Studio Photography
NEW
Professional lighting made simple Incredible one-light portraits that you can shoot in your home studio
Buyer’s Guide
196
pages of practical tip tricks an s, techniqu d es
first edition
Digital Edition
Essential kit advice for high-end shooting
Master settings, posing and more
Set up your home studio
Become a studio expert with our in-depth guides
CONTENTS Buyer’s Guide
Studio Photographer’s Buyer’s Guide Go behind the scenes of a pro studio and become an expert on essential kit
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Techniques Master home studio essentials Build a home studio that works for you
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Look inside a pro studio Explore the day-to-day operations in a pro photographic workplace
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Shoot like a pro in the studio Discover how to establish the best working practices
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Share your studio space Make the most of your studio by sharing it
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Learn how to shape the light Master modifiers and take your studio lighting work to the next level
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Family photography in the studio Learn how to set up your studio and create the best environment
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Discover the art of newborn photography Take your baby portraits up a notch with posing and planning tips 86 One light portraits Master a simple setup for professional portraits
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Creative studio portraits Capture dramatic portraits with top pro Jesse Wild
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Pro skills for lighting the body Learn how to create artistic images of the body
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Projects
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Shoot a shaggy dog story Get more than just a snap of your furry friend
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Shoot paint in motion Learn to use sound to shoot liquids
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Shoot food in the studio with flash A simple guide to shooting and editing food
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Take home studio beauty portraits Take beauty shots in an improvised home studio
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Shoot with stroboscopic flash Capture movement in a creative way
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Product shots with one light Capture pro shots with minimal kit
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Studio still life Give still life shoots a modern twist
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Creative high-speed photography Capture product images with the TriggerSmart
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Creative macro photography Shoot incredible images of insects
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Create a high-contrast mono portrait Shoot a timeless portrait 178
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Create sunshine in the studio Add some warmth to your shots
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Learn to light a high-key portrait Set up and shoot a vibrant image
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BUYER’S GUIDE
continuous lighting
Sometimes flash is not the best fit for your subject. Continuous light is a solution While strobe flash provides the power and short duration necessary to freeze moving subjects and light large shooting environments, there are times when they can become difficult to work with. Videographers have used continuous lights for as long as the medium has existed, as it is vital for adding light to sequences of frames. For still photographers the usefulness of a continuous light source comes into play when
exposure problems in reflected highlights. Considerations when investing in a continuous light are overall brightness and output control, colour balance and heat output. With regards to the latter, it is important that lights don’t become too hot, as this could disrupt or damage the products you are shooting and can make a studio uncomfortable to work in after prolonged use.
shooting complex arrangements of objects, as is often experienced by product photographers. In these cases it can be challenging to visualise how light will interact with the product setup, with a large degree of trial and error necessary to perfect this. Continuous, daylight-balanced lights allow the photographer to move lighting and see the effect on direction and softness in real-time. It also makes it easier to identify
Rotolight NEO 2
Rotolight NEO 2 Price: £299/ $380 Light output: 2000 lux (at 3ft) Colour temperature: Adjustable 6300-3150K (continuous and strobe) Battery life: 1.5hrs continuous max output, 85,000 full-power flashes Power source: 6x AA batteries (NiMh or Li-ion), DC Slave functionality: Integral Elinchrom Skyport wireless receiver (200m range) Sync speeds: Continuous LED, max 1/8000sec high-speed sync (strobe)
A revolutionary lighting accessory, the Rotolight creates new possibilities for dramatic studio style lighting on the move
The Rotolight is a unique lighting accessory which is formed of an array of LEDs and provides a continuous light source. Designed to be portable, a key advantage of the Rotolight is that is can be handheld, allowing unlimited options for artistic lighting styles, either in the studio or out in the field. Power output can be easily controlled via a dial on the back of the product. This is stepless, meaning the brightness of the light can be increased or decreased seamlessly, so that the perfect output for any environment and
subject can be found, without having to make great alterations to camera settings to fit a lighting ‘notch’. Another very useful feature, not possible on a conventional strobe or speedlight, is variable colour temperature. By rotating the second control dial, the warmth of the light can be increased or decreased, to either match ambient light or to introduce a false light source effect, such as mimicking the setting sun. If you require it, the NEO 2 is fitted with a strobe function, adding to its versatility, albeit with a limited flash output.
