Table of Contents

Choosing a meter
Minimal Lighting for Portraits
Turn portable strobes into studio strobes
Ambient & incident meter differences
What about barn doors?
What size soft box?
Umbrellas and their size
Modeling lights- on or off?
How much power do I need?
Lens choice for senior portraits
Tungsten lighting in the studio

Choosing a meter

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I am thinking about picking up more studio lighting skills and soon open a portrait/wedding studio to further pursue my interest in photography. My question is, which flash meter is good while not too expensive? I would like to buy a good meter that's good for measuring flash/ambient and not spend a fortune, any suggestion will be appreciated.
Thanks.
Jason

Dear Jason:
Selecting a flash meter is an important decision. Anyone who knows me or who as attended my classes knows that I am a firm believer in using your brain rather than a lot of expensive equipment to create spectacular images. I will never be endorsed by most of the manufacturing companies who make gadgets for photographers.
With this in mind please let me express my opinion that getting light onto film in a most correct and precise manner is on the top shelf of importance. Your meter is your life blood in the studio. Taking accurate meter readings quickly and without confusion is critical to the creative process. Once again I will say that when in the camera room we are to be painters of light, not equipment technicians. The equipment should only be a means to the end product. The creative mind of the photographer is where the image originates. The fewer things we place in the path of creativity, the more likely we will get onto film what we see in our minds eye.
The meter is the one and only piece of equipment that I strongly suggest photographers spend a little extra money on. There are many meters to choose from but there are three criteria that I believe they must follow.
1) Reliability
2) Ease of operation
3) Accuracy over the largest part of the visible light spectrum

No meter will be flat and uniform when measuring every color that you may encounter especially if you use a lot of different colored gels as I do.
The idea is to get one that is flatter than most and still fulfills the other requirements.

In my nearly twenty years of being a professional I have not encountered an equal for the Minolta Flash Meters. I am not referring to the lesser expensive “Auto Meters” but rather the ones referred to as “Minolta Flash Meter V” or “Minolta Flash Meter IV” or “Minolta Flash Meter III”.
I currently have a Minolta Flash Meter IV and also a III. Perhaps one day I will purchase a V but at this moment I have no need to. Many of my students have showed me their various meters over the years and while virtually all of them can and do take reasonably accurate meter readings, they tend to be a bit more confusing to operate and don’t seem to be quite as well designed as the more expensive models that I recommend. My philosohy on meters is just this. Since it's job is to tell me what the correct exposure will be, it is a very critical piece of equipment. If the exposure is wrong, it matters not, how good you did everything else. Exposure is paramount. Look at it like this. If you need a pace maker for your heart, are you going to choose the middle of the road product or are you going to go top of the line?
If this is your first meter let me suggest that if you cannot afford a new one, that you purchase a used one. The only thing you must do is get a promise that if you have the unit checked out by a qualified service person and it is not working accurately that you can return it. Minolta will also service and/or evaluate a meter for a charge if you send it to them. If you are saving several hundred dollars, a small investment to assure that the unit is in perfect working order is well spent.
Your flash meter is like your camera. You need a backup should you drop your primary one or if it should fail while doing a job. If you really cannot afford to get the one that is best, then get what you can afford and consider it to be your future backup meter when you finally get around to getting the better one.

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In my class at The Texas School of Professional Photography I do a demonstration that proves the point. Here is what I do. I get my students to bring a number of items to class that have nothing to do with photography. That is the rule. It cannot be a photographic product of any kind. Here is the list I give them.

A light fixture with a silver metal reflector from the hardware store. The kind you clamp onto a table or 2 X 4 stud in your garage that you screw a light bulb into. Usually under $10.00. In your case, you already have a perfect light to use.

A light bulb of at least 250 watts in strength. (You are lucky to have 500 watts of power) Could be a spot light or a flood light or just a big light bulb. I should note at this point that the reflector we screw the bulb into is not really made for a high wattage bulb like this but we only have it on for a few minutes, so don’t go out and do this and risk setting your house on fire! This is just an exercise to prove a point that you can make do with very little if you just use your brain.

