Immediately and irreversibly enchanted, I went down to Ken Hansen on Broadway and 20th street, and thus entered a world where pros were buying and renting lighting equipment for their high fashion gigs. Lighting guru Oleh Sharynevych, then in charge of their lighting department, took time out from the hustle and bustle of the store and helped me make my selection. He tried to gently persuade me as to the benefits of Dynalites because of their light weight and portability; but I would not be converted. I bought an 11 pound Speedotron Brownline 600 Watt second generator, one head, a lightstand, umbrella ,Sekonic light meter and a carrying case and was out the door, for about $600.

Girl with Mask" (c) Susan B. Markisz

The key to this photo was to maintain detail in the black velvet dress, while keeping the dress black and the background white. (I suspect this doesn't quite come through at 72 dpi). The background was lit with 2 lights and the subject was lit with one, in a large umbrella, off to the left of the camera. This photograph does not reflect my niece's exuberant personality as many of the others in the take did, but I like the body language in the photo. (c) Susan B. Markisz

I'm not fond of reading instruction manuals, so I managed to arc over the generator several times before I realized it could be dangerous to my health and that of my power pack.

I didn't know about "dumping," that is, discharging the generator each time you reduce power, and as a result, I ended up with some fairly dense exposures.

Didn't know about all those little black lines on the light meter, measuring the light in tenths of a stop, resulting in more over and underexposures than I care to mention.

(c) 1996 Susan B. Markisz The photographer is just too funny. A few months after my mom died, my dad asked me to take some family portraits, on Thanksgiving no less. Now, he probably wouldn't have cared if I used a point and shoot, or a polaroid, but I figured, how often do I have a chance to do this? Well, imagine the chaos...8 grandchildren, ranging in age from 8 months to 15 years, assorted spouses and a dog running around, and they ALL wanted to be in the room with me...and my strobes. (not to be photographed, mind you, simply to be AROUND me, the charming person that I was...). Auntie Sue, what's this? Is it going to rain soon? Auntie Sue, can I press the green button? Aunt Sue, I won't get electrocuted if I touch this, right? Aunt Sue, I'm TIRED of having my picture taken... I confess, the family portraits weren't all I'd hoped for, but I got some nice moments, all in all, including, this, my favorite picture from the day.

By trial and error, and not a little stupidity, I eventually learned how to finesse that one light, learned how to use reflectors, and even my small strobe on a slave, when I needed more than a foamcore reflector. When I saw that Oleh was giving a lighting course at the International Center of Photography in 1990, I took his class, the best course in lighting I've ever taken.

I have a large living room. In one area, I set up a small studio. My living room has an abundance of daylight from dawn to dusk; although my apartment faces southwest, with sunrise to the east, the light reflects off the river to the west and bounces into my living room; I have nice early morning light; in the afternoon, it is more direct and by late afternoon, the light is simply sublime. But I wanted none of that.

My models were my kids. I'd leave the strobes set up, sometimes for weeks at a time and when the mood would strike, I'd turn on the lights and as my kids would pass by, I'd press them into service. Mostly they obliged.

Gradually, as my client base expanded from family members to paying clients, I bought two more lights, a snoot, flags, a boom and a couple of softboxes. I became adept at setting up a key light, a fill and a hairlight and became enamored of "softlight." I even designed and made a folding foamcore strip softbox for a softer hairlight than the snoot provided; I quickly learned that design was not my forte; although my little creation worked, in spite of too many folds, and ample amounts of velcro to hold it together, it didn't have longevity and I got frustrated by it's unwieldy design.

Any parent would love this picture. Cute kid, impish grin, etc. But any photographer worth his/her salt would know that I blew the lighting. I lit the background with 2 lights to make the seamless look white, but I didn't flag the lights. So what looks like a hairlight or rim light is really lots of FLARE, from the light bouncing off the background and going straight into my lens. She was lit with one light in an umbrella. She's my kid and I love the picture, but this would not do for corporate work.

Some of my portraits were overlit; most parents understandably wanted their kids to be cute and smiling and I was able to accomodate them by giving them a wide variety of pictures from which to choose. But I became bored with the lack of challenge of this type of photography, if not with myself for not seeing things in a different way.

This situation proved to be advantageous in the long run; I gradually reversed direction and began using fewer lights, or used them sparingly. I also began to see existing light in a new way. Eventually I invested in some Dynalites and although I don't use them a whole lot, except for corporate and PR jobs, I always carry in the car at least 2 strobes and a hotlight, just in case.

In 1994 I was asked to make some formal portraits of some of the residents of a local nursing home. Caroline Brand was celebrating her 104th birthday and she'd had her hair done, and looked quite elegant for her party. She loved hot dogs and was being taken on an excursion to Nathan's as part of her birthday celebration. Unfortunately, there was little interaction between her and...me, for instance. She basically didn't make much eye contact....until her aide came up and whispered in her ear, reminding her that they were going to Nathan's for hot dogs. Caroline immediately looked up at me and said "TWO hot dogs!!" (c) 1994 Susan B. Markisz

With the advent of faster color print films and the tools of color correction in Photoshop, it would seem one needn't worry about color balance, or the difference between hot lights and strobes, but it would be imprudent of any photographer not to learn basic studio lighting.

There is nothing like available light, but if you get a call from a client one day (which I did recently), specifying a 2 light, 2 softbox or umbrella setup on 100 ASA transparency film, you'd better not try and barl them with Fuji 800.

This portrait was made with one light in a large reflector. The lighting is soft and directional. Although there are specular highlights in his eyes and there is no shadow detail, in relation to the subject, the light source is large, and therefore soft, not as soft, as say lit with a softbox or umbrella but softer than light from a small strobe would provide.

Susan B. Markisz

July 1998