Portrait Lighting Lesson 2: Setting up your equipment

So in the last lesson (Lesson 1), I talked about and gave some examples of inexpensive items for you to consider purchasing in order to get yourself a basic portrait lighting setup.

Today I want to go over how to assemble it all when you're ready to do your first portrait session. A lot of things in life come with instructions, but I found the Impact brand of products that is made solely for B&H tends to come with little to no instructions.

If you chose to purchase other versions of the same items i.e. a different brand, then these instructions will likely be similar but could easily change. For example, the cord that comes with the Vivitar 285HV is different than the cord for any other brand of small flash unit.

So let's get started:

Step 1: Correct the problem with the umbrella bracket.

When you first open the box to your umbrella bracket, you'll find that the two threaded screw thing-a-ma-jigs on each each end of the bracket were installed backwards (before you do this step, make sure your's were shipped backwards by referring to the third photo. If they weren't, then you can disregard this step). What I mean by this, is that if you use the bracket as it comes in the box, the adjustable elbow doesn't function properly. The elbow should be used to angle the flash head and the umbrella all at once. If you bought a different brand, look at the final photo for this step and ensure it matches. If not, you probably need to follow a similar set of steps







Step 2: Attach the umbrella bracket to the light-stand





Step 3: Expand the legs on the base of the light-stand

In case of heavy winds on an outdoor photo-shoot, you can tent stake the stand to the ground if you are on soil, or you can use sandbags if you're at the beach or on pavement - see note on image.



Step 4: Attach the umbrella to the umbrella bracket





Step 5: Attach the flash head to the umbrella bracket





Step 6: Locate and setup the flash triggering cords (PC male-to-female & Unique pointy cord that came with the Vivitar 285HV)
NOTE: SKIP THIS STEP AND GO TO STEP 7 IF YOU CHOSE THE WIRELESS ROUTE USING CYBERSYNC TRANSIMITTOR/RECEIVERS AS OPPOSED TO THE PC MALE-TO-FEMALE CORD METHOD OF FLASH TRIGGERING















Step 7: Setup the flash to trigger wirelessly with the CyberSync wireless transmitter/receivers
NOTE: ONLY DO THIS STEP IF YOU CHOSE TO GO THE WIRELESS ROUTE AS OPPOSED TO USING THE PC MALE-TO-FEMALE METHOD LISTED IN STEP 6













Step 8: Note how to use the elbow to angle your flash head and umbrella (regardless of whether you chose step 6 or 7)



Stay tuned for Portrait Lighting Lesson 3. We'll be discussing one of the most common lighting setups: 45 degree lighting.

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Portrait Lighting Lesson 1: Basic Lighting Equipment

Now that we know how to use all the major functions of our cameras, I'd like to add another factor: Off camera lighting!

In addition, these off-camera lighting lessons are going to be geared to small flashes (or strobes) as opposed to continous output lights or monolights. As always, I try to keep the lessons geared toward using your camera on full manual.

For starters, why do we want to have a flash off camera as opposed to using the one built in or just attaching a seperate flash on top of the camera?

Simply put... the quality of the light!

The flash built into most cameras just don't put out a quality lighting result. The biggest reason is that a flash on the same axis as your cameras lens just produces non-flattering light. The lighting is very flat and doesn't usually enhance the way an image looks. An on-camera flash can provide light in a situation where the shot is do or die. I can almost guarantee though, that when you get used to using flash off camera, you'll never want to go back to that weak on-camera flash. In addition, if you have a longer lens on your camera, the on camera flash or flash you've attached to the top of your camera will often produce a massive shadow on your subject.

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LIGHTING EQUIPMENT TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Portrait - A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position.

On-location - A portrait session that takes place at a location other than a studio. Often this location is but not limited to outdoors.

Ambient Light - Any light that is exiting or present at the shooting scene that is not part of the photographers lighting setup.

Hot shoe - A hot shoe is a mounting point on the top of a camera to attach a flash unit. The hot shoe is shaped somewhat like an inverted, squared-off "U" of metal. The matching adapter on the bottom of the flash unit slides in from the back of the camera and is sometimes secured by a clamping screw on the flash. In the center of the "U" is a metal contact point. This is used for standard, brand-independent flash synchronization.

Sync & PC Cables - A cord that attaches your off-camera flash to your camera. When the shutter button is pressed, the cord sends a signal to the flash to fire it.

Radio Slaves or Wireless Transmitters/Receivers - A radio slave system uses 2 devices to fire your flash wirelessly. One piece attaches to the hot shoe of your device (the transmitter) and the other attaches to your flash off-camera (the receiver). When the shutter button is pressed the transmitter sends a signal to the receiver to set off the flash. Some brands use transceivers. A transceiver sends and receives signals as opposed to just one of the duties. Wit these systems, it doesn't matter which piece is on the flash and which is on the camera.

