This Introduction to Studio Lighting is the first class in our comprehensive studio lighting program. These three lessons will lay the foundation for your future in studio photography. All subsequent lighting classes are built on the fundamental lighting theory presented here.
What’s the plan?
We’ll start with a discussion of various types of lighting equipment and their advantages in different situations. We’ll then work with a single studio strobe and reflector to demonstrate how to control lighting contrast and softness independently. First, we’ll simulate on-camera flash and then make step-by-step changes in lighting position, power, and attached modifiers while examining the results on a large computer screen. Special attention is paid to developing a systematic process for making adjustments to light positions and power levels by pre-visualizing and taking careful measurements. This approach makes it possible to produce images in the studio that require ZERO post processing.
- Studio light vs natural light
- Constant lights vs strobes
- Types of flash equipment
- Managing color in the studio
- Measuring the flash and adjusting exposure
- Triggering systems
- Understanding sync speed
- Shoot-through and bounce umbrellas
- Softboxes and beauty dishes
- Controlling softness and contrast independently
- Working with the inverse square law
- Tethered shooting in CaptureOne and Lightroom
- Eliminate the guess work during shooting for ZERO post processing later