beginner studio lighting
William Wilson
Is there any way to sort out the different kinds of lighting with a glossary
and definitions?
It looks like I can do the things that I want to do, (still lifes and
experimental projects) with one hot light (or photo flood) and some
reflectors and jobos. Or maybe I should get a Mono Light, I don't know.
The trouble is that I can't tell much about hot lights by reading the
catalogues so I don't know what to buy.
Does anyone have any recommendations.
Thanks
Chuck Hoffman
>
> The trouble is that I can't tell much about hot lights by reading the
> catalogues so I don't know what to buy.
I cannot provide you with a short course on studio lighting but I will
give you some definitions and terminology, and some understanding of
various kinds of light. With that, you can pick up some studio lighting
books at your favorite well-stocked camera store and study on your own.
Photographic lighting generally falls into three categories. They are:
1) Tungsten, 2) color-corrected tungsten and, 3) electronic flash. Each
of these has certain advantages and disadvantages.
Before continuing with that, it is necesary to explain the concept of
"color temperature." The color of the visible light spectrum is
measured on the Kelvin scale with the low readings being close to
infrared and the high readings being near ultraviolet.
Bright sunny daylight measures approximately 5500 degrees on the Kelvin
scale, as do virtually all electronic flash units (a variation of a
couple hundred degrees is not important). Tungsten lights -- including
incandescent (houshold) bulbs, halogen, and uncorrected studio "hot
lights" -- typically fall in the range of 2800-3500 degrees Kelvin.
This is said to be the "warm" end of the scale.
A cloudless day with plenty of bright blue sky and little or no sun can
range up to 10,000 to 20,000 degrees Kelvin. This is the "cool" end of
the scale.
Using daylight balanced film (made for 5500 degrees K), if you take
pictures under tungsten light your images will turn our with a reddish
or orange cast. These are "warm" colors. If you take pictures under a
bright blue sky with little or no sun the images will have a bluish or
purple cast. These are "cool" colors. With daylight film, correct
color balance is achieved by lighting your subject with 5500 K light.
(Some exceptions: early morning and late afternoon sunlight is "warmer"
than 5500 K. That's why sunset pictures look so red.
Another choice is tungsten balanced film which is made for about 3200
K. With this film your images will be correctly color balanced when you
use incandescent bulbs, halogen lights or uncorrected studio lights.
There is a way to use tungsten lights with daylight film and this
involves the use of color-correcting filters over the lens or gels in
front of the lights. The 80A filter will correct 3200K light, the 80B
is for 3400K, if I recall correctly. Similarly, colored gels can be
placed in front of the lights for the same effect without the the use of
a filter over the lens. The caveat here is that you will lose about 2
stops of light with either the filter or the gels. What this means is
if you metered the light output and it read (for example) f8 at 1/125 of
a second, with the gels or filter your reading would be about f4 at
1/125 or f8 at 1/30 of a second...or a loss of about 2 stops.
Color-corrected studio lights are simply tungsten lights with 80A or 80B
blue glass envelopes. Their useful life is not very long and they turn
black over time.
Some advantages of incandescent or halogen lights is that they are on
all the time and you can constantly see the shadow detail and contrast
in your subject. However, they give off a tremendous amount of heat and
can be hazardous. Electronic flash units, on the other hand, give off
very little heat but are only lighted for between 1/1000 and 1/20,000 of
a second. Much more brightness (at the instant the exposure is
recorded) can be achieved with electronic studio flash units.
Some electronic studio flash units have what are called a modeling
lights. They are incandescent bulbs built into the flash units that
shine on the subject. They sorta combines the points I listed above but
not really since they are not very bright.
I know this is kinda long but I hope it helps.
--
Chuck Hoffman
JAMES CAMPBELL
William
If you live anywhere near a large town or city, consider renting tungsten
and flash lights. It is not very expensive. Many professional photo and TV
people do nothing else! I keep an ARRI 500w fresnel and a Redhead in my car
for emergencies but everything else is hired.
If you find a particular lamp is ideal for your photos then it makes sense
to buy it. Only by trying them out will you learn.
Chuck is right about Colour Temperature. I use the basic rule – for flash,
outdoors and discharge lights I use daylight film, for incandescent tungsten
lamps I use Tungsten balanced film.
Feel free to ask any questions
All the best
James
Lighting Director
BBC TV
London
William Wilson <wils...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
<73ps8k$o...@bgtnsc01.worldnet.att.net>...
William Wilson
(western Mass). I need to know about specific types and brands of lights.
D.Grabowski
<wils...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>The lighting section of the B&H Catalogue is very confusing to a beginner.
>Is there any way to sort out the different kinds of lighting with a glossary
>and definitions?
>
>It looks like I can do the things that I want to do, (still lifes and
>experimental projects) with one hot light (or photo flood) and some
>reflectors and jobos. Or maybe I should get a Mono Light, I don't know.
>
>The trouble is that I can't tell much about hot lights by reading the
>catalogues so I don't know what to buy.
>
>Does anyone have any recommendations.
>
>Thanks
>
Consider just simple photofloods for the time being. Buy one 500 wt.
3200 k and one 500 wt. 3400 K and one clip up type reflector-holder to
mount them in. You will be very surprised at what can be done with one
photoflood and a 4x4 piece of foamcore. This will be your least
expensive way to start out with lighting, add to this some flash or
natural daylight and a couple different backdrops and some impressive
work can be done. Select one of the two different color temp. bulbs
and see where it goes , then try the other. Later you can add a second
clip up holder and another bulb to play with ratio lighting.
My wife and I started years ago with photofloods , we now use studio
flash for portraiture but when she feels the need to capture some
floral still lifes we still break out the photofloods. After all in
still life and in most photography , it's not so much the types and
brands of light but how you use it that matters most, though color
temp. is an obvious variable as are light modifiers.
Regards,
David Grabowski