In the studio.

creators · In the studio.

I've had it in mind to start this for a week or so, but I've been wondering where to start. First off this is the my studio space, the entire area is 12' x 8'. with the photography area 8' x 8'. It's in the back of my kitchen and I am in the fortunate position of being able to dedicate that space just for photography.

In wondering where to start, I've been going steadily backwards, should I list my lights and equipment and so on. But it starts way before that. In fact it started with me being clueless but with just this desire to do it. Several months later I am still struggling with my first steps. I can position lights a bit now, but I really don't have a clue how to paint with light, it's all trial and error with no technique. Right alongside the learning is the entire confidence thing, they seem to go hand in glove, one small step forward and I get a confidence boost, one disaster and my confidence drops to about boot level. I know such feelings and struggles are common but it seems to me they are rarely talked about, so I thought that would be a good place to start and maybe keep as a thread running through this. How I feel dramatically affects what I do and whether I do it at all.

hil26

Love the idea - not too sure my wife would let me take over half the kitche though.

Been thinking about getting some lights but have been put off with pricing at the moment - want a new lens a bit more I think - but I will be watching how this thread goes, as I have been asked to do a few portriats now, new babies, grandson - seems some people like the engagement pictures I took.

creators

A portable set of lights is very handy, but at the moment I can why a new lens would win.

I have no idea where this thread is going, I thought I'd do a ramble, a bit at a time and leave it as open as possible and go where ever it goes.

I have a feeling that people are wary of posting because they may think we're a bunch of experts and feel a bit intimidated. I am catagorically not an expert at anything, just an ethusiast who loves what he does. And anyway, an expert is just someone who has put a lot of time and practice and study in, so experts are made, not born. I thought at the very least I could share my own bumblings and struggles with lightiing and see if it's useful. And, of course, hope to learn from others experience on the way.

hil26

Its really got me interested and looking around.

can see in your image the black background and have been wondering whether to invest in that first and use the conservatory in daylight (substitute for lights - its cheaper cos its free - and isn't that the Kelvin value that lights are aimed at?), but could only use that before midday as thats when the sun comes round and doesn't go away until it sets - errr thats when it comes out that is.

Seen black background on Karlu website for £89 ( http://www.karlu.com/product_info.php?products_id=9774 )

At least it would be a start

Blue

Thanks for posting about your struggles with confidence. I am the same way... some days am amazed at my own photographic brilliance Rolling Eyes

, and other days I realize how little competence I actually have. I read books on exposure, lighting, etc... and I think- ok,

I GET it! -Then I try to actually DO it and I am knocked right back down to earth. It is amazing how fast I forget and confuse what I have read.
I was a bit intimidated by you all when I first joined this group, because I am SO new to photography, and a lot of the work posted on here is really outstanding- but everyone here is very down to earth and nice, and I no longer feel that way. Smile

I am in the process of setting up a small home studio too, incidentally. I have a little bit of money saved, and I'm thinking a good place to start would be an inexpensive lighting set. I was going to do a little window shopping on Amazon.com today. Very Happy

creators

The background looks good Dave and also looks easy to put away and black and white all in one as well. I decided to go for paper rolls so that I could get several people in at a time, but it's a fairly hefty process changing rolls mid shoot. So far, having a coffee break and a chance to refresh has worked well. I usually decide which colour to have up to start with depending on hair colour, shooting dark hair against a black background doesn't work very well unless I use back lighting, and that's one of the reasons I'd like to do a course, to see how the pros set up the back and top lights. One of the more useful and straight forward sites I've come across on lighting is here http://www.vividlight.com/articles/1615.htm. It's the first site I've come across to talk about catchlights in the subjects eyes, which, the article says, should generally be at 11 or 1 o'clock. Simple, good, advice.

creators

Hi Blue, one of the reasons I like playing around in the studio doing still life, is that I get time to think about what I am doing. Like you, when I come to DO stuff, my brain turns to mush, especially when there is a person in front of me. Just having someone there is a pressure I need to learn to deal with so that it doesn't shut down all other brain activity. Photographing someone in the studio means engaging with them, not wanting to bumble too much, and try to appear as if I might have a clue what I am doing. The toughest part for me, when I am actually shooting someone, isn't the lighting, though that's still a major problem, it's getting the person to feel comfortable and to offer suggestions with posing. I know nothing about posing, and experience a point, every time at the moment, when I just come to a dead stop, just not knowing where to go next. It is not a very pleasant feeling and it doesn't help that I know the model will pick that up as well. So far I've suggested a break, acknowledging that I've run dry, so we have a chat about what we've been doing, have a look through the pictures we've already taken, and usually we come up with more ideas. I'm a fairly affable bloke and generally get on with people well, but it starts to fall apart when I know I am close to my own level of incompetence.