Summary A great option for professional photographers who need to travel with their lighting equipment, the Rotolight Neo 2 makes great use of new technology that truly works to help the user get the right shot
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Low heat output
The Rotolight generates very little heat, making it suitable for long shooting periods, without causing model discomfort. 2
Adjustable colour balance
With strobes a gel is needed to alter the warmth of the light. The Rotolight makes the process quick and precise. 3
Portability
Unlike other continuous lights, the Rotolight can be used handheld or mounted on a light stand, for added flexibility. 4
No recharge time 4 3
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Strobes and speedlights require time to recharge after firing. Continuous lights are free from this restriction so shooting is unhindered.
buyer’s guide
Westcott Spiderlite TD6 A favourite brand in the continuous lighting sector, Westcott provide reliable professional solutions, with a broad family of optional accessories Westcott area specialists in the production of professional continuous lighting solutions. Their Spiderlite series are used as main lights for illuminating subjects in a studio as well as for lighting sets, for use in video, such as television interviews and online vlogs. The TD6 is part of a successful line of lights. While it is used mainly for fluorescent lighting, due to the heat-resistant ceramic sockets, it can accept tungsten bulbs. At 1200W, the fluorescent bulbs put out a lot of light for a continuous source, which allows a lower ISO and higher shutter speed to be used – a great advantage when shooting handheld. This overcomes one of the biggest problems of using a continuous light, when compared to a strobe. The fluorescent bulbs are large, which means even when undiffused, the light spreads well, for a softer effect. These bulbs are daylight balanced, so the lighting is neutral, rendering accurate colour in images – an essential characteristic when shooting products for catalogues. The bulbs can be turned on and off in groups, to control light output and the cord features a ‘kill switch’ so that all of them can be turned on and off at once, preventing the need to access the heads directly.
Summary Well made, versatile and colour-accurate, this professional option offers everything a studio owner could look for in a continuous light. Perfect for a vast range of subjects and shooting scenarios.
Westcott Spiderlite TD6 Price: Light rating: Number of sockets: Output (3m): Compatible bulbs: Colour temperature: Power source:
£580/ $799 1200W (Tungsten), 300W (Fluorescent)
Westcott Spiderlite TD6 You can use both fluorescent and tungsten bulbs with this Spiderlite
6 187 per light Fluorescent, Tungsten 5500K (Fluorescent) Wired
Consider lighting stands
How you mount your lights, whether strobes or continuous, impacts the efficiency of your studio
Telescopic stand The most common type of lighting stand is the standard telescopic stand, which functions much like the legs of a tripod. The pole of the stand is arranged in interlocking segments, which can be extended out as necessary, to move them higher or lower. The segment is then locked in place using a clip lock or twist-grip system. Always extend the widest segment first, for added stability.
C-Stand Traditionally known as a century stand, these stands feature a multi-leg ‘turtle’ base and a vertical, extendable riser pole. Although they are often heavier and larger than regular stands, the rigidity of the base provides greater security and support for larger lights. Always place the larger, ‘leading’ leg of the base in the direction of the light to avoid tipping of the rig, especially if using a boom arm.
Rolling stand Having your lights mounted on wheels enables you to move them Boom arm at will, to get the lighting styles you While some boom arms can be used seek, without time-consuming rig to support a light, most likely a small construction procedures. Rolling speedlight flash, they are more stands enable fine adjustment to commonly utilised to position a light light position and make it safer to modifier, such as a diffusion panel, move heads, without risk of injury. reflector or gobo. The arm can be Wheels can often be locked to moved and extended to place the prevent unintentional movement, modifier close to the subject, for although it is advisable to weight tightly controlled lighting effects. less heavy setups with sandbags.
Air cushioned stand These stands are designed to let air into the riser sections, which is used to dampen the movement of other segments within it. This is useful when a heavy light or accessory is mounted on the stand and the photographer may find it difficult to change the height without the rig dropping when the locks are undone. The extra resistance softens the movement, providing reduced risk of injury or damage.
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techniques
Neutral lighting
It can be difficult to achieve perfectly colour-balanced lighting in a home studio – due to the confined space and the proximity to other ambient light sources – for home functions. Either learn to use the mixed light to your advantage or eliminate extraneous lights from your space.
Safe and efficient
Since you’ll be working in a small area, it is important to reduce hazards and keep gear available. Remove cables from floor space and devise a kit storage system for a safe and professional environment for clients to experience. This increases productivity and reduces the chance for insurance complications.
Appropriate power
While serving the same role, home studios cannot simply be considered scaled-down versions of external studio spaces. They come with their own unique set of benefits and challenges, so the lights you use must be suitable for the environment in which you will be shooting.
