How to choose the right studio lights

Lights can make or break an image. Lighting is something essential, and it should be considered when taking a photo, so it is important to understand the different types of lighting and how to make use of the most out of each. This blog is an attempt to answer the few common questions that we get from the Amature / beginner who has just started the Photography studio setup. It is an introduction that will be useful to the people who has just started out in studio photography.
Here come the two forms of lighting - Continuous and flash.

Continuous light:

Continuous light is often used for the video shoot. In fact, the continuous lights are cheaper than FlashLight. What you see is what you get (WYSIWUG) in continuous lighting. What Ever we see through our eyes will be the same in the camera.The common continuous light are:-

• Quartz
• LED
• Fluorescent

Quartz:
This is the warm light used in the studio and on movie sets. If cost is a consideration, Quartz lights are the first option when compared to the other Lights. The price of continuous light is less than the flashlights. They are referred as hot lights because of their characteristics

LED:
LED stands for light emitting diodes. There are series of many small light diodes on one of the LED panels. These lights are new to the photography and video market, and their use is getting more in common.

Fluorescent:
This light produces the daylight color. This could be the most interesting option when it comes to studio lighting. They are cool running light. They come in different forms like cool white light, warm white light and daylight.

Flash:
Flash/strobes are more powerful than continuous light. Strobe is often used for the photo shoot. It ensures the clean and crisp image. To get different colours we can gels. It comes in white balance-friendly daylight fluorescents, too.
Do I prefer continuous light or Flash? If you ask this question to me, Honestly, I would suggest both. There are lights and kits for every budget and purpose. In other words, it depends on your needs. Do you need power and portability? Then go with strobe. Are you tied up with the fixed photo studio and rarely go out then, I'd say to go with continuous light.
Based on your situation and your needs I can't offer any one option that fits all the requirements. However, this blog should have given you some insight on the topic, and help you to take the decision.

How Flickr improves your photography skills?

One of the advises that I offer to any beginner in photography is to create an account in flickr.com. The intent of this article is that beginners and casual photographers, who don’t have a Flickr account, would come to know the absolute purpose of the same after reading this article.

 Why Flickr, why not facebook??

One common practice among beginners in photography is that they upload their photographs in Facebook rather than flickr. The reason is pretty simple: they want their friends to see it, appreciate it and comment on it. This is always fun. But if you had noticed, most of the friends always have something very nice to say about the pictures: “good, awesome!”, “mind blowing”.
What they don’t offer is suggestions or minor improvements that you can make in the picture to make it a better one. Flickr does that. This, to me, is the biggest USP of Flickr – the ability to connect to a vast pool of professional photographers, who can appreciate, comment and share their knowledge with you. What more can you expect! A gain, I’m not against uploading pictures in facebook. But also upload them to Flickr, so that you can learn and as well as entertain your friends with your photography skills.

 Flickr gives you a chance to get inspired:

A common trait that runs among photographers (or for that matter, any person in the creative business) is inspiration. Even the best in the business have been inspired by legends & geniuses who went before them. So, inspiration is extremely crucial for beginners who can use as many ideas and techniques to get inspired from, that serves as learning tools in their quest to become better photographers. Flickr gives that opportunity like no other photo sharing site. By looking at others’ works, one can learn a lot about composition, post processing, perspective and what not.

 

By adding your favorite photographers into their contact list, a user can send mail to another photographer appreciating his work and gain knowledge from his experience. The user can also mail their work to other photographers and get comments and suggestion. By providing such avenues for learning, Flickr acts as a powerful platform for beginners and amateur photographers to hone their budding skills.

 Weekend Photo Groups and photo walks:

Beginners can look out for Weekend groups on Flickr that give them the much-needed opportunity to learn from other photographers, in person. Beginners can find photo groups specific to their city by defining the search appropriately in Flickr. There are also specific groups available for every camera model, where users generally discuss issues they are facing, features of the equipment, improvisations they were able to perform and pictures that were taken with their camera.

Many active groups organize weekly photo walks around your city or town and this will be a great learning experience for a beginner or any one who wonders what to do with a newly bought camera. Photo walks play a very important role in learning because, as a beginner he/she will be joining other amateurs and professionals who can help them gain knowledge in real time. They can see others framing and composing shots and learn the techniques in a practical way than learning them from YouTube videos. A beginner can also learn other things like interacting with the subjects, staying inconspicuous while shooting photos and lot more. You learn something new from each photo walk and you are a better photographer at the end of every single photo walk.

I want to be clear here that I’m not advocating beginners to go all out and get themselves a pro account (as Flickr is a premium service and you have to pay for the pro account). The free account is a good starting point, as you can most of these Flickr features discussed above. And when you are ready to that next big step, you can always upgrade to the pro account.

Happy Flickring!

Need for a Chroma key?

Green/blue screens are used for chroma keying that is to change the background of our desire post production. The blue or green best suits the purpose and so it is chosen. They are generally used in a movie, weather or a gaming industry. Blue is much softer than green and had more chroma key effects. But mostly green is used as people wish to be in blue attire and it illuminates more and so the reflection is high.

Need for a Chroma key? Chroma key is used by photographers to add more stunning creative backdrops. For example, when we have a video effect of rain ,we can utilize it as a background later after shooting the subject indoor with green screen. It paves way to implement your perspectives. Chroma key is more profitable for event and studio photographers. Amazing backdrops can be included on a wedding photography by using chroma key. In TV, actors can be made to act in front of a green screen and post production, special effects can be inserted effectively. Working of a Chroma The practice of keying is in practice since 1940's wherein the subject was photographed in foreground with masking the background and vice versa. Then they both were combined although they were two different shots. ChromaKey works on the color and this becomes disguise/ masked. The color choice of green/blue was made as they are farthest from the skin color and separation process can be made simple post production. But actually any color unrelated to the color on the foreground can be used using electronic compositing. Effective Utilization of a Chroma Key The prerequisites for a chroma keying includes a camera, light effects, chroma backdrop and a digital image to insert post production. In initial stages a green or a blue paper can be used as backdrop as it can be easily lit evenly. The light effects on the subject should be even and matching to the digital background. Light effects shouldn't show up any wrinkles, creases or shadows incase of fabric green. Light spills may cause extra work on photoshop post production. Ensure to light the environment evenly. When everything is set perfectly, we can shoot the photograph effectively. Digital modification of the Chroma Key The chroma keying can be done with conventional image processing tools to extract the green or blue backdrop and inserting the backdrop of our choice in Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, Photoshop Elements or other Paint program In Photoshop  The background has to made as layer 0 by double clicking the layer palette. From the select menu, the "color range" has to be selected and then click green or blue with the default pipette. Fine tuning can be done by clicking on the plus or minus symbols using the fuzziness slider. Finally, the invert checkbox has to be clicked. Our selection can now be used as a mask by clicking the make mask icon.

Green Screen in film making

Green screen paves way to have a personal touch with the audience by using it effectively on video production. This can be used for:

• presentation slides
• screen video
• screenshots
• photos
• animated fundamentals

People believe that extracting the green/blue color is a tedious job. But when one knows the technique, it will give an aesthetic look for our video at a competitive price. The video can be shot anywhere and the background can be replaced with quality graphics, stock photo or video elements. We need not spend on renting a stunning building or setting up a ultra modern background.

The choice of the backdrop is of our choice and test shots may be required to bring out ultimate results. When we master the chroma keying, we are sure to make good money.