A mirror. 11 X 14 or larger. The size is not critical as long as it can be held in the hands.

A piece of Plexiglas mirror is just fine and probably less fragile.

A bed sheet. Generally white but little pink and yellow flowers don’t hurt a thing. Someone usually borrows this from their hotel room. A piece of white poster board or several pieces of white notebook paper taped together to be approximately the same size. We are not worried about the little blue lines on the paper. One of those silver gadgets that you unfold and put on the dashboard of your car will work just fine too. If all else fails we can find a student with a white shirt on to be our “fill light”.

They usually look at me a little funny and keep asking if the sheet shouldn’t be totally white and not with the little colored flowers. After some
convincing I wait until the next day to see if everyone brought the items requested. Once we have the items necessary we select a subject for the
experiment. I always have some Kodak VPL with me for emergency situations. This is the film I use for this experiment. It is a tungsten balanced film that is designed to be used with warmer light sources. In other words, light bulbs. Using a tungsten balanced film is fairly necessary when using light bulbs. Using daylight film is possible but will require a lot of color correcting in the lab and even then the colors will never be very true. Ok, here we go. We will use the items gathered to create a studio quality portrait on VPL film. Step one. We will make the main light. The large bulb is screwed into the socket at the base of the silver reflector. Since the rules say that nothing photographic may be used we search for anything that we may attach the light to using the attached clamp. Items that have been used in years past include a ladder, floor standing flagpole, folding room divider, and a roll around black board. The light must be high enough to generate a good direction of light from above and to one side of the subject. Step two. Hang the diffusion material (bed sheet) in front of the light. Not so close so as to be a fire hazard. Eighteen inches to two feet generally works well. The light strikes the sheet and creates a softer source of light. The sheet is kept low enough so that the direct light from the light source can skim over the subjects head without striking it. More on that in a minute. Step three. Background brightness is controlled by varying the distance between the background and and the subject/light source combination. Step four. Now we want to create a hair light. Using the mirror we have a person stand to the back of the subject on the opposite side of the main light. The mirror could be a piece of Plexiglas mirror attached to a ladder of other tall item but in the interest of simplicity and speed we just have a person hold it. The mirror is positioned high so it can see the direct light coming over the top of the bed sheet. The light is now directed down onto the subjects head and shoulders. Varying the distance from the mirror to the main light will vary the intensity of the hair light. Lastly we want to add the fill light. This is easy. We just position the white poster board or silver car dash protector in front and to the side of the subject and return some of the main light back into the shadow side of the subjects face. Moving the reflective object back and forth varies the amount of fill light. Well there we have it. A soft main light, a fill light, a hair light, and a background light. All from a single light source. Now you are doing some serious improvising when you do this sort of procedure. Granted it is not what you want to do everyday but it proves that in the absence of equipment and with the presence of mind, you can do just about anything.

In your case you may only wish to create a main/fill combination and skip the background and hair lights. This setup usually requires a fairly wide aperture, typically between F2.8 and F4 with a shutter speed of 1/8 to 1/4 second. The results are quite predictable and are looked on by my students as remarkable. While not a good setup to photograph a small active child, it works just fine for an adult who can hold moderately still. Again this little experiment is intended to demonstrate a point and encourage you to think with the resourcefulness of a creative professional. I hope you grasp the spirit in which it was done and can apply this knowledge when there is a lack the proper equipment.

