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   Aims and Objectives of the Workshop

The workshop has been designed for the keen photographer who is interested in taking portraits using studio lighting and is suitable for those with no or limited experience of this type of photography.

It is presumed that any one attending will have a working knowledge of how their camera works and will understand how to set the aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

For this type of work it is normal to use a DSLR but any camera with a hot shoe and they can be set to manual will work.

By the end of the workshop members will have a basic understanding of the different types of lighting available including light modifiers and accessories and how to use them.

The difference between high key, low key, soft and mid Key lighting and how to set up a "home" studio using a flash system.

               Lighting and light modifiers

Continuous lighting
Continuous lighting once only used tungsten bulbs, normally 250 and 500 watts with professional models of 1000 watts often used by cinematographers. For still photographers the drawbacks includ low colour temperature (3000K) they get very hot and have limited range of accessories.

Now continuous lighting systems are much improves and systems like the InterFit Stella Tungsten 500 and 750 and professional tungsten heads, like the Bowens Hot Lite use lightweight and powerful tungsten bulbs. Fitted with the same Bowens S type fitting as their popular flash heads means the same range of accessory are available.

Other options include a fluorescent based system like the "Super Cool-lite" Range from interFit which uses ECO-friendly energy saving lamps, using a quarter of the energy of equivalent tungsten lamps, delivering performance at sustainable costs.

The advantages of a continuous lighting studio in still photography is the ease of installing a home studio a reasonable cost, again look at InterFit who have kits available from around £130.00. It is also considers to be a see what you get approach as you are looking at the lights as they will be when the shot is taken.

One of the major advantages it the synchronizations, or lack of. As the lights are constantly on there is no requirement to synchronize the shutter, no connecting the cameras via a trigger or cable and you never have to wait for the recycling time. The only limitation to your shooting speed is your camera and the amount of light available.

Flash Systems
Flash guns and flash heads have a tube filled with gas through which an electrical charge of high voltage is passed to create an electrical arc that emits a short, bright flash of light.

Flash light is daylight balanced and are the preferred lighting for the modern studio portrait photographer, being an economic and reliable way to build setups that give you a lot of light, without a lot of heat and the restrictions of a fixed shutter speed.

NOTE:
You can use any shutter speed slower that you cameras synchronisation speed so long as you do not have issues with the ambient light.

Studio flashes usually contain a modeling light, an incandescent light bulb close to the flash tube. The continuous illumination of a modeling light helps in visualizing the effect of the flash. It is often a good idea, once the set up is complete to turn them off to save energy.

The power of a flash device is often indicated in terms of a guide number, despite the fact that the published guide numbers of different units can not necessarily be directly compared.

The intensity of a studio flash unit can be adjusted on some units. Small flash units typically vary the length of time of the discharge, larger units typically charge the capacitor less.

There are many makes and even more models, as a general rule keep to well known makes, look for a system and not a single unit. Think about accessories and upgrades for the future.

Light Modifiers
Light modifier is a generic term for a collection of accessories that can be used in conjunction with light sources (flash heads, flash guns and continuous lighting) and include reflectors, diffusers umbrellas and soft boxes.

It is important, to understand how the light is being modified and how it is affecting the scene being photographed.

More often than not the primary objective when modifying light is to soften the shadows. The overwhelming factor determining the "softness" of a shadow is the size of the light source. All things being equal the larger the light source, the softer the shadows.

Flash heads are small in size compared to most subjects, delivering a   high intensity light and producing harsh, unattractive shadows.

Light modifiers soften shadows by either refracting the light through a translucent material or bouncing the light off another surface, or sometimes a combination of the two and therefore increasing the size of the light source.

However be careful not to use a light modifier that will Spread the light wider than the scene being photographed as this will results in substantial light loss unless there are nearby surfaces (walls, ceiling or reflectors) to bounce the light back into the scene.

The other thing to consider is inverse square law. In photography inverse-square law is used to understand the "fall off" on a subject as the light source is moved closer to or further from the subject. It is enough to remember that doubling the distance reduces illumination to one quarter and not half.

Beauty Dishes and Honeycombs and Gels
Unlike soft boxes which spreads the light in all directions the beauty dish uses a parabolic reflector to distribute light towards a focal point giving the image a wrapped, contrasted look, which adds a very dramatic effect. Often used in low key lighting setups and produce images like these examples.

