Inspiration

Unit 57 - Photography Learning outcomes:

1- Understand different applications of photography

2- Know how to use photographic equipment and employ photographic techniques

3- Be able to plan and produce photographic images for a specified purpose

4- Be able to reflect upon photographic work.

My inspiration within photography spanned into my power-points of the types of photography I studied, spanned mainly towards Irvine Penn and his photography (work).
In this evaluation of myself in this subject, to start with, the applications of photography, my knowledge began to grow and understand how all the steps work. Missing days on this subject, due to absence because of university, ill, hospital, doctors, started to become tricky to catch up with information collecting for the coursework needed to hand in, however I caught up gradually and gained a vast knowledge in these aspects.

To know how to use photographic equipment was something I was quite covered in before, as I studied parts new a lot about digital cameras and editing, so I focused on film and the old fashion, you could say, of how photography used to be taken. I adored it, it's very in-depth and interesting to create and make, feels like you created a piece of art more, than using digital where it's too easy.
So, the equipment and employing the photographic techniques started to become another strong point with my knowledge, as I gradually got the hang of it all.

My plan was to do fashion with film, I produce a collection of shots, developed. I feel very proud of some, the focus and you can almost get a texture feel from some of them. I feel like some could be use for fashion advertisements or animals advertisements (include a fashion aspect).

My reflection of my work is sentimental, as I'm incredibly proud, as it was tricky to produce some, however now, it's a fascinating subject to go into as a hobby, only with film. I find digital as an easy subject to conquer. The disadvantages I would state about film, is that damage can come to your work when you leave it too dry, as this happened to a piece of mine (I was very proud of it now), however the damage it creates a vintage feel towards it. The other is that you need patience for this, it takes determination and will to want to learn about every aspect, to be able to create the image you would like.

Film Photography

The Guide to Film Photography

Exposure = Intensity x Time (or E=It)

This means that if you increase the intensity, you can reduce the time proportionally and still achieve the same exposure. Let’s have a 2nd look at our exposure triangle to better visualize:

If we use the triangle as a guide, we can see that film speed is effected by aperture, and shutter speed. Shutter speed is effected by ISO and aperture. Aperture is effected by ISO and shutter speed.

Meaning: they are all related when it comes to exposure. Increase one and you must decrease the other.

Some examples:

Say you’re shooting with an ISO of 100 and you know that your correct exposure is  1/250 at f/8. Your correct exposure could also be 1/125 at f/11 (1 shutter speed down, 1 stop up).

This is where knowing about all 3 elements becomes important. First off, if you are shooting 100 speed film, it’s because you have bright light and you want fine grain. Now if you want more depth of field (a higher f-stop) or selective focus (a lower f-stop). Also your subject is moving, which requires a fast shutter speed, or standing still, which does not.

These factors are the reason why there is no exact answer to the question “What’s the correct exposure?”

18% or “Middle” Gray:

Ansel Adams to open this semi-complicated subject:

“A reading made from any uniform luminance surface used directly to determine exposure will give exposure settings that will reproduce that surface as a middle gray in the final print.”

It means that there is a middle gray. On a geometric scale going from “Black” to “White,” 18% is the mathematical middle. It also means that the middle gray is always the same. In fact, light meters are calibrated to 18% “middle” gray - for an intro to light meters, please head on over to my partner in film crime, The Photon Fantastic. You can use this gray to achieve more accurate exposures, with a maximum amount of information in the highlights and shadows.

A “uniform luminance surface” is referring to a gray card. If you place a gray card into the scene you’re shooting and take a meter reading, you are guaranteed to have a middle value. This is important because, sometimes you don’t have a middle value… e.g: a black and white checkerboard is only black and white. You need to take a middle value to have sufficient white tones and sufficient blacks when printing

Over- and Under- Exposure

Sometimes we don’t expose correctly, even the best of us, and we finish with a negative that is either underexposed or overexposed. An underexposed negative did not receive enough light, and will appear light with a lot of visible film base. An overexposed received too much light,  it'll appear black.
Each has it’s disadvantages, however underexposed negatives tend to have less or no information in the shadow areas, whereas an overexposed negative retains some information in the highlight areas.

