Studio lighting advice

[Toliverwist]

Re; Bowens 1000jws Digital heads.

Can anyone help with information about using studio lighting? I've tried to google the above mentioned digital heads, but not found any detailed information about how to use them.

I have never used digital heads. Does one need a sync lead, a dedicated camera flash lead, or are the above lights controllable wirelessly by the camera flash? I gather that digital heads have menus for functions, but I have no idea what they are other than power settings, As far as I can gather, power settings are not calibrated in stops.

Any information would be greatly appreciated, thanks. I believe it's not good policy to incinerate your model. Apparently they don't like it.

[Peter]

Depends on the light, but most can be fired through a sync lead, triggered by another flash, or by an infra-red system, which may be built-in or an add-on.

Power range is usually displayed as 1/1 (full power) 1/2 (half power) 1/4 quarter etc. You'll need a flash meter to translate that into a working aperture, or some just wing it by trial and error and looking at the histogram on the camera.

[Snappy]

Hi there.

As Peter says, the settings are generally in fractions of the full power capability of the flash. They're not give in f-stops as there are so many ways of modifying the light with reflectors, snoots, soft-boxes and so on.

Studio flash heads don't contain the circuitry to dedicate to your camera and so can't be operated in this mode. A dedicated flashgun communicates information to the camera and responds to the camera's quench signal when sufficient light has been released to give the correct exposure.

Peter is also right regarding linking the flash to the camera. I use an inexpensive radio trigger bought via eBay from China and it's never let me down. Sync. leads are a pain in the ass, as they get in the way and never stay plugged in. It is possible to fire most studio flashes by firing another flash, for example on camera, but there can be a problem with digital camera flashes.

On a film camera, the shutter curtain opened fully, the flash fired and the camera's flash meter measured the light reflected from the film plane to determine correct exposure and quench the flash. On digital cameras, the sensor doesn't reflect light in a suitable way for this method to work, so instead there is usually a pre-flash just before the main one which provides information to the meter.

This pre-flash can trigger the slave units in older studio heads and cause them to fire early and be recharging when you take the picture, so your shots end up dark. Newer "digital" heads like yours sometimes contain suppression circuitry to prevent this, but I wouldn't recommend using the on-camera flash anyway as it will get mixed in with the studio lights and ruin the effect.

As for metering, I still believe an external flash meter is essential. I know that you can look on the camera screen at the picture histogram, but when using multiple lights, the ability to take individual meter readings from each gives you more control.

[Toliverwist]

I have a hammerhead flash gun from the 80s. It has a slide rule for setting the film speed and a slider to match the aperture to that set in the camera, which then reads the maximum distance for correct exposure for any of three auto settings, but the in built sensor controls the flash duration. It was not foolproof, as, for instance, white walls would lead to under exposure, or black walls to over exposure of the subject. It cannot be used with digital cameras, because of possible high voltage across the sync terminals. My Canon flash guns are controlled by light measured through the lens.

This studio flash scene, though high powered, seems rather primitive by comparison with both the above methods.

However, the following email exchange with the studio leads me to believe that their flash heads have sensors built in, unless I am misreading the rather cryptic reply. I?ll soon find out since I have a session booked.

************
Me to studio
I presume the studio flash heads control the flash exposure, rather than my
Canon EOS450D camera.

Do I meed a sync lead for your studio flash?

Regards

Studio to me
That’s correct...

No you don't need a cable I have a IR remote that you use

Regards
************

Note: I told them the wrong camera. I updated to a 550D some time ago.

[img]http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4005/4394810922_66461fe25f.jpg[/img]
Panel on pre-digital hammerhead flashgun by Sir Garlichad, on Flickr

[myson]

Hello Mr Twist,

This is the basic sequence for setting up studio lighting using studio flash heads.

1. Position the lights to the "set" you will be photographing the girly on. For a 2 light setup, the lights are generally positioned at approx 45 degrees to the model (I have used 3, 4 and 5 light setups but they're more complicated).

2. Turn the flash heads on and set power levels to about 1/4 to start with. Switch the light meter on and set the "flash sync" speed (shutter speed) on the light meter (anywhere between 1/60th and 1/200th second, stand on the "set" where the model will be and use the meter to "fire" the flash heads (depending on the flash meter you may need to flash heads with a radio trigger). The meter will then give you the apature reading (f stop). Generally if this reading is below f8 I would increase the flash head power and re-check and continue until I had an f stop of between f8 and f11 or above.

3. Now you can get your camera out. Turn it on and switch to "Manual". Set the "Flash Sync" (shutter) speed to the same as you set the flash meter to check the lighting. Then set the apature to that given by the flash meter.

4. Fit the radio trigger to the hot shoe on the camera, get your model on set and start snapping away.

As you will see, the camera does not come into play until you actually have the lights set up ready and neither does it have any control of the lights whatsoever. You have to repeat this sequence each time you change "sets".

It sounds more complicated than it actually is and if the studio guy is happy to run you through the first few times you'll soon get the hang of it and it will become second nature.

Just have fun, that's the main thing and don't forget to post some of your photos for us to peruse !thumbsup!.

Myson
!oldie!

[Toliverwist]

Thanks Myson for that clear explanation.

[nikonman]

Mr Toliverwist,

Now you have shot with Sarah we will be expecting you to post some of the photos on the Promotions Forum.
The easy way to do this is to use..



It has been designed by rgb for use on these forums and is easy to use.

I hope everything went well with the lighting for you. A few more shoots and you will becoming a expert.

[Toliverwist]

******************************
nikonman typed
Date: 02-16-12 12:25

Mr Toliverwist,

Now you have shot with Sarah we will be expecting you to post some of the photos on the Promotions Forum.
The easy way to do this is to use..

http://www.rgbphotohost.com

It has been designed by rgb for use on these forums and is easy to use.

I hope everything went well with the lighting for you. A few more shoots and you will becoming a expert.
******************************

Yes, the session with Sarah was brilliant. ?More on that when I post the photos.

Thanks for the very useful hosting link.

Well, all the fuss, (by me) about studio lighting turned out to be unnecessary. The guy who runs the studio knows the exposure for his lights. His advice was 1/125 @ F11 ISO 100. Once you know that, changing aperture just means changing ISO to retain exposure. He has the backdrop lit at plus one stop, which is good, but now I notice on some of the prone shots the model?s head has extended beyond the lighter patch. It doesn?t really seriously degrade the image, though.

His infra red xmitter didn?t work on my camera, Canon EOS550D. I had a trailing sync lead in use throughout the session.

There is a fair way to go yet before coming a studio expert [img]http://www.runemasterstudios.com/graeml ... s/sigh.gif[/img]