STEP INTO THE LIGHT
LIGHTING FOR PORTRAITS
First Edition 2011 Published by: 1UP2DOWN PHOTOGRAPHY CEBU CITY / MANILA inquire@1up2downphotography.com Mobile#: +63.915.793.0039 Mobile#: +63.918.959.4350 The written instructions, photographs, designs, patterns, and projects in this E-book are intended for the personal use of the reader and may be reproduce for that purpose only. Any other use, is forbidden under law without written permission of the publisher. The works represented are original creation of 1up2down except for the diagrams which you can download at http://www.lightingdiagrams.com/ All products names or terminology are trademarks of their respective manufacturer. All rights reserved For information about custom edition, services, class or workshop please contact 1up2down Photography at +63.915.793.0039 / +63.918.959.4350 or inquire@1up2downphotography.com
PHOTO BY: DEXTER MANEJA
Step into the light - Lighting for Portrait
lighting for portrait... What is a portrait? From the very first pictured pictures on wet plates by nineteenth - century photography pioneers to the latest images recorded as digital files on the computer, people have always been the most popular subject for photography. For amateurs, the most common reason for taking out their cameras is to record for posterity, both the individuals who are important to them, and the special moments of their life. In the world of professional photography, portraits represent a significant proportion of commissioned work. But what do we mean by a “portrait?” One English-language dictionary defines it as a “likeness of an individual, specially of the face.” But while that definition is certainly one with which many would agree, it doesn’t really do justice to the multitude of ways in which people can be portrayed in a picture. As the images in this E-book demonstrate, this is one of
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Photo by: Dexter Maneja
the most creative areas of photography you can be involved in.
The Portrait Market Unfortunately, one of the largest market for portraits is not renowned for being original in its approach. What has been considered “social” photography (family pictures to hang on the wall engagement and christening shots,, and of course the wedding album) has a reputation for being bland, formulaic, and uninspired. And while times are changing (with increasing numbers of studios and photographers offering a more imaginative menu of shots) it’s fair to say that the majority is still producing work of a traditional nature. Social photography, while important and demanding. Is not what this E-book is all about. This E-book will examine some of the more innovative approaches being taken by creative photographers across a wide range of discipline.
Magazine and newspapers in particular are voracious consumers of people pictures, and though some are sourced through picture agencies, many are specially commissioned. With many photographers chasing glamorous, lucrative, and interesting work of this kind, there is strong competition, and your portfolio needs to be bursting with the right sort of images to convince prospective clients you have what it takes. It’s a catch-22 situation: you won’t get the jobs without the pictures, but how do you get the pictures if you’re not getting the jobs? One way is to approach the right person and ask them if they mind letting you take some pictures. Search them up in the directories, forum, websites, contacts and contact them. May be only one of the ten will say yes, but if you approach enough you’ll be able to make a start/ It’s also a good idea to out famous people who are visiting in your local, or to appear in a show or event. They may be willing to spare you a few minutes if their time, which will enable
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you to add another picture or two to your portfolio. One area in which some portraits professionals make food living is photographing actors, models, dancers, bands, and the like, all of whom need attractive images for their promotional materials. A range of pictures is usually required, from simple headshots to more imaginative treatments so it’s an ideal way of trying out new ideas and stretching your self. Then there’s the corporate world. People tend to figure strong in annual reports, brochures, and catalogs these days, and picture if everyone from the CEO down are required on a regular basis. Contracting business in your area can pay real dividends, and you may find it possible to specialize in this kind of work. Many professional photographers, though, prefer to tackle a wide range of subject, But people figure in many of the pictures that are commissioned, and it’s important
Photo by: Dexter Maneja
to keep up with the trends in posing and lighting in order to avoid your work looking out-dated.
