Today, studio photography is very popular. With the development of digital technology, anyone can buy a modern camera and take high-quality photographs. At the same time, they still cannot be compared with the photographs that can be obtained in a photo studio.

In order for photography to turn out well, it is necessary to properly organize the artificial lighting scheme in the room. Otherwise, in poor light, the photos may turn out to be of poor quality. You can organize a photo studio in almost any room, including at home. Our article will tell you how to organize photography in artificial light, as well as what schemes for organizing light supply are applicable here.

Studio Features

Photos taken indoors under artificial light will be of higher quality than those taken outdoors. This is due to the benefits of a photo studio. Here you can:

• create an optimal level of illumination using lighting fixtures;
• recreate, using different schemes for artificial lighting, any conditions to get an excellent photo;
• For studio lighting, you can use additional lighting fixtures to create a specific composition.

Note! All these moments can easily be embodied in any room of the house.

Photo studio design

But in order to create high-quality lighting in a photo studio, it is necessary to take into account a number of nuances related to the placement of additional lamps. If this is not done, then in poor lighting conditions the photos will not turn out as desired. This is especially important in a situation where you are doing studio shooting at home.

Studio lighting

Any photographer, even a beginner, knows how important it is to organize proper lighting for high-quality photography. With the help of light, you can emphasize the beauty of photographs or, conversely, completely ruin them. Therefore, before organizing artificial lighting for such premises, you should know what types of lighting are applicable here.
In a photo studio, you can organize five types of lighting, which differ in purpose:

• drawing. This is the most important type. Often it is located at the required angle in front of the photographed object. It is placed slightly above the person’s head;

Painting light

• background. Used to separate the model from the existing background. With its help, the effect of having space behind a person is created;

Background light

• filling. It is located in front of or near the camera. Allows you to soften the light and shadow pattern, and also makes the shadows deeper. To create fill light, use a soft box;

Fill light

• accentuating or backing. Allows you to emphasize a certain area of ​​the photograph (the silhouette of a person, his clothes or hairstyle, etc.) Often used in advertising photography.
• modeling With its help, special highlights are created in the photograph.

Modeling and backlighting

By combining different light options, you can create a real photo masterpiece.
At home for a photo studio, two lighting options are created according to “softness”:

• hard. Indoors, with the help of such lighting you can create deep shadows, and the photo itself will turn out more saturated and bright;
• soft. This type of lighting is characterized by the absence of pronounced shadows. The light here is evenly distributed over the entire surface of the photo.

These two lighting options are the main and mandatory ones for organizing a photo studio, either at home or in a rented room. But besides them, other lighting options can be used for studio lighting:

• cut-off. With its help, the texture and shape of objects that will be present in the picture are highlighted;

Note! Wall lighting is best for taking pictures of inanimate objects.

• tonal. There will be no harsh shadows here. A similar effect is achieved through the use of softboxes and photo umbrellas. Used for portrait photography.

With these lighting options, you can easily set up your own photo studio even at home.

Sources of light

Light sources for the studio

To create the desired type of lighting in a photo studio organized at home, you need to use special light sources. With their help, the necessary shooting patterns will be formed in the photo studio.

By their nature of action, they are all divided into two main types:

• impulsive. They look like short-term outbreaks. Can only be used when taking photographs. Such a source creates a powerful pulse of light. It is formed from two light bulbs: a regular halogen and a pulsed one;

Note! When using halogen lamps, a step-down transformer must be used.

• permanent. Used for photography and video recording. They provide constant light, which allows you to evaluate the future image before shooting begins. Such devices are not used all the time, as they require a large amount of electricity.

The following can be used as light sources:

• ordinary lamps;
• halogen bulbs;
• LED bulbs. This is the most economical option.

In addition to all this, to create a studio at home, you will need additional camera attachments, umbrellas, octoboxes and softboxes (reflectors), colored curtains, tripods, etc.

Setting up the light

Hollywood scheme

The light in a photo studio, to create the luminous flux we need, is set in a certain way. For this purpose, special schemes are used. But many photographers believe that there is no ideal universal scheme that would fit most positions.
Today there is a huge variety of different schemes. The photographer, based on the chosen scheme, must independently adjust the light flux.
The classic schemes that are most often used in studio photography include the following organizational options:

• "Hollywood" scheme. This is the most common scheme for studios. It is used in portrait photography. It is organized very quickly and simply. With its help you can create photographs without frills. Here the angle between the model, the light source and the camera should be 45 degrees. To create a luminous flux, pulsed type lamps should be used. They are placed behind the photographer. In this case, the power of the emitted light should be less than the main type of lighting. Therefore, it is determined experimentally;

Note! The Hollywood scheme is often used by beginning photographers.

