Lighting Tutorials
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- noob12345
Anybody know of any good sites that have tutorials for still photography lighting?
I'd like to do a shot similar to the one one below and I'm sure there's got to be a tutorial site out there that has a demo for this setup. It looks like 1 key light and 2 rim lights, but I'd like some tips on the lighting ratios, distance of the lights, angles, etc.
- vaxorcist0
This is kind of the lighting style of 2009 or so.....
Two gridded strip boxes 45 degrees to rear right and left, boomed beauty dish overhead, background lit or unlit.. for a pure white sweep background, stand model 10-15 feet in front of background, use 2 or 4 heads aimed inside V-Flats, i.e. 2 4x8 feet foamcore taped like a bookend...
YouTube has TONS of lighting tutorials....
www.strobist.com for small strobe work....
Renting a studio and a lighting assistant for 1 day can teach you a TON....
if you're in LA, just finding the time to go to some APA meetings, meet some photo lighting assistants, become friends with them, buy them beer, ask if you can just pay their day rate for a tutorial...
or, better yet, if you're a freelancer, become a second-assistant for a while, you'll learn a TON.... second-assistants may work for free the first day, and there's alot of doing things like fetching coffee or extension cords, but you learn a TON by just being on a set and watching the light tests....
- vaxorcist0
note. for double-rimlights like this, you may need a few gobos too, to prevent flare in the lens and retain a hard edge... gobos are "go betweens" ... i.e. a black piece of foamcore clamped to a lightstand to block the light from hitting your lens, and/or part of your subject....
Also, you might try going to a wig store, buying a plastic head and wig, putting it on a light stand and testing like crazy... you'll learn a lot before you burn out a real model this way....
- noob123450
@vaxorcist This is exactly what I was hoping for, thank you. I'm not freelance anymore, but will have to check out some APA meetings.
- vaxorcist0
you can learn a lot by just watching videos for light placement... you may have to rewind and pause a bit...
- noob123450
I think this is pretty good.
- Mishga0
- +1noob12345
- Shot on a 400D with a kit lens. Very good.Continuity
- cbass990
does anyone have any suggestions for shooting portfolio items such as album covers and getting good lighting without reflections etc..?
any help is appreciated as I'm a rookie photographer and will be shooting with limited equipment.- bring it out door use natural light. get a nice table top. would still recommend a big diffuser thou. or bed sheet.pango
- oops sry I read reflection as reflector. in that case you will need light tent or build a light tent with bed sheet.pango
- it's very tricky with specular height light. especially if you have rounded reflective object.pango
- just gotta play with angle. and sometime instead of trying to hide hilight. manipulate it. cuz some times you just can't get rid of them all.pango
- of them allpango
- mg330
I just a new (and my first) serious flash within the past few weeks and I've been looking for tutorials online as well. I thought this one was pretty nice.
- sea_sea0
cool thread, lots of good info. thanks guys.
- pango0
angle matters!
- pango0
to set up that shot. i would prefer 2 strip boxs with grids on each side as the rim light. (rim... ha...) and have beauty dish with diffuser above camera and another soft box below camera. every light same power except the softbox below -1 stop.
probably have to tinker a bit but that where i start.
- formed0
Scott Kelby is easily worth the subscription price. There are all of Joel Grimes (partial tut links above) and a billion others.
If you don't want to spend anything, look for his App/Magazine Lighting Recipes (or something like that). I think it was supposed to be a magazine subscription thing, but never got past the first installment. Eitherway, it is a superb video series of fashion/beauty lighting tutorials. I've got it on my iPads.
Mostly, though, it is setting up and playing. I never, ever bother with ratios or light meters, even when I have 5+ lights setup. Maybe I should, but I trust my eye better than any technical stuff (as does Mr. Grimes).
Get some lights, a "model" and practice, practice, practice.- Meetup.com is really your answer, where I started and found a ton of generous people that really helpedformed
- calling myself old school is not really an accurate description. but ya. learn to use a light meter. it saves a lot of time. an easier to expect the un expected.pango
- expect the unexpected.pango
