AboutDavid Barry Expertise I have a lot of experience in most traditional forms of photography, so I`m quite knowledgeable about things like camera types and formats, techniques, exposure, film types, colour, filters, lighting, standard colour and black and white developing and printing.
I do not make recommendations about brands or models, and I am not a camera technician so I may not be able to tell you what is wrong with your equipment if it`s not working .
I also know a little about digital photography and imaging with scanners and digital cameras, so ask me and I will answer if I can.
Experience Experience in the area
I have been seriously involved in photography for over 25 years, including about 4 years as a professional, as well as 2 years providing administrative service to government photographers, requiring interpreting photographers' requirements and trade technicalities for those unfamiliar with such.
I have successfully trained several beginners in photography, helping them to become competent in basic techniques.
Organizations belong to:
None at present, but have been in about 4 camera clubs, having won or had placings in 2 club competitions.
Publications:
A lot of my photos have been in educational / training manuals, books and some photography magazines, as well as 2-3 dozen images been on the Web so far.
Education/Credentials:
Completed 4-year diploma in professional photography technique at Sydney's Technical College
Awards and Honors:
3 placings and / or merits in camera club competitions.
Expert: David Barry Date: 8/26/2006 Subject: Lighting confusion
Question Hello –
I am in desperate need of some advice and would appreciate any you can give me. However, you’ll have to talk to me like I’ve almost never touched a camera – I have several and I’ve done wedding, formal portrait, and newspaper photography, but I haven’t been able to grasp lighting, or camera settings - ISO and aperture, all foreign to me. I know it would make a huge difference in my pictures, especially the wedding and formal portraits, but it’s a hard subject for me to understand.
I have been using a Nikon D70 for a couple years, taking candid photos of children and a few weddings. Lately I’ve been getting into more senior pictures; people are asking me to do this since I did a set for a friend awhile back, and I want to give people better pictures. I hate the way the light is too harsh or too light or on the wrong side, or even worse, with huge shadows on the backdrop. I have a flash I can mount on the camera and I have several artificial lights, but I'm not sure how to use them. I spend hours taking the same picture over and over without knowing what I'm doing and I have no idea where to put the subject to help set the stage. HELP!! Can you point me in the right direction? Someone else is asking me to do grad photos and I'd love to use new techniques for this special person. Thank you!
Answer I may have to do this in instalments because what you have asked covers a lot of territory and I may not be able to completely help you in just one response, but I can start with the following.
I am not totally familiar with the Nikon D70 and don't know exactly what flash and artifical lights you have, so there may be things I can't explain fully about them, or things which I may suggest which they don't provide for.
Unfortunately this Experts thing doesn't cater for using pictures to demonstrate explanations, so here goes:
camera settings — ISO & aperture :
Not wanting to sound rude, but wasn't there an instruction manual with your Nikon and flash, or haven't you just got around to reading it yet ? Usually this helps to become familiar with settings.
I know that instruction manuals sometimes can be daunting thick sagas, occasionally not well written, frequently thick of technical jargon, but they are at least a start. If there are any confusing terms or concepts in the manual, ask me in another question and I should be able to explain .
ISO (aka 'sensitivity' rating) is a measure or index of exposure needed to produce a good picture. In the days of film, different film types required different amounts of exposure with the same lighting conditions and the ISO number of the film provided a basis of determing how much exposure is required for that film.
Similarly with digital cameras like the Nikon D70, there needs to be an index or basis of exposure requirement so that the camera's built-in light meter has some reference point to start at in calculating the exposure settings.
Your Nikon will have a range of ISO settings, probably from 100 or 200 up to maybe about 2000. The lower values deliver the best quality pictures, and will usually suffice where there is ample light. In situations of less than adequate light (e.g., in some of your newspaper shots at night time or for weddings inside a dimly lit church where the priest won't allow you to use flash - this sometimes occurs) you may need to use around the 400 or 800 setting or even higher to have a chance of getting any worthwhile shots.
Aperture is a hole roughly in the middle of the lens where the light passes through.
If you look along the lens axis from either the front or the rear of the lens, you should faintly see a set of leaves or blades which fold over each other like petals of a flower and form a hole in the middle.
The size of the aperture hole controls the intensity (brightness) of the light reaching the part where the picture is created. The aperture size is often expressed as 'F ... numbers' which are possibly marked on a ring around the lens near where the lens joins onto the rest of the camera. The F numbers might start (for example) at F16 or F22 and run down to F2.8 or F3.5 or F4 - depending on what lens is on the camera - and have other numbers such as F11, F8, F5.6.
