Lighting 101
Intimidated by the idea of off-camera lighting?
Don't be.
We are pretty much starting from scratch, so no worries. The first posts will be about what kind of gear you will need to do the minimalist strobe thing.
When we are done having our way with your wallet (remembering that light gives you far more bang-for-the-buck than does fast glass or the latest digital camera or 300/2.8) we'll move into basic technique. And after that, we'll keep it going with periodical essays and ideas on how to improve (or refresh) your lighting ability.
When you've worked your way through the basics of designing your light kit and learning how to use it, make a point to browse some of the examples in the "On Assignment" section. Those will be updated constantly, too. So keep checking back.
You will likely have some questions along the way. Sadly, it is not possible for me to take the time to personally answer all of the one-to-one lighting questions that pop up. So try to resist asking them in the comments section. The only people reading this behind you are the people who are, well, behind you.
You will find the one-to-one knowledge bank you seek in the Strobist Group on Flickr. There, you can ask away and get the diversity of response that you need. These are the lighting grad students, so to speak. They know this stuff, and are very enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge.
Most of all, remember to have fun and learn to make some cool light.
UPDATE, Feb. 2, 2008: For a very nice head start into Lighting 101, take a couple of mins to watch this informative little slideshow.
It is by Paul Duncan, whose site you can see here.
Lighting 101 Series
Two Things Your Flash Needs to Have
Traveling Light
Light Stands
Super Clamps
Ball Bungees
Umbrella Stand Adapters
Synching: PC Cords and Pocket Wizards
Building a Pro PC Cord, Pt. 1
Building a Pro PC Cord, Pt. 2
Soft Light: Umbrellas
Soft Light - Wall/Ceiling Bouncing
Bare-Tube Style Lighting
Hard Light - It's Better Than You Think
Balancing Flash Intensity With Ambient, Pt 1
Balancing Flash Intensity With Ambient, Pt 2
Using Gels to Balance Light Color
Cereal Box Snoots and GoBo's
Textural Lighting for Detail Shots
Cross Lighting
Back Light as Main Light
Headshot in a Corner
Lighting for Glasses
Long-Throw Hard Light
Reverse Engineering Other Shooters' Light
Know The Flash
See The Flash
Be The Flash
Don't Let Good Light Ruin a Photo
Keep a Lighting File
Don't be.
We are pretty much starting from scratch, so no worries. The first posts will be about what kind of gear you will need to do the minimalist strobe thing.
When we are done having our way with your wallet (remembering that light gives you far more bang-for-the-buck than does fast glass or the latest digital camera or 300/2.8) we'll move into basic technique. And after that, we'll keep it going with periodical essays and ideas on how to improve (or refresh) your lighting ability.
When you've worked your way through the basics of designing your light kit and learning how to use it, make a point to browse some of the examples in the "On Assignment" section. Those will be updated constantly, too. So keep checking back.
You will likely have some questions along the way. Sadly, it is not possible for me to take the time to personally answer all of the one-to-one lighting questions that pop up. So try to resist asking them in the comments section. The only people reading this behind you are the people who are, well, behind you.
You will find the one-to-one knowledge bank you seek in the Strobist Group on Flickr. There, you can ask away and get the diversity of response that you need. These are the lighting grad students, so to speak. They know this stuff, and are very enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge.
Most of all, remember to have fun and learn to make some cool light.
UPDATE, Feb. 2, 2008: For a very nice head start into Lighting 101, take a couple of mins to watch this informative little slideshow.
It is by Paul Duncan, whose site you can see here.
Lighting 101 Series
Two Things Your Flash Needs to Have
Traveling Light
Light Stands
Super Clamps
Ball Bungees
Umbrella Stand Adapters
Synching: PC Cords and Pocket Wizards
Building a Pro PC Cord, Pt. 1
Building a Pro PC Cord, Pt. 2
Soft Light: Umbrellas
Soft Light - Wall/Ceiling Bouncing
Bare-Tube Style Lighting
Hard Light - It's Better Than You Think
Balancing Flash Intensity With Ambient, Pt 1
Balancing Flash Intensity With Ambient, Pt 2
Using Gels to Balance Light Color
Cereal Box Snoots and GoBo's
Textural Lighting for Detail Shots
Cross Lighting
Back Light as Main Light
Headshot in a Corner
Lighting for Glasses
Long-Throw Hard Light
Reverse Engineering Other Shooters' Light
Know The Flash
See The Flash
Be The Flash
Don't Let Good Light Ruin a Photo
Keep a Lighting File
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Feed your brain: Great Lighting Books
by David, at 8:59 PM.
