Your Guide To Better Pictures...

... A Beginners Guide To Studio LightingBy Chris Burfoot A.M.P.A. A.R.P.S. A.S.W.P.P. ©2005

In Association With:

TFC COURSES

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What Type Of Light? - Tungsten Vs. FlashTraditionally, continuous lighting was always used in studio situations. However, in more recent years and in the vast majority of studios, electronic fl ash is now the norm.Tungsten (continuous) light has the advantage of being a little less expensive than fl ash, but unfortunately the many drawbacks out-weigh this.

The main problem with tungsten light is that it generates more heat than light, the colour of the light it produces is very yellow and it gets worse as the bulb ages. This means that you have to use either a tungsten balanced fi lm or a fi lter on your camera to compensate. There is also a very limited range of accessories.

Anyone who has spent any time either side of the camera with tungsten light will know all about the heat it produces. This can make your subject very uncomfort-able and due to the brightness, causes the iris of the eye to close right down. It is often the case that eyes look more attrac-tive with a larger pupil.

The disadvantage of using a standard on-camera type fl ashgun is that you can’t see the lighting until you get your photos back!

Studio fl ash overcomes this problem by using a modelling lamp which should mimic the light pro-duced by the fl ash tube. This enables you to set up your lighting with the confi dence of being able to see what you are going to get! - WYSIWYG - What you see is what you get!

However, various makes of studio fl ash have modelling lamps which are not always equal. I have always used the Prolinca/Elinchrom system because of the advantages they give me. Firstly the modelling lamp bulb is exactly in the centre of the fl ash tube and almost the same size. This means that the modelling light is virtually identical to the fl ash - WYSIWYG!

Another big plus of this system is the huge range of accessories, the secure accessory fi tting and the performance of the fl ash. The fl ash duration is very fast, typically over 1/2000th sec. This means that not only will it freeze action, but there are no problems mixing the fl ash with daylight, and using a fast shutter speed. Recycling times are also very fast, generally less than a second! So I never miss a shot! Big problems can occur if your shutter is faster than the fl ash!

With bright tungsten light the iris closes right down.

With fl ash the iris does not react fast enough to be a

problem.

never miss a shot! Big problems can occur if your shutter is faster than the fl ash!

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never miss a shot! Big problems can occur if your shutter is faster than the fl ash!

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What Do I Need To Buy?

You can start off with a very basic outfi t. Pictured here is a One Head Starter Set. It consists of a fl ash head, a stand, a refl ector and a small softbox. We will discuss the use of softboxes later, but this will give you the basics to enable you to produce very acceptable portraits of your family or friends.

This one head starter sets start from a little over £200 + Vat. Once you progress onto using more heads, a Flashmeter becomes necessary - see page 16 for an overview of using one.

OK, lets have a brief look at how a studio fl ash head works and what you can do with a single head.

If you look at the front of a studio fl ash head you will see a fl ash tube - on this Elinchrom example, the tube is the circular one with a modelling lamp

in the centre. (The higher output 250w Halolux is fi tted to this head.)The modelling lamp provides a continuous light so that you can see the effect you are creating.

The fl ash tube on the standard head is horseshoe shaped with a terminal on each end. The glass envelope is fi lled with a non-conductive gas and wrapped around this is a trigger wire. The fl ash energy is stored in capaci-tors within the main body. Voltages are extremely high so never take one apart!

When the fl ash is fi red a 25,000 volt charge is run through the trigger wire ionising the gas. This allows the power to pass between the terminals and in doing so, energy is released in the form of heat and light. All this happens in around 1/2000th second!

I am sure that there are occasions when it is very convenient to pop a fl ash on top of your camera and yes, this is the way camera manu-facturers design them to work. The trouble is that it’s probably the worst place to put it!

Light from the camera position causes many problems. Firstly you can see the very unattractive “Red-Eye”. This is caused by the fl ash refl ecting off the rear surface of the eye. Secondly it gives a heavy shadow on the wall behind the subject and thirdly it has produced a very fl at light that shows no shape or substance to the subject. Because the fl ash is a very small light source it is also a very hard light source. We will talk later of hard and soft lighting effects.

How Does A Flash Work?

Let’s Take Some Pictures!

Taken with on-camera fl ash - Red-eye and shadows - yuk!