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There's a wealth of information out there regarding the use of monolights and pack systems. Eventually I'll have some "real" strobes. Meanwhile, I'm using a 35mm SLR (Nikon N8008s) and 2 Nikon Speedlights (SB-24 and SB-25). I plan to mount the flashes on stands and take some portraits of my family. I already have all the requisite sync cords. What should I know in order to use these strobes for this purpose?
Kimberly

Hi Kimberly:
You do have real strobes. You can do some totally professional portraits with what you have there if you can do just a couple of things. First, are the strobes fairly equal in their maximum output? They need to be close. Can you run them totally manual on full power and just trigger them with your camera? If you answered yes to both of these then you are in business. The stands that you are going to mount your strobes on can also be modified to hold a regular light bulb fixture. Use some PVC plumbing pipe and rig an L shaped piece. Mount a standard screw in light bulb fixture to the pipe. Run the wire to a wall outlet (be sure to keep the electrical items safe) and you have a modeling light. A 75 to 100 watt bulb should work just fine. Be sure that the bulbs are the same wattage. This assumes that your strobes are pretty much the same power. Use pipe clamps to attach your modeling bulb gadget to the light stand. You should mount the fixture near but not under the strobe. You don't want the heat from the bulb to melt your strobe. Keep it close but more above or to one side to avoid too much heat. If you can do this with both of your lights then you have a set of studio strobes! The light bulbs will be your modeling lights so you can see what you are doing and the strobes will of course give you the illumination for your pictures. With this setup and the use of a diffusion panel (or ever a white bed sheet) you can do portraits with the very same quality as any factory made light kit. You won't have the power but you will be able to get results that are far better than you may have imagined.

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I am a new beginner and want to learn about light meters before I buy one. When I saw different brand's of light meters, some are for ambient light only and they are very cheap. (About $50). Some are for incident light and ambient light, and they cost more. What difference between them? For the beginner, what kind of light meter is suitable for me to learn and use?
Thank you very much!
Lynn

Dear Miss Lynn
Incident light is just what the name implies. "Incident" or occurance. This would suggest a strobe firing. "Ambient" light is again what the name implies. Ambient. Light that was already there. Light that comes from the lamps in a room is ambient just as is the light outdoors during the day. A good meter that will serve you should be able to measure both of these types of light, separately and together. Good meters are expensive, up to several hundred dollars but worth it because they help you get light onto your film accurately. If your meter does not measure accurately and in small incremental amounts, your exposures will not be as precise and you will occasionally be frustrated. Less expensive meters suffer from these limitations. Accurace, reliability, and ease of use are important factors when making a purchase. Buy as much meter as you can afford. I always recommend the Minolta Flash meter series. These have been essentially unchallenged and are leaders in our industry. Even these have more bells on them than you need but the quality is still hard to beat. Current model is V. Before this there was the IV and the III. All are supurb and you would not be dissapointed. They are expensive, even on the used market but again, are a critical piece of equipment that will aid you in your learning process.

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I am just learning...can someone tell me what barn doors are concerning lighting??
Thanks!
Rhonda

