garry edwards

<p>After nearly 10 years on this site, most of them as moderator on this forum, I'm now leaving the site

permanently.<br>

I've made many friends here and PN and I've gained a great deal from my time here, but things change and this

site is no longer for me.<br>

I wish all members the very best in the future and hope that you will all continue to explore lighting, experiment

and learn.</p>

 

<p>Good idea to cover hotshoe flashes and hotlights, which I didn't do in my own article because I don't think they're a good choice for photographers, but I think that <em>A Beginner's Guide to Lighting Kits</em> is flawed. Please see my comments at the foot of the article</p>

<p>The fill light can be literally anything other than a very restrictive light such as a honeycomb grid or a spotlight, it's function is to illuminate all of the subject as seen by the lens, and as its position is immediately above or immediately below the lens (or behind it) it is usually so far away from the subject that the size doesn't make a great deal of difference</p>

<p>Have you read <a href="../learn/lighting/choosing-studio-lighting/index.published.adp">this article</a> ?</p>

<p>Good question Mike, but I'm not sure that there's an answer.<br>

It depends on the subject to a large extent - a still life subject with known colours (e.g. white, grey) will be more obvious than the average portrait.<br>

And judging from the rave comments made by some people about lights that are all over the place in terms of colour, I suspect that many of them must be colour blind...<br>

<a href="http://www.lencarta.com/2009032470/setting-up-your-camera-for-studio-flash/index.php">This article</a> on the Lencarta website (or more specifically the computer-altered graphic) showing different colour temperatures may help.<br>

I agree with you about trying to correct the different colours produced by different lights on computer. Life's too short, even if it's possible to do a good job.</p>

<p>As above, although I wouldn't put Elinchrom in the same quality category as Profoto, Bron or Hensel.<br>

There are two different problems. Colour shift at different power settings (largely a product of economising on the capacitors fitted to the heads) causes a sometimes dramatic colour shift at different power settings which, as Colin identified, can be overcome by use of a colour temperature meter (although it would be cheaper as well as easier not to buy junk lights in the first place) but there is also a problem with inconsistent colour temperature (and inconsistent flash energy) pop to pop, and that problem can't be overcome by using gels because it can't be forecast.<br>

The irony here is that the people with the least experience of studio lighting are usually the most vociferous in their praise of their chosen brand, and the people with the least experience also happen to be the people who are usually least able to overcome the problems.<br>

The only real answer is to buy decent lights. Personally I've never quite understood why many people are prepared to pay several times as much for their cameras and lenses as they are for their lighting. I do the reverse.</p>

<p>I can't advise you on which light shapers you should buy, because it really does depend on so many different factors, including skill levels, the subject and the effect that the photographer wants to achieve.<br>

Typically, beginners start off with umbrellas (often with hotshoe flashes) and as their skills increase they usually move on to studio flash, and then to increasingly hard light sources, to bring out the best in their subjects.<br>

As for a tutorial, look at <a href="http://www.lencarta.com/2009121893/light-shaping-tools-compared/index.php">this one</a> on the Lencarta website. The 'model' here was a mannequin simply because 'she' was more compliant than a real person and therefore could be in exactly the same position each time. The downside of this is that plastic skin doesn't behave in exactly the same way as human skin, and the eyes are painted so don't show catchlights. But I think it will help you.</p>

<p>That's a very good question and something I'd be interested in too.<br>

It seems to me that, increasingly, studio lighting is sold by people who know very little about it and many of them are no-name imports made down to a price rather than up to a quality standard, and are simply badged by the sellers. The specs that really matter often don't even get a mention and, as you say, the specs (even when mentioned) are probably nothing more than a statement by the seller.<br>

My own reseach shows that hardly any manufacturers or sellers even say how many capacitors are built into their heads - possibly because there are far too few for consistency - for example one make, widely acclaimed by beginners has only 1 capacitor in its entry level head, and 2 in the next model up.</p>

<p>Professionally, this is often done with an overhead softbox 3x the length of the car to create diffused specular highlights and define the shape, the softbox will have up to 30 flash heads in it, then up to about 8 more flash heads to accentuate key features such as wheels, bumpers, windscreen wipers and so on. These heads would be fitted with honeycombs, fresnel spots, focussing spots, beauty dishes etc.<br>