Lighting Matters If you don’t have much time then sophisticated lighting setups are obviously out. Setting up a single umbrella or a softbox is relatively quick procedure. Once you’ve use it a couple of times and if you maintain the same distance, you may not even need to take a meter reading, since the camera settings will be in mind already. Keeping it simple has another advantage. The result looks clean and contemporary. Style change and picture date. You need only a glance at a picture for hair light, for instance, to see immediately that it’s old-fashioned.
shadow. With two lights you have more control over ratios, but also run the risk of overlighting the subject. Tried and tested setups include one above the camera and one below for “beauty lighting” and either side of the camera at 45 degrees for even coverage. Naturally there will be times when you want to use more than 2 lights, but think carefully about what each light is contributing to the finished picture. If it adds nothing, don’t use it. Sometimes, though, you don’t need to add any additional lighting at all because the ambient illumination is perfect. Both indoor and outdoor daylight have many moods, and with a bit of help from a poly board, they can give you a quality that’s hard to reproduce artificially.
Another reason for simple approach is that one light is also surprisingly versatile, depending on where you place it in relation to the subject, and whether or not you add a reflector to soften the
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Step into the light - Lighting for Portrait
“More does’nt mean better”
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Photo by: Lord Sid Valera
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Making Light Works Understanding, measuring, and using light to create exciting and memorable images
Light is the single most important element in any picture. You try taking a picture without any! And the way you use light that often makes the difference between success and failure. You can have the most attractive or interesting model in the world, get your focus right and exposure perfectly, but if the lighting’s not good you can forget it. However, it’s astonishing how few photographers pay any real attention to light. Even professionals can be so eager to press the shutter release and get the shot in the bag, they don’t really think about how to make the light work for them. Getting to know light, and being able to use it creatively, are essential skills for any photographer. One of the best ways of developing and deepening that understanding is to monitor the many moods of daylight. You might find yourself noticing how beautiful the light is on the shady side of a building , or coming in through a small window, or dappled by a foliage of a tree. The most amazing thing about light is its sheer diversity; sometimes harsh, sometimes soft; sometimes neutral, sometimes pinkish or blue.
More doesn’t mean better Taking picture is easy when there’s lots of light. You’re free to choose whatever combination of shutter speed and aperture you like without worry about camera shake or subject movement. But don’t be confuse quantity with quality. He blinding you’ll find outdoor at noon on a sunny day or bursting out of a bare studio head maybe intense, but it’s far from ideal for most kind of photography. More evocative results are generally achieved when light is modified in some ways, with overall levels often much lower.
Controlling the contrast For some situations and subjects you will want light that is hard and contrasty, with strong, distinct shadows and crisp, sharp highlights. Outdoor when it’s sunny, the shadows are darker and shorter around noon, and softer and longer when it’s earlier and later in the day. Contrasty lighting can result in strong, vivid images. However, the long tonal range you get in such conditions can be difficult to capture either digitally or in film. Care must be taken when shooting in such light so that no important detail is lost in light or dark areas.
The kind of strong contrast treatment is not always appropriate or suitable, however, and for many subjects and situations a light with a more limited tonal range that gives softer result may work better. Where you want to show the maximum amount of detail, or create a mood of lightness and airiness, with minimum of shadows, the soft lighting of an overcast day or a large softbox is unbeatable. The degree of contrast also depends on the direction from which the light is coming in every picture you are using light to reveal something about the subject (texture, forms, shapes, weight, color, or even translucency). So look carefully at what you are going to photograph, and consider what you want to convey about the subject, then start to organize the illumination accordingly.