The F...number chosen should also be displayed somewhere inside the viewfinder (probably along the bottom) and also on the little LCD display on the top of the camera .
Ironically, the smallest F number (e.g., F2.8 or whatever it is on your lens) actually makes the largest hole, and the largest number (F16) makes the smallest hole. This is because the numbers are actually fractions, and really mean 1/2.8 or 1/16.
So at F2.8 setting, the hole is allowing the most light through, which results in brighter pictures, and (you probably guessed) at F16 the least light is getting through, resulting in darker pictures.
There is another effect caused by the F number, which I will explain later, but as long as you understand it's main purpose for controlling the exposure brightness / darkness, then that's the main thing.
The other camera setting which controls the exposure is the shutter speed. The shutter is the thing inside the camera which opens and closes when you press the button to take a picture. The shutter is like a blind or opaque curtain which slides upward to let light onto the part where the image is created, like when you open the blind of a window to let some light into a room.
The shutter can operate at quite fast speeds to only allow a brief exposure, or at slow speeds to provide a long exposure, and anywhere in between.
In your Nikon, the range of speeds maybe something like as fast as 4000 (meaning 1/4000th of a second) which you'll probably seldom if ever use, down to as slow (long) as 30 seconds. The speed setting chosen is probably displayed near the F number in the viewfinder and on the display on the top of the camera.
Basically, the shutter speed controls the ability to sharply capture moving subjects or to minimise the effect of an unsteady or jerky hand when you take the picture - usually the faster within this range the better - depending on the amount of prevailing light and ISO setting and F number set - for the sake of getting sharp images, particularly if the subject is moving, or your hands are shivering.
As a guide, for most of your shots, you will probably be using a shutter speed somewhere in the area of about 125 up to 500 . If (in the case I mentioned above of dimly lit scenes and you can't use flash) you may need to drop down to the range of about 0.25 second - 0.5 second - 1 second - 2 seconds (and make sure you have the camera firmly anchored against something steady, maybe even mounted on a tripod).
Try some shots on Shutter priority at different shutter speeds and see the effects and work out what you like.
I think possibly on the left side of the top of the camera , there is a dial with some settings like P(for Program or Auto), S (for Shutter Priority), A (for Aperture Priority), M (for totally Manual) and a few others.
Maybe you will find it easier from the start to use auto or program mode, which I sort of suspect you have been using to date.
As the name suggests, Program or Auto is where the camera has total control over all the camera settings, and all you do is take the picture. This is fine in 'average' situations where the prevailing lighting is reasonable (not too bright /dim or not too high contrast) but may be occasionally unreliable where the lighting may be unusual (sunsets, night-time shots of city lights, extreme brightness of snow or whte sandy beaches and glaring reflections off water and windows). Under such non-average lighting, you may need to be a bit ambitious and try using the S or A or even M modes, to get a bit more control.
S(hutter priority) is for when you specifically want to select a particular speed (e.g. for fast moving subjects, or for slow shutter speeds to catch the dreamy swirl of flowing water of a waterfall, or for night-time shots of city lights and fireworks)
A(perture priority) is for when you specifically want to select a particular F number (which reminds me I still haven't explained the other purpose of F numbers besides exposure, but we're getting there).
In the ...priority modes you select either the Shutter OR Aperture (F number) setting , and the camera selects the corresponding other setting to achieve correct exposure. So these are sort of semi-automatic modes - you get partial control.
In Manual, you are driving the camera by yourself. The Nikon probably has a guide displayed in the viewfinder (e.g, some blinking arrows or lights between a + and a 0 (zero) and -- sign) to assist you, but you still have to change the settings yourself . The 0 means correct exposure (in the camera's opinion) but under some circumstances (when you get a bit of experience) you may choose to select a setting which pushes the lights towards the + or -- signs.
For instance, if you take photos of extremely bright subjects (snow, white fluffy clouds, brides in dazzling white gowns, glaring reflections off water) you might find it necessary to use a setting which makes the lights move toward the + end , otherwise your pictures may turn out too dark (because the camera is fooled by the excess brightness).
If you take pictures of extremely dark subjects (a bridegroom's black suit, night-time shots) you might find it necessary to use a setting which makes the lights move toward the -- end , otherwise your pictures may turn out too light (because the camera is fooled by the excess darkness). In Program or the priority modes, you may not be able to get such control.
