I conducted a 1-on-1 lighting tutorial with Mr Ian Azlan a couple of days ago. He joined the Bagan Lalang outdoor workshop a few weeks back and requested a studio lighting workshop basics.

To start off, here’s a biasa-biasa record shot of Abby in the studio session lah…

(heheh please excuse the watermark and the big bold text lah)

See the catchlight? nampak kan? that’s a clue of where the main light was positioned for this image. Since the background is a black velvet cloth which absorbs light (kalau u all tak tahu lagi lah) the hoodie Abby is wearing “merged” with the background. I added another light from the back to add separation.

Check out the hairlight set-up here…

the studio light was triggered with a Pocket Wizard radio triggering thingies .

From time to time we break for tachap (and oso ciggy breaks I must add hahahah)

Please excuse the sweaty look on Ian’s happy face, photography in a studio is easy because you are in control yet at the same time, paradoxicaly, it’s also difficult because YOU, are in control, so if the picture didn’t turn out the way you wanted then you only have yourself to blame. Sweaty look is normal, or maybe I should invest in another aircond unit for the studio area ajer (hahah! Duit lagik!) Anyhow, in this 1-0n-1 lighting tutorial, I share a few tips and tricks  gained over more than 10 years doing commercial photography (and that’s not counting doing wedding exclusively for 5 years prior to that lah. One of these days I gonna write an entry about ‘wedding job ni tak mana’ for your reading pleasure  lah. Go tell your other friends about this *winks*)

After our lunch break, we’re went out of doors to explore how to apply the studio lighting knowledge into practical everyday photography need. After all, not everyone have a set of powerful studio lights to lug around nor can afford to get them.

*For the record, my Bowens monoblocks units are more than 3 years old with some dating back about a few more years before that. That kind of reliability just couldn’t be had with China Made El-Cheapo ‘Studio’ Lights™ one. They’re maybe cheap up front but in the long run they may need more maintenance (blown capacitors, fried circuit board, electric shocks accesories that falls apart and similar horro stories). Dont forget about consistency (in flash output and colour balance), you’re not gonna ‘photoshop’ every single picture taken with a studio strobe, no?

So, back to the outdoor session, we first explored the nuances of available light photography. Available light photography is great, if the available light is available (rain, haze, cloud cover all alter the quality of sunlight, if you dontch knoe that already lah). Most of the time tho, the so called available light is just not available, not in the quality that needed.

I prefer to shoot with available light, as I dontch need to carry that much gear *LOL* However, here in the Klang valley, a ‘perfect’ light is such a rarity, so we make do lah.

Or, mixing available light with flash. See example below…

* A tip: dontch just pay and join any ‘flash workshop’ that’s widely offered on the net these days. Get a better grounding of your basic photography knowledge (for example: the relationship between ISO, shutter speed and aperture in determining a ‘correct’ exposure for a picture. Ejas dalam photoshop 44 layer tak main lah dewd…), learn to differentiate the perspective of different focal length (a 50mm f1.4/1.8 lens DOES not constitute a best ‘portrait’ lens for 1.5x/1.6x cropped sensor body) to best utilise it AND last but not least: the best camera there is is the one you’re currently own (of course, some of my friend will remark that in private “Ted Adnan wontch recommend an Oely DSLR to noobs. Silly lah that 4/3 system a lot of thing going against it. I thoroughly recommend the water resistant and shock resistant compacts tho. Those are a great invention since Minolta unleashed the wireless flash photography to the World of course Nikon CLS system perfects it  hahahah”. Kidding lah for this X’mas Day post and apologies to Oely users if you took offence even tho I apologies in advance. I know y’all are unsporting one *grins*)

Anyway, here’s a shout out to all, Mr Ian, Abby the model 9she’s going to be very famous one day *winks* Zue Hashim The MUA and crew and not forgetting my intern Shira who clocks out of the Studio that day. I think she wanna switch major and do photography instead of what she’s studying now. You go girl!

Last but not least, apologies all for not updating this blog as often as you like (yaaaa, I gt message via Fesbuk chat and YM about the lack of updates recently. What to do, at the end of the day I still have an obligation to Clients, so work comes first.

I am waiting for the Ian dewd to do a final select of his work that day (no, I dontch ‘vet’ the photos before allowing them for uploads one, whatever you feel is your best then show lah. After all, taste is subjective, no? *winks*) and will feature it here in my blog with a few commentaries to share-share with you all lah.

Of course, I gotta make a few pictures oso, no? S0 here’s one for your viewing pleasure.

(“Abby is not happy, as she was stung by mozzies” – by Ted Adnan, All Rights Reserved)

One Nikon SB-900 with it’s light bounced to umbrella positioned from front just off my left shoulder, one bare Nikon Sb-26 from the side slightly behind Ms Abby, both light triggered again by the (rather expensive piece of plastick, IMHO) Pocket Wizard radio triggering thingies. I have another version without the shadows on the wall but I share this one with you all as I rather like it. I hope you like it tho, if you’re into this sort of shadows on the wall thing lah whoah hahahahahah