Different types of film have a different range of stops that can be over or underexposed while still retaining information:

• Black and white film: 5 stops (this means you can over or underexpose by 5 stops and still retain information in your negative… black and white film is very, very forgiving)

• Color negative film: 3 stops (slightly less forgiving, but still a little breathing room)

• Color slide film: 1 1/2 stops (here you really need to be precise with exposure, which is often why slide film is considered to be “professional” film)

Here is a very very basic rundown of what film is, in general, I will say that once you've got a solid grasp of how paper and film are made and the chemicals used to develop them, it’s easy to venture off into the world of alternative processing… which is brilliant.

The 101 of how film works:

Film is composed of layers, these are different for color, slide, black and white, and instant film but all contain millions of light-sensitive silver halide crystals (what we call grain) that you expose when you pop the shutter. While the other layers are crucial, for our purposes we will be looking at the light sensitive layers. Color film has three layers of silver halide: red, blue, and green.

Slide film has a few more layers than C-41:

Black and white paper is what we call “orthochromatic” which is basically a fancy word for “red blind.” This is why you can print black and white in a darkroom with the redlight on, allowing for minimal vision, whereas when printing colour you must remain in total darkness. Very weird, and kind of fun. Technically you can still buy orthochromatic black and white film, but it’s not very common. Most black and white film today is panchromatic, which means it is sensitive to all colors of the visible light spectrum.

The layer composition of black and white film is simpler:

You’ll notice they all have what we call an “antihalation” coating or layer, which is basically applied to the back layer to absorb stray reflecting light from the film emulsion.

To understanding aperture, easily is to go over the basics of film speed or ISO (formerly known as ASA.)

ISO is the speed of the film, also known as; the number printed on the box and the canister. FujiChrome Velvia 50 has an ISO of 50; Ilford Delta 400 has an ISO of 400. ISO or Film Speed is expressed as a number, which is generally doubled as it gets higher.

E.G:  50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200.
There are several exceptions to this, such as; Ilford FP4 which has an ISO of 125.

Photographic film is made up of millions of light-sensitive silver halide crystals, which we call grain. The lower the film speed, the finer the grain; the higher the film speed, the fatter the grain. Larger silver halide crystals have more light sensitivity than smaller ones, so a higher ISO will be more sensitive to light than a lower one. An ISO of 50 or 100 is not very sensitive and requires bright light, which means that if your camera’s fastest f-stop is 3.5 or higher, you would not have enough light to do interiors (for example) without a flash. An ISO of 3200 is extremely light sensitive, but also has very prominent grain and therefore a specific style. It’s also very easy to overexpose if shooting in direct sunlight.

This is where fine tuning the balance between f-stop, ISO, and shutter speed comes in to achieve the desired result.  When you look at a manual SLR, you’ll see a little dial with all of the film speed numbers going from 25 or 50 up to 3200 or 6400 (depending on make/model). Setting this dial is only for the light meter and will not have an effect on your exposures. Ideally, you would set the ISO, and use the light meter to balance between f-stop and shutter speed. If you’re not sure what the light meter is, it’s that little needle you see when you look through the view finder, and you want it to be in the middle for a correct exposure. You need to have batteries in the camera for the light meter to work. This is why manual cameras take batteries; the batteries have nothing to do with the shutter or any mechanical part of the camera.
Here’s a little film speed guide (these are just my personal recommendations):

• ISO 50 (or lower): Bright sunlight (the beach in the afternoon, for example), studio lights
• ISO 100: Bright sunlight, bright overcast, studio lights
• ISO 200: Sunlight, overcast, some shade, studio lights
• ISO 400: Outdoor (sunlight/overcast), indoor (during the day or very well lit)
• ISO 800: Outdoor (very overcast), dusk, interiors, motion/high speed
• ISO 1600: Night, interiors (day or night), motion/high speed
• ISO 3200: Night, interiors, motion/high speed

Again, there are always ways around this, such as using an external flash head at night with an ISO of 100.

Understanding Aperture and F-Stop

A lot of people ask me about where to start in film photography, or what’s my advice for beginners. One of the things that’s most important in photography (film and digital) is understanding the basics of aperture and f-stop. So for all of you who asked me questions on the subject, here’s a little 101:

Aperture is basically the diameter of the lens opening; the aperture is expressed as a fraction of focal length - that’s where the f-stop numbers come from. For instance, f/4  means the aperture equals focal length divided by 4. When we talk about a 1.8 lens or a 3.5 lens that refers to the largest aperture of the lens; so a 1.8 lens would start at f/1.8. An opening of 1.8 is bigger than 3.5, I know that doesn’t seem to make sense, but remember it’s fractions. As you slide the f-stop down, meaning as the number gets bigger, you’ll notice the hole gets smaller.

