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Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Photography Discussion => Topic started by: Tror on September 25, 2013, 07:26
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I guess things always change, and so does the taste of the market. When I was starting stock photography it was the absolute must to have some good Strobes to light out everything perfectly in shiny white and sterile 5500K. Nowadays, with raising ISO capabilities of the cameras and probably over saturation of Yuri style images it looks like the trends goes more towards natural lightning...what do you think? What will be the trend? What do you prefer when shooting?
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Both. I try to shoot with natural light accented with strobes. Unless the location is just too dark for a reasonable ISO, like my new Stocksy market shots.
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Natural light is surely the best (in theory) because it is natural, so it shows the things as they are.
But cameras (files/films) do not record things as the eyes (brain) see (perceive) them.
So it is useful to have some equipment to help to be as close as possible to what the eyes (brain) expect to see (perceive). These instruments can be strobes, reflectors, panels, etc.
And alternative could be hdr, but this technique is not always very satisfying, and can be used only with static subjects.
Natural light can be controlled with difficulty: it changes very fast (quantity, quality, color temperature) and it is enough difficult to control the Sun…
Strobes can be easily controlled: moved, change shape and intensity of the light source, and the color temperature is (should be) constant.
Personally I tend to use "daylight only" every time that it is possible (so rarely), or daylight + some reflector(s) (most of the time).
But sometime, in some situations or to obtain some determinated result, the use of some strobe is necessary.
If you work in (closed) studio you will need strobe or studio lights.
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Both. I try to shoot with natural light accented with strobes. Unless the location is just too dark for a reasonable ISO, like my new Stocksy market shots.
Are you putting gels on your strobes to match strobe vs fluorescent (or whatever the natural light is) Sean?
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On fluorescent, yes, I try to, depending on the setup, or I'll selectively mask in PS. But most regular environments seem to be using close to daylight balanced bulbs anyways, and my ABs tend to hang right around that temperature too.
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On fluorescent, yes, I try to, depending on the setup, or I'll selectively mask in PS. But most regular environments seem to be using close to daylight balanced bulbs anyways, and my ABs tend to hang right around that temperature too.
Yeah, AB's seem pretty close to 5500 I agree. I keep kicking myself that I haven't bothered to balance the lights after a shoot and end up doing it in Photoshop with a mask. It would be so much easier to do it in camera!