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By moving the light around to the side we can achieve two things very easily. Firstly we remove the shadow from the background and secondly we now have a “lit” and an “un-lit” side to Laura’s face.

In this example we have also placed a blue background behind our model. The con-trast is now far too high between the two sides of her face but it does tell your brain that she is a 3 dimensional subject rather than a cardboard cut-out!

We could now add a second light from the left to fill those shadows. But we must be careful, if our second light was set at the same power we would be back to flat light-ing and two sets of shadows!

So let’s leave our second light in its box for the moment and use a reflector.

Using A Reflector PanelIn this example we have turned the models’ shoulders away from the camera and added a silver reflector panel to the left side. It is quite amazing how much light can be bounced back. We have still retained the difference in light levels on the left and right of her face keeping the 3D effect.

How High Should My Light Be?Generally speaking for flattering lighting, light should come from above. Light from below is very un-natural as you can see! There was a very old camera club rule that nose shadows should go down but should not cut into the lip. I don’t believe in rules for lighting - it depends on what you are trying to achieve. This lighting style would make a great “evil” theatrical portrait!

Hard Light - Soft LightOne of the basic principals of lighting is that “The bigger the light the softer it is”.

You can see from the example that the on camera flash is a very hard light, it is also very small - about 2x1cm! The other photographs so far, have been taken with a studio flash fitted with a 16cm reflector. This has the immediate effect of making the light softer simply because it is bigger. But if we shoot the head into an umbrella we can make our light source bigger still and we can spread the light over a larger area softening it further.

Think about nature. In the desert in Africa the Sun is a tiny point source of light and it therefore gives a very hard high contrast light. We all know that the Sun is immense but because it is 93 mil-lion miles away, in relation to us it looks very small. On the other hand if we think about a typical summer in the UK where we have cloud cover from horizon to horizon, the whole dome of sky becomes our light source. This gives very soft light with hardly any shadows.

So, let’s fit an umbrella onto our light and see what happens. Tip: When using a brolly don’t forget to adjust it so that the modelling light is filling, but is not spilling over the edge of it - don’t waste your light!!

By adding a silver brolly to our head we have increased the diame-ter of the light from 16cm to 85cm. We are also now using reflected light rather than direct. The light is softer and more flat-tering. Note that we have still retained the shading on the left and the background has become darker as there is not so much light falling onto it.Silver brollies retain a rea-sonable amount of contrast

Making Light Softer

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and “sparkle”. They are also very efficient so very little light is lost. For a more natural look a white brolly could be used, or, softer still a white translucent one. The translucent brolly can be used in two ways. Either in “shoot through” or reflective modes. Take a look at the following examples.

We have seen that by lighting from the side we can make a subject look more three dimen-sional. But to add that extra depth to the photograph, we should unpack the second head.

To give good separation between your subject and the background a second light can be used in two ways. To light the background or to back-light the subject.

We have, however, to be care-ful that the light from the second head goes where we want it to! By fitting a snoot or a honeycomb to the head we can control where the light falls.

In the example on the right you can see how a splash of light on the background livens the whole picture up and gives more depth. Now let’s turn the second light around and back-light Laura.

You can see how a little light from behind gives separation from the background and brings the hair to life showing its true texture and colour. Hair absorbs light and can look very dull if

not lit. The splash of light over Laura’s left shoulder emphases the fact that she is three dimensional. It is important not to have the hair light too powerful, especially on blonde hair as

it will easily burn out. A quar-ter to half a stop more than the main exposure will give a good result with blonde hair, going up to a full stop for black hair.Of course if you have a third light you can light the back-ground as well or you can back-light from both sides!

Adding A Second Light

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Using A Main And Fill Light In this next set-up we have replaced our reflector with a “fill” light. Our main or “key” light is fitted with the same silver umbrella and placed at the side position as before. In addition to this we have used our second head, fitted with a translucent, or “shoot through” umbrella. This fill light is placed close to the camera position slightly higher than the subject. It is set to give one f-stop less light than the main light onto the model. This can be easily set up using a flashmeter and by taking readings from each head individually. E.g. if the main light is giving a reading of f11, the fill should give a reading of f8. Don’t forget to take another reading with both lights and set that as your aperture. By adding a third head as a background light we put that little extra depth into our picture.

