digital SLR photography?
In a home environment, when taking a portrait using reading lights, how to achieve "studio like" turn out for portraints & still life? What equipments are essential to bring out proper lighting? Is it necessary to buy metering device, flash, transmitter, reflectors, etc?
Your best bet is to buy a cheap off camera flash and look at cheap wireless triggers. You can get a Yongnuo flash which is manually adjustable by power levels off eBay for about £40. A set of triggers, like RF-602’s (1 transmitter + 1 receiver) will cost around £35. Buy a 5-in-1 reflector (£8) and you’re good to go.
Whilst the continuous lighting solutions offered by others might be a tad cheaper, they’re a pain to white balance and you’ll quickly find out their limitations & end up with flash, particularly if you want to do a lot of this type of work. If you want to do location portraits for example, the hotshoe flash is the way to go for portability (batteries only, & lightweight).
You don’t need to buy a light meter either at this stage.
I suggest you read Lighting 101 at the Strobist site (see right hand pane);
http://strobist.blogspot.com/
LOTS of information there on off camera lighting (principally hotshoe flashes)
Posted in digital photography studio
April 18th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Necessary? No, but good gear can help.
"Reading lights" rarely provide enough light for indoor photography. If that’s what you want, you’ll need a very fast (ie: 1.8 or lower aperture) lens, a tripod, and a steady subject. A flash will make up for the lack of lighting, but will also change the feel of the photo. If you want it to look like a dimly lit room, a flash isn’t going to help. Reflectors and transmitter help if you want to change the angle of the light. You can easily get by without an external meter, especially shooting digital. Just bracket like crazy and shoot until you get the perfect exposure.
References :
April 18th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
First you need to find a book on "home" portraits or beginning portraits or anything with this idea.
Second you can take home portraits with 2 or 3 lights. The lights can be simple "flood" lights. Since finding camera shops is all but impossible, you might be able to find what you need @ "Porters"…………www.porters.com 1-800-553-2001 Or you "rube goldberg" the light’s with "utility floods" found at home improvement centers, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. You will need a source for "photo flood’ bulbs also. Porter’s may help with this also. Your can use chair backs to attach the lights. Your camera’s meter system should handle this well enough to get started.
You will need to do a lot of experimentation to get the effect you want.
The tools you mention in your question: Metering device or exposure meters or maybe even flash meters are best left to you know more about lighting. Flash, and transmitter, are advance items, you are not ready for just by the way you ask this question. You have to "grow" into these things as they become needed by you.
References :
45 yrs professional portrait and wedding photographer
April 18th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
You’re on the right path, questions and answers, learn – learn – learn.
I found this helpful
http://www.geofflawrence.com/photography_tutorial_studio_lighting.htm
References :
April 18th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Your best bet is to buy a cheap off camera flash and look at cheap wireless triggers. You can get a Yongnuo flash which is manually adjustable by power levels off eBay for about £40. A set of triggers, like RF-602’s (1 transmitter + 1 receiver) will cost around £35. Buy a 5-in-1 reflector (£8) and you’re good to go.
Whilst the continuous lighting solutions offered by others might be a tad cheaper, they’re a pain to white balance and you’ll quickly find out their limitations & end up with flash, particularly if you want to do a lot of this type of work. If you want to do location portraits for example, the hotshoe flash is the way to go for portability (batteries only, & lightweight).
You don’t need to buy a light meter either at this stage.
I suggest you read Lighting 101 at the Strobist site (see right hand pane);
http://strobist.blogspot.com/
LOTS of information there on off camera lighting (principally hotshoe flashes)
References :