Creative Lighting for Portraits, on the Cheap

when using flashguns outside the aperture only effects the light coming from the flashgun, the shutter speed controls the ambient.

Those were proably shot around f5.6 - f8 :) but at shutter speeds around 1/200th to 1/250th second, if i had wanted ambient i would have used 1/60th etc

If i had changed the aperture the only thing that would have changed would be the light on the subject.
 
A shot from today, idea here was to add an atmospheric look to the back shadows and have quite a trendy look to it.

Final image -

_MG_6748.jpg


Set-Up Shot -

DSC_5513editweb.jpg


Ok first things first, i've got trigger issues as my mate Scott (who took the set-up shot) managed to lose my radio trigger last week and i;m waiting on my replacements coming so i had to fire the flashes using a PC sync cable (with the back flash on slave).

Sam (the model) looking stunning
Sarah (the models friend) helping by holding the flash for the set-up shot, although on the actual shot it was held by scott who took the set-up shot.
Tom (me the photographer - not got red hair in this one though lol)

Main flash was on full power with a Go, i made a snoot by joining -with velcro- two sheets of A5 black card, this way i can take one sheet off to get a gobo, or have both on for a snoot, or open the jaws of it for different effects. The gobo is secured top and sides of the flash to create a shape of light. Fired via the pc sync cable.

The back flash had a red gel attached and was fired by the slave function on the flashgun itself.

Both flashes are jessops 300D's (thanks to Flash in the Pan for them)

Again shutter speed ramped up to 1/200th sec to remove the ambient.

Just to stress again The aperture only controls how bright the flash is on the subject, in this case it was f7.1 due to the flash to subject distance and lack of space.

Again shutter speed ramped up to 1/200th sec to remove the ambient., if i had shot it at 1/60th second the background would be much lighter but the flash would still remain constant on the subject.

not the easiest thing to explain, but if people need me to i can try to do a sample on my next shoot of the different looks you get from different shutter speeds, if you want that just shout :)

Again any questions, comments or critique welcome :)
 
Thanks ifoutou, just caught up with this threasd again after losing it for a while. All the explanations you put up are really helpful, at least to me they are! Any samples you put up from the next shoot would be very welcome.
 
ifotou said:
when using flashguns outside the aperture only effects the light coming from the flashgun, the shutter speed controls the ambient.

Those were proably shot around f5.6 - f8 :) but at shutter speeds around 1/200th to 1/250th second, if i had wanted ambient i would have used 1/60th etc

If i had changed the aperture the only thing that would have changed would be the light on the subject.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hijack but I find DiddyDaves explanation very helpful when explaining this subject. [http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=1358057&postcount=35
 
More to come later tonight Pippy, this time on using coloured gels and weird white balances :)

Thanks onform Diddydaves explanation was much better than mine, i struggle for the words sometimes :)
 
Thank you from me xx I am really enjoying seeing the end results and how it was achieved :) Thanks for taking the time to do it :)
 
Thanks Suzi

I know i'm not the best photographer in the world but i love this DIY style lighting and the stuff that can be done from it, I'm just hopeful that some of what i post is of use to others :)
 
ifotou said:
Thanks Suzi

I know i'm not the best photographer in the world but i love this DIY style lighting and the stuff that can be done from it, I'm just hopeful that some of what i post is of use to others :)
Click to expand...

Well, you are a million times better than me, and I am really interested in the cheaper DIY lighting:D I have no real lighting set up, so it has really helped me(y)
 
SuziJ said:
Well, you are a million times better than me, and I am really interested in the cheaper DIY lighting:D I have no real lighting set up, so it has really helped me(y)
Click to expand...

I'm really happy that it's been of use to you :) that certainly makes it worthwhile for me.

I have another example that i will be posting tonight, just waiting on the set-up shot coming over from my mate once he finishes his dinner :)

It relates to creative use of White Balance - so something else to look at if you want to pop back later.
 
This time something a little bit different. Todays shot was about testing out something i heard at Photovision in Edinburgh from Frank Doorhof.

He was talking about using White Balance creatively and that Playboy use blue gelled flash, with a custom white balance, to get the amber light coming through the windows making it look nice and sunny out. So on a shoot today with a couple of Scott and Bruce and the lovely Cat as model.

This is the final image -

_MG_6893.jpg


The 'MARS' like surface was produced by using the cameras custom white balance function and blue gelled flash.

Using the FLASH white balance on camera the image looks like this -

_MG_6898.jpg


Thanks to Bruce for the set-up shot -

PB_18042009_4187801.jpg


in the pic are -

Cat - being stunning
Scott - able assistant, probably losing something again lol
Tom- chubby photographer

Key light was from camera right (jessops 300D with blue gel) shot through a brolly.
Second light (not in the picture as was added after some tests) was a Miranda 450CD with blue gel to camera left

I used the blue gels and got the lighting to something i liked then used a grey card (well the inside of my lowepro Slingshot 200 AW) and took a photo (manual focus, filling the screen) of the grey card. I then used this as a custom white balance in the camera.

This meant that i got the look that i wanted for the background and still allowed me to light Cat properly.

I'm pretty happy with how this came out, especially as it was pretty much a test...any comments or questions just shout out loud :)
 
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For those interested in the shutter speed / aperture thing have a look at this post on David Tejada's blog around half way down there's a wee filmstrip showing how the shutter speeds affect things - Link Here
 
I love the way the image has a very Mars/other planet feel to it.:) It is fascinating what can be achieved by fiddling with the WB and lighting.

I need to start experimenting:) , thanks xx
 
For the first time i'm posting a couple of edits, as i like one and charlie likes the other lol but it's all good.

The final images -

Charlie likes this one -

_MG_7148.jpg


I like this one -

_MG_7148_v2.jpg


The set-up shot (thanks to Alex)

set-up.jpg


In the set-up -

Charlie (the mod) looking stunning
Tom (me) looking like a beached whale lol
Alex (who took the set-up shot)

Set-up here were 2 Jessops 300D flashguns camera right it is fired through a shoot through brolly and has a 1/4 CTO gel on it.

Flash camera left is fired into a reflective brolly which is a silver/gold brolly which also adds a touch of warmth to the image.

any questions etc as usual just shout.
 
ooh, just caught up on this thread again - i've spent the last couple of weeks lusting after some flashguns and this is incredibly helpful as i don't really know what i'm doing :LOL:

cracking shots, and thank you once again for taking the time to explain it... is muchly helpful for newbies like me :D

i do have one question... would jessops' own flashguns work on my panasonic fz50 in manual mode? as i definitely can't afford the panasonic branded ones at the moment :(
 
the flashguns are not brand specific that i have, they are simple single pin ones.

I use an ebay PT-04 trigger system (just pop pt-04 into search on ebay) you can get the trigger and 3 receivers for £30.

they should fire from the hotshoe on your panasonic and will fire most brands of flashgun.
 
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