Lighting for beginners - equipment essentials

Necronomicon

For some time now I've wanted to try my hand at portraiture, but I have always been a bit put off by the complexities of lighting. I've spent quite a bit of time on Strobist trying to get a handle of the basics and it has helped a lot. Recently a friend of mine got onto me about collaborating on a project which will essentially involve doing portraits. I agreed with the proviso that it's outside of my comfort zone by an order of magnitude.

At the moment I'm trying to determine what kind of results I can get with my current gear and improving my knowledge of lighting; and what bits and pieces I should pick up in order to allow me to get better results. With that in mind, here is the sum total of what I have:

• Canon 40D
• Canon 580ex II
• Ring-flash adapter

I also potentially have access to (through borrowing, if I ask nicely enough):

• A soft box (with velcro clip-on)
• Reflector
• Nikon SB-600 Speedlite (can you use on slave mode with a Canon Speedlite?)

I figure that I need, at the very least, a trigger/receiver for my 580ex II in order to achieve off-camera flash. They appear to be plentiful on eBay for good prices, but I don't know enough about them yet to make a purchase.

I'm also thinking about a light stand (again they are fairly reasonable on eBay, but I'm not sure of quality/cost trade-offs). Though for this particular project there should be people available to hold a remote flash so I'm wondering how essential this is.

Finally, from reading Lighting 101 on Strobist I'm wondering if I should be investing in an umbrella, or if it'd be overkill for the level I'm currently at.

I probably have a budget of around €150 for various pieces of equipment. I know the most important thing is continuing to improve my basic knowledge of lighting, so to that end I'd welcome any suggestions for other resources besides Strobist (maybe even a workshop). Or, if there are any Cork photogs out there that wouldn't mind meeting up for a chat and for a look at some gear and how it's used, all the better.

Bracket, umbrella & stand for around €50;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Photography-Light-professional-studio-photolamps/dp/B0011363NS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342551028&sr=8-1



Triggers for €25;

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Gingtu-PT-04-Wireless-Flash-Trigger-2-Receiver-For-YONGNUO-YN-460-YN-465-YN-560-/220993066263?pt=AU_Cameras_Photographic_Accessories&hash=item3374369517



Optional - 24" Softbox with mount for flash unit and lightstand for €55;

http://www.photoloving.com/gbu0-prodshow/FSB-60.html



Boom, you're all sorted and if you throw an extra couple of Euro at your budget you can pick up a YN460-II Flash Unit from Amazon to use with the other wireless receiver you bought above (useless to use a main flash as it takes too long to recycle and turns itself off if it thinks it'll overheat, but if you use it as a second flash at a relatively low power (up to half way) it's a mighty fine purchase).


EDIT: Sorry, I got excited spending your money. To answer your questions, (in my opinion) you'll need a light stand because you'll only buy it sooner or later anyway. Buy the "frequently bought together" pack from Amazon and you won't go wrong. Also get the triggers from ebay because they never seem to go away, so you can always add more receivers at a later date without having to buy new triggers or such (in other words, if you buy two more flash units, you can just buy more receivers off ebay in the knowledge that they'll all work together if you get the same ones).

An umbrella is 110% essential for any decent portraiture. I've that softbox linked above (and I've another octobox thing, too, that I love, which is only $40 off the photoloving site and could be an alternative to the $65 softbox i linked to) but often find myself using the umbrellas time and time again anyway, purely because they're so quick and easy to set up, and always deliver decent results.


If I were you I'd just buy all the stuff I linked to above. Unless you give up portraits/photography altogether, you won't outgrow the basic equipment needed. It's never too early for an umbrella and if you buy those I guarantee that within 12 months you'll have bought that same Amazon trio package again (I've gotten it 3 times now, it's exceptionally good value for money).

I've only used photoloving twice, and the deliver times were about a month (like most Hong Kong sites really) but you have to be careful of customs when buying from them. So factor that into your buying decision (it's hit and miss whether you'll be hit by customs, so it's best to just assume you will and factor them into the price). It's a dodgy looking site, but they seem genuine (well, I got my products and wasn't robbed, so that's genuine enough for me!).