Dynamic space
While in a larger studio it may be possible to keep several ‘sets’ constructed at once, this is likely impossible in a home site. Make it easy to swap backgrounds and props, to make the best use of the area you have available to work in, for multiple ‘looks’.
Room to work
Setting aside a continuously available space for your studio in your home is essential. The room choice should allow you to stand back for longer lens shots and have space at each side to access lighting controls and background layout.
Static setup
With limited space it may not be necessary to have such variable equipment set up. Select static lighting stands rather than rolling stands, as are often more convenient in large studios, as these will be safer in a home setting and easier to store, without loss of efficiency.
insurance arrangement for your dedicated studio building, which can work out as costly and also adds to the complexity of your administration. Beyond costs, there are also creative considerations. Whenever you start shooting images in a new building, you have to master the ambient lighting and how this influences your images. While there are benefits to having an entirely new and dedicated site for photography, as we will discuss later, there are advantages to taking images in a location with which you are intimately familiar. At home, you know the lighting direction and intensity at each time of the day, making it easier to emphasise or hide natural light as required for your image style. There are of course some significant detrimental aspects to a home-based operation. Most notable of these is space, or the potential lack of it. If you opt for a home studio, you will be building it around a pre-
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Light control
Selecting appropriate light modifiers will give you the best control over the light in your studio. Smaller softboxes may be more usable in a home studio, both in terms of practicality and ability keep light confined to a desired area.
used space and attempting to fit everything you need into an area, which is essentially allocated for another purpose. When working in a new building you are starting from scratch, so have greater freedom of space use. You also have to consider the amount of space you have for the light from your strobes to spread out – low ceilings and close walls can confine light, creating exposure challenges and making it hard to control shadow intensity and direction. Colour is another common problem – walls in a house are often coloured, which will alter the temperature and tint of the light that hits your background and subject. Ambient lighting regularly consists of tungsten or incandescent bulbs, which cast a warm-toned light that will look out of place when creating a classic studio shot. This is also a problem when choosing a space in which to process your shots in software, which requires a calibrated screen. To
Essential kit checklist Seamless background Strobes Daylight balanced bulbs Light modifiers Reflectors Light stands and supports Calibrated monitors for colour processing
achieve accurate colour, monitors must not have direct light falling on them, and the wall colour in the surrounding room should be neutrally coloured and illuminated for your eyes to accurately judge the exposure. These aspects also influence the accuracy of monitor calibration. The greatest solution
Pre-shoot checklist Five things to consider before you take on your first client Family implications Attempting to incorporate a business with household management can be a challenge. Consider the effect of bringing clients into your home – both they and your relatives need to feel comfortable, and you need to maintain a professional image in an otherwise informal setting.
Legality Bare in mind that the terms of your tenancy may not permit you to run a business out of your home. Even if this is legally approved, your neighbours may have the right to complain regarding increased footfall on any shared spaces.
Parking space Make sure you devise a plan for how to stagger your shoots to reduce congestion in parking areas around your property. Your house and the residential area around it is unlikely to be designed with business throughput in mind, so come up with a contingency for managing shoot overlaps.
Scalability How will you expand your business as your client list grows? If your brand is successful you might encounter challenges of scale, especially in the intermediate period between customer footfall increasing and it reaching a level, which justifies moving into a dedicated off-site studio.
Taxes You will need to declare your intention to run a business operation out of your property, which will require you to address the associated paperwork. You may need to adjust the rates you pay on the property or even seek planning permission should ‘material changes’ be made to the building and land usage.