Multiply your budget by 6 and then add a 0 on the end - £30,000 should be somewhere near.<br>

Alternatively, it can be done largely on computer, you save on the capital cost and end up with an inferior product that will probably be good enough for your purpose and spend a lot of time rescuing bad images instead of creating good ones.<br>

But if your example photos are really good enough for your clients, you could manage without any lighting at all - just stick the camera on a tripod and touch up the shots on computer. The results won't do anything for your reputation but it will save you cash.</p>

<p>Yes, Light: Science & Magic is invaluable - and relevant to this thread.<br>

Your reference to Garageband wasn't, so I deleted it.<br>

Posts on PN are NOT censored, they are moderated to keep the threads on track. One of the things which is definately not allowed is comments on forums about moderation. If you feel that the moderator - me in this case - is wrong then either say nothing, say what you have to say to the site admin by email, or volunteer to become a moderator. Further off topic comments will be deleted and further comments that contravene terms of use will probably result in YOU being deleted.<br /> Comments that are helpful and relevant are welcome.</p>

<p>Brian,<br>

Studio pros spend many times your budget on lighting - but they need to, because they have to shoot a wide variety of subjects and typically use a range of different sized cameras, some of which need much more lighting energy than others.<br>

Your budget should be fine for your needs, and a lot of beginners in The States like <a href="http://www.alienbees.com">Alien Bees</a> lighting, which seems to offer good value for money. Generally, the law of diminishing returns applies to lighting (as to most things in life) and you need to spend a LOT more money to get improved output consistency, improved colour temperature consistency etc.<br>

As for the actual lighting equipment you need, firstly you need to learn something about lighting itself and <a href="00BjHh">these Lighting Themes</a> may help with that process, or you could buy a copy of Light: Science & Magic, which is pretty much the bible for lighting.<br>

But, just to start you off in the right general direction, you need to think about controlled light that casts shadows in the direction you need, e.g. the emphasise the texture of the fabric, so light shapers such as standard reflectors, beauty dishes, that sort of thing.</p>

<p>Your planned setup will produce enough light for what you need, and can easily produce shadowless lighting but...<br>

Lighting isn't about having the right amount of light (that's just a very small part of it) and is more about controlling the light in a way that creates and uses shadows to show the product/subject at its best. Please see <a href="http://www.lencarta.com/2009121893/light-shaping-tools-compared/index.php">this article</a> on the Lencarta website, which demonstrates what the different light shaping tools actually do.<br>

You have two things working against you. Firstly, you have a pretty small space that's painted white, which means that it will be difficult to place the lights exactly where they need to be and the white walls and low ceiling will make it difficult to stop unwanted light bounce, and secondly you're planning to use flashguns that are difficult to control in that you can't really use the light shaping tools that you need to created the lighting effects that you need. Studio flash would be far easier, and possibly cheaper too.<br>

To a large extent, you can overcome the unwanted light bounce problem by painting the ceiling black and hanging black drapes on the walls.</p>

<p>The Lencarta Safari.<br>

http://www.lencarta.com/safari-portable-flash/index.php</p>

<p>Yes, the photos are in jpg format, but I don't see how that can be the problem. As I said in my OP, the total size of the document is less than 8Mb...</p>

<p>Let's see whether the disk cleanup solves the problem.<br>

BTW, don't know whether it's relevant or not, but the computer is pretty slow to boot up.</p>

<p>Many thanks for the responses so far.<br>

The PC is running on XP Pro, the C drive has 98Gb of free space and the machine has 3.5Gb of ram. I've just now put it into 'Disk cleanup' mode (haven't run that for a while).<br>

Before posting this question I did try re-booting and closing all applications EXCEPT anti virus, it didn't help.</p>

<p>One of my tutorials, written in Word, 69 pages and lots of photos, total disk space less than 8 Mb...<br /> <br /> None of the pictures are being displayed after page 24. instead, I get an error message "There is not enough memory or disk space to display or print the picture' - which is nonsense.<br /> <br /> Does anyone have any idea what is wrong here? And explain to a computer numpty how to fix it?<br>

