Lesson 1: UNDERSTANDING LIGHT Lighting is a key ingredient in defining a successful photo. Without light, there would be no photography or life as we know it. Think of how light affects the world around us. The landscape is shaped by light and gives you a visual story in showing the layout of the land by defining textures within the landscape. In the studio, lighting for a portrait provides you the visual information about that person, the color of their hair, the shape of their face, and the color of their eyes, and tells us who they are. Lighting is used very successfully in photographing products in which the photo entices us to buy a product. Lighting techniques make food look better to us, a car more appealing, a model sexier. In this lesson we will discuss a variety of different types of light, light quality, and light direction.

Understanding light and how it works is a vital aspect of creating great portraits. As photographers, we are working with basically two types of light; available light and light we create. Available light is known as Ambient light. This is light that exists and is constant. Sure, in some cases, it is light we can turn on or off, but it is usually a continuous light source. It could be sunlight, light from street lights, light from lamps in our living room, and lights in an office or manufacturing plant. But it is always the light source that is constant and can also be looked at as the light that you may not have control over its adjustment.

Supplemental or secondary light is strobe (flash) or ‘hot lights’. Strobes are flash lights and hot lights are constant lights. In both cases, you can set up these lights and move them in or out of your photo setup. Strobe lights are by far the most commonly used type of supplemental lights used in portrait photography. Strobe lights also have the ability to change the output of the light emitted during each flash by an adjustment of the power settings. Hot lights can also be adjusted by a control making brighter or dimmer, but this also changes the color temperature of the light as the power is reduced. Strobes emit a flash that is instant and does not vary much in the amount of time that it is on.

There is no such thing as bad light, only light used improperly.-Andreas Feinenger LIGHT QUALITY: SOFT VS HARD The quality of light is described by how hard or soft the shadow created by the light source is. Soft light and hard light are determined by the size of the light source in relation to the subject. Generally, the larger, more diffused the light source, the softer the light quality and shadows. If you have hard sunlight on your subject, the shadows are going to have hard edges like the scenic photo above. When the clouds cover the sun, a huge diffuser has been placed over the light source and the shadows become softer. When you place a diffuser in front of a hard light source and close to it, the shadows cast by the subject are as hard as if the diffuser wasn’t used. The farther you move the diffuser away from the light source and closer to the subject, the softer the shadow edges become. The idea here is that the larger the light sources in relation to the subject, the softer the light.

Notice when the diffuser is placed next to the strobe, the diffusers effect is non existent as indicated by the hard edge shadows on the products.

However, when you move the diffuser away from the light and close to the subject the shadows and contrast are soft.

LIGHT QUALITY: FLAT VS CONTRAST Flat light has a shorter relationship between highlight and shadows. Imagine white and black objects against white. If the light is soft and diffused (flat) there will most likely not be a black shadow or a pure white highlight. Contrasty light has a more extreme range between shadow and highlight. The same subjects with hard light as the light source will probably have a pure black area in the shadows and a white highlight.

This example represents the difference between flat and contrasty light. Notice the white cup is gray in the flat light and white in the contrasty light.

LIGHT DIRECTION Light comes from all directions and as such creates a variety of different lighting looks. Light direction controls the shape of shadows. It’s these shadows that define the shape, texture, and form of our subjects. Direction defines the difference between shadow and highlight. Light direction comes from all angles and sides, but is usually defined as side light, backlight, front light, top light, etc.

This example represents lighting angles. From left to right; frontal, 45 degree, side (90degree) and back light.

ANGLE OF INCIDENCE The Angle of Incidence of light is an important concept in lighting and should be understood because its cause and effect will be experienced. When a light source emitting light reaches an object at a certain angle, that light is then bounced off the subject at the same angle. If the sun is at a point in the sky where it shines a specular highlight on a surface of water at a 45 degree angle, then the light bouncing off that water surface will be at a 45 degree angle as well. Imagine that you are taking a picture of your friend in front of a window. When you take the picture your flash has just created a glaring hot spot in the window behind your friend. This is because the Angle of Incidence is equal and at the same angle from light source to the camera. If you moved to the left or right and move your friend accordingly, you can move the reflection caused by the Angle of Incidence out of your frame.

In the next examples you can see the Angle of Incidence principal at work. Even though this is a product photo, the theory applies to portraits. If you are asked to photograph an executive on location in front of his office window, you will have to deal with your lights reflecting in the glass.

The hot spot on the phone and table top illustrates how light hitting a surface bounce off at the same angle.

