P3D Re: Pro studio lighting question

[boris@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Boris Starosta)]

Hi Lincoln (and P3D):

I do read the P3D digests, although it seems I'm always a few behind (four,
currently!).  I've got about thirty unread emails tonight, and it's already
close to midnight....  Sheesh!  You can't keep up!

If had to choose one thing that has cost me more productivity than all the
other things, it would be email.  But without it, I would not have
discovered all sorts of new things and inspirations.

Studio lighting is most inexpensively done with tungsten lights and
reflectors.  Heck you could do it with some clip lights and either quartz
bulbs or "BCA" bulbs, which are intensely bright and daylight balanced (but
they have a life of only about four hours).

The trouble with all these lights is that they are not bright enough to
give you good depth of field and short exposure - very desireable for
stereo.  (even though I have sold slides, even won an award(!), with a
natural light portrait that was a 1/4 sec. exposure - but you need a lot of
luck and film to get good results like that.)   Plus such lights add a lot
of heat to the studio, if that is of concern.  (Actually quite desirable
for doing nudes.  Esp. in winter!)

But there are some compelling advantages to tungsten lights: they're
cheaper on multiple levels.  Your start up costs are lower.  When it comes
time to shoot, you can see what you are getting in terms of light.  That
is, unlike for strobes, you need not shoot polaroids to proof your lighting
and exposure.  You also do not need a flash meter.


The nice thing about strobes is that they make for sharp pictures.  The
light is on for about 1/1000 second, freezing almost any motion the model
might make.  Plus you can shoot at f/16 or better most of the time.

If you want the advantages of strobes, get at least one pretty powerful
strobe.  400 watt seconds or more.  You can use that as a main light, and
use reflectors beside and behind the model to fill in the shadows.  I have
a kit with two strobes - each is 400Ws (I think).  One has a big softbox,
that's usually the main light, the other is used as a hair light, or to
light the background, whatever.  I still use a lot of reflectors, which can
help you obtain very smooth lighting.

Drawback with strobes: you can't really see what you are going to get, so
you are well advised to shoot test polaroids - and for that you need a good
polaroid camera (where you can set the f-stop and exposure, just like on
your stereo camera).  Flash meters aren't cheap either.

I'll get around to putting up a link for you, especially if you keep
reminding me.  It's high time for me to revamp my links page!  Actually,
the entire 3dshowcase is coming in for a major overhaul soon, with new
photography and all...  so your link will go in then at the latest.

Thanks, cheers,

Boris

Boris Starosta            boris@xxxxxxxxxxxx
                          http://www.starosta.com
usa 804 979 3930          http://www.starosta.com/3dshowcase



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End of PHOTO-3D Digest 3219
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