Let’s look at the major stops:

f/1     1.4     2     2.8     4     5.6     8     11     16     22     32 

 

When you look at an f-stop, the numbers on either side represent either twice or half of the amount of light. For example, take f/5.6:  f/4 is twice as much light, while f/8 is half as much. Many lenses have numbers in between to represent half and third stops.

The f-stop you choose will have an effect on your depth of field; the way to control this is by using a combination of ISO (film speed) and shutter speed to provide the correct exposure while achieving the depth of field desired. I will explain more on this when I do a post on depth of field, but for now it’s important to note that larger f-stops have a smaller depth of field. Meaning, at f/1.4 you will have to use selective focus and choose either the foreground or background whereas at f/32 you would have much more of the image in focus.

What is Shutter Speed?

In the simplest of terms, shutter speed is the amount of time that light hits the film. The shutter is the little curtain that opens and closes when you push the release button (when you make an exposure).

Exposure is effected by both the time and the intensity that light hits the film. In general, the correct exposure for all film is about the same amount of total light energy absorbed. Since we know that film sensitivity to light varies with ISO (formerly ASA), and that we can control the amount of light that reaches the film with shutter speed and aperture, we can use this formula to express total exposure:

Exposure = Intensity x Time (E = It)

In complicated photography/optics terms, intensity has other factors but is partially controlled by aperture settings. This formula basically means that if you increase the aperture, you need to decrease the shutter speed (or film speed) or that if you increase shutter speed you need to reduce aperture or any mix n’ match of the three. Hence the exposure triangle of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO:

Each element effects the others and must be adjusted accordingly but more on that in “Exposure.” For now, let’s get back to shutter speed:

On most cameras, shutter speeds increase by a ratio of 1:2 (w/ several rounded values), e.g:

1/2  1/4  1/8  1/15 1/30 1/60 1/125 1/250 1/500 1/1000 1/2000 1/4000

1/60 is one sixtieth of a second. 1/1000 is one one thousandth of a second.

Most shutters also have a B and or T function; “B” stands for “bulb” and leaves the shutter open as long as you press it. “T” stands for “Time” and you press the shutter once to open, and again to close. “T” obviously makes more sense if you needed to do an exposure that was minutes or more. 

1/60 is the lowest you can go without a tripod before you will have camera shake; and even at 1/60 you need to be standing still.

For flash sync: the majority of cameras made before the 90’s sync with an external flash at 1/250; newer cameras can also have a flash synch at 1/200. 

Types of shutters:

Leaf Shutter- a leaf shutter has overlapping blades that are controlled by a rotating ring. It looks not unlike a star:

A leaf shutter is located at the base of the lens, near the diaphragm. For those of you who are familiar with focal plane shutters, opening up the back of a camera with a leaf shutter will look like a focal plane shutter that is stuck on open.

Focal Plane Shutter - a focal plane shutter is mounted near the film plane and features a horizontal curtain. Actually, older focal plane shutters feature one curtain, most new focal plane shutters now have two curtains:

Both have their drawbacks, and for the focal plane shutter this mainly has to do with fast moving subjects and image compression. Basically, when you’re subject is moving really, really fast (for example, a car) it'll probably be in a different place at the end of the exposure than it was at the beginning, which results in the image being either stretched or compressed. Depending on whether your focal plane shutter is horizontal or vertical, this stretching or compressing with take place either (you guessed it) horizontally or vertically. Because a leaf shutter exposes the entire film area at once this distortion will not occur, however, leaf shutters are not without flaw because a leaf shutter exposes the entire film area at once (versus the small slits of the focal plane) very high shutter speeds are not possible. There are not very many leaf shutters manufactured today.

Depth of field refers to the part of your photograph that is in focus. If all or most of your photograph is in focus, you have a deep depth of field (also called deep focus.) If only a part of your photograph is in focus, you have a shallow depth of field (also called shallow focus and selective focus.) And that’s what depth of field is. Seriously.

The tricky part is figuring out how your aperture relates to your depth of field, and your beloved (or hated) exposure triangle. Exposure 101, has several factors affect depth of field, including your distance to your subject, the focal length of your lens, your selected aperture (f-stop) and the format you are shooting. This means that a photo taken with a 50mm lens at f/1.8 from the same distance will not have the same depth of field when taken with a 35mm camera and 4x5 field camera.

