Basic light setup for portrait photography

Slim3001

Slim3001

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Hi guys and girls i have a cheap Basic light setup for doing portrait photography. But I have not yet come to the portrait photography part in my college course yet. So I'm a bit lost with where to start so i will list my kit and go from there.

Camera Canon 40D
Lens Canon 17-85mm & Sigma 70-200m f2.8

I have 3 x lights cheap eBay job 50watt mood lighting with 200w flash or something like that.

2 X Translucent umbrella softboxes
2 X Umbrella Softboxes
1 x 120cm Octagon soft box
1 x Sekonic L-308S light meter
1 x 18% gray / white card
1 x Home made back drop


And some gels and so on is there a easy way to go about getting a good Hi key / Low key portrait of my kid's ??.


Mods please move if this is in the wrong place.
Thanks a lot
 
Your college tutor may or may not be able to give you useful guidance - but as you say, that's in the future anyway.

My advice is to forget about lighting setups and just think about light, what it is and what it does.

What your lighting gear will (can) do is to emulate sunlight. Without any diffusion, a flash head becomes bright sunlight. Diffusers such as umbrellas & softboxes, some distance away, emulate hazy sunlight. Placed very close, they emulate an overcast day, with soft, diffused shadows.

Experiment with one light only (because there is only one sun) with and without diffusers, at different angles and at different heights and different distances, and see what you can do with it. Use a reflector (a piece of white paper will do) to reflect light on to the dark side of the face if required.

If you like the overall effect of the position of the light but the shadows are too harsh for you then you can use a second light to create fill. But don't introduce the second light until you've got the result you want with the first light.

The fill light is always at a lower power than the main (key) light and is always placed on axis with the camera lens, i.e. above or below the camera. A lot of beginners think that a fill light goes on the opposite side to the main light but that's wrong, it goes where the camera is so that the light reaches every part of the subject seen by the camera.

Hope this helps
 
thanks for the info guys ill post back. On a side note just brought a CANON Speedlite 580EX Mark II
 
I find I learn better, or at least pay more attention, when watching a video rather than reading tutorials. There are loads of tutorial on YouTube, including a series of flash/strobe/studio lighting tutorials here....

http://www.youtube.com/user/snapfactory
 
tdodd said:
I find I learn better, or at least pay more attention, when watching a video rather than reading tutorials. There are loads of tutorial on YouTube, including a series of flash/strobe/studio lighting tutorials here....
Click to expand...

Good point, a lot of people do find videos more helpful. Mine are here http://www.youtube.com/user/Photolearncouk
 
Garrys tutorials are the business, they are so helpful, thanks for those mate.
Dean:)
 
Thanks for the links guys i had a go to day and first time i used my camera in RAW and I'm gutted. To say the lest i got 1 photo i like a lot but it looks like its been taken on a camera phone. And i all so think my setup was all wrong to.
 
and you will post some photos for exemple in here ? :D
 
Can you tell me what you think you did wrong, to save me making the same mistakes, thanks! hehe
 
herieta said:
and you will post some photos for exemple in here ? :D
Click to expand...
Can do but wont be up for long because i don't like my kid's to be on the net

Baz007 said:
Can you tell me what you think you did wrong, to save me making the same mistakes, thanks! he he
Click to expand...

I did not know what i was doing and I think I had the camera all set up wrong.

Anyway the photo i will post in the other part of the forum for portraits
 
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