The use of photographic lamps and flashlights

A lighting system that uses only overhead flash. Yes, as you know, most professional portrait photographers use a multiple flash system with up to four flashes. In order to achieve the same effect by using the set-top box single flash system, you must first know what function each flash plays. Quite simply, each lamp in the four-lamp system has a unique purpose. Main light source: This light is used to illuminate the object and make measurements to determine the exposure. Your main light source is connected to your camera's overhead flash (possibly TTL exposure system) through an offline wire of 10-25 feet. You may have heard it before, and here we repeat: the first way to improve the light of your portrait is to keep the flash away from the camera. The flashlight overhead gave off a dim light. Keep your main light away from the camera and keep it in a position where you can describe the bone structure, skin and other facial features of the subject. The flashlight fixed on the top of the machine can't show creativity. There are several ways to control exposure when using the external flash of the camera. We recommend using TTL flash and wires that match your camera brand. This will connect the off-board flash and the camera's built-in exposure meter to control the exposure. The problem is that the line provided by the camera manufacturer may be too short, so let the manufacturer order an extension line. A 20-25-foot-long PC cable can also be replaced, and it is very cheap. Your camera's built-in exposure meter may not work, but we will teach you a way to find a set-top box plug converter, even if you don't have an exposure meter and even if your camera doesn't have a built-in PC plug. Filter: After you locate the main light, it is the filter, which is used to soften and eliminate the shadow caused by the main light. It's no use, it depends on whether you don't need or don't want to control the shadow. Filters are usually placed in the opposite direction or directly above the camera. Tip: If you use filtering, the effect will be better. But you don't have to buy a second flash to act as a filter. Just put a big flashing whiteboard where you usually put the filter to reflect part of the main light output. If you want to further eliminate the shadow caused by the main light, you can wrap a layer of tin foil on the cardboard or use a wall mirror before positioning. No matter what you use as a reflection, you should use the distance from the subject to control its effect. Backlight: This light is only used to illuminate the back of your subject, depending on whether you want to illuminate the background or not. Generally placed behind the main body, no wonder, always pointing to the background. If you want to skip the overhead of background strobing, just use a dark background-backlight is usually suitable for the background. To create a dark background, hang a black sheet 4-5 feet behind the subject to avoid wrinkles, tears and fabric patterns in the photo. If you happen to have a big room, you can hide it completely, or you can put the subject at a distance of 10 or 15 feet from the background wall. You don't need a piece of cloth, you just need the lighting body > mall article > digital > design skills > About the use of photographic lighting in the studio Author: Article source: Publication date: 08-08- 19 09:25:39 Concern: 1228 Description: Yes, as you know, most majors In order to achieve the same effect by using the set-top box single flash system, you must first understand the function of each flash. The lighting system using only overhead flash is correct. As you know, most professional portrait photographers use a multiple flash system with four flashes. In order to achieve the same effect by using the set-top box single flash system, you must first know what function each flash plays. Quite simply, each lamp in the four-lamp system has a unique purpose. Main light source: This light is used to illuminate the object and make measurements to determine the exposure. Your main light source is connected to your camera's overhead flash (possibly TTL exposure system) through an offline wire of 10-25 feet. You may have heard it before, and here we repeat: the first way to improve the light of your portrait is to keep the flash away from the camera. The flashlight overhead gave off a dim light. Keep your main light away from the camera and keep it in a position where you can describe the bone structure, skin and other facial features of the subject. The flashlight fixed on the top of the machine can't show creativity. There are several ways to control exposure when using the external flash of the camera. We recommend using TTL flash and wires that match your camera brand. This will connect the off-board flash and the camera's built-in exposure meter to control the exposure. The problem is that the line provided by the camera manufacturer may be too short, so let the manufacturer order an extension line. A 20-25-foot-long PC cable can also be replaced, and it is very cheap. Your camera's built-in exposure meter may not work, but we will teach you a way to find a set-top box plug converter, even if you don't have an exposure meter and even if your camera doesn't have a built-in PC plug. Filter: After you locate the main light, it is the filter, which is used to soften and eliminate the shadow caused by the main light. It's no use, it depends on whether you don't need or don't want to control the shadow. Filters are usually placed in the opposite direction or directly above the camera. Tip: If you use filtering, the effect will be better. But you don't have to buy a second flash to act as a filter. Just put a big flashing whiteboard where you usually put the filter to reflect part of the main light output. If you want to further eliminate the shadow caused by the main light, you can wrap a layer of tin foil on the cardboard or use a wall mirror before positioning. No matter what you use as a reflection, you should use the distance from the subject to control its effect. Backlight: This light is only used to illuminate the back of your subject, depending on whether you want to illuminate the background or not. Generally placed behind the main body, no wonder, always pointing to the background. If you want to skip the overhead of background strobing, just use a dark background-backlight is usually suitable for the background. To create a dark background, hang a black sheet 4-5 feet behind the subject to avoid wrinkles, tears and fabric patterns in the photo. If you happen to have a big room, you can hide it completely, or you can put the subject at a distance of 10 or 15 feet from the background wall. You can have a dark environment without cloth just by illuminating the main body. If you insist on a bright background, but don't want to buy a background light, take a picture a few feet away from the open window during the day. The view is best, but a large aperture will blur everything out of the window. Or shooting in front of a fire can achieve the same effect. Of course, you can also shoot in front of a bright wall, but the light is inseparable. On the screen, the wall may look washed and a little dirty. Edge light: only used to separate