S & L Poll: What type of lighting do you prefer?

[Asylum Steve]

Hey,

I've been wanting to try the POLL feature of the new format forum, plus it's been a little quiet here lately. C'mon, it's WINTER! Ain't there ANYBODY shooting stuff indoors???

Anyway, I decided to kill both birds with one stone (sorry Paul, not PC, I know ).

I'm curious what type of lighting our members like to use. I've made the poll so you can select more than one choice (but you can only vote once).

It's really not a big deal, but seeing how this is the studio lighting forum, you should probably select at least one artificial lighting type.

Have fun...

[dsl712]

"I'm curious what type of lighting our members like to use. I've made the poll so you can select more than one choice (but you can only vote once)."

I only selected natural light but studio flashes are my next favorite. Natural because, it's cheap and so am I. No seriously though. Natural light can be flat, directional, soft, hard, warm, cold, bounced, focused but always beautiful.

Studio lights because I have more control and can play with it more.

Actually, one of my favorite looks is studio flash used outdoors. Maybe a third to half stop higher than ambient. Makes the subjects pop and has an almost surreal affect.

Dennis

[Photo-John]

I love to mix artificial light with natural light. I light to mix tungsten and flash, indoors. And I like to mix natural light with on or off-camera flash, outdoors. For real studio work I prefer to use tungsten hotlights.I like not worrying about whether my modeling lights match the flash, I since I shoot mostly still stuff in the studio, I don't need the speed of strobes. And outdoors I use my Canon 550EX either on-camera or with radio slaves. I'm thinking about buying a third radio slave or a peanut slave so that I can start using two off-camera flashes

Good poll,Steve. Is that enough detail for you?

[Asylum Steve]

"only selected natural light but studio flashes are my next favorite. Natural because, it's cheap and so am I. No seriously though. Natural light can be flat, directional, soft, hard, warm, cold, bounced, focused but always beautiful..."

I voted and ONLY choose monolights. D'OH! I love and use daylight also. I mean, how can anyone not enjoy using daylight to some extent. Like John, the main focus of my work right now is with mixed light (natural/flash)...

[darkrainfall]

Studio flash outdoors... I will have to try that. *smile* I've used a simple camera flash outdoors, but never a studio light. I unfortunately do not have battery packs... but I do have at least 30 ft of bright green extension cords... (bright green... easier for people to see when they trip over them).... thanks for the idea.

Oh, and as for light, I prefer natural light... when i moved my studio lights out of my apartment and into a studio I had no use for the second room in my apartment... I thought sewing room, but I'm pretty bad at sewing... anyway, I had this window, with lots of natural light, so if I want to take a break from my work, I can always randomly do some practice shots with the natural light from my window. Oh, and the curtain on the window acts as a great diffuser... it's one of those frostie, yet clear shower curtains...

[shutterman]

Although too much light (of any kind) can be a bad thing!

[adina]

I love the catchlights you get with windows. I would have voted for an artificial light, but I don't own any, so not sure which would be my favorite.

adina

[darkman]

As a certified control freak, I'm partial to strobes (monolights are what I own) used with various modifiers. However, I've never used a set of high end hot lights. Window light bores me.

Of course, outside I'm partial to natural light modified with a camera mounted flash used for fill and CL's. Occasionally I'll use a reflector.

I absolutely despise the look of an on camera flash used as the main lighting, though it can be a necessary evil.

Mike

[Irakly Shanidze]

I used to enjoy studio lighting to the point of insanity, but now I am more and more leaning towards natural light. As a little hobby I try to shoot in the most inconvenient lighting situations with minimal set of accessories (ideally, camera only) and yet produce images that look like they were shot in the most controlled environment imaginable. I'll post some of my late pictures soon, or just look at www.shanidze.com/en