Holiday 2012: Home Portraiture and Lighting

We took a few minutes to speak with Mr. Joey Quintero, professional photographer and lecturer at the B&H Event Space, about ways we can improve our photography, especially in terms of portraits and basic lighting techniques. Special thanks to Mr. Quintero, and for more information about guest lectures and events at the B&H Event Space, please see: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/EventSpaceAbout.jsp

For those of us who have never worked with artificial light before, but want to take our shooting to that next level, what would you recommend?

The ideal shooter that has a good point-and-shoot camera, such as the Canon PowerShot G15 Digital Camera, is a good candidate for the step up to artificial lighting. Utilizing continuous light offers a “what you see is what you get” effect. This allows the shooter to compose the shot as it happens from his or her LCD screen. The Impact Octacool-9 Fluorescent Light with Octabox is a good place to start when working with continuous light. Fluorescent light sources give the beginning photographer, as well as the advanced, a true-to-color, daylight balanced, broad, soft portrait light that’s good to go right out of the box.

How about those who wish to shoot with natural light, outdoors, to take advantage of the fall colors and seasonal backgrounds?

This can be easily achieved without using flash. Using an Impact 42” Silver/White Collapsible Circular Reflector Disc or the Photoflex 42” LiteDisc White/Silver Circular Reflector offers a generous reflective light that is easily maneuvered to “throw” the light exactly where it is needed. The photographer will immediately see where the light falls upon the subject, thus removing the guesswork regarding the final results of your portrait. The Creative Light 48” White/Silver Reflector offers a slightly larger diameter for similar work. Remember that in bright conditions such as snow or under dark conditions, practice “bracketing” your exposures to achieve the best possible results for your portrait. Bracketing is taking multiple shots of the same subject using slightly different exposure settings.

What do you recommend for the experienced photographer who wants to step it up a notch?

Most photographers and students usually start out experimenting with several methods for lighting their subjects and decide (like I did) to bite the bullet and dive right into studio strobe units. Studio strobes are available in all price ranges and include a full assortment of light modifiers to help you achieve your desired results.

If you are not sure of what to invest in as your first studio strobe kit, speaking to anyone at B&H is always a good idea, but the Impact One Monolight Kit (120VZC) is a good place to start. The Kit includes a 400W monolight strobe, a light stand and a white translucent umbrella. The white translucent umbrella offers a generous throw of soft, wraparound light. The Elinchrom D-LITE4 IT 400W Monolight (90-240VAC) offers variable power from 25 to 400Ws and has a built-in photo slave cell and built-in Skyport Wireless receiver. The Bowens Gemini 400 Monolight (120VAC/12VDC) is AC and DC compatible, with a 2.5 second recycling time. It is a compact, lightweight system and compatible with the entire Bowens system of light controls and accessories.

With an added Lastolite 48” Circular Silver/White Collapsible Reflector or Westcott Illuminator 42” Square Silver/White Collapsible Reflector, the user can fill in the shadows where they deem necessary. This is achieved by placing the reflector on the opposite side of your light source (see lighting diagram). A good light meter, such as the Sekonic L-308S Flashmate, will help you attain a relative f-stop that will correspond to your camera’s settings. Remember, your f-stop also works to control your depth of field.

The basic first step with your light source is to place it about 45° from your subject and about 20° above their eye. The primary goal is to create a small triangle of light underneath the eye that's farther from the light source; this is also known as Rembrandt Lighting. It gives a wraparound quality, or the illusion of light coming from a window. Painters like Rembrandt, portrait photographers and many artists consider this the perfect quality of light [for portraits].  

Once you feel you have mastered the white translucent umbrella, move on to try other neat light modifiers that are available for studio strobes. A standard in portrait photography is the Softbox; the “box” is great for directional quality light and gives unsurpassed soft lighting. The 22” Impact Beauty Dish Reflector or Profoto 20.5” White Softlight Beauty Dish Reflector offer a more specular, “contrasty” light source that is often used in fashion and beauty photography when a punchy light is desired.

Do you have any tips for setups with Speedlites?

Impact Studio Lighting has a great solution for all of you “speedliters!” The Impact 7’ Parabolic Light Stand Kit comes complete with a 7’ Parabolic Umbrella, Triple-Flash Hot Shoe Adapter Mount, Umbrella Bracket with Adjustable Shoe and a light stand. This Umbrella Kit is available with silver interior umbrella, a black backing umbrella with white interior or an all white diffusion umbrella. All you need is your Speedlites. This on-the-go solution is great for studio-quality lighting for the advanced shooter to take to the studio on the road.

Since the holidays are coming up, can you share any tips for people shooting family portraits?

Holiday shooting is typically photographing groups. Practice arranging your subjects in what is known as "the triangle." Have the tallest people in the back, and trickle the little ones toward the front. That way, no one gets hidden and the faces do not feel crowded.

The "M" method staggers your subjects very much like a mountain range. Tall in the rear, and on the sides. Average to mid-height people placed in the front and the middle of your composition. This encourages the eye to move up and down your portrait. Please remember, working with groups and posing them naturally will take a few tries to get the right composition. Have fun with the group and rearrange your subjects as needed.

Any professional secrets you feel like passing along?

When using strobes, you must use a light meter. There are two things a person should never guess: their blood pressure or their exposure! Also, a great addition to your studio strobe lights is radio slaves, which are wireless remote controls to trigger your flashes. There are no wires to arrange and trip over, and your light will fire every time. The Impact PowerSync16 DC Radio Slave System with 16 digitally coded channels and the very compact Elinchrom Skyport Universal SPEED Set are two radio slaves to look into. The PocketWizard Plus III Transceiver is a combination transmitter receiver, which can automatically switch between the two functions; it has 32 channels and long-range capability. And numerous Vello remote kits, flash triggers and receivers are available for different makes of cameras.  

And lastly, watch your composition. You don’t want a holiday tree sprouting from anyone’s head.