Light isn’t white We generally think of light as being neutral or white, but in fact it varies considerably in color. You need only think about the orange of the sunrise ot the blue in the sky just before night sets in. The color of light is measured in what we are known as Kelvins (K), and the range of possible light colors makes up what is known as the Kelvin scale. Standard daylight balanced film are design to be used in noon sunlight, which typically has a temperature if 5,500 K. Electronic flash has the same. However, if you use daylight balanced film in lower temperature you’ll get a warm, orange color, while if you use it in light of higher temperature, you’ll get a cool, blue tonality. Such cast are generally regarded as wrong, but if used intentionally they can give a shot more character than the blandness of a clean white light. Shooting digitally of course allows you to set the white balance manually in which case you can experiment with the settings until you get the color you find most appropriate.
there’s a lot to be said for simplicity, and some of the best portraits are taken using just one perfectly positioned head. By using different modifying accessories with the strobe/flash you cant alter the quality of its output according to your photographic needs. Before going on to more advance setup, it pays to learn to make the most of just a single light source (trying it in different position and heights). If you want to soften further and give the effect of having a second light of lower power, a simple white reflector is all you need. Of course the second head (strobes/ flash) does give you many more options as well as using it as fill-in you can place it alongside the main light, put it over the top of the subject, or wherever works well. Having two lights means you can control the ratio between them, reducing or increasing their relative power to control the contrast in the picture. In practice, many photographers will need to have at least three or four heads in their armory and unless advanced setup are required or enormous firepower, which should be sufficient for most situations. However, it is more reiterating that it is all too easy to overlight a subject with unnatural and distracting shadows going in every direction. So before you introduce another light, ask your self what exactly it adds to the image and if it adds nothing, don’t use it.
Studio controls Daylight studios are great, but they have obvious disadvantages: you cant use it when it’s dark; you cant turn the power up when you need more light; and you don’t have anywhere near the same degree of control you get when using studio heads. Being able to place lights exactly where you want them,, reduce or increase their output at will. And modify the quality of the illumination according to your needs means the only limitation is your imagination. Some photographers seems to operate on the basis of “the more lights is better,” using all their lights all the time. But
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Step into the light - Lighting for Portrait
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CHAPTER I
Understanding Natural Light As we explore the many aspects of light it comes clear that light is the single most important tool that a photographer has to work with. In fact the very meaning of the word photography is “drawing with light�. The more you understand light, how to use it, how to modify it, and what subject matters looks good on what type of light the stronger your photographs will become. What is it that makes light beautiful, or dull, or ugly, or magical? These are all very abstract words that may not help us understand the nature of light or how we can work with it. We need to break the subject down in more concrete terms.
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Step into the light - Lighting for Portrait
Natural Light Even though we are discussing the use of flash/strobes, let start by taking about the sun, it’s our main source of natural light. And even though there is only one sun at least in this solar system there are a lots of variation of the light that coming from it. Now in order to understand to use your flash to its greatest potential we got to first understand the basic variables of available or natural light because it has the same principles applied. We can break these variables down into three basic categories; direction, color, and quality. The direction of light, is it coming from front, side, above, below of the subject. The color of light, is it warm or cool, orange or blue. And the quality of light, is it hard edge and specular and has deep shadows or soft and defused with open or none existing shadows. Learn to match the right variables within these three categories to the appropriate subject matter and you’ll be taking a giant step forward in your development as a photographer. If photography means drawing with light then these are your tools…