Dear Rhonda:
Your question about barn doors is a very good one. Barn doors are one of the least used, least understood and yet most creative devices ever invented for the studio photographer. The most common use for them in the past has simply been to keep the light from heads pointing in the direction of the camera from striking the lens or from lighting some area of the scene where light was not desired. Barn doors are far more than something that simply directs light in a particular direction. They give the creative photographer a means of controlling the quantity of light with total precision. The electronic controls on many strobe heads give some degree of reduction in light output for that head. The problem is that the reduction in strobe output is not always linear with the reduction in modeling light output. I promote the concept of the photographer being about to get on film, what he or she sees in the camera room with their eyes. In order to do this, your strobe heads must be balanced. That is to say, the modeling light output must be proportionate to that of the strobe output from head to head throughout your lighting system. Without this, you have to resort to the old method of “gee I hope they come out all right” and then wait to see what your pictures look like. I would rather KNOW what I have when I push the button because the strobe lights are delivering to the film, precisely the same light that I see with the modeling lights. This is being in control of your lights at last.
The barn doors come in here because they do something that is very reliable. They control the light coming from the head with total accuracy. When you close the barn doors and reduce the light by a tenth of a stop, the modeling light also reduces a tenth of a stop. It’s no news that mechanical controls have been and will always be the most reliable way of controlling light. In simple terms, whatever you do to the strobe light, you do the same thing to the modeling light. Therefore, YOU GET WHAT YOU SEE. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that you will get on film the exact image that you saw with your eyes. Having a balanced set of strobes and using barn doors or other mechanical ways to control light will keep you far more in control of your images.
I use and recommend to all of my students the use of barn doors for controlling the amount of light striking the main light diffusion panel (provided you are using a diffusion panel) and to also use barn doors to control the hair light. The hair light is perhaps the most incorrectly used light in the typical studio. Many, many times I have seen portraits with hair that was way over lit with no detail left in it at all. Why use a barn door to control the hair light? It’s easy. Precise control. Ask yourself a simple question. If you want a little hair light striking the back of your subjects head and shoulders, would you use the same amount of light for someone with snow white hair as you would for someone with intensely dark hair? The logical answer is no. The person with the white hair needs far less hair light than the person with the black hair. You as the photographer must be able to control that hair light. The simplest and most reliable way of doing so, is with a set of 4 way barn doors. They are relatively inexpensive, easy to use and produce totally reliable results once you have become accustomed to working with your lights. Another benefit to using barn doors for hair light is that you can easily clip on a colored gel for some exciting colored hair light effects. Again, just as before, you control the amount of light with the size of the opening between the doors.
I recommend the use of barn doors. They are a real creative tool that give you predictable results.

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Can you tell me how to determine the size of soft box to use for a main light and also what size to use for a fill light in a small studio?
Bennie

Dear Bennie:
Your question about the size of soft boxes suggests that you are in the early stages of setting up your equipment for a first studio. You didn’t say what type of photography you are planning to do so I will assume that you are going to be doing portrait photography.
As always, I try to recommend that photographers never limit themselves in their creativity and flexibility. When you have a fixed size light source of any kind (don't matter if it's a soft box, umbrella, parabolic, halo, etc) you are limited to that one size light source for everything you are going to do. The only way you will get a different look to your images is to change out your lighting device. The size and shape of the device controls the shadow edge in your images. A larger light source will result in a wider shadow edge giving a softer appearance. A smaller light source will give you images where the shadows have a more defined edge to them resulting in a totally different and much harsher look. There is a time and place for light sources of all sizes depending on what type of look you desire. There is no limit and you should never fall into the rut of having all of your portraits looking the same. Using a large light source might be great for a family of 5 but it might not be the best choice for an intimate character study.
Light source size is a topic that is much like the paint that an artist uses. You can go out and buy one tube of blue oil paint and do all of your paintings in that one color and have a single look to your work. On the other hand you can go out and buy 20 colors and create a world of difference from one art piece to the next. Such has always been my argument to use a light source that has the control and flexibility to create a huge variety of different looks without the need for a store room full of expensive soft boxes or other light modifiers that have to be assembled, torn down and reassembled every time you want a different look. All light sources can produce great portraits but the point is to be instantly flexible and spontaneous as any artist should be. The creative process should never have a stumbling block to prevent the artist from creative thinking.
The free standing diffusion panel is the only light source the gives this flexibility. It just stands there while you move your light back and forth changing the size of the spot of light on the panel. No waiting, no hassles, just instant gratification and instant creativity. In one sitting you can have 5 different size light sources without missing a beat just by changing the distance from the light to the panel. With the use of barn doors on your light you can additionally control the amount of light giving you total control over quantity and quality of light. Another advantage to using diffusion panels is the fact that the light falls off gradually from the center of where the light source is firing. This gives a beautiful, organic look that is much like the effect on on overcast day when the sun is shining through a thin layer of clouds. It also produces a beautiful, soft, round highlight in your subjects eyes. You have directional light but with a soft edge that is very pleasing to look at. Again, this is totally adjustable by varying the distance from the light source to the panel. To learn more about our diffusion panels,
click here.
With regard to the fill light you have a less critical situation. Since the only purpose for a fill light is to control the depth of the shadows, it’s size is not terribly critical. Large is better because it will give you the ability to have it a little more out of your way when working behind the camera. The correct placement for the fill is always as close to the lens as possible. You want no evidence of the fill lights location. Keeping it as near to the lens as is practical will hide the fill lights location. My recommendation for a fill light source is again dictated by the need to have control. If you use a soft box you will have little control over the amount of fill. By using a silver umbrella, you have the ability to feather the umbrella back and forth, providing huge control over how much fill light reaches the subject. Again you have total control and can make adjustments instantly simply by swinging the umbrella around a bit.
With all this in mind, you might consider building some panels and trying them as a main light as see of you don’t fall in love with the tremendous range of light quality that you have. You might just become spoiled with how many things you can do with such a simple device not to mention how much money you will save. Great photography is not always created with a lot of expensive and elaborate equipment. Your mind is the greatest accessory you can use in the creation of images. Having less hardware in the way of the creative process will allow you to become a creative photographer far faster.

