photo studio learning

I am a beginer in studio photography and I am looking for a few

books to learn. I found a loot of books on the net, and I am a little

disoriented. Please if someone could guide me to the books that are

good indeed for learning studio lighting secrets.

Thank you in advance,

 

Adison.

what type of studio work are you going to do. People or things. or both. and for what markets?

I learn more from my peers then books. I have learned from a master photographer that if you put all your lights to the same watts per second and meter your subject, "what you see is what you get!" in a studio environment. It does work!!! I have tried it in my studio!! Even with gels and fog!!!!! It's easy to see shadowing, which is great to do fancy lighting like butterfly lighting. Panels are best. Have your lights close to the panel for a softer look or pull them back for a rougher look. Soft boxes leave retangle lights in your subjects eyes. The retange image in the eye does not look right nor is it pleasing. If you have barn doors on your lights, the ones with four flaps, you have more control of your lighting with less time then changing out a difusser in your soft box or changing sizes of your soft boxes. Whether or not it works on objects I do not know but I would bet that it would!! I just done a shoot outside and decided to play a little. I took a king size white sheet and hung it from my portable background stand set up. I also took my photogenic Flashmaster light system. I had my sheet to the left of my camera aimed on a slight angle to my subjects. A family of 5 on a park bench. I had two photogenic 8050's behind the sheet about 6 inches from the sheet aimed at my subjects. I had both lights at 200 watts per second. I metered it. I used my Pentax K1000 with my 80-210mm lens at 60sec at f11. I normally use my Pentax bar flash but was not happy with the flash burning out the skin tones even at a 1/4 power and the back ground didn't seem to have the pop I wanted. It would also run a LITTLE darker then I wanted. The sheet looked funny but the results were beautiful!! Lighting was even and I really got a lot of detail. I could see the details of the bark on the trees behind the family so vividly and the leaves too. Play around!! It's fun to learn and play!! I also recommend joining a professional photographers association in your area. I belong to the MPPA (Metropolitian Professional Photographers Association) here in Oklahoma City. It's worth every penny!! Happy shooting, Donna

I am interested in both people and ofjects, but I want the general rules

of studio light. Becouse I supose if I know the basic of studio lighting,

it will be usefull in both people and object photography.

As regarding the markets I am open to any client. In my plans, I dare to

think to ofer my services to small bussines, fashion magazines, and last

but not least to people who want good portraits.

I have 3 light heads with 2 umbrellas ane 1 softbox. I experimented with

it, but I found it is quite difficult to "rediscover America" each time.

So I need a guide to start in this direction, becouse I started in

photography as a press photographer, and studio lighting is very diferent

from what I learned till now.

I don`t have the ocassion to learn from a master and I have to learn by myself from books and experimenting.

 

Thank you all for your answers.

<b>Light: Science and Magic</b> by Fil Hunter and Paul Fuqua ISBN#0-240-80275-6<p> This book teaches principles of light and how studio tools form it to photographic needs. It's not your usual "here's my portfolio and how I did it". It's a very good book... t

I'd second Tom's suggestion from experience. I have justed started learning in the studio and was very disapppointed with just about all of the studio "how-tos".

 

Most of them seem to give examples that require 7 lights +, 3 assistants, scrims, globos etc. All things that a beginner doesn't have.

 

As a text the book covers how light works, then applies it to everyday problems you can strike as a studio photographer, not specific monkey see monkey do.

 

Can't get better than that.

Peter, books are not very effective to learning from a professional. If you can enroll in

to a good school, tech college or a university has contuning education. But then you

learn more from professionals. The question is do you want to do this for a living if

yes you have to go all the way. You can become a freelance photo assistant. But you

will have to take a pay cut and tell the photographer you do not have experience. or

ask a Pro if you could interen for them. You would'nt get paid but you will learn alot

fast. If this sounds good go to the workbook.com and look in the directorys for pros

in your area. Mined you, you may start off sweeping and moping the floor, but then

most of use started out that way. If you live near chicago let me know I can give you a

jump start. But only if you are serious.

 

If you dont take that route I then suggest buying some videos from

calumetphoto.com they have many different ones to choose from.

While I was writing the last post james posted

 

James and Peter Studios use what they need for the job. But a good studio

photographer can get away with using one! light and a bunch of bounce cards,

relfeltors and mirrors. It does get that simple.

 

Remeber the client is always right and if a studio is shoting models it is expected

from the studio to have extra hands on set (assisants) models make a lot cash and

have 3hour min. bookings even if you use them for 30mins. Then you have hair and

make up and clothing stylists, art directions, clients etc. every must go right. So a

photographers assistant making $200-400 a day is nothing. Because if you screw up

that it. You lose a client. You loose money. You are not the professional that you

should be. That is why a photographer and or studio has many assistants on a set, to

make sure every thing go smoothly, most likly one or two assistants will not do much.

 

Remeber each job/client is different you can learn different things. If a day of

assistanting was alittle of a bore then that day was easy money. and most likly a

exception. This is the best way to learn, and you get paid for it. But work for many

photograhers because they are different experiences.

I haven't found my personal "cookbook" yet. My suggestions are: train on objects - chrome pens, sunglasses, are really "hell". Borrow a doll before you pay models. A cheap digital camera or even a half rotten camcorder connected to a bw-TV. look for some advisors. They need not be able to find your cameras trigger, they should be able to be critics. - stylists, artists, or photo.net.

Never buy a book blind. Go to some public libary, read what they have.

All i can say: do it! I don`t think that books help much, you have to get used to studio shootings and you can only achieve that by experimenting with the new equipment and the opportuninties that come with it. Studio flash may seem scary and complicated at the first sight, but really it`s the best thing you can have (and the worst, but later to that). Studio means total control, you are not bound to weather, daytime, anything. A studio flash system and a good flash meter make you capable of doing shots that have an accurracy of 1/10th of a stop even if there are 10 models and 15 flashes in the picture. The only problem is the sheer number of possibilities you have, you have to make a choice for one of them. There is no the-light-was-crap-excuse. My advise is, although you may be tempted to use all the lights available, learn to work with less. Less flashes mean less fuzz mean concentration on the chosen effect. You can make nice fashion shots with one single light. The worst possible thing that can happen is not knowing what you want and therefore trying to squeeze a lot of fancy effects into a picture, you only need one of them!

When i started in the studio i worked with a doll as a light dummy and some friends coming in the evening to make shootings without a nervous client behind... As long as you^re ready to learn and focused on your goals i am sure you will see progress after the first couple of rolls.

Good luck, enjoy the experience!

a good book or good classes <i>won't</i> make you a better photographer, they <i>will</i> save you tons of time in achieving your potential, pleasing clients and get you making money sooner... t