Photography Lighting Equipment: The Essential Guide

When you first dive into photography lighting equipment, you’re bound to feel massively overwhelmed.

Studio lighting seems complex, it’s full of confusing jargon, and it certainly isn’t

designed for the beginner.

But here’s the truth:

While photography lighting might seem complicated, it’s actually pretty easy to

get started – assuming you have the right teacher. That’s where this article comes

in handy; I aim to share all the professional stage lighting, so that by

the time you’re done, you’ll have a strong understanding of both studio lighting

equipment and the accompanying vocabulary.

Let’s get started.

Types of light

In this section, I cover the main types of studio light. Note that each lighting

type varies in terms of usefulness, portability, cost, and more.

Strobes

A studio strobe, sometimes referred to as a monobloc or monolight, is a dedicated

flash unit. Strobes generally use cords, though more battery-powered offerings are

brought to the market every day. Power output between models can vary greatly; cheaper

strobes offer about as much power as cheap, third-party flashguns, while class-leading

strobes are some of the strongest lights in the business. For this reason, strobes are

the most common studio light used by professionals.

Continuous lights serve the same function as strobes, but they don’t flash.

Instead, they are high-powered, constant lamps that can (usually) be fitted with

modifiers. While associated with video, continuous lights still have their place in

stills photography. LED lights are currently flooding the continuous light market, and

many of them are viable options for stills shooters.

Note that continuous lights are sometimes referred to as hotlights – because they

tend to get very hot. Be careful with modifiers that sit close to the bulb, as they

present a fire hazard. (This does not apply to LED lights.)

Flashgun/speedlight

Flashguns are small lights that mount on top of your camera. They are highly

portable, and some come with reasonably high power outputs. Although flashgun

versatility is ultimately limited by size and power output, they are still an

extremely useful tool for any photographer interested in off-camera lighting. They’re

also less expensive than dedicated studio strobes.

Whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional, understanding that light is a vital

part of the outcome of your images is crucial. Gaining extra light can be an easy fix,

whether it be from a window, a lamp from your living room, or a professional lighting

kit. In some cases, you will need the latter for it’s convenience and the ability to

control the lighting in your situation.

It can be confusing to decipher which photography and lighting equipment might be

best for you to utilize and potentially invest in for your business. To simplify

things, ask yourself: what are your main needs? what is your purpose for using

artificial lighting? These two questions can assist in shaping which lighting kit is

best for you.

In this article, we will provide details about the various types of lighting

equipment that you can purchase to create stunning images!

Light, or Visible Light, commonly refers to electromagnetic radiation that can be

detected by the human eye. The entire electromagnetic spectrum is extremely broad,

ranging from low energy radio waves with wavelengths that are measured in meters, to

high energy gamma rays with wavelengths that are less than 1 x 10-11 meters.

Electromagnetic radiation, as the name suggests, describes fluctuations of electric

and magnetic fields, transporting energy at the Speed of Light (which is ~ 300,000

km/sec through a vacuum). Light can also be described in terms of a stream of photons,

massless packets of energy, each travelling with wavelike properties at the speed of

light. A photon is the smallest quantity (quantum) of energy which can be transported,

and it was the realization that light travelled in discrete quanta that was the

origins of Quantum Theory.

Visible light is not inherently different from the other parts of the

electromagnetic spectrum, with the exception that the human eye can detect visible

waves. This in fact corresponds to only a very narrow window of the electromagnetic

spectrum, ranging from about 400nm for violet light through to 700nm for red light.

Radiation lower than 400nm is referred to as Ultra-Violet (UV) and radiation longer

than 700nm is referred to as Infra-Red (IR), neither of which can be detected by the

human eye. However, advanced scientific detectors, such as those manufactured by

Andor, can be used to detect and measure photons across a much broader range of the

electromagnetic spectrum, and also down to much lower quantities of photons (i.e. much

weaker light levels) than the eye can detect.

How does light interact with matter?

It is no accident that humans can home party light. Light is our primary means of

perceiving the world around us. Indeed, in a scientific context, the detection of

light is a very powerful tool for probing the universe around us. As light interacts

with matter it can be become altered, and by studying light that has originated or

interacted with matter, many of the properties of that matter can be determined. It is

through the study of light that, for example, we can understand the composition of

stars and galaxies that are many light years away or watch in real time the

microscopic physiological processes that occur within living cells.

Matter is composed of atoms, ions or molecules and it is through their

interactions with light which gives rise to the various phenomena which can help us

understand the nature of matter. The atoms, ions or molecules have defined energy

levels, usually associated with energy levels that electrons in the matter can hold.

Light sometimes be generated by the matter, or more commonly, a photon of light can

interact with the energy levels in a number of ways.

We can represent the energy levels of matter in a scheme known as a Jablonski

diagram, represented in Figure 2. An atom or molecule in the lowest energy state

possible, known as the ground state, can absorb a photon which will allow the atom or

molecule to be raised to a higher energy level state, known as an excited state. Hence

the matter can absorb hybrid led

laser strobe light of characteristic wavelengths. The atom or molecule

typically stays in in an excited state only for a very short time and it relaxes back

to the ground state by a number of mechanisms. In the example shown, the excited atom

or molecule initially loses energy, not by emitting a photon, but instead it relaxes

to the lower energy intermediate state by internal processes which typically heat up

the matter. The intermediate energy level then relaxes to the ground state by the

emission of a photon of lower energy (longer wavelength) than the photon that was

initially absorbed.

