Lighting - Artificial Lighting
Please see Readings from Session Three for this section as well
1. Tungsten Lighting: Indoor light from an incandescent light has a high orange content and is unsuitable for daylight
film as it gives a red-orange cast. Use either Tungsten film or a special filter to obtain correct color balance. I do not
recommend you buy special filters, but use flash
2. Flourescent Lighting: There are many missing wavelengths in fluorescent light and there is an eerie green-blue cast.
This can be corrected with a special filter. I suggest not buying filters but using flash.
3. Photoflood Lighting (demonstrated in class): Photoflood lamps are blue but actually produce an almost natural looking
image in color. The light is intense and painful to the subject, thus you should not look directly into the light. Bulbs are
available at Hunt's Photo in Cambridge and Melrose and cost around $10 each for a 400 watt bulb. The reflectors can be bought
at a hardware store and tripod stands at the same store or in a camera shop and are not as costly as regular studio lights.
The total cost is around $40 per light fixture. Two lights are adequate for most cases.
4. "Square Perfect" and similar studio lights (demonstrated in class). These are 65-85 Watt 5500K fluorescent
daylight balanced lights that look like the low wattage bulbs that are becoming popular for low energy consumption and available
as kits on eBay (see links below for purhase). The full set consists of the spiral bulb, receptacle, spring-loaded tripod
stand and white umbrella. A set costs around $85 and you will need 2 sets.
5. Thyristor Flash: This the the kind of battery-operated flash or strobe that is used by most photographers. Do not
use your camera mounted inbuilt flash as there is the problem of red-eye. A tilt-head flash is needed, preferably with a LED
screen or controls that shows f-stop, film speed and zoom settings. Details will be as discussed in class.
Please review the relevant reading assignments in Laytin and Horenstein as indicated last week.
Assignment:
1. Continue last week's assignment on shooting very early in the morning and in the evening. Also, shoot in near darkness,
or with very low light at night with only street lights and car lights. Leave the shutter open for 1-30 seconds to determine
how to adjust for extremes of low light situations.
2. Begin shooting Portraits in NATURAL LIGHT indoors near a window or on a porch. Shoot single subjects, with no babies,
pets or animals. You may experiment with flash if you have one to see what it looks like and gain some experience. Please
see the reading under Session Five for next week.
SUGGESTIONS FOR TECHNIQUES AND EQUIPMENT FOR STUDIO LIGHTING
