One of my Valentine's Day presents from my wonderful husband was a seven-week photography class! It's for intermediate photographers, and it focuses on cost-effective lighting techniques. It has been way fun, and I've learned a TON. I've only ever used natural light, so this has been very educational. Each week the teacher shows us an expensive lighting instrument and what it does, and then she shows us much cheaper ways of duplicating it with a speed light/off-camera flash and some homemade attachments. (It has made me realize that I really want a speed light!) The two main things we've made so far are a beauty dish and a snoot. This is the part where I try to explain what they do, and more experienced photographers will laugh at me...
A beauty dish can help direct and focus light on a specific area, and can leave a really cool round shadow edge. Here are two examples of a picture taken by a real photographer with a real beauty dish:
I think they are super cool. I couldn't wait to try it myself! The only problem was/is that I don't have a speed light, so on our studio shoot day, I had to share a set-up with another person from class. This particular set-up was not how I wanted, but I didn't feel like I should change it, since it wasn't mine--beggars can't be choosers. Anyway, the lighting wasn't quite what I wanted it to be, because the flash was too bright and the dish was too far away, so it was more like a really big fill flash, but oh well. That is a legitimate way to use it, so it was good to practice. Here are some shots I got of the teacher's crazy husband. He kept acting weird--I think he was uncomfortable being a model for two straight hours...
The other thing I mentioned--a snoot--is the same type of thing, but it focuses the light even more directly, so it's more harsh and directional(?). The other people in class kept hogging all the good backdrops and all of the models, so we had to stick with the plain white sheet and steal a two-year-old from her mother for the snoot section.
I don't think I would have chosen such a harsh light for such a cute little girl, but oh well. Hopefully I will get a speed light someday so I can practice and get even better. Yay for continuing education!
1 comment:
Very cool! I love beauty dishes, I can't wait to get one. Some of my favorite pictures from after dark were taken with one. Neil Van Neikerk is amazing! He is a friend of my favorite mentor there and his blog has everything you need to know about off camera lighting, if you haven't looked at it you should, just be careful because you will be sucked in for days. ;) Maybe you'll get a speedlight for the next big holiday? I have an SB-800 which is the older version of the SB-900, you should be able to get one off of amazon. They have way more functions than the SB-600 and are close in price because they're the older model. Sorry, this is super long!
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