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Photo Lighting
Equipment Guide (Continuous vs. Flash)
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Digital Photography Lighting
equipment comes in two flavors: Continuous (flood)
Lighting and Flash (strobe) Lighting . For most digital
studio lighting we recommend continuous lighting.
Continuous lighting works with all digital cameras while
flash lighting requires semi-pro or professional digital
cameras that provide "external flash triggering".
Continuous lighting is easy to master, particularly with the
white balance control of modern digital cameras. With
continuous lighting WYSIWYG, what you see in the viewfinder
(LCD display) is what you get. Also, We only recommend
using flash lighting for very large objects.
 Continuous
lighting comes in a variety of flavors from bulb and
reflector units like our ALZO
"cool
lite" units that use special photo compact fluorescent
bulbs, basic
Light Kits, and professional quality
"quartz"
lights. We typically recommend continuous lighting for
very small to medium/large subjects. Our "cool Lite"
continuous lights are very popular for food and cosmetic imaging.
Although
flash lighting has been favored by portrait film
photographers, it is more difficult than continuous lighting
because exposure control is performed manually and you will
have many trial and error images and lighting configurations
to optimize the light on the subject. In all flash
lighting a Flash Meter is highly recommended.
The flash incorporated on
digital cameras will not produce professional results.
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- Ambient Lighting:
Be sure to examine the room you select before constructing your shoot. Excessive "room" lighting can have an undesirable effect on the product image and could cause
tinting so you will want to turn most of it off (but leave enough on to view the subject in the camera
viewer). Take some pictures with the slave strobe switch off and preview them on a computer monitor to make sure the ambient (room) lighting is not casting an unwanted tint.
If it is, look for another area that is darker.
- Strobes: Your shoot can use one or two slave strobes (flashes) to illuminate your subject. Using only one should be fine for many objects, but may cast undesirable shadows on irregular shaped objects. By using a second strobe on the left side, you will soften shadows enhance detail and improve the overall image. Your second strobe should always be about 50% further away from the subject than the primary strobe. You may wish to experiment and try different configurations and compare the results.
- TIP: Sometimes your images may turn out too bright, no matter what EV level you use. If moving your slave strobes farther back doesn't help, or if you can't move them back any farther, don't be afraid to try placing your hand, black electrical tape, or something else in front of the strobe bulb when you take your picture! Some of the
best photographers use homemade techniques like this one to get their award-winning results.
We encourage you to browse
our Photo Lighting store where we have both individual
components as well as pre-configured kits available.
Our
Exclusive
SUPERIOR
STUDIO SUPPORT
If you are having difficulty getting the perfect
image with any of our equipment, we will set up an
equivalent configuration in our studio and solve your
problem and email you the solution, including images of
the equipment used. If your problem is related to a digital camera
issue with a camera that was not purchased from us, we will
attempt to help you and may recommend a camera upgrade.
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Ask
any professional photographer and they will confirm that quality photographs are the result of proper photo lighting and not the
camera.
Good digital photo lighting equipment can make all the difference in the quality of the images. One sure way to improve the quality of your
images is to use our high quality photo lighting equipment.