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Direction Lets look at the direction of the light where it is coming from in relation to the subject, now why is this important? Because the world we live in is three dimensional, the imaging sensor that we record on and the paper that we print on are only two dimensional. The only way that we can capture the felling of depth on our 2 dimensional media is by the interplay of light and shadows. Shadows are as important of light and where you place them means everything, hence the important of the direction of the light. The Italian painters of the renaissance has the word for these interplay of light and shadows to create the illusion of depth. They called it chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro, simply put, means light and darkness. In painting terms, it denotes the use of deep variations in and subtle gradations of light and shade to create the illusion of three dimensionality, often to dramatic effect. Front lighting The old adage about keeping the sun at your back is a good place to continue our discussion of outdoor lighting. The type of lighting created when the sun is in back of the photographer is called front lighting. This over-the-shoulder lighting was probably the first photographic advice you ever received. This may seem to be a universal recipe for good photography. But it is not. The case against overthe-shoulder lighting is it produces a flattened effect, doing nothing to bring out detail or provide an impression of depth. The human eye sees in three dimensions and can compensate for poor lighting. A photograph is only two-dimensional; therefore, to give an impression of form, depth, and texture to the subject, you should ideally have the light come from the side or at least at an angle. Side Lighting As you gain experience with various types of outdoor lighting, you discover that interesting effects can be achieved by changing the angle of the light falling on your subject. As you turn your subject, change the camera viewpoint, or wait for the sun to move, the light falls more on one side, and more shadows are cast on the opposite side of the subject. For pictures in which rendering texture is important, side lighting is ideal. Side lighting is particularly important with black-and- white photography that relies on grey tones, rather than color, to record the subject. Shadows caused by side lighting reveal details that can create striking pictures from ordinary objects that are otherwise hardly worth photographing in black and white. Anything that has a noticeable texture-like the ripples of sand on a beach, for example-gains impact when lit from the side. Landscapes, buildings, people, all look better when side lighted. This applies to color photography as well. Color gives the viewer extra information about the subject that may make up for a lack of texture in front lighting, but often the result is much better when lit from the side. Pictures made with side lighting usually have harsh shadows and are contrasty. To lighten the shadows and reduce the contrast, you may want to use some type of reflector to direct additional skylight into the shadow areas or use fill-in flash, whichever is more convenient. Backlighting When the sun is in front of the photographer, coming directly at the camera, you have what is referred to as backlighting; that is, the subject is backlit. This type of lighting can be very effective for pictures of people outdoors in bright sunlight. In bright sunlight, when subjects are front-lighted or even side lighted, they may be uncomfortable and squint their eyes. Backlighting helps to eliminate this problem. Backlighting may also require the use of a reflector or fill-in flash to brighten up the dark shadows and improve subject detail. Backlighting is also used to produce a silhouette effect. When you use backlighting, avoid having the sun rays fall directly on the lens (except for special effects). A lens hood or some other means of shading the lens should be used to prevent lens flare.
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Step into the light - Lighting for Portrait
why is the color of light important?
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Color Now the color of light is also important. And yes daylight comes in a verity of colours. In the early morning or in the late afternoon the longer rays of the red orange spectrum are more prevalent, and that’s when you get that lovely warm light that so favourite by landscape photographers. During twilight you’ll get a bluish quality of light as you do in deep shade. At high noon, sunlight is at in its most neutral or white. But why is the color of light important for us to consider as photographers? Because the color directly affects the mood of your photo and that affects the viewer. Reddish orange tones can convey a feeling of warmth and wellbeing. Bluish tones feel cool, greenish light, the kind put up by florescent light makes people look sick, and pure white light such as that on high noon can be more accurate but a little clinical. So the color of light affects the way the viewer reacts to your photograph To reach us, light waves of color must travel from the sun and through our atmosphere, which acts as a filter. Because of the curvature of the earth, at sunup and sundown, these light waves must travel through more of our atmosphere than they would if coming from directly overhead at midday. As these light waves swim through our thick atmosphere, the shorter wavelengths on the cool end of the spectrum get lost in atmospheric dust and water and cannot reach us. This leaves the longer, warmer waves of light to penetrate our atmosphere and illuminate our subjects. As the sun climbs higher into the sky, it shines more directly through our atmosphere, allowing the shorter, cooler wavelengths to reach us, better balancing the color of the light. On a clear day when the sun is directly overhead, it should exhibit no color when cast onto a white surface. An often overlooked part of photography is choosing your color palette. Just like a painter, a photographer should be aware of the colors in a composition. Unlike a painter, a photographer does not have complete control over the colors of our palettes. When we shoot in a controlled environment like a studio we have much better control than when we shoot outside. Taking formal portraits of people (even outside) is also much easier to control than nature photography or street photography. White Balance and Color Theory Essentially, white balance is