BASIC portrait lighting

[Lori H]

What do I look for. I am at a loss and even the "language" surrounding lighting scares me!! Want to take portraits of family and friends and have them turn out well. Not looking to spend a fortune. Too much to ask?? Help.

[i speak in math]

lighting 101
lighting 102

[Lori H]

Thanks that will help a lot!!

[Benji]

Originally Posted by Lori H

What do I look for. I am at a loss and even the "language" surrounding lighting scares me!! Want to take portraits of family and friends and have them turn out well. Not looking to spend a fortune. Too much to ask?? Help.

The newest way of doing this is the "strobist" way. This is all the rage right now as evidenced by the above lighting 101 and 102 links extolling the virtues of buying speedlights that were designed to be used on camera but using them off camera. I liken this to using a Dodge Neon in place of a dump truck to haul some crushed stone. The Neon was designed with a trunk to haul stuff in and the stone needs to be hauled therefore the Neon should work. You put crushed stone into the trunk of the Dodge and haul the stone from the quarry to your driveway, but it is going to take numerous trips, the trunk is going to be a mess when you finish, and your hands are going to have lots of blisters from the shovel, but eventually you will get the stone onto your driveway.


The "old way" of doing this is to get studio lights. These were designed to fit onto a light stand without having to buy an adapter like you do with speedlights, and they have a modeling light to tell you what the flash unit is going to do when it fires the flash tube, unlike the speedlights which have no modeling light. This light also works quite well to assist the AF feature in your DSLR and it may help make the eyes of your subjects look better. The a/c powered studio lights also have an optical slave built into them so they fire when another flash fires close by. They also have a PC socket so you can plug a PC cord into your PC equipped camera and fire the flash that way. Speedlights have no such thing but for about $50.00 you can buy everything you need to use and fire your speedlight off camera. I paid about $400.00 for my 580 ex speedlight. I can buy five brand new 180 watt second studio lights for the same amount of money.

Benji

[archersdad]

Why the strobist hate? Have you seen any of the fantastic work being done with these techniques?

[Benji]

Originally Posted by archersdad

Why the strobist hate? Have you seen any of the fantastic work being done with these techniques?

Yes, but these guys have been professional photographers for years and they make it sound and look so easy which it isn't. Speedlights are designed to be attached to the camera's hotshoe not a light stand and require a special adapter to be put onto a stand and then you need an adapter to make them fire off camera, then you need to rig up a light bulb somehow for a modeling light because speedlights have no modeling lights. Speedlights are powered by AA batteries which means you can take them anywhere you want to go, but about 99% of the time I shooting where there are lots and lots of A/C outlets. Speedlights are expensive. A 580 ex is about $400.00 and is about 150 W/S. I can buy a 180 W/S A/C powered unit for about $80.00 brand new. For the times I need D/C power on location I have an A/C-D/C 150 W/S unit that is powered with a Quantum battery which both together cost less than a 580 ex and it has a light stand adapter built into it, and I can use it on A/C in the studio with a modeling light and the battery is rechargeable about 500 times. For those whe are worried about polluting mother earth by putting hundreds of millions of AA batteries into the land fills every year I'm not guilty. I use about 12 per year at weddings in my two 580 ex units.

Benji

[k9mom]

For those whe are worried about polluting mother earth by putting hundreds of millions of AA batteries into the land fills every year I'm not guilty.

Rechargables. Maybe you heard of them?

[Benji]

Originally Posted by k9mom

Rechargables. Maybe you heard of them?

Yes but have you ever used them? They are not 1.5 volts each, they are 1.2 to 1.3 volts which doesn't sound like much of a difference but when you are waiting for them to repower the capacitor it will at first take two or three seconds longer, just what you don't want is additional waiting time for the flash to repower while your client is anxiously sitting there in the hot seat. Then after you use them for several cycles they begin to rapidly discharge and take even longer to repower.

On page 8 of the 580 ex Canon flash manual there is a warning about using "non-alkaline batteries." They claim the contacts are not standardized and therefore may cause a faulty connnection. I've been told several independant flash manufacturers say that using rechargable AA batteries will void their warrenty although I don't know how they would ever know what kind of batteries you used.

Benji

[archersdad]

Actually, quality rechargables such as Eneloops will cycle a flash much faster than alkalines. What is most important isn't the voltage, it is the resistance of the cell which is the prime factor dictating the discharge rate of a cell. The key here is to use high quality rechargables.

[Johndoe234]

You can shoot portraits with just a single flash unit. You need to be willing to accept a lower level of quality though. You just can't get studio-quality portraits with only one light, unless you're going for an artistic approach.