Introduction to Lighting

Introduction to Lighting
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Introductions – who are we?
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Qualities of light
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Light sources
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Controlling your camera/flash
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Lighting equipment
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Shooting examples/hands-on
Questions to consider
1) You're outside on a cloudy day with nice,
dramatic skies. You want to keep those skies
nicely exposed, but you're not a landscape
photographer, so you want a person in the shot,
and you want that person nicely exposed as
well. What are your options?
Questions to consider
2a) You're shooting a portrait with a 3' umbrella,
and it's about 4 feet away from your subject.
You'd like the light to be a little bit softer, more
diffuse, with gentler highlight/shadow
transitions. What can you do?
2b) Same situation as above, and you find that the
umbrella is throwing too much light on your
background. What are some ways you could fix
that?
Questions to consider
3) You're shooting outdoors with off-camera
flash, your aperture is f/8, your shutter speed is
1/250, ISO 200. You find that your subject is
well lit with light from the flash, but the rest of
the scene, which is lit by ambient light and not
by the flash, is a bit dark. In order to adjust the
ambient light exposure without adjusting the
flash exposure, what do you do?
Qualities of Light
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Intensity
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Direction
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Quality (Hard/Soft)
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Color temperature (White Balance)
On-Camera, Pop-up Flash
On Camera Speedlight
On-Camera Speedlight bounced off wall camera right
On-camera speedlight bounced off ceiling with pop-up fill card
Light From Above
Light from Below (horror lighting)
Light from 45 Degree Angle
Light from 45 Degree Angle with 40” Umbrella , about 3' away
Light from 45 Degree Angle with 40” Umbrella , about 3' away
with white fill card just out of frame camera right
What determines quality of light?
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Size of source (relative to subject)
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Distance betw. source and subject
–
Affects intensity and quality (hardness and falloff)
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Intensity of source
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Shape/quality of source
Some of these interact with each other
(ie: size/distance)
White Balance
“As Shot” - 6350K
“Flash” - 5500K
“Auto” - 4200K
Tungsten - 2850K
How to deal with White Balance
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Adjust camera
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Auto WB
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Presets
–
Custom WB
Adjust light source
–
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Daylight/tungsten, etc
Matching Color Temperatures
White Balance - Mixed
Tungsten video light on front of couple,
flash behind couple.
Camera WB set on Tungsten, so flash
appears cooler (bluer).
Light Sources
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Natural vs. Artificial light
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“Available” light
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Strobe vs. continuous
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On-camera vs. off-camera
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Speedlight vs. studio strobe
Camera Settings
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What determines exposure?
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“Holy trinity” - shutter speed, aperture, ISO
–
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Exposure Calculator
Which of these affects a flash exposure?
–
shutter speed, aperture, ISO
Why doesn't shutter speed affect
flash exposure? (with one exception)
●
●
If the only light in the exposure is coming from
your flash, the shutter speed doesn't matter.
Shutter speed is SLOW compared to flash speed
Shutter
(1 sec to 1/200 sec – doesn't matter)
Shutter open
Shutter closes
Flash (1/2000 sec)
Flash Fires
1/15 sec, f2.8, ISO 800
1/30 sec, f2.8, ISO 800
1/60 sec, f2.8, ISO 800
1/125 sec, f2.8, ISO 800
1/200 sec, f2.8, ISO 800
1/250 sec, f2.8, ISO 800
1/400 sec, f2.8, ISO 800
Shutter Speed and Flash –
Sync Speed - the exception
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●
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Shutter speed doesn't affect flash exposure
UNLESS you exceed the sync speed of your
camera
Sync speed changes for different camera models
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Most SLRs: 1/250 sec
–
Canon 5D, 5D MarkII – 1/200 sec
–
Nikon D70 – 1/500
High Speed/Focal Plane Sync
Exercise
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Flash set on ETTL (automatic)
Find a spot in the studio with a well lit
background.
Take a photo of a person against that
background, the person should be lit by your
flash, the background should not.