concerned with the overall color of the light in which you are shooting. For example, light at the time of a dramatic sunset will have a distinctly reddish color cast to it. While interior lights, such as a certain incandescent lights can give off an orange glow. Our eyes are so good at adjusting for these color cast that we often aren’t aware of them, but for digital camera, unless the color of the lighting is addressed, whites will not appear in the capture image, hence the term “white balance”. In the case of sunset, whites will appear rossy pink, while in incandescent light, it will appear orange. In photography, all light source are known as having a certain color temperature, color temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin. The most important thing to remember in Color Temperature is that the higher the Kelvin number, the cooler (more blue) the light source. Why use the Kelvin scale as opposed to a standard white balance? If you can’t control the light tones of a room according to the standard “tungsten”, go Kelvin. If you can’t achieve the perfect skin tone of your subject by shooting on “cloudy”, once again, go for Kelvin. Kelvin scale can also be used creatively for enhancing the colors of sunsets and sunrises. By altering and adding color with the Kelvin Scale, your images will achieve that “creative edge” with ultimate control. Manual white balance Although the exact procedure for a manual white balance varies somewhat from camera to camera (check your manual!), the basic procedure is similar. A white card is held up in such a way as to catch the key light for the scene the light we want to be reproduced as white. The white card can be white typing paper, or poster board, or a commercially available card (Whibal Card) with white on one side and a test pattern on the other. The camera operator zooms in on the white card until it fills the screen, and then presses and holds the proper button to register a manual white balance until the indicator shows that the camera has set the temperature. Pro cameras will show the precise color temperature of the manual white balance in the viewfinder. Another professional way of doing this is through an Expo Disc, which you attach to the front of your lens.
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Step into the light - Lighting for Portrait
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The color wheel can help you understand the colors in your composition better. The color wheel can be very basic or be very complex and show minute shading differences for millions of colors. The color wheel shows the relationship of each color to other colors. Colors next to each other are complimentary while colors across from each other are opposite colors. Colors that are at an angle to one another are often the most clashing colors. For example, purple and green do not go together well at all. Orange and green also fight against each other.
The color of her headdress is one example of complementary colors Photo by: Dexter Maneja
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Step into the light - Lighting for Portrait
Quality Light quality and mood, characterized by terms such as soft and harsh light or contrasting light, depends on the sun and the weather. When the sun is obscured by light cloud the light becomes softer and more defused. This is ideal light for taking portraits. The intensity of shadows and contrast is reduced. Colour tones are more varied, deeper and richer. You can show subtle details throughout the frame, especially in close-up portraits, If the clouds get heavier, however, the light will become dimmer, reducing the definition in you photographs. The rising and setting sun projects long shadows that give that clear shape and forms to things and people. The shadows mark out shapes and this is what photographers refers to modelling. Many people photographers prefers colour, quality, texture of this light.
Specular light: the kind that come from the sun on a clear bright sunny day, with sharp and contrasty with deep clearly define shadows.
Deffused light is the kind of light that occurs with a large layers of clouds pass between the sun and the subject or if the subject is in shade. Because the light is broader, it is softer and low in contrast with open shadows or none at all. That is because the larger the light source is in relation to your subject, the softer the light will be.
In a cloudless sky the sun is a pinpoint of light, on a cloudy day your light source is now the giant blanket of clouds and it is much softer light with little or no shadow at all.
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Why use additional light? In this point you maybe asking your self. If we have natural light, beautiful natural light from the sun, in a varied configurations, why do we need anything els? Well there are atleast three reasons:
1. Supplement natural light If there is not enough light, when the natural light is too low to use you need to supplement it. This might occurs indoors, at night, or even in deep of shadows.
2. Reduce contrast by filling up shadows Sometimes the actual range of contrast that natural light presents is too broad to record on our imaging digital sensors or on our pieces of film. Our eyes is amazing optical instruments, in contrasty conditions such as those sunny day with bright highlights and deep shadows, they can actually see more details on those extreame highlights and shadows than our cameras can record. So we need to lower that contrst by opening up the shadows to make them penetrable and recordable by our digital of film cameras, either by using a flash to fill in but not illiminate the shadows with light or some kind of physical reflector to do the same thing.