Lightstands - A pole or stand for which you attach your flash and any lighting modifiers.

Booms - An adjustable arm sometimes built into the lightstand that allows you to relocate the flash above the subject.

Umbrella Brackets - A device that attaches to the top of the lightstand that gives you a place to mount your umbrella. Often the umbrella bracket will have a movable elbow allowing you to redirect the flash and the umbrella at different angles.

Lighting Modifiers - Any device that allows you to modify the light for any purpose. Modifiers change the softness, direction, color, intensity, etc. of the light source. Umbrellas, snoots, gobos, gels, etc. are considered lighting modifiers.

Diffusion or Diffuser - any device that diffuses or spreads out or scatters light in some manner, to give soft light.

Umbrella - A lighting modifier that softens the light by diffusing it. The umbrella typically spreads the light pattern over a greater area. If used as a shoot-through, the light is often softer than using it to bounce the light back on the subject.

Softbox - A lighting modifier that softens the light by diffusing it. As opposed to spreading the light over a wide area, a softbox produces more directional light.

Snoot - Snoots are front-of-the-light "tubes" that project a circle of light on a subject or background. They also reduce light spill.

Barn Door - A front-of-the-light device having two or more pivotable black panels used to shape the Beam and shade the camera lens or scene.

Reflector - Flat devices, mostly white, silver, or gold, that redirect the sun's and other source's rays. Lighting with reflectors is like lighting with lights - except no cables. Just cloud and wind worries.

Diffusion or Diffuser - any device that diffuses or spreads out or scatters light in some manner, to give soft light.

Gel - A strong, flexible, fade-resistant material that changes the color, amount, or quality of light.

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STARTER BASIC LIGHTING SETUP AT A DESCENT COST
So now that we have an idea of some of the basic items used in portrait photography, I'd like to give you a list of links to the bare minimum lighting equipment to produce professional results on a budget price plan. The following list is what I personally started with. This list of equipment is of descent quality for the money and should last you awhile. In no way am I insisting that you by the same equipment that I purchased, but this hopefully can act as a good guide.

Off Camera Flash - Vivitar 285HV - I like this flash for the price. Given, this is an older more basic flash, but it produces consistent results. The Vivitar 285HV has all manual controls as opposed to electronic controls. If you're unsure about flash photography and you don't want to drop a lot of coin on a flash you may not end up using, the Vivitar won't set you back to much money. My biggest complaint is the slow flash recycle time, especially as the batteries start to wither.

Sync Cable - PC male to PC female sync cable. This is the bare minimum to get by with off-camera flash. One end hooks into your camera and the other hooks into the cord included with the Vivitar 285HV. The other end of the cord included with the flash plugs into the flash. Note: Different flash brands may require different sync cables.

Lightstand - Impact 8' Lightstand - This is a pretty basic lightstand with no boom arm.

Umbrella Bracket - Generic swivel bracket - Not much to say about it, holds the umbrella and the flash :P

Umbrella - Westcott 45" with removable black cover - Good to use as a shoot-through, or as a bounce back umbrella. 45" is pretty large and will allow you to cover a relatively large area. Kinda cheaply made, but it's a given that when the wind catches it and blows it over, it's only going to hold up for so long.

The above setup will get you shooting portraits and making money with an initial $173 investment. Really not bad when you consider how expensive this hobby can be.

OPTIONAL

Wireless Triggers - CyberSync Radio Remote System - I use this wireless trigger system, and I love them. Honestly, the Pocketwizard brand is nice and the effective distance is much greater, but the cost is considerably more. The CyberSync system is a transmitter and receiver system rather than a transceiver like the PocketWizards. The PW's are around $200 each, whereas the CyberSyncs are like 60 for the transmitter and 90 for each receiver. The effective distance is about 400 ft compared to PW's 1600 feet, but for the money, they are very consistent, easy to use, and very well built. Please spare yourself and don't order the cheap ones on ebay. They are inconsistent and don't work that well.

If you choose to go with the the CyberSyncs, or the PW's, and plan on using them with the Vivitar 285HV, you'll need this special cord to attach them since the triggers don't come with this cord used on the older Vivitars.
Vivitar to Wireless Trigger Adapter Cord

If you did go this route and assuming you only bought 1 flash, hence only 1 receiver and adapter cord, this version of the setup will run you about $327. The wireless triggering systems are so much nicer than runing a PC cable. I found that with only 16 foot of cable, I was looking through the viewfinder and accidently pulling over the lightstand. It didn't take long before I went wireless.

I'm currently not at home, so I can't take photographs of the setup, but the next post will likely be about how to setup all the elements listed above including visuals. The next post will also include the most common portrait lighting setup: 45 degree lighting.