A general rule to guide you: the smaller the f/stop number (so the larger the opening), the shallower the depth of field. F/1.2 has a shallower depth of field than f/1.8, which has a shallower depth of field than f/2.8 and so on. F/5.6 and F/8 tend to give medium focus, depending on your distance from the subject (and the format you shoot, of course.) 

Side-by-side examples:

{Selective Focus: F/2.8 - This is pretty shallow, but not to the point where it creates a complete bokeh effect and the background is indistinguishable. Both of these were shot at F/2.8 with a 50mm lens in 35mm.}

{Deep Focus: F/16. -These two, on the other hand, have deep focus - meaning that the foreground and background are in focus. Both were shot at F/16, but the left image is medium format and the right is 35mm.}

{Shallow and medium side-by-side: The background in the left shot is completely blurry with zero detail. It was shot at f/1.8, approximately 12 feet from the subject with an 80mm portrait lens on 35mm film. The right shot has a blurry background, but you can still tell what it is. It was shot at f/8, approximately three feet from the subject with a 50mm lens on medium format film.}

F/32 is most commonly the highest number on lenses that don’t cost, but you can definitely come across field cameras with an f/64. In fact, in the early 1930s, a bunch of photographers got together to form Group F/64. Their principal belief was that photographs should be  perfectly exposed, profoundly sharp and completely in focus. An aperture of f/64 was the best way to achieve this, as far as they were concerned.
 

F/32 really doesn’t let a lot of light in, this is where if you absolutely have to shoot 100 ISO and need a very deep DOF, you’ll have to lower your shutter speed. If you want to use a specific shutter speed at f/32, you’ll have to pick a film with a high enough ISO.  For those who shoot digital, this doesn’t prove as much of a constraint, considering you can change the ISO. Even if you decide to push or pull to fit the situation, you still have to shoot at that ISO for the entire roll.

Many SLR film cameras have a depth of field preview button; it’s usually located on the front near the button to release the lens or the self-timer. When you hold the depth of field preview button and look through the viewfinder, you’ll notice it is significantly darker but accurately displays your complete depth of field.

Let’s sum up the major points:

• Depth of field refers to the areas of the photograph in focus.

• Small f-stop numbers produce shallow depth of field, or selective focus. This is when the background is blurry. Great for portraits.

• Medium f-stop numbers produce a medium depth of field, still with selective focus, but with significantly more definition in the out-of-focus areas. Good for portraits and specific landscapes. 

• Large f-stop numbers produce a deep depth of field, meaning the foreground and background are in focus. Ideal for landscapes.

Enlargers

An enlarger is a specialized transparency projector used to produce photographic prints from film or glass negatives using the gelatin silver process, or from transparencies.

Construction

All enlargers consist of a light source, normally an incandescent light bulb, a condenser or translucent screen to provide even illumination, a holder for the negative or transparency, and a specialised lens for projection. The light passes through a film holder, which holds the exposed and developed photographic negative or transparency.

Prints made with an enlarger are called enlargements. Typically, enlargers are used in a darkroom, an enclosed space from which extraneous light may be excluded; some commercial enlargers have an integral dark box so that they can be used in a light-filled room.
 

Types of Enlarger

Photographic Enlarger.
- A condenser enlarger consists of a light source, a condensing lens, a holder for the negative and a projecting lens. The condenser provides even illumination to the negative beneath it. 

- A diffuser enlarger's light source is diffused by translucent glass or plastic, providing even illumination for the film.
- Condenser enlargers produce higher contrast than diffusers because light is scattered from its path by the negative's image silver; this is called the Callier Effect. The condenser's increased contrast emphasises any negative defects, such as dirt and scratches, and image grain.

- Diffuser enlargers produce an image of the same contrast as a contact print from the negative.

- Dedicated colour enlargers contain an adjustable filter mechanism - the colour head - between the light source and the negative, enabling the user to control the amount of cyan, magenta and yellow light reaching the negative. Other models have a drawer where cut filters can be inserted into the light path. These enlargers can also be used with variable-contrast monochrome papers.

Digital enlargers project an image from an LCD screen at the film plane, to produce a photographic enlargement from a digital file.

Enlarger physical arrangements

Most modern enlargers are vertically mounted with the head pointing downward and adjusted up or down to change the size of the image projected onto the enlarger's base, or a work table if the unit is mounted to the wall.

