Two studio shots. Need CC but go easy.. it's my first time (studio and posting pics)
We were blessed to use another photographer's studio equipment (he was redoing
his studio so we shot in his living room!) He shared alot of good info with us, I
learned alot and was blessed to be with these other photographers (we took
turns modeling for each other, so we are not pro models ) These are pretty much out of the camera with no PP.

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hair light (slight glare), 1 main, and I think reflector

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hair light, 1 main, and I think reflector

Love to hear from you!

God bless,
Mike

hey! it's your first studio shots, eh? well, maybe you can clue me in when i'm ready to set up my studio this year. not sure how to critique since i have no idea how lighting is "supposed" to look, only what i envision for my "style."

<3 kristy

Hey Mike,

Very good for a first set. Try putting some distance between your subject and the background so that you throw the background out of focus. In the posted shots the background is attracting a bit too much attention.

Smiles,

Kenneth + Elaine

Kristy,
We were focusing on getting "correct" exposure and used settings:
100 iso
f11(ish)
1/125 sec

I was using my 17-55 2.8 (I should have used one of my primes but
we didn't have alot of room)

We didn't shoot for "mood" or I would have most likely gone at least
a few steps down aperture-wise. We were also a little short on time
so we didn't experiment as much as I would have liked. I want
to schedule closer to a full day and to go into his studio when redone.
(he is color correcting his walls!) And I am missing shots of me where
we did "monster" lighting (single light from below - so that would be one
"mood" shot).

I am please with the overall shots.. and also capturing a little of the personality
of the subjects (they are both kinda on the serious side). I need to work on
my "people" skills to get the best of "them".

Ken,
Thanks... our focus was correct exposure but appreciate the CC. I would most likely have opened my aperture up cuz at f11 I don't think I would have enough space to get the dof.
I need to figure out how to reduce the light to make that happen...

but here's some pp to reduce the background a little.

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Um, this was what I was trying to post before...

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And finally, PP on shot #1

Hi -
I'll try to be nice, don't take this the wrong way -

1) Have fun with your clients/subjects. Zach Arias does so much awesome work with a single light, most of it comes because his subjects are super relaxed and comfortable in front of the camera.

2) Keep everything bright! Keep ISO 100, open up to f4, or 2,8, and crank up the shutter speed 1/1000+

3) Look at they eyes - the first has 2 catchlights (white reflections), the 2nd has one - I prefer the 2nd - but that is just me.

4) turn your subjects a bit to create more interesting shadows think about lighting only 1/2 of the face so the right side is bright, and the left side is dark

5) Spend a bit more time arranging the subjects - clean them up a tad - lint on shoulder, hair above ear, fix the collar, etc...

Check out this cool resource for demonstrating your studio setup

Best -
Eric

Most studio strobes won't sync above 1/250...(or the maximum sync of your camera) So that could lead to some issues.

I agree with moving the subjects farther from the background. That will help get some of the lighting off the background so the focus will be on the subject.

It takes some practice, You will get it.

main thing is move the subject away from the drop...also most cameras will only sync at 250 and one is 500 (that I know of) a ss of 1000 would result in half the images being dark due to the shutter....

another minor thing since you were just learning a bit...make sure the drop is even on one of the images you can see that it is a bit ruffeled...and for this type of shot I like to see more of the ear that is away from the camera (more for head shots than other things) and if you can look at the glasses and see how that are looking on the face/eyes...(i need to watch that as well!!) so that the frame is not covering the eye...good luck and it looks like you are off to a great start!

Strobes sync at 1/125-ish to 1/250-ish depending on your camera.


You definitely need to move the subject futher from the backdround. Ideally your subject should be 4-6 feet from the backdrop. Closer to 6 is better if you have the space. Your subjects have a lot of hot spots on thier faces... The lighting needs to be powered down & the aperature lowered. There's no reason to use f11 on a single subject. F2.8-4 would have been ideal.

hotlights or strobes?

I use hotlights so I can get the shutter up there.

The size of the light source and distance from the subject will also affect the specularity of the light ( create hot spots).

I would say your main light source was too far away for its size. If you brought it closer you should lose the specularity (hotspots) but inturn you would brighten up detail in the shadows. Bringing the light closer would also affect the light falling on your background (that is if i understand the inverse square law).


I am waiting for Zack Arias to chime in and "flesh" out or correct my post.

