Lighting for Photography

Friday, April 30, 2004I've wanted to get some suggestions on good portrait lighting for a long time, even visiting bookstores (gasp!) to find imformation on the subject. Nothing really clicked. Then today I stumbled across Imaging Resource's Web Photo School, with a particularly succinct couple of articles on properly setting up lighting - thanks guys! Shooting a Basic Headshot, Basic Portrait Indoors, and Soft Lights for Dramatic Results were exactly what I wanted to find.

Of course, the nice lights they're using cost several hundred dollars on up, though! Obviously these are way better than on-camera flash, but I wonder how a TTL flash would manage to fit in? Since the freestanding ones are the only way to get the lighting off to the side, I don't suppose it would really matter, but I'd like to see how they compare.

1 Comment

• Joe: You can get similar effects using wireless strobes with reflectors and diffusers made from simple, cheap materials like hobby foam core white board for reflectors and milk jugs for diffusers. May not be impressive to look at, but the results will be there. (commented on 7/31/2006 4:41:16 PM)

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