Studio Lighting Help

helios

So, I recently did my first studio shoot during the Xmas break, and while I'm happy with the results (available on my Flickr) I found that I kept micro-managing the lighting. Some of the shots were severely over-exposed, while others would be under.

Does anyone have any good suggestions or references available? I've no idea when I'll be in a studio next, so I wouldn't mind getting some pointers for before I go back.

thanks!

rymus

I see what you mean re the over exposure.. what was the setup in the studio?

helios

rymus wrote: »

I see what you mean re the over exposure.. what was the setup in the studio?

Two softboxes and a 24-70mm.... Some of them look nice with a bit of overexposure, while others look like I was shooting right into the lights...

Paulw

What settings were you using?

ISO/aperture/shutter speed.

Those lights should have been ok. Maybe move them back a bit.

Normally, I use ISO 100 (or 200), 1/200 shutter speed, and then studio lights can be anything from f/8 to f/13.

helios

Paulw wrote: »

What settings were you using?

ISO/aperture/shutter speed.

Those lights should have been ok. Maybe move them back a bit.

Normally, I use ISO 100 (or 200), 1/200 shutter speed, and then studio lights can be anything from f/8 to f/13.

I'll have to check when I'm back home (Flickr is blocked at work!) but I found also that the exposure would change dramatically even if I changed lens'. Most of the shooting I had to do in 'P' so I assumed that the metering would be all done for me. I did 2 shoots over 2 days (2 hours each) and I had 150+ shots and maybe 20-30 were over/underexposed...

rymus

What I've done (in lieu of actually getting a lightmeter at some point in my life) is fiddle with the exposure in manual mode until you find what you're after, then shoot away happily.

helios

rymus wrote: »

What I've done (in lieu of actually getting a lightmeter at some point in my life) is fiddle with the exposure in manual mode until you find what you're after, then shoot away happily.

Once I took the first few shots, I eventually got it figured out. I'm just wondering if there's a good guide or book to save me from this the next time I'm in a studio...

KNO3

Use a flash meter and set the aperture manually on the camera. This is the only fail safe method really. People moving in or out of the light by even a couple of feet will make a difference to your exposure as well. The camera will not help you out much either in P mode if one of the lights is a few stops brighter than the other, you need to check that with a flash meter first of all. Manual mode and a double check with a flash meter will eliminate your mistakes in exposure.

pete4130

I think your problem lies in that you shot in "P" mode. This works out the best exposure for you but if you are using non TTL off camera flashes then camera doesn't know they are going to fire and exposes for the ambient light, so depending on whether your meter is reading off a dark area or bright area in the scene, this will effect your exposure. Your shutter speed doens't affect anything except the amount of ambient light let into the shot so the "P" mode is changing your apertures for you along with your shutter speed and I'm guessing thats whats causing your problems.

I'd recommend shooting on "M" in future and setting your aperture for about f11 and your shutter speed about 1/200 and adjust the intensity of your lights/move the light nearer or further away until you get the exposure you want. You can check your histogram to make sure your gighlights aren't blown etc.... Once you have your exposure set and your lights adjusted you shouldnt need to change your exposure settings.

I hope I didn't ramble on and end up confusing you even more. Flickr is blocked here in work too so I can't actually see the images myself....I'm just making a guess at what is most likely the problem.

Pete.

Borderfox

Use manual in the studio and take a few shots to set the shutter and aperture then dont move it at all unless you change lens..

helios

pete4130 wrote: »

This works out the best exposure for you but if you are using non TTL off camera flashes then camera doesn't know they are going to fire and exposes for the ambient light,

I think that this might have been the problem. It was a wireless hotshoe setup, but I don't know if it was TTL or not....


Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, I guess 'M' will soon be my new studio friend. It was my first shoot, so I knew there'd be problems, and the pics turned out a bit better than I original thought so even though it was a bit laborious, it was an experience none-the-less.

Paulw

Out of curiosity, what studio did you use?

helios

Paulw wrote: »

Out of curiosity, what studio did you use?

It was one I used in Canada while I was there on break, so I'm not sure if that's much use to you.

www.aperturestudios.ca