Main

Fill

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Using A SoftboxSoftboxes are available in the Prolinca and Elinchrom ranges in various sizes from 40cms square up to the amazing Octa which is almost 2 metres across!

The most useful sizes for portrait work are the 70cm or 100cm square, although the Prolinca 60x60cm is great value for money and works very well. Remember, the bigger the light the softer it is. To get the softest light from your softbox - get close! If used just out of view of the camera, it will give you a lovely, soft, diffused light. The bigger it is the more “wrap-around” it will be - a 100x100cm was used in these examples.

With a white reflector as a fill

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As you can see from the diagram, this is the same set-up but with the addition of a background light which “lifts” the picture from the page.

But for a totally different look, let’s try “Butterfly” lighting with the softbox. This is achieved by placing the main light directly in front of the model, but quite high. As you can see this gives light from above, so our shaded side is now underneath her chin. Incidentally, this technique is called “Butterfly” lighting because the nose shadow is supposed to resemble one! (difficult to see with a soft light)

The light from above gives a similar result to the first exam-ple in this section. Instead of the left side of Laura’s face being in shadow, it’s now under the eyes, nose and chin where we need some “fill”. By placing a silver reflector on her lap and another either side, or by using a Lastolite “Triflector” plus a honeycomb back light, we can achieve a superb portrait which emphasises the model’s eyes. (Example overleaf)

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Shot with the Lastolite “Trifl ector” original version exclusive to The Flash Centre and highly recommended!

You can also totally change the look of a portrait just by changing the background colour! Here the light-ing hasn’t altered but we have a completely different look.

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Hard And Soft Together!There is no reason why a hard light source cannot be mixed with a soft one. It has the advantage of giving a very flattering effect, but still retaining some “punch”. Have a look at the shots below and before you look at the diagram, see if you can work out where the lights are and what acces-sories I have used.

The same set-up was used for both photographs. I used just three heads, one softbox, one 21cm reflector and one honeycomb. The set is made very simply with some net curtaining, fur rugs, a beanbag and a few old tea-chests! The net curtains are threaded onto a child’s hoop which is hung flat to the ceiling.

The same set-up was used for both photographs. I used just three heads, one softbox, one 21cm reflector and one honeycomb. The set is made very simply with some net curtaining, fur rugs, a beanbag and a few old tea-chests! The net curtains are threaded onto a child’s hoop which is hung flat to the ceiling.

Draped nets

Honeycomb +Red Gel

MainFill

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Shooting With Two SoftboxesFor the softest, most flattering lighting, two softboxes will give lovely results.

In this case one 100x100cm and one 70x70cm softbox have been combined. As you can see, the main light was placed on the right of the camera and the fill, set at 1 f-stop less was to the left. A third head fitted with a honeycomb was directed at the back of Laura’s head to spill over her shoulder and bring out the detail in her hair.

The lighting hasn’t changed! But just look at the difference a change of background has made!

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f8

f9.5

When using a white background it is very important that it is not overlit. The white back-ground will act as a reflector and bounce a huge amount of light back towards your camera and onto the back of your subject.

Many magazine articles and a few enthusiastic camera club members have also told me that, to get a pure white background it should be over-exposed by two f-stops! I can tell you here and now that this is nonsense.

A white background, if correctly exposed will reproduce as white - because it IS white. If you overexpose it by 2 f-stops it will throw back so much light it would overexpose the back of your subject so much, that you would lose all the edge definition (especially around the hair). You can see the effect here - notice also that because of the flare in the lens the whole image has become de-saturated!

The easiest white background is obtained by using smooth uncreased paper or a white smooth wall. White paper only requires between 0.25 and 0.5 of an f-stop more than the sub-ject to ensure a clean, pure white background.

White cloth backgrounds require a little more light to burn out the creases but this has to be very controlled . I would recommend that you have no more that 0.5 of a stop more on the background than the subject.

Tip: If shooting digitally, turn off the front light(s) and take a picture. Check your preview screen and your subject should then be a silhouette. Any loss of edge definition will be easy to spot!

Lighting A White Background

Subject f8 - Background f16(2 stops more!)

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Mixing Flash And DaylightThis is a great technique to master, particularly if you shoot weddings or environmental por-traiture. Imagine the scene - 100+ wedding guests to photograph - typical UK summer weather - pouring with rain! Should you stick on your “on-camera” flash and shoot on programme so that your shots look just like those taken by all the guests? Or, do you take the opportunity to set up a light or two and produce some rather special pictures?

