All language subtitles for 02. Types of studio lighting.mp4

Understanding studio lighting at first
glance might seem a little bit

daunting, because after all, there is a
great variety of models and types of lighting,

but essentially

they are all trying to do the same
thing.

They're giving us artificial daylight,
balanced illumination.

Now if you understand the principles
and the fundamentals of light that

we've taught already, then you're on a
very, very good start.

Because essentially all of these lights
are there to assist you in

applying those principles to achieve a
good photograph.

There are however a number of
differences in the way they work, or

the slight nuances of the benefits of
each one.

So if we start at this end of the line
of lights that I've got here,

this is what's known as a mono block
studio light.

And a mono block studio light basically
means that the power, the capacitor,

the energy, where the power is stored,
is inside

this lamp head itself.

This one is powered by a Lithium
battery, which is in here.

So this does not need to be connected
to the mains.

This next light

is also a monoblock light,

but this one is not powered by a
battery.

This one is powered by electricity from
the mains.

Here we have a very small lamp head
that does not have a capacitor

or power inside of it.

This one needs to be powered separately
from a separate pack

that runs off of the mains.

Here

I have a another lamp head that does not

have a capacitor.

This one runs off of a pack

and a pack that has a battery in it.

So this one can be used on location.

This one simply on charge.

At the moment that the light

plugs into the pack.

And you can see, I can plug two of
these lamp heads into this pack.

Look at that a little bit closer in a
second.

Now this one is a very high powered

studio

lamp system.

So this is the lamp head.

It will not work without the power
pack.

And you can see the power pack has
three ports.

And at the moment I have two different
lights, two lights, plugged into this pack.

And I can control the power and many
other features from this advanced pack.

And then moving down to here,

this is what we call continuous light.

So this light actually is on all of the
time.

It has limited variability in the
power.

It can only go either full power or
half power.

But it gives a pure continuous daylight
balance.

Now we're not really going to look at
this type of lighting system, because

this is not the common lighting system
for photographers in a studio.

It is used time to time, but it's more
used for purposes of video lighting.

We're going to concentrate on the light
that fires a flash, a burst of flash.

And by a burst of flash, I mean like so,

and all of these lights

fire a burst of flash.

What changes is how much power of flash
they can put out,

and how low the power they can put out,
and then the range of accessories and

modifiers that can be attached to them.

One thing that's important to remember

is that all of these different
accessories that you see over here, so

we have a variety of very large
lighting modifiers,

soft boxes,

frenel's,

projection attachments, all sorts of
lighting modifiers.

Now, they are not the lights themselves.

It is these lamp heads that fit into
those modifiers.

So those are simply attachments that
attach

to these lights

to allow us to shape the light, to do
different things.

So what is the purpose of all of these
different types of lights?

Well we'll start off looking at one
studio light first, explaining a little

bit about the basics of that studio
light,

and then i'll point out what some of
the key differences are between these

lights.

So you get a better understanding.

So this is

a monoblock,

electrically powered studio light.

Let me just turn it off a moment.

Let me just show you.

I'm going to take it off, the lamp, off
the lighting stand.

First of all, there's the on off switch.

So

I'm just flicking it off.

To begin with,

here is where it attaches

onto a lighting stand.

And they all

usually tighten up like.

So to fix it firmly to the lighting
stand,

I then go to this side.

It has an adjustable

handle to do this.

So we have tilt up and down to modify
the direction.

And

with the one that I tightened up on
this side, obviously, we can go left

and right, or we could simply turn the
lighting stand.

And with the lighting stands themselves,

we can adjust

the position of another light to get it
where we want.

At the front end of the light, we have
our modifiers.

That is the attachment that we fit on.

Now, that could be an umbrella,

it could be a soft box, could be a

more expensive parabolic reflector.

Or, in this case, it's just the
standard reflector.

So, normally,

on studio lights we have a release
catch.

So I will rotate the reflector, pull
the release catch,

and away comes the reflector.

So we have a number of different
choices of small reflectors,

different shapes,

different sizes that we can use

on our lights.

Let's pop that down a moment

and take a look at

the light itself.

So one of the first things I want to
look at is, I'm going to remove the

protective dome on the outside here.

And this has been on, so it's a little
bit warm.

We can just take this off.

I'm just going to rotate its position,

carefully remove that.

And that's the protective dome, you
see, it's got some ventilation.

And this one has a diffusion here to
create a more even light source

from the flash tube.

Now

the important thing to notice is there
looks like there's two bulbs here, and

there are.

The bulb in the center is a halogen or
tungston hallegen light.

And that is not the light that is used
to take the picture.

If I turn the light on again, you will
see

that bulb aluminate.

Here you go,

it off.

So that bulb is called our modeling
lamp.

And our modeling lamp is there purely
to let us see what we're doing.