I'm not sure about using Canon slave with a Nikon flash, because I've always used triggers. They're just too easy and cheap and I've seen one too many photographers getting drove up the walls trying to get the slave functions working correctly. Do yourself a favour and just get the triggers. You'll not regret them (especially seen as their price is so low, even if you did decide you hated them, you're not losing out on much). So long as the flash has a manual mode, you're laughing.


I'm in Drogheda, which is about as far away as a person can get from you in this country, but otherwise I'd have happily invited you to try out my stuff.


EDIT 2: Hmm.. that amazon trio doesn't seem to qualify for free super saver delivery (free shipping). That's odd. I never paid for shipping on it. Maybe I linked to the wrong one...


EDIT 3: This works out about the same as the Amazon one (without the shipping charge);

http://www.photoloving.com/gbu0-prodshow/IS-5001B-IS-H-SO.html

Also, apologies if I'm just banging on at this stage, but I was playing about before with a few different setups to show a friend, so these may be of some use to you;


No Flash:





Direct Flash:





Diffused Flash:





Umbrella Flash:





Direct Flash with white reflector:





Umbrella Flash with white reflector:





Blue gelled and makeshift snoot flash (snoot = Canon 24-70 hood):





Non shoot-through umbrella:





Non shoot-through umbrella with white reflector:





Ceiling bounce with white reflector:






Might give you an idea of how shadows and the likes are affected.

Fujiguy

@KKV All i can say is thank you so bloody much! i am aiming to get a 40d to do some portraits for family members, and even though i read and watched videos, your post just showed me EXACTLY what kinds of flash combos produce what.

Thank you a million times over, and can i have your permission to use them in my blog to show this too? :P ofc i can link back to your website/blog if you give me a link ( assuming you let me use them )

Paraic.

Belt away.
If you want to link back to my site I won't stop you, either, but I'm sure there are many better tutorials out there, anyway

Necronomicon

Cheers KKV, that's a tremendously helpful post. How do you use shoot-through umbrellas and non shoot-through? What does each offer that the other doesn't?

Shoot through and non-shoot through are two different types of umbrella (though you can buy shoot through ones that come with a cover... i don't think they're very effective though).


These are shoot through

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Photography-Umbrella-Professional-Photographic-Translucent/dp/B004LDYRGA/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1342562838&sr=1-9


and these aren't

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-Photographic-reflector-umbrella-detached/dp/B004LE68MU/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1342562838&sr=1-2



To be honest, I can't really say what difference there is. I find that the light is a little more contrasty from the black/silver ones, and the light doesn't generally 'spread out' as much (more contained) but that could be just me, personally.

I think the light spread is more to do with the actual shape of the umbrella than anything else (I have an 80cm octo-softbox thingy, which is just a large umbrella with a diffuser panel.

This is what I'm talking about;

http://www.photoloving.com/gbu0-prodshow/FSB-UMB-80CM.html


Because of the more closed-up kind of shape of the umbrella part (picture 5 on the photo loving page) I find that the light is much less spread around (and is therefore handier if i want a brighter subject in a darker environment. Whereas the regular umbrellas tend to flatten out a bit more, so the light travels around further and isn't as pronounced.


With a shoot-through umbrella (which I believe get nicknamed 'light grenades') the light hits the umbrella fabric, and spreads out in that shape, pretty much just going everywhere.

It's pretty much the same as saying that the light will take the shape of the object it hits.


I know this doesn't exactly answer your question, but that's because I can't really say with any real authority that I'm right or wrong as I'm still kind of playing with the different umbrella types myself (I use the shoot-through for most of my work, as I know exactly what to expect, and the others for when I'm doing personal stuff and want to play with the gear a bit for different results).



I should point out that the black/silver umbrellas I received from amazon tend to 'flesh out' much straighter than the one in the picture (it was that one I bought). So I think maybe the effect of a more contrasty isolated light is lost on me because of that. As you can (sort of) see from the pictures I posted, my black/silver umbrella is nearly flat when it's put up.


