My First Light Studio Questions

[Hivoltage]

I have an Alien Bee 800, a 580 EXII with a remote mount for it, a wireless flash setter offer:lol:, a set of reflectors, 2 stands, 2 umbrellas, a Sekonic 308 meter, and a muslin backdrop. I am just clearing out a space for it and unpacking the stuff.

I thought I knew what I was doing until I had it all in front of me, what is my best option for all this stuff to get started experimenting with taking portrait type photographs of friends and family.

Please help a poor slob just trying to take some nice Portraits!!!!!!

[Tareq]

Take photos and post them.
Too bad you have 1 strobe and one speedlit, but no problem, use that 1 light behind your or the camera, or place it at an angle say 45 degree and take some photos, if you didn't start you don't know what are you going to do or want, don't fear to start anyway, we all are learning and experimenting.

[PacAce]

I have an Alien Bee 800, a 580 EXII with a remote mount for it, a wireless flash setter offer:lol:, a set of reflectors, 2 stands, 2 umbrellas, a Sekonic 308 meter, and a muslin backdrop. I am just clearing out a space for it and unpacking the stuff.

I thought I knew what I was doing until I had it all in front of me, what is my best option for all this stuff to get started experimenting with taking portrait type photographs of friends and family.

Please help a poor slob just trying to take some nice Portraits!!!!!!

Set up the backdrop.

Set up the AB on the stand and attach an umbrella to it. Position the light to your left (or right, whichever you prefer). Adjust the height so that it's a little higher then the subject. Pick an aperture you'd like to shoot with and then adjust the strobe until the meter gives you an aperture reading you selected.

Take a picture of the subject and verify that you're getting the correct exposure (don't worry about the quality of the light yet). If so, then compare the highlight part of the subject to the shadow part. Is the shadow area too dark? If so, position the reflector to bounce some light from the strobe into the shadow area. You'll need to adjust the distance of the reflector from the subject to get the desired amount of shadow fill.

Move the strobe around and play with the height of the strobe to see how that affects the look of your image.

Once you're comfortable working with one light and a reflector, you can start playing around with adding a second light to replace the reflector as the primary fill source.

[bobbyz]

Photoflex webschool has lots of lessons which can be helpful.
For now I would suggets to use only the AB and say a reflector, if you want to use your 580, use it as bg or hair light.

[Wilt]

I have an Alien Bee 800, a 580 EXII with a remote mount for it, a wireless flash setter offer:lol:, a set of reflectors, 2 stands, 2 umbrellas, a Sekonic 308 meter, and a muslin backdrop. I am just clearing out a space for it and unpacking the stuff.

I thought I knew what I was doing until I had it all in front of me, what is my best option for all this stuff to get started experimenting with taking portrait type photographs of friends and family.

Please help a poor slob just trying to take some nice Portraits!!!!!!

You might even abandon the lighting equipment entirely at first! Just get a halogen desk light, plug it in, and move it around a willing 'subject' to learn to see the effect of moving the light to different places relative to the face and lens. Then get a second halogen light and plug it in, and learn to see the effect of moving the second light to different positions and at different distances relative to the subject. Then trying doing it with photographic lights!

[Tareq]

You might even abandon the lighting equipment entirely at first! Just get a halogen desk light, plug it in, and move it around a willing 'subject' to learn to see the effect of moving the light to different places relative to the face and lens. Then get a second halogen light and plug it in, and learn to see the effect of moving the second light to different positions and at different distances relative to the subject. Then trying doing it with photographic lights!

I thought that modeling lamps can do that on strobes?

[Hivoltage]

Some good pointers everybody, thanks for the info.....plus I will check out the photoflex website.

[Wilt]

I thought that modeling lamps can do that on strobes?


They can, assuming she has modelling lights on both (which she doesn't!)

But a lot of beginners think about buying a set of lights, so they can learn. They don't need to buy anything before starting to learn the absolute basics of lighting!

We should remember, Rembrandt never had modelling lights, but he saw one of the very first lighting setups to be mimic'd by photographers with artificial light sources!

[Perry Ge]

It's also worth using the lightmeter to learn how light falloff and distance are related. See how many stops difference there are between subject and background at different distances. This way, you can learn to control whether you have a white, gray, or completely black background. Background is important.

[Hivoltage]

OK, I am bout ready to do some test shots....a couple more questions. First I am using an AB800 on one side and a reflector on the other side. Should I turn off most of the room lights or will that not be a problem with the strobe.....and what mode should I shoot with my 40D set to ? Thanks!!!

[Wilt]

OK, I am bout ready to do some test shots....a couple more questions. First I am using an AB800 on one side and a reflector on the other side. Should I turn off most of the room lights or will that not be a problem with the strobe.....and what mode should I shoot with my 40D set to ? Thanks!!!

Depends upon aperture and shutter speed used! Meter for ambient...if the reading is -3EV under the exposure by flash, you are safe to leave room lights on.