So when we're setting up our soft
boxes, or our umbrellas, on our subject,

on our product shot, or our portrait
shot, we can see the effect of the

light, see where the shadows are going,
see how soft the light is, etc.

But it is not the light that is used to
take the picture.

This other bulb, but in this case, it's
actually a flash tube that goes.

Around the edge, in this circle

is the light source that fires the
flash.

So if I turn the light on again,

this time

I'm going to dial in a very low power,

and

I'm going to fire the flash, this time
just with the test button.

And there you go.

You see

the ring around the edge is
illuminating.

If I turn the modelling light off

and then fire the test button,

you see it is not that that is firing.

It is the outer flash tube that is
firing.

You should be careful actually, when
doing that.

If you do that a very high power,
you're going to damage your eyes, temporarily

by looking into the flash.

So it's a good idea to avoid looking at
flash tubes directly when you're firing them.

So that explains the modeling lamp and
the flash too.

Now all lamps, whether it is this one
here,

which is the battery powered

also has a flash tube.

If we move down to

this small lamp head here, let me just
open this one up for you.

Just taking the outer

protective cover

off of this one.

And you can see, in here you have the
modelling lamp

and a flash tube.

So a very similar set up.

If we move to this one,

you can see the flesh tube in there.

But this one has an LED modelling lamp,
so it's a different type of bulb.

At the back, is almost invisible it's
on that green surface.

If we move on to this one, you can see,
if I turn the modelling lamp off,

you can see there's the modelling lamp
glowing, look, you can see the

afterglow.

Let me turn off.

You see the afterglow?

There it's a bigger modeling lamp on
this one, because the modelling lamp is

more powerful, so it allows the
photographers to

see more easily what they're doing.

And you can see the flash tube

around, which fires the flash.

And this is a bigger flash tube,
because this particular light can

output more power and will be covering
more about power in depth.

In the next section,

this light, although it looks a little
bit different to this one.

It has the same flash tube and the same
power modeling lamp.

The light is only made slightly
different because the lamp head can zoom

in and out.

And that's simply to change the

spread of light in certain modifiers.

That one we don't need to worry about,
because they say that's a continuous

light source.

So let's move on back to the top of the
row to look at some of the other key differences.

So let's start here again

with this monoblock light.

Now, the difference between this light
and this light, they look very similar.

They are actually from the same brand
and the same range.

But this one's got an l on it to
denote.

That it's a Lithium, or I call it
location light.

And it is powered by a removable
battery that you can recharge.

Now one of these basae typically gives
the light a, think, about 800 flashes.

I'm not sure I'd have to double check
on that, but it depends on the amount

of power that you're putting out of the
light.

Now, while we're talking about light
power, I mean, just turn this one on,

hopefully the battery is charged.

Yes, it is.

Here you can see a number 5.8.

So if I just changed that to six at the
moment.

This tells us the power that that light
is going to output out of the flash

tube.

This one goes up to 10,

and it'll go all the way down to two, I
believe, on this one.

Yes, two.

So it's got a power range from ten to
two.

I'll be discussing power a little bit
more detail in a moment.

So a monoblock light, the power goes
into a capacitor inside here, stores

the power ready for the burst of light
to fire out.

Like.

So

the amount of power that comes out the
light is determined by the power

setting that we put here.

Now, this is exactly the same

on this slide,

except this light is powered by
electricity.

So we don't need to worry about how
many flashes.

We just need to worry about a main's
power.

Supply,

if we move down to this lamp head,

this one will not fire on its own.

It does not have any controls.

It has to be plugged

into a pack

that has a capacitor.

It needs to be plugged into a pack like
this

or a pack like this,

to allow it to have the energy to fire.

Let's move over to this lamp pack.

First of all,

this one will not fire on its own

so if I disconnect the lamp,

there is no way this flash can fire
because there is no energy inside this

flash.

All of the energy for this flash

comes from this unit.

And this unit is equivalent to three
flashes

because it has three input values here.

So I'm able to plug three different
lamp heads into this unit to

create the energy and the power needed.

I can then control

the power of the light on each

lamp head,

12 or three,

up and down

on this control panel here.

So very easy to independently control
each lamp head, as I choose.

Now as you can see, this

is quite a big unit,

and a pack, a big studio pack, like
this, usually has a lot more energy

than a smaller lamp head.

If we move to this lamp head, you'll
also see that this one is plugged into

this pack as well.

So whilst this lamp head is slightly
bulkier, bulkier than this one, it

actually still requires

a power pack to work.

It's only bulkier because of the extra
mechanism required for the zoom.

The other thing you'll notice with the
lamps is they all have a very similar

adjustment mechanism here, and they all
attach

to a lighting stand in the same way.

So that runs across the board
throughout all studio lights.

