Studio Photography

graigdavis · Jan 28, 2005

Hey all. I have some questions for you. I got a new job and they found out I do some photography on the side. We design exhibits for lots of different companys. When we are finished designing and building the display we take pictures of it. Im not experienced at studio style photography. I have never had to set up lights and such. I have learned how to adjust my camera to adapt to my surroundings.

They have a light set here and Im using my S7000. The light set consists of 3 lights on stands. 2 have umbrellas and the third can have several things, shelds, a honey comb lookin thing. Besides just taking time to learn where to put the lights and face them where and how bright to set them all, Im having a hard time not over exposing my photos. No matter how fast I set my shutter they always come out over exposed.

I do ok when I dont use the 3 lights hooked up to the shoe, but I would like to learn how to take good photos with 3 lights going off with a flash. Or do I even need all 3 to flash? Anyway, any advice would be great. Maybe you can point me to some past threads on this or some other websites about this.

Big Mike · Jan 28, 2005

graigdavis said:
No matter how fast I set my shutter they always come out over exposed.

That's because shutter speed has little to do with flash photography. Adjust your aperture to control exposure.

Lighting is both an art & a science. The style really depends on your subject, your style and your client's expectations. Your best bet would be to pick up a few books and/or do a lot of web research.

graigdavis · Jan 28, 2005

Your shutter is what changes your exposure is it not?

Big Mike · Jan 28, 2005

Yes, with ambient light. However, the duration of a flash burst could be 1/10,000...so if the shutter is open for 1/500 or 1/10...it's not getting any more or less light from the flash. It's only the aperture that controls how much light from the flash reaches the film/sensor.

The shutter speed can be used to control the amount of exposure from ambient light. For example, if you had a subject and a background and your flash exposure was set to expose the subject...if you set a fast shutter, very little ambient light would have time to expose the background so it would be very dark. If you set a long shutter speed, the subject would still be exposed properly by the flash but more ambient light would have time to expose the background. This of course is dependent on the amount of ambient light...if you are in a dark studio, there may be no ambient light to speak of.