Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. A home-studio setup with speedlites With the article on lighting a white seamless studio backdrop in the studio, the question came up how you would do that in a home-based studio where there is less space.
I liked the result. It worked very well with the white backdrop. However, the skin tones and colors looked fantastic in the color images. You can see two examples further down in this article. I used a white paper backdrop here to show how I would make sure it is white with no detail. You could as easily use a color backdrop, or a grey one. As I explained in that previous tutorial, I like to start with the white background, getting my exposure for that, and building up from there.
You could as easily and sensibly start by lighting your subject first. There is no specific single way of doing this. What matters are the results. So adapt from this what you need. I use Manfrotto. Ultimately, any reflector or white board would work. It might not even be necessary in a smaller space where the walls are white. As always. Great hands-on advice. Thanks, Mike. Very good discussion about using histograms, umbrellas e little space! Good job!
I have no MagSphere, so I decided to use the background speedlite with no modifier, with the bare speedlite head set in a vertical position in order to better fit the figure and eventually provide a smoother light fall off 4. Great explanation thanks, Neil. A couple of questions: 1. Any particular reason for the umbrella vs say a softbox? Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. It has extra features I don't need. See Do I need a handheld light meter?
A histogram is NOT a light meter, but with only one light, we can use the camera LCD image result and the histogram instead of a flash meter. For three or more lights, I think we must have a flash meter, which is also how we set each light's power relative to the others.
You will certainly enjoy having a flash meter It allows easy and repeatable setups, next day too. The Alienbees are inexpensive lights, but very good ones, good enough to perform excellently for many years. They have wonderful support and service too, and the most bang for the buck, and are by far the most popular lights used in the USA they operate on volt AC. I have four, two B and two B, and my opinion is these are great, and about as low cost as you want to go, since we never want to worry about our lights, regarding reliability and consistency.
Mounting: The studio lights only need a regular light stand and an umbrella. A softbox will need a heavy stable stand with wide footprint. The speedlights also need an umbrella bracket and a flash shoe. See here about some kits. Special uses - Speed Speedlights are called speedlights for a reason. When up close at lowest power levels, speedlights are much faster than studio lights.
This is why the name speedlight. See more details. Poking a water balloon - Speedlights can stop fast motion, sound triggered here by the audio "pop", before the water collapsed. You throw the two lights out there somewhere more care and planing is a good thing pictorially, but the system doesn't care what you do. Be sure to rotate the remote flash bodies so that the side sensor is aimed at the commander on camera.
See More here. Then the commander will individually preflash and meter each remote flash, and set their individual power levels so that they each meter the same intensity at the subject, regardless of their distances or bounce or modifiers. This includes the internal flash if it is set to contribute in TTL mode. This takes a small fraction of a second, combined into the shutter button, but before the shutter opens.
You can also set your lighting ratio in the commander menu, and the system will do that too. This is an Awesome capability. But it is also automated, and not extremely versatile.
Certainly very convenient, but automation is never complete control, sometimes there are surprises. Multiple flash metering procedure for studio portraits Using manual lights studio lights, or manual speedlights , you manually meter and adjust each light yourself, to set its power level to meter what you want.
This takes a few minutes, each light individually, but then you KNOW exactly what each light is doing. Manual mode is very popular for fixed studio situations both camera and flashes , because it offers total control vs.
But multiple lights will need a handheld flash meter to meter and set the power level of each individual multiple light. Manual lights means that YOU do it. Beginners seem to fear manual mode, but you are not on your own, you have the flash meter to measure everything. You know much more about what is happening than with any automated system. Some people pretend the camera histogram can be used as a light meter. But not with multiple lights, they certainly are on their own then, because we need to have a clue what each light is doing.
The flash meter lets us control each light, each does precisely what we tell it to do. Manual lights will not automatically re-meter and change at every frame during the shoot, which is a strong plus in the studio, and a strong negative for moving action shots. See More setup detail here To do that manual setup: You meter at the subject, with handheld incident flash meter, with only one light turned on at a time.
An incident meter sees and measures the light itself, and is pointed away from the subject, so it does not matter if the subject is wearing a white dress or a black dress — it measures the light instead, and it will come out right.
The Sekonic L meter is incredibly popular and well liked but not in production now. The Sekonic L is a bit less expensive and works great and is simple to operate. Trivial to do in our heads then, very precisely. We never care about this actual numeric value, but the camera will tell us then anyway. Then you know your lights actually meter what you want, because you directly set each one accurately.
The easy way is to use a temporary PC sync cord between flash meter and the light moved from light to light , so that the flash meter button can trigger the light to be metered the flash meter has the same PC connector as is on the camera, to do this.
From the subject, you point the meter at that light and meter it, and set the light's power level so that it does meter what you want it to be. Learn to be consistent in the way you hold the meter at the subject so the distances are representative. In the speedlight TTL Commander system above, you simply specify -1EV for the fill light in the commander menu, but in the manual system, we have to make it happen.
