Today I had a lighting workshop looking at the basic studio lighting set ups and the new Broncolor siros lights. The new lights have the power pack built in and only have one lead connecting to the mains. The Broncolor lighting system is more compacted and much easier to use than the ARRY lighting systems. The new lights have a range of features such as; dimming capabilities and wireless connection that can be connected through an App on a iPhone or android. This wireless technology allows photographers to make changes to the lighting conditions without having to move the lights. In the workshop I went over how to use and set up a studio, also the technical terms needed to intern for a photographer. I learn phrases such as; ND (Neutral Density) a piece of tinted gel often grey, that brings the studio lights down by a number of stops depending on the quality of the ND, and Jewls measure the amount of light the studio light is producing.

Learning this information was really useful as this is knowledge I will definitely need if I intern or work for a photographer. After the studio was set up, I moved on to taking some portraits using the new lighting equipment as well as ambient lighting. To make the ambience light stand out in the picture I dragged the shutter. Dragging the shutter means increasing the shutter speed so the camera picks up the surrounding light.

By increasing the shutter speed to 1.6 seconds allowed the camera to pick uptake red and blue surrounding lights. The ambient light is the constant light source, outside the studio the constant/ambient light could be daylight. After using a light meter to get the correct light readings, I then started to shoot. Before I adjusted the shutter speed the camera was only able to pick up the flash, but after adjusted the shutter speed I was able to capture a motion blur effect including the colour gels. By getting the subject to move after the flash was let off, I captured the subject moving, creating an illusion of motion in a still image.

Overall I found this workshop useful. it was a good refresher workshop reminding me about lighting set ups in the studio. To further this workshop I would like to hire out a studio and practice setting up and and packing away a studio. This will be good preparation for any future internships I will take part in the future.