Of course the latter is a much better alternative, but then there is the problem of balancing the flash with the daylight. You won’t want the view through the windows or doors in the photo-graphs to look like night time, so lets do the balancing act!

Step 1.Choose a flash synchronisation shutter speed and set that on your camera - let’s say 1/125th.Step 2.Point your camera through the window and see what aperture you would need to use at 1/125th to get a correct exposure (or you can also use a hand held meter). Let’s say for example its f8, this means if you were to set your camera to 1/125th at f8 and take a picture through the window it would be correctly exposed.Step 3.Set-up your light(s) inside and using a flash meter, take a reading from your lights and adjust them to give you f8 inside as well. (Note - make sure the lights are not reflected in the win-dows!)Step 4.With your camera set to 1/125th and f8 the photo will be correctly exposed both inside and out. But to make the outside appear a little brighter than inside and therefore look more natural simply reduce your shutter speed. If you were to drop your shutter speed to 1/60th the outside would be 1 f-stop over exposed - 1/30th and it would be 2f-stops over etc.. But, the inside will remain correctly exposed as this is being illuminated by the flash and the longer exposure does not vary this. In fact, it is the flash duration that freezes the image, - you can even hand hold at ridiculously slow speeds so long as you are using a flash with a fast flash duration and the ambi-ent light levels are not too high.

Note: For this reason it is always beneficial to select flash units that combine good fast flash durations with excellent low power stability - many do not. These are just a couple of advantages of the latest professional digital units.

Shutter reduced to 1/30th @ f8Inside and outside balanced 1/125 @ f8

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Shooting Still-LifeThe techniques used for still-life are just the same as those shown for portraits. Lighting to show shape and form is from one side. In this set-up a 70x70 softbox has been placed at one side to give the effect of light through a window. A reflector on the right bounces the light back to fill the shadow side.

The easiest way to photograph products with a shadowless background is to use the Colorama Mini-Cove which can be painted any colour you like. Placing a 70x70cm softbox fitted to a boom stand (the Elinchrom Polystand) and placing it above is a very simple and easy way to photograph small items.

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Digital Or Film?All the examples shown here were taken on a Canon 10D Digital SLR camera.Lighting techniques are the same for film. The real difference with digital is that you don’t need quite as much power, but for both you do need power stability. Throughout this publication, I have used the Elinchrom Style 400FX units which offer an amazing power range from 25 up to 400 watt seconds! This also provides stability of +/- 0.5%, so every exposure is the same and the colour balance will be consistant thoughout.

We looked earlier at what you will need to create and control the light. You can find detailed information about the more advanced accessories at the back of this guide.As stated already, you can start with a simple one head kit which you can then be expanded to match your developing skill and requirements. Elinchrom offer some very effective low cost solutions. But the main advantage of over 30 years experience in the business... is that they can provide every accessory you could ever need to get the job done.

Using A Flashmeter - Don’t Panic!The first thing to do is to set your camera to manual! It doesn’t matter how clever your camera is, you can’t use it on “auto” with studio flash!You need to set your shutter speed to the syncronisation setting for electronic flash (see your instruction book). If in doubt set it to 1/60th second. This leaves only the aperture to set which will depend on what the ISO rating of your film is. For general studio work to optimise quality I would recommend you stick to 100 ISO.Next, set the film ISO onto the meter and connect the sync lead between your main light and the PC socket on the meter.For this example let’s say that we are taking a portrait with one light and we are using 100 ISO film. Hold the flashmeter in front of your subject’s face and point it at the light. Press the button on the meter to fire the flash and it will read the light falling on your subject, giving you a recommended aperture. Set this on your camera and fire away! - I told you not to panic! It’s as

easy as that.

In this picture I have shown a typi-cal flashmeter and its functions. They will vary from make to make but most are similar in the way their controls function. The meter above also works with ambient light which is very useful if you are combining flash and daylight.

Use the diffuser cover when reading flash.

Shutter Speed

Sync lead from the flash head plugs into here.

On/Off control.

Mode button and mode display. Used to set Flash/Daylight mode

When the flash is fired correct aperture is shown here.

Set your film speed with this button.

