AboutSteve Meltzer Expertise I am a professional photographer and I've been shooting for newspapers, magazines, commercial clients and artists for over 30 years.
I have shot stock photography for dozens of years and in 1977 created West Stock (Seattle, WA) which was one of the first to produce stock photo CDs and later one of the first to establish an online stock photo slaes site.
I have a new book on digital photography "PHOTOGRAPHING ARTS, CRAFTS AND COLLECTIBLES (Lark Books, 2007)which is available at Amazon.com, eBay.com and in bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders. I have another book, CAPTURE THE LIGHT which will be puiblished in November, 2008.
I write 20-30 feature articles and columns for regional and national publications a year.
My education includes studying with photographers like Cornell Capa, Duane Michels and Oliver Gagliani (from the Ansel Adams Center.)
Expert: Steve Meltzer Date: 1/9/2007 Subject: studio lighting
Question I am looking into buying my first studio lighting kit and have come across a number of questions. I'm hoping you can help me. (I will be doing portraiture.) First of all, I'm not sure which types of bulbs are the best. I'm leaning towards fluorescent, since they're cool, color balanced, and have a long life. But I'm still not sure if they're the best. I have looked all over online, and everyone's opinions are different! My other question is how do I know how much wattage I'll need? I plan on using a four light system - main, fill, hair and background. I will be shooting portraits of individuals and groups up to maybe 7 or 8 people. How much light do I need (in each piece) to adequately light the bigger groups. (I've been told I can use neutral gray lighting filters to decrease the light when necessary, so I'm looking for a max number.) I will be doing hi-key, low-key and everything in between.
Please fill me in on any suggestions you may have. Thanks for the help!
Answer Jennifer
When shooting portraits I use electronic strobes. I need to catch people in a moment to catch the perfect expression. Tungsten lights are too week and too hot for that. Fluorescents are just too weak.
So I use strobes. Not just for their power-which is nice-but for their briefness. They run cool and come with modeling lights that help you see what your lighting is doing.
For portraits and small groups you needed get big strobes. I'd think that four 160 watt/seconds monolights would work just great. You will need a flash meter too.
I have no idea who told you that thing about using neutral grey lighting filters to decrease the light. Duh. I really never hear of that before. Probably an urban legend. Especially since every studio strobe from a monolight to a flash pack allows you to decreaase the flawsh output when you need to lower the intensity. Grey filters sound like something you'd but on a tungsten floodlight-if you were that foolish-and then you'd have to hope it doesn't melt.
