Learning about Lighting
April 1, 2021 8:38 AM   Subscribe

Give me some resources for learning about lighting for still photography.

I'm a lifelong amateur photographer and have never gotten the hang of using artificial lighting effectively. I would like to change this. I'm looking to learn two areas:
-Basic/intro lighting practice (theory is fine, but I'm really looking for skills I can apply - more tech school, less masters program)
-Low/no-cost or DIY approaches to various photo applications such as portraiture, food photography, etc. (I remember a DIY lighting blog from ages ago, I think the guy focused a lot on making mods to his speedlight - anyone remember that?)

If it matters, I have a couple of decent cameras with on-camera flash as well as a single reasonably good speedlight that can be remote triggered. I'd like to avoid buying much more stuff (I know a probably need a mounting solution for the speedlight). I'm not trying to set up a professional studio, I really just want to play around with things while we're still stuck at home.
posted by backseatpilot to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (6 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've learned a lot from Strobist.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 8:47 AM on April 1, 2021 [6 favorites]


Came here to say The Strobist too.

Do you have a library card? Lynda (which is now LinkedIn Learning) is free through a lot of libraries and has a bunch of lighting courses.
posted by octothorpe at 9:26 AM on April 1, 2021


if you look at basic continuous lighting sets online, they are basically lightbulbs on stands that let you control their positioning, and they have some way of modifying the light by diffusing it, or reflecting it. Continuous lighting can be easier to set up than strobe lighting--and will work with your cameras that can't control or sync with (the shutter and flash have to sync exactly) an off-body flash.

Getting your flash off camera even a little bit can make a huge difference, I always used my speedlight on an off camera cord for non-studio stuff if I wasn't running a full remote setup.
posted by th3ph17 at 9:39 AM on April 1, 2021


Scott Kelby's site, books and videos are a good resource.
posted by octothorpe at 11:07 AM on April 1, 2021 [1 favorite]


This poster helped me learn a lot of the basics for portrait. The gear needed is minimal.
posted by SageLeVoid at 1:38 PM on April 1, 2021 [3 favorites]


SageLeVoid: "This poster helped me learn a lot of the basics for portrait. The gear needed is minimal."

Oh, that's great.
posted by octothorpe at 3:54 PM on April 1, 2021


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