Natural lighting will not always meet the requirements of a professional shoot. Sooner or later, most photographers need to learn studio lighting. This will allow you to create the exact studio lighting scenario sought by your client. A little warning: Some of these terms are used differently by different photographers.
Others get interchanged with one another. However, it is helpful to know about when you hear someone refer to a flag as a gobo or refer to ambient light as continuous light. Gaining extra light can be an easy fix, whether from a window, a lamp from your living room, or a professional lighting kit.
In some cases, you will need the latter for its convenience and the ability to control the lighting in your situation. It can be not clear to decipher which photography and lighting equipment might be best for you to utilize and potentially invest in for your business.
To simplify things, ask yourself: what are your primary needs? What is your purpose for using artificial lighting? These two questions can assist in shaping which lighting kit is best for you. There are many types of photography lights used in the studio at a variety of price points. The lights you choose will depend on how much power you need and will be influenced by your budget. Luckily, there are cheaper photography lighting brands like Godox.
They put out some decent equipment for an affordable price. You can invest in more expensive photographer lights as you develop your career and get higher-paying clients. Here is a rundown of the most common studio lighting equipment. Strobe lights are a type of flash lighting that dominates the world of studio lighting. A strobe light can be a mono head, such as the Neewer SK, which houses the battery and light in one compact unit.
Or it can be a light that needs to be hooked up to a high-powered battery. With both of these types of strobes, the strength of the flash output can be controlled.
Their power can be measured in watt-seconds. Certain studio lighting situations require more flash output than others. A much larger scene like a group portrait might need double that or extra lights.
However, some strobes do not need to be plugged in. They are battery operated and can be used outdoors as well. These days, you can buy a powerful strobe at a low price.
With strobe lights, you need a syncing device that will help you sync your strobe to your camera. A studio strobe is a dedicated flash unit. They can sometimes be referred to as a monobloc or moonlight. Usually, mains powered, more battery-powered offerings are being brought onto the market all the time.
Power output between models can vary greatly, with cheaper strobes offering as much power as a cheap third-party flashgun. Monolights are self-contained strobe units that include power sources, reflectors and stands. The main advantage to monolights is that, with them, there is no need for an extra power generator because all of that is contained in the head of the lamp.
Strobe monolights are mainly used in studios but are incredibly versatile and portable if purchased with a case. Although there are many different ways to use artificial lighting and a whole slew of starter and advanced-level kits for you to research and invest in, the starter kits mentioned in this article should get you well on your way to creating fantastic studio images in your home or on-the-go studio.
Having a set of two lights will allow for more versatility in your lighting setups and, by extension, more creativity and professionalism in your photography. Instead, they are a constant lighting source. They allow you to see precisely how the light is falling on your subject before pressing the shutter.
This is a tremendous advantage for products or other types of still life photography. But continuous lighting has not been as popular as flash units. They have less power. And matching the light to other ambient light sources that can influence the scene is a challenge. LED lights are changing the face of continuous lighting. Instead, they are high-powered lamps that can usually be fitted with modifiers in the same way as strobes. While primarily associated with video, continuous lights still have their place in stills photography.
Stocked with gear, it's the best option for photographers just starting out that want a premium setup. Best for product photography:. Best for versatility:. Best Budget:. The perfect starter pack for your home studio or a nice secondary rig. Best Value:. This kit from StudioFX is compact and has just about everything you need in the bag. Best for outdoors:.
What we like Professional grade lighting Great value for money Rock-solid build quality. What we don't like Somewhat barebones. View On Amazon. Best for product photography: OrangeMonkey Foldio3. What we like Foldable and compact for travel and storage Makes it easy to capture professional product shots Perfect for home businesses. What we don't like Size limits what can be photographed.
Best for versatility: Lume Cube 2. What we like Compact and portable Rugged and waterproof Battery powered. What we don't like A bit pricey Not effective in bright conditions.
What We Don't Like Budget build quality. What We Don't Like Softboxes are on the small side. What we don't like More expensive than most cameras Requires an extra transmitter sold separately for flash sync Stands not included.
Who needs a light kit? Do I need a softbox? Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Because of this, you can have more control over where the light falls when using a strip box. An umbrella is another common modifier. They come in silver or white.
The light is shot into the umbrella to reflect back into the scene. This helps you create a larger and thus softer light source. A shoot-through umbrella is made of translucent material. You also shoot into this umbrella to achieve softer light. This is a preferred modifier used by famed portrait photographers like Annie Leibovitz. They use it for the incredibly soft light it provides. In the case of portrait photography , this can be very flattering. With other types of photography such as food or product , the lighting might be too flat.
A beauty dish is a great modifier for portrait, beauty, and fashion photography. A beauty dish will help you sculpt facial features and create beautiful catchlights. It illuminates light from all angles due to its unique shape. You can buy a collapsible beauty dish, such as the Fovitec collapsible beauty dish , for easier storage.