Something I've actually done a bit recently, and I like the results (because it's essentially a massive softbox) is to use a 5-in-1 diffuser/reflector, like this one (not sure if this is the same size as mine, mine is in the above pictures as the white reflector on the left);

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Collapsible-5-in-1-60cm-x-90cm-24-x-36-Reflector-/130550459191?pt=UK_Light_Controls_Light_Reflectors&hash=item1e6569eb37


If you take the covers off you're left with a fairly thin diffuser material. If you hold that up (get someone to do it or lean it against something or such) and put one or two flash units behind it (depending on the strength of the light you need), if you use that, because it's so large, it gives a lovely, shadowless kind of look to the face.

The below show was lit with the diffuser standing at an angle (lying backwards at about a 35degree angle) and it was 45degrees to her front/left. There was also a shoot through umbrella (on a higher power) to her right. If you look at the full size on pix you can see them in the reflections of her eyes. So admittedly the diffuser wasn't the main light, but I really like the result it gave with a bit of flash power behind it.







Full size;

http://photos3.pix.ie/A6/A9/A6A983D882A84EC092BC8F2E47866136-0000333410-0002925820-04658L-4BFB40C781D1487285999309AF95ED15.jpg



So I've been trying to do that a bit more lately. I can't seem to find a gigantic softbox anywhere for a reasonable price (though I do know they exist) so that's been keeping me entertained lately.


Sorry.. I realise I'm just rambling now about nothing in particular. I was just mentioning the diffuser as a purchasing suggestion, but for starting out, it's just not practical. It's difficult to stand it up at times and such, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you'll have someone assisting (and even then, I've only used it two or three times, so it could be that I've just been lucky with it and will soon find it's drawbacks).

bullpost

You might want to consider dropping into Barkers in Cork.
He's got a lot of strobist stuff at reasonable prices - have a look at the website but he also has stuff not on there.
I bought lots of strobist stuff off him at Christmas and it was reasonable compared to online prices.
He's also very helpful (Paddy that is) if you haven't dealt with him before.

Necronomicon wrote: »

For some time now I've wanted to try my hand at portraiture, but I have always been a bit put off by the complexities of lighting. I've spent quite a bit of time on Strobist trying to get a handle of the basics and it has helped a lot. Recently a friend of mine got onto me about collaborating on a project which will essentially involve doing portraits. I agreed with the proviso that it's outside of my comfort zone by an order of magnitude.

At the moment I'm trying to determine what kind of results I can get with my current gear and improving my knowledge of lighting; and what bits and pieces I should pick up in order to allow me to get better results. With that in mind, here is the sum total of what I have:

• Canon 40D
• Canon 580ex II
• Ring-flash adapter

I also potentially have access to (through borrowing, if I ask nicely enough):

• A soft box (with velcro clip-on)
• Reflector
• Nikon SB-600 Speedlite (can you use on slave mode with a Canon Speedlite?)

I figure that I need, at the very least, a trigger/receiver for my 580ex II in order to achieve off-camera flash. They appear to be plentiful on eBay for good prices, but I don't know enough about them yet to make a purchase.

I'm also thinking about a light stand (again they are fairly reasonable on eBay, but I'm not sure of quality/cost trade-offs). Though for this particular project there should be people available to hold a remote flash so I'm wondering how essential this is.

Finally, from reading Lighting 101 on Strobist I'm wondering if I should be investing in an umbrella, or if it'd be overkill for the level I'm currently at.

I probably have a budget of around €150 for various pieces of equipment. I know the most important thing is continuing to improve my basic knowledge of lighting, so to that end I'd welcome any suggestions for other resources besides Strobist (maybe even a workshop). Or, if there are any Cork photogs out there that wouldn't mind meeting up for a chat and for a look at some gear and how it's used, all the better.

Necronomicon

Deleted User wrote: »

To be honest, I can't really say what difference there is. I find that the light is a little more contrasty from the black/silver ones, and the light doesn't generally 'spread out' as much (more contained) but that could be just me, personally.