Honeycombs are grids that fit on to reflectors and beauty dishes and direct the light not unlike a spot light, giving you the ability to direct a beam of light to create an effect like background or a hair light.

Colour gels or colour filters, are transparent colored material that is used to colour light and for colour correction or effect. Modern gels are thin sheets of polycarbonate or polyester, placed in front of a light. The colour will fade and the gels can melt under prolonged use, depending on the heat output from the unit.

             Triggers and Slaves and Meters

Triggers
One very important accessory for any flash systems is a trigger. The simplest way to trigger the key light is with a cable, however there are limitations. Being tethered to the light can restrict your movement with the addition of a trip hazard. This may not be a problem with some subjects, where you are using a tripod, but generally with modern portrait photography it is better to keep as fluid as possible.

There may not be a sync socket on the camera but that is easy to overcome with a hot shoe adapter, but the main concern is the voltage output from the flash head. All flash heads emit a voltage and whilst modern units only emit a low voltage that will not upset your camera some will, damage your camera that is. Make sure by checking the units hand book or contact the manufacture.

NOTE:
I do not need to remind you haw expensive photographic kit can be so better safe than sorry is my advice

All these difficulties are easy to overcome with a remote trigger, which come in 2 types and many different models and price points.

An infrared trigger transmitter fits on to the hot shoe of your camera and emits a beam of infrared light to trigger the flash. The problem with this type of trigger is there must be a line of sight between the trigger and the light being triggered.

Therefore it will not work in all situation, for example where the flash is placed behind the subject to create a back light

The best solution is a radio trigger like the Bowens Pulsar and the Pocket Wizard or less expensive models like the Falcon Eyes RF-125.

When looking for trigers take into account what you want do with them, how often you expect to use the kit, its reliability and are you confident the system will work as you need it to.

Some radio triggers can also be connected to the camera remote release socket and then a hand held unit can be used to fire the camera and or flash.

Slaves
Ok so we have sorted our trigger and that is firing the key light, we will look at which is the key light shortly, most lighting setup's will use at a minimum of three heads and quite often more so we need to make sure they are all fired as well.

Some lights have built-in infrared so they will fire remotely from the key light. This works well in most set ups but if you do not have built-in infrared, or it will not fire, the next option to consider is to use slaves.

NOTE:
IR works on line of site so any head that is "hidden" will not fire, also some IR systems will not work well in strong light like sun light streaming through a window.

Slave units connect into the sync socket on the flash head and trigger it by light beam. You can connect the unit directly into the flash head or via an extension cable allowing it to be positioned into the correct light beam. Also the flash will be the most powerful light in the studio and unlike infrared the slave unit will not be fooled by any stray light.

A further option is to use additional radio triggers, this will not work with all triggers as some only work in pairs but both pocket wizards and Pulsar can be set as either receiver or triggers and therefore one trigger will fire as many receivers' as you want to.

Flash Metering
At one time the standard practice of studio photographers was to use a handheld flash meter.

You start by connecting the meter to the flash head via a sync cord or a wireless trigger. With the diffusion dome in place, hold the meter in front of the subject with the dome pointing back at the camera. You push a button on the meter, which triggers the flash. The meter then reports the appropriate f-stop to use.

This gives you a reading that is independent of the subject's reflectance. In other words, if the subject is white the meter doesn't get fooled into thinking that it is a brighter light.

Do be carful as it is easy and understandably so, to think the reading you get is the correct one for the shot. However the meter is not able to determine the type of shot you are trying to create so remember to consider what you are exposing for, the shadow, highlights or the mid tones.

In our modern digital world where instant previews and histograms are available at no cost it is quite simple and possible better to set you exposure with a combination of skill and judgment.

                            Lighting styles

Before we look at the set up would be helpful to have an understanding of what we are trying to achieve.

Portrait styles can be formal, casual, candid and so on. But these are portrait styles and could be shot in any of a number of locations and not necessary in a studio.

What we are looking at here is lighting styles, the difference being the look and feel of the portrait is governed by the lighting for example Low Key, High key and commonly over looked Mid Key. However you can and should choose the lighting that suits the portrait style and subject.

