Lighting for Editorial Work

Hello, I want to start shooting for magazines, maybe like Home and

Garden, Architecture Digest and those types of magazines that display

all the expensive furniture and all. I know they used flash lights,

but I dont know much more than that. I need to buy the lights and I

was wondering what are the preferred lights to use, and

softboxes/umbrellas etc. I dont have professional money, so is there

an alternative where I will not have to spend a fortune?

Why on earth would you want to shoot for magazines like "AD" (of all things!) when you are not a professional?! Do you think they'll wait for your input?

 

(Before anyone else tries to attest me "rudeness" -- I'm just trying to be honest and realistic, nothing more.)

You can try working with tunsten lights using "Blue" daylight balance photoflood bulbs to balance with daylight.

You may also notice that warm balance bulbs are sometimes left in parts of these magazine shots to make a room look warm and inviting, and other times the outdoors is allowed to go a bit blue and cool for the same purpose; to make the house "feel" warm.

Depending on your shooting style, lights are not essential for this type of work.

I would acctually like to agree with Jaques Bagios regarding that comment. You really need to feel VERY comfortable with strobe/tungsten/hmi lights before you take on that kind of work and in many cases you also work with larger formats as well although digital is making its mark also in this fields.

Shooting interior/exterior architectural shoots might look simple but please do give it a real try before you spend some money on this kind of equipment.

In general otherwise if you do need lights for these kind of stuff you will probably need fairly powerfull lights (large rooms/big depth of field = plenty of juice in your strobes) Look at (http://www.profoto.com/product.php?catId=101&productId=265) for light sources that will be able to produce a natural looking light in rooms and environment where you need to control the light.

This is simply one form (and brand)of lights for this kind of light that you might need for these kind of shoots.

And of course there is also as previously stated depending of your style you might only shoot with available light but please do remember that is acctually much more difficult to get good results compared when you have some control of the situation.

There is a story of a photographer that had to go back to a curch for 7 years before the light got right again as the first time he went in there and did not bring he's camera.

Best of luck with it and do remember that although some might disagree with me that when you shoot architecture you have to create the image and not shoot it as you might do in a more photojournalistic way

Flash Lights? Like Rayovac? hahaha...<p> Check out <a href="http://www.dg28.com/technique.html">Neil Turner's site</a> for editorial portrait work tips. He (and I) use Lumedyne for location portraiture. <p>As for interiors and architecture, many successful interior photographers have a kit that is almost entirely clip lights from a hardware store. Most of them also use cameras with movements of larger formats than 35mm, like the Hasselblad Flexbody or 4x5 monorails... t

Lumedynes work great on location... t<div></div>

If interiors turn you on by all means have a go at it.

 

There are a number of good books on it, and you need to study them.

 

Be prepared to work hard to learn how to do it. It's not easy.

 

If you are shooting with a window at your back you don't always need lights, but for most shots you need fill light to avoid black holes.

 

If you start with 35mm a lot of rooms will record OK at f8-16, which means that a strobe that will produce f8-f11 will be adequate for fill and sometimes even for the main light.

 

These days 400 speed slide films are very good, so at least while you're learning you can use them to "amplify" the effect of small flashes like Vivitar 285's.

 

Most of the pictures in the August issue of Architectural Digest were as good as it gets, so you should work on reproducing that look.

I saw a football game on TV and I understand that they have to wear those shoulder pads and so forth, but what I want to know is what is the preferred type of shoulder pads and helmet so I can go out and play quarterback for one of the top professional teams? And I don't have the time or money to work out or practice, so is there an easier way to do it?

 

Kristopher- The answer to the above question and your question is very much the same. Guess what it is?

 

But what I want to know is, did you think of this little stunt yourself, or did somebody put you up to it? I mean, nobody's THAT daft! (Though I could be wrong.)

 

-BC-

Bill, I think in football they would refer to your comments as unnecessary roughness.

 

Kristopher probably has no idea how hard it is to do interiors, but if he loves the subject he will struggle through the difficulties.

 

I've been working on interiors for 10 years and my quality is approaching AD, but so far they haven't called :-)

Thank you for all of your answers. I hope the people who wrote here visit again to see this message. Thank you for everyone that helped. Many of you assumed that I wasnt a professional photographer, some assumed that I was digital and some assumed that I was working with 35mm. I know it is mainly my fault because maybe i didnt give enough background information. I am a professional photographer with professional equipment (6x7 kits and a few 4x5's) and have graduated with a BFA in Photo. I kinda know what I am doing with this whole thing.

