Marr - Beginners guide to photographic lighting: techniques for success in the studio or on location

I remember my first experiments with lights. I was working at a photo lab that had a studio in the back. The owner of the lab was a photographer as well, and was nice enough to let me try my hand at the studio lights in the evening after he had left for the day. I was so worried about breaking the expensive equipment that I was actually afraid to turn on the power to the strobes. The light meter also intimidated meit seemed like something out of Star Trek. I was baffled.

Eventually, I worked up some nerve, and by the time my friend showed up to model for me, I had managed to get a single reading from the meter; it said f-11. That was the only reading I got from the meter that night. I tried pressing the buttons again in a variety of combinations but all I ever got was an error message.

Trying to look like I knew what I was doing, I continued with the shoot, spinning the aperture dial on my Pentax 50mm lens throughout the night. One of these exposures will be good, I thought. My friend knew a little about photography herself and asked why I was bracketing so much. That was it; I had been exposed as a fraud. I mumbled something about the light meter not working. From that point on, I set the aperture to f-11 and left it there the rest of the night.

The following day I watched the prints come out of the machine with some other workers from the photo lab. I was embarrassed as one ugly print after the other kept coming outgrainy, underexposed prints followed by wishy-washy, overexposed ones. Then suddenly they started looking good, the result of my conversion to f-11. That light meter must actually work, I thought. At that point, the owner of the lab walked by to look at the prints as they exited the machine. Nice work, he said.

That was itI was changed forever. Lighting was cool! That light-meter gizmo was cool! Needless to say, I continued to experiment in the studio at night as much as possible. That was about fourteen years ago, and I still think lighting is cool. There are many elements to creating a great image, but my first consideration is always lighting. Its amazing to see how it can transform the everyday into something spectacular. Through photography and lighting, I have grown to notice and admire the light that surrounds us daily, be it natural or artificial. I have to admit, though, that I am a lighting nerd. After a recent shoe-catalog shoot, the manufacturer asked if I would be interested in any of the shoes as a gift. I honestly could not remember any of the styles because I was only paying attention to the lighting and how it worked with the subjects. The only words I thought of during the shoot were black, shiny, leather, white, shape, curve, texture, reflections, etc. I didnt think, Hey, these look comfortable! or I wonder if those come in black? I think you can probably see that Im a little obsessed about lighting.

In this book, I will show you how fun and easy lighting can be. Theres no reason to be intimidated like I was that first night in the studio. We will start slowly and then gradually move on to advanced techniques. Knowing the rules of lighting is important, mainly so that, as you get better, you can break them and create some unique work. It is important to experiment and make mistakes but I hope to point you in the direction of making productive mistakesknowing what went wrong and correcting it, or using the mistake as a starting point for something new.

Never again will you look at your film or digital monitor and wonder what happened with the lighting. If something unusual did

occur, either by fault or design, you will be able to identify what happened. Im particularly drawn to unusual lighting techniques and exposures, and we will experiment with these to develop some creative shots.

The primary focus of my commercial work is people and product photography. I do interior and architectural photography as well. The examples in this book will be from my area of expertise, but the techniques can be applied to any subject matter. In some instances, schematic drawings of lighting setups will accompany the explanations. In many of the chapters, I have suggested practice ideas for the material discussed. You can use these sections, called Putting it to Use, as an assignment list or as a jumping-off point for your own endeavors. I will also suggest setting up some shots in intentionally ugly settings so that you can see how lighting can save you from some messy situations that are unfortunately common.

This book assumes a basic understanding of photography. You should be comfortable with aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, lenses, and film/digital capture. Whether you aspire to become a professional or just shoot more professionally, this book will push you to a higher level. Feel free to shoot whatever format and film you like. If you have a camera with Polaroid capability or a digital camera with a monitor, I highly recommend using them. They are great tools for getting instant feedback on your lighting. Speaking of digital cameras, we will spend time looking at how this new technology can improve our photographs.

As far as lighting equipment is concerned, you will need at least one strobe head and a light meter in order to practice what is presented in this book. Two strobe heads would be better. If you are just starting with lighting and cant afford strobe equipment, read the book anyway. The concepts discussed will open your eyes to the nature of light all around us.

Lets get started.