By moving the light back, the Angle of Incidence has also moved back off the phone.

INVERSE SQUARE LAW This is another important fact about light. The illumination of a light source varies inversely by the square of the distance from the source. Huh? When you move a light source away from the subject, the light falls off. If you have a light source three feet from your subject and move it to six feet from your subject, the light fall off will not be by half, but rather be 25% of the original light value at 3 feet.

The umbrella was placed 3’ from the product in the left photo and moved 6’ from the right photo. Notice that the light fall resulted in a dark picture.

CONTROLLING FLASH AND AMBIENT The rule: Shutter speed controls Ambient light, f/stop or aperture controls flash. This can be difficult to understand, but is really quite simple. The shutter speeds on your camera controls the length of time that light is allowed to expose the picture. F/stop or aperture only controls the amount of light that exposes your picture. Think about it this way: draw a time line depicting how long a shutter speed is. Let’s say that 1/60 of a second is depicted as 3 inches long, then 1/125 would be 1.5 inches long because it is half the amount of time that 1/60 is. 1/30 would be 6 inches long because it is double the time that 1/60 is. This relationship is the same no matter what shutter speeds you use.

------1/30th second ------1/60th second ------1/125 second

The flash spike is 1/300th to 1/500 on average. This example is only meant to illustrate a point and is not proportional.

When your flash unit fires a flash, that flash duration is usually somewhere around 1/300 to 1/500, depending on the make and model. So if you use 1/60 of a second on your camera and you take a picture with the flash, that flash duration of 1/300 of a second is just a spike in the middle of the time the shutter is open for 1/60 of second. It would also be a spike in the middle of 1/125, 1/30, etc. The flash fires for an instant within the time your shutter is open and no matter what the shutter speed is, the flash remains the same. As you can see, the shutter speed cannot control the brightness of your flash because it controls the time that ambient light hits the film and your flash is instant.

Note: Different cameras with focal plane shutters have different Flash Sync shutter speeds for using flash. It averages about 1/125th but can be 1/60th on some cameras and 1/200 on others. This designated speed is the fastest shutter speed that you can use flash with. If you use a shutter speed faster than the designated sync speed, your film will come back with a horizontal split where half of the picture dark and the other half normally exposed.

This series are not beautiful portraits and are designed to show you the theory of how the aperture controls the flash and shutter speed the ambient. Each of these photos is at f/8 and the strobe has not been changed. The left photo is f/8 @ ½ second, middle photo is f/8 @ 1/8, and the right is f/8 @ 1/30th. Each photo has a two stop difference in ambient light exposure but strobe exposure has not changed. Notice that the skin tone has not changed as far as flash exposure but you can see the right image is slightly darker and this is because the ambient room light was influencing the lighting in image 1 while it is not in image 3.

Aperture on your lens controls the Amount of light that exposes your picture. Let’s say you are in a dark studio and place a supplemental strobe light up to make a portrait. Set the strobe at full power, then take a picture at f/11. Because the room is dark, the shutter speed has no effect, whether it is set at 1/60 or 1 second. If the picture is too bright, you change your f/stop to f/16 and have cut in half the amount of light getting through the lens. If the picture is to dark, open up your f/stop to f/11 to brighten it up. These images illustrate the changing of the f/stop and shutter speed in sync. The left image is ¼ @ f/8, middle ½ @ f/11, right is 1 sec. @ f/16. These three combinations are the same exposure, just different combinations. What changes, is when you adjusted from f/8 to f/11 you cut the flash exposure in half while doubling the ambient, and again from f/11 to f/16. You will see the flash gets weaker each time and the increasing color shift as the ambient light (a different colored light) becomes the dominant light source.

KEY LIGHT/FILL LIGHT Almost all things we will light as photographers are lit with one main light and other lights are used to fill shadows or add accents. When creating light that shapes your subject, there is usually a key light and a fill light. The key light is the main light that illuminates your subject and can be the sun, an ambient indoor light, or the artificial light that you create. If you are using an artificial light like strobe, it is placed in a position to flatter your subject. The fill light is usually used to bring the shadow areas of your subject up, or lightened, to accommodate the camera medium you are using. Remember, if you are using film you will be adding more light to the shadows than if you are using digital.

Here is an example of using one light with no fill (left) and an umbrella fill (-1 stop under key) on the right.

We have discussed the fundamental principles, quality, and variety of light and these are important to understand. In the field, you will find that you apply these principles to your photography quite often as you work to build a photo using supplemental lights combined with ambient light.