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Scott
Q.   For general portrait work, if I am still using umbrellas, do you recommend any particular size.

A.   The size of an umbrella makes only a small difference in the look of your portraits. Don't lose sleep over umbrella size.

Q.  Is there ever a time when I would need a really large size?

A.   Not really. The difference in quality of light between 34 inch and 45 inch umbrellas is not worth thinking about.

Q.   Also right now I would be using only umbrellas for main and fill (haven't purchased your panels yet) for head and shoulders and full length portraits. Do I use small ones for the head shots and the larger ones for full length.

A.   Again it makes no real difference. 34 to 45 is no major deal. Focus your thoughts on lighting and photography rather than the hardware. At the same distance, the quality of light from these two different size umbrellas would be virtually indistinguishable. For full length portraits, the light source should be tilted down a bit so light travels down the entire body rather than lighting just the top of the body. This is especially easy with diffusion panels since you simply point the light down and it sweeps across the material giving you a diminishing amount of light as it moves toward the floor allowing you to properly light the upper body and keep the lower body under control as well.

Q.  I can see the benefits of the panels and barn doors. What do you think about the umbrellas with the black backing such as Eclipse or Photoflex that claim none of the light is lost and all is reflected
towards the subject? Are they superior or is it just hype?

A.   HYPE. It is the size of the light source combined with the shape and how the light does or does not fall off toward the edge of the devise that controls the character of light on the subject. Putting black material on one side makes little difference in anything but the cost of the product. You could talk about umbrellas all day long but the bottom line is that they offer little control over size and in my opinion, make a far better fill light than a main light. For my main light, I want the control that only comes with a variable size light source which of course takes us to the diffusion panel. Simple, flexible and highly effective.

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This may seem like a real dumb question, but is there an advantage/disadvantage of keeping my modeling lights on during flash exposure?
Richard

Dear Richard:
The purpose for modeling lights is to allow the image maker to see where the light is - and also where it is not. Turning the modeling lights off will only place you in darkness so far as to where the light is going to fall upon your subject if they move from their last position. If your room is not very dark when the lights are out, then you have a problem. I suspect that this may be the case or you would have not asked the question. Many, many photographers who are in the early stages of learning how to paint with light fail to realize the importance of working in a fairly dark room so the light that you place on your subject is the only light you see. If you cannot see the difference between the ambient light and the modeling light in your camera room, you have far too much ambient light and will not know the result of your effort until you see the proofs. This is not a good idea. You want to know what you have at the moment you press the button rather than waiting until the images come back from the lab. To make a long story short, work in a darkened room, leave the modeling lights on at all times so you can see the quality of light on your subject and work with a balanced set of strobes. This simply means that the output from the strobe components is proportionately equal to that of the modeling bulbs. Any non linearity will produce images that do not look like the lighting did when you made your exposures.

