Lighting

[Rosy]

I'd like to eventually invest in some lighting (economical and portable) mostly for back and side-lighting...
Input, please

Also do any of you use the Graslon Flat Diffuser? Recommendations? I did some pictures and i got alot of hard shadows (mostly because i stood the subject too close to the wall and also i had NO side lighting...)

 

[MWG]

pretty vague question, whats your budget? Monolights or flashes?

 

[analog.universe]

That diffuser looks too small to prevent hard shadows, unless you're doing macro with it.... I've found that umbrellas are the most effective way to modify light on a tight budget. Get some that can be used both as reflective and shoot-through.

 

[Village Idiot]

I'd like to eventually invest in some lighting (economical and portable) mostly for back and side-lighting...
Input, please

Also do any of you use the Graslon Flat Diffuser? Recommendations? I did some pictures and i got alot of hard shadows (mostly because i stood the subject too close to the wall and also i had NO side lighting...)

Budget and how portable? You can either get "studio" lights or speedlights. Lights considered studio lights are monolights and pack and head systems. Either will allow you to get much more power than a speedlight and use better modifiers, but will require a wall outlet or a battery (most of which start around $300). The weight of studio lights will generally be a lot more. There are some ultra portable solutions, but something like the Elinchrom Quadra will run you $1,559 to start. Speedlights are ultra portable but lack power and require you to keep up on batteries so that you're not stuck with a useless flash from dead batteries. Also, if you're shooting in daylight, speedlights will do little more than provide fill light.

You can get two speedlights, stands, adapters, umbrellas, and triggers for about $390. You can get two monolights with stands, triggers, and umbrellas for about $350. A battery will run you about $300 and at that point the monolights will only be about a stop, maybe two more powerful than the speedlights.

 

[KmH]

The apparent size of a light source is what determines how well it 'wraps', which is what defines the sharpness of shadow edges. Moving the subject away from the background won't change the edge definition of the shadows. Shadow edge definition can only be changed by changing the apparent size of the light source.

The bigger an apparent light source is the softer the shadow edges are, because the light 'wraps' more.

Photographic umbrellas, diffusion panels, and softboxes are light modifiers used to make a light source apparently larger than it really is. Modifiers can also affect the quality of the light dependiing on the color and reflectivity of the modifier.