Photography Studio

We recently had a lesson with Scott who taught us how to use the photography equipment in the photography room. We were told there were two kind of backdrops we could use, which were the white drop and the black drop. We were told when taking pictures with a model they shouldn’t stand right against the backdrop as they would bleach into the background. Instead they should stand at least 4-5 feet from the backdrop.

We were shown lights that we could use in our photoshoot. The lights were using are known as 3 point lighting. There was the key/main light, the fill light, and the back light. There were also soft boxes which diffuses and soften the light. We were told the bank light separates the model from the backdrop and gives the model more depth, to make it less flat looking. We were shown how to adjust the lights to make them higher and lower. We were also told to put sandbags on the lights to prevent them from toppling over if we were to make them taller. When finished using the lights you should switch them off from the back before you unplug them otherwise this can cause them to explode.

We can control how powerful the flash on the lights were by the dial at the side of the lights. The dial goes from 1 to 6 (1 being the weakest and 6 being the strongest). We were advised to start with the dial at 3 and adjust it to our preferences. Also you can dim the lights by moving them further away from the model or if you wanted them to be brighter you can move them closer to the model.

We were shown a transmitter which we would have to place on the camera. The transmitter sends a signal to the lights to let them know when the user is ready to take a picture. When the lights are ready they will beep to tell the user they are ready to go before they flash. The lights should flash in unison when they are being testes or being used to take a picture. You can test the flash by clicking the transmitter to test if it is to your preference.

When taking the pictures we were told to switch off the main lights. We were also advised to make the model look at the audience (through the lens) to make them feel more connected to the reader. When taking pictures you should look through the view finder and never look through the screen as it is less accurate.

The camera we will be using is a Nikon D7100 (digital single lens reflex), which has 24mmp with a lens of 118-105 zoom in and out. The left hand bar of the camera has two mode, which are A for aperture and S for shutter. These modes help control the expulsion and shots.

Aperture mode controls the shadow depth of field. You can control this with the dial at the front of the camera. The higher the F number the more depth of field. The depth of field is when you want more than one thing focused, whereas the shadow depth of field is when you want to focus on one thing. The Shutter mode helps to capture movement, for example when hair is flowing. You can control how fast or slow the shutter is with a dial. The lower the number the slower the shutter and the higher the number the shutter.

You can also set the white balance on the camera to remove unrealistic colour casts. When shooting we were told to make sure the camera iso, which is the film speed, is set around 100 – 200 and no higher. This controls how much light enters the camera lens. We were reminded for portrait pictures we should take pictures with the camera at its side otherwise the photo would end up landscape. Furthermore we were shown how to how to take pictures in black and white by changing the camera settings in the menu bar and turning it to mono (black and white) instead of vivid (colour)