A horizontal enlarger consists of a trestle, with the head mounted on crossbars between two or more posts for extra stability. A horizontal enlarger structure is used when high quality, large format enlargements are required such as when photographs are taken from aircraft for mapping and taxation purposes.

The parts of the enlarger include baseboard, enlarger head, elevation knob, filter holder, negative carrier, glass plate, focus knob, girder scale, timer, bellows, and housing lift.
 

Principles of operation

Enlarger lens: using the diaphragm - aperture ring the photographer adjusts the iris.

The image from the negative or transparency is projected through a lens fitted with an adjustable iris aperture, onto to a flat surface bearing the sensitized photographic paper. By adjusting the ratio of distance from film to lens to the distance from lens to paper, various degrees of enlargement may be obtained, with the physical enlargement ratio limited only by the structure of the enlarger and the size of the paper. As the image size is changed it is also necessary to change the focus of the lens. Some enlargers, such as "Autofocus" enlargers, perform this automatically.

An easel is used to hold the paper perfectly flat. Some easels are designed with adjustable overlapping flat steel "blades" to crop the image on the paper to the desired size while keeping an unexposed white border about the image. Paper is sometimes placed directly on the table or enlarger base, and held down flat with metal strips.

The enlargement is made by first focusing the image with the lamp on, the lens at maximum aperture and the easel empty, usually with the aid of a focus finder. The lamp is turned off, or in some cases, shuttered by a light-tight mechanism.

The image is focussed by changing the distance between the lens and the film, achieved by adjusting the length of a light-tight bellows with a geared rack and pinion mechanism.

Electronic timer: photographers choose exposure time.

The lens is set to its working aperture. Enlarging lenses have an optimum range of apertures which yield a sharp image from corner to corner, often around f8. The lens is normally set to this aperture and any color filtration dialed in, if making a color print or one on variable-contrast black-and-white paper.

The enlarger's lamp or shutter mechanism is controlled either by an electronic timer, or by the operator - who marks time with a clock, metronome or simply by counting seconds - shuttering or turning off the lamp when the exposure is complete. The exposed paper can be processed immediately or placed in a light-tight container for later processing.

Digitally controlled commercial enlargers typically adjust exposure in steps known as printer points; twelve printer points makes a factor of two change in exposure.

Paper processing

After exposure, photographic paper is developed, fixed, washed and dried using the gelatin silver process.

Automated print machines

Automated photo print machines have the same basic elements and integrate each of the steps outlined above in a single complex machine under operator and computer control.

Rather than project directly from the film negative to the print paper, a digital image may first be captured from the negative. This allows the operator or computer to quickly determine adjustments to brightness, contrast, clipping, and other characteristics. The image is then rendered by passing light through the negative and a built-in computer controlled enlarger optically projects this image to the paper for final exposure.

As a byproduct of the process a Compact Disc recording may be made of the digital images, although a subsequent print made from these may be quite inferior to an image made from the negative due to digitization noise and lack of dynamic range which are characteristics of the digitizing process.

For better images, the negatives may be reprinted using the same automated machine under operator selection of the print to be made.

Advantages

• The image may be printed to a size different from the negative or transparency. Without an enlarger, only a contact print would be possible, and large images would require large size negatives and hence very large cameras.

• Local contrast and density of various parts of the print can be easily controlled. Changing the amount of light exposing the paper in various areas will change the image density in those areas. A mask with a hole can be used to add extra light to an area "burning", which will have the effect of darkening the regions with additional exposure, while the use of a small wand to reduce the total exposure to a region is called "dodging" and has the effect of lightening the regions with reduced exposure. The tool is kept moving to avoid producing a sharp edge at the region boundary. Using these techniques it is possible to make significant changes to the mood or emphasis of a photographic print. Similar methods are available with contact printing, but it is more difficult to see the image as it is being manipulated.

• It is also possible to make composite photographs by overlaying the print with a hand-cut mask, performing an exposure, and then using the inverse of that mask to perform another exposure with a different negative. This is much more difficult to do well using photographic methods than it is now by using the methods of modern digital image manipulation.

Image enlargement limits

 

The practical amount of enlargement (irrespective of the enlarger structure) will depend upon the grain size of the negative, the sharpness (accuracy) of both the camera and projector lenses, blur in the image due to subject motion and camera shake during the exposure, and the intended viewing distance of the final product.

