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Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Monday, December 7, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING RATIOS
It's easier than you think
by Chuck McKern
Once you have your basic lighting equipment and your basic lighting techniques down, your next step is to learn lighting ratios. If you understand these ratios, it is much easier to control your lighting to create mood, add a sense of depth or shape, and control the way textured surfaces look. People are intimidated by the term "lighting ratios". After all "ratio" implies math, and people hate math. But by the end of this short article you'll see how easy lighting ratios really are.
Most people realize that a studio lighting set-up can use 3 or 4 lights. They get intimidated thinking about how they're going to figure out how all those lights will work together and what the lighting ratios will be. Well guess what, you only need to worry about two lights: the main light and the fill light! These are the two lights that "shape" your image. Any other supplemental lights only "accent" your image, and don't need to be included in the ratio.
To find your lighting ratio, start by calculating the square root of pi - just kidding. You start by determining the output of your main and fill lights individually. The best way to do this is to set up your lights and take a meter reading. Block one of the lights. I like to use the black side of a light disc, so that you're only metering the unblocked light. Then do the same thing with the first light.
Now, what is the ratio? In a nutshell, the ratio is the difference between the main light and the fill. If your main light were twice as bright as your fill, the ratio would be 2:1. Thinking about exposure factors, a factor of 2 is equal to one stop of exposure, and if you increase your exposure by one stop, you are allowing in twice the amount of light.
Therefore, a 2:1 ratio would mean that there is a one-stop difference between the lights. A 3:1 ratio would be a stop and a half difference, and 4:1 would be a two-stop difference.
The thing to remember when dealing with the ratios is that you multiply or divide by 2. This means that if you want to determine how much exposure difference there is in a ratio of 5:1, you would divide 5 by 2. The answer would be 2 1/2 stops. If you had a scene with a 2 1/2 stop difference between the lights and you wanted to determine the ratio, you would multiply 2 1/2 by 2 and would give you 5 for a 5:1 ratio. I told you the math wouldn't be hard!
I don't recommend using ratios beyond 8:1. If you do, you'll have shadow areas with little or no visible detail. I've included a chart that shows the most common lighting ratios with the exposure difference and how that lighting ratio is most commonly used.
by Chuck McKern
Once you have your basic lighting equipment and your basic lighting techniques down, your next step is to learn lighting ratios. If you understand these ratios, it is much easier to control your lighting to create mood, add a sense of depth or shape, and control the way textured surfaces look. People are intimidated by the term "lighting ratios". After all "ratio" implies math, and people hate math. But by the end of this short article you'll see how easy lighting ratios really are.
Most people realize that a studio lighting set-up can use 3 or 4 lights. They get intimidated thinking about how they're going to figure out how all those lights will work together and what the lighting ratios will be. Well guess what, you only need to worry about two lights: the main light and the fill light! These are the two lights that "shape" your image. Any other supplemental lights only "accent" your image, and don't need to be included in the ratio.
To find your lighting ratio, start by calculating the square root of pi - just kidding. You start by determining the output of your main and fill lights individually. The best way to do this is to set up your lights and take a meter reading. Block one of the lights. I like to use the black side of a light disc, so that you're only metering the unblocked light. Then do the same thing with the first light.
Now, what is the ratio? In a nutshell, the ratio is the difference between the main light and the fill. If your main light were twice as bright as your fill, the ratio would be 2:1. Thinking about exposure factors, a factor of 2 is equal to one stop of exposure, and if you increase your exposure by one stop, you are allowing in twice the amount of light.
Therefore, a 2:1 ratio would mean that there is a one-stop difference between the lights. A 3:1 ratio would be a stop and a half difference, and 4:1 would be a two-stop difference.
The thing to remember when dealing with the ratios is that you multiply or divide by 2. This means that if you want to determine how much exposure difference there is in a ratio of 5:1, you would divide 5 by 2. The answer would be 2 1/2 stops. If you had a scene with a 2 1/2 stop difference between the lights and you wanted to determine the ratio, you would multiply 2 1/2 by 2 and would give you 5 for a 5:1 ratio. I told you the math wouldn't be hard!
I don't recommend using ratios beyond 8:1. If you do, you'll have shadow areas with little or no visible detail. I've included a chart that shows the most common lighting ratios with the exposure difference and how that lighting ratio is most commonly used.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
ROUND UP - DETAILS!
