Light sources

Posted by on Nov 3, 2011 in Blog, Photo Thoughts | 0 comments

In the past few weeks, I have been engaged with conversations with various people regarding the way they light for cosplay. Light sources is a fairly basic concept, but I think this post will be useful for myself at least in explicitly bringing to light stuff I already consider. I’ll just be going through a list of various light sources which are available to light the subject, and looking at how they are used, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.

Available light

This is quite obvious and what most people start with. We make use of the sun, the window light, the street lights, the light on tables, the ambient. We turn and position our subject(s) so the light is perfect for them. We adjust our shutter speed, ISO and aperture to get the exposure we want.

Advantages:

  • You know exactly what you are going to get
  • Natural look
  • Versatile and not a lot of equipment needed
  • Depth of field control
  • Increased environment awareness

Disadvantages:

  • Limited control over angles
  • Limited control over exposure balance between subject and background
  • Difficulties in dim conditions (better have that high ISO capability)
  • Colour temperature control difficulties (especially at night)

Reflector only (no flash/other artificial light sources)

We add an extra dimension of control to available light. We have someone hold the reflector or mount it on a light stand with clamps. The reflector not only redirects light from elsewhere to fill shadows, it can also act as a scrim to block light if it is too bright, or change the colour of the light if the reflector has coloured sides.

Properly used, each reflector acts as a separate light source.

Advantages:

  • What you see is what you get
  • Predominantly natural look
  • Sophisticated lighting on a budget
  • Relatively light travel (though rather bulky and a pain to carry)
  • Light is adjustable (you can feather it and vary the angles)
  • Environmental awareness

Disadvantages:

  • Depending on light source and environment, limited places to put the reflector
  • Does not really solve the problem if there is little ambient light
  • Bulky when unfolded. An assistant is usually required
  • Large surface area acts as wind catcher
  • If reflecting direct sun, becomes a constant hot and blinding light source
  • Subject to drift and variation due to wind, assistant moving, sun moving

Flash

We dazzle our subjects, we bounce it, diffuse it, shove it in strange places, gel it, impale it on light stands, change its shape and nature with modifiers. We add as many as we have the budget for, and still fit them in a pretty medium size bag.

Advantages:

  • Independent light sources: control freaks rejoice
  • Fairly controlled colour temperatures: you know what you are getting
  • Depending on what you get, fairly cheap
  • Cost savings allow play with many light sources
  • With light stands, no need for assistants
  • We can balance light on subject and the ambient/background exposure
  • Great way to learn about (and use) lighting modifiers
  • Very strong light emitted in a short duration: less glaring than constant light

Disadvantages:

  • Batteries
  • Depending on light modifiers, can be unstable in wind
  • Not WYSIWYG: a lot of guesswork or intuition involved
  • Sync speed limits how fast your shutter speed can get, in turn limiting control over aperture and thus depth of field in bright conditions
  • High Speed Sync is expensive. Automatic exposure is expensive
  • Greatly increased potential to screw up and make things look really bad
  • Can cause blinking

Monoblocs

Yes, it’s the next step up after flashes if you are enamoured with artificial light. I haven’t learned much about them since I have limited real-world experience. But let’s give it a try.

Advantages:

  • All the advantages of flash
  • Much more powerful compared to flash
  • Modelling light allows preview of lighting effect: reduces guesswork
  • Larger light emitting surface area by default
  • Faster recycle times

Disadvantages:

  • Expensive (applies to base units, power supply and modifiers)
  • Requires power supply/AC connection
  • Can be bulky and heavy, limiting portability
  • Lightweight light stands need not apply
  • Not inherently zoomable (though I don’t use the zoom function of my flashes much anyway)

LED continuous lights

Notable for its use by F-sama (hybridre), the use of LED panels is spreading. These light sources are generally known for their use in videos, but are being applied to still photography too.

Advantages:

  • WYSIWYG
  • Cheap on ebay (actually very expensive if you get “quality” ones for professional videographers)
  • Adjustable brightness
  • By default, larger light emitting surface area compared to flash
  • Relatively less glaring, lower tendency to cause blinking
  • Can be used to paint light on the subject if longer shutter speeds are used

Disadvantages:

  • Warm greenish colour temperature by default, variable according to sample
  • Colour temperature modified with colour filters but not sure of actual colour emitted
  • Relatively low light emitted compared to flash/monoblocs: limited use in brighter conditions
  • Still require a relatively slow shutter speed or high ISO or big aperture in night time
  • Form factor and relatively low brightness limits light modifiers which can be used: size of the light source pretty much remains the same, unless you spend more and get a bigger panel

Conclusions

Note that I have excluded some light sources like crazy big studio strobes or fluorescent arrays, due to the fact that they aren’t very portable and useable in environments outside, unless you are really rich and you get a generator to power them. Stuff like ring lights, I would put them under flash since I see them as light modifiers for flash/monoblocs.

One of the big hurdles to entry for the use of flash is the lack of insight at the outset to the final lighting conditions. If using that particular light source, photographers need to visualise the effect depending on the light modifier use, the distance from the subject, the relative power of the flash units, etc. It’s not an easy ask by any means, and when you are trying to adjust the angles of the flash so the subject is illuminated by that very narrow beam of light (if snooting or gridding) it can become frustrating.

However, I personally enjoy that challenge. We know how it works, technically, but it’s always exciting when the final image reveals itself on the screen — the capture of a moment lasting 1/160th of a second, when the world is transformed by light into a truly magical place.

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