3. Create a more dramatic photograph We can actually transform the mood and look of our subject matter by using our speed lights or strobes. We can create dramatic photographs with the natural lighting conditions that are iether dull, dark or down right ugly by adding a light from one or more flashes or strobes.
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Step into the light - Lighting for Portrait
CHAPTER II
Understanding the idea of off-camera lighting Flash provides a convenient light source that will let you take a photograph even in the darkest place without having to change to expensive lenses, camera or use of tripod. Most modern camera today have built-in flash units. Otherwise a seperate flash unit can be mounted on the camera via hotshoe ot off camera on a flash bracket. Pictures taken with flash from builtin or hotshoe mounted units are usually unexceptional. The direct, frontal light is harsh and rarely flattering. It creates hard shadows on surfaces behind the subject and backgrounds are often too dark. To impose the look of your flash photographs, get to know the features of your particular unit. Explore the possibilities of off camera flash, bounce flash and fill flash.
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Seeing light In order to best utilise an artificial light source, we must first be aware of how light acts and reacts in nature. Observation of direct sunlight, diffuse sunlight through cloud and its many variations will develop an understanding of the two main artificial light sources available. A spotlight/open flash imitates the type of light we see from direct sunlight, a hard light with strong shadows and extreme contrast. A floodlight/soft box imitates the type of light we see on an overcast day, a soft diffuse light with minor variations in contrast and few shadows. Light falling on a subject creates a range of tones. These fall into three main categories: highlights, midtones and shadows. Each can be described by its level of illumination (how bright, how dark) and their position and distribution within the frame.
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Step into the light - Lighting for Portrait
What is the difference about off-camera lighting and natural light? Over the years flash technology evolves steadily and has become more and more versatile. The creative use of flash is now longer just in the hands of the small number of the experience professionals. What is the difference about off-camera lighting and natural light? So far we have been discussing all the similarities between artificial lights and natural light in terms of quality, direction, and color of the two light sources but there are a couple of significant differences of the two light source. The first and biggest difference is that while we can control the amount of the natural light that hits the camera sensor using a combination of aperture and shutter speed, and ISO. flash exposure is essentially controlled by only the aperture setting. Lets do a quick review of the terms. Aperture or f-stop describes the size of opening in the lens diaphragm that lets in the light. A wide or fast aperture like f1.4, f2, f2.8 or f4 lets in more light than smaller aperture like f11, f16 to f32 (and yes, the bigger the number the smaller the aperture.). Besid es controlling the amount of light coming in through the lens, the aperture also effects the depth of field in the photograph. A wide aperture has less depth of field than small aperture.
And because the duration of the light that the flash emits is so short (beyond 1/30000s), shutter speed of the camera (that is the amount of time the shutter curtains are open) doesn’t really affect the amount of flash exposure hitting the sensor or the film plane. The only real way the shutter speed affects our flash is that we got to make sure the shutter curtains are wide open at the moment the flash goes off so that they synchronise.
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www.1up2downphotography.com EJ Gobzalez Maternity.jpg Model: NIKON D90 Shutter speed value: 1/200 s Aperture value: f/5 ISO speed ratings: ISO 250 Focal length: 22 mm
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Step into the light - Lighting for Portrait
Shutter Speed Shutter speed: One thing you need to understand while shooting with off-camera lighting is shutter speed controls ambient exposure in your environment. An important thing to remember when you are working with off-camera lighting is that the way shutter speed affects flash exposure is in terms of synchronizing the opening of the shutter with the burst of the flash. The fastest shutter speed that allows the flash to fire when the shutter curtain is fully open is called the sync speed. Most modern DSLR can sync in normal mode up to 1/250 sec., but you’re not required to work at the cameras top sync speed all the time. Any speed that is slower than the top sync speed will also work. When we shoot below the top sync speed it is called slow sync flash and it is a very useful technique.
