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

[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.