Nice one, I've since started reading up on the differences in other places and it's fairly devisive as to which is 'better'; seems to be purely a matter of personal preference. If I do go with the combination on Amazon you linked to above, I might pick up the reflective umbrella you linked to go with it for experimentation.

bullpost wrote: »

You might want to consider dropping into Barkers in Cork.
He's got a lot of strobist stuff at reasonable prices - have a look at the website but he also has stuff not on there.
I bought lots of strobist stuff off him at Christmas and it was reasonable compared to online prices.
He's also very helpful (Paddy that is) if you haven't dealt with him before.

Thanks for the suggestion, I have been keeping Paddy in mind too. The attraction there is being able to talk to someone face-to-face (and I've had good experience with Paddy in that regard before) who can help me figure out in person what it is I need. Though I need to think price before all else at the moment, so I'm going to have to compare his stuff to the likes which KKV has linked to in his posts.

ronanc15

Great Post KKV. Went digging for this as I remember a straightforward explanation of studio lighting.

Any ideas on good places to buy studio lights/lamps at a reasonable price? Have a 430exii that I'll be using too.

In case it makes any diff it would most likely be for editorial style make up photos

Daveysil15

Deleted User wrote: »

Also, apologies if I'm just banging on at this stage, but I was playing about before with a few different setups to show a friend, so these may be of some use to you;


No Flash:





Direct Flash:





Diffused Flash:





Umbrella Flash:





Direct Flash with white reflector:





Umbrella Flash with white reflector:





Blue gelled and makeshift snoot flash (snoot = Canon 24-70 hood):





Non shoot-through umbrella:





Non shoot-through umbrella with white reflector:





Ceiling bounce with white reflector:






Might give you an idea of how shadows and the likes are affected.

Very nice demonstration. Is that your own home studio? How much space would you need for something like that? Do the walls need to be painted a certain colour? Sorry if I'm going off topic a bit, but I want to set up a small studio for portraits, mostly 1/2 lenght and head & shoulder stuff. Just wondering roughly how much space I'd need.

ThOnda

Just the third one is not "diffused flash", because the surface of the flash hasn't been increased that much. It is dispersed light, when the light goes in multiple directions, reflects from objects (walls, ceiling, floor, furniture) and bounces to the subject. Still very direct light, but when combined with reflectors (especially white walls and ceilings in smaller = normal-sized rooms), fills-in the direct flash.
But only to be anal here

Ben D Bus

Deleted User wrote: »

Also, apologies if I'm just banging on at this stage, but I was playing about before with a few different setups to show a friend, so these may be of some use to you;

Forget about all the other kit...Where did you get the mannequin head from? I'd love one of these to practice on.

Ben D Bus

Ben D Bus wrote: »

Forget about all the other kit...Where did you get the mannequin head from? I'd love one of these to practice on.

There's a shop behind St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre that sell them (and full sized mannequins, too). I got that about 5 years ago though (I bought a few WWE masks in the Wrestling Mania shop in St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre and wanted something to display them on and the guy in the shop told me about that store).

I can't remember the name of it. I do know that it was down the road from a shop that sold signage (closed, beware of dog, no smoking, etc.) and you had to press a buzzer to be allowed in. Not sure if that's much help or not (it was also obviously intended as a business to business shop as they added VAT separately).

ThOnda wrote: »

Just the third one is not "diffused flash", because the surface of the flash hasn't been increased that much. It is dispersed light, when the light goes in multiple directions, reflects from objects (walls, ceiling, floor, furniture) and bounces to the subject. Still very direct light, but when combined with reflectors (especially white walls and ceilings in smaller = normal-sized rooms), fills-in the direct flash.
But only to be anal here

I meant the flash has a diffuser on it's head. Lots of people don't know what they do (and it doesn't really do anything in this particular scenario) but I just wanted to include it as it's a common enough accessory.

Daveysil15 wrote: »

Very nice demonstration. Is that your own home studio? How much space would you need for something like that? Do the walls need to be painted a certain colour? Sorry if I'm going off topic a bit, but I want to set up a small studio for portraits, mostly 1/2 lenght and head & shoulder stuff. Just wondering roughly how much space I'd need.

