Rolando Gomez. Rolando Gomez's Lighting for Glamour Photography: Techniques for Digital Photographers. 2010

softboxes or beauty dishes to give you the color

of light produced by tungsten but not the

harshness, heat, or power consumption that is

the domain of traditional tungsten lamps.

Both RoloLight and Kino Flo offer optional

“tungsten” (3200K) fluorescent bulbs, though

normal still photography requirements can be

met with their traditional 5000K bulbs. Please

keep color temperature in mind if you build the

poor man’s light. Do not use standard, cheaper

fluorescent bulbs—if you do, you’ll get whacky

lighting or color casts. Instead, use the bulbs

mentioned in the “Poor Man’s Light” section.

They cost about a dollar more per bulb.

Flashtubes.

Light is the life of the image. When we can’t use

natural light, we use artificial light—usually

flash, as it too will produce the necessary color,

texture, shape, and form. Choosing a flash unit

should not be done haphazardly. You are mak-

ing an investment in something that should

serve you for years. Your purchase should be

based on making an informed decision, not im-

pulse buying.

Before we purchase any type of light, we

must look at the light source itself—not the box

that houses it. Lighting varies not only by man-

ufacturer but by lax or tight manufacturing tol-

erances and the materials from which they are

constructed, inside and out.

Lights vary in the color temperature of the

light they produce, and even though the Kelvin

scale is large in gamut, the main color tempera-

tures all photographers should know is 3200

Kelvin (K) for tungsten lamps and 5400K for

the ideal flash output. While some flash units

will vary from 5000 to 6000K, 5200 to 5400K

is the ideal range (less cold-colored). Well-built

LIGHTING BASICS 31

at 3200K (or tungsten). If I trigger the flash itself, which

is at 5400K, I get clear light—the same as the fluorescent

lights. Either way, you can freely add accent lights to your

image.

This is a great lighting setup for producing beauty and

headshots (although not much else) and works especially

well with older models, eliminating wrinkles with no fuss.

Plus, because it’s the same temperature as most photo-

graphic light sources, I can keep my camera at a 6000K

white-balance setting and still get the added warmth I like

in my images.

Kristen was photographed with the “poor man’s light.” She
was posed with her shoulders slightly turned to accent her
bustline (as op posed to a straight-on pose). (CAMERA: Olym -
pus E-1 with an Olympus Zuiko 14–54mm wide zoom lens.
SETTINGS:80mm effective focal length,^1 / 60 second shutter
speed, f/3.5, white balance 6000K, ISO 200)