1/250 sec
1/125 sec
1/60 sec
1/30 sec
1/15 sec
1/8 sec
1/4 sec
1/2 sec On this sample photos, I did a self portrait with all lights on (fluorescent bulb) and window shades open. What I did in this self portrait is I set my flash to 1/8 power, aperture f/ 5.6, ISO 100, flash to subject distance is about 9 feet and only the variable that I change in this series of photos is the shutter speed.
1 sec
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2 secs
4 secs
www.1up2downphotography.com On my sample on the previous page I start with 1/250 sec. that’s my fastest shutters speed, notice that the details in the shadows are totally gone and every thing is dark except me and a wall spotlighted with flash. On the next photo I set it on 1/125 sec. it allows more ambient light to come in, notice that the shadows on the wall lighten and details in the shadows are now more visible. But the exposure of the flash hasn’t change. On the third photo I set my shutter speed to 1/60 sec. now it brings more details on the wall and open up shadows. On the 1/30 sec the highlights on the wall cause by the light bulb are now showing. Now I set my shutter speed to 1/15 sec. it opens up more details on the shadows and the highlights on the wall are now much visible. On 1/8 sec the shadows lighten more and more details are now viewable. I set the shutter speed at ¼ sec. you can now see more balance exposure from flash and ambient light. On ½ sec most of the shadows are now open up and viewable and more balance. At 1 sec you can notice that the amount of light from the ambient light and the amount of light coming from flash are about to mix. On 2 secs, the light from the flash and the ambient light are mixing together where you cant barely distinguished one light source from the other. On the last photo I set my shutter speed on 4 seconds, there you can now see movement and the ratio of the light from the flash and and ambient light is 1:1. the wall is blown up white and all shadows are open up. Dexter Maneja Model: NIKON D40X Shutter speed value: 1/200 s Aperture value: f/14 ISO speed ratings: ISO 100 Focal length: 19 mm
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Aperture Aperture controls your flash exposure. If you made a shot then look on the back of your camera and you see a weird exposure coming from your flash, it is not your shutter speed setting that you need to change but your aperture settings. If you find your photo being over exposed by your flash exposure it means that your aperture is open too large, you need to shut your aperture down. And if you find your photos under exposed it means that you are not getting enough light from your aperture, you need to open it up to allow more light to come in to your sensor. Aperture controls the amount of light coming into your lens by means of how large the opening of the iris or how small it was open. Besides controlling the amount of light coming in through the lens, the aperture also effects the depth of field in the photograph. A wide aperture has less depth of field than small aperture.
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Flash Power Flash power is how much light is coming out of your flash during one burst. You control your flash power by increasing or decreasing the power. With the flash in manual mode the settings go as follows: 1/1 Full Power to 1/2 Power to 1/4 Power to 1/8 Power to 1/16 Power to 1/32 Power to 1/64 Power and so on.Each one of these steps is equal to one stop of light. Knowing how your flash power works is going to help you not only get the correct exposure, but it can also help you save battery life if you are using speedlights. Have you started noticing that there is a common denominator in all of these variables...STOPS OF LIGHT! When you are using flash and it is set to 1/1 FULL POWER and you lower your flash power to 1/2, that is ONE STOP OF LIGHT! You are basically doing the same thing is closing down your aperture one stop. Your flash exposure is going to be the same whether you close aperture or reduce flash power. They work together. So there will be a ton of instances that you will be able to open your aperture and lower your flash power to compensate and save battery life.
Flash Power
Aperture
Full f16 1/2 f11
Let say we take a photo at full flash power, we find that our proper exposure is F16. If we cut the power in half we’ve lost one stop of light, so therefor we need to open our aperture 1 step to compensate to f11. if we set it to ¼ power we’ve lost 1 more stop of light, to compensate on that power loss is to open 1 stop of aperture and that will ganna bring us to f8. if we set it on 1/8 of power then we’ve lost another stop of light, so we need to open our aperture one step again and that will be f5.6. if we set our flash power to 1/16 another power loss again so we need to open aperture 1 step again.