There are probably other camera settings that I have forgotten/overlooked that you may not understand, but the above should get you going for the time being.
lighting :
light is too harsh or too light or on wrong side, huge shadows on backdrop :
flash I can mount on camera, several artificial lights, not sure how to use them :
For good results in portrait, especially in your 'studio' where you can control them, it's advisable to position lights somewhat off to side of camera, NOT right next to it (which you seem to be doing if you get major shadows on backdrop).
Imagine a line drawn from the camera to your portrait subject, then position your artifical lights approx 30 to 45 degrees (EXPERIMENT with the exact angle) to left or right of that imaginary line. Also one of them should be distinctly closer to subject than the other so as to provide the dominant light while the other simply provides gentle supplementary lighting to subtly illuminate the shadow side of the subject; again EXPERIMENT with the exact distances to get the balance of brightness versus shadow to your liking and reduce the harshness.
As well, the main light should be higher (say 2 to 3 feet higher) than the subject's head.
If you are using a flash, mounting flash on camera in studio portraits is asking for trouble in terms of horrible shadows, and also because this is the main cause of the dreaded 'red eye effect' which make subject look like satan's child or as if they haven't had much sleep for several nights. Even though your Nikon may have a "Red-eye Reduction" feature, these are not always satisfactory.
Instead, if your flash can be connected to camera by a 'synch' cord, try mounting it 'piggyback' style onto one of the artifical lights and connecting it to camera with an extension synch cord (available from major photo suppliers). If this isn't possible, then just don't use the flash in your formal portraits, and disable the built-in 'speedlight' flash.
For your location work (weddings and newspaper shots), you probably won't have the luxury of controlling the lighting to ideal requirements, and will probably have to use the built-in or camera-mounted flash, and put up with the shadows and red-eye problems to an extent. You may be able to attach a difffuser over the flash (e.g., a piece of opalescent or frosted plastic or drafting tissue paper) to soften the shadows, but this will also reduce the effective light output of the flash, and reduce your choice of exposure settings. Try it and see what you think.
where to put subject: [I may have misunderstood what you're getting at but anyway...]
With group portraits (at weddings and for seniors' club and school class photos) you would basically positon them in the general centre of the picture. Ideally, frame the shot to leave about a 1-person wide gap between the people on the end of the group and the edge of the picture frame. If possible (not always possible), try to get the group away from a background wall, otherwise you will get those horrible shadows which you don't like, caused by your on-camera flash. If you can detach the flash (like I suggested above - connected to camera via extended sync cord) and have it to the side and above the group like in the studio portraits, that's another way of reducing the chance of shadows.
For portraits of 1 or 2 people, frame them so that their head or at least one of their heads is roughly a third way down and third way in from left or right side of frame .
Also, often portraits are set up so subject is not looking directly at camera, but with face(s) turned slightly away from camera, but [optionally at your/their discretion] with their eyes glancing back towards camera .
It might also help the shadow problem, if the subject is positioned (if room permits) about 6 to 8 feet away from backdrop. It's my guess you have had the backdrop looming immediately behind them. Have you considered using a black or dark-coloured back drop ? This would also camouflage shadows.
Now for that other effect of the aperture I mentioned earlier (and why you may want to select a particular F number in Aperture Priority mode), and this relates to the focusing of the camera lens and the distance between camera and subject.
You may have until now deliberately chose to use autofocus on your camera for simplicity sake. Focusing the lens is what makes the picture sharp / blurred overall. A lens can only focus perfectly on one distance at a time, so anything closer (foreground) or further (background) than that distance will be less sharp than the subject you focus on.
Now there is a question of HOW MUCH less sharp the foreground/ background are - it happens by degrees - and this is where particular apertures become relevant.
Like I said, you can only focus sharply on 1 distance at a time, but progressively the further from that distance the foreground/background are, the less sharp they are.
Using the aperture can control that balance of sharpness / unsharpness of foreground/background.
Larger apertures (smaller F numbers (F2, f2.8, F4)) reduce the range of sharpness, while smaller apertures (larger F numbers (F11, F16, F22) increase the range of sharpness, between foreground to background.
So if you especially want a blurred background & foreground - to make a subject stand out - choose F number like F2 or F2.8 or F4. If you want a maximum range of sharpness from foreground to background, choose F number like F11 or F16 or F22 (lighting conditions and other exposure factors permitting). And of course the other F numbers F5.6, F8 will produce an in-between range of sharpness.
Try some shots on Aperture priority at different F numbers and see the effects and work out what you like.
Phew!!
Got through all that without falling asleep .
Hope you're still with me and keeping up.
If not, send another question to explain any points where I've lost you.