For example, a 5 by 7 inch print intended for viewing in a scrapbook at 18 inches may be unsuitable for enlargement as an 8 by 10 inch print to be hung on a hallway wall to be viewed at the same distance, but usable at a larger 5 by 7 feet (twelve times larger) on a billboard to be viewed no closer than eighteen feet (twelve times more distant).

How to Develop Photo Negatives in a Dark Room

Developing photo negatives is not a hard task to conceive, and it’s fun to open the developing tank at the end of the process to see what images you have captured. Fewer chemicals are required for developing negative film, and the tolerances for maintaining times and temperatures are looser, than for colour transparency (slide) film.

Instructions in Developing

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3. Place your measured chemicals in glass or plastic containers in a water bath that is at the correct processing temperature. A plastic dish washing tub works well for this. Consult the developing chart that came with your film. There is usually a combination of time and temperature, e.g. a development time of 7 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius, or 5 minutes at 23.9 degrees Celsius.

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3. Turn off the lights to load film onto the developing reel. Before opening the undeveloped film, let your eyes adjust so you can make sure there are no light leaks which can strike and fog the film. Open 35-mm film canisters with a bottle cap opener, or carefully remove the protective paper around a 120-mm roll of film.
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Wind the film onto a metal or plastic film reel with the lights still off. Fitting the film into the grooves of the film reel requires some practice. Place the loaded film reel into the developing tank and put the lid on. If you are working with a daylight tank, you can turn on the dark room lights once the film is in the developing tank with the lid secured.
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Fill the developing tank with water at the correct processing temperature, and rap the tank smartly on the bottom to dislodge any air bubbles. Continuously agitate the tank, letting the water swell the emulsion. To agitate a stainless steel developing tank with a capped lid, hold the tank with your thumb securing the lid so it won’t fall off. Smoothly tilt the tank to the left, then to the right. Some plastic developing tanks have a stem in the cap that you twist to agitate the film while the developing tank remains in the water bath.
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16. Pour the water out of the tank and pour in the developer solution. Start a timer for the correct developing time, and continue to agitate the film at consistent intervals during processing. Consult your film’s development instructions for the correct agitation interval. When you’re not agitating the tank, keep it in the water bath to maintain the solution temperature.
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Pour out the developer solution five seconds before the end of the development cycle and immediately pour in the stop bath solution. This slightly acidic mixture will halt the developing action. Agitate the tank continuously for 30 to 60 seconds. Then empty the stop bath out of the tank.
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Pour the fixer solution into the tank. Agitate the tank continuously for the first minute and then every 30 seconds for a total of five minutes, or for the period of time specified in your film development instructions. In many development combinations, the developer and stop bath solutions are poured into the drain, but you can save the fixer for processing additional rolls of film.
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    Open the developing tank at the end of the fixer cycle and let clean water at the correct processing temperature run through the tank for five minutes. Carefully unroll the film from the reel and gently dip the film through a shallow dish filled with a soapy solution called Photo-Flo. This will help the film surface dry without residue on it. Hang the film with film clips or clothespins in a clean environment where it will not be disturbed while drying, such as a bathroom after you’ve run the shower to fill the air with moisture.

Tips and warnings

• You can sacrifice a roll of film and practice with the lights on, and then with your eyes shut, to get the feel for loading the film correctly. Film that is crooked on the developing reel can touch adjacent layers in the spiral and ruin your images.
• You can develop colour negative film using the same procedures, but you’ll have several more chemicals, depending on the chemistry that you use. For example, some developing kits combine a bleach and fix solutions. You’ll also need to pay closer attention to maintaining the chemicals at the indicated processing temperature when working with colour film.

Studio Flash Shoot

Introduction

Within photography there is two types of light; hard or harsh light, and soft or diffused light.
- Hard light casts deep sharp shadows with well-defined edges, such as the case in high mid-day sun. - Soft light casts softer shadows with edges less defined, such as; the case on an overcast day. That’s because the light is bounced and diffused in different directions and is spilling into the shadows, so the size of the light becomes much larger.

The effective size of the light depends on two factors:
- actual physical size of the light.
- light's position in relation to the subject.

The closer the light is to the subject, the larger the effective size and the softer it is, and the further the light is from the subject, the smaller the effective size and the harder it is. So you can easily change the quality of light by changing the effective size.

Contrast is the difference between the light and shadow areas of your scene. The greater the difference, the more contrast the scene is said to have. The smaller the difference, the less contrast the scene is said to have.

Lighting Equipment

Most lighting equipment falls into one of three different classes: Grips, Modifiers and Light Sources.