40 Comments:
Thank you very much for Lighting 101. It's just what I was looking for! I was looking for a new way to shoot, without lugging around big lights. Other lighting forums I've reviewed disregard small strobes as a viable lighting tool. I'll be practising and hopefully successfully applying the techniques you teach here.
Thanks again!
Chad
Chad-
You are quite welcome. I wasted several years not knowing this stuff when I first started out. It's a real blind spot in most people's education, and it is too important to just leave to chance whether or not you pick it up.
Just wanted to leave a quick thank you, I have spent a few sleepless nights here for the past week, and then got right up in dawn experimenting. This has opened up a new dimension in my photography and really is helping me getting to that next level.
I can't imagine how many hours and thought has gone into this, thank god for people like you.
WOW what a great site for us hot shoe strobe users!I was brought to your site from photonet...and I have been pouring over the pages again and again to see if i missed anything.Thanks to my 15yr old daughters (Candice)interest in photography we have gone back to the beginning B&W T-MAX,developing our film,and a darkroom to be built in the near future.We happen to have a 2 strobes(still with boxes)Vivitar 285HV & Metz CL-45-1 that will injoy being used ! Sorry to be long winded....Anyway THANKS
Cliff & Candice
Thanks for the superb resource; this site has provided me with an understanding of lighting, something about which I was previously quite ignorant. Now all I need to do is practice :-)
*****
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I want to say thank you. I don't know how to express my gratitude. Much like chad and as a beginner i will use your site as a reference. If you ever write a book please do announce it. Your light on the go concept and easiness is incredible. I have to practice it very much. Ahh its so jaw dropping. strobes are filled with so much power, im just so glad you have taught me how to harness it and beam it well. :) Take care. Keep up the fun.
Great articles! Thank you, I didn't realize there was so much you could do with an external flash, now I'm saving for one...
=)
awsome~!!
Thank you~
What a great site! I admit to being intimidated of off-camera lighting set ups until reading L-101. Thanks for sharing your knowledge....Second, my father just gave me his SB-28 to sell, but even though I shoot Canon (and own a 580EX), I plan to keep it for off camera use. Is it possible to trigger the 580 with the SB-28?
Good idea to keep the SB-28. You'll need to slave the 580 somehow. Not knowing the pin configuration on a 580, I would defer to one of the Canon guys for a suggestion.
Post the question in the strobist discussion thread on Flickr - I am sure you'll get specific help there.
-DH
I hardly used to use flash. After reading in strobist for a few months I am even making my own macro studio.
The results are not very good so far. This is my first digital camera and having problems with metering the flash.
I think it would be great if you add another article to lighting 101 on flash metering with ambient light mix.
I use D200 with sb-28.
I am an absolute beginner to lighting and a novice to photography. I went and purchased a Rebel XTI and the EX580. My question is can I start learning about lighting on this site with just these two basic tools? or do I need all that extra gear to benefit from this wealth of information on here?
David, your blog has kept me awake many work nights in a row. I've gotten fidgety and decided that after months of reading Strobist to actually put the knowledge to practice and make the leap into Pocket Wizard-synched off-camera flash photography. The initial jump isn't too bad considering I already have continuous tungsten lighting equipment (I am an indie filmmaker) and really only need the PWs and a Nikon flash for my Canon 20D. So, I pulled the trigger tonight and I feel better having done so. It's time to get serious as a photographer and learn how to light with strobes. Thanks for clearing my head, David.
I just have to say thank you. I discovered your blog yesterday and cannot stop reading it. I already have nearly 90 feeds related to design, filmmaking, technology and photography in my feedreader, but Strobist is by far the most informative sharing of professional knowledge I have ever seen.
I purchased a SB-800 for my Nikon about a year ago and it still has more control over me that I have over it. Strobist has allayed some anxiety I had about purchasing an umbrella and requisite accessories and I am anxious to start trying out all these techniques I have read.
I look forward to joining the Flickr group and sharing my results.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I'm confused. The Lighting 101 section seems to advocate a procedure of getting a base ambient exposure for aperture and shutter speed and then dialing up/down the flash of moving its position. However, all the On Assignment postings describe doing something different, that is to say choosing a power setting for the flash, adjusting aperture until the flash looks good and then slowing the shutter until the ambient looks right. Why the different accounts?
A lot of great information here, especially for someone like me, totally unfamiliar with this thing called a "strobe" (I only have a Leica MP).
My point in bringing up Leica is only that people like me are interested in strobe work with cameras that don't have any smarts of their own, but it seems most of your on assignment examples use the histogram of a camera to get the light right.
