Looking for advice on lighting!

MelissaP · Oct 18, 2011

Hey! This is my first thread, thought I'd give it a go. I am new in the photography world. I've recently purchased a DSLR with an external flash. I am looking for a few hints on what kind of portable lighting and reflectors I may need. I am hoping to do some in-home photography for some family and friends that may not have ideal lighting in their homes. Thanks

MSnowy · Oct 19, 2011

Welcome. You'll learn a lot of great things here. The easiest way to find info on here is to first use the search feature. KmH is one of the members and he has some great ideas on getting started with off camera lighting.

MelissaP · Oct 19, 2011

Thankyou MSnowy! I've taken your advice and have been reading up on other posts/threads. *I will search before I ask* =)

Big Mike · Oct 19, 2011

Welcome aboard. First, I'm going to move this thread out of the 'Digital' section, as this has nothing to do with digital.

Big Mike · Oct 19, 2011

The easiest way to improve your lighting with an accessory flash, is to point it somewhere other than right at your subject and bounce the light off of something. A very common technique is to bounce it off the ceiling, but you can also bounce it off walls or anything around you. By doing this, you are making the light softer and maybe giving it some directional qualities (as opposed to just shooting it directly at your subjects).

You can use reflectors to help add light to your subject. These work great whether you're using flash or not.

The next step to take, is getting the flash off the camera. By doing this, you can precisely place the light to get just the right lighting on your subject. Do do this, you may need a remote flash trigger, a light stand and an adapter to mount the flash on the stand. You may also want something like an umbrella or softbox, which will enlarge your light source, giving you softer light, which is often advantageous for portraits.

ghache · Oct 19, 2011

Big mike is right, if your stuck with your flash on camera, bounce it off the ceiling or a wall if possible.

indoor i like to bounce my flash and use a bounce card for fill (larger aurora bounce card works really well)

Village Idiot · Oct 20, 2011

Read this. All of it and not just the first post:
Strobist: Lighting 101

Then come back and ask more questions.

MelissaP · Oct 21, 2011

Thanks everybody

Big Mike and ghache, the tips on my lighting were helpful. I have lower ceilings in my place which work well for the bouncing. And sorry for putting this in Digital I was using my phone app. The blog: Strobist is awesome! I have learned ALOT!! Thanks Village Idiot!

Village Idiot · Oct 21, 2011

MelissaP said:
Thanks everybody Big Mike and ghache, the tips on my lighting were helpful. I have lower ceilings in my place which work well for the bouncing. And sorry for putting this in Digital I was using my phone app. The blog: Strobist is awesome! I have learned ALOT!! Thanks Village Idiot!

Keep in mind the lighting 101 series was started over 3 years ago. There's been a lot of releases as far as equipment since then so there are other less expensive alternatives.

MLeeK · Oct 21, 2011

MelissaP said:
Hey! This is my first thread, thought I'd give it a go. I am new in the photography world. I've recently purchased a DSLR with an external flash. I am looking for a few hints on what kind of portable lighting and reflectors I may need. I am hoping to do some in-home photography for some family and friends that may not have ideal lighting in their homes. Thanks

By all means get your self a reflector. BUT don't do ANY adding flash until you have mastered shutter speed, ISO and Aperture. Even the one you have already. You HAVE To learn and understand those things before you add flash into the deal because flash changes the whole game in SOOOO many ways.
Once you have mastered those then start learning to control that speedlight you have. After that you will have a good feel for what you are coming up short in lighting and then we can better help you. If you just buy a bunch of stuff now the chances of it being what you ultimately want and need later? aren't really great.

You may buy strobes and find out that you really wish you had gone with speedlights and an off camera setup (especially seeing how you mention in other people's homes.) You may find that you don't need anything more than the speedlight you have and a modifier and maybe an off camera setup... There are just so many personal elements that go into what YOU need compared to me or anyone else that recommending something before you know where you're coming up short doesn't do you much help.
EVERYONE can use a good 5 in 1 reflector. They are CHEAP as hell and incredible lighting tools.

When you are ready then we'll need to know a budget to work with and what you are coming up short on and need to fix.

MTVision · Oct 21, 2011

You can always make a reflector at home rather than buy one!

Village Idiot · Oct 24, 2011

MTVision said:
You can always make a reflector at home rather than buy one!

I was in a parking lot at a VW meet where I wasn't planning on doing any type of portrait work, so all I had was a Canon 580EX II. I ended up using a kid with a white t-shirt on as a reflector.

KmH · Oct 24, 2011

When bouncing light off of ceilings you can get dark eye sockets (raccoon eye) because the light is coming down from almost directly over head. However, you can use a 'bounce card'
to direct some of the light straight forward to add 'fill light' to the eye sockets.

The bounced light will also take on a color cast based on the color of the ceiling or any other bounce surface.

For on camera flash work I recommend visitng the following blog and getting Neil's books: http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

On-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography

Off-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Photographers

A good resource for gaining a technical understanding of the basics of photographic lighting is:
Light Science and Magic, Fourth Edition: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting

MelissaP · Oct 24, 2011

Village Idiot said:
I was in a parking lot at a VW meet where I wasn't planning on doing any type of portrait work, so all I had was a Canon 580EX II. I ended up using a kid with a white t-shirt on as a reflector.

Thanks foe that share Village Idiot! I didn't realize that a reflector could be that simple!! How awesome.

Village Idiot · Oct 25, 2011

MelissaP said:
Village Idiot said:

I was in a parking lot at a VW meet where I wasn't planning on doing any type of portrait work, so all I had was a Canon 580EX II. I ended up using a kid with a white t-shirt on as a reflector.

Click to expand...

Thanks foe that share Village Idiot! I didn't realize that a reflector could be that simple!! How awesome.

A reflector can be almost anything. One the colors start getting darker though, they become too inefficient to use. A black shirt would definitely not have worked as it would have absorbed most of the light.