EQUIPMENT There is a vast array of lights and accessories that can be applied to your lighting needs and each creates a different quality of lighting effects. In this lesson we will cover the basic equipment needed for commercial product photography and what type of light each produces. First, consider the other equipment that should accompany your lights. Light stands and booms: I have about 20 light stands in the studio and when traveling I put them in two hard plastic golf cases. The smallest are 12” tall and rise to 36” tall. These are primarily used when I need to hide a light behind something or place it under a prop and work well for background lights. I have 6 medium light stands that reach a height of 8’. I use them primarily for putting lights next to subjects or need a light at an average height. The stands I use the most are the large, heavy duty light stands that rise to 12’. These stands are great for heavier light setups or when I need to put a light very high or bounce it off a ceiling.

Here is a photo of light stands, case, and booms. On far left is an SKB Hard Golf Case which I us for all stands, umbrellas, light boxes, etc. Next is medium stand, heavy duty stand with a portable boom, a small stand, and a large studio boom on wheels with hand cranks for adjusting the lights. The other photo shows the hard golf case made by SKB with stands, umbrellas, tripod, lightboxes, etc. These are very heavy duty and work well for flying with your equipment.

Reflectors: Most lights come with reflectors and they usually average around 7” in size. These reflectors are usually silver and are meant to reflect the light coming from the flash. The size and surface of the reflector determines the spread of the light and the quality. A 7” reflector has around an 80 degree spread and a silver reflector will produce a light that has more contrast than a white 7” reflector. A 22” reflector creates a much broader spread of light and is used as the key light, often by itself. The photo on the left shows a 7” and 22” reflector. The middle shows products shot with 7” reflector, right shows product shot with the soft 22” reflector. Notice the shadows?

Umbrellas: These are probably the most widely used lighting accessories and have multiple uses. Umbrellas come with a variety of reflective surfaces and include soft white, soft silver metallic, silver, and gold. Your choice of umbrella surfaces is determined by the quality of light you would like to have. A soft white umbrella will produce a soft, low contrast light, with soft edged shadows. A silver umbrella will produce a hard light with more contrast and hard edged shadows. The size of the umbrella also affects the highlight/shadow relationship. A small umbrella will create a smaller spread of light creating more contrast between highlights and shadows. A larger umbrella will have less contrast between highlights and shadows.

Here is an example of different umbrellas. 32” with black backing on left, middle is 54” soft white, right is 36” soft white ‘shoot through’.

Many umbrellas come with black backing to maximize the output of light bounced into the umbrella. There are also umbrellas that are called ‘shoot-through’ and these are designed to produce and even softer light similar to a light box, but they throw light everywhere unlike a light box.

To set up an umbrella, you open them as you would any rain umbrella and place the shaft in the umbrella opening on the strobe head. Each strobe head is different, but here on the White Lightning you align the hole in the reflector with the opening at the top of the head, and then tighten the screw to secure it. Light Boxes: This lighting accessory also comes in a variety of sizes from extra small to extra large and can be custom built for very large product needs, such as cars. The size of light spread and highlight needed for your subject will determine the size of light box you should use. Light boxes, also called Soft Boxes, produce soft light similar to umbrellas. But because the box is enclosed and has an abrupt edge, the light spread is much more, narrow than an umbrella. This is helpful for controlling the spread of light on subjects and backgrounds. Keep in mind that different manufacturers make their box sizes different than each other. One company large may be bigger or smaller than their competitors.

This photo represents a sampling of different light boxes. L to R is a Large, Medium, Extra Large, and a Strip.

To assemble the light box, you need a speed ring. You begin by placing one shaft at a time into the holes until the last one, which will require an effort of slightly bending the shaft to insert it into the speed ring. Most rings have a flange that should face the direction of the flash head

Grids: Honeycomb grids are used for creating a focused light from your strobes and are quite useful. These come in a variety of sizes, each creating a different degree of light spread. They work well for backgrounds, creating small highlights on products, or creating a light shape.

On the left, 20 degree grid, middle 10 degree, and right 30 degree. Here is an example of the size of spot that a grid produces, 5’ from a wall. L to R, 10, 20, 30 degrees.

Fill Cards There will be some situations where you will not choose to use a fill light to fill in shadows, yet you need to manage the contrast from the main light. A white card such as Foam Core, or reflector panels from Light Form or Lite Disc work well when placed next to the subject and are designed to bounce light into the shadow areas. We will get more into their use in Lesson 2.