I would love to see more writing on how to setup flash using rules of thumb and rough calculations, instead of relying on digital cameras. For e.g., I'd like to add an almost imperceptible amount of strobe light to help add a bit of pop to ambient, low light, wide-angle environmental portraiture. So I am concerned about keeping the flash from overpowering these shots.
Thanks for sharing all your great information.
Thanks for all the time and knowledge you've put into Lighting 101 !
I've learned a lot from this and I'll likely use it as a reference later on as well.
Thanks Again.
cheers,
Dean
What a fantastic site. And there was me about to invest in some of those heavy cumbersome lights that would stay in the boot. Ive read and digested, now for boot camp. Great stuff.
Harry
Whow !!!.
Lots of very usefull tips & Tricks.
A great wish ...
Was it possible to put together all the articles to one pdf file ?.
Best regards.
Jan Huniche
Hi, I learned a lot from your blog, thank you! I have a question about a trick you used a lot. you often set the camera to its high synch speed and explained to let you use the least amount of strobe possible. But I think it should let you use the least amount of ambient light, coz strobe light is constant as long as you keep shutter speed longer than the sync speed. The higher the shutter speed, the less ambient light plays a role. am i right?
Thank you for this!
Its nice to see a comprehensive post like this. Its good to get a good refresher on the tips even for professionals. Im surprised at the stuff I tend to forget about.
this is the first time I comment this site. I have been lurking for sometime. This is one of the best resources there is on the net about lighting and photography.
Gugs from www.fredmiranda.com
Thanks for maintaining this high quality blog.
Thanks for this fantastic resource of information. It has given me loads of things to think about and to pass on to my aged mother, who is just starting digital photography (don't ask) with some good results.
This site is amazing. I've recently just got rid of a set of bowens studio lights(that incidentally took up an extreme amount of storage space) with all the other garb that comes with it, backgrounds etc etc. My photography has been sort of stagnating since, but this has given me the kick i need, now i know that i was just getting too far ahead of myself with all that expensive equipment.
back to the old school i say!!
Love the 'done that and got the photo' confidence of your recommendations and great writing style. And the irony is running into your site while searching to buy monolights and (now)old school and uncool studio lighting.
Looking forward to learning more.
Aditya
http://sontagraphy.blogspot.com/
That lighting 101 video by Paul Duncan was probably the most informative seven minutes of my entire life. I learned so much from it. I knew some stuff by just reading this site a lot, but too actually see demonstrations of them and comparison shots of different light mods really made things much clearer for me. This is a must see video for anybody that is getting into off-camera lighting. David, this should be placed near the top of the site permanently. Very informative!
Hay David,
thanks for sharing your knowledge with all of us. I have put together a small thanks post at my blog with a quick start guide to Strobisim. Hope many more join the moment. Thanks again.
Thanks for that great video, you must have some really good video editing software ;)
Seriously, this is a great intro. I feel much less intimidated by lighting already!
This is great! I was looking to learn about studio lighting and this is perfect!
I am setting up a home photography studio, and this is exactly what I needed. Thanks!
I am setting up a home photo studio, and this is exactly what I needed!
Thanks!
Eric
You just saved me from buying one of those studio lighting kits!
I already have two small flashes. I had no idea hey were this useful as studio lighting equipment.
Great tutorial. You will see a lot of links to this article from other forums.
At my next wedding I plan on bringing a mono light to help light up the background a bit more then a strobe. I don't have to worry about batteries that way and they can give off a lot of light. For everything else, and especially outdoor work, strobes are hard to beat.
secretsofphotography.blogspot.com/
Cool! I can use my Canon flash with a Pocket Wizard! (I have three flashes, actually: a 580 Ex, and 540 Ex and a 430ex.)
I was thinking about the new elinchrom skyports, or maybe a gadget infinity. But pocketwizard it is!
I've just discovered your blog. Thanks a lot for these tips and tutorials. Helps me a lot
Great tutorial. Thanks.
One thing... please turn the background music down as it is hard for me to hear your voice.
:)
David - ok, I'm officially a convert! I have a D80 and an SB600 and like so many others, I blindly flipped through the manual, slapped everything on auto and snapped away with "less than optimal" results. After finding the blog, I just spent an hour playing with my camera, flash and a poor abused little wooden box that has now been photographed in a multitude of flash settings.
Wow! Thank you so much. After reading the blog, understanding 1) what I was trying to accomplish in my playtime and 2) what the heck the settings could do, it really was an hour well spent. Now I can't wait for my next opportunity to use a flash!
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