What are the basic knowledge or tips in photography lighting?
peperoni asked:
I’m not a photographer but I’m always interested in photography, mostly in studio photos. I used to take photos of my doll collection with my samsung cellfone cam, and I managed to make it look like a professional photo by retouching it on Photoshop. Last week, I just purchased my new digital cam, and I just notice that all of my shots looked so raw. I can’t even retouch it on photoshop. Maybe because of the flash which seems so bright. Or maybe the lighting. I even made an improvised umbrella with a light on it but it didn’t work. Can u give tips about this?
I’m not a photographer but I’m always interested in photography, mostly in studio photos. I used to take photos of my doll collection with my samsung cellfone cam, and I managed to make it look like a professional photo by retouching it on Photoshop. Last week, I just purchased my new digital cam, and I just notice that all of my shots looked so raw. I can’t even retouch it on photoshop. Maybe because of the flash which seems so bright. Or maybe the lighting. I even made an improvised umbrella with a light on it but it didn’t work. Can u give tips about this?
in general, flash is bad and should be avoided if possible. If you have to use flash get one with a bounce and swivel head and angle it towards the ceiling to bounce the light. With other light sources, the closer they are, the softer they will light the subject, and it will be more even. You can use one good light source and then some simple reflectors (the kind for your car window) to add light. Watch where your shadows are falling too. hope this helps, I don’t know too much because I’m just getting into lighting. [who] delia
Don’t shy away from flash, just shy away from built in flash! And if you are using an attached flash, pick a stoffen diffuser. fits right over the end of the flash and works magic! I never use my flash with out it. While I do tend to lean to natural light it usually isn’t practical in a studio, it’s all about flash. Mainly strobes. They key to using strobes is diffusing the light. Flash by nature is harsh and diffusing it makes it much more pleasing. Softbox are incredible at diffusing strobe light, sometimes I’ll even use a shoot through umbrella instead of bouncing the light off the umbrella! Play with it, don’t be afraid to try new lighting techniques. [who] superdave_909
The built-in flash of your cam will flatten your images. By varying the direction of light towards your subject, you avoid flattening the images on your photographs and you begin to notice the different dimensions of you images. When you were taking photos using the cam of your mobile phone, you were shooting with available light and I’m assuming that the light that hits your dolls were either coming from above (if the light in your room was on) or somewhere else but at a certain angle (assuming that the light source was a window). The direction of the light created shadows on the face of the doll (notice the sides of the nose or under the nose) and on the neck under the chin. The presence of these shadows make your photos appear 3 dimensional and you can see the shapes of your subjects more clearly.
Try taking photos without using your flash and be more conscious about the direction of light, how it lands on your subject and how it creates shadows. [who] Brodieman99_66