Photography 101 - Artificial Light Sources and Camera Settings (Patreon)

This week is going to be a brief overview of Artificial Light Sources as well as the Camera settings involved.

There are two primary types of light when it comes to artificial light sources:

• Constant Lights - These are the types of lights you use in your everyday life, except specially designed for photography; or often videography. These are simply lights that are always on. Pro's: Easy to see the outcome of your lighting as you work, easier to learn basic light setups. Con's: Quality bright light is expensive, requires more power meaning outdoor portability is limited. Can cause setups to be hot and sweaty on the model.
• Strobes - Strobes are what most people would refer to as "Flashes." These are lights which only come on for fractions of a second while the shutter of the camera is open. Pro's: Good quality light can be very affordable. Possible to come in small packages for tight spaces. Can be run on regular batteries. Able to achieve higher F-stops for sharper images. Cons: Difficult to know what the outcome will be, adjustments cost more time. Useless for filming.

It will be up to you and your current skill level, use case, and financial situation for you to decide what is best for you. 

Strobes

If high quality extremely sharp indoor photos is your goal, strobes are by far the best option. There are 2 main types: Speedlights and Strobes. 

Speedlights are attachable to the hot shoe on your camera, but more frequently are used in conjunction with a wireless trigger. From my experience, the brand of speedlight is not very important when it comes to the quality of light you will receive from it. Overall as long as it's a reputable brand, they all seem to cast a very high quality color index. I've tried everything from Lumopro (my current daily drivers) to Sunpak, Nikon, and Sigma. All have had great quality. The main differences have been recharge time, overall longevity, ease of use, and bulkiness for travel purposes. 

Here is a sample speedlight, along with a wireless trigger system:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1101196-REG/yongnuo_yn_560iv_yn560_iv_speedlite.html

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Radio-Infrared-Slaves/ci/8007/N/4168864832

I would recommend reading reviews before purchasing for the longevity of these products, and deciding on a wireless trigger that will work best for your situation. Some can control the power of the flash wirelessly, some simply cause the flash to fire.

Strobes are more dedicated studio lights, these often plug into a wall outlet, or have a very large battery source. They feature faster recharge times, and often have bowens mounts which allow you to more easily attach different modifiers quickly and efficiently. 

Here is a very popular strobe by interfit:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1347245-REG/interfit_hb320_honey_badger_320_ws.html

Here are some camera settings to get you started, it will be up to you to experiment and understand the different settings you'll need when shooting with a flash. However, often the best thing about a flash is that you will rarely need to go above the lowest ISO your camera can go, as the flash can compensate for any lack of light in your scenery. There are certainly times when it will still be needed, but these are special circumstances such as long exposure photography or when matching lighting conditions of an already extant light source.

Example settings:

Set your flash to 1/4 power

Set your camera to the following: 1/200 (check your flash for the fastest possible shutter speed, 1/200 is a common zone but higher speeds are possible, you will need more light for higher speeds) f/5.6 iso 100

Set the flash with a modifier such as a softbox or umbrella to one side of your model angled at them about 3 feet away. This should result in a nice crisp image featuring a strong falloff for moody lighting.

Constant Lights

Constant lights are much more commonly used in videography, however photographers can still make great use of them in some situations, or if your camera is good with low light situations. (Constant lights rarely provide as much light as strobes, therefore higher ISO values are needed to be able to shoot at higher F stop values)

Here is a great beginners constant light, be sure to grab a modifier of some sort as well! 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1341997-REG/godox_sl60w_5600k_60w_white.html

If you would like a more portable constant light, one of these is a nice starter along with a battery:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1304881-REG/yongnuo_yn_216w_yn216_led_video_light.html

For the same setup with modifier off to one side of model, within 3 feet from them, set your power to full. Recreate the same camera settings and see how things are looking. 1/200, f/5.6, iso 100. If things are a little too bright, increase your shutter speed, there are no limits to how fast your shutter can be since the light does not need to synchronize firing at the same time as your shutter. If it is too dim, slow your shutter speed a little, but don't go below 1/125 or you will start to see a lot of motion blur. If it is still too dim at 1/125 then open out your aperture to f/2.8 or somewhere in between. 

The photo above is a great example of mixing constant and strobe lights, on the back right and left are two constant lights linked in this article, and out of frame is a strobe used with a  softbox as the key light for the model. 

I hope this brief overview is helpful in getting started with a basic flash setup! Of course as always feel free to leave questions or comments if you would like to know more.