Studio Lighting with Gemma John
On the 29th November 2013, I attended a Portrait and Studio lighting for beginners session at, what may turn out to be a regular haunt of mine, Twilight Studios in Great Wakering.
I heard about this session through the power of social media a.k.a Facebook. You see, as well as telling everyone what you had for lunch, it can also be of benefit when finding events or even photo shoots going on in your nearby area.
I met this session with some trepidation, mainly because in the past, other than friends and family, most of the objects of my desire tend to be inanimate and I am referring to buildings/landscapes here, nothing untoward.
The session comprised of a grand total of six attendees, more than enough to keep the group small enough to ensure that our attention was kept throughout. Another advantage is that the session was held in the Kitchen, this meant that coffee was on hand and there was even the allure of the odd Custard Creme or two!
For this session our host Ashley had provided a simple backdrop lit by two lights on stands. The purpose of the next couple of hours was to explain how light reacts and how to recreate classic portraiture effects.
For this we had a lovely model Gemma. Gemma has worked with Ashley before and had to endure listening to discussions on light and shade, the benefits of snoots, and even tips on using strips of light blocking material to emulate shadows in a studio.
What was initially aimed to be about two hours turned to nearly four. Honestly time flies when the subject is interesting. This may not have been the same for our model, however she didn’t give the impression it wasn’t.
After much discussions, mostly around the classics such as Canon or Nikon, As a point of note I am neither having chosen Sony, it was our turn to play with our model. This involved us asking her to stand in front of the backdrop followed by detailed instructions such as ‘would you mind posing for me?’ This will surely later develop to ‘yeah that looks great’
Our first few shots, which we took in turns, were to demonstrate how light can be a fickle friend. If the rig is not setup up correctly you can end up with hard light that can make even the prettiest of models look like you wouldn’t want to mess with them!
This was then followed up by changing the lighting and noting how, when setup correctly the picture is greatly improved
Pleased with ourselves for our couple of shots, it was time for coffee while Gemma got in the festive mood, i.e. she put on a santa style dress.
A few more shots and a few laughs as well as we attempted to take shots of Gemma jumping. Timing clearly is of the essence as I am useless at counting (and that’s from an Accountant!)
It is worth noting at this point, that I experienced my first major issue with my camera. The latest Sony range have ditched the Reflex mechanism in place of a translucent mirror. This does mean that it offers a faster frames per second (not much use when shooting a model, but great for sport.) but also that the viewfinder has been replace with an Electronic View Finder (EVF) This does allow 100% range of view, but unless you switch it off, also offers active live view in the viewfinder. This was where I had stumbled.
When wireless flash is enabled and no TTL is involved, the viewfinder assumed that the environment was dark, this meant I was suddenly shooting blind.
The end result is I would appear to be constantly winking at the model, the reality being I was using the eye not behind the lens as a true optical finder and had to assume I was shooting her and not another togs backside!
Thankfully, even where I did slightly miss, the 21mp allows for some cropping without dropping too far down in resolution.
End of the day complete, I went home satisfied with a dozen shots, but forearmed with a lot more knowledge gained from visualisation rather than textbooks regarding the use of lightingOn the 29th November 2013, I attended a Portrait and Studio lighting for beginners session at, what may turn out to be a regular haunt of mine, Twilight Studios in Great Wakering.
I heard about this session through the power of social media a.k.a Facebook. You see, as well as telling everyone what you had for lunch, it can also be of benefit when finding events or even photo shoots going on in your nearby area.
I met this session with some trepidation, mainly because in the past, other than friends and family, most of the objects of my desire tend to be inanimate and I am referring to buildings/landscapes here, nothing untoward.
The session comprised of a grand total of six attendees, more than enough to keep the group small enough to ensure that our attention was kept throughout. Another advantage is that the session was held in the Kitchen, this meant that coffee was on hand and there was even the allure of the odd Custard Creme or two!
For this session our host Ashley had provided a simple backdrop lit by two lights on stands. The purpose of the next couple of hours was to explain how light reacts and how to recreate classic portraiture effects.
For this we had a lovely model Gemma. Gemma has worked with Ashley before and had to endure listening to discussions on light and shade, the benefits of snoots, and even tips on using strips of light blocking material to emulate shadows in a studio.
What was initially aimed to be about two hours turned to nearly four. Honestly time flies when the subject is interesting. This may not have been the same for our model, however she didn’t give the impression it wasn’t.
After much discussions, mostly around the classics such as Canon or Nikon, As a point of note I am neither having chosen Sony, it was our turn to play with our model. This involved us asking her to stand in front of the backdrop followed by detailed instructions such as ‘would you mind posing for me?’ This will surely later develop to ‘yeah that looks great’
Our first few shots, which we took in turns, were to demonstrate how light can be a fickle friend. If the rig is not setup up correctly you can end up with hard light that can make even the prettiest of models look like you wouldn’t want to mess with them!
This was then followed up by changing the lighting and noting how, when setup correctly the picture is greatly improved.
Pleased with ourselves for our couple of shots, it was time for coffee while Gemma got in the festive mood, i.e. she put on a santa style dress.
A few more shots and a few laughs as well as we attempted to take shots of Gemma jumping. Timing clearly is of the essence as I am useless at counting (and that’s from an Accountant!)
It is worth noting at this point, that I experienced my first major issue with my camera. The latest Sony range have ditched the Reflex mechanism in place of a translucent mirror. This does mean that it offers a faster frames per second (not much use when shooting a model, but great for sport.) but also that the viewfinder has been replace with an Electronic View Finder (EVF) This does allow 100% range of view, but unless you switch it off, also offers active live view in the viewfinder. This was where I had stumbled.
When wireless flash is enabled and no TTL is involved, the viewfinder assumed that the environment was dark, this meant I was suddenly shooting blind.
The end result is I would appear to be constantly winking at the model, the reality being I was using the eye not behind the lens as a true optical finder and had to assume I was shooting her and not another togs backside!
Thankfully, even where I did slightly miss, the 21mp allows for some cropping without dropping too far down in resolution.
End of the day complete, I went home satisfied with a dozen shots, but forearmed with a lot more knowledge gained from visualisation rather than textbooks regarding the use of lighting.
