Page 1 of 5 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 47

Thread: Lightning for portraits

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Kiruna, Lapland, Sweden
    Posts
    22

    Smile Lightning for portraits

    Hi, I want to start to work with studio lightning for portraits. I shoot 4x5" both in b/w and color negs.
    I want also to be able to take the studio light with me outdoors, a battery/generator to power supply the strobes/lights.

    I have not done any studiowork before but are pretty clear on what I like to do in portraits.

    Does anyone have any ideas on buying equippment for this, or any one like to share how you are working with studio lightning together with LF?
    What kind of "workflow" you have, do you use ultra modern equippment for this or do you use old fashion bulbs? Do you use hot light? Any solutions are welcome and interesting!

    More questions to come...

    Any tips on recourses on internet on where to find fore info/read about studio light for LF, or books?

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Denver, Colorado
    Posts
    245

    Re: Lightning for portraits

    fredludv, lightning is dangerous and can kill you. Keep it out of the studio!

    There are two very important things to DO about learning studio lighting of any denomination (portrait, product, etc.):

    1) Read, read, read and learn everything that you can about standard techniques. Take all advice and worry about weeding it out later.

    2) Experiment and play with lighting on your own. Ignore everything you've read and work things out for yourself. Get some good examples to target (see books below).

    Eventually these seemingly polar opposite techniques will pop together, like when you hit focus in your viewfinder, and more and more things will become clear and stick. There is the importance of understanding basic techniques and formulas, and there is the very important fact that YOU have full creative control over nearly every photon hitting your film (or sensor).

    The hot-light vs. strobe issue is really up to you, but I started with a pair of strobes with decent modeling lamps which allowed me to experiment with both. Monolights can be found used for fairly cheap and are easy to work with.

    Start with two, or even one head and get a reflector. Make a reflector if you have to. Your local hardware depot is good for this.

    I hate to say it on this forum, but a decent digital camera can make learning these things SO MUCH easier and will also save you a ton of money. It will also help prepare you for shooting transparencies, should you ever, which behave more like digital sensors than color-negative film.

    There are MANY good books on lighting, and others here can help you with the standard reads, but two books that I have learned so much from are "Still Life and Special Effects Photography" by Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz (RotoVision) and "Creative Lighting Techniques for Studio Photographers" by Dave Montizambert (Amherst Media). Note that the first book is not a dialog, but a collection of great work with diagrams, notes, and insights detailing the setups used to produce them. Priceless.

    Lastly, if there are local classes that you can take on basic portrait lighting, you can learn much for a relatively small investment.

    I am just learning myself – you will learn the most by becoming dedicated and putting yourself in a position to experiment. Personally, I have much to learn, but I'm having a great time doing it and I'll never stop! The reason I am up to see your question at 3:30am my time is because I am playing with photography.

    Good luck and welcome!

    ** ADDED ** Note that if you are looking to do portrait work in a studio (as opposed to outdoors) with large format, you will want to get into using strobes, and fairly powerful ones at that...
    Last edited by aphexafx; 8-Feb-2009 at 04:05. Reason: so many errors...

  3. #3
    Vanannan
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Isle Of Man
    Posts
    521

    Re: Lightning for portraits

    Maybe he's gonna photograph Frankensteins monster

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Holland + Brazil
    Posts
    558

    Re: Lightning for portraits

    About LF/TC: use the lens to get to image you want, use the back of the camera to focus.

    A studio-pod is a great asset.

    You can use a digi as a lightmeter, but reminded that you will need a safe-sync to connect the strobes with the digi, otherwise you will fry it.

    I have used both the 2 and 3 lamp setup, depending on the person.
    At any time I used a softbox without the front (mine has an internal baffle aswell) at the front for general lighting, it adds some crispyness to it that way.

    One of the worst things is shadows behind the person, so you will have to deal with that: use an extra strobe to get rid of it, or use a black velvet background.

    A third strobe with a snout can be used to get some more detail in dark hair.

    What it boils down to: experiment a lot !
    Start with 35mm to get an idea how things work, the settings needed for each strobe, the distance to the subject and so on.
    Use your wife or kids to experiment with.

    Peter

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Kiruna, Lapland, Sweden
    Posts
    22

    Re: Lightning for portraits

    Ok, sorry about the english, I meant thunder, not lightning.

    Thanks for the info, I will definetly look up the books you mentioned, Matt!

    Hm, I do not own a digital SLR, and I dont think I will in the nearest time. But I can understand that the learning curve is fast. It could be too fast for me if I tried that. I am quite a slow person..

