Professional studio photography lighting part 1: photography lighting equipment

This is the first part of a new series that I’ve decided to post on Professional studio photography lighting, as an answer to all your questions and requests to know more about the topic. At the end of this series, you should be able to take professional studio photographs just like a pro. To start off we need to come to terms with a few concepts and equipment used in this trade, so today we are gonna learn about different photography lighting equipment and accessories used in professional studio, indoor, and outdoor photography to better direct and control available or artificial light for professional looking, high quality portrait, still life, and other types of photography.

Flash heads

Flash heads include flash tubes which emit flashes of light when supplied with high voltages, typically from power packs (explained below).

Flash heads have fittings that allow for attaching light adjusting equipment such as reflectors, snoots, grids, umbrellas, softboxes, …etc

Power packs

Power packs are used to generate power (measured in watt seconds) for one or multiple flash heads.

There are two kinds of those: Symmetric power packs, and assymetric power packs. Symmetric power packs split power equally between multiple flash heads. Assymetric power packs allow varying power supply to different flash heads.

A reasonable power pack for supplying power to up to 3 flash heads would be typically rated at 3000 watt seconds.

Monolights

Monolights are compact substitutes for a power pack/ flash head combination. The compact quality limits their power (typically around 250-500 watt second), but they are sometimes desired for their portable quality.

Monolights can still have the full range of light modifying equipment attached to them as well.

Reflectors

Reflectors control and modify the quality of light introduced into a scene. There are all kinds of different types and sizes of reflectors fitted for many various tasks. Here are some of the most popular reflector types:

Wide angle reflectors and floods

These are short, broad-end reflectors that attach to the flash head to direct the light emitted by the flash creating a wider light beam acting as a medium light source (check Photography and light: light size for more on this).

Floods may also come with a cap that conceals the flash light for a single reflected, medium source type of light (rather than a small light source with a medium size reflector)

Barn doors

These are sort of hinged metal flaps that attach to wide angle reflectors and floods to further direct the flash light and prevent it from spilling around.

Grids or honeycombs

These are honeycomb shaped metal grids that gather light into narrow openings for a more focused light. The finer the grid cells, the more focused the light illuminating a subject will be.

Snoots

Snoots are conical shaped tools that are attached to flash heads to narrow the distribution of light. Grids can also be attached to the end opening of the snoot.

Umbrellas

Reflecting umbrellas are usually attached to flash heads for light diffusion, with the flash head facing away from the subject. Light from the flash hits the inside of the umbrella and then bounces back, illuminating the subject. There are silver-lined, white, and gold tinted umbrellas. Silver-lined umbrellas are the most efficient and focus light most narrowly of all 3. White umbrellas offer a wider spread of reflected light, and gold umbrellas offer a warmer light.

There are also shoot-through umbrellas. These are typically made of white translucent material, and are fitted to the flash head, but with the flash head facing towards the subject. Light is transmitted through the umbrella, hitting the subject in a diffused manner. Shoot-through umbrellas offer extra light spill though, as light is also spread around besides being transmitted through the umbrella.

Softboxes

These are square or rectangular lightweight boxes that come with a reflective inside and translucent front. Softboxes are attached to flash heads so that the flash light’s direction faces the softbox’s front from the inside. Light emitted from the flash head gets reflected inside the softbox and diffused through the box’s translucent front to creating soft, medium sized light source emitting the model or scene.

Large softboxes are also called lightbanks.

Flags

A flag is any kind of opaque object placed in the way of light either to better direct it, or to prevent it from spilling into unwanted areas or onto the lens causing possible flare. A semi-translucent flag is called a scrim, and is used to cut down on light spill.

Focusing spots

A focusing spot is an attachment including lenses to focus flash light into tight circles or through shapes in metal "gobos" to provide sites or dapples of light.

Next we talk about how to use these various photography lighting equipment for various style professional photo shoots. Stay tuned…