How do we study matter using light?

Since photons that are either absorbed or emitted by matter will be of a

characteristic energy, when the light that has interacted with matter is subsequently

split into its constituent wavelengths using a spectrograph, the resulting spectral

signature tells us a huge amount about the matter itself. The broad field of

spectroscopy constitutes a multitude of spectroscopic techniques, such as raman

spectroscopy, absorption/transmission/reflection spectroscopies, atomic spectroscopy,

laser induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) and transient absorption spectroscopy,

providing a wealth of useful information on the scientific properties of atoms and

molecules, as well as being able to very specifically identify the presence and

quantify the amount of such materials in a sample.

In fiction, some superheroes have special vision. In WandaVision, for instance,

Monica Rambeau can see energy pulsing from objects all around her. And Superman has

X-ray vision and can see through objects. These are definitely super talents, but it’

s not that different from what normal humans can do. That’s because we can see also

see a type of energy: visible light.

Light’s more formal name is electromagnetic radiation. This type of energy

travels as waves, at a constant speed of 300,000,000 meters (186,000 miles) per second

in a vacuum. Light can come in many different forms, all determined by its wavelength.

This is the distance between the peak of one wave and the peak of another.

The light we can see is called visible light (because we can, er, see it). Longer

wavelengths appear as red. Shorter wavelengths look violet. The wavelengths in between

fill in all the colors of the rainbow.

But visible light is only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Longer

wavelengths just past red are known as infrared light. We can’t see infrared, but we

can feel it as heat. Beyond that are microwaves and radio waves. Wavelengths a bit

shorter than violet are known as ultraviolet light. Most people can’t see

ultraviolet, but animals such as frogs and salamanders can. Even shorter than

ultraviolet light is the X-ray radiation used to image inside the body. And still

shorter are gamma rays.

In this International Year of Light, it is particularly appropriate to review the

historical concept of what is light and the controversies surrounding the extent of

the visible spectrum. Today we recognize that light possesses both a wave and particle

nature. It is also clear that the limits of visibility really extend from about 310?nm

in the ultraviolet (in youth) to about 1100?nm in the near-infrared, but depend very

much on the radiance, that is, ‘brightness' of the light source. The spectral

content of artificial lighting are undergoing very significant changes in our

lifetime, and the full biological implications of the spectral content of newer

lighting technologies remain to be fully explored.

Although ‘light' refers to visible radiant energy, it may refer to sources of

illumination, such as sunlight or artificial sources such as a lamp and luminaires

(ie, lamp fixtures). One might think of sunsets or even the nighttime sky! Throughout

almost all of humankind's evolution, there was only natural sunlight—or fire

(including, candles, flame torches, and later oil lamps). But today—and over the past

century—electrically powered lamps have dominated our nighttime environments in the

developed countries. Since the 1820s-1830s gas lamps and (later) incandescent (red-

rich) lamps have dominated our indoor environment at night. Open flames and

incandescent sources are described technically as having low-color temperatures,

typically ?2800?Kelvins (K)—rich in longer visible (orange, red) wavelengths and

infrared–near-infrared radiation. By contrast, the midday Sun is rich in shorter

wavelengths with a color temperature of about 6500?K. Sunlight become red-rich when

low in the sky and the significant change in spectrum is often unnoticed because of

selective chromatic adaptation by our visual system.

Since the 1950s, fluorescent lamps (generally rich in hybrid led strobe laser derby light and line spectra) have been

widely used in indoor lit environments, at least in office and commercial settings,

but rather infrequently in the home—with perhaps one exception—in the kitchen (USA

experience). But the ‘revolution' in optics during the 1960s—fostered largely by

the invention of the laser—led to other optical technologies, including the

development of new types of lenses and filters, holography, and light-emitting diodes

(LEDs). LEDs were far more energy efficient than incandescent sources but initially

were capable of emitting only very narrow wavelength bands, that is, single-color

visible LEDs, until the invention of multi-chip LEDs and blue–violet-pumped-

fluorescent LEDs to produce ‘white' light.

In this century, governmental emphasis on energy conservation led to pressure to

employ compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and ‘white' LEDs for illumination.

Solid-state lighting by LEDs, which are even more energy efficient than CFLs, are now

beginning to dominate the marketplace. However, both the early CFLs and ‘white'

LEDs have very blue-rich spectral power distributions (Figure 1). Some consumers began

to rebel with such blue-rich lamps and demanded less ‘harsh,' less ‘cold-

bluish' light sources. You will now find some LEDs and CFLs with greatly reduced

blue emission. Nevertheless, in the past 60 years there has been an ever-increasing

color temperature of artificial sources and an increase in nighttime ‘light

pollution.' The night sky of Western Europe as seen from space shows the enormous

impact of electric lighting (Figure 2).