TWiP
I’m a big fan of Leo Laporte’s TWiT network of podcasts. I regularly listen to This Week in Tech (TWiT), MacBreak Weekly, Windows Weekly, Jumping Monkeys, and FLOSS Weekly. I also listen to a couple others, although not as frequently. The funny, informative content in Leo’s podcasts often leads me to other interesting podcasts, websites, or gear. The last one can be expensive.
Listening to MacBreak Weekly has lead me to This Week in Photography (TWiP), which is hosted by Alex Lindsay and Scott Bourne. Both, especially Alex, appear frequently on MacBreak Weekly. I’m an amateur photographer, so this is right up my alley. I’ve listened to a few photography podcasts over the past couple of years, but only a couple remain in my playlist. Nonetheless, I decided to give TWiP a try, starting with episode 35, Portrait Lighting.
In this episode, Scott’s setup consisted of one studio light on a stand with an umbrella. This was about 45 degrees off the subject-camera line, on camera left. One thing Scott mentioned, that I’ll second, is that he prefers using an umbrella close up instead of using a softbox because the umbrella setup is much easier. And, the closer you move the umbrella to the subject, the softer it gets. Of course it also helps if you can reduce the output of your light as you move it closer so you don’t cook your model.
That brings me to a problem that Scott’s setup suffered from. By using a studio light, he couldn’t move the light too close to the model because he didn’t want to overpower her with light. But, he wanted the light as close as possible to get a nice soft light. This can easily be solved by using a flash (aka speedlight). With my Nikon SB-800, for example, I can place the light with umbrella within inches of the subject and just manually dial down the power of the flash. Using this technique, you can have a large soft light without overpowering you subject. To learn more about off camera lighting with flashes, I highly recommend visiting Strobist, and/or picking up Dave Hobby’s Strobist DVD set.
Another thing that caught my eye in the video podcast, which I don’t think was necessary, was Scott’s use of a light meter. In fact, Scott insisted that you, the viewer need one too. I understand that using a light meter may have been necessary for getting great exposures using non-natural lighting in the days of film. However this is the digital age. You don’t need to waste your money on a light meter when you can take a best guess at your exposure, chimp, then re-adjust your exposure, and be sure you’ll get a great exposure. You may have to chimp and re-adjust more than once; your mileage may vary. The point is, I personally have been convinced that light meters are a thing of the past, like outhouses and $3 gallons of gas.
Lastly, Scott mentioned that the setup he used for the podcast was the cheapest way to start getting studio lighting, “It’s the cheapest way to get into studio lighting”. I have to disagree. You can get similar results with a cheap flash, then use the money you saved on the light to buy a few light modifiers (or even build your own).
Scott seems like a nice guy, so I want to stress that I’m not trying to make him look bad. I merely wanted to point out a few places I thought could have used clarification or modification in episode #35 of TWiP. To be fair, I’ll check out a few more episodes before I decide whether or not to add it to the permanent playlist.
Cheers!