I usually don't get into peoples' business, but this has been gnawing at me all weekend long....

I went to one of those "balls" on Saturday where people dress up and dance and whatnot, and get their picture taken like they were at the prom.  As we were about to go get our photos taken before the event, I noticed the lady who was shooting.  She had been apparently doing this event for years.  Well, she had the standard setup, a big muslin backdrop and two strobes set at about equal distance apart to the left/right.  This will give a nice subtle shadow and is damnned near full-proof.

This lady had two alienbees with octoboxes set up to the left and right equal distance.....except the lights were at waist-level.    The wife was anxious to get her photo taken and I told her to hang back for about 10 or so couples so the photographer could get into her "groove" and then she'd notice her lighting.  Never happened.  I told the wife not to have any expectations about the photos, and once we got through the process, the photographer let us see the images on her screen and we looked like Frankenstein, up lit and everything.  

I almost said something, but decided not to out of professional courtesy.  What boggled my mind was that she had a more expensive camera than me!  She had a $6,000 canon, probably $1,500 in lighting, and a few hundred in backdrops, but hadn't taken the time to learn lighting.  This is why I always tell starting photographers to work on the cheap first, because it never fails that once they get a little money their eyes start oogling the good stuff and learning the art of lighting goes by the wayside.  

Study some paintings, emulate those, buy the necessary equipment, but don't forget the lighting.  That's all.

Reminds me of the time I was asked to take photos at my aunts 80th birthday. My cousin had also asked her 'pro' photog friend to help out. Owned her own portrait studio and all. I was shooting my d300 and struggled in the poor light to get an SS of 1/[email protected] and an ISO of 1000-1200ish. (28-75mm) In chatting with the 'pro' she was shooting with a canon 5d and was using a 'high' ISO of 400 and I know her lens was a 70-200 ( no faster than f2.8). You can work out what her SS was and shockingly none of her shots came out.  

The poor 'pro' had no clue how to deal with non-studio lighting. I'd been shooting tons of sporting events and beauty pagents with garbage lighting and knew sometimes ya gotta crank your ISO.

I spent a bit of time as a master electrician and designed a few lighting plots for theatrical productions (mostly and actor and director when I was in the business).  I learned the same way you suggest.  Learn the instruments and their capabilities.  Then study paintings and learn how the artists use lighting.  Design lighting plots that replicate the look and then set it up with the available instruments.

Most students I teach just want to throw lights up on the subject (in a unit right now dealing with that issue).  It doesn't just come to you.  You got to learn and either take advantage of the given light or make it yourself.  That is an acquired skill.

Curious do you guys have a suggestion for learning more about lighting? Esp. natural light because I haven't seen the need for a flash so far, but never really bothered to look into them either.

You can learn a LOT about light by observation.  In fact, the best way to learn about light is to study shadow.  I've found that lighting books rarely give you anything useful and serve more as a coffee table book than an instructional booklet.  The exception to that rule is the Hotshoe Diaries.  There may be more out there, but I haven't looked in a few years.  

Study the master painters, as they seem to have the best handle on the quality of light that I've seen.  

Again, study shadow, and that'll be the best way to learn light.  For instance, the seasons are changing.  You'll notice how the shadows get darker in the Winter than Summer.  That's because the sun is moving further away.  You can replicate it by shining a flashlight on something close up, then move it further away.  

Experiment with direction, distance, intensity, diffusion of light sources.  

I have found strobist to be a great place for info. And the above post also...


http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/

Thanks guys.

Strobist is awesome!  But the only thing is one has to have a basic understanding of light to be able to appreciate how they do it.  A lot of guys get on that site and are only interested in where to place lighting, not knowing why.  They usually fail every time.  When I started out, I did 6mo of nothing but B/W photography, to the point I almost saw everything in B/W, or light and shadow.  It's a great way to learn really if you don't want to take formal classes.  Just a thought.

I completely agree with you.

Go to some place like theatrebooks.com and check out some of the stuff there. One needs to understand how lighting actually works before you just start throwing strobes everywhere. Most of those books go far more into the actual theory behind things and what the end result is, especially the subjective suggestions you can create with lighting. Most photography lighting books are lacking.

You can use flashes in broad daylight, too, this way you can avoid shadows even when the subject is between you and the sun or if the subject of the photo is not directly in the sun.  This picture was taken with the sun shining from the left side of the picture (her back) and with a flash firing off at a distance directly in front of her.  Dynamic daylight flash is used to fill shadows.  That shoot was literally my first attempt with a remote flash and TTL command mode with my D300s and a Nikon SB700.

Abby Jane by industrialearth47, on Flickr

Good idea.


Only in the Southern Hemisphere.  

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