This is an example of a Flex Fill, also know as Lite Disc. This one is sitting on a light stand and can be moved into position easily.

Lights: I have both studio strobe power packs, where the light head plugs into the power pack, and mono lights, where each light is the power pack and strobe head in one package. I use the power pack and heads when in the studio or location, and when I need lots of power output. The camera and film format often dictate this, but so can the photo shoot situation.

When shooting an assignment on 4x5 cameras, you need substantially more flash output from your flash units to achieve the same depth of focus that you would use on 35mm. For example, when shooting a complex studio table top on 4x5, you want the front of the foreground product to be in sharp focus as well as the rear product in the scene. On 4x5 this may require, as an example, an f/stop of f/32. It is not uncommon to require 4000 watt seconds of flash power to achieve f/32, your desired f/stop for sharp focus front to back. On 35mm you may achieve the same depth of field, where front and rear product are in focus, at f/11 and thus require 1/8 the flash output as with the 4x5. Another drawback to power packs with heads is these types of lights can only be a short distance from the power pack that it is plugged into. So I primarily use the power packs in the studio when lots of power is required. And there are photographers who shoot portraits on 4x5 as well. Google Thomas Broening for examples.

I use mono lights for most of my work and I love them. Their drawback is less power output, so you must consider what you are shooting and decide if your lights will have enough power to give you the D of Field that you will need. The convenience of these is that you can put the lights anywhere where there is an outlet to plug into. If you are lighting a large area and want lights down the hallway for example, these are the way to go. They also come with built in slaves so when your main light fires, it will fire all the other lights, provided they can see the first light flash. Drawback is that they come in substantially less flash output and have smaller watt seconds than the power pack units. However, in todays digital world this does not seem to be that much of a problem anymore.

Here is an example of strobe lights. The left is the Monolight and the right is Power Pack style.

Connecting to the camera: The camera is connected to the strobe with a PC cord, also known as a sync cord. Once connected, the release of the shutter in the camera sends a signal to the flash to fire at the same time. Most cameras have a PC cord/Sync socket on the camera body.

Here you can see the PC socket and where the plug is inserted in the camera. This is ok with film cameras, but the new digital are known to get ‘fried’ when plugged into strobe systems with poor electronics. Check your manufacturers recommendations.

A safe sync or equivalent is worth the investment. In these photos you can see where the pc cord plugs into the light. Do you need all this equipment I just described? Absolutely not! I have accumulated it over years. Build your equipment a little at a time.

How does the light work? For this example I will only describe the back of a White Lightning as I believe most strobes are similar.

1 is the slider for setting power. The difference between each black dot is 100% or the equivalent of one stop, aka f/stop. If you move to the right from one black dot to another you have increased power by doubling it or by one stop. In between is a half stop. 2 is the slider for adjusting model light brightness. 3 Is for having model light on or off. 4 Plug-in for remote control unit. 5 Fuse/ circuit breaker. 6 Ready button, meaning flash is ready to fire. (When on the model light will turn off until unit is fully recharged for next flash). 7 Fire flash test button. 8 Light indicates when unit is fully charged and ready to fire. 9 Light indicates that unit needs to be discharged. This happens when you cut power, you must dump and recharge at new setting. 10 Powers on/off. 11 Slave unit allows this strobe to see another and fire simultaneously. 12 Plug for PC cord going to camera. 13 Power cord socket. Here is an example of a Norman power pack and its features. At the top you see the blue colored sockets where you plug light heads including one by itself at the front end of the pack. On the left there are 4 sockets and on the right there are 2 that have a black pattern on the case. I have surrounded them with a yellow box to indicate that the sockets are combined and operated with the toggle switch right below each group. For the group on the left, the toggle switch says 400 and 800 and on the right 800 and 1200. If you plug one head into a socket, you will get whatever watt seconds (WS) the toggle switch is set at. On the left it is positioned at 400, so if I plug one head into a socket in the group of 4, I will get 400 watt seconds of power out of that head. If I need 800 watt seconds, I flip the switch to 800. If I need more power then I turn off the pack and move the plug over to the right side and place it in a socket and flip the switch to 1200 WS for 50% more power.