    I understad, when it comes to controlling the light, that it has to be a lot of experimenting to learn this, and analyzing the photograph after the exposure..

    I am very tempted to use this in the field. Anyone bringing their studio "on location" with their viewcamera, and if so, what equippment do you use? I see that portable studiolight can be quite expensive, but heard about solutions with car battery and transformers that can be used together with strobes...(?)

    How do you take the reading? Flashmetering? Using "modellight"? (if able to)

  6. #6

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Westminster, MD
    Posts
    1,653

    Re: Lightning for portraits

    Yes, get a flashmeter.

    I use Dynalite equipment. Lightweight, portable, and extremely well made. http://www.dynalite.com/pkgs.shtml

    You can use pretty much any strobe gear with your LF system.

    All depends on what you are after as far as look and feel of your images. Most important is to purchase or built light modifying gear to shape the light you get from your strobes. Rarely is raw strobe light what photographers use.

    You will spend a lifetime exploring light.

    Points to remember:

    Main light is your 'sun.' It gives shape and texture to the image.

    Fill light is the 'sky'. It opens shadows.

    Then you'll probably need a background light and a 'kicker' of 'hair' light to give the subject separation from the background. A simple 4 light kits is a good place to start.
    When I grow up, I want to be a photographer.

    http://www.walterpcalahan.com/Photography/index.html

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Kiruna, Lapland, Sweden
    Posts
    22

    Re: Lightning for portraits

    Thank you very mouch Walter!

  8. #8

    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    137

    Re: Lightning for portraits

    There is a marvelous series of books... the "Pro Lighting Series", published by Rotovision. Each book (I think there were 10) covers a different topic (Product, Portraits, Erotica etc.). Each book diagrams and explains detailed lighting set-ups, using (superb) photos as your guide. Highly, highly recommended.

  9. #9
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Location
    Fond du Lac, WI, USA
    Posts
    8,955

    Re: Lightning for portraits

    I have one article on studio lighting at www.peterdesmidt.com/blog, but I wouldn't want to carry that much equipment in the field unless I had a lot of help. With large format you need lot's of light, or you need a subject that can keep very still.

    A few years ago, I experimented with 4x5 and 8x10 portraiture using hot lights. I found that BW film lost significant speed using the hot lights, and the bright light tended to make models squint. George Hurrell, and others, did great work with this type of setup, but he had very good models. Now if you're doing nudes with the model not looking at the light, and posed such that they can stay still, then hot lights could be very good. Used Mole Richardson, Ianebeam, Arri, and Lowel lights would work. Be careful with hot lights and light modifiers. It's very easy to start a fire, and occasionally bulbs can explode, and you want to make sure that if that happens that no one is injured.

    For studio work, I see that Speedotron 4303s going for around $300 on the auction site, which is a lot of light for very little. Before digital, the studio at which I work, www.imagestudios.com, used these speedos for tons of 4x5 and 8x10 work, including the lighting of huge sets. When shooting was started, I was told that you could hear the electrical wires in the conduits moving from all the current moving through them.

    To maximize output, you'd want to use Speedo 106 heads with the 4300 series packs, one per pack to maximize output. You'd also probably want a few regular 102 heads.

    These packs are large and very heavy. Never plug heads into a Speedo pack without turning the packs off, and never open up a Speedo pack unless you have a death wish.

    On the slow recharge setting, these packs pull about 17 amps per pack. If there are no outlets where we want to shoot, we use generators. Although since we're all digital these days, we rarely take the big speedo's on location.

    There are battery packs that you can use. We have one for use with our Dynalite location kits, and we also have Dynalite monolights with jack rabbit battery packs, but unless you're shooting wide open with a Verito lens or similar, these options will not give you enough light.

  10. #10
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Location
    Fond du Lac, WI, USA
    Posts
    8,955

    Re: Lightning for portraits

    Last week we did a portrait of the CEO of a power company in his office. We were going to use two of the very small Speedotron 805 packs. I plugged one into the 20amp outlet in his office, and when I turned it on, with no heads attached mind you, power went out on 1/2 of that floor, including all of the computers. Mind you, this was at an electric company! Luckily, they had a small fridge and some coffee makers on a separate line. We were able to run some long extension cords from that outlet to get the shot.

Similar Threads

  1. CityScapes
    By Allen in Montreal in forum Image Sharing (LF) & Discussion
    Replies: 188
    Last Post: 24-Sep-2013, 04:42
  2. Desert Travel: Heat and Dust
    By jkl in forum Location & Travel
    Replies: 15
    Last Post: 17-Aug-2006, 00:57

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •