure and light ratio and you will not have to worry about tinting (as much). Oh, and you should get them with nifty radio slaves so you don't get tangled in wires; you don't know how nice slaved lights are until you have someone on set trip over a wire.

Now I know how people feel when I talk about recompiling my kernel to add ext3 support. :-) I have a vague notion of what an umbrella light must be. I don’t know what a soft box is, or what it means to slave lights. I would love definitions.

(By the way, I'm not looking for something that would talk to my camera like a flash; I'm looking for something I would turn on and leave on while I was shooting.)

Thanks for the URL; I'll check them out!

[ragingamazon.livejournal.com]

(By the way, I'm not looking for something that would talk to my camera like a flash; I'm looking for something I would turn on and leave on while I was shooting.)


Oh, then you should look into hotlights...those you just leave on. Check out some rental places and the will be able to show you some options.

[ayse.livejournal.com]

Around here, a lot of photo supply shops will rent out lighting outfits, and will help you choose what you need based on what you want to do. I recommend that above buying your own kit, if you're not planning to use the stuff every weekend or more often. That's what I did for taking some portfolio shots.

I also use hardware-store work lamps, but those always require colour adjustment in Photoshop afterwards to deal with the yellow.

[beowabbit]

Cool, thanks. I think I want to have my own, though, so I can do this sort of thing more spur-of-the-moment. (And I will probably try work lamps, at least to start.)

[ayse.livejournal.com]

Well, the work lights will work; I have a set that fits onto a large rack thing and can be positioned in a limited number of ways. Good photo lighting is very expensive, and the work lamps are a terrible substitute if you're trying to capture skin tone, especially. Every time I take a photo with them I spend hours working on it to get the colour right, whereas when I use rented lights it's right the first time, at least controlling for spending the time setting up the lights properly.

You might want to try out renting lights. It may be that what you want can be accomplished with two or three and it'd be worth buying those to save you a hundred hassles with fixing colours.

Also: if it's remotely meltable, it will melt under any kind of lighting. Which means human models also get overly hot, and might start flushing pink. Hence the preference for lights that flash on when the camera needs them and are off the rest of the time.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

-While I know very little about photography, I would recommend a tripod. That way you can work with less light, and longer exposures, without jiggling the camera.

[beowabbit]

I’ve got a tripod, and I have made quite a bit of use of it under poor lighting conditions, but still I found the colours were a bit washed out and the pictures didn’t look as crisp.

[sunstealer.livejournal.com]

Some simple white cloths draped behind or near the shoot area can reflect and soften light very nicely. I've used a bedsheet before and had decent results.
Almost any light source can be adapted to be useful -collect everything you have sitting around, lamps, flashlights, wahtever, and have your subject pose with them in various places until you find what you like.

B&W or color photos? The problem with tungsten balanced film isn't such a big deal with B&W obviously, no color distortion to worry about.

[maedbh7.livejournal.com]

Next time you see xuth (my housemate, he of the Serious Camera), ask him. He should have some ideas. And he shoudl be at Diesel on Tuesday. -H...