• high key circuit. There will be no rough shadows here, and the tones will be light and delicate. This scheme uses a key light and two background lights. They are set higher than the previous source in terms of exposure. Lights should be placed behind the model, and should be directed only at the background;

Note! Due to the subtle tones, this design is suitable for photographing small children, families and animals. In addition, this scheme is excellent for shooting nudes.

High key scheme

• "Low key" scheme. Allows you to create a dramatic atmosphere and add mystery to the photo. In this situation, you should use a dark background. The light source is only two lamps and an accent light installed on the side.

Low key schemes

These schemes are most often used by both professionals and amateurs. Based on them, you can create other schemes for artificial studio lighting.

Assessing correct exposure

Light meter

In order for the photograph to turn out high-quality and beautiful, it is necessary to correctly build the lighting exposure when using a variety of schemes. To do this, use the following special devices:

• exposure meter This device displays the properties of the aperture, as well as shutter speed in the presence of pulsed flashes. The exposure meter has recently been used less and less, as it became irrelevant during the transition to digital technology;
• flash meter. This device reflects the correspondence in the strength of the fill and leading flashes. It works using pulsed lighting.

Flash meter

In addition, a brightness histogram can be used. This is a graph that reflects brightness by dividing it into halftones. Thanks to this histogram, you can evaluate the possibilities of improving a photo.

Conclusion

As you can see, when creating a lighting scheme for a photo studio at home or in a rented room, you need to take into account many nuances. It is especially important here not only to correctly arrange the lighting devices, but also to ensure the optimal level of illumination of the model, depending on the requirements facing the photographer.
By organizing a photo studio according to all the rules, you will be able to take masterpiece photographs in it that will be real works of art!

In photography, for ease of use, light is conventionally divided into key, fill, background, backlight, modeling and accent light. This generally accepted gradation is quite abstract. Lighting an object is a more creative process and is subject to slightly different laws, which will be discussed later.

Types of lighting

Key light (1)

Theoretically, the painting light is the main and main thing in the composition. He reveals the shape of objects and details of the object and the entire plot, leaving some elements in the shadows and highlighting others. This is directional light, which, depending on the photographer’s intentions or shooting conditions, can be either hard or soft. Lighters that produce directional light usually place the light source no closer than one and a half to two meters to the subject, but not very far either. In natural lighting, the role of key light is played by the sun or any daylight passing through any opening. For example, a window, a door, a gap between trees...

The key light forms a so-called shadow contour. If any volumetric surface, especially a spherical one, is illuminated from the photographer’s side, then in its individual sections, located at different angles to the light rays, shadowed areas are formed, which form a shadow contour.

Fill light (2)

Fill light illuminates your subjects evenly, creates the level of illumination necessary for satisfactory detail, and does not create visible shadows. Fill light makes shadows lighter and is always soft.

Modeling light (3)

Modeling light functions as an additional fill light and serves to highlight shadows in the necessary places. It is formed by small sources of soft light. It is also used to create local glare and reflections on various reflective parts of the subject. In a photo pavilion, their shape, color and intensity can be adjusted.

Backlight (4)

Backlight, or oncoming light, was discussed earlier. It also creates what is called a light contour. The closer the light source is installed to the camera, the wider the stripe of the light contour becomes, and, conversely, the further the light source is located from the camera, the narrower this stripe of light becomes.

Background light (5)

Background light serves to illuminate the background, for which both soft diffused and directional light devices are usually used. It serves to highlight the subject and create a difference in lighting between it and the background. For example, if you want the subject to be against a pristine white background, the background is illuminated more strongly than the subject - as is customary when shooting with documents. If you need to highlight an object against a gray or colored background, then the background is illuminated less than the main object.

The background color should not sharply contrast with the complexion, unless such a contrast is the photographer's intention.

Light accent

A narrow beam of hard or soft light is directed to the area of ​​the object that needs to be illuminated. This lighting was very often used in films of the middle of the last century, when only one of the actor’s eyes were in the beam of light, and everything else was hidden in twilight.

Let me point out from the outset that it doesn't matter what camera you use. You can apply your knowledge about light both by taking photographs with a good digital camera and with a phone. Photography and light go hand in hand. Simply put, if there is no light, there is no photography. Light is so important for great photography. I'll ask you to put your camera down for a moment and watch. Just look at the light, its color, how it falls on people and objects. What shadows are created?

