I know NOTHING about lighting...where to start?

[ZahraH]

Hello!


I'm not sure if this has been asked before ( I checked but couldn't find anything :/) but as the title says I'm a complete newb to lighting. I've been shooting (Canon XS) for about a year now and have graduated to using manual mode almost 90% of the time. I've also learned a bit about white balancing and how to work with low light. I do mostly food photography and I use natural light. But now I'm sick of being limited to only working during good lighting situations and would love to be able to work at night or in dark indoor situations.

I've been looking for articles but I cant find anything that gives step by step clear instructions, and since photography is basically "how you capture light" I figure it would be a good thing to learn.

So...where should I start? what should I do? any good articles?

thanks!

[OceanHorizons]

Hi! I'm a newbie, too. In the first sticky thread in this section Welcome to LIGHTING, if you scroll down to the post by "Mr Guy" there are some good links - I've been reading through the Strobist (speedlites off camera) and the Planet Neil (bouncing flash, to over simplify) and it's really interesting. Do you have any speedlites?

Edit: In the tutorials section, there's a series of posts from a member who used the Strobist techniques to light people - My Wife Taught Me to Shoot People -- Part 1

[archersdad]

strobist.com is a good place to start. One the right side, scroll down until you see the Lighting 101 and 102 links and start reading.