Thanks</p>

<p>Not all kit light stands are junk - it depends which makes you buy.<br>

If you want to use your hotshoe flash and a studio flash together then all you need to do is to trigger the hotshoe flash using any radio trigger that will connect to it, and use the flash from the hotshoe flash to trigger the studio flash</p>

<p>There's a guide on PN that says that you need 2000Ws? Hmmn...<br>

Maybe it's a very old article and the writer was assuming that everyone uses a medium format film camera (at least) shooting slow slide film and using a very small aperture...<br>

<a href="../learn/lighting/choosing-studio-lighting/">This article</a> is more up to date and you'll see that I suggest no more than 300Ws for the average home studio and the average subject.<br>

As for choice of brand, I think it's fair to say that Alien Bees are popular among beginners and have a very loyal customer base. I don't think that even AB themselves claim that their products are high quality or that they produce consistent colour temperature, but for portrait type shots, these things are far less important than for some other types of shot. AB certainly seem to be a much better buy than most budget kits available in the U.S.</p>

<p>A white beauty dish would be better - silvered ones can produce a double shadow when used with a honeycomb.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>A honeycomb in that reflector or the beauty dish would probably be the closest thing.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yes, it probably would - but it won't be anywhere near the effect of a fresnel spot, which is bright in the centre and which becomes progressively less dark at the edges in a very even way, with columnated lines of light - unlike a honeycomb, which is 'rough'</p>

<p>Good questions, and before I try to answer let me make it clear that I'm not impartial, because not only do I use their products but I'm also their photographer and techie.<br>

Lencarta sells direct to customers (not via distributors), places a very high value on good customer support and relies on customer recommendations, a very similar business model to Paul C Buff in The States. Selling direct keeps prices down and customer recommendations keep costs down.<br>

If you're unsure about the customer recommendations you can always click on the customer links and check for yourself.<br>

I understand what you're saying about photographers you don't know - for example I'm not exactly famous and the people who do know me tend to be advertising agencies and commercial clients because of the kind of work I do - but are you saying that you don't know <a href="../photodb/user?user_id=416299">Marc Gouguenheim?</a><br>

As for the magazine reviews, IMO some magazine reviews should be taken with a very large pinch of salt. Lencarta only allows its products to be reviewed by mags that have a good reputation for integrity, that's why the small number of reviews that have been carried out can be trusted.<br>

Being cautious is good, personally I think that everyone should carry out careful checks before parting with cash - but in the case of Lencarta it's pretty easy to make the checks and check the references.</p>

 

<p>A separate meter that measures flash - yes.<br>

But it lets you know the correct aperture, not the correct shutter speed, as the shutter speed is almost irrelevant when using flash under normal studio conditions.</p>

 

<p>It isn't that simple. If the hotshoe flash fires a preflash then the preflash will set off the studio flash before the camera shutter has opened, which will give exactly the same result as the flash not firing at all.<br>

It may be possible to disable the preflash, you will need to check in your camera manual.<br>

Personally I would use the radio trigger whether or not you can fire the flash without it</p>

<p>It might help if you tell us where you are...</p>

<p>You can use hotshoe flashes at the same time as studio lighting, no problem.<br>

Or you can use the Nikon CLS system instead of studio lighting - it's a very expensive option and a limited one, because you can't get a range of effective light shaping tools for hotshoe flashes - and it's the light shaping tools that are important. But hotshoe flashes have the advantage of portability.<br>

Most people use radio triggers to fire the flashes, as Devon says, your Nikon commander mode will only fire Nikon hotshoe flashes. Radio triggers can be used with any type of flash and are much more reliable because they rely on a simple radio signal.<br>

See <a href="../learn/lighting/choosing-studio-lighting/">this article on how to choose studio lights</a> . The Lencarta flash heads shown in the article have a little brother, the <a href="http://www.lencarta.com/smartflash-mains-powered-flash/index.php">SmartFlash 200</a> , that you may want to consider.</p>