So how do we trigger the lights?

How do we make them flash?

Well, let me just get a trigger,

an asynchronization

cable.

In the old days,

we used to use a

sink cable.

And the sink cable would be plugged
into the pack

and plugged into the camera.

And then when you fired the camera,
we'd send a signal, and that would

trigger the flash.

Now sink cables still can be used with
most flashes,

but now with modern technology,

we generally use a transmitter that
sends a wi fi or radio signal to our

lamp heads.

And that allows us the ability to fire
the flash, as i'll do now.

So with a trigger, a radio trigger, it
has a hot shoe, and it simply attaches

to the top of your camera.

And when you fire your camera shutter
button, this sends a signal to the

lights and fires them.

Means you can work over a Greater
distance.

So what are the advantages of a pack
system compared to a monoblock system,

compared to a Lithium system?

Well let's take a look at that.

A Lithium battery power system

can be used

anywhere.

It gives us the ability to take the
light on location

without the hindrance of cables,

without the hindrance of requiring an
electricity.

Supply,

this is especially useful if you're
doing wedding photography, or portrait

or fashion photography on location, and
you want to take your lights, or your

model, or your subject, to some
elaborate landscape or elaborate scene,

and enable yourself to be far more
creative

with the choice of backgrounds that you
can create by being out on location.

With a monoblock system such as this
one, where we're strictly limited to

main's power, then it is obviously a
more dedicated light for in a studio.

Now you can use, of course, a Lithium
powered light in a studio,

but you will probably be better, or
prefer using a mainspowered light in

the studio, because then you're not
having to worry about recharging the battery.

It is also possible to use main powered
lights on location if you have a

special battery pack converter that you
can actually plug these lights into.

But that does become quite a bit more
cumbersome than using a monoblock like that.

Now I keep talking about mono blocks.

As said, these are monoblocks that's
amount of block that's because the

capacitor is inside the light.

This is the key difference between

the rest

of these lights,

this one, this one, this one and this
one, and not mono block lights.

They require a separate pack.

Now this particular light

has a pack

that can be used on location.

Because this pack is powered by a
recharge of rechargeable Lithium

battery, which slots into here

and

allows us to insert a battery, take a
spare one with us if necessary.

It has, as I said, two input ports,

and we can control the power up and
down on each one of those ports separately.

So you might ask yourself, well, why
use that

instead of using the larger monoblock,
like

if they both can work on location?

Well, it's a good question.

My preference is actually for a smaller
lamp head.

Because I do a lot of fashion work, and
a lot of fashion work requires the use

of these large parabolic reflectors.

And when using these large parabolic
reflectors, I prefer having a lower

weight, or a simpler, lighter lamp head

to set up on location,

if we compare the size of the lamp
heads.

And if I take this one over to
alongside, to our

Lithium,

a Lithium, you can see there is a huge
difference in the size of the lamp

head.

And there's also a significant
difference in the weight of the lamp head.

And that means that this lamp head is
more compact for me to travel with

and allows me to get this lamp head in
different modifiers.

And it's a more compact, less weighty
unit.

The disadvantage

is that this lamp head,

and this system, is more expensive than
the mono block system.

Generally speaking,

pack powered systems are more expensive.

Generally speaking, pack power systems

also have more power available

out of the pack than you would get out
of a monoblock head.

So for example, this has 1200 jewels.

The other monoblock we looked at had
800 jewels.

We're going to talk more in depth about
power in the next section.

This pack

is

only for studio use.

This is for inner.

Studio, does not have a battery inside.

This is a mainspowered

supply pack.

The difference, however,

is this is a very high power

pack.

300200

jewels of power can come out of one of
those channels.

And that can be split into about 1050

jaws equally out of each channel,

or it can be split in different ratios.

So it can be split into 3000 jewels.

And 200 jewels

directed to whichever lamp heads you
prefer.

So a lot more power,

a lot more control and a lot more
professional features to do with color

balance and flash duration that can
also be applied with a system.

So this is very much a more
professional studio system.

So those are the key differences

in many professional studios.

use monoglock lights.

In my studio, I choose to use
packlights for the additional power and

the additional functionality

and the small, compact size of the lamp
heads.

But in some studios they also mix
monoblock.

So they have some monoblock lights and
some pack lights.

There are also specialist lamps, like
this one, very small compact lamp heads

that fit

and attach to a pack like this.

But they give me a much, much smaller
size to allow me to get in close for

different elements of product
photography.

So that is an overview of the lamp
heads themselves.

But you need to understand that
essentially they're all doing the same

thing.

They're outputing a burst of flash that
is daylight balanced for you to then modify,

modify that light with the correct
choice of modifier

and then

style, you're shot accordingly.

The next thing, we're going to look at
is the power of these lights.