Julie, Good questions many of us have suffered thru the same at one time or another, most likely! First may I recommend you get your subject further away from that background...not having a harsh shadow fall on the backdrop will immediately make your shots appear to be better. Secondly, find a big window, door or stairway with some natural light and do the shots there. The natural, diffuse light will work wonders to improve your shots with even just your basic set-up because the flash becomes secondary lighting to the natural light. If natural light is not possible you might investigate a little flash that could fire via a light slave...the flash on your camera would set it off. The flash you might consider is a Vivitar 285. This flash could be bounced or swiveled; it would need to be on a light stand but would offer better light than what you're getting. Natural light would be the best bet if that is at all workable. Good luck... Lea ----- Original Message ----- From: "Julie A" <juliebread@yahoo.com> To: "List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students" <photoforum@listserver.isc.rit.edu> Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 9:06 AM Subject: Question about lighting... > Hi ho, > > I'm Julie. > I'm trying to get some advice on lighting. Please let > me know if this is not the appropriate place to ask > this. > > Here's the deal. At work I take pictures of > co-workers for marketing purposes. The camera I use > is a basic Sony digital camera (2.1 megapixel) with a > simple flash. > > Needless to say, indoor pictures stink with this > set-up. The pictures come out dark, the digital color > information isn't there, and the light diffusion is > virtually non-existent. > > I recently borrowed a Canon digital camera with a > nicer flash. One that I could tilt towards the > ceiling to bounce the flash to diffuse the light. The > lighting in these pics was fantastic compared to the > Sony set-up. > > Unfortunately, our budget is limited so the Canon > w/nice flash is out (~$1,200). And I cannot buy the > flash only because the Sony doesn't support external > flashes. > > For reference, here's a pic from each camera - don't > laugh ;) > Sony: > http://www.precisionind.com/pic1.png > Canon: > http://www.precisionind.com/pic2.png > > So my (long winded) question is, assuming the Sony CAN > take good pictures w/appropriate lighting, what kind > of indoor lighting solution would anyone recommend? > I've thought of the nice big, round diffusing lights > you see at the photography studio. Would that do the > trick? Are these affordable (around $300-400)? > > Anyway, sorry for my lack of proper terminology. > Thanks for any advice! > Julie > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing. > http://photos.yahoo.com/ > > >
