Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Learning
Photography Q&A
Super basic portrait lighting setup?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="WayneF" data-source="post: 611166" data-attributes="member: 12496"><p>Which two flashes? Thinking about triggering, etc.</p><p></p><p>About anything you try will put out some light. However, there really is a little more to good lighting.</p><p></p><p>The first idea is a "large" light. Like a 40" umbrella or 40" softbox is large. A bare flash works, but what makes soft portrait light is a large light, up fairly close to appear even larger. The rough idea of appearing large is that its distance from subject should be near its physical diameter.... Like a four foot umbrella at four foot distance, that will be very soft light. Four feet size at ten feet is not nearly as soft. A link about soft: <a href="http://www.scantips.com/lights/flashbasics3.html" target="_blank">Creating Soft Light from the Flash</a></p><p></p><p>Softboxes are very good, but they just don't mount on speedlights. You'd probably end up some dinky 8x12 inch softbox, which is larger than a bare flash, but simply is not large.</p><p></p><p>Umbrellas are great for mounting speedlights, zoomed to 24mm and located near the end of the umbrella shaft (to fill the umbrella size). Also very easy to disassemble and store. Umbrellas do suffer more room spill, but the quality is about size, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with umbrellas.</p><p></p><p>The basic idea of "lighting" is a main light, fairly close to be large, positioned about 30 to 45 degrees above and to one side of the subjects nose. This off camera position makes intentional shadows on the face, to show its curves and shape, and to avoid a flat light. But even with a large soft light, it is still a bit harsh. So we use a fill light, typically located very near the lens axis (back at the camera), to exactly fill the shadows that the lens sees, without making a new set of shadows. A link about setup: <a href="http://www.scantips.com/lights/setup/" target="_blank">45 degree Portrait Lighting Setup</a></p><p></p><p>Then all that is left is the mounting and triggering. The most simple, yet highly satisfactory method is simple optical slave triggers. These might give trouble outdoors in sunshine, but they work great in the living room. All you have to trigger is the near one (probably fill light very near the camera), and its stronger flash triggers the rest. A PC sync cord or a hot shoe cable could trigger that near one, and optical slaves on the others.</p><p></p><p>See the sig link below, Lighting section, about some mounting ideas. A link there about using Commander mode too, which could work if your flashes support it. That would allow TTL mode, to solve metering, but really, other than metering, manual flash has much good to be said for portraits.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="WayneF, post: 611166, member: 12496"] Which two flashes? Thinking about triggering, etc. About anything you try will put out some light. However, there really is a little more to good lighting. The first idea is a "large" light. Like a 40" umbrella or 40" softbox is large. A bare flash works, but what makes soft portrait light is a large light, up fairly close to appear even larger. The rough idea of appearing large is that its distance from subject should be near its physical diameter.... Like a four foot umbrella at four foot distance, that will be very soft light. Four feet size at ten feet is not nearly as soft. A link about soft: [URL="http://www.scantips.com/lights/flashbasics3.html"]Creating Soft Light from the Flash[/URL] Softboxes are very good, but they just don't mount on speedlights. You'd probably end up some dinky 8x12 inch softbox, which is larger than a bare flash, but simply is not large. Umbrellas are great for mounting speedlights, zoomed to 24mm and located near the end of the umbrella shaft (to fill the umbrella size). Also very easy to disassemble and store. Umbrellas do suffer more room spill, but the quality is about size, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with umbrellas. The basic idea of "lighting" is a main light, fairly close to be large, positioned about 30 to 45 degrees above and to one side of the subjects nose. This off camera position makes intentional shadows on the face, to show its curves and shape, and to avoid a flat light. But even with a large soft light, it is still a bit harsh. So we use a fill light, typically located very near the lens axis (back at the camera), to exactly fill the shadows that the lens sees, without making a new set of shadows. A link about setup: [URL="http://www.scantips.com/lights/setup/"]45 degree Portrait Lighting Setup[/URL] Then all that is left is the mounting and triggering. The most simple, yet highly satisfactory method is simple optical slave triggers. These might give trouble outdoors in sunshine, but they work great in the living room. All you have to trigger is the near one (probably fill light very near the camera), and its stronger flash triggers the rest. A PC sync cord or a hot shoe cable could trigger that near one, and optical slaves on the others. See the sig link below, Lighting section, about some mounting ideas. A link there about using Commander mode too, which could work if your flashes support it. That would allow TTL mode, to solve metering, but really, other than metering, manual flash has much good to be said for portraits. [/QUOTE]
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Learning
Photography Q&A
Super basic portrait lighting setup?
Top
