Control the light!

LIGHTING FOR THE PROFESSIONAL TOUCH – PORTRAITS AND PRODUCTS

Whether a product shoot or a portrait for the web it is important that images are professionally produced or it can reflect poorly on the business. There are a number of differentiators between a ‘snap shot’ and a professional image, particularly focus, depth of field, lighting and composition.

An out of focus image or one with a poor depth of field simply look bad; an inappropriate background distracts from the subject of the image – all of these flaws are immediately obvious when looking at the image. Lighting control is more subtle but equally important to the image and particularly so when a series of images are needed.

What is light control? What effect does it have?

When being photographed for a web portrait it is usual to go for a head and shoulders format, looking either directly at the camera or very close to it, aiming for an appealing and professional look. Important elements include colour, particularly getting the skin tones and hair colour right, and the clarity of the image, preventing hard dark shadows from obscuring features (unless the object is to produce a moody, dark portrait!). Similar conditions apply to product shoots though here consistency across a large number of images is usually needed as well.

In most environments light comes from a combination of sources; natural daylight, room lighting, equipment such as computer screens, each having a different effect on the image. As time progresses the light changes; movement of the sun, turning on and off of office lights and equipment and so on. Any number of controllable and uncontrollable things can affect the lighting over even a short time frame which in turn affect the images.

Making a professional image requires the lighting be controlled; a single source of consistent colour / temperature and direction needs to be set up so that the photographs produced are of consistent appearance and quality. Photographers studios exist primarily to produce this environment.

Light colour or light temperature depend on the sources of light involved, which are measured in Kelvins. A tungsten light works around 2700 kelvin, overhead daylight is about 5500. Visually the effect is to cool or warm the image. Cool makes for a more clinical effect, warm is seen as more friendly and open.

To control this on location the photographer uses a mobile studio lighting setup. This can vary in complexity based on the following parameters;

- The source of light should overpower the ambient light; the image produced should rely only on the photographers lights so enabling control. This makes for a consistent image appearance based on a consistent light source.

- The lights should be positioned in such a way as to provide a three dimensional appearance of the subject. Lights directly on camera will make the subject look very flat, usually the least attractive option.

- Use of modifiers (softboxes, grids etc.) change the way the light acts, perhaps to emphasise a particular area of the image.

Once a lighting set up is achieved it is possible to produce a series of images of consistent appearance again and again. It can be replicated over time as well so additional shoots can maintain a consistent look; all you need is to duplicate the setup parameters of the original shoot.

To achieve this photographers use the mobile studio which is not as complicated as it sounds. Usually consisting of a set of lights and their modifiers, a backdrop and stands, it normally requires only an adequate space to be set up in and power for the lights. It is quick to set up and take down and minimises disruption during the shoot process.

The lighting equipment used depends on the type of shoot; a portrait head and shoulders shoot may need only a couple of lights and a backdrop, a product shoot may need four or more lights with different adapters according to the effect needed.

Using this equipment the shoot environment is fully controllable which means the images will be consistent in appearance and quality.

Call us for more information on this and using a mobile studio.