Try looking at this at different times of the day:

1. Early in the morning before sunrise and during dawn

In the early morning, you will see the light change from cool blue to red, orange and yellow. It will change from a soft, shadowless light to one that gives shape and texture to everything it touches. If the weather is right, at the end of the day you will witness the same process in reverse - a transition from warm to cool shades!

Beginning photographers try to photograph the actual sunrise or sunset. Instead, try looking at how the sun hits trees or plants, or a person's face and clothing. When the sun is low in the sky, it creates gorgeous shapes and textures. On the beach, look at the texture of the sand, the shape of the rocks and shells scattered everywhere

2. Noon

Noon is best left to the clock hands! This may be the worst time for photography. This is the same light you see in office spaces with ceiling lighting. This will give your portraits an ugly look like the image above.

What to do? There are two simple solutions. Turning on the flash is one option. The second is to hide in the shade outdoors or use window light indoors.

3. Light from the window

The light from the window is a wonderful directional light. What does directed mean? This is light that comes from one direction, one source.

We can often see a person standing with his back to the window, and his face remains in the dark. Instead, place it perpendicular to the window, using the light to illuminate one side of the face. You can use window light with equally effective results whether you're photographing a person or an object.

Try using this type of light when the sun is not shining directly through the window. Choose a cloudy day, use a north-facing window, or photograph after the sun has moved away from the window.

4. Stormy weather

The light changes as you move in and out of the storm. See how the colors of flowers, leaves and even cars come to life as the weather changes. You can of course add saturation in Photoshop, but it will be much more realistic if you can photograph that rich color that happens at the end of a thunderstorm.

And don't be afraid to go out in the snow or rain with your camera. You will discover a whole new world that most people hide from. You will witness scenes that are usually not seen. I guarantee people will go, “Wow, how did you get that picture?!”

5. Seasons

Your observations of light will tell you a lot. I think you'll start to see what I don't see. I hope so. Another thing you may notice is that the light changes throughout the year as well.

For example, the position of the sun in the sky changes. In the summer here in southern Ontario, the sun rises right outside my east-facing back door. Come November, this same fireball rises about 45 degrees further south or to my right. So he now lights things from a completely different angle than he did in June, creating different shapes and textures for objects in the same space. How cool is that!

Another piece of the lighting puzzle I've discovered is that the light becomes clearer and sharper, almost overnight, as we move from August to September. The cloudy air of August creates a softer light because it is filled with particles, scattering the light around. When the air cools in September, it becomes fresher and cleaner, giving us clearer light. This is in southern Ontario, but I guarantee the same effects will occur in your time and location.

Don't be afraid of the weather

People in these latitudes often complain when temperatures reach -20 degrees Celsius. It's time to grab your camera and go out into the world. In our winters the weather is very gray. Ninety percent of the time when it's very cold, we get fresh, clean, beautiful light with those gorgeous blue skies.

I realize I'm talking about my home, but I ask you to start observing how the seasons and weather influence the weather. What time do you like visually? When does color appear? Perhaps you like soft light?

Conclusion

What's really amazing about photography is that 7 or 70 of us can photograph the same scene, and usually we all see a different perspective. When we communicate, we learn. My recommendation? Be yourself and share.

We call backlight a position of light when the source is located behind the subject. The source does not have to be exactly behind the model's back, it can be slightly above or to the side, but it is always behind. Surely, at least once you have heard the categorical words from unsolicited advisers: “Don’t shoot against the light!” And there is some truth in this: with such lighting it is very easy to get an incomprehensible shadow in the frame instead of a good portrait. Here we will try to dispel the myth and figure out how to use backlighting to take beautiful photos.

Shooting in backlight is possible if you know how to manage this light correctly. The easiest way is to use a flash so that the face of the subject (if, for example, we are creating a portrait in backlight) is not inferior in brightness to the background. If the model is close to the camera, then try to ensure that the flash does not overexpose the face. To do this, you can introduce a negative flash correction and reduce the pulse power. Or cover the flash with a diffuser: you can use a homemade one - a simple sheet of white paper or a napkin. The light on your face will become soft, and you will have a chance to avoid not only overexposure, but also unpleasant glare on the skin.