Shoot with camera on M

[Tareq]

OK, I am bout ready to do some test shots....a couple more questions. First I am using an AB800 on one side and a reflector on the other side. Should I turn off most of the room lights or will that not be a problem with the strobe.....and what mode should I shoot with my 40D set to ? Thanks!!!

- Turn off room light
- Use M
- Set you aperture to f8 as start
- Set Shutter at 1/125 as start
- ISO 100 [I think 40D doesn't have ISO 50].
- Take a shot while your adjust your light at say 1/8 of full power

If the result is overexposure then adjust the light at about 1/16 or 1/32 if necessary.
If the result is underexposure then adjust your light at about 1/4 or even 1/2 of full power.
You don't need to change the shutter speed and the aperture and the ISO and everything each time you take a shot if it is not good, i fixed my all camera settings as i know what i want and i just change the light power as i want.

I know this is not a good way, but i know many will tell you use light meter, and many will say something else, but i will say you should experiment it, one advise i will give you is that if you make the light closer to the model you gonna have some hot spots or harsh light so place it little far from the model and i hope you using umbrella or softbox to diffuse the light.

Good luck.

[form]

I don't use or have a light meter myself, and so I just do a few test exposures. Works just about as well, and costs $250 less.

I put up my background, then put lights up in specific places based on where I expect the subject to be. Then I put the camera up, take some shots, experiment.

[Tareq]

I don't use or have a light meter myself, and so I just do a few test exposures. Works just about as well, and costs $250 less.

I put up my background, then put lights up in specific places based on where I expect the subject to be. Then I put the camera up, take some shots, experiment.

This is what i do as well, i don't work professionally so i need too much lights and light meter and i large space with beautiful models, i just shoot my daughters and i have all the time to experiment my light as i want, i have one friend who is working in Media field and he told me that he got lights few days ago and he has a shooting session tomorrow and he needs a light meter as he will shoot clients who will not wait him to experiment the lights for long time, and i recommend him a light meter as he is new in studio lighting so he shouldn't waste time in this important opportunity, when he is alone with his friends then he can try himself slowly.

[bobbyz]

I don't use or have a light meter myself, and so I just do a few test exposures. Works just about as well, and costs $250 less.

I put up my background, then put lights up in specific places based on where I expect the subject to be. Then I put the camera up, take some shots, experiment.

How do you control lighting ratios without the meter?

Doing all this with trail and error is painful IMHO.

[bobbyz]

I leave my room lights on. Doesn't make any difference at the settings that I use. I will keep my lights off when trying to see effect of the modelling lights. If everything is dark, the pupils dilate.

Wish AB had 250W modelling lamps.

[Hivoltage]

OK, I set my shutter to 125 on the Sekonic, the ISO to 100, and I needed full power on my AB800 to get a reading of F8 as suggested. That seems like too much flash to me. The flash is shooting into an umbrella about 6 feet away from the meter.

[Hivoltage]

Also I am having trouble grasping the number on my light meter when it reads for instance F8...what exactly does that mean. Then when I turn up my flash power the F number does the opposite of what I expected it to do, it increases. And I have learned that a Lower F number means more light?????

Confused here!!!!:oops:

[Tareq]

Also I am having trouble grasping the number on my light meter when it reads for instance F8...what exactly does that mean. Then when I turn up my flash power the F number does the opposite of what I expected it to do, it increases. And I have learned that a Lower F number means more light?????

Confused here!!!!:oops:

OH Really?
i am sure you didn't do metering correct
anyway, i told you, fix the camera settings and just control the light power [lower it or increase it], sure you will find proper light power measure on a point with your fixed place and camera settings, don't try to turn on or off the room light or moving around or placing your light back and forth many times, just fix everything and keep that light power flexible to change and go from there
post some shots, so we can see what you did.

[Hivoltage]

Did I just get in trouble:lol: I havnt taken any pics yet, just figuring out the light meter. No subjects home today, I think I will use a dog!!!!

[Wilt]

OK, I set my shutter to 125 on the Sekonic, the ISO to 100, and I needed full power on my AB800 to get a reading of F8 as suggested. That seems like too much flash to me. The flash is shooting into an umbrella about 6 feet away from the meter....Also I am having trouble grasping the number on my light meter when it reads for instance F8...what exactly does that mean. Then when I turn up my flash power the F number does the opposite of what I expected it to do, it increases. And I have learned that a Lower F number means more light

'Too much flash' is relative. Certainly if you wanted to achieve really shallow DOF, you have too much flash. But from the standpoint of an ordinary portrait shot taken at a distance of about 8' with a 70mm lens, you have only 0.97' of DOF, which is just enough for a full head and hairdo to be sharp!

What is difficult about the meter reading?...1/125 set on the camera and f/8 set on the lens, with that flash output, would be perfect for that portrait shot as defined my my first paragraph. If you turn up the flash power more, the f/number gets larger meaning the physical size of the aperture is getting smaller, which is what it should do. Yes, lower number (e.g. F/8 progressing to f/4) does indeed mean more light thru the lens to the sensor.