Starting Out with Lighting

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mike weeks

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The Rules

1. Do not buy anything
2. Read Light Science and Magic
3. Light meters are a force for good and help with repeatability
4. Lighting White Backgrounds is something you should learn after learning how to light a subject
5. Learn to light before booking the job
6. Whoever said there is no such thing as a stupid question was stupid (there are also stupid answers, remember empty vessels make the most noise, especially on forums)
7. Buy once and buy right (you will not regret it) i.e. get a standard fit such as Bowens S
8. Start with ONE light
9. Continue with ONE light
10. Ask questions, get feedback
11. Ask more questions after applying feedback
12. Start to build up amount of lights and forget white backgrounds

What other rules should be in there?
 
My tip would be to keep it as simple as possible until you know exactly what you're doing :lol:
 
ok heres my take on it started with 2 lights as that was what was available, (camera club). then bought my own lights bowens 500"s, and played with both 1 light and 2 light setups. i've read a lot and watched vids/utube for more advice i want to do a course but they are quite expensive, and its just a hobby so i don't make any money from it. i would never "book a shoot" with a customer before ensureing i was good enough to be paid hth mike

heres a link to my early days studio work (i'm better now "honest" ;)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dinorock/sets/72157631438738880/
 
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mike weeks said:
The Rules

1. Do not buy anything
2. Read Light Science and Magic
3. Light meters are a force for good and help with repeatability
4. Lighting White Backgrounds is something you should learn after learning how to light a subject
5. Learn to light before booking the job
6. Whoever said there is no such thing as a stupid question was stupid (there are also stupid answers, remember empty vessels make the most noise, especially on forums)
7. Buy once and buy right (you will not regret it) i.e. get a standard fit such as Bowens S
8. Start with ONE light
9. Continue with ONE light Use that light to create the required shadows. Add extra lights only if needed, and after getting the shadows created by the first light right.
10. Ask questions, get feedback
11. Ask more questions after applying feedback
12. Start to build up amount of lights and forget white backgrounds

What other rules should be in there?
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13. Expect most advice to be wrong, and work out which advice is actually worth listening to.
14. Experiment, experiment and experiment. Keep trying new things
15. Use still life subjects as a learning tool.
16. Don't believe that there is such a thing as a standard lighting setup for any situation - there isn't.
17. Ignore lighting diagrams, partly because of rule 16 and partly because lighting is 3 dimensional, lighting diagrams aren't.
18. The most indispensable items in your kit will be masking tape, gaffer tape, lighting gels and imagination.
 
Great thread Mike :thumbs:

Some fundamentals of lighting:

- Almost always, just one light will be doing the lion's share of the important work - the key light - even if you are using multiple lights. Other lights are subordinate, for background, hair, fill-in or other effects.
- The larger the light source, the softer/lighter the shadows. Size is relative to distance, so a big softbox used further away casts progressively darker/harder shadows, and vice versa.
- Brightness reduces rapidly with distance, closely following the Inverse Square Law. ISL says that when the distance from light source to subject is doubled, the brightness is reduced to one quarter - a reduction of two stops.
- Light reflects (bounces) off a subject at the same angle it strikes, like a snooker ball off the cushion. Bright specula highlights follow this rule, and it's also used to position reflectors or when bouncing flash off walls/ceiling.
 
1. Buy everything, you're probably going to end up needing it anyway.
 
Think Elinchrom, Profoto, Broncolor et al users might question point 7.
 
Ahh, right.

What are non-standard fittings then?

A friend has one of those weirdo things off eBay that has no mount at all, but it words just fine with brollies and brolly boxes. Is that what the OP meant I wonder?

Back to swatting Mosquitoes, b********d things! Getting eaten alive.
 
Kris said:
Ahh, right.

What are non-standard fittings then?

A friend has one of those weirdo things off eBay that has no mount at all, but it words just fine with brollies and brolly boxes. Is that what the OP meant I wonder?

Back to swatting Mosquitoes, b********d things! Getting eaten alive.
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Kinda. And the 'non standard' ones don't work, because they don't fill,softboxes properly, and you're stuck with what they sold you in the kit, and the built in reflector is..... Y' know.

No mozzies here, just the Brazil game (probably as irritating).
 
You can accept a few foibles with £40 quid lights, but ProFoto D1s and now B1s suffer the same fate.

Mosquito repellent ... doesn't.
 
Kris said:
You can accept a few foibles with £40 quid lights, but ProFoto D1s and now B1s suffer the same fate.

Mosquito repellent ... doesn't.
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Don't the profoto head built in reflectors 'zoom'?
 
Nah, the Profoto zoom head is a little bit of a misnomer.

The modifiers can mount (by closing the sprung snap fixing) at various points along the head (numbered on the side), but the head and its reflector stays put.

Why this design is so popular I don't know, would make a Beauty Dish pretty useless if you ask me.
 
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Kris said:
Why this design is so popular I don't know, would make a Beauty Dish pretty useless if you ask me.
Click to expand...


Some are fairly critical of the design, they do make a glass dome available which makes sense if you want to use it with a beauty dish or other large modifier.

I didn't notice too much difference with smaller softboxes.
 
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