A fellow 365-er and I are embarking on a fun but quickly becoming overwhelming shoot in a few weeks and desperately need some help regarding lighting.
We are doing a vintage burlesque themed boudoir shoot with two models (friends of ours) and have managed to also get hair and make-up done for our models by offering them shots for their respective portfolios (enter stress factor as now I feel they have to be "good" to make it worth their while)
We are shooting in one of the girls house which I have never been in as she has the right furniture/ vintage themed house but it is very dark....
My friend and I have really only done shoots in natural light although I have a speedlite which I have used as a slave I'm not overly confident. We were looking at hiring a simple lighting set up from a local hire place - but obviously it all sounds like gibberish to me - plus it has to be cheap as we are doing this for "fun" not money.... so
What does this mean -
Qualite Constant Lighting – 2 x 300w/s constant tungsten
heads, 2 x stands, barn doors. - trust me googling does not clear this up
The other option we can afford is this
Fotobestway 400 Studio Kit – 2 x 400w/x Heads, 2 x stands
– your combination of brollies & softboxes (as above)
The idea of "constant light" sounds reassuring to me although I understand this can mean off white balance, heat and needing to be close to the light to get any effect.
Or are we better off just leaving the lighting and going in - upping ISO and sticking to what we know?
@amyamoeba Amy yup me too! But I just have this feeling this will be the one time when it won't work and I'll end up with nothing useable @nicolecampbell Thanks Nicole!
@amyamoeba lol yep... and the use of a reflector indoors!! Mind you... I've done a mega dodgy lighting setup before... a lead light (used to work on cars) and the reflector for my windscreen in my car lol... but... IT WORKED!
I would tend to go with constantly on lights because I don't do many primarily artificial light shoots and therefore prefer to have an idea of how the image will come out rather than trial and error with flash
Constant Light
Pros - know what you are getting, less trial and error
Cons - can get v.hot if using incadescents. Poor and variable colours if using energy efficient CFL bulbs. Expensive up front costs if you use LED bulbs
If the lights they have are anything like the ones I have in my kit, they won't have to be too awful close to the light source-those suckers are BRIGHT. And the bulbs are huge.
They do get hot and take awhile to cool down once you turn them off but It doesn't take long to learn the ins and outs. And since it's for 'fun' you can experiment as you go.
I would say the second option sounds the better for boudoir lighting , a softbox will diffused the light and give you a softer feel and a brolley will be good for fill lighting, if you can get your hands on a reflector too you will have an ideal 3 way lighting set up (you can pick a pro reflector up pretty cheap or just use something white like a card or a sheet of foil
@saranna Hi Sarah. I know nothing about portrait photography and lighting but I follow Brendan @agima who often puts information re: lighting used on his shots, and even shows how to set up the shot sometimes too. Might be worth a look over the shots on his album?
Let me first put some light on your questions (get it, light, put some light on!!!!) anyway, let me move on...
What does this mean -
Qualite Constant Lighting – 2 x 300w/s constant tungsten
heads, 2 x stands, barn doors. - trust me googling does not clear this up
What this means is that you have a constant light putting out a max of 300 watt seconds each. This is around 3 times the brightness of a canon 580 speed light and bright enough for what you want.
Some Tungsten heads are not white balances for midday sun, so you might have some issues with your white balance. It should be around 5500k.
Stand- The stuff you put your lights on
barn door - flaps off the lights to point the light - Think stage lights with flaps on the side. Not really what you want for your type of shoot.
The other option we can afford is this
Fotobestway 400 Studio Kit – 2 x 400w/x Heads, 2 x stands
– your combination of brollies & softboxes (as above)
What this means is that you have a flash strobe putting out a max of 400 watt seconds each. This is around 4 times the brightness of a canon 580 speed light and bright enough for what you want.
Stand - What you put your light on
Brollie - In case it rains
Softbox - A square or round thing you put over your light to defuse the light.
Can I suggest the following:
There are two real styles for the type of shoot you want to do:
1) High contrast with lots of shadows
2) Even light across the entire image.
Which one are you trying to achieve and I can tell you how you need to set up you lights?
@saranna the ones I used and recommended to @nicolecampbell were not expensive and were constant lights. They did not get too hot and you have the option of different strength globes for not too much money. I bought them for a product photo shoot as it was cheaper than hiring! If you go to my website you can see the results: www.emmasteilphotography.com.au They give a lovely soft light and soft shadows.
@ozziehoffy I think we can still do some dramatic stuff by controlling the amount if light coming in with app/shutter and by moving the light? That vid link you sent me the other day had some good positioning of continuous light for contrast and shadow. I don't think I'm confident enough to play with high contrast lighting for the whole shoot but if you want to have a go we can try??
For me, i'd go option 2 but then again i'm used to strobes - although I'd actually ask if they did a beauty dish as well but thats a personal thing. Constant light will give you the advantage of "what you see is what you get" when you turn the lights on. You dont get this with strobes as they will initially show continuous light from the modelling bulb but when you trigger it, you get that big flash.
What i do is try to get an understanding of the images that I want to achieve. "Boudoir" is such a wide term these days and some people use it to span anything from dark and moody to a light breezy mood - I've always thought of it as the former and not the latter. But for me the key is in understanding the images youre trying to achieve. Look at modelling sites (www.modelmayhem.com), or google images, get magazines but somehow try to find images that you like and are trying to achieve.
