What kind of light for home studio portrait?

[Jamie123]

You can also DIY your lights. I've made a few when I was starting studio photography. And a few years ago, I made my own "kinoflo" using 8 40W fluorescent tubes and electronic ballasts. The electronic ballast is preferred because it doesn't cause the tubes to flicker like the mechanical ones. The choice of tube is also important- some have better colour rendering than others, and the suitable ones can only be found through trial and error.

Nice DIY rig. For the tubes I would just use proper KinoFlo tubes as they're not really that expensive (about $20/tube).

 

[Frank Petronio]

Gee all these differing opinions and techniques...

One thing to consider with kids is that they move around a lot and can't stay put. Also you don't want them killing themselves by knocking a hot light over or blinding themselves with a strobe, etc.

And the other thing is to decide just what you're going for? Irving Penn style portraits with (those so-called cheesy) painter dropcloths? Loose active fun stuff? Something in between?

Also it is good to realize that you can break with photography's convention and instead of making you and your subjects hold still while you "build" the light around them (classic studio situations) you can instead move about and "find" the right light, sometimes guiding your subject to "stand there, turn that way" and explore with your camera.... Most photographers have their heads up their butts about doing that but it works well.

For myself, in most cases, what works is to take a bright, hot Tungsten light and bounce it into the corning of the walls and ceiling so it raises the overall room illumination in a soft yet directional way. Bounce a 300-watt Halogen into the corner, about 7' high in an 8' tall, 12' x 16' room with a white ceiling and light-colored walls and now you can easily shoot ISO 400 at 1/125th and f/2.8 or so.... reasonable compared to no lighting and in general the bounce gives you a nice look that has enough contrast.

You can also add a dialed down on-camera flash -- let it be 2-3 stops down from normal - and it kicks fill into your subject but allows you to capture the environment. Experiment, you can get cool blurry halos around a sharp subject by dragging the shutter while using flash.

Stay aware of window light too! Light the opposite wall in a room and the middle area will probably be a good "shooting zone".

It's a nice fluid way to shoot moving critters like children and drunken naked girls.

A digital camera is really nice for previewing the lighting, even if you end up using film for the real shots.

B&W solves color temperature problems or, with practice, Photoshop can make mixed lighting work.

Actually mixed lighting can usually be tamed to make a single good picture. What is hard to editing to have a consistent fleshtone as people move around in mixed lighting... this continues to madden me and is one of the main reasons why it's nice to replace the tungsten w a big professional strobe and radio sync when you do this professionally. Or resort to B&W (my first choice).

Their is a lot more to it of course but a $25 Home Depot Halogen work light and your camera's on-board flash can do a lot.

When the kids calm down, plop them on a stool in the corner or against a clean wall... bounce the hot light off the opposite wall and have a large, soft source. Or use a window. Or combine your warm Tungsten light and blue window light (as a fill) if shooting B&W.

Remember that the distance the kid is from the background makes a lot of difference, that applies to studio shots or real life.

The umbrellas and photo gadgets can come later... (Lowel is a better built alternative to Smith Victor btw, I really like their light stands and hardware). For strobe, those Elinchrom D-Lites look pretty slick for the money - you can add a Skyport radio remote sender for $100. On camera flash? old school Vivitar 283s for older cameras, get whatever you like from Canon or Nikon for your modern Canon or Nikon. Smaller units are not always a bad thing either.

Finally, start with one light. The second comes in for fill or back up. Add a third when you want to light the background independently from the subject.

This is a great book: http://www.lowel.com/book.html as it applies to more than just his hot lights, but lighting in general.

 

[ZorkiKat]

'Tungsten' is a color balance, not a specific piece of lighting gear.

In some circles, 'tungsten' is accepted as a description for electric lighting that is incandescent in nature. Tungsten in "tungsten-balanced" lighting is derived from the material used in the filaments of these lamps.🙂

For strong focused lighting you can indeed use a Tungsten spotlight but you can just aswell use a (daylight balanced) HMI. Or you can use flash with a fresnel lens attachment but I generally prefer the HMI approach.
You can also get FL lighting in both tungsten and daylight balance.

In the deleted examples I had, the photos were shot with halogen fresnel spots. Fresnels are very efficient, more of the light goes into the subject instead of getting lost "in the way", as with naked luminaires.

HMIs give daylight whites, but they can be expensive. Also, most HMI spots are bulkier than tungsten spots because of the extra ballasting components. HMIs also get hot, but not as hot as tungstens.

Serious harm potentials are not the only concerns for "hot lights". Make up runs quickly, models perspire, clothes literally wilt. Airconditioning also has to be stepped up too. But in most cases, the lamps are really ON only part of the time- focusing, and the actual take.

Nice DIY rig. For the tubes I would just use proper KinoFlo tubes as they're not really that expensive (about $20/tube).

Thanks. I rarely use this DIY luminaire now. Real Kino tubes are hard to get here, unless you're into the grip trade. And expensive too. This fluo 'northlight' was mostly for experimental purposes; the real tubes would be impractical for an equipment which isn't always used.

 

[Jamie123]

In some circles, 'tungsten' is accepted as a description for electric lighting that is incandescent in nature. Tungsten in "tungsten-balanced" lighting is derived from the material used in the filaments of these lamps.🙂



In the deleted examples I had, the photos were shot with halogen fresnel spots. Fresnels are very efficient, more of the light goes into the subject instead of getting lost "in the way", as with naked luminaires.

HMIs give daylight whites, but they can be expensive. Also, most HMI spots are bulkier than tungsten spots because of the extra ballasting components. HMIs also get hot, but not as hot as tungstens.

Serious harm potentials are not the only concerns for "hot lights". Make up runs quickly, models perspire, clothes literally wilt. Airconditioning also has to be stepped up too. But in most cases, the lamps are really ON only part of the time- focusing, and the actual take.



Thanks. I rarely use this DIY luminaire now. Real Kino tubes are hard to get here, unless you're into the grip trade. And expensive too. This fluo 'northlight' was mostly for experimental purposes; the real tubes would be impractical for an equipment which isn't always used.

True, "tungsten" is actually a chemical element, not the name of the color balance. I didn't know that Tungsten was used for any kind of hot light but I'll take your word for it. I was only trying to clarify the difference so the OP doesn't get confused. I'm sure you're very well aware of all the differences 🙂
Of course also the 'daylight balanced' flashes aren't always consistent in color temp throughout the range (especially monolights) and even actual daylight is not consistent during the course of the day but I think it's important that the OP keeps this basic distinction in mind so he doesn't get confused. (A while ago I was picking up some film from a lab and the girl in front of me requested Tungsten film. Only after a while the clerk found out that she was planning on using flash and he had to clear up for her that, while flash lighting is artificial, it's still daylight balanced.)

You're right, HMI's are very expensive and for photography I'd say you need at least 1200W spots. I'm actually dying to try out the new Arri M18 (1800W) but none of the movie gear rental places around here has it. But even as rentals they are quite expensive.

As I said, I think the harm potential is the biggest concern with hot lights and children. And low end Tungstens usually need some time to harm up in order to reach the proper color temp so turning them on and off isn't really an option.