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I am just starting out in studio portrait work. I have found a Novatron 1500 kit but am wondering if I really need this power. I am just wanting to shoot portraits and do weddings later on. The Novatron 400 and 600 have the variable power. Would I be better off with one of these kits?
Thanks,
Julie

Dear Julie:
When you speak of power for lighting it is a little like RAM for your computer. It’s hard to have too much. You can always use less of what you have but you can never increase past the maximum available. So, it's better to have too much than too little. Once you understand how power works you may find it a little less confusing. Let's say you have 200 watts of power. With this let’s say you are able to obtain f 5.6. Now without changing a thing other than the power of your pack, increase to a 400 watt pack. Now you can expect to get f 8. Increase again to 800 watts and your f stop will increase to f 11. Go to 1600 watts and your f stop is now f 16.
The principal is just this. Doubling the power or halving the power will not make a huge difference in your aperture. Just one stop either way. So if you are thinking about a 1500 watt pack, remember that if you get something around 800 watts instead, you have dropped your lighting power by only one f stop. On the other hand, if you were considering a 400 watt pack, you should consider that increasing it to 800 watts will give you only one additional f stop of power.
Evaluating what you plan to do with your power will help you decide what is best. If you plan to do only individual portraits that are mostly close up, then a smaller pack will do just fine. If you expect to be asked to photograph family groupings in peoples homes or to do class portraits of 30 or more students, then the heavier power pack will come in handy providing you with the ability to use smaller apertures which result in greater depths of field and less concern about getting everyone in sharp focus. If you have the ability to purchase more power at a comfortable price, then consider it to be a long term investment in fewer headaches.

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I need an opinion on what size lens to use to do Senior Yearbook portraits? I use 35mm format. I'm searching for a lens and my choices are like 85mm, 90mm, 100mm and 135mm. Do I go with the 135mm and go for the flatter look? Or do I use a smaller focal length to get more depth looking. I'm looking to get answers from you as to what traditionally is best.
Joe

Hi Joe
50mm is considered a normal length lens for a 35mm camera. If used for head and shoulders it would create a less than desirable exaggeration to the nose and anything else that was closer to the camera. Moving back a short distance is the solution to the problem as you have already figured out. The lens choices you listed are all fine for this application perhaps with one minor exception. The 135mm lens might be a bit much because you will need to move to a greater distance away from your subject which may or may not be practical if space were at a premium. This might render the lens less useful for a wide variety of applications. You don't want to invest in a lens that tends to have limited usefulness. 135mm is long but not that long so it's not going to reach way out like a 250mm or 300mm might for long lens applications. All lenses have their place. I just feel that each should be as efficient and do as many tasks for you as possible. I would suggest that any of the choices you listed from 85mm to 100mm would do just fine. Once you get 10 feet away from your subject, the flattening effect on the face for greater distances is not that significant.

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Can you discuss the pros and cons of using tungsten lighting in the studio.
Tammy

Hi Tammy
Tungsten lighting can be just a rewarding as studio flash but there are some disadvantages as well as advantages. On the negative side, hot lights are indeed hot! They are bright on the eyes of your portrait customers and not easily tolerated for long
periods, especially children. In addition, you will not have the speed needed to freeze too much action even with relatively fast film so again for kids it's not the best idea.
On the plus side, hot lights can provide you with a good option for still life or product photography.The fourth dimension of time is a real bonus. By this I mean that if you are working with inanimate objects that are not moving and you need lots of depth of field you can use long shutter speeds and very small apertures. I do catalog work every month for a model railroad company and use tungsten balanced chrome with nothing more than my modeling bulbs and nearly all of my exposures are made at f32 for huge depth of field. Something necessary to the realism of miniature trains. I use both Kodak and Fuji 64T will total satisfaction. For negative film you will need Kodak VPL or the Fuji equivalent. It's been a while but I believe that Kodak has a new tungsten balanced negative film that I have not used yet. I have many images on my web site but all are either natural light outdoors or indoors with studio strobes.

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