Grips expand to encompass all the stuff we use to support and hold our gear or lighting equipment such as; stands and clamps.

Light modifiers in studio photography attach to (or hold in front of) our flash or light source, to control the light pattern it normally emits, these include umbrellas, softboxes, and reflectors.

Light sources are any number of things that emit light onto our scene. It could be available light such as the sun or tungsten light, or it could be artificial such as flash units and strobes.

The heat produced by a continuous light can make me and my subject very hot and bothered, but because of the very bright light it will also have the effect of closing down the iris in your model's eyes, which it is generally accepted, doesn't make a good portrait.

Sometimes taking photos in artificial light they can end up with yellow pictures, to your eyes, the light from a tungsten bulb looks white, but it isn't. Colour temperature (the colour of the light) is measured in degrees Kelvin, daylight is around 5,600K and a tungsten bulb is more like 3,200K and therefore records on daylight balanced film as yellow.

This can be overcome in two ways: Firstly, you can use tungsten balanced colour film. Secondly, you can put a filter on your lens, which will enable you to use any daylight film. The big problem with these two solutions is that as the tungsten filament in the bulb burns it leaves a small residue on the inside of the glass envelope. This means that the colour of the light gradually becomes more yellow as the bulb ages. If you are using print film or shooting digitally any colour cast can be rectified when printing, but slides cannot. The third way is simply to shoot in black & white.


Now with flash, it is normal on-camera flashgun there is no way of knowing what the lighting effect will be, except to say that if using it fitted on the camera, it will not turn out very well.

The advantages of studio flash are - modelling lamp, consistency, power and control.

Modelling Lamp
 

Studio flash units are fitted with a continuous lamp, that can be seen on this photograph sitting in the centre of the circular flash tube, because of its position it gives a very accurate indication of the angle and quality that the flash will produce when fired. This makes the lighting easy to set-up.
As this lamp is relatively low powered, it doesn't get the heat or brightness problem thats talked about with continuous light. The only thing to remember is that the flash will be a much stronger light, so the shadows will be darker and the highlights will be lighter. To help, trick the eye/brain built-in compensation device when setting up lighting, first close one eye (a camera only has one) then squint through the lashes. This has the effect of increasing the contrast level you can see and is much more like what the camera will record. 

Consistency
 

The tungsten bulb burnt with flash every time you press the shutter the colour of the light from the flashtube is balanced to daylight, this means that its possible to use any film you'd  like without the need for filters, even with slide film.

Power
 

Modern flash units give huge amounts of power, released in a fraction of a second, as for most home users a unit with a power of 250, 300, 500 or 600 watt/seconds is usually sufficient. Watt/seconds or Joules (the same thing) is the measure of the power that a flash unit can produce. Guide numbers, changes by changing the accessory on the front. A 300 w/s unit is half the power of a 600 w/s unit, which is exactly 1 f-stop, so if your 600w/s unit was set up two metres from your subject and you were getting a flashmeter reading of f/16, then a 300w/s unit in the same place would give a stop less at f/11.

 

Control
 

The most simple and inexpensive studio flash units have at least a 'full/half power' switch, most will offer much more control. Remember, that if you turn a flash head down to half power its reducing the output of the light by exactly 1 f-stop. Smaller reductions in power with a simple head are obtained by moving the head further away, or closer for more power. Inverse Square Law  basically this means that if you move the light source twice as far away,  it'll lose two f-stops of exposure. (e.g. Our head is one metre from our subject, using ISO100 film we are getting an exposure of, say f/16. If we move the head back to two metres away our exposure will be f/8, - two f-stops less)

Monoblocks vs Power Packs




 
Monoblock, or Compact Flash Heads as they're normally called, most of what amateurs and most professionals require. Compacts have all the electronics built into the head (above right), whereas a Power Pack will have a separate floor standing unit with all the electronics in and a separate head, or heads, that are plugged in to this. The head contains a lamp holder for the modelling lamp, the flash tube, simple circuitry and normally a fan to keep it cool.

Power Packs are generally used when a huge amount of power is required (up to 6000w/s) and when the units are going to be used at high speed over long periods (e.g. for fashion photography, which I'm doing). The parts that generate the most heat are housed in the head away from the electronics in the pack, which is also fan cooled, with the new generation Compacts, such as; the Elinchrom Style unit above, many of the advantages of the pack have been removed.

The Standard 3-Light Setup

A 3-light setup consists of: a key light, a fill light, and a separation light.