1/4 f8
We started a scenario in proper exposure of full power 1/1 on aperture f16 and if we change our flash exposure to 1/16 and set the aperture to f4, we will ganna have the same exposure on our subject that we have at full power and at f16.
1/8 f5.6
If you double the flash power you add a stop of light. When you cut it in half you loss 1 stop of light.
1/16 f4
Light to subject distance (Invers Square Law) The second important different of between natural light and flash is that with flash the intensity of light falls off very quickly as the subjects distance from the light source increases. You need to remember that your flash illumination will fall off quickly, so you cant light subjcts at multiple distances with the light of just one flash. Let us define Invers Square Law. Inverse Square Law is an equation that relates the intensity of a light source to the illumination it produce at a given distance.
Wall
1/2 Power
Light Source
Light diminish over distance in accourdance with the inverse square law which state that doubling the flash to subject distance reduces the light falling on the subject to one quarter.
Subject F16 2 meters 1/250
F8 4 meters 1/250
F4 8 meters 1/250
F2.8 16 meters 1/250
Let say our subject from our light source is 2 meters away and the aperture reading is F16, shutter speed 1/250 sec. and our Flash power is 1/2 power. When we double the distance of the subject away from our light source the light reaching the subject is only 1/4 as strong as it was before, which means that the light’s intensity is two stops less powerful. In our example if we place our subject 4 meters away from our light source we need to open up our aperture two stop just to compensate the exposure.
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ISO The ISO settings determine how sensitive the sensor to light. The higher the ISO number the more sensitive the sensor. And the more sensitive the sensor, the less light it needs to record an image. Digital SLRs will typically have ISO settings ranging from 100 to 1600 or even 3200 (some go even higher than that). If we set ISO 100 to ISO 200 we increase the sensityvity to light by 1 stop. If we set it from ISO 100 to ISO 400 we increase the sensitivity of the sensor to light by 2 stops.
ISO Settings 100 200 400 800
FLASH POWER
Full power f8 f11 f16 f22 1/2 power f5.6 f8 f11 f16 1/4 power f4 f5.6 f8 f11 1/8 power
f2.8 f4 f5.6 f8
1/16 power f2 f2.8 f4 f5.6 1/32 power f1.4 f2 f2.8 f4
Let say that we are out shooting in an ISO 100, we get a proper exposure on a full flash power at f8. If we change the sensityvity of our ISO to two stops from ISO 100 to ISO 400 we can now get the target f8 aperture only with a Âź power of our flash. This will allow us to get more flash pops from our batteries, and also increase the flash recycling time to fire our flash faster.
Summary Shutter Speed controls our ambient exposure. If you want to change the ambient light exposure on your photograph you only need to change the value of your shutter speed. Aperture controls flash exposure. If your flash exposure is over exposed on your photograph you need to close your aperture down.. If that flash exposure is under exposed in your photograp you need to open your aperture up to allow more light in to your camera. Flash Power. From Full power, half power, quater power, one eight power down to one of one hundred twenty eight power. You need to know those power settings and how to change quickly on your flash. On off camera lighting always use manual settings, TTL is helpful but we need accuracy in our exposure all the time. Light to subject distance. If your light to subject distance changes your exposure changes. If you move the light twice as far from your subject you either open up your aperture by two stops, use shutter speed two stops longer, increase ISO by two stops settings or increase the output of your light source four times. Each of these solutions would compensate for the two stops of lightyou lost in the move. ISO change sensitivity across the board from flash exposure and ambient exposure. As you change your ISO remember that you also need to change the settings of your aperture and shutter speed accordingly.
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Dexter Maneja Shutter speed value: 1//80 s Aperture value: f/6.3 ISO speed ratings: ISO 80 Focal length: 18 mm
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CHAPTER III
diagrams and lighting setup
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