to many of these pitfalls is to have an area of your home, which is permanently allocated to your studio – a garage, for example. This means you don’t have the inconvenience of continuously constructing and deconstructing your setup, which is inefficient and allows for more mistakes to be made. It will also enable suitable lights to be left in-situ and walls to be painted in appropriate neutral shades. Turn off any tungsten lights or replace them with daylight-balanced bulbs. This is an opportunity to decide on the type of studio lights you want to invest in. Consider using only continuous lights instead of strobes, which can be used not only on your studio set, but also to illuminate your dedicated studio room, generating lighting contiguity. The power of the lights you buy is a vital choice, since the native output has to be appropriate for the space you will be using them in. If your strobes are too bright at their lowest power setting, this will make it difficult to control exposure hotspots in your images and define where light falls in the surrounding space. In this case you might find it impossible to produce genuinely dark backgrounds for low-key images, or to create direction to your lighting, as excess light is reflected back onto your subject from the room walls. A possible solution is to use softboxes instead of umbrellas for more controllable light shaping. If you can’t find strobes with the correct output, try using speedlight flash exclusively. Invest in three or four flashguns, which can be triggered wirelessly from your camera, and use two as main lights, one as a hair light and one to illuminate a background for example. Samebrand flashes may not require additional wireless triggers, and will allow power to be adjusted from the camera itself. You may even choose to rely partially or solely on natural light for much of your work. If shooting close-up product images, an artificial light may be unnecessary if you have a north-facing window available for soft, even illumination. For better control, you could use a white diffuser at the window to spread the light further. Another benefit of a home setting is that there is high availability of props and realistic background settings. Use your home as a backdrop for a real-world feel, which would require you to construct sets in a separate studio. Finally, decide what arrangements for printing your images would work best for you. Producing prints at home will provide greater colour control, but unless you have a large throughput, it may be more economical to send image files to an online print lab. Once you are confident in your equipment choices, you must then consider actions relating to safety, security and
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learn how to shape the light
Soft beauty portrait on pink The main light used for this image was a beauty dish. The model was flanked by two strip softboxes to add fill and separate her from the background. Some white card was also added to bounce a little light back into the shadows under her chin.
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techniques
Work with soft light Discover how modifiers can banish harsh shadows
All light sources can show themselves in different forms, whether it’s sunlight or studio flash units; direct sunlight is very hard but softens with cloud cover and in the studio a bare reflector is hard like the Sun, but you can put things over it to soften or diffuse it. Soft light is achieved when the light output from a flash (or a continuous light source) is interrupted in a way that breaks its direct line of sight to the subject. This is often literally achieved with fabric in the form of a softbox – an enclosed lighting modifier that helps break up and evenly diffuse the light before it hits the subject. Increasing the size of the diffuser will inevitably help to spread the light further from its original point source, thus increasing the ‘wrap’ of light around the subject. In portraiture this means the light can fall around the face, filling in areas that might typically be in shadow. Other ways you may wish to soften a light include a diffuser panel or a sheet of Perspex – these do the same job as a softbox in terms of how they affect the light waves, but will enable greater control over direction of light and reflections, as the light can be moved independently to the diffuser. Another fantastic modifier to consider is the beauty dish. As the name suggests, these are mainly used for portraiture and they do deliver a lovely spread of light across the face. Although generally considered a modifier that delivers soft light, the beauty dish (especially without a fabric diffuser) does provide an appealing balance between soft and hard light. The centre cap located in the middle of it covers the bulb and stops direct light from the flash tube hitting the subject, sending it instead back into the modifier to diffuse out
evenly in a circle. Another benefit of this is the circular and soft catch-light reflection it puts into the eye. Soft ‘fill’ can be achieved by bouncing light off nearby walls or ceilings, or just by holding in white card or fabric surfaces. Soft light is also your best option if you need to evenly increase the overall exposure of an image.
Understand softbox shapes
Rectangular softbox This is a fairly common medium-sized softbox, a reliable modifier for lots of applications where you need an even spread of soft light.
Top
Above
A reflector softened up using a piece of Perspex helped to control the reflections on the spoons
These were shot with a strong backlight and two strip softboxes doublediffused with Perspex
Indian spoons
Lipstick
Choosing a modifier for your main soft light
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Place the softbox face down on the floor, carefully line up your mounting points, then slide the light in and twist. Once the head is back up on the stand, swivel so that the softbox is over one of the legs and is properly supported.
These come in many shapes and sizes – here’s a quick look at a few of the most useful ones
Softbox or beauty dish? Simple softbox portrait Shot using a medium-sized 60-80cm softbox; the highlights are soft and the light wraps nicely. On this example, the softbox material added a small amount of tint to the light.
Attach a softbox
Simple beauty dish portrait This image was shot using a 21-inch white beauty dish. The skin definition is lovely and you can see that the catch lights in the eye are indeed more attractive. It’s a very clean light.
Strip softbox Perfect for when you’re shooting long, thin objects and standing portraits as it channels the light (normally) vertically, rather than spread like a wider softbox.
Octobox softbox This is a small example of an octobox. The more rounded shape can look more natural than a square or rectangle.
Discover the art of newborn photography
Subtle retouching for newborns Discover how to use Photoshop for subtle editing of skin
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Create a Curves layer Select the pointer and click on the image at the lightest part of the skin, then click on a shadowed area. Drag your mouse upwards watching the skin tone lift.
