Digital Home Thoughts: Studio Lighting Tips from Joe McNally

"Photographers live for natural light, and sometimes die for lack of it, metaphorically speaking. Given the vagaries of location work -- the weather, your timing, bad luck, nasty people, insurance requirements that say no, you can't bring your subject to the roof, the airport delay that ensures you won't get to your photographic destination until the sun goes down -- you'll often be on location with no available light. To twist the usual terminology, though, flash is always available. And the good news is that it's less intimidating than ever before. Using the small, compact, and powerful dedicated strobes now on the market, it is actually difficult to make a bad flash exposure. I use Nikon SB-800 Speedlights, which tap into what Nikon calls its Creative Lighting System (CLS), but there are other systems out there that offer similar capabilities."



While this article is probably not for everyone because it applies to people taking pictures in studios (so you would think this is for pros only), I do think that a number of elements mentioned in this article can be used for indoor photographs as well, especially when the author talks about the correct amount of lighting, areas to light and ISO settings & shutter speeds. Good stuff.