It's a home studio when I need it to be. The background is the Lastolite HiLite and it's just kind of plonked in the middle of a fairly average everyday sitting room.

It doesn't require much space. It's portable, so I use it in other people's houses a fair bit, and I've never really had a problem setting it up, so I don't think space would be a massive concern.

The walls in my sitting room are an off-white/creamy sort of colour, and one wall is red. Wall colour doesn't really have an affect though, as most of my lighting is directly on the subject (albeit via umbrella) so not a lot of bouncing going on.

I've often used bounce flash in pubs/clubs/hotels, etc. though and wall colour is generally irrelevant if you have a low white roof (and most houses will).


Hope that's of some help.


EDIT: If you're planning to strictly do upper body and headshot work, just buy a decent sized white reflector and get someone to hold it, or buy a clamp and stick it to a light stand. When I know I'll only be doing headshots, that's what I do. White reflector behind them, with a flash on the floor at full power pointed at it always blows it out.

Then you can just seat/stand your subject in front of it and set your flash power for your subject separately. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

pete4130

Simply having a flash, brolly, diffuser and reflector doesn't mean you know how to utilise and control light.

That portrait of the girl in the yellow top is all over the place, blown highlights, uneven light with at least a 2 stop range of light from the edges of her face to the centre. Compare the example given against someone like Hugh_C and his work and you'll see the difference in possessing lighting and controlling lighting.

The set up shown is more a strobist set up than a studio set up.

ronanc15

Is there any major difference between the Lastolite collapsible backgrounds and the ebay style non branded ones?

I've never really seen the generic ebay versions, so can't say for sure (got a link?) but I'd imagine it's the same concept.

Be aware though that the Hilite is a three-dimensional piece, in that it has space inside it and is like a drawing of a 3D rectangle, whereas the other lastolite backdrops are generally flat pieces of material sewn onto a collapsible frame.

pete4130

pete4130 wrote: »

Simply having a flash, brolly, diffuser and reflector doesn't mean you know how to utilise and control light.

That portrait of the girl in the yellow top is all over the place, blown highlights, uneven light with at least a 2 stop range of light from the edges of her face to the centre. Compare the example given against someone like Hugh_C and his work and you'll see the difference in possessing lighting and controlling lighting.

The set up shown is more a strobist set up than a studio set up.

Parody Pete strikes again.

It's a thread about flash and accessories.

And I quite like the photo of the girl in the yellow. Perhaps it's not a 'by the book' portrait, but it's one I like. However, clearly that means, as usual, I'm wrong and you're right.

And yes, Pete; I get it. You don't like my work, you don't like me, and you will take every chance you get to post anything borderline condescending towards me (whilst always staying within the rules of the charter, of course).

But, alas, fair enough; you win. I accept defeat. I think any/every post you've made to or in relation to me for the last year has been in a condescending tone and you've done nothing but take any shred of fun that was once in this forum out of it for me.

I'll give up posting in the photography forum and let you move on to someone else.

ronanc15

I noticed that on the 3d aspect of the HiLite.

Heres a link to some collapsible ones on ebay:

http://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_nkw=collapsible+background&_frs=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m359

I just ordered some of the triggers and brollys etc from your original post. I know its not a complete studio set up but it will be a good start for some experimentation. Thanks again for the helpful post

ronanc15

pete4130 wrote: »

Simply having a flash, brolly, diffuser and reflector doesn't mean you know how to utilise and control light.

It's a good start though, no?

pete4130

It's not Parody Pete. It's my honest opinion.

The portrait you gave as an example is awful in my opinion. You struggle to take any criticism you receive by trying to explain/justify why/what you've done.

You automatically dismiss any criticism I give you as a personal attack.

Ben D Bus

Deleted User wrote: »

I'll give up posting in the photography forum and let you move on to someone else.

There is an ignore option so you don't have to read Petes posts if you don't want to. No need to quit.

Snowie

[QUOTE=Necronomicon;79779284

• Canon 580ex II
  

[/QUOTE]



learn how to be creative with just that. To many people think lots of gear helps its not the only thing id get are some gels an of camera flash cord and a good flash defuser...

Learn with the very basic of equipment...