I'm delighted you're feeling comfortable here now and do appreciate that it's tough joining in to start with. I can't speak for the others, though I suspect they feel the same, when someone new comes along I am always delighted and hope they stay with it. Participation is the essence of a forum, without that it's dead in the water, a forum is only as good as it members make it. So seeing new people come along and share is a real buzz.

Good luck with your window shopping, I hope you find what you want and do let us know what you decide on. Another person to share the trials and tribulations of setting up and using a studio will be enormously helpful.

Venom

hil26

creators

Simonzphotoz

This thread should be interesting. Here's my 2p.
I haven't got a studio and don't really do people, but I have had a studio shoot of me and my girlfriend. I got some vouchers for This Company so went along.
They have a very different view of the whole studio thing that surprised me. Its very informal. The studio that I used was simply a square room, about 12ftx12ftx12ft, so fairly big. On the ceiling was a track that help a single light with a huge difuser on it, about 5ftx3ft. this could be positioned anywhere pretty much. The walls were white as was the floor. The camera looked like a hassleblad medium format jobby that was hard wired straight to a computer for speed I presume.

Now the bit that was really different was the whole attitude. We were told to wear bright colours and not white if possible and bring more outfits if you like. As soon as we got in the room the girl asked us if we wanted some music on, and what, to put us at ease and give us a mood, chilled/funky/rocky whatever. Then we were told to just mess about, relax a bit. All the time she was just giving us hints, "have a dance", "twirl her around" stuff like that. Then she had a few ideas about poses that work well, but making it fun, she got Sam to stand on my feet and then have me walk, you try do that and not laugh! it works, you relax and then the photo's come naturally.
The girl did have some props, there was a square cushion chair thing and some bean bags one of which we used. She also had a step ladder for some arial shots which worked quite well to.

After the shoot, we went away and then came for a viewing two weeks later and we could choose as many as we wanted to and a format to have them printed and that was it. We had two that are fantastic and we're really pleased with.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend them as they are stupidly expensive, but the shots are great. Hope that helps someone. If you want to ask me about specifics that I might remember with a bit of memory jogging.

hil26

Thanks for sharing that Simon.
On the subject of lights - going back a bit - not too sure if its best to get another flash (Nikon Speedlight) and use it on the remote settings or get some lights.

When browsing Karlu website came across the following snippet

Portraiture - Flash or Continuous Lighting?

Whilst using continuous lighting for Portraits may initially look easier than using flash, there are advantages to using Flash over Continuous lighting.

* Flash is less harsh than Continuous lighting, ideal for soft skin tones.
* Tungsten/Halogen Lighting is hot and extended exposure to this will "melt" your subject. This equates to an unhappy client or a model in constant need of touching up their make up.
* Body Language - When we see a person that we are attracted to, our eye pupils automatically dilate - the opposite is true if you don't like them!! Bright Lights contract the pupils - the same as not liking somebody. Look at the two pictures below, the Left one is taken with flash and she looks soft and attractive, the right picture is taken with continuous light, an although an attractive lady, she appears "cold & false".

If you wish to see the images go to http://www.karlu.com/flashcon.html

creators

Thanks Simon, always good to hear what others do, though that kind of space and set up costs a small fortune. I do find 12 x 8 limiting, but, hell, no complaints, I'm grateful for that much.

Lights wise, my first set of lights was a jessops Porta Flash set, bought in complete ignorance which proved very inadequate and which I was constantly frustrated by. Because I planned to do stereo work, my next light was a Falcon Eyes LHD500 incandescent unit. It's impossible to synchronise two cameras to a flash unit, even 100th sec out and one camera wont get the picture. I've put this unit to limited use as I've backed away from two camera work and the light is stupidly hot making for a very unpleasant working environment and for the reasons Dave has put above, pupils like pin pricks. Eventually I decided I needed a more professional set of lights, but it doesn't take much looking around to realise they are prohibitively expensive, so settled on A Falcon Eyes kit which has proprietary sized units for Soft Boxes, Snoots and Barn Doors, which I also purchased along with a shoot-through translucent umbrella.