the subject from the background. Usually placed above the main body, facing the hair later. Our suggestion: forget the edge light and use it for ordinary shooting. If you put the main light in the right place, the edge light won't play any role. They are also difficult to use unless you have a boom bracket and a soft box. Move a little and unexpected bright spots will appear on your eyes or nose. Most importantly, edge light will make your light look artificial, even wrong, especially when used as a head light. In my opinion, if you don't use edge light in shooting, you can get an unconventional and more artistic portrait. Tip: If you only take pictures occasionally, there is no need to invest in a shelf to stabilize the lighting, background or reflector. You can use furniture instead. Fix the flashlight on a tripod and put a wall mirror on a heavy chair. Professional photographers usually do this without professional equipment at hand, and you can do the same. A common lighting setting is called short light by almost all professionals. The advantage is that it can make the face look thin, raise the cheekbones and please everyone except the thin face. Put the subject in front of the camera, make sure to have a good-looking side face, and then twist it about 20 degrees in the right direction. Put your main flash about 75 degrees away from the camera, and put the filtered or reflected light in the opposite direction next to the camera on the side where the subject turns his head. This is called short light, because you illuminate the face with your back to the camera, otherwise the light will leak directly into the camera, causing glare. The direct flashing light is blunt, which means that the shadow is dim and bright, emphasizing the surface details of the skin. Soft light forms a less blurred shadow around the subject. Generally speaking, most of the time it provides better light for portrait photos. When using soft light, it is not as easy to make mistakes as when placing strong light, and the accuracy is very high. Moreover, if you happen to have no makeup artist around, soft light has the advantage of eliminating spots and wrinkles. Generally speaking, especially ladies, when using short light, they will think of softening the main light. In order to convert the intense flash into softer light, a translucent white sheet is hung between the flash and the main body. The farther the flash is from the sheets, the softer the light is. In order to prevent light from scattering on the paper, the flash reflector is covered with a layer of tin foil. Professional photographers did this many years before they invented the soft box, and many people are still doing it now, because apart from the biggest and most expensive light board, a piece of paper can shield a larger light source. By the way, contrary to short light, wide light-that is, light close to the face when the subject turns slightly to the left or right. It makes the face wider or rounder and makes the chin look big, so it's not very good unless it's aimed at a very thin face, which is a common mistake of novices who use off-camera flash. Tip: In order to make the light look more natural and pleasing to the eye, you can refer to the angle of the sun when placing the flash. A few feet above the target's head. If you can't see the light in your eyes, or find a shadow in your eyes, it's that the light is too high. If there is a small shadow under the nose, it is too low. The light setting of the fountain of youth is ok, at least in the photography circle, so this kind of light is very popular among women over 30 years old. Your subject looks straight ahead, put the main light source on the left or right side of the camera and the filter on the opposite side. Let the main light pass through the white sheets to form soft light-the space between the main light and the mirror must ensure that the lens extends in. Soft axial light can hide facial defects, make skin look smoother and reduce wrinkles. Especially for women, it presents a young expression. (Axis light refers to the main light in the camera direction. ) Lighting settings that highlight personality In order to highlight personality, especially male objects, strong light should be used. The uncorrected light emitted by the flash lamp is ideal. Just aim at the subject at a 90 degree angle above the lens. Put a filter on the other side, or don't use a mirror at all The subject is facing the camera sideways or directly. The strong light and the shadow produced by the strong light angle show the skin texture and facial depth, which is especially suitable for older men: veterans, farmers, weather-beaten old fishermen and so on. It also applies to rough young people. Tip: Tie an amber gel on the mirror, such as ROSCOLUX2, and then immerse the image in warm golden light. This can enhance the skin color, which is very suitable for gentle and romantic portraits. The undisputed professional photographer of image control uses mode light to set the lighting, hand-held exposure meter to check the exposure and Polaroid comes back to make sure everything is safe before shooting. Without these devices, how can we achieve professional results? A large number of professional photographers don't have these professional equipment or at least don't use it often: those who run commercial portrait photography studios. Studio portrait photographers test lighting and use the same lighting settings day after day. The subject is usually the same as the light position, luminosity and lens selection, so there is no need to check the exposure before each shooting. If you learn it well according to one or two light settings, you can use the same settings every time you take a new portrait, or you can leave the mode light and Polaroid will come back and even hold the exposure instrument. If you use a TTL flash with a long line, the exposure is simple. Then, you can rely on the camera's built-in exposure meter to ignore the change or scattering of light. The exposure meter will automatically compensate for the increase or decrease of the distance between the flash and the object and the filter. If your flash system uses a non-TTL computer cable, try to protect your light to get the correct exposure. Set and record the flash index and the distance from the filter to the subject, shoot an experimental film, demonstrate it in many ways, and then determine the best exposure. Since then, the same exposure, lighting and mirror settings have always been used at the same distance from the subject. Tip: If the subject's face is particularly round or wide, ask him to twist it slightly to the left or right. Your light is still set in front of the subject's face, but a slight camera angle will narrow the cheeks and present a better overall appearance. When using the flash of a high-end camera, the flash will have a TTL pre-flash. This kind of pre-flashing will trigger the flashing light in advance, and then the metering will be inaccurate. One is to make all flashing modes triggered by the front curtain, and then control the flashing to manual.

It's better to use M gear, and the shutter speed is slower than 1/90.

If not, it may be that TTL can't be turned off or it may be a problem with flash, which is more complicated.