Lighting query

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SW3105

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Name
Sharmaigne
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Evening all,

I've been shooting portraits for some time now, friends children, children in the local run toddler group. I've so far been using natural light and all of my friends are very pleased with the results and have asked me to do their portraits more regularly. I've had demand from friends of friends for portraits but natural light doesn't seem to sell, people want the fake white and black backgrounds which is a real shame.

So, starting point is what equipment should I begin with. I've seen those quick to put up backdrops on frames on ebay, but what sort of lighting should I be looking at?

I understand light from a natural point of view and work well just beside a window. Artificial lighting is new, I don't want to buy equipment which is far beyond my needs, also I don't want to buy something completely inferior which I'll just want to replace in months to come. I will obviously practise with settings when the equipment arrives .. just need some help choosing.

I am going to be buying a 50mm f1.8 prime lens as I mostly use my 18-55 at 50mm anyway, could use the better f-stop though.

Any advice appreciated - I just wish people enjoyed naturally lit photos!
 
SW3105 said:
I've had demand from friends of friends for portraits but natural light doesn't seem to sell, people want the fake white and black backgrounds which is a real shame.
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You seem to be associating lit images with the choice of background. Not entirely sure why.
Choosing how to light and when to light, is a separate issue to choice of background entirely.
Incidentally, relying on natural light means you have to adjust your subject, equipment and shooting style to suit. If you light the subject, you can choose exactly in what manner you light and therefore the finished effect.
See here for a better explaination
 
Start with just one studio head, a 100cm softbox, and a reflector. If budget is tight, look at Lencarta (you could do that for £200) or Elinchrom if you have a bit more.

You can do an enormous amount with one light, and build from there. For the pure white background look, you will need two lights just for the background.
 
Michael Sewell said:
Richard's absolutely right with the one head approach. Likewise, I'd stay away from the white background for as long as possible!
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I wouldn't even start it! I've done it to death and to be honest I find it quite boring now. It's like using the dregs of Venture.
 
Thanks for that, I don't want to go the Venture way either, it's plain and boring. But, I regularly shoot for the local toddler group and most of the parents have expressed that they would show more interest if I had the Venture style. Sad. I've put together a photobook of the better portraits I've done so far, with natural lighting and a cream coloured bedsheet as a backdrop, the cream and natural light combination seems to bring out a warmth in the portraits which I, and my most regular parents, love. If the demand is for Venture then I'll try it out but give it a twist of my own, it'll be an experiment for sure.

Another thing, for the natural light portraits, I had been looking into buying the 1.8 50mm prime lens, but I've read a few other threads which suggest that that lens wouldn't really be great with artificial lighting? Is that right? I have the standard 18-55mm kit lens with my camera and mostly use it around 45-55mm so a 50mm lens made sense. Might I be better going for a telephoto lens so that I can explore other types/areas of photography?

My mind isn't made up, but I've been looking at a 2 light and background set up.
 
SW3105 said:
Thanks for that, I don't want to go the Venture way either, it's plain and boring. But, I regularly shoot for the local toddler group and most of the parents have expressed that they would show more interest if I had the Venture style. Sad. I've put together a photobook of the better portraits I've done so far, with natural lighting and a cream coloured bedsheet as a backdrop, the cream and natural light combination seems to bring out a warmth in the portraits which I, and my most regular parents, love. If the demand is for Venture then I'll try it out but give it a twist of my own, it'll be an experiment for sure.

Another thing, for the natural light portraits, I had been looking into buying the 1.8 50mm prime lens, but I've read a few other threads which suggest that that lens wouldn't really be great with artificial lighting? Is that right? I have the standard 18-55mm kit lens with my camera and mostly use it around 45-55mm so a 50mm lens made sense. Might I be better going for a telephoto lens so that I can explore other types/areas of photography?

My mind isn't made up, but I've been looking at a 2 light and background set up.
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The F50 f/1.8 prime is probably as close to ideal as you can get, although obviously a f1.4 would be even better. A longer lens would give you more/different options, but if space is at a premium it should be an extra to the 50mm, not a replacement for it.
 
gman said:
I wouldn't even start it! I've done it to death and to be honest I find it quite boring now. It's like using the dregs of Venture.
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Or, you know, shooting for money....I can't really get too angry about a lighting style that my accountant says paid for a couple of luxuries. Like food and heat.

If you're talking about the Nikon 50 / 1.8 - just buy it. The old 1.4 flared rather more than the 1.8 which could make it appear softer under studio lighting. The new 1.4 needs a memo 3 weeks in advance in triplicate that you'll want it to focus some time in the next week. When it focusses it's pretty nice.

The 1.8 (D and non D version) are both nice. Not tried the G but I bet it's similar.

Mind you - in toddler groups you may not have enough space to use it. I pretty much always use the 24-70.
 
Just wanted to thank everyone for your advice, I'm going to go for the 50mm f/1.8. I'm also going to invest in two continuous softboxes for my portraits, I've been thinking about the lighting a lot and my style of portraiture is - natural - soft lighting. I just feel that the softboxes will enhance what I've already learned and started rather than going the full on flash umbrella type studio setup. I'm excited about all this now :)
 
You'll have better luck with flash especially with children.. Continuous lighting (at accessible prices) will typically have you at ISO 800 or higher at the shutter speeds that you're going to want.

I'm going to quote Lencarta Quadlite product info (which is apparently a very decent 4 x 105W spiral fluorescents in a softbox):

The 80cm x 80cm softbox produces the equivalent of over 1600 watts of tungsten lighting. This means that there is enough light, at a distance of 1 metre and with 800 ISO, to give a typical full power exposure of 1/60th second at f/13 (or 1/800th at f/4), and a typical minimum power exposure of 1/30th second at f/4.
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Now imagine being a non professional model and staring into the camera with two 1600 watt lights blasting you. It can be a bit distracting. And when you need to change the power setting (beyond turning off half the lamps for 50% power), it means moving the light or adding a gel / diffusion fabric to take a bite out of the light.

Of course it's easy to set up shots when you can see exactly what the result is going to be while changing settings and positions but your tools are going to be limiting what you can do.

Many people prefer continuous light but I just want you to understand some of the limitations that come with the convenience.
 
Thanks for your advice Vaizki ... At the moment I have a bit of a DIY setup, for children's portraits I tend to sit near a large window and have my ISO 800, rarely higher. Lowest f-stop I can get on my lens is f/5.6 - thats where I'm hoping the 50mm 1.8 will improve things for me. I tend to keep children's shoots short too - my best portrait of my youngest was taken during a very short 5 minute session - she was totally uninterested but I snapped the perfect smile from her!

I will definitely have a look at that single soft box you quoted though as I believe that I can do what I already do, with 1 soft box. So you would recommend a flash over continuous then?
 
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Yes the 50/1.8 will be a world of difference at very little outlay.

And yes I love flash.. it's more faffing about and more expensive but the amount of control and power that you get is worth it for me.
 
Remember, unless you go for the AF-S version of the 50mm f/1.8 it will be manual focus only on a D3100.....
 
vaizki said:
Yes the 50/1.8 will be a world of difference at very little outlay.

And yes I love flash.. it's more faffing about and more expensive but the amount of control and power that you get is worth it for me.
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Thanks for your advice, I'll keep looking around - would rather buy the right thing in the first place, *hubby hates it when I buy something and then change my mind :)

Flash In The Pan said:
Remember, unless you go for the AF-S version of the 50mm f/1.8 it will be manual focus only on a D3100.....
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Thanks - I know :) the Jessops sales assistant told me about the different lenses but I had already read the manual.*
 
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