High-key
This is where the lighting is used to reduce the contrast ratio present in the scene and suggests an upbeat mood that works well with bright colours. High-key lighting is free from dark shadows and is achieved by using three lights for you subject. One left, right, and central, not including any background lighting. The sidelights can be dual purpose, also lighting the background. The result in a uniform lighting pattern with very little modeling. The primary drawback is that high-key lighting fails to add meaning or drama.

Low-key
Low-key lighting creates striking contrasts through reduced lighting with a key light positioned close to and to one side of the subject. Shadows are now the primary element of the composition, controlling the key light with a simple reflector or beauty dish creating instant drama by accentuating the contours of an object by throwing areas into shadow. The addition of a "hair light", and a background light will add further interest.

Containing predominantly dark tones, conveying atmosphere and mood and being full of mystery makes black and white a popular choice.

Mid key
The most common choice for family portrait shoots, very often shot against a clean white background and soft shadows keeping the subject anchored and balanced, avoiding the falls, floating look.

The key light, fitted with a large soft box, creates a soft wraparound light, exposed for the mid tones ensuring detail is maintained in both the shadow and highlights. Additional lights, also fitted with soft boxes are used to light the background and shadow areas as required.

                                 The set up

Background
We need to start with the backdrop and in this session we are shooting with a white background. There are a number of materials available including fabric and vinyl but today we are going to use paper.

Paper comes in rolls 53", 107", and 140" wide. The 107" width is about 9 feet and that's a good size for most photographers, all we have to do now is hang it.

There are many ways to support the roll, today we are using the stand and pole system. This is a cost effective solution and has the added advantage of being very portable

Set the stands as high as you can, to shoot a full length portrait of an adult of 6 foot, the background will need to be at least 8 foot high.

Roll out the paper so the front edge is about 8 feet from the stands. This is to allow you to position the subject about 4 feet from the background to avoid overspill from the background light.

The Key-Lights
Start by fitting the head to an appropriate stand, attach a soft box or white reflective umbrella and position the unit as close to the subject as possible. Ask your subject to sit in position as you work, this will help you position the lights and talking to the sitter will build a rapport and relax them. Attach a trigger and set the power to 75% (3 quarters).

Next set your camera, and this will depend on the power of the light, start with your camera set to Manual, an aperture of f11, set the shutter speed to 125s and the ISO to 400, finally set the white balance to auto.

Setting Exposure
Take a test shot to assess the exposure. Look at the subject closely for even mid-tones and no burn out. Do not worry about the background, it will look grey because it is under exposed. We will be lighting it shortly.

If your image is over exposed first turn down the power on the flash head, saving power will give quicker recycling time and reduce the risk of overheating the head, for further adjustment reduced the ISO (from 400 to 200 is one stop) for further adjustment still change the aperture from f11 to f13 or f16.

For under exposed images only turn the power up as the last option. First make sure the light is as close to the subject as possible, then up the ISO, by a quarter or half a stop. More if you need to, modern DSLR's give excellent results so do not be afraid to use the high ISO settings. Then adjust the aperture, do not forget to keep an eye on the depth of field.

Position the fill Light
Again, a soft box is ideal, but an umbrella will also work well, soft boxes are great for the back light as you get less bounce back so if you do not have one for the fill light use an umbrella. Position it the opposite side from the key light and set low and angled down.

The power will be affected by the type and size of the modifier used but working on the basis that both the key light and the fill light are the same and the power setting on the key light is at 3 quarters set the power output on the fill light to half power.

As the key light and camera have been set the fill light adjustments will be made by moving the position of the light in relation to the subject and or by turning the power output on the flash head up or down. We are looking to lighten the shadows on the fill side but still maintain form and detail so avoid over filling and burning out. Also take note of and dark arrears on in the foreground, it will normally be best to keep the light quite low.

Background Light
The grey appearance of the background is due to under exposure, remember inverse square law, with the background being 4 foot behind the subject the light has to travel double the distance to reach the background and double the distance equals quarter the light.

We need to add light to correctly expose the background, position a light either side of the background, angled at 45 degrees towards it. Use a soft box on each and set the power to half. Take some further test shots and adjust the power and or position as necessary.

It can be helpful to set the highlight alert in your camera and when the background starts to flash it is over exposed. A little overexposure is good but not more than one stop as a rule.

Once you are all set keep your subject in the centre of the set up and work with you subject and get some great shots.

Try using some props and get your model to stand sit even lay down. Take shots looking at the camera, looking happy, serious even moody either way have some fun and get shooting.