Help in lighting please?

[jones_of_pbf]

So I looked through the forum and couldn't find a thread on it so here's my problem.
I need help learning about lighting.
Can anyone tell how they learned about it?
Many thanks.

 

[Piano Player]

So I looked through the forum and couldn't find a thread on it so here's my problem.
I need help learning about lighting.
Can anyone tell how they learned about it?
Many thanks.

What do you want to light? Or are you asking about natural lighting? Since photography is all about the recording of light, your question covers the whole ball of wax. Let us know a little bit more.

 

[Jer]

I have read about it in books and magazines. The best way would be to read a bit about the lighting if you don't know about it and then get out there and practice, practice, practice,

 

[Southern Cross]

There are numerous web resources available to learn about lighting. If you can be a bit more descriptive in what you'd like to light, we can help you. If you photograph people or still life scenes, I can help you. If you shoot nature or macro, others here can help you.

One of the best resources I have is www.photo.net Go to the list of "All Forums", then pick the "Lighting" forum. That's a good start. Thousands of posts and replies. www.photoflex.com is another good resource. www.zuga.net has a link to zuga tv. which allows you to watch professionals at work and how they set up lighting for their clients (you'll need DSL, though. The zuga.net forum has some excellent photographers contributing on a daily basis, and they really like to help people out if they are serious about photography.

A great lighting book is "The Lighting Cookbook". I can't remember the author, but I have the book around here somewhere. It was written from a film based point of view, but it's equally applicable to digital photography. I also have "The Business Of Portrait Photography" by Tom McDonald, and I consider it to be an excellent resource for lighting people.

Lighting is the key to excellent photography regardless of what you are shooting, and it's a great foundation to build you skills on. It's also probably the hardest thing to learn - it takes a ton of practice and experimentation.

When you start asking questions about lighting, you also start getting into expensive equipement options. Let us know what you want to do, then we can spit out ideas on cheap, home made alternatives for you that still produce professional results.

 

[jones_of_pbf]

What do you want to light? Or are you asking about natural lighting? Since photography is all about the recording of light, your question covers the whole ball of wax. Let us know a little bit more.

woops.
I meant natural.
I've taken a whole "boat load" of pictures outside, but usually misjudge the light.

And thanks for the replies.
Hopefully I get good at this.
I'm also going to practice on my year & a half old nephew.
(I can already hear the screaming...)

 

[Piano Player]

woops.
I meant natural.
I've taken a whole "boat load" of pictures outside, but usually misjudge the light.

When you say you misjudge the light do you mean that the pictures are too dark or too light? If so, it sounds like a meter problem in your camera. Can you post any pictures to help us help you?

 

[Jer]

Or it could depend on the type of metering system, and what you take pictures of. If you take a small bright thing in the middle of a dark area and your camera has a matrix metering system it won't work well. More likely to be the above though.

 

[Southern Cross]

Are you shooting digital or film? Does your camera have a spot meter? Meters these days are pretty smart, but even the best meters can be fooled. Please give us an example of exactly what you've had problems with, even if you don't have a picture to post. I betchya we can help you get on the right track!

 

[jones_of_pbf]

Sorry, but my computer isn't scanner friendly yet.
I believe it may be a metering issue.
I have a Rebel G, and it shows the light meter through the eye piece.
(It's a film slr)
One problem I notice with my meter is the light seems to fluctuate (sp?) too much.
The meter reads that the light is just right, then there's a little too much light, then not enough.

 

[utdbear]

Another good book is Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. I carry it around most places I go. Also, remember what setting that you're shooting in, the Program setting is what I normally set it to, to make sure the foreground is exposed correctly. Tv(shutter priority) and Av(aperature priority) will adjust to make the background fill in correctly. If you're just starting out, I would keep it in the Automatic modes on the Canon, they seem to do a pretty good job for beginners trying to figure out exposures and lighting things as they go along