Here's a few photos from a portrait session this past weekend using the above listed lighting setup.

My friend Lauren at an abandoned nursing home in Mathews, VA.





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How I Shot This - "In the Drink"

Today's post is a "how I shot this" post.

You've likely seen shots very similar to this one from many other photographers. Originality was lacking to some extent on my part. The main purpose of this shoot was to practice different lighting techniques and see what type of results I could draw without the help of others. Instead of searching online for how to shoot this type of image, I looked on Flickr for other examples of this type of shot. From there I looked at where the light was coming from and decided to start a process of trial and error.

What you'll need:

• Camera
• Tripod
• 2 Strobe Flashes
• Flash trigger system (pocket wizards, synch cables, etc)
• Clear Glass Tank
• Black Non Reflective Backdrop (or other colors depending on desired artistic effect)
• Water (Seltzer water for extra bubbles)
• Object to drop in water
• Focusing Object (something to set your initial focus with)
• Remote Shutter (optional)
• Aluminum Foil (optional)
• Lightstands (optional)
• Towels (optional)

The setup:

1. Start by setting up your clear glass tank (fishtank, cookie jar, etc that is free of scratches, scuffs, or fingerprints) on a table or other flat surface. I used a chair to set the tank on allowing me to put a black shirt over the back part of the chair. If you use a reflective surface for the black backdrop you will get flash hotspots.
2. Next fill the tank with water. If you want alot of bubbles, you can use Seltzer water (carbonated water). I used a mixture of both.
3. Next set up a flash on either side of the tank pointing directly at the sides of the tank. I chose to put the flashes flush against the tank. After much trial and error, I realized that if the flashes were to far away, they illuminated the front and rear plane of glass giving me more of a flat or hazy look. If you have lightstands, you can use them to support the flashes. I found that a stack of books I had closely available worked just fine. The room I was working in limited my floor space preventing me from adding lightstands due to the wider base.
4. Hook up your triggering system. I have the AlienBees CyberSync remote triggers and receivers. You can also use flash sync cables as a cheaper option.
5. Set the flash power to a lower power setting. My flashes lowest setting was 1/16th power.
6. Setup your camera on a tripod pointing at the jar
7. Insert an object into the jar, approximately in the center. The idea is to use an object that when sitting in the jar, will give your camera something to focus on . It needs to stay stationary as you move to your camera to compose the shot. I used the handle of a flyswatter to stick in the center of the tank.
8. Compose your shot and set the camera to autofocus
9. Focus the camera on the object in the center of the tank using the autofocus. Once focused, switch the camera to manual focus. (If your camera continuously tries to focus on the glass or the bubbles formed on the glass, focus in manual from the get-go to get the object in focus. Leave the focus on manual.
10. Set the F/stop to a small aperture to get the largest depth of field. I chose F/16.
11. Set the shutter speed to the maximum flash synch speed according to your camera user manual. For the Canon EOS 50D, this would be 1/250th of a second. This will prevent ambient lighting from adding unplanned light to your shot.
12. Remove the object from the tank
13. Set your cameras timer to somewhere between 2 and 10 seconds.
14. Use either a remote shutter release cable or just push the shutter button (if you can reach it) to start the timer countdown. Many cameras beep, so you can tell approximately when the shutter will fire.
15. A split second before the camera fires, drop the object from 3-5 inches above the water level. The further the drop, the bigger the splash.
16. Review the shot.
17. If you manage to get the ball anywhere in the frame, adjust the f/stop or change the flash power settings to get the proper exposure.
18. Repeat until you get the timing on spot

Things to consider:

• smaller apertures will give you the greatest depth of field. I knew from the start I would need to use at least F/14.
• If you have flashes that are capable of firing rapidly in succession, instead of using the timer, you can use the remote shutter to rapidly fire shots from the camera as the object drops. This will wield a lot less trial and error drops, and a lot more good captures. My flashes are older (and cheaper) which prevents me from firing flashes in rapid succession.
• Change the background to a color to add more vibrance to the shot. Remember, reflective surfaces will cause flash hotspots in unintended areas
• Keep plenty of towels on hand. As you fish your object repeatedly from the tank, you'll likely drip water all over yourself and the floor.
• Wipe the glass free of droplets above the waterline to keep it clear and free of unneeded water spots
• Add aluminum foil to the bottom of the tank to reflect some light up from the bottom helping fill the shadows.
• If you change the background color, it won't absorb as much light as a black surface, therefore reflecting some light back to the object.

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Aperture & Shutter Speed (A Beautiful Relationship)

So today I want to hit a bit more on aperture and shutter speed.

As I said in the last post...

Aperture = Size of hole in the lens. Bigger hole equals more light. Smaller hole means less light. Bigger hole means shallower depth of field (less in focus in front of and behind your subject). Smaller hole means larger depth of field (more in focus in front of and behind your subject).