In a portrait setup with two heads, you would place one head on the right socket set at 800 and a second head on the left set at 400 WS. This gives you a one stop difference key/fill light situation. If you place two heads into the same group, you are then splitting the power setting between the two. For example, if two heads are set on the left group and the switch is at 400 WS, then each head has 200WS coming out of it. The modeling light rheostats are for increasing or decreasing the brightness of the modeling light and help you see ratios. Never turn the power on a power pack on or off without a head being plugged into it. When you turn off the power pack, it often discharges the capacitor through the light head by flashing. If you turn the power off without a flash head there is potential for the capacitor to explode. Packing Your Lights You should be concerned and careful about how you pack your lights for transport. Because I do so much on location, I decided to use the Pelican cases, the biggest they make. I can get 5 lights, reflectors, spare tubes, cords, grids, and more in each case. The reason I went with these is they are airline proof for the most part. The cases that come with many lights are great for moving around, but get destroyed on the airlines. Carefully research how you pack your equipment.

Grip Case I also use another older Pelican case for what is called the Grip Case. In this case are extension cords, clamps, black sheets, tools, duct tape, straps, barn doors, rags, ceiling clamps, and other odds and ends. This case is always packed and really is designed for shooting on-location so I don’t forget everything. In the studio I open and use as needed.

Guide Numbers Guide number is the power designation given to amateur flash or flashes designed as on camera. This is a more accurate designation to actual flash output than watt seconds. It will not be important to this course, but the higher the guide number, the more powerful your on-camera flash.

Watt Seconds: Watt seconds means how many watts a light can output per second. Whether watt seconds or Joules, they both are based on mathematical calculations of flash output and what you need to understand is the more watt seconds/Joule, the more flash output you have. You will learn throughout this course that the amount of power you have will be very important and you need to understand how to “think light” and light output.

Here is a HYPOTHETICAL example: you went out and bought the two light packages from Acme Photo Works and you got two stands and two lights and two umbrellas and 24 free dinners for the incredibly fantastic price of $200 from an ad in the back of Hokey Photo magazine. The lights are designated at 100 watt seconds (ws) each, but the ad didn’t really tell you that, and you bought them because it was a killer deal. You had no practical experience using lights on location and did not have a grasp of flash output and the relationship with f/stop. Then during this class you had an assignment to photograph a group of three or more people in one shot. You set up your lights and put your key light at full power and you fill light at -1 stop and when you take your first shot and look at the LCD screen it is to dark. So you open up your aperture to f/8 and take another, still to dark. By the time you have a good exposure you are f/4.5 and the front person is in focus, but the back person is not. You do not have enough depth of field at f/4.5 or enough flash power to get you to f/8 or better yet, f/11. So you got a couple lights at a great price, but they are really designed to take a close up portrait of one person and not light a very large area. The amount of flash power, watt seconds/Joules is important.

Hot Lights: Hot lights are continuous lights that are not strobe and are designed for photography. They are similar to movie and video lights, but the nicer packages come with lots of accessories to aid in still photography. These are a nice to have in the studio for shooting products as ‘what you see is what you get’. They can also work for people photography as well. The difference here between hot lights and strobe is one is continuous and the other is instant. Strobe is instant and as we discussed above you have a wide selection of shutter speeds you can use with strobe. You can overpower ambient light with strobe with your shutter speed selection while hot lights on location become part of the ambient light and you could have color mixing going on as well. For this course we will not discuss how to use hot lights and will stick with strobe.

Light Meter: This is a very handy tool, although these days I don’t believe they are absolutely necessary. The purpose for a light meter is to measure light output. The best meter to get is a combination incident and flash. The incident meter is for metering ambient or existing light that is not flash. The flash mode is for metering flash output. You will use these to determine flash ratios and how it is combined with ambient light. If you are using flash only, you will use the meter to measure the highlight side and the fill side separately. This will give you your flash ratios.

Proper way to use a flash meter is to hold in front of your subject/product and point the white sphere at the camera. Push the button, firing the flashes, and set camera at the suggested reading. WHICH LIGHT ACCESORY TO USE? The main thing to remember with lighting is you need to use a light modifier that will create the quality of light you need for your subject. Do you need hard or soft light, high contrast or low contrast, small highlight or big? Do you need focused light or a broad light? Umbrellas spread light far and wide and this is a factor if you are lighting a subject, but don’t want the light to hit the surroundings around your subject such as your background. A light box also creates a soft light, but allows you control where the light goes. Do you need a specific light shape such as a specular highlight or a light streak on a background? Grids are excellent for controlling where small splashes of light are placed.

BASIC PORTRAIT SETUPS The first thing to understand about lighting people is light angle and light shape. From there you take into consideration, hard/soft, contrasty/flat, and other light qualities. Since most portraits are taken using complimentary light quality, we will focus most of our attention on that rather than alternative lighting techniques.

