Lighting

Rene`

I want to get me some lights so that I can set up an at home studio. I have an *istDl and a Pentax K100D. I also have an external flash. AF360FGZ .

I just aquired a white thick paper backdrop and a black fabric backdrop.

Should beginners start with continous lights. I don't know about Sync and wireless modes but it has something about it on my flash unit.

Yes I am blonde.

SloYerRoll

Here is a link to a fantastic book that pops the top off the mystery of lighting.

I suggest reading this before you start spending money. You'd be amazed what you can do w/ one strobe if you know how to use it.

-Jon

Rene`

SloYerRoll wrote:

Here is a link to a fantastic book that pops the top off the mystery of lighting.

I suggest reading this before you start spending money. You'd be amazed what you can do w/ one strobe if you know how to use it.

-Jon

Thanks!

LuckyBob

Rene` wrote:

[...]Should beginners start with continuous lights. I don't know about Sync and wireless modes but it has something about it on my flash unit.

Yes I am blonde.

I'd say no, personally. I tried continuous lighting to stay on the cheap side (1200W worth of work lights ) a while back - the lights were used twice. I hated them. Granted, photography oriented continuous lighting equipment is much better, but they're still dim (in comparison to strobes), only somewhat cheaper, and unless you've got the money to use fluorescents, *HOT*. Things melt and people can't stay in close range for long periods of time without becoming uncomfortable. The heat issue would be the single strongest reason to stay away from continuous lights, in my opinion.

Strobes also provide the advantage of being able to run your camera up against its sync speed and do a much better job of freezing action, which can even make a difference in portrait shooting to minimize movement and get photos *that* much sharper.

In my experience, with my small studio (10' black cube with one open side), the strobes don't need to be bright - most of the time my AB800s are too bright at wide apertures. Other than that I really like my Alien Bees equipment!

bratsscrappy

There is good reasons to use continuous lights. WYSIWYG always! you will shoot exactly what you see each time you see it, but it also means a few other things. They are hot and uncomfortable for your subject. The continuous lighting causes the pupil to contract.

A nice side effect of using strobe heads. In a darker setting your apeture is used to control the lighting of the subject (your flash is your shutter speed) and your shutter speed/apeture determines the exposure.

This was taken in near darkness with a single white lightning 1600 to my left. shutter speed 1/20 and apeture f11. The WL was metered to expose her at f11. notice the large pupils and detail.

dogwood

bratsscrappy wrote:

notice the large pupils and detail.

The pupils don't look very large to me. Do you mean irises?