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Metering Several Heads.As we have seen, taking a meter reading from a single head is very simple. But what about when you start using multiple heads? It is actually very straight forward.

Let’s say we are using a main light and a second light on the background. The first step is to take a reading from the main light as explained previously and set that as your aperture on your camera. Follow the diagram below to balance subsequent lights.

If the reading from the first position is, say, f11 that is what you set on your camera. If the read-ing from the background light also gives f11 the background will be the same density as the subject.

For a lighter background increase the power so that the reading is more than f11 e.g. f16 (= one stop brighter) For a darker background the reading should be f8 (=one stop darker).

Tip: If you run out of adjustment on your head it can be moved closer for more light or away for less. - Double the distance = 2 stops less.The same principal applies to hair and back lights. - Easy isn’t it!

= Flashmeter (a rather large one!)

Take first reading here and set aperture onto the

camera

Take second reading here to measure light falling on

background.

Learn the rules - so you know how to break them properly!

Lighting Accessories.We have already discussed the more popular accessories like honeycombs and snoots let’s take a look at what they do.

Snoot:The Snoot produces a hard edged circle of light and is one of the most popular accessories. It is conical in shape and fi ts onto the front of a head. Mainly used as a backlight or hair light with good tight control.

Honeycomb:The honeycomb produces a soft edged circle of light. Mainly used as a back or hair light or for

putting a graduated circle of light onto the background. Many people (including myself) prefer the effect of the honeycomb to the more harsh effect of the snoot.A variety of honeycombs are available which give different angles of illumination. Honeycombs are often used with coloured fi lter gels to change the colour of the background.

Umbrellas:We have already discussed the various types of umbrellas. To recap: Silver brollies are very effi cient, this means very little light loss. They give a punchy sparkle to your pictures. White refl ective brollies give a natural soft light, which is ideal for children and older people. Translucent (shoot-through) brollies give the softest, most diffused light. However, they are not so effi cient. In a small room the refl ected light can add to the fi ll -in!

Softboxes:The softest of all - and the bigger they are the softer they are. Their effect is similar to the shoot-

through brolly but the light is much more controlled. For head and shoulder portraits a 60 or 70cm square softbox will work well. For half to three-quarter length the 100cm square is better (can even be used for full length if your subject is not too tall!) If you ever get the chance to use an Elinchrom Octa you will be spoilt forever!

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Focussing Spots:We have all seen the spotlight effect on stage which gives a perfect circle of light. The same system is available for studio fl ash. Within the Elinchrom and Prolinca ranges there are a number of “spotlight” accessories.

The Minispot:This has a focusing lens and a separate holder for “gobos” and fi lters. “Gobos” are metal discs with vari-ous patterns cut out of them, which can be projected through the spotlight to give different patterns of light on the subject or background.

The 18/36 Zoom Spot:This provides a similar effect to the Minispot but also has a zoom control to vary the angle of illumination. It is supplied with a complete system of accessories including masks, gobos, fi lter holder and fi lters.

This is just a small selection of the most popular accessories. Take a look through the system leafl et for more ideas!leafl et for more ideas!

With huge thanks to Elinchrom and The Flash Centre and very special thanks to Laura my model and friend - without her patience and stunning looks this guide would not

have been possible.

Chris Burfoot

Want to know more?

Why not treat yourself to a lighting course and see it all in action?

Portrait Lighting CoursesFor Beginners

By Chris Burfoot A.M.P.A. A.R.P.S. A.S.W.P.P.

For dates and a booking form contact:TFC Courses, Pembroke Photography, 01249 444750

e-mail: tfccourses@clara.co.uk or go towww.thefl ashcentre.com

and follow the link.

Learn how to produce stunning professional portraits with the minimum of equipment.

Even for people who have never even seen a studio light before we guarantee you will leave with some great portraits in your camera!

The courses are run by Pembroke Photography in association with Elinchrom Studio Flash Systems and The Flash Centre although all the techniques are the same for any make or type of lighting.

The course tutor is Chris Burfoot A.M.P.A. A.R.P.S. A.S.W.P.P. who has been teaching lighting techniques for over 20 years, Chris is a regular lecturer for The Royal Photographic Society and the author of the highly successful Lighting Guides produced for The Flash Centre.

The courses are limited to around 12/15 delegates so there is plenty of time for shooting your own pictures.