I have been getting an enormous amount of questions regarding how this thing will go and understandably so, it is new! Basically we will have 4-5 sets in the large studio at CDIA that will have a student assigned to them to help out and assist with controlling the lighting. There is no schedule or sign up sheet and although it sounds crazy it forces us all to form a community so everyone can participate. This does require one thing - cooperation! Photographers should not take too much time on a set - remember this is down and dirty! Talent - come in to the studio and make yourself available to me or any of the students or simply introduce yourself and find someone to participate in what you want to do. If everyone cooperates and shares resources and knowledge this can be and will be a great experience. So here are my limited rules of engagement:
1. Photographers - do not hog the set, take your shots then help out (just a thought)
2. Photographers - do not charge the talent for the images! - they are providing services for free
* I am all for networking and people meeting people but do not hold anyone hostage for images
3. Talent - that said - do not expect retouched prints you may just be able to get the digital file.
*one intention here is to possibly introduce people and evolve future work
*also - most are not going to be pro's so everybody ha something to learn - ask questions!
Listen - if we all put on our adult hats this will be the first of many of these events and we will soon out grow the single studio of CDIA. There will be kids there so everyone is expected to behave accordingly or will be asked to leave - I hope this does not happen. It is my hope that we can show people that as a community we can all get together to share talents and resources so everybody wins - frankly the event depends on it. Finally, Penn Camera will be bringing a few toys for photographers to try out and we are trying to put together a couple of brief demos by a few pros. Thanks
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
NIKON D3X WITH ROB VAN PETTEN!
Fellow photographer and close friend, Rob Van Petten was given (or more accurately - earned) the honor of shooting Nikons newest Flagship camera the D3x. was fortunate to be part of this shoot acting as Rob's digital assistant as were Meagan Rutkowski and Jason Colston (both CDIA students). In this interview Rob talks about the shoot and the outstanding performance of this camera. This was a job never to be forgotten. Everything was top notch, especially the images - WOW! Or should I say Holy Shit! Check it out..
ROUND UP 1
Date: March 22nd
Time: 10:00am - 4:00pm
Place: CDIA Studio A (1055 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW)
Sponsor: Penn Camera
Demo: TBA
Attendees: Photographers (all) - Models - Actors - Dancers - Skateboarders - Body Builders - etc
DC SHOOTERS - ROUND UP 1!!!
This is OUR event!. I am getting the place, equipment, vendor and demos planned and in place. The rest is really up to all of you out there. We really want to drive as many area photographers to this event to learn, share, photograph, network and just have a ton of fun. We also NEED talent - people to photograph. Models, actors, dancers, body builders, skateboarders you name it - if they want to be photographed then they should be there. Just try and keep me informed best you can on the people that may be showing up so I can estimate and prep. Email me Chris Alvanas
Sunday, January 11, 2009
CDIA Graduation
Congrats to all the photo students that graduated today at out ceremony All you working photographers out there, we know have 9 more qualified photographers out there looking for experience. They are as follows:
Christine Meulemans, Amanda Powell, Scott Chamberland, Steve Maxwell,
Mark Podger, Andrew Bodsford, Chris Mabry, Sara Bielecki, Michelle Rock Fredricks.
Contact me at this blog and I can direct you to them. calvanas@cdiabu.com
Sunday, January 4, 2009
New Canon 5D - BLACK DOTS!
Hey there,
A good friend of mine Matt Tueten, just got his new 5D and apparently the camera has a few bugs. The "black dots" is the one we talked about and see Matt's link to see the problem and I am posting the link that Matt gave me for the Photoshop action that corrects this, until Canon makes it right. Hope this helps!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Salon Group
The Salon Group is a growing number of working photographers sharing their insight through a portfolio review session with a limited amount of new photographers. The protocol and guidelines can be found here.
This is a very high level review session so if you are looking for a critique by area professionals this is a great opportunity to see what you've got as well as what you may need.
If you are interested in participating send an email to calvanas@cdiabu.com
Entries will be drawn from a hat.
Scheduled Events are as follows:
session 3 - 4/20
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
People to Watch
David Nightingale has a ton of great information on a number of powerful subjects, he is one that is not in the limelight. I discovered David on a workshop video with Chase Jarvis and The Strobist. It was what started this blog essentially. These are some of the guys re-shaping the surface as we know it.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Job Postings and Internships
Here is a listing of opportunities available in the photo community.
Best of Luck!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Stitched Stills in Video
Our own Jason Colston shot a bunch of stills from the Washington Monument that were then stitched and used at the end of a video story on the inauguration by MSNBC.
See the whole story here.
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