Next, you should understand lighting angles and this diagram shows where the various lights are placed as discussed in this lesson.

This diagram shows all the spots for placing lights to achieve various light patterns. The following photos illustrate basic portrait lighting positions. To achieve each of these patterns you will move your key light back and forth until the desired pattern is achieved. Loop: This light is close to being a frontal light with minimal shadows and a shadow from the nose that creates a small loop of shadow that stays closer to the nose. This is done by the light being closer to the camera and up slightly and might be close to the 30 degree position.

(There is no fill light in any of these examples.)

Rembrandt lighting: Before photography there was painting and Rembrandt himself used this lighting angle in his portraits and the name has stuck since. Basically you put a light on a stand and raise it up until the shadow cast by the nose touches the shadow on the cheek and creates a triangle highlight on the cheek. This light is about 45 degrees to the side of the camera.

Split Light: This is basically a sidelight with the light at 90 degree angle from your camera. The subject usually faces the camera and half their face is highlight and half is shadow and the light might be close to the 90 degree position. You can see that this pattern is not that complimentary for this person with the shadows in the eyes. Short Light: This light is minimal compared to Rembrandt, just putting a small amount of light on your subject. The light is placed approximately 90 degrees to the side of the camera and pointed at your subjects face. For this light to work your subject would be turned towards the light.

Lighting Ratios: These would be an irrelevant measurement if film and digital could see what our eye sees, but they don’t. So we must first understand the capabilities of the film and digital we use and what range these mediums are capable of handling.

When using multiple lights you have a key, or main light, and a fill light. You measure the difference between these two lights by using light ratios which are measured by the difference in brightness between highlight and shadow. Since the key light is always the brighter, a 2:1 ratio means the key light side of your subject has twice the amount of light, or 1 more f/stop in value, than the fill side. This ratio is the most commonly used when shooting basic portraits. You can increase the contrast on your subject by adjusting your lights to a 3:1 ratio. The shadow side of the subject would be 1.5 stops darker than the key side and 4:1 would be two stops darker.

In these examples, you can see the difference in lighting ratio as the fill light is cut back. The left image is 1:1, middle is 2:1, and right is 3:1 ratios.

JUDGING YOUR PHOTO SCENE In portrait photography, I have judged the lighting quality, angle, and exposure of my scenes for decades using Polaroid tests exposures. I would begin setting up a shot and shoot a Polaroid as I go along, making adjustments to light and exposure as I went. I also used a flash meter in many cases. Now we have digital and the LCD and how wonderful that is.

As you begin to shoot your scenes using strobe light, you will judge your lighting angle, lighting ratio, and exposure VISUALLY by looking at the LCD on your camera and checking your Histogram. I also use the Canon software to download my images right to the computer immediately after the shot was taken. This allows a large view of the image so you can see fine details and make adjustments.

There are two ways that you can alter the brightness of an exposure. 1) By increasing or decreasing the power on your strobes, 2) by adjusting your f/stop to let in more light or less.

- If, you are taking a portrait, you shoot a test shot. Next look at the LCD and if it is way too bright or overexposed, then you either cut power on the light or change your f/stop to a smaller aperture.

- If, the test is too dark, then you go the other way but turning up the power on your strobe or opening your f/stop to a bigger aperture.

- Finally, check your digital histogram to fine tune an accurate exposure.

Keep in mind there are other factors to consider when deciding which way to go, aperture or power setting on the strobe. Depth of Field is the main one. If you are shooting products and need it all in focus, you need lots of power and should change the power setting to give you the best f/stop.

The Lighting Clock One of the easiest ways for me to describe light placement while critiquing is to use the lighting clock shown on the right. The camera is always at 6:00 while the subject is on the middle of the clock.

I will describe during my critiques where I think you should place your light: 3:00 or 1:00 or whatever and this diagram hopefully will allow those suggestions to make sense. Assignment: Since lighting can be complex setups that are time consuming, you may not have time to do all the suggested ideas. Depending on your schedule, you may photograph any or all of the following suggestions.

For this week’s assignment: experiment. Set up your lights in the house and find a willing subject to take test portraits. Do digital tests with umbrella, a light box, a grid, or raw light heads. Anything to give you a sense of how all your gear works. Then upload up to three images after using your strobe lights to do any of the following:

-Photograph a person or any object with an umbrella, soft box, reflector.