How to shoot in backlight when you don’t have a flash handy, or the flash is useless (if, for example, you’re shooting a landscape), but you still want to get a decent image? Try setting up your camera correctly. To shoot in backlight, it makes sense to select the spot metering mode - in this case, the camera will measure the amount of light on the main subject that the metering point falls on. Try using positive exposure compensation - its value can be selected experimentally: maybe ½ step is enough, or maybe you have to set it to 2 or 3. This way you can work out the details that are in the shadow. You must remember, however, that you will have to sacrifice the brightness of the background: the background will be overexposed, objects on it will be difficult to see (or not visible at all), but when photographed in backlight it looks completely natural.

If a light source enters the frame, glare may appear in the photo - often they look impressive, but can become a hindrance in the image.

If we want to get a beautiful silhouette, and the details of the foreground are not important to us, then we can do without the spot metering mode and exposure compensation. The background will be clearly visible, but the main subject will be heavily shaded. To make such a photo successful, you need to carefully monitor the expressiveness of the silhouette. For example, if you are shooting a face, it is better to place it in profile. If there are several people in the frame, try to position them so that the silhouettes do not merge, do not intersect with each other, and are expressive and clear.

Shooting transparent or translucent objects in backlight looks very impressive - you can get very pleasant light in the frame, with beautiful outlines of the subject being photographed.

Lighting plays an important role in photography. It can bring a photo to life by adding interesting effects, dramatic shadows and silhouettes, but if used incorrectly, it can end up with unwanted highlights and reflections in your photo.

This guide is written to introduce beginners to one of the most important aspects of photography: lighting. The guide consists of 3 parts. The first talks about hard and soft light, the second talks about artificial and natural lighting, and the third talks about light intensity and depth of field.

Part 1: hard and soft light

This section addresses the fundamental question of the difference between shooting with hard and soft light.

Hard light creates well-defined, dark shadows and usually comes from a single source, which is usually small or very far away. At the same time, soft light creates soft shadows, or does not create them at all. Such light has several sources, is scattered or reflected from various surfaces, falling on the subject at different angles. In natural lighting conditions, hard light can be observed on a cloudless day when the sun is high above the horizon. Beginning portrait photographers should avoid shooting scenes with this type of lighting. But cloudiness, fog, or even industrial air pollution create soft lighting, since sunlight is partially reflected and scattered along its path.

It is important to remember that the size of the light source is inversely proportional to its hardness. So, the smaller the light source, the harsher the illumination it produces.

Soft light You can also create your own using diffusers and reflectors:
- Diffusers. Clouds are an example of a natural scatterer. Any translucent material is suitable for artificially scattering light. So, special curtains on flashes or even ordinary white cloth can be used between the light source and the subject. The main thing is to correctly select the degree of transparency of the material and the strength of the light pulse (if shooting is carried out using artificial light sources).
- Reflectors. Reflecting light essentially creates another source of light. The photographer can control its direction and angle of incidence on the subject. In addition to professional reflectors, you can use ordinary sheets of paper for these purposes. Both natural and artificial light can be reflected.

Both types of light have their advantages and disadvantages. Hard light can be used to create images with high contrast to highlight shapes and textures. It is also good for enhancing the 3D effect, adding dimension and dramatic effects to an image. However, hard light is difficult to work with and is generally considered unsuitable for many (if not most) situations, especially people photography.
Soft light, on the other hand, creates even illumination that better displays the colors and shapes of objects. Naturally, the choice of light type depends on the genre of photography, the subject and the desired effect, but soft light is usually preferable and is by far the best and safest option for beginners.

Part 2: artificial and natural light

Obviously, natural light refers to direct sunlight or normal daylight, such as indoors. And all kinds of fluorescent lamps in various household or industrial appliances can act as sources of artificial light.

Natural light

Natural light is less controllable and varies significantly depending on a range of conditions such as time of day, weather and geographic location. It does not require the use of any additional equipment, although, of course, the same diffusers and reflectors can be used. The question of choosing between using natural or artificial light is obviously more relevant for portrait or product photography. In the case of landscape or wildlife photography, the photographer's choice is usually limited to natural light.

Among the factors influencing the nature of natural light, it is worth noting the following:
- Weather. As mentioned earlier, cloudy weather is often considered preferable by photographers because cloudy skies create soft light. But cloudiness is not always perfectly uniform, and its density also varies. This is worth taking into account, since the intensity of the light depends on it. And natural phenomena such as hurricanes, storms or even ordinary fog are also worth trying to use for the benefit of a photograph: a black sky will give it drama, and the light scattered in the fog will give the landscape a sense of depth and improve perspective.