I was incredibly fortunate that, at the time I was setting it all up, Leah was being home tutored and had taken an interest in photography and we did missions all over the place, It also meant the she helped me set up the studio and gave me a ready model to try it out on. The upshot of that was how frustrating it is to take all the pictures, grab the memory card, download them on my PC, view them, decide what we needed to do next and start the whole process over again. I decided to buy a laptop to run the camera and now use Nikon's Camera Control Pro, which allows me to set the camera up, take pictures and view them instantly. For me, it's the ideal set up, which has proved itself time and time again. It's also useful for the model to see each picture as it comes out and to change pose accordingly, as these two pictures show. The first one isn't unusable, but it makes Leah look harsh.

Shot with the main light at 45 degrees to the right of the picture with softbox, fill light about 30 degrees feft with shoot-through umbrella and a hair backlight with snoot. f6.3 100th sec, ISO 100. Pictures cropped but otherwise as shot.

Simonzphotoz

No worries. Although I was kinda more relating to the may she went about the shoot as opposed to the studio, which I realise is silly money. It was her relaxed attitude and making us do the work and have fun that made such great shots in the end.

creators

Point taken, I use music of the persons choice if I can and also relating to them is everything, especially in more confined space in front of the lights.

creators

While we're guddling around in the studio, an observation from the No 5 video in the latest tutorials that Mike found for us recently and put in the Tips and Techniques section under, 'Tutorials you may find Helpful'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4PK7gddT_s

I would personally never dream of carrying face powder in my pocket nor of putting it on the model. I don't know anyone who wouldn't give me a slap for that. Perhaps it's a sign of changing times, but I think it's a sign for the better. It's the models face, and it's her choice what makeup she uses, and what brand, and that includes the lipstick and lip gloss as well. If I thought we might need it I would ask her to bring some or get some of her choice if necessary, but I would still not put it on for her, and certainly not, as he did, without asking her permission.

I think they are excellant tutorials, but I have to disagree with him on that.

Make up artist, friend, or whatever, excepted.

Venom

I'd agree with you on that Keith especially in todays society, and you know what women can be like about their makeup (no offence to any ladies on the site)
I think he can get away with it but I wouldn't like to try it Smile

creators · The times they are a changin'.

In my ignorance, the first background I bought was a sort of tie dye grey cloth back drop. I was very unhappy with the results but didn't really know why until I looked online some more and realised the problem was it was just old fashioned. These days people tend to use plain coloured backgrounds.

A little discussion with my bro and we (he mostly) built me a wooden frame over which we stapled a white sheet one side and a black jersey cloth on the other. That was ok, but I quickly came across the problem of taking full length shots. What about the floor? So a bit more research and I decided to go for paper rolls. I chose the Manfrotto system on the basis that everything I've had from them has been absolutely superb, and their backdrop support was the same.

Next problem was I couldn't get 8' rolls of paper. I could get 2 metre or 3 metre rolls. It seemed daft to get the 2 metre as that would mean I was not using all the available space, but 3 metres was too long. A little chat at my local studio store and the guy told me to just take a saw to it. Duh! I was already feeling like a second rate amateur and such an obvious solution didn't occur to me because I was trying too hard to do it right and taking a saw to a very expensive 3 metre roll of paper certainly didn't feel right. But I did and everything was fine and I got a couple of very handy cutoffs for laying over tables when I am doing close up work. So at present I have black and white backdrops available, I haven't stretched my wings to other colours yet.

My experience thus far is that black is very much easier to work with and more forgiving than white. Using black I find I can focus on lighting the model or whatever. Using white I have to think about lighting the background or all I get is a sludgy grey background colour which is very unappealing. But also, lighting the model is harder with the white for reasons I am not yet clear about. Skin can very easily look pasty and dull, where the same lighting using a black background gives rich vibrant contrasts.

Lastly, ideally the model should be at least 6 feet away from the backdrop, that way the model lights don't interfere with the backdrop. I don't have the space to do that (five feet at best and less for full length) and, as some people here have already noticed, particularly on the black backdrop, leaked light means my black is a dark grey, which is kind of frustrating and something I need to do more work on.

In the studio.

The times they are a changin'.