Adjust your shutter speed and see how it
changes the look of the photo (background
exposure)
Ambient/Flash balance
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Variables that affect a flash exposure
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Light intensity, aperture, ISO
–
Sync speed
Variables that affect ambient exposure
–
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Light intensity, aperture, ISO, shutter speed
How to manipulate these values to get the
“correct” exposure
1/200 sec, f4, ISO 100
1/200 sec, f11, ISO 100
1/200 sec, f11, ISO 100
Controlling your Flash
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ETTL
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Pros: quick, easy, adaptable
–
Cons: can be inaccurate,
affected by subject (ex: face surrounded by black)
Manual
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Pros: consistent, predictable
–
Cons: affected by changing distance, can be harder
to setup
Options are constrained by equipment (how you are
firing your flash)
Exercise
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Same background/location as before
WITHOUT FLASH - Establish a “baseline”
exposure for the background (make sure your
shutter speed doesn't exceed your sync speed)
Bring in your flash (on manual) and adjust the
flash power to nicely light the subject
What do you do if you can't adjust the flash
power low/high enough?
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(stop down to a smaller aperture, and adjust your shutter speed accordingly)
Relationship betw. f/stop and flash power
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1 stop of light equals double (or half) power
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Example:
–
All things being equal, light which produces a
proper exposure at f/4.0 is HALF as bright as f/5.6.
1
2
4
8
16
32
64
128
256
f1.4
f2
f2.8
f4
f5.6
f8
f11
f16
f22
How to take better pictures?
GET YOUR FLASH OFF YOUR CAMERA!!
Lighting Equipment
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Speedlight
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Strobe
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Video light or other continuous source
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DIY options (flashlight, etc)
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Modifiers
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Stands and other mounting devices
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Control devices (wired, wireless)
Speedlights/Strobes
t
Vivitar 285HV ~ $90
Canon 580 EXII ~ $400
Nikon SB-900 ~ $400
Alien Bee 800 ~ $279
Profoto AcuteB ~ $2400
Profoto 8a ~ $11,000
Light Modifiers
Umbrella
(reflective/shoot-through)
Reflectors
Softbox
Gels
Grids
Snoot
Triggers
Sync Cord - $15
Optical Slave - $30
Poverty Wizard - $60
Pocket Wizard - $180 ea.
RadioPopper
Need at least 2
$250 ea (need at least 2)
How does distance affect light intensity?
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Inverse Square Law (uh-oh, MATH!!)
–
“An inverse-square law is any physical law stating that some physical
quantity or strength is inversely proportional to the square of the
distance from the source of that physical quantity.” - Wikipedia
What the ISL means to you
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Light “falls off” quicker when you're closer to
the light source
Example:
–
Subject 1 foot away from light, move ONE foot
further, light is ¼ the power
–
Subject 10 feet away from the light, move TEN feet
further, light is ¼ power. If you only move ONE
foot further, the intensity is almost unchanged.
Practical applications (ex: dance floor)
Questions to consider
1) You're outside on a cloudy day with nice,
dramatic skies. You want to keep those skies
nicely exposed, but you're not a landscape
photographer, so you want a person in the shot,
and you want that person nicely exposed as
well. What are your options?
Questions to consider
2a) You're shooting a portrait with a 3' umbrella,
and it's about 4 feet away from your subject.
You'd like the light to be a little bit softer, more
diffuse, with gentler highlight/shadow
transitions. What can you do?
2b) Same situation as above, and you find that the
umbrella is throwing too much light on your
background. What are some ways you could fix
that?
Questions to consider
3) You're shooting outdoors with off-camera
flash, your aperture is f/8, your shutter speed is
1/250, ISO 200. You find that your subject is
well lit with light from the flash, but the rest of
the scene, which is lit by ambient light and not
by the flash, is a bit dark. In order to adjust the
ambient light exposure without adjusting the
flash exposure, what do you do?
Resources
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Click Monkeys –
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“review” session early April – chance to practice techniques from today
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next workshop, early May – portrait/studio lighting
Instructional/Inspirational Websites
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Strobist– the BEST!
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Lighting Essentials
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Chase Jarvis
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Planet Neil
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DG 28
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Light: Science and Magic (book)
Photographers
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Tim Tadder
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Bill Simone
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Gregory Heisler
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Gregory Crewdson
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Jill Greenberg
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Brooks Reynolds
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