Lighting test, diagrams, and my inspiration journal
Giving you a look into my ongoing studio lighting LEARNING JOURNEY.
Hiiiiii!
I’ve been trying to figure out a way to use this newsletter in a way that allows me to connect more with y’all away from Instagram and also to be able to talk more in depth about my work/process/inspirations/etc. So here’s what I’m thinking- when the muse speaks to me, I’ll send one of these out (schedules are a prison!). It’ll be archived on my blog in case you want to return to it. So here goes for today…
At the beginning of this year, I decided that I wanted to get really, really good at studio lighting. When I was in school for photography, I learned truly the bare minimum about lighting- I had awesome professors but frankly the lighting styles they taught were not my cup of tea and looked nothing like 1. The work I wanted to make and 2. The type of lighting that you see in...cool photography today (OK, grandpa). I learned enough to get by and eventually found that my lack of lighting expertise was making my work suffer- luckily I do so much mixed media work that technical details were never the focus, so I could skate by on maximalism. But now I would like to level up, please.
All of this is to say that since I graduated in 2019, I have been working almost exclusively with natural light, which I LOVE and might always be my preference. But natural light is famously unpredictable, so now my goal is to experiment with studio lighting enough that I have a few setups that I can replicate over and over, and that are...more consistent than madame nature. <3
Sidenote (I’ll say this once and hopefully never again): I am very, very frustrated by the lack of lighting resources out there- it’s...interesting...to me that there are approximately 15 billion old men (no offense) on Youtube that are EXTREMELY willing to share their lighting setups, but I can’t find ONE. THING. about how any of these successful young photographers light their work. I have spent so much time speculating about why and trying to assume the best about people. But I really think that the lack of willingness of so many artists to share their process/wisdom/knowledge comes from a deep rooted feeling of scarcity- of jobs, of followers, support, success, et cetera. The idea that there’s a finite number of jobs out there and I have to compete with you to get one. And one way that I can advance above you is by not helping you and hoarding my knowledge. I’ve realized this is not a sustainable way for me to live, and I can very easily fall victim to this line of thinking! But when I started opening up and sharing my resources, my life (and my work) got so much fucking better.
I think it’s important to constantly remind myself that my peers are not competition, and that when one of us wins and shares that win, all ships rise. This is not an original thought but it’s one that I think we have to keep saying. (this is also very much not to say that every photographer that doesn’t share their lighting setups is an evil capitalist monster, but to say that I have felt these feelings of scarcity, and I know that they can lead me to consciously and subconsciously choose what and what not to share based on how I think it will affect my chances of getting jobs. And I think this is a likely reason for the DESERT of behind the scenes photos showing actual lighting setups and helpful things. But I digress.)
My friend Kristen (a very patient model and a genius collaborator) has been my lab rat so far- I’m going to share this first round of lighting tests and talk a little bit about how we got to where we ended up. Full transparency: we stayed up extremely late trying many, many setups and in most of the pictures, the lighting is so fucking ugly that when I think about sharing them my ego actually separates from my body, inhabits a corporeal form, and hits me in the face! So I won’t share them but you can imagine some ugly ass pictures. And truthfully I think this is a stepping stone to a better version of this lighting, but it’s baby steps, right?!!!
The first set up was pretty simple- (2) 605W lights (I have a 3 light Arri kit that included (1) 300W and (2) 650s. I also bought (1) single 1000W Arri a while back that I use as well. I've bought them all on Ebay.
I had one light pointed at the backdrop behind Kristen with a few silk flowers placed halfway in between the light and the backdrop to create some organic shadows. The other light was coming from Kristen's right side with a big diffuser in front of it. Both lights were gelled (these gels are great with tungsten lights- they don't melt!!!)
In post, I added some soft clouds to the top of the left image just for some ooh-ahh sensation.
This second setup was simple too- a truly horrible projector that I can't link here because IDK where it even came from, and (1) diffused 650W Arri light. Kristen was sitting a few feet off the backdrop so the Arri could point at the backdrop behind her without spilling onto her, and the project was pointed at her from the left side. Full disclosure, I photoshopped the shit out of this one, adding clouds and toning until I somewhat liked it. I'm not thrilled about it but think it might lead to something cool down the road.
OK that’s all. I hope this was helpful! Feel free to email me back and let me know if there’s anything else you’re interested in me sharing or just to commiserate with me about how hard it is to be good at things!!!!! I'm doing my best!!
xxSO
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