That said, for my 2 cents worth, I would go with even lighting across the whole image. Its generally pretty easy to do and you dont have to worry about light drop off across the model and background and sometimes high contrast doesnt look quite right on women. Keep in mind if you're shooting someone wiht dark hair and their hair is in the shadow there's a tendancy to "lose" the hair. then you need to think about getting a kicker light for the hair to bring back some detail. It can get very convoluted.
Personally, this is about as dramatic as I like to get
But generally find I prefer even lighting - I class these two as more "lingerie" rather than boudoir
Even lighting can be pretty easy with 2 lights. I generally start by taking one light and put a softbox (minimum power) on it, pointed at the model and seeing what aperture i need for it. I'm aiming at either F2.8 here or between F5.6 - F8. The latter being the standard "portrait" aperture but the former because I just like the DoF and separation from the background tha tI get.
Then you take the second ligh tand point it at the ceiling (just the standard reflector on it, your celing acts as a gigantic softbox here) and depending on whether i'm shooting F2.8 or F5.6, i'll adjust the power to be either minimum or somewhere around the middle. What you're trying to do here is match the power coming out of the keylight (not overpower it). If thats at F2.8... make this match so you get a nice even light. If your keylight is F5.6 or F8, then bring up the power here. Please note that this technique works for where the ceilings arent high and they arent coloured. Ie if you have wooden ceilings, it will knock back some of the power and also change the temperature of the light coming back down from the ceiling - ie may give you a brownish / reddish tinge to your image. you dont want to colour correct here because then your key light will turn slightly blue.
I've recently just done exactly this lighting setup on 2 recent shoots up north... i'll try to post images here later to give you an exact idea
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@nicolecampbell Thanks Nicole!
Constant Light
Pros - know what you are getting, less trial and error
Cons - can get v.hot if using incadescents. Poor and variable colours if using energy efficient CFL bulbs. Expensive up front costs if you use LED bulbs
@missmercy HAHAH I was desperate... it did work though.. I was only after a low key job... it was for this shot... http://365project.org/ozziehoffy/365/2013-01-29
They do get hot and take awhile to cool down once you turn them off but It doesn't take long to learn the ins and outs. And since it's for 'fun' you can experiment as you go.
Let me first put some light on your questions (get it, light, put some light on!!!!) anyway, let me move on...
What does this mean -
Qualite Constant Lighting – 2 x 300w/s constant tungsten
heads, 2 x stands, barn doors. - trust me googling does not clear this up
What this means is that you have a constant light putting out a max of 300 watt seconds each. This is around 3 times the brightness of a canon 580 speed light and bright enough for what you want.
Some Tungsten heads are not white balances for midday sun, so you might have some issues with your white balance. It should be around 5500k.
Stand- The stuff you put your lights on
barn door - flaps off the lights to point the light - Think stage lights with flaps on the side. Not really what you want for your type of shoot.
The other option we can afford is this
Fotobestway 400 Studio Kit – 2 x 400w/x Heads, 2 x stands
– your combination of brollies & softboxes (as above)
What this means is that you have a flash strobe putting out a max of 400 watt seconds each. This is around 4 times the brightness of a canon 580 speed light and bright enough for what you want.
Stand - What you put your light on
Brollie - In case it rains
Softbox - A square or round thing you put over your light to defuse the light.
Can I suggest the following:
There are two real styles for the type of shoot you want to do:
1) High contrast with lots of shadows
2) Even light across the entire image.
Which one are you trying to achieve and I can tell you how you need to set up you lights?
@amyamoeba @ozziehoffy
I think the soft evenly lit option is probably the best way to go and save the high contrast shadow for when I know more about what I'm doing :)
What do you think @ozziehoffy ?
What i do is try to get an understanding of the images that I want to achieve. "Boudoir" is such a wide term these days and some people use it to span anything from dark and moody to a light breezy mood - I've always thought of it as the former and not the latter. But for me the key is in understanding the images youre trying to achieve. Look at modelling sites (www.modelmayhem.com), or google images, get magazines but somehow try to find images that you like and are trying to achieve.
That said, for my 2 cents worth, I would go with even lighting across the whole image. Its generally pretty easy to do and you dont have to worry about light drop off across the model and background and sometimes high contrast doesnt look quite right on women. Keep in mind if you're shooting someone wiht dark hair and their hair is in the shadow there's a tendancy to "lose" the hair. then you need to think about getting a kicker light for the hair to bring back some detail. It can get very convoluted.
Personally, this is about as dramatic as I like to get
But generally find I prefer even lighting - I class these two as more "lingerie" rather than boudoir
Even lighting can be pretty easy with 2 lights. I generally start by taking one light and put a softbox (minimum power) on it, pointed at the model and seeing what aperture i need for it. I'm aiming at either F2.8 here or between F5.6 - F8. The latter being the standard "portrait" aperture but the former because I just like the DoF and separation from the background tha tI get.
Then you take the second ligh tand point it at the ceiling (just the standard reflector on it, your celing acts as a gigantic softbox here) and depending on whether i'm shooting F2.8 or F5.6, i'll adjust the power to be either minimum or somewhere around the middle. What you're trying to do here is match the power coming out of the keylight (not overpower it). If thats at F2.8... make this match so you get a nice even light. If your keylight is F5.6 or F8, then bring up the power here. Please note that this technique works for where the ceilings arent high and they arent coloured. Ie if you have wooden ceilings, it will knock back some of the power and also change the temperature of the light coming back down from the ceiling - ie may give you a brownish / reddish tinge to your image. you dont want to colour correct here because then your key light will turn slightly blue.
I've recently just done exactly this lighting setup on 2 recent shoots up north... i'll try to post images here later to give you an exact idea