Perhaps you are interested in building your very own home photography studio. Let's see what the best ways are on how to go about this.
First and foremost, you're best going with a fairly small sized room with neutral white walls. White walls ensure that the light remains uncoloured, so that the people you photograph don't appear to be coloured by the light (imagine if your walls were shocking pink for example...).
You may decide to use a soft box, an umbrella, or both tools in the room. A soft box is basically a small box that fits to the top of the flash, the small flash tube shoots out light, which is reflected off the insides of the walls of the soft box and then passes through a translucent material that goes over the front of the soft box, refracting the light in all directions.
An umbrella is very similar to a soft box with the main difference being that some of the light coming from the flash is able to pass through it, and the rest reflects off it. You can use it both ways to get different lighting effects. When you put the umbrella onto the head of the flash, you will have a spill kill. This is a circular piece of metal that fits around the end of the flash. We call it a spill kill because it prevents light from spilling out beyond the umbrella. This stops light from shining onto the walls and the ceilings, which can completely waste your photography efforts. The whole purpose of a home studio is for you to be in control of the light.
Let's look at the differences between the light that comes from the soft box and the light that comes from the umbrella. Flash heads have what we call modelling lights, which are simply tungsten bulbs that are on all the time. As you adjust the output the light level goes up and down. It allows you to see how the light will behave at different outputs. As you adjust the exposure you can see how the shadows change around the model or subject you are shooting.
If you are choosing to work with a flash, it will be necessary to use a flash meter. There are trial and error ways of doing it but they are not accurate and it would require a lengthy explanation. Firstly, you have to set the ISO speed on your flash meter to match the ISO speed on your camera. Set your flash sync speed to be fast enough. To do that you would have to find out what the sync speed of your camera is. Don't point the invercone directly towards the flash. It is best if you point it at the position of the camera. If you're buying a home studio kit, it will probably include 200 or 400 watt second lamps. Using the flash meter you can find out the aperture. F8 is a decent aperture to use.
If you're using an older set of lights, the voltage may be different to modern electronic devices and can break your DSLR, so it is recommended that you don't connect your camera directly to older lights. Instead you can trigger photoelectric cell triggers on your lights using a pop up flash on top of your camera. So that this doesn't interfere with the lighting of the photo, you will be able to adjust the flash on your camera to be a tiny fraction (say around 2%) of its normal output.
By working with an umbrella instead of a soft box, you can allow some light to escape through the umbrella, reflect off the walls and ceiling of the studio and make a softer overall lighting effect, instead of having virtually all of the light reflect back onto the model or subject we are shooting (the result of using a soft box). The shadows on the person's face will not be as strong when using an umbrella as they would if you use a soft box.
If you turn the light around to point directly at the person or group of people, with the umbrella between so that the light shines through the umbrella, the room will be a lot brighter than before. You'll need to readjust your exposure settings before taking the picture. Doing it this way will obviously create softer lighting than if you just use the soft box, but the lighting will still be harder than having the light bouncing out of the umbrella (with the flash facing away from the person you are shooting).
A common way of setting up your lighting is 'flat light', which will remove textures and shadows by using two, three or even four flashes. Shadows on a person's face will make their wrinkles and imperfections stand out more. Having one light shining towards the subject from one location and another light from another location will help to soften up the shadows. You might decide to let some of the light shine off one of the side walls. If you watch out for these small details you will be able to spot some very interesting results.
To set up the exposure with multiple lights, you'll need to do one light at a time to guarantee that the light is even from each light source. In this situation, I recommend that you do point the invercone at the light. If one is around say F8 and the other is about F8.5 it will be good enough, because the difference is so small. If you're lucky enough to have lights that are on sliders, then by simply moving them forward or backward by a few inches will enable you to make tiny changes.
If your aim is to create some soft shadows, you can use a technique known as Key And Fill, where you basically have a light that is the key light (your main light), which will cause shadows to form on the model's face. You can then use the other light to soften those shadows. It is best to start off by setting up the key light before the additional light. This light should be almost in line with the position from where you position your camera. After that, set up the fill light to soften the shadows. You should experiment with the location of the fill light, but it will probably work best when pointing toward the model approximately at 90 degrees to the direction of the main light. If the key light is roughly F16 for example, and your fill light is around F8, this should work quite nicely.
The next thing to check is the overall exposure. Turn both the key light and the fill light on, make sure you aren't standing in your own light, then check the exposure at the point where the subject is positioned using your flash meter. You can then set this on your camera.
If you use a longer lens and standing slightly further back, you can guarantee that no unwanted light enters the camera directly from the lights.
By learning how to meter it and spending time setting it up, you know that light will stay constant for a few hours, unlike natural light from a window which is constantly changing with the direction and intensity of the sun.
