Flashing....Lights

So lighting has become such a huge part of makeup and hair in the past 5 years, with youtube and instagrammers upping their game with their new ring lights and complicated set ups. Good lighting pays off though. I was talking to a couple of friends, (all make-up junkies), and they were saying when stalking their favourite make-up gurus online they would be most likely skip to the next video if the lighting looked poor but if the lighting was clear and up to par with the standards we  expect these days from youtubers and instagram queens they would be more likely to watch. So it's safe to say the best pictures and videos are captured with the best lighting and the knowledge of what lighting is best for what circumstance. The knowledge I gain from our photography and lighting sessions with Simon are really useful to me as I've recently been thinking about blogging and youtubing myself.

This last lesson we talked about using a flash meter in order to make sure the light hitting the models face is just right, we also touched on bounce lighting and some settings that we needed to familiarize ourselves with.

When it comes to using lighting for beauty shots there are three different types of beauty lighting using a flashhead light, beauty dish and a soft box. With a flashhead light the image can look quite artificial as in the day to day world we have shadows surrounding us at all times so this can sometimes look quite clinical, Beauty dish lighting is very clear and precise capturing really fine detail; you'll often have a catch light appear in the model's eye, this is how you can normally tell how and with what equipment an image has been taken with, Finally we have the soft box, this gives a much softer effect on the image as the light has to pass through a diffuser meaning the light is broken up, much like the way clouds break up sunlight and soften it's effect (the bigger the softbox, the softer the light). With catch lights for soft box lighting you'll often see a large square like light in the model's eye.

Now onto bounce lighting.....

Bounce lighting can give an interesting effect when taking beauty images and this is something I haven't tried or seen before so this really interested me. By placing two poly-boards at a diagonal angle meeting each other and face the flash-head light at these two polyboards you create a surface for the light to bounce off; hence the name 'bounce lighting'. This light will then bounce off the poly-boards onto the model lighting the model's face etc ready for a photograph.

Since it's been a while since we all discussed the functions on the flash-head light we thought it was important to go over small confusing details one more time to refresh our memories. One fact that I had no idea about was that the dials on the flash-head meter had two very special jobs (yes I know it sounds simple but it is quite confusing!) the power dial is the most important in my opinion. This power dial controls the flashtube which is responsible for the brightness of the flash that goes off and lights your model or whatever you're taking a picture of. The lamp dial however is responsible for the brightness and intensity of the bulb that acts as a guide to where your light is heading it's used purely just as a light and has no effect on the picture whatsoever. Interesting!

Flash meters are also a handy tool to read how much light your flash is sending your model's way telling you the reading in aperture form making it easier for you to control how you want your pictures to look! Here's a picture of a flash meter similar to the one we used;

To use the flash light we used some masking tape and taped a spot on the floor where our model would stand. We next set the flash meter to the right settings turning on the power, pressing the mauve coloured button so a flashing icon appeared with a c next to it and changing the ISO to 100 using the up and down buttons on the flash meter, If you place the flash meter next to the models face once your flash head is on and obviously link the flash lead at the base to the flash-head the flash will go off and then indicated on the flash meter is your reading.
As mentioned before if the aperature reading is too high or low you need to use the power dial on the flash head to alter this, We were aiming for 5.6 at first but ended up with a reading of 11 so needed to turn our power down until we had a reading of 5,6 making sure our model was standing on our marked out spot. At first this really confused me but I think after a while using this tool it will really come in handy.

Here are the pictures we took:








Image 1 source:Hicks, J. (2013) Photography tips: How to bounce light | model mayhem education Blog. Available at: http://www.modelmayhem.com/education/photography/5613-how-to-bounce-light (Accessed: 6 February 2016).

Image 2 source: Sekonic Flashmate L-308s - flash meter: Is it possible to achieve perfect photo exposure every time with this fairly budget digital light/flash meter? (no date) Available at: http://www.laymansreviews.com/review.php?id=29 (Accessed: 6 February 2016).