Lets add a bit to what we've already learned. The size of the aperture is referred to as an F-stop.

This is the confusing part... This will be tough for many people to wrap your heads around. I know it was for me at first

The larger the F-stop number (ex. F/22), the smaller the hole opening.

The smaller the F-stop number (ex. F/2.8), the larger the hole opening.

Let's lay this out in a table of sorts:

• Little number, Shallow DOF, More light
• F/2.8
• F/4
• F/5.6
• F/8
• F/11
• F/16
• F/22
• Big number, Large DOF, Less light

if you set your camera to manual and read the instructions on how to change aperture...

scroll through the numbers by changing the aperture. you'll notice there are other numbers between these that I have listed. i didn't list them because the numbers above are 1 full stop of light each. just know that you can change the F/number in smaller increments perhaps 1/3 a stop by using one of these other numbers.

So now what is a stop or an F stop?

A stop is how we measure how much light is being allowed to hit the sensor through the cameras aperture.

So lets say we shot a photo and it was really bright and overexposed. One way of fixing this is changing the size of the aperture, perhaps reducing it one stop of light (meaning a bigger F/number). This would in turn reduce the size of the aperture opening allowing less light to reach the sensor.

Shutter Speed - Length of time the shutter is open allowing a given amount of light to pass through the aperture opening to your cameras sensor. Slower shutter speed means more light. Faster shutter speed means less light. Slower shutter speed blurs movement. Faster shutter speed freezes the movement.

Again with the confusing part. When referring to shutter speed, a seemingly large number (1/1000) is actually a lesser amount of time than a seemingly smaller number (1/15). One one thousandths of a second is a very short period of time whereas one fifteenth of a second is a considerably longer amount of time. Keep this in mind.

• Small Number, Shorter period of time, Less light, Freezes action
• 1/1000 of a second
• 1/500
• 1/250
• 1/125
• 1/60
• 1/30
• 1/15
• 1/2
• 1 second
• Bigger number, Longer period of time, More light, Blurs movement

again each number in the table above represents one full stop of light. your camera settings will likely show numbers between these numbers but they are in increments of 1/3 of a stop.

So how does aperture and shutter speed relate to each other. It's rather genius really...

To keep a set exposure, but change the artistic effects, you can change either the aperture or shutter speed to reach the desired effect. If you change either of these things you will throw your exposure off soooooo: If you reduced the aperture by one stop to get a desired effect, you can increase the shutter speed by one stop to maintain the proper exposure. So what you do to one, you have to do the opposite to the other!!

Lets say you have a photo where you've nailed down the exposure. It's really great. The only problem is that the photo is blurring the movement and you really want to capture that car moving by freezing the action:

Sample Settings for desired exposure: 1/30th second & F/11

If you refer to the above table you'll see that you change your shutter speed to something more suitable for a moving car say... 1/250th of a second. That's 3 stops of light. You must then drop the F/stop down by 3 stops. The trusty table above will show the appropriate F/number to maintain your exposure is F/4.

We've just changed the artistic effect without hindering our desired exposure.

Another example:

You have a portrait and you'd like the background to be blurrier or more out of focus (OOF).

Current settings: 1/30th second & F/8

We want to make the f-number smaller or the hole larger (don't forget that trickery). To do this we may stop down the F-number to something like F/4. Conveniently F/4 is exactly 2 stops of light less than F/8. To maintain our desired exposure we should then increase the shutter speed by two stops. Trusty table above says 2 stops of light difference would be 1/125th of a second.

So again we've changed the artistic effect without changing our shutter speed.

it should also be noted that since your camera allows you to choose stops in 1/3 increments as mentioned above....three clicks of the wheel in either direction would adjust your setting 1 full stop. so if you want to decrease you're aperture one full stop you'd click the aperture wheel 3 clicks to the left. in turn, you'd click the shutter speed wheel 3 clicks to the right to maintain that desired exposure.

To wrap this up, let's take a glance at a few examples of the artistic effects available with aperture and shutter speed.

Desired Effect: Blur everything closer than and beyond our focal point (the little knob sticking out of the tree). We need a large aperture opening to gain the desired effect aka a small F/number.

F/4, 1/80th second

Desired effect: Subject (people) and background in focus. We need a small aperture opening (large number) to gain this desired effect.

F/22, 1/100th second

Desired effect: Freeze the action. We need a fast shutter speed.

F/2.8 1/4000th second

Desired Effect: Blur the movement. We need a slower or longer shutter speed.

F/4.5, 1/25th second

In conclusion: Whatever you change in either aperture or shutter speed, you must then change the other in the opposite direction to maintain a desired exposure.

This has been aperture and shutter speed "From The Ground Up!"

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