Photography: Guide to the Studio

For the best quality photographs inside, professionals don't use normal camera mounted flashguns. Instead they use studio lightling, which allows a greater level of control in terms of insensity, type and effect of light over normal flash. While possibly slightly daunting at first glance, in fact using studio equipment is fairly easy, requiring a couple of simple skills to get the best out of it. Photosoc owns a set of studio lights and accessories, allowing members the chance to try it themselves. The studio kit can be borrowed like any other piece of photosoc kit. However, it is a bit heavier than camera gear, and so either arrange to have friends on hand to help lift it, or get hold of a car.

Equipment

A typical studio kit, such as photosoc's, contains the following pieces of equipment. A short description is given with each one along with a key to the photograph below.

1. Camera. A good idea if you want to take any photos. Any SLR camera will do, most compacts do not have enough control to allow studio work. The camera must have either a flash shoe (where you attach a flashgun) or a flash sync connector, which cables can plug into.
2. Model. Self-portraits are quite difficult with studio flash. Having an attractive model such as the fair Georgina here helps. Of course, you can use the studio kit to do still life, in which case you just need some props.
3. Flash Heads. These are basically glorified flashguns. While not as complicated as most modern flashguns, they are much more powerful and can be used to provide much more control. In this shot the flash head indicated was not actually used, the lightwas coming from another head just of shot to the left. You can see the edge of the brolly used to diffuse the light. Studio flash heads have modelling lights which allow you to see what the effect of the flash is going to be.
4. Stand. These are used to keep the flash heads in the right place. By changing the height and distance of the flash head from the subject, you can affect the properties and direction of the light produced.
5. Chair. If you are doing head and soulders portraits, having a chair will stop your model from feinting and make life a lot more comfortable. Chairs and other props can also help posing the model. A hat, piece of fruit or handbag can help bring a portrait to life.
6. Brolly. These are basically specail umbrellas. The light produced from the flash heads is too harsh for most portraits. It must be diffused and modelled to produce the right effect. There are various methods of doing this. One of which is to use brollies on the flash head. There are two different types, diffusing and reflecting. Diffusing brollies are used infront of the flash head and the flashgun fires through them, diffusing the light. Reflecting brollies are silver or gold in colour. To use these the flash head is pointed away from the subject and shone into the brolly, which reflects the light back at the subject. Brollies are mounted on the flash heads directly using crew fittings on the side of the heads. The indicated brolly is a silver reflecting one with the flash head facing away. The white diffusing brolly used in this shot can be seen on the far left of the shot.
7. Backdrop. If you simply use the studio kit and take photographs against a wall, you are likely to have the wallpaper behind the subject, and any makrs on the wall show up in the resulting photograph. Backdrops are pieces of cloth which are used to provide a background that does not detract from the subject. Photosoc has a couple available, including Black, Dappled and Red Regency. Use a clean white bed sheet for white.
8. Reflector. Even using the diffused light from the flash heads and brollies, the light is likely to result in shadows which may not be wanted. A simple method of solving this is to use a small reflector, positioned either by the model or an assistant. In this case, we wanted more light shining up into the models face, so we had her hold a reflector on her lap. Reflectors are often used to reflect light from the opposite side from the flash head, where shadows are darkest.
9. Flash Sync Cord. This is used to connect the camera to the flash head to trigger it. Only one flash head s connected in this way. For cameras without a flash sync connector, an adaptor can be mounted on the camera flash hotshoe.

The Flash Head

The flash head is the only slightly complicated part of studio photography. It contains two lights, one that is on all the time so you can see the effect of the light all the time, the modelling light, and another that provides the actual flash. he modelling light is a simple screw fit bulb which should be provided. Fit this to the flash head, being careful not to touch the actual flash bulb. Brollies can be fitted by slighting them through some screw fittings. The flash head needs to be plugged into the power for it to work. On the back of the head should be various controls, switches and lights. they do the following:

• Modelling Light Switch. This switches the modelling light on or off. Most of the time you will want this on to see the effects of the light.
• Slave Switch. If you are using more than one flash head, which is unlikely to begin with as it complicates matters severely, only one head will be connected to the camera. All the others will have the slave switch on. This means that they only fire when they get a sudden burst of light from the first flash head. Hence, you don't need cables running over the place.
• Test button. The flashes will have a test button to test that the flash is workig properly. Press the button when you have unplugged the flash to discharge it. Also press if you have switched from full to half power.
• Ready Light. Flash heads take time to recharge between shots. Some flashes can be set to make a noise until the have finished recharging.
• Sync Socket. This is used with the flash sync lead to connect the flash head to the camera

The Light Meter

OK, I lied, the other slightly difficult thing to use if the light meter. This is used to determine the correct exposure to use to take the photograph. Unlike normal photography, this does not depend on the shutter speed. Because the flash of light is quite brief (around 1/300th of a second), the exposure is only affected by setting the aperture. Unfortunately, the camera cannot meter this brief light, so we need to use something different, a light meter. The way to do this is as follows:

• Plug the flash sync cord into the flash meter instead of the camera. Making sure that everything is on and the cord in firmly in the meter (it sometimes slips out), push the rocker switch mounted on the meter. The flash should go off. If the meter is pointed at the flash head it should show a number on the digital display. If the flash doesn't go off, check the connections and try again.
• On the top of the meter is a sensor used to record the light levels. This can be covered by a dome of white plastic on a slider. Cover the sensor. This converts the meter to take incident readings directly from the flash head, rather than reflected readings from the subject.
• Crouch down as close to your subject as possible and point the meter dome towards your main flash head. Make sure you are not shielding the dome from the flash with your body.
• Press the rocker switch to make the flash fire. A number sould appear in the digital display. The dial on the front of the meter has a setting for the ISO number of the film you are using. IF you set this correctly and then rotate the dial until the numbre displayed lines up, the aperture you should use will be displayed.

Taking a Photograph

Now that you have got the correct aperture to use, taking a photograph is fairly simple. Plug the flash sync cord back into you camera and set the aperture on the lens. The shutter speed you should use is the same one you use fo other flash work. It is often refered to as the flash sync speed, and may be marked in a different colour to other shutter speeds. On a Nikon F301, the sync speed is 125. Now tell the subject to smile and shoot!

Controlling the Light

As I mentioned earlier, studio photography allows you the chance to control the light completely. The easiest way to experiment is with one flash head. In fact most photographers only use one flash head at a time simply because it makes controlling things much easier. The modelling light can be trusted to mirow that the end result will be, to experiment a lot with diffusion distance and direction. By taking notes in a notebook of how the lighting was set up (drawing diagrmas helps), you will be able to remake a particularly pleasing lighting set up. Studio Photography is fun, rewarding, and a good thing to do a wet weekend when there isn't much to photograph outside.

Beginners' Guide to The Studio :: Beginners' Guide to Enlargement :: Beginners' Guide to Film :: Beginners' Guide to Exposure :: Beginners' Guide to Lenses :: Beginners' Guide to Wide Angle Lenses