getting into indoor portraits - some advice

[jamiebonline]

Hi all,

I have been taking outdoor photos with some success (I think!) of amateur models in my city. Winter is coming and not only because of the weather but cause of my growing interest, I'd like to do indoor stuff.

I have access to a quite large old room with white walls and moderately large old windows. My iniitial plan was to take portraits of the models sitting on the window sill or standing next to the window. For this I bought some reflectors to help lighten the side of their face away from the window. I might get net curtains too to diffuse the light more (?)
Then I saw something about one light photography and bought a yongnuo flash and triggers and a tripod.
I have very little money and almost none left! could you recommend me something very useful for less than 100 bucks to add to this set up? I am thinking about white umbrellas or diffusers. The flash has a little diffuser and bounce card built in. Not much good? I understand it depends what I want from this but your thoughts are very helpful to me as always.

Thanks again!

J

 

[astroNikon]

Give this an initial read
Strobist: Lighting 101

 

[tirediron]

Outstanding resource ^^!! The one item I would say would give you most benefit would be an umbrella (depending on your current set-up you may need a bracket as well). I would suggest a 'combination' umbrella, that is one which has a removable black covering and will function as both a reflecting and a shoot-through umbrella. This will allow you a LOT of flexibility and creativity.

Example - One light speedlight portrait:

 

[Big Mike]

As long as you can trigger your flash, and have something to hold it up and aim it where you want, I'd suggest learning with that. Only add something else when you see that you have a strong need for it.

One of the main things that we want to do with light, especially for portraits, is to control how hard or soft it is. So make light softer, you have to make it larger, relative to the subject. So it could be either or moving it closer to the subject or actually making the light source larger. That is the purpose of things like umbrellas, they increase the size of the light, thus making it softer (which gives you softer shadows etc.).

A very easy way to make light softer, is to bounce it off of a large surface. So if you have white walls, the easiest thing would be to point your flash at the wall, the area that it hits on the wall becomes your light source.

Of course, things like diffusers, softboxes, umbrellas, grids, snoots etc. are still very useful, but no need to rush into it.

 

[astroNikon]

Love the lighting in that one flash portrait - the shadows aren't too pronounced around her left eye.
:thumbup:

 

[KmH]

You'll need to look for 'convertible' umbrellas that can be uses as shoot through or reflected.
You'll wan t to get the flash unit off the camera so you can control the direction and height of the light.

To do that you need a light stand, an umbrella bracket that holds the umbrella and flash unit, and a convertible umbrella.
This is a decent starter kit:
Impact Digital Flash Umbrella Mount Kit

A range of umbrellas sizes is used. The smaller ones, like in the kit above, are used for head and shoulder shots. A bigger umbrella(s), like 60 inches wide, would be used for a full body shot.

White studio walls can cause light to reflect in ways you don't want. But, can be used to advantage with the window light and a reflector or 2.
Reflectors can be as simple as 20 x 30 pieces of white foam board you pick up at a office supply or crafts store.
A silver car windshield reflector can be used too.

Another good online source for using flash info - http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

Available Light: Photographic Techniques for Using Existing Light Sources
Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Studio Photography

 

[jamiebonline]

Thanks again everyone, I just bought a light stand and softbox (rather than umbrellas) with bracket on ebay. The flash triggers are in the post too. Looking forward.
I should post some of my efforts here when I start taking pictures.

To Big Mike, you are right about not rushing in, no doubt, but I am so enthusiastic I can't control myself


J