OMG! Lighting?!?!

N

NoName

Suspended / Banned
Messages
4
Name
Deidra Coker
Edit My Images
Yes
I've read website after website, materials, materials, and more materials. In the end, I'm STILL confused. I didn't take any photography classes and I haven't had any formal training. I've been using misc. cameras all my life - as I love taking pictures - however, knowing what is what and where to use what and what goes where, is all beyond me. I'm a freelance photographer in Southeast Texas. I just started doing this for money last year. I've done 2 weddings now, with a third one coming up in a couple of weeks. I stopped buying school pictures for my kids long ago when I realized I was being ripped off. I just take them myself. Outdoor photography always has pleasing results, but indoor photography tends to leave a heavy shadow in low lit areas. I've been having to put in extra time to manipulate the images with the shadows via Photoshop, but that's so time consuming. I have 2 hotshoe flashes that I use - a Canon Speedlite 220EX and a Canon Speedlite 580EX II. Is there something else that anyone can recommend for shooting indoor weddings?

I'm also wanting to solicit myself to the schools in the area, offering cheaper packages and better poses. I'm fairly certain that it's necessary for me to have an actual studio lighting kit - that's portable. Suggestions? Preferrably inexpensive, yet sufficient, until I can upgrade to a better system.
 
Your best bet is to have a look at www.strobist.com. They are the flash experts and a lot of their kit is US based that we don't sometimes get here in the UK.

If you look at some of the kit, like the quantum though, it ends up being just as cheap to buy a portable studio set.

Best of luck with it!
 
a reflector to fill in the dark shadows or another flash head. dont know what layout your using or how bad the problem to really comment much. garry edwards posted a link to some basic lighting tutorials, that might help. probably done with studio lighting, but a few setting changes should make it applicable to you
 
This is the link to my basic lighting guides, hope they help.

The Strobist site is useful, but their methods are really best suited to photojournalists who need quick lighting solutions on the run. For what you have in mind, you need the control and ease of simple studio lighting, with the convenience of modelling lamps so you can see what you're doing.

In the USA, your best lighting supplier is probably Alien Bees - cheap and cheerful (in more ways than one :-) and fine for your needs
 
Thanks guys for the help. I did send an email over to Alien Bees in the hopes that they will help me out. In the meantime, another quick question - what difference is produced from using a softbox vs. an umbrella and vice versa? And for what I need - portraits of children - which is best?
 
A stupid question to everyone else studying or experienced photographers, but I have to ask... what is "f/35" or an "f35" - 35 just being a number out of my head. My question is what does the "f" stand for?
 
They say that no question is a stupid question - but I'm a bit surprised that you need to ask such basic questions after telling us that you're a freelance photographer who's photographed a couple of weddings...

Softboxes basically combine the qualities of reflective and shoot through umbrellas. There's no 'best' tool for any job, it all depends on your level of skill, the amount of space available and the effect you want to achieve.

f/ simply denotes the physical size of the lens aperture/focal length of lens.
e.g. F100, size of aperture 9mm = f/11
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top