- Times of Day. You can usually get milder lighting conditions early in the morning or late in the evening. In addition, the light is warmer at this time. Sunrise and sunset are often considered the ideal times to shoot landscapes and portraits. But during this time of day, lighting conditions change very quickly, both in terms of intensity and color. On the one hand, this allows you to get a series of varied shots in a short period of time, but on the other hand, there is a risk of missing a truly perfect moment. During sunrise and sunset, shadows change their intensity and shape. So, at sunset the shadows lengthen and become less intense, but in the morning the opposite is true.
- Geographical position. There is a pattern that the further you are from the equator, the longer you can watch the sun rise and set. Thus, mild morning or evening light conditions last much longer in such areas and, conversely, pass much faster in close proximity to the equator.
- Air pollution. Like water vapor in fog and clouds, particles from industrial air pollution scatter light rays, making it less intense and softer.

Artificial light

When working with artificial light, a photographer faces the same problems as when shooting in natural light. But in this case, he has complete control over the light sources, their number, location, angle, brightness and hardness. In addition, different artificial light sources have different color temperatures. For example, halogen bulbs are cooler and produce light that has a blue tint, while tungsten lights have a reddish tint. All these nuances must be taken into account and kept under control to obtain the desired result.

When it comes to controlling and manipulating light, there are many options, depending on whether you're dealing with artificial, natural, soft or hard light. It all comes down to understanding how the final image depends on lighting conditions, its selection and management, as well as adjusting camera settings (in particular, white balance) and further processing of the photo in graphic editors.

Part 3: Light Intensity and Depth of Field

In the final section, we'll talk about the importance of light intensity and what beginners should know about it.

When shooting, the camera requires a certain amount of light to capture the image on the sensor. The amount of light captured by the sensor is determined by three parameters: ISO (sensor sensitivity), lens aperture and shutter speed (camera shutter speed).

Photography can be carried out in various conditions. For example, a sunny day for landscape photography may seem ideal to a beginner, but in such lighting the high light intensity tends to increase contrast and degrade the level of detail. At the same time, cloudy weather and diffused light, as we remember, will help level out these shortcomings, improving color accuracy, smoothing out gradients, softening shadows and preserving the texture of objects. But the ambient light intensity is lower and low-light landscape photography requires a slower shutter speed and/or a higher ISO.

ISO

Excerpt

At the moment of photographing, the shutter located directly in front of the matrix opens, thereby letting in the required amount of light. The longer the shutter time, the more light will be captured by the matrix. When photographing moving objects, a high shutter speed is necessary in order to “freeze” the subject in its motion. At the same time, they are useful at night when the camera needs more light to create an image. You can compensate for light sensitivity while keeping it within acceptable noise levels. To further stabilize the camera in such cases, a tripod is useful.

Diaphragm

The aperture is the hole in the lens through which light enters the camera sensor. The size of the aperture is controlled by a special device called. Naturally, the larger the diameter of this hole, the more light enters the matrix in a certain period of time and vice versa. are displayed as F/ values. Thus, small values ​​(for example, from F/1.0 to F/3.5) indicate the maximum relative aperture diameter parameters. With this opening of the aperture, the greatest amount of light enters the matrix. And the F/22 value indicates a closed aperture and a limited light flux passing through the lens. The aperture setting range may vary between lenses.

It is the aperture that controls the depth of field - the distance between the closest and farthest points falling in the plane of focus. The larger the hole diameter, the shallower the depth of field.

Auto mode

In Full Auto mode, the combination of aperture, shutter speed and ISO is chosen by the camera itself based on its perception of the most appropriate settings for the particular moment of shooting. In many cases this produces decent results, but experienced photographers take amazing photos solely using manual camera settings. However, for beginners, this mode will be very useful in many cases, leaving the opportunity and time to concentrate on other aspects of shooting.

Manual camera control

Depending on your current shooting requirements, you can use different camera control modes. The most common shooting modes are shutter-priority, aperture-priority, and full manual (for more experienced photographers). In each of them, the ISO value can also be set manually, or left in automatic mode.

In aperture priority mode, the photographer presets the aperture value, for example to control depth of field, and the camera calculates the optimal shutter speed. This is generally the preferred option for shooting landscapes (with the aperture closed) and portraits (with the aperture open).

In shutter priority mode, the shutter speed is manually set while the camera's automation selects the remaining parameters. This mode is used, for example, when photographing sports events (short shutter speeds are important to capture athletes in action) or in the case of night photography (extra-long shutter speeds are necessary to capture maximum light).

In full manual mode, an experienced photographer who understands the impact of certain shooting parameters and their interrelationships gains absolute control over the shooting process.

Well, you can find out what camera shooting modes there are.