Comments on: Friday Freebie #10 – Example Studio Lighting setups with Photos

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:24:19 +0000

You’ve only got to look at what McNally & Tejada produce with small flashes to see what is possible

By: anamit

anamit — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:17:25 +0000

Excellent tutorial! But…as a fan/user of small flashguns (Vivitar 273/283/285)), I’m wondering which setups would be possible…Clamshell yes, but the others, perhaps not…what say you?

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 13 May 2010 07:23:47 +0000

Forgot to also say that if lighting outdoors, trying to compete against the sun, then more power also makes sense

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 13 May 2010 07:22:41 +0000

Hi Edd, apologies for delay in responding. To be honest there are days when I find the 400W too powerful. Reason being is when I want to do a real “low key” shot , the 400′s don’t go low enough in power. The D-Lite 2′s at 200W would have been better. I rarely get above 50% the power of the 400′s.

That said if you are looking to light a really large space, or large group shots (10+) then the 400W or above makes sense. In ideal world you would have 4 lights anyway, to do high key. In that scenario you could buy 2 lower power lights, plus 2 stronger, giving you maximum flexibility.

Re Interfits, have never used them, so worth chjecking how low you can set power on them. Hope that helps. Dave

By: Edd

Edd — Fri, 07 May 2010 03:20:28 +0000

Hi Dave: Thank you for your expertise and for this great techniques. I am in the thought of buying my first studio lighting. For the studio space you used in your lessons, what would you recommend in regards to wattage power on the monolights? What do you think about the Interfit Stellar X 650 watts/second? Thank you again! Edd

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:29:32 +0000

Hi Trev, I used flash. As for colours I always take a test shot up front with model holding a “grey card”. This allows you to set your white balance perfectly in Photoshop or Lightroom (use white balance dropper on grey card), then apply same change to all shots from your shoot Voila perfect colours

By: Trev

Trev — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:02:05 +0000

thanks so much for sharing your set ups, have just started with photography and these are so helpful.
quick question, on the clam shell did you use continuous lighting or flash? if flash how did you retain the wonderful colours you have?

By: Mychael

Mychael — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:47:13 +0000

you are GREAT!!!! I learning more about studio lighting and this is GREAT

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:02:59 +0000

Hi Kelly. Good question.

My simple advice is if you want the osftest most pleasing light, then place the lights as close as possible to model. Usually I have them just out of shot when composing photo.

The further away from the subject you place the lights, the harsher the light. You may use this for example if you want crisp shadows for a dramatic look.

As for position of camera from model this doesn’t matter in terms of exposure, but purely from a composition you want to achieve. I have shot at 200mm some 12 feet back before, or just acouple of feet away for tight crop with a 50mm lens. DOwn to personal preference.

Hope that helps. Dave

By: Kelly

Kelly — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:44:47 +0000

Quick question… new to studio lights, and using digrams to get ideas for how to position lights and why.. but one piece of info is missing, is there a standard or guideline distance from subject to lights and subject to camera?

Thanks again for great information