Studio lighting -getting started

[Loose Canon]

Congratulations Keith,

You might toss in a spare modeling lamp, flash tube, and any associated fuses if the AB’s have them (didn’t look like they used fuses to me and I didn’t see any mention in the replacement parts). When one of these goes south during a shoot you will be glad you did.

You might also want to consider a couple of mini boom arms for your straight stands if you can’t get good angles with your shoot-throughs and softboxes. (Could probably be a wait-and-see proposition).

Definitely at least one long boom arm for what you are planning to shoot to get some light overhead (portrait, macro, product).

[Colin Southern]

... And some sandbags once you get into tall stands and boom arms

[Adrian]

Very useful thread this. The advice needs distilling and converting into a sticky! I have just recently equipped a new office studio for my team and wish I'd had this thread earlier!

[Colin Southern]

Very useful thread this. The advice needs distilling and converting into a sticky! I have just recently equipped a new office studio for my team and wish I'd had this thread earlier!

Meh - we'd have stickies all over the place if we distilled and converted all our good information here!

[krfessl]

Thanks Terry! And yes, agree on the suggestions... Candidly, I was (believe it or not) trying to keep initial outlay down... But spares are key... I don't see fuses in the book (pdf download on the ABs) either, but spare flash tubes and modeling lights are on the list, along with a CSRB+ for driving my SB-700, and casters for the stands ... The boom set-up too... Buff doesn't seem to have a long boom, so I'll look at where to get a stand w/boom... I was also not quite sure what light and modifier to put on the boom(8' ceiling issue) and also thinking of a snoot for hair.... Overall, as you suggest, Terry, I'll have to see what's missing as I get set-up and trying out what I have, then add...I thought about their mini-boom but could not yet see what it did for me, although I suspect I will here too once I get practical hands-on... Have not started looking at bags yet, Colin, but good reminder to include with the boom set-up. I also wasn't sure if their umbrella wasn't too big for me initially, but we'll see here too...

Should be all set-up by next weekend, so I can light-up the flashes, but won't get much use for a couple of weeks after that due to biz (not photo) trip..

[RustBeltRaw]

Colin, I suspect your most recent post has the CFO going o.0

The irony is that EVERY bloke who sees the studio comments to the effect that its a cool job to be shooting scantily clad young women ... bloody hard work.

There's a reason I only do that kind of work by request. For the stress involved, I've never been particularly happy with my results. Apparently decent skills at action-shooting and editorial portraits do not translate to beauty shots very well.

In other news, good luck with the new gear, Keith. Bad news - you can no longer blame an equipment shortage.

[Mike Buckley]

Bad news - you can no longer blame an equipment shortage.

That explains why I prefer using a makeshift studio rather than a legitimate studio; I always have an excuse.

[krfessl]

Colin, I suspect your most recent post has the CFO going o.0


There's a reason I only do that kind of work by request. For the stress involved, I've never been particularly happy with my results. Apparently decent skills at action-shooting and editorial portraits do not translate to beauty shots very well.

In other news, good luck with the new gear, Keith. Bad news - you can no longer blame an equipment shortage.

SO, the CFO knows all about the model thing... we met when I was in Photo School, back in the 70's and she was in one of the classes I was a TA for... she's already said "NOPE" to going back to those days, when SHE actually sat for some of the work I did (all nudes back in the day)... and yes, Lex... she agreed to the big gear buy just to get me to stop talking about it and she is expecting me to make a few bucks (as am I OVER time...) she buys into the notion it will take awhile though

[krfessl]

Colin, I think it was you who mentioned you use a monitor while shooting (tethered)?? Can I ask what the set-up is?? I like the idea (gadget guy here, as mentioned)... and want to add it to my spend plan. :-)

Does it include the whole image from the camera's LCD (inc histogram, etc) or is it just image output?? How is it connected?? HDTV monitor or computer monitor? Etc...

I was considering just my laptop, but then thought again about what I'd really like to have is a dedicated monitor, maybe a small HD TV on a stand, or better, on a swing out arm...

Thanks for any info you'd be willing to share!

[rpcrowe]

Lex posted:
"Alien Bees by Paul C. Buff may provide the best bang for buck. They're available in 160Ws, 320Ws, and 640Ws max outputs. The B400 (the 160Ws model) is inexpensive, but low-power. The B800 (320Ws) is a very handy power range. The B1600 (640Ws) is ideal for outdoor portraits where you're competing with sunlight. All AB-series lights have a minimum power 6 stops below their maximum power."

I like the support provided by Paul C. Buff. I have a pair of his original White Lightning "Coffee Can" studio strobes. I don't know how old they are but, I have been using them for about twenty years and I bought them used. Paul C. Buff still supplies parts such as flash tubes for these lights...

[Loose Canon]

While I'm not Colin Keith (he's much prettier than me!), I shoot tethered to a laptop. You will have to have some way to run your tethering software.

One of the many advantages is being able to toss a fresh shot right into your editing software if you need to right then and there. Not to mention a better view to judge lighting, etc.

