With the new Nikon D7100 digital camera, you’d expect to be able to turn your hand into just about anything. This versatile and flexible camera is designed to excel in all areas of photography. So once it’s out of the box, many new owners will be quick to shoot portraits and still life images in studio conditions. obviously, if you can, you should always try to shoot in natural light, especially if you’re shooting portraits. If that’s not feasible, pop-up flash can usually provide the necessary fill, or you can use your flash gun, carefully positioned and triggered remotely. Under most circumstances, these tools will help you get a decent result. But there will come a time when you decide you need more control, and at that point you’ll want to set up a studio.
If you are setting up your studio at home, the ideal scenario is to have a room reserved specifically for your photography. It should have plenty of space, a high ceiling, and be at least 5 meters long. Paint the walls a non-reflective color – black is ideal, but if you have to share a room then gray would be fine. Cover windows with opaque material to ensure light cannot enter and also cover doors to prevent further contamination. Ideally, you only want to have light that is under your control to affect your images. You will also need a good supply of electrical outlets.
Having closed off all external light sources, you can decide what lighting you want to have in your studio. Lighting falls into two categories: continuous or strobe. Continuous also has two options, tungsten or fluorescent. Tungsten is very popular for portraits because it gives good skin tones. It’s naturally a ‘warm’ light, both in light and temperature (this can be a problem, if you have your subject sit under them for a long time). You would also want to use tungsten if you were shooting video.
Fluorescent lights have a more sterile white light with a bluish cast. They are often used for stock shots and still photography, because the colors are considered to be more accurate. Of course, it is up to the photographer to choose which one he prefers. White balance, in the D7100 settings, will be able to rectify most lighting settings, but since you are in charge of the lighting, it would be best to set the lights so that the subject appears as you want to see it. Relying on in-camera correctives is just another thought to try to remember and sooner or later you’ll curse your memory and catch up on Photoshop.
The great advantage of continuous lighting is that you can see how your subject will appear in the image in real time. This means you get the lighting just right, and then you can confidently tackle other variables like content and composition. With strobe, sometimes you’re not sure if the flash fired or not. In many ways continuous lighting is much easier and I would recommend you start with this. However, when you need to photograph something or someone and give the impression of movement, or freeze them in action, you will need to use strobes.
Although strobes are more difficult to set up, they do give the photographer a bit more flexibility. The power of the flash can be increased or decreased according to the needs of the photographer. This means that the photographer can design their lighting around their shutter speed requirement. Obviously, if your subject is moving and you don’t want to blur, you’ll need a fairly fast shutter speed. Once mastered, strobes are a great way to get the images you want. However, because they work in bursts, they sometimes take a while to recharge.
If you start with a couple of lights, the easiest way to set them up is with the softbox in the front and the dot in the back. The light box emits a softer, more even light that is easier to measure. The light box should be 6 feet away from the subject, close to the camera. The other light should be at least 3 feet away from the back drop to provide an even background. I’d advise getting some barn doors for the backlight so the light doesn’t spread where it’s not wanted. always set the trigger on the headlight and make sure both lights fire at the same time. Most lighting systems have built-in slaves these days.
I usually start a shoot at a standard 1/125 at f8 with an ISO set to 200. This gives me enough flexibility to gradually change things up if need be. Most studio lenses work comfortably at f8 and that shutter speed will capture most fluid movement. If you find the lighting a bit flat, move the softbox out for more definition and shadow, but always keep in mind that more shadow can be very unflattering, especially if your subject has an angular face or a large nose. . I always start by doing the standard shots: full length, half length and then move closer for head and shoulders or portrait. By the time you want to try something more interesting, your model will have relaxed and become more confident in the equipment and their abilities.