With a beauty dish, the light wraps around the subject. It creates both beautiful shadows and highlights. When you buy a strobe light like a monohead, a dish reflector is often included. They are a standard lighting modifier that attaches to your strobe. They are not useful for a wide variety of genres in photography. They create very hard, directional light.
Typically, they are used with a variety of grids, as seen below. Grids come in several sizes and forms. They are a type of attachment you can use with other modifiers to create lighting with a larger degree of contrast. Some of these grids are made of a hard material and can be attached to a dish reflector or beauty dish. Or they can be soft and attach to the front of a softbox or stripbox. In the case of a hard grid, they often come in a honeycomb pattern and in different sizes. The purpose of a grid is to add contrast and control the quality of light and the area of coverage.
A snoot is a very specific modifier that allows you to create a very focused beam of light. It is most useful for tabletop photography when you want to shine a focused light on a very specific area.
You need several accessories that will allow you to get the best out of your lighting. Here are the basics:. C-stands Century stands are a must in every studio.
They are used to set up your modifiers, hold reflectors and diffusers, or even rig your camera over your set. The Kupo C-stand is popular. Every pro photographer has several c-stands in their studio.
For big jobs, they rent even more. Recycle speeds are pretty much identical for both competing heads. However, while the B10 certainly edges it in terms of control and consistency, the fact is that the Pro is just one third the price.
Its kit version is currently on backorder, but the Pro is so capable and affordable that you can pick up a couple of heads and modifiers of your choice and have a brilliant bespoke kit of your own. Optional adapters can mount Profoto, Elinchrom and Broncolor accessories, and the 2. Our chosen kit option includes two heads, batteries and mains chargers, two 60cm pop-up softboxes and a sturdy backpack.
This, as its name suggests, enables TTL and high speed sync flash modes. Although the Ws head gives less output than the Ws heads in our guide, this is the only battery-powered kit that features two flash heads rather than one, making it excellent value at the price. Larger and g heavier than the standard Profoto B10, the new B10 Plus edition is twice as powerful, at Ws. Like the Honey Badger Unleashed number 4 , the battery clips into the head instead of being housed in a separate power-pack but, this time, you can power the head from the mains as well as from the battery.
The kit includes a head twin head kit also available , stand adaptor, battery, battery charger and a padded carrying bag. On the plus side, all components are of very high quality. Rear-panel controls are simple and intuitive. TTL, high speed sync and freeze flash modes are available, and there's an iPhone companion app that links up via built-in Bluetooth.
The powerful LED modelling light is useful for stills and video capture and comes complete with adjustable colour temperature. Recycling speeds are pretty quick but battery life is relatively limited, at full-power flashes.
At the lighter end of the premium lighting kit space, this kit from Broncolor is built around two of its Siros S lighting heads. The Siros S can make use of a specialised "Speed Mode", which specifically speeds up the charge time and flash duration for a super-fast series of exposures, meaning you can capture the most fleeting of moments in huge amounts of detail. At the very fastest setting, this can go up to fifty individual flashes per second, at the cost of a reduction in maximum power.
This comprehensive kit also includes a softbox with speedring, an umbrella, two basic M-stands and bags to carry it all in, so you'll have everything you need to set up a makeshift studio. The bi-colour LEDs have a , hour lifespan and, as with the Manfrotto, enable completely flicker-free output, this time with a colour range of Kelvin.
Maximum output has a much higher rating of lux, albeit at a shorter distance of 3ft 0. Twice the output is available in flash mode with zero recycle time, complete with high speed sync if you buy an additional Phottix Odin II RF trigger.
On the down-side, the basic kit only includes the circular LED panel itself, a mains power supply, a heavy-duty ball head and a filter pack. The kit is based on a rectangular lighting panel that measures 26 x 4 x 15cm and contains 48 high-intensity LEDs. The version on test is the more expensive Bi-Color edition, which contains a useful mix of daylight and tungsten colour temperature LEDs, plus an additional control knob for adjusting the colour balance.
An illuminated rear-panel display shows the overall power setting and the percentage split between the bi-colour LEDs. On the down-side the lighting effect is less soft than from a larger LED panel. The panel has a beam angle of 50 degrees and is rated at Lux at one metre. Although larger and heavier than the Manfrotto Lykos Bi-Color number8 , this NanGuang is still quite compact and weighs in at less than a kilogram, making it eminently portable.
It actually beats the Manfrotto Colour Rendering Index, so you don't need to worry about sacrificing high-quality illumination. Like the other LED kits in our round-up, this one is mains-powered. A multi-voltage AC adaptor is supplied with the kit, and you can also run the panel from a pair of optional Sony SP-F type li-ion rechargeable batteries. Alternatively, an optional adaptor is also available for six AA batteries. Thanks to bi-colour LEDs, stepless temperature balance adjustment is available through a range of K, from tungsten to daylight values.
The output power also has stepless control, both adjustments relying on dedicated rotary knobs. An advantage of studio flash heads is that you can use modifiers like brollies, softboxes and honeycomb grids. You can therefore attach the same range of accessories. The intensity of the output is dimmable with stepless control, via a rotary knob on the back of the head.
0コメント