Ideas for Lighting Challenges?

sk66

sk66

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Steven
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I'm out of good ideas for challenges; in two challenges I've pretty much covered everything I know. Other than some tricks/techniques maybe... Garry's already covered most of the other aspects (i.e. using hard light to show detail).

But I'm more than happy to put more challenges/lessons together if there is anything someone wants help with. I'm not a people photographer, but I do have a mannequin head on a light stand. And I don't use lighting for photographing wildlife very often, but I have/can.

Scooter is a very good people photographer and I know he is putting together a challenge as time permits... so there's more coming. But if you have any suggestions for something you would like to see/learn/try, post it here and maybe someone will run with it.
 
Soft box grids and what the narrow rectangular softboxes bring to the table and when to use them effectively

I have been thinking of getting a couple but do not know if there is a benefit and if there would be any differences from the square or octagonal type.
 
sk66 said:
I'm out of good ideas for challenges; in two challenges I've pretty much covered everything I know. Other than some tricks/techniques maybe... Garry's already covered most of the other aspects (i.e. using hard light to show detail).

But I'm more than happy to put more challenges/lessons together if there is anything someone wants help with. I'm not a people photographer, but I do have a mannequin head on a light stand. And I don't use lighting for photographing wildlife very often, but I have/can.

Scooter is a very good people photographer and I know he is putting together a challenge as time permits... so there's more coming. But if you have any suggestions for something you would like to see/learn/try, post it here and maybe someone will run with it.
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I think that that's the problem - I've already covered the easy, basic approaches to lighting with my early (single light) challenges - this was very deliberate because I wanted to encourage people to try creative lighting that doesn't require either expensive equipment or prior knowledge) but we will inevitably get to a point where we run out of the limited number of different physics-based approaches to lighting. The Black on Black challenge is a very good example of this, it's a pity that there have been so few contributions so far, it's an incredibly useful approach.

But, a few potentially worthwhile ( think) challenges . . .
1. Using fill flash
2. Overpowering the sun (but this is equipment-heavy and so a lot of people can't do it)
3. Combining ambient light with flash
4. Creating graduated diffused specular highlights, using lighting silks, which is invaluable for lighting irregular shiny subjects, for example the front element of a lens, although this usually also needs to involve some PP work - but space can be a problem in a small home studio.
5. Using lighting gels - so simple that it doesn't seem to need a lighting challenge, but an incredibly powerful tool, once people understand the physics.
6. Lighting smoke/fog/steam
 
Garry Edwards said:
But, a few potentially worthwhile ( think) challenges . . .
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Fill flash and combining flash with ambient can be/are effectively the same thing. IIRC, that's what Scooter is putting together.

2. Overpowering the sun; maybe HSS vs ND?
4. Graduated diffused highlights... I typically use a diffusion dome I made from a cheap plastic garbage bin. I could do one on making/using a dome...
 
sk66 said:
Fill flash and combining flash with ambient can be/are effectively the same thing. IIRC, that's what Scooter is putting together.
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OK, so that one's in hand and we can forget about it
sk66 said:
2. Overpowering the sun; maybe HSS vs ND?
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Sounds good
sk66 said:
4. Graduated diffused highlights... I typically use a diffusion dome I made from a cheap plastic garbage bin. I could do one on making/using a dome...
Click to expand...
An interesting approach, and maybe better suited to a small space than my own tool of choice, a shower curtain. I used to have a friend, Brooks Short, a very good commercial photographer in Tampa who did something similar.
 
Barney said:
Soft box grids and what the narrow rectangular softboxes bring to the table and when to use them effectively
Click to expand...
This seems to be more of a discussion and less of challenge idea. Maybe post it as a separate question and I/others will reply without cluttering up this post/topic.
 
Garry Edwards said:
An interesting approach, and maybe better suited to a small space than my own tool of choice, a shower curtain.
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I also use a shower curtain, but as you said; it requires a lot of space to use well; more than I have in my current setup really. I remember talking someone (@cargo?) through doing this in order to photograph details (flowers?) that were inside a piece of jewelry. That was quite a while ago... but he stuck with it and got a good result.
 
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sk66 said:
This seems to be more of a discussion and less of challenge idea. Maybe post it as a separate question and I/others will reply without cluttering up this post/topic.
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Ok Steven

apologies, I will refrain from cluttering up any more of your Posts/topics.
 
@sk66
My you also have a very good memory. I can remember my frustration at keep trying your suggestions. We got an image in the end.
 
sk66 said:
It was memorable because you stuck with it and put in the effort... Can you locate that thread? I couldn't find it.
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I found it. Unfortunately I was using Imgur to host my images. Apparently it's not allowed in my region now. So most of my attempts are unavailable. Which is a shame,you have uploaded one with some feedback. It's a long thread with lots of info provided by many members on the forum.

www.talkphotography.co.uk

Necklace

Hi all. I am looking for advice on the best way to go about lighting this necklace. Necklace belongs to my better half, it is seldom worn but I quite fancied having a go at photographing it. I had a try one evening during the week and a quick go earlier today. Playing around with things...
www.talkphotography.co.uk www.talkphotography.co.uk
 
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sk66 said:
Fill flash and combining flash with ambient can be/are effectively the same thing. IIRC, that's what Scooter is putting together.

2. Overpowering the sun; maybe HSS vs ND?
4. Graduated diffused highlights... I typically use a diffusion dome I made from a cheap plastic garbage bin. I could do one on making/using a dome...
Click to expand...
Overpowering the sun is also part of it tbh :) (it's just the special case of very powerful ambient).
 
If it helps us to focus, I started this idea off on an American forum over 20 years ago, it was then called "Lighting Themes" which is perhaps a better descriptive term than "Lighting Challenges", but when I resurrected the idea on TP I didn't want to be a copycat (even if I was only copying myself:) ) hence the change of name.

The idea was/is to set/explain the lighting approach (or theme), to give people extra tools that they can use when they light their subjects, and nearly all of these approaches or techniques are subject-agnostic, and so can be used for virtually all subjects. What they are NOT about is either lighting tools or specific subjects, for example soft lighting can be achieved with softboxes, umbrellas, beauty dishes, silks, reflectors and a cloudy sky. Just about everything in lighting is affected by the Inverse Square Law, which pre-dates our lighting gear (and photography) by a couple of hundred years:)

And the other core element of these lighting challenges is simplicity, people can use whatever lighting they happen to have available - I used a computer monitor for the first one, on brightfield lighting - and none of the challenges need a large shooting space or several lights, soft reflectors such as bits of white card and harder reflectors such as silvered surfaces and mirrors, and as has been demonstrated on the latest challenge, absorbers can be used to create negative light, this again is subject-agnostic, it works just as well for portraits, still life and anything else.

But, people do want to know about different bits of gear, different uses for gear, which ones work best, and how to light specific subjects. That's fine, just ask your questions in the forum - but please just keep a separation between the lighting challenges and "how to" and gear questions.
 
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