First and foremost, you're best going with a fairly small sized room with neutral white walls. White walls ensure that the light remains uncoloured, so that the people you photograph don't appear to be coloured by the light (imagine if your walls were shocking pink for example...).
You may decide to use a soft box, an umbrella, or both tools in the room. A soft box is basically a small box that fits to the top of the flash, the small flash tube shoots out light, which is reflected off the insides of the walls of the soft box and then passes through a translucent material that goes over the front of the soft box, refracting the light in all directions.
An umbrella is very similar to a soft box with the main difference being that some of the light coming from the flash is able to pass through it, and the rest reflects off it. You can use it both ways to get different lighting effects. When you put the umbrella onto the head of the flash, you will have a spill kill. This is a circular piece of metal that fits around the end of the flash. We call it a spill kill because it prevents light from spilling out beyond the umbrella. This stops light from shining onto the walls and the ceilings, which can completely waste your photography efforts. The whole purpose of a home studio is for you to be in control of the light.
Let's look at the differences between the light that comes from the soft box and the light that comes from the umbrella. Flash heads have what we call modelling lights, which are simply tungsten bulbs that are on all the time. As you adjust the output the light level goes up and down. It allows you to see how the light will behave at different outputs. As you adjust the exposure you can see how the shadows change around the model or subject you are shooting.
If you are choosing to work with a flash, it will be necessary to use a flash meter. There are trial and error ways of doing it but they are not accurate and it would require a lengthy explanation. Firstly, you have to set the ISO speed on your flash meter to match the ISO speed on your camera. Set your flash sync speed to be fast enough. To do that you would have to find out what the sync speed of your camera is. Don't point the invercone directly towards the flash. It is best if you point it at the position of the camera. If you're buying a home studio kit, it will probably include 200 or 400 watt second lamps. Using the flash meter you can find out the aperture. F8 is a decent aperture to use.
If you're using an older set of lights, the voltage may be different to modern electronic devices and can break your DSLR, so it is recommended that you don't connect your camera directly to older lights. Instead you can trigger photoelectric cell triggers on your lights using a pop up flash on top of your camera. So that this doesn't interfere with the lighting of the photo, you will be able to adjust the flash on your camera to be a tiny fraction (say around 2%) of its normal output.
By working with an umbrella instead of a soft box, you can allow some light to escape through the umbrella, reflect off the walls and ceiling of the studio and make a softer overall lighting effect, instead of having virtually all of the light reflect back onto the model or subject we are shooting (the result of using a soft box). The shadows on the person's face will not be as strong when using an umbrella as they would if you use a soft box.
If you turn the light around to point directly at the person or group of people, with the umbrella between so that the light shines through the umbrella, the room will be a lot brighter than before. You'll need to readjust your exposure settings before taking the picture. Doing it this way will obviously create softer lighting than if you just use the soft box, but the lighting will still be harder than having the light bouncing out of the umbrella (with the flash facing away from the person you are shooting).
A common way of setting up your lighting is 'flat light', which will remove textures and shadows by using two, three or even four flashes. Shadows on a person's face will make their wrinkles and imperfections stand out more. Having one light shining towards the subject from one location and another light from another location will help to soften up the shadows. You might decide to let some of the light shine off one of the side walls. If you watch out for these small details you will be able to spot some very interesting results.
To set up the exposure with multiple lights, you'll need to do one light at a time to guarantee that the light is even from each light source. In this situation, I recommend that you do point the invercone at the light. If one is around say F8 and the other is about F8.5 it will be good enough, because the difference is so small. If you're lucky enough to have lights that are on sliders, then by simply moving them forward or backward by a few inches will enable you to make tiny changes.
If your aim is to create some soft shadows, you can use a technique known as Key And Fill, where you basically have a light that is the key light (your main light), which will cause shadows to form on the model's face. You can then use the other light to soften those shadows. It is best to start off by setting up the key light before the additional light. This light should be almost in line with the position from where you position your camera. After that, set up the fill light to soften the shadows. You should experiment with the location of the fill light, but it will probably work best when pointing toward the model approximately at 90 degrees to the direction of the main light. If the key light is roughly F16 for example, and your fill light is around F8, this should work quite nicely.
The next thing to check is the overall exposure. Turn both the key light and the fill light on, make sure you aren't standing in your own light, then check the exposure at the point where the subject is positioned using your flash meter. You can then set this on your camera.
If you use a longer lens and standing slightly further back, you can guarantee that no unwanted light enters the camera directly from the lights.
By learning how to meter it and spending time setting it up, you know that light will stay constant for a few hours, unlike natural light from a window which is constantly changing with the direction and intensity of the sun.
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