Lighting Workshop

Following our peer session yesterday, this post will outline some of the considerations we should take when using studio and location lighting.

It's boring, but it needs to be covered, so: Safety First

• Don't plug the light into a battery and the mains at the same time.
• Make sure your light is securely attached to the lighting stand, and when moving it, carry it by the light not the stand (which one is going to break if it falls off?)
• A tip when attaching the power cord, is to wrap it around one of the feet of the stand. This way if someone trips on the wire, the light is less likely to topple over.
• The higher you raise the light, the more unstable it will become. Weigh down the legs with some handy sandbags, or get an assistant to hold the stand (especially if you're outdoors, windy, umbrella, Mary Poppins etc.)
• When setting up the stands give the three legs a wide spread for stability, also with the light on top allow the weight to 'settle' the stand so that it's not under too much pressure.  
• Avoid touching the bulbs, they're delicate, and the grease from your fingers is not good for them. Also the modelling lamp in particular gets very hot - try not to have that on for unnecessary amounts of time.
• Take care when attaching/removing the various reflectors (or 'heads') - they will get hot from the lamp. The black plastic bulb covers are for storage purposes only. They will melt very quickly (and expensively) if you use them with the lights on. 

Basics with using the Lights

• With the 'cell' button on, the light will trigger when it detects any other flash in the room. 
• The 'beep' or 'sound' button will mean the light makes an indicating noise when it is charged and ready for the next shot. 
• The modelling lamp has different settings ranging from: off, half-power, equal to flash, to full power. The modelling lamp is primarily there to help you get an idea of where and how the light is falling - where the shadows will be etc. 
• The light needs to be synchronised to fire at the same instant that the photo is taken. This is done with either a sync cable (from camera to light) or radio triggers (a transmitter on the hot shoe of the camera, and a receiver in the sync socket of the light). 
• If you lower the power of the flash you need to 'dump' the charge to reset it.     

Some Further Tips

• There's a whole variety of different heads to attach to these lights, which will alter the angle, the spread, the diffusion, the intensity and so on. The best way to find out what different effects these have is to test them out. Yesterday we found that having an umbrella closer to the light source will give less 'spread out' light, i.e. more defined shadows, than having it further away.
• Keep it simple, if one light will do the job then use one light. It starts to get complicated when you've got multiple flashes going off, and you're trying to keep them all balanced and stop them from spilling into each other.
• If you are using multiple lights then perhaps work by 'building up' the picture - start with your key light and get it the way you want it, then add the next and get it balanced, then the next and so on. 
• Make use of reflectors and gobos, to bounce back and block off light - give yourself more control.
• If you're working in the studio it might be an idea to isolate the subject from the background, so as to control the light/tone of them separately. 
• Use your light meter, and use it wisely - arrange things carefully and take lots of readings. You should have a good idea of how a picture is going to come out before you go near the camera.
• Remember everything is a variant. If something doesn't look right there are numerous ways you can alter it: the power of the light, the angle of the light, the distance between light and subject, the  position of the subject, the position of the camera, the exposure of the camera, the list continues.

Here's a good video on Dean Collins (a master of lighting) working on a portrait. It's a bit geeky and technical but it's particularly significant to what I was saying about 'building up' a picture. Also note how he talks through the picture with his assistant - some awesome pre-vis skills.

The original link from the strobist blog is here. Do check out strobist, and their series of posts - Lighting 101.
Some more videos which go over the range of equipment you can use with studio lighting.
There's also studiolighting.net and a bunch of others, google it!

But remember, when researching this stuff you are frequently going to run into 'experts' telling you that "this is how you make someone look sexy" or "never use a tripod and always shoot at f5.6" - ignore them. It's not the case that one type of light is 'attractive' and one isn't. It's that there is soft light, and harsh light, restricted, spread, diffused, directional and many other types. It is up to you to decide how to use lighting, to create the effect that you desire. Learn from others the technical, teach yourself the creative.