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Insert a Color balance layer. Experiment with the sliders to change the colours in the image. We have altered the midtones so the Red is +100, Magenta is +2 and Yellow is at -59.
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Remove the Color Balance layer To remove the orange colour form the skin select a black brush at 100% Opacity and paint where you want to remove the Color Balance layer.
Add a Hue/Saturation layer Select Reds and move the slider to -10, Lightness to +9, then hit Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert the layer. Select a white brush and paint over red areas to soften the skin.
Š Sandi Ford
Use the Spot Healing Brush tool To begin, duplicate the background layer. Select the Spot Healing Brush tool and with a small brush click on all of the baby’s blemishes and flaky skin.
Add a Vignette Duplicate the background layer again then go to Filter>Lens Correction and select the Custom tab. Move down the Vignette slider to -47 to darken the edges.
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techniques
Natural retouching skills Retouching newborn shots needs to be done delicately and the post-processing of a session can sometimes take a few hours. Often newborn babies suffer from baby acne and dry flaky skin, so you will ideally want to retouch their skin to get rid of the blemishes without making their skin overly perfect. “Babies might still be a little jaundiced and some colour correcting might be needed in the skin tones,” suggests Jackson. Sandi Ford explains that she usually starts her process in Lightroom for simple white balance and lens corrections, then moves onto Photoshop where she begins by
smoothing out any creases on the blankets and unattractive shadows. After fixing the skin tone she moves onto blemishes like acne, skin flakes and Mongolian marks and says, “some parents like these left in, I always ask prior to commencing editing.” It’s important to remember that your understanding of a baby’s imperfections may be very different to the parents’ views, so never overdo the retouching and ensure you keep the parents informed throughout. Your goal should be to ensure that the baby still looks very natural and relatively untouched. In the poses that require the baby to be
Photographic artwork Create timeless pieces of bespoke artwork
Professional posed studio shots of babies make stunning, very intimate and personal pieces of artwork, and instead of hiding them away in old photo albums they should be proudly displayed. Sue Greetham offers a number of presentation options to her clients – from canvas prints and framed images to greetings cards and digital negatives. Head over to uk.whitewall.com for output ideas and printing.
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supported by a helping hand, you will probably need to spend more time, explains Jackson. “More advanced Photoshop skills are needed [in these situations]… We retouch and mask off supporting hands and arms to make it appear that a baby is hanging and lying in or on a prop that would otherwise be unsafe.” Once the final edit has been executed then you must think about presentation options. As with any genre there’s a wide range of options available when it comes to the output of your images, from creating a photobook to framed prints and canvases.
© Sue Greetham
Learn how to gently enhance your newborn portraits and consider ways to present them
projects
The setup
Neutral background For easier editing choose a neutrally coloured background, so you won’t have any unnecessary complications with colour contamination and casting.
Model’s position If you are working with one light source and want to have control over the brightness of the backdrop separately, you can do this simply by distancing your model and light closer or further away from the background.
Useful tips
Apply these simple tricks to ensure you’ll achieve a professional-looking photo Tip 1: If you’re going with this crop avoid shooting with anything less than 100mm, otherwise you’ll have to approach close to your model and her face will become unpleasantly distorted. If you don’t have a lens with that focal length, go with a wider shot and crop it after. Tip 2: Make sure you don’t get any strong reflections from the surrounding surfaces. For example, in this shoot we covered the floor with black cloth so as not to get a brownish cast on the model’s face from the wooden floor. Apply this principle on any surfaces that are close to your model, if they’re not neutral in colour.
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Studio flash with softbox Beauty shots usually look best with soft diffused light, so choose a sufficiently large softbox, preferably a rounded/parabolic one if you want nice-looking reflections in the eyes.
take home studio beauty portraits
Editing steps
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RAW conversion When converting your RAW photos it is mandatory to get things right at this step – make sure your white balance is spot on, as well as the exposure. Avoid adding too much contrast at this stage, leave that for later editing.
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Healing Brush Retouch the most prominent skin imperfections with the Healing Brush. Do this on a separate layer so you can easily go back to the original state if necessary.
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Dodge and burn Instead of dodging and burning on two separate layers you can simplify it – make one layer in Soft Light mode and just use a black and white brush with very faint opacity. This step requires patience!
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Colour and light corrections As the last step you can do some additional skin toning, maybe to reduce the redness. After that use Curves to adjust global light. Make sure you don’t have any clipping blacks or whites.
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