Key light is the main light that has the most significance in your scene. It creates the defining highlight and shadow areas of the shot, and is the light that all the others are based upon.
If the key light was the only source of illumination, the subject would have a well-defined side, with the back and other side appearing fairly dark. This could result in dramatic high-contrast effect if done creatively, as shown in the images below.

Photo by Wayne - Amethyst Photography

Photo by Dustin Diaz

Photo by Dustin Diaz

The fill light is a secondary source of light that is used in conjunction with the key light to open up the shadows at the other side of the subject, and cut down on scene contrast.

Separation light - or hair light - is the third source of light, and is used if you have a dark subject against a dark background. So it would come in handy for separating the subject from the background, providing a good outline from behind and pulling it out from the background.
So ideally having a main light source to one side of the model set up on a stand, with a soft box or an umbrella on strobe for softer, defused light. To the other side of the model could either have a fill light or a bounce card, to fill in the shadows on that side of the model (also set up on a stand). The fill light or reflector would be set a little bit lower than the key light, and it could also be placed further away from the model than the key light.
Finally have a separation light placed behind your model from above to separate them from the background, could place a backdrop of choice behind the model if the natural background is not very flattering (or too cluttered).

Photo by Wayne - Amethyst Photography

Note: if you remove the separation light from the diagram above, it'll end up with a basic two-light setup. This is useful when the subject doesn’t need separation from the background (due to a different backdrop or background tone), or to purposefully blend the subject into the background for creative effect.

If the place has no bright walls, it's possible in using anything that can act as a bounce surface: a reflector, white cardboard, a light table cloth, or even someone wearing a white shirt. All those can be used as a bounce surface. Just face the light toward whatever it is that's available to act as the bounce surface, and place the model to the side of that surface!

What's a Flag? A flag is anything that is used to block light in a controlled way, preventing it from spilling onto your model. It could also be used to prevent light from flaring into the camera lens.

Surround Bounce

This technique is by setting up the flash unit in a way that would illuminate a large bounce area of a medium-sized room, by taking advantage of walls and ceiling to scatter and diffuse light as found appropriately. Using surround bounce gives the photos a natural-like light that is typically available with no artificial lighting involvement.

Floor Shots

Floor shots are just like any other wall bounce shots, only flipping everything 90 degrees towards the ceiling as it acts as a softbox. The model would be lying on the floor, with the light source pointing towards the ceiling and bouncing back to illuminate the subject and the surrounding environment in general. Also substitute the ceiling with an umbrella, with the flash facing away from the subject. The light would bounce off the umbrella and onto the subject, easily illuminating them while creating the  masterpiece.

Here are a couple of examples:

Photo by Michał Grajkowski

Making Use of Ambient Light

Ambient light can also be used for lighting in an indoor photo shoot, either with or without a flash. It could be used as a rim light from behind, pulling the subject away from the background while it lights up their face with an on camera flash.
Ambient light could also be used alone to take care of lighting. Making use of any light bulbs, table lamps and so on. For ambient-only lighting in a fairly dark environment could placing two table lamps (taking the shades off) opposite to each other work with the model in between.
Placing one of them closer to the subject than the other, to act as a main light while the opposite light source acts as a fill light, plus this technique can take the readings in real-time as the light falls on the subject.

Photo by Bob

Photo by Daniel Greene

Making Use of Window Light

Windows are a great light source for indoor photography, especially if they're large or emitting great amounts of light, placing the subject against a window and shoot them from the front (with or without an on camera flash). Of course if using a flash, it would be the key light and the window light would be the softbox. Could also expose the subject without regard for the window light, to get a high key result.
Alternatively, using the window light as key light by turning the model to the side, having half their face lit by the window while the other side fairly lit by available room light for dramatic creative results. Or use fill light by placing the subject in the same manner, and having a main light source positioned to the other side to act as the key light.

Photo by Gabor Szantai

Photo by Jay Ryness

To Concluded

Studio lighting can be broken down into two categories, continuous and flash. While continuous lighting has two main advantages there are many disadvantages.

The good points of continuous light:

• It's inexpensive, and makes a good starting point for anyone on a small budget.

• You can see what the light is doing and where the shadows and highlights are.

The main disadvantages of continuous light:

• It generally produces more heat than light, very uncomfortable!
  

• The light that it produces is not balanced to daylight.

Final Photos from the Shoot:

 

Test Shots (not edited)