I dont have an abundance of money to spend on equipment and was just looking for a way to do it for maybe under $1000, and the best equipment to get. Again, I ask my main question. What are the preffered light to use when doing editorial portraits, and when doing architecture. Also, what light modifiers are the best to use and how big should they be for each, with umbrellas or softboxes. Thank you for your responses. Have a nice day.

An interior is very constricted, with lots of expensive things that are easy to knock over.

 

I think for diffusion umbrella's are more practical than soft boxes in terms of being easy to handle.

 

I have heard of people shooting small scenes with 6 soft boxes. That's crazy. But you might need 6 small lights to cover all parts of a deep scene. Sometimes you don't need any lights.

 

The ambient light in interiors is soft, perhaps too soft, so I think there is a place for small amounts of hard light.

 

I have a collection of small flashes, including several Vivitar 285's that I use to fill black holes in daytime shoots. At night I have some quartz work lights that I use for incandescent fill.

 

Using a digital for tests will speed up your process.

I use a lot of different lights for architectural interiors: daylight, high watt-

second flash (up to 18,000 watt-seconds spread out over 4 or 5 packs and up

to 12 heads + a couple of 1000 watt second monolights.), down to vivitar 283

and Nikon Sb-28DX units, even tiny mini morris slaves. I'll also use "hot

lights" and daylight. It depends on what , when and where I am working.

 

more important than gear is the style of work you do. And the room itself .

 

Get a copy of " Photographing Buildings Inside and Out" 2nd edition, by

Norman McGrath.

Your initial question, nor your follow up comments, show any familiarity with professional lighting equipment or editorial photography, so it's no surprise that you got plenty of smart alec answers and/or broad generalizations.<p>My suggestion of Lumedynes for location portraiture seemed to slip under your attention span, so I'll mention them again. See the link I posted to Neil Turner's website, which is a fabulous source of info on a lightweight and relatively inexpensive lighting system for editorial portraits that is extremely portable. It is also an excellent place to learn editorial photography techniques. As to the "preferred" type of light modifier, are you making images for "Spin" magazine or "Yoga Today"? If the answer is yes, try an unmodified reflector or a 48x72 softbox. Or both. <p>Regarding the photography of interiors, there is no simple answer to your question. See the advice that Ellis Vener gives; it is as concise a response as it is accurate. There are many ways to make photographs of interiors and portraits that utilize a vast array of equipment, from clip lights to shoe mount flash to digital power pack systems and hotlights. <p>The lights you'll need to buy are the lights that are suitable for the location you'll be photographing.<p> A MFA in photography might not help you much in this regard, good luck... t

OK- Am I the only one out there who thought Tom Meyer's response was rude, arrogant and codescending?

My advice on starting interiors: stick to residences.

 

Except for florescents under kitchen counters, which need magenta gels, you usually don't find the wild mixture of light sources that you sometimes see in commercial situations.

 

If you look at magazines you will find that it seems acceptable to add strobe light until you mostly overpower the ambient incandescents.

 

Have fun. It's a challenging specialty.

boo hoo...<p> (and that's <i>Mister</i> Rude and Arrogant to you, Renee). And thanks for your initial contribution to the archives at Photo.net. Try to stay on topic, it's required here.<p>Since Kristopher felt it neccessary to say "<i>Again, I ask my main question</i>" I felt it was okay to <i>again</i> give the same answer and in slightly more emphatic terms. It seems he missed much information that was exactly what he asked for... so why do you think it's <i>me</i> who's being rude? Many people give time and knowledge to this forum. It's rude to ignore these people's well intentioned advice and <i>then</i> act like <i>you've</i> been disrespected. Thin skin is not an attribute here. <p>If you have something to contribute to the topic of this thread, Renee, get to it, otherwise go back to lurking... t

Tom is one of the few people who consisently give out rational and helpful advice and have something interesting to say every time.. not to mention the gazillion examples he includes alongside his posts..

Sometimes I think photo.net should be configured to automatically respond to any question with the word "architecture" or "interiors" with a link to the Norm McGrath book.

 

Or, more realistically, we might see if we could add a few "sticky," or permanent links at the top of the page for this forum with frequently asked questions and links, like the "how can I be a pro (and generate pro-quality work) without spending years studying and practicing and without a business plan or proper equipment and without spending more than $500" one that appears quite often.

 

*sigh*