Some writers call this one stop difference a power ratio, and others technically call it a lighting ratio see Chuck Gardners page. So when you read about " ratio" some place, you have no clue which they meant unless they tell you which many text sources do offer explanations. Men's ratios might be stronger, and women and children often use less ratio, more equal lights. A one stop difference is a good ballpark all-purpose ratio. Anyway, you set the lights to the ratio you want.
A black background should avoid having any light on it. This level is speaking of an incident meter aimed at the light from the background not at the subject this time.
You meter the light at the object you are illuminating. The hair light is metered at the hair aimed at the light , and hair varies, so it may be one stop less power than the main for very light hair, or one stop more than the main for very dark hair. This hair part is trial and error until you get a feel for hair color. Then last thing, you turn on main and fill together, hold the meter under the subjects chin, and point the meter at the camera , and meter both for the lens aperture setting.
The background and hair lights will not affect subject exposure, but leave them off or shield the meter with your body if possible, while metering this. Then set that metered aperture value on the camera. You may want the modeling lights left on to keep subjects pupils smaller.
Turn on all lights and move the sync cord from the flash meter to the camera, and have at it. You probably say WOW then but check your first shots, esp the hair light, You can still make corrections. This setup does take a few minutes, but you have absolute total complete control of every detail, and manual lights are very popular in fixed studio situations for that reason.
Note that you can trivially duplicate this same setup next time, simply by metering the lights the same way. Some are also threaded, fits both Nikon or Canon, and you can use either threaded cables or regular PC cables. To use PC sync cables on speedlights without the connector, there are foot mounted adapters to add a PC sync connector. Also hot shoe adapters for cameras without PC sync. These are different adapters, one fits the flash foot, and one fits the camera shoe.
Other speedlights: A mixed bag, there are a few different connector possibilities, not all are PC Triggering This is the biggie, most complicated, most restrictive, and least understood. Speedlights or studio lights can use any triggering method. For manual operation, we can use a sync cord, or optical slave triggers, or radio triggers. Studio lights always include optical slave triggers, so we might use a sync cord or a radio trigger from camera to one light, and it will trigger the others optically.
A sync cord is no issue when the camera is on a tripod, but if walking around with the camera, the trailing wire is not good. You can add an inexpensive hot shoe adapter to provide a PC sync connector on cameras without one the Nikon AS Sync Terminal Adapter is a particularly good one, which can be clamped down so it won't shift position.
Optical triggers work perfectly indoors in studio situation already included in many flashes, and is all that you need indoors , but work less well outdoors in sun, or in room with other photographers firing their flashes, triggering yours. PC sync cords and optical slave triggers and non-optical radio trigger models require manual flash operation. Radio triggers will allow greater distances than optical, and can work well around or through obstacles, and offers more reliable operation in bright sunlight situations.
But which is generally an unnecessary expense in the studio opinion. Radio triggers require manual flash operation new exceptions are the new Radio Poppers brand, and the newest Pocket Wizard models. The same triggering methods work for speedlights, but very few of them have the optical trigger built in, and some do not have a PC sync port for the sync cable.
Either accessory can be added to the others some of these mount on the flash foot, some connect to PC connector. The Nikon Commander remote wireless operation is a very convenient triggering choice, but it uses low power line of sight light for communication between commander and remote it flashes commands before the shutter opens.
Obstacles are generally a problem for light, but room reflections at close distances can sometimes help go around it indoors. A major downside is all the flashing by the commander signaling, and also the remote preflashes, which adds shutter lag time, and causes pictures of the subject blinking. The Nikon SU commander uses invisible infrared signaling, which minimizes this blinking, but the remotes still preflash.
The camera FV Lock option is the full work-around to prevent that, and also to prevent the automation from re-metering every frame individually. FV Lock separates the flashing and metering and blinking into a separate operation, before the shutter. Then the shutter button simply uses that remembered Flash Value. Pay particular attention the little L lock symbol in the viewfinder mentioned in the camera manual , indicating when the camera has this remembered Flash Value we lose it when the display times out.
Educate Me. Nikon Speedlights can pivot, rotate and even be positioned off-camera, allowing light direction and intensity to be completely controlled. Manipulate the color, shape and texture of light to create dramatic moods and unique special effects to take your photos to amazing new places.
Download Full Brochure. Radio control Advanced Wireless Lighting that does not require line-of-sight to work. Learn More about SB Advanced Speedlights and accessories for multi-flash control and communication and specialized flash techniques like macro photography. Enhance your photographs with these basic techniques and principles of flash photography.
The addition of an accent light will further separate your subject from the background. Removing your flash from the camera puts you in complete control of the light source and direction. Add a light behind your subject aimed at the background to create depth and a sense of space. Here, the addition of a radio-controlled bounce light directly behind the subject adds depth, while a colored rim light helps separate the subject from the background.
Read More about Dave Black using high-speed flash sync for sports action. Refers to a flash unit aimed at a reflecting surface, such as a wall or ceiling, to illuminate the subject with reflected light. The disbursement angle of light projected from a Speedlight as it relates to lens focal length. This feature allows you to compensate for the amount of flash output that a built-in flash or accessory Speedlight can produce.
A technique that uses flash illumination as a supplement to ambient light. Useful when photographing subjects that are backlit with very high-contrast lighting or in shadow.
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