The software I use (DSLRAssistant) shows the image's histogram, clipping warnings (blinkies), focal points, just to name a couple. It controls almost all camera settings and can be set from the computer, and easily toggles in and out of Live View. Saves the images to the hard drive and plays very nicely with Bridge.

I'm not sure this particular software works with Nikon however. But For sure tethered shooting is a great way to go.

[Colin Southern]

Colin, I think it was you who mentioned you use a monitor while shooting (tethered)?? Can I ask what the set-up is?? I like the idea (gadget guy here, as mentioned)... and want to add it to my spend plan. :-)

Does it include the whole image from the camera's LCD (inc histogram, etc) or is it just image output?? How is it connected?? HDTV monitor or computer monitor? Etc...

I was considering just my laptop, but then thought again about what I'd really like to have is a dedicated monitor, maybe a small HD TV on a stand, or better, on a swing out arm...

Thanks for any info you'd be willing to share!

Yep.

It's going to depend on your camera - on the 1D X it has a network connection that it talks to a PC over - and the PC uses a 40" LED TV for the output.

The camera in turn writes RAW files to card one, and small JPEGs to card 2, and it's the card two images that are displayed (RAW files take about 7 seconds each to transfer, and I shoot faster than that, so it gets confusing for viewers).

The big advantage of doing it that way is that the TV is profiled.

Other options are to use HDMI or video out, but that has to run in- profiled.

Things like histograms aren't needed because of the controlled and measured lighting, but it gives a reasonable visual indication of lighting ratios (enough to know it can be polished in PP).

Mostly it just serves as a means for people to see what the camera sees (which is waaaaay different to what the eye sees), and as a sanity check for stray hairs and out of place jewellery.

[krfessl]

Terry, Colin, thanks... That's what I was looking for... There's also a series of posts on the shooting tethered thread that I just saw too...

TERRY, I just bought (in the mail now, I think) (3) B800 Bees to get started (small studio and already big spend had me go "light" (no pun intended) on the power... But I did also get their electronics to control power and do some metering as they promised the electronics included brain cells from experts like you guys)..,:-)

Colin, question... What do you mean by "profiled"? The laptop brings up another series of questions (maybe a new thread)...

I typically (today) only use it to store (backed up to a 1TB external) and upload to iPhoto on my iPad thru iTunes... I use the iPad retina display to show my pics and photos... ONE major problem with this is the sort sequence is very difficult to control in each folder of photo when uploaded off a ThinkPad...

I've been thinking of getting a MacBook Air or Pro for handling photos... I also run LR5 on the thinkpad and the CFO's HP Desktop... (Another whole story as I'm ALSO working on my LR skills... I'd NEVER done any PP before about a year ago, and still a novice there too, doing mostly nit stuff, but it hate the darn file system interface)... If nothing else, the MacBook seems to preserve sort order when loading stuff to the iPad thru iTunes... At best, I could complete separate all my photo work from my work/work...

Any suggestions from you guys? Anybody else too, of course!!

[RustBeltRaw]

I believe Colin means that his TV is regularly profiled with monitor-calibration hardware like a Spyder4 or ColorMunki. They're sensors which display a range of colors on the monitor, then adjust the output to produce the most accurate colors the monitor can produce within its gamut. The difference can be remarkable. Profiling is important for color-critical work, like portraits and product shoots.

Even though I'm a huge advocate for calibrated displays, there's fine print. First, the monitor's gamut (range of colors it can display) is only so wide. It may be wide enough for some color spaces (a set of color definitions), but not others. For example, my laptop's (carefully-selected) IPS display covers 100%of sRGB, and 94% of NTSC, as reported by my Spyder4Pro. The monitor itself has less color granularity (8-bit) than a raw file (10, 12, or 14-bit), but it can display my camera's full color gamut, which is helpful. Second, calibration settings only apply to a given brightness level, so you should try to work with your display in similar light and the same brightness settings it was calibrated at.

And yes, color space definitions, what is "white," et cetera, can drive one quite mad.

[Colin Southern]

I believe Colin means that his TV is regularly profiled with monitor-calibration hardware like a Spyder4 or ColorMunki.

Not so "regular" in my case, but otherwise yes.

They're sensors which display a range of colors on the monitor, then adjust the output to produce the most accurate colors the monitor can produce within its gamut. The difference can be remarkable. Profiling is important for color-critical work, like portraits and product shoots.

As monitors, TVs can be a pretty blunt instrument, but you need to keep in mind that in the case of tethered shooting (for me anyway) the TV isn't used for image post-processing - only for in-studio display.

In reality, profiling is doing two things (1) levels and (2) colour correction. For me, levels is the most important so I can get a reasonable feel for appropriate contrast ratios etc, but for others watching on (parents etc) the colour needs to be reasonably close too, so that skin tones don't look weird.

All in all it works pretty well - the biggest "gotcha" is that if the subject can also see the TV then they look at it after EVERY shot, which can break the momentum a bit (I sometimes block it off with a gobo).