Portrait Photography - Different Lighting Technologies

By Wiki definition, "Portrait photography or portraiture is a photography of a person or group of people that captures the personality of a subject by using effective lighting, backdrops and poses".

Keeping his in mind, I experiment various lighting techniques in combination with different type of backdrops and poses.

But, before going to above mentioned three key ingredients of a portrait photography, let's talk little about Lighting Techniques.

Broadly speaking we can segregate them in below categories:

1) On-Camera flash lights :- The flash light system which is either inbuilt into the camera body or we connect some external flash on the camera using it's flash connector are called "On Camera" flash as its name suguests. There are many benefits of using this light system like ease of use and most importantly TTL support. When camera and flash is set to TTL (Through The Lens) camera tells the flash to adjust it's power depending on the light entering through the lens. So, it becomes very easy for the photographer as he just need to focus on clicking pics not keep adjusting the flash output frequently. This is good when you are covering any social functions, gatherings & weddings where it's important not to miss any moment. However this fails when you need to change the way light is falling on the subject. This gives rise to our next category.

2) Off Camera Flash Lights :- When we use our flash light without connecting it directly to the camera body is called using a off camera flash. Now, as we know that the flash light is not connected to the camera body, we need to figure out how to establish communication between the camera and the external flash light.

• Direct Cable :- We can use a direct trigger cable from camera to flash light, but this is fine when you have only one flesh light and also this do not support TTL system.

• Optical Slave Trigger :- This is the option available in most of the external speed flash lights. When you set the flash in this mode, the flash triggers when it detects any flash blow inside the room. On-camera flash can be used to trigger the external flash light. The good part about this system is that you can operate at high shutter speeds up-to 1/8000 second. But the bad part is that flash and the camera should be in Line of sight. This technology can't be used outdoors in day light conditions. You also don't want to use it when there are other photographers using their flash in the same room for obvious reasons.

• Wireless Triggers :- These are small wireless devices normally comes in pair. One part act as trigger and connected on camera flash connector port and other part act as receiver and connected to flash light. You can purchase number of wireless trigger sets if you want to use multiple flash lights at one time. The starting range models of wireless triggers generally do not support shutter speeds more than 1/230 second. However, there are few high end triggers and flash lights which supports High Speed Sync and TTL also. You can set your flash lights at different groups and channels when there are other photographers using similar type of radio triggers. So, purchase the right flash light and wireless triggers that suits your shooting requirements. But the problem with the flash lights is the limit to deliver large burst of light at high power. This makes them useless in some conditions when you want a bigger light source to light big areas and also when you want to throw light on to the subject from a distance in broad day light conditions. The next type of technology solves this problem.

3) Strobe Lights :- Strobe Lights are also called stroboscope lights. This name is not so popular due to obvious reasons. As per Wiki "A typical commercial strobe light has a flash energy in the region of 10 to 150 joules, and discharge times as short as a few milliseconds, often resulting in a flash power of several kilowatts".

Strobe lights are high power lighting system which is most commonly used lighting system for studio and outdoor photography by many professionals across the world.

Strobe lights are commonly available on the bases of output power in watts like 200W,400W,600W & 1000W.

400W Strobe light is more than enough for most of the studio & outdoor photography needs. I use "Elinchrom FRX400" which is a 400W strobe light system which comes in the price range of 30K-40K Rupees a set. Each Set contains two strobe lights, two light tripod stands, two square shaped 2 feet/2 feet silver soft boxes with diffusers & one Wireless Trigger (EL-Skyport). This is more than enough for a beginner to start shooting good light quality pictures.

Guys just wanted to let you all know that Elinchrom products are the best in the market and I have been using them since quite some time now and they have never ever failed on me. No offence to other available brands and their products..this is just my views based on my experience and Elinchrom is not paying me anything to recommend their products. This is just my honest opinion.

So, guys hope this blog helped you in understanding the most common lighting technologies available and used in the market.

In my next blog I will cover different lighting techniques which could add memories in your pictures.

If I will continue to get support from your guys, I will share more and more about photography and also share my own experiences in the field of photography.

See you guys next time. Take care. Happy Shooting.

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