Melody,
Thanks for the input. This will help me plan my studio when I set it up (sounds like
if I get really serious I will need to rent studio space). The living room didn't give
us that sort of space (we were tripping over the light stands as it was). I agree with the hotspots and concur that overall 2.8-4 would have been much better. From what I understand the strobes we were using have fixed output (1/3, 2/3, full power) so I'm assuming we would use 1/3 and pull back until we got the exposure for a 2.8-4 aperture? (here again we didn't have room to pull back the lights). (Or can you use ttl metering to set strobe power? -- I'll check with my friend on the lighting capabilities.)

No glare in his glasses!!! Yay++++! I don't know how to do that so good on ya! But the 2nd guy is cropped too close, I think we should see a titch more of his torso (maybe 4" or so). Great job at first time and I love the comments to learn from

You generally want the lights pretty close to the subject so that you get the big pretty catchlights instead of icky little pinpoints. My giant softbox sits about 2 feet away from my subject. There are just SO many ways to do studio lighting that it's difficult to just sit & say "This is exactly ythe right way to do it." Sometimes I point the softbox directly at the subject, sometimes I bounce it off a wall, sometimes I use 4 lights, sometimes, 3, 2, or 1. It totally depends on the look that you want. You don't HAVE to point the light directly at the subject - you can bounce it off a reflector or a wall instead. You also need to look at what you're using to diffuse the lighting.... Did you point the strobe directly at your subject? Did you use an umbrella? Shoot through? Bounced? Softbox? Octabox? Etc... You might also want to invest in a flash meter if you're going to be using studio lighting on a regular basis.


Good luck!



It's pretty simple... you lower the subjects chin until you don't see the lights glare in the glasses. If you have to lower the chin so much it looks unnatural then raise your lighting and try again

Melody,
Thanks again. We used both a softbox/reflector combo and then where you see 2 catchlights we had two strobes with umbrellas (bounced into) directed at the subject. We used an incident light meter (not sure what brand... that's how the gentleman that showed us studio lighting came up with f11ish/125th/ as the setting (which for these shots was too hot). I wish I had somewhere I could work on weekends in a studio to get experience. I would do for low pay (at first). We uses a reflector where you see light on the left side of the model's face and one catchlight.

How much ambient light was in the room? Sometimes covering windows and such can make a huge difference. I definitely recommend starting with one light and mastering that before you move on to using more lights. What kind of strobes were they? You may have been using something that just too powerful for a small space. Definitely try th one light with the softbox next time - try pointing it away from the subject & using a reflector if it's too much light. Fully adjustable lighting is nice too... I often shoot at 1/16 power during the day.

Melody,
Wow, thanks for keeping the thread up! No ambient light (it was dark by the time we started to shoot). I thought the most pleasing shots (not shown because of model misbehavior) were with the soft box (with or without reflector). The strobes were whitelightning and ancient. Since you said you can shoot at 1/16 my guess is these where too powerful for the (living room) space. Bouncing off the walls was out due to the stuff hanging on it.. again I will take that into account. Shooting through a white umbrella might have helped (close to a softbox) Also maybe some modifiers (grid, gels, etc etc) might have helped bring light down a tad. (Coming from my dark Thanks for all your input. I will take into account all the input when I get a chance to go back into the studio.

All you others, thanks also for you input! This is one reason I love OSP so much!

God bless each one of you,
Mike

Now, I don't know all cameras, but I know that my canon 5d has a shutter sync limit. Meaning that while using studio strobes, I can't be shooting faster than about 1/125. It seems like 20ds sync at 200ish...

Edit: now, there's what happens when I start a thought before a photoshoot, and post it after!! Sorry for being all redundant!

Mrs. V.,
Color me silly but my d70s has a sync speed of 1/500 but the d200 is 1/250.. what's up with that? I pay almost twice the price for less (in sync speed anyway). The three "kings" are worth the price alone to me... yes, 5fps (+2 fps) bigger buffer, 4+ more MPix, etc etc...

Nice first effort! The more you shoot, the more comfortable you and your clients will feel, and it will show in the images. You'll also find what you like and don't like about lighting, which will help develop your own style. I've never been much of a fan of hair lights, but that's just my own take on it.
I think the portrait subjects are a bit small in the frame, and I agree with others about moving them away from the background. I've taken the liberty of cropping your second shot, and toning it down a bit. And a quick "ironing" of his shirt. Here's the results:
Before & After

I couldn't get a good sync at 1/500 from my D70/D70s with my strobes (dedicated flash was not a problem and I loved the high speed sync). In fact, with one of my [cheap] radio slaves, I had to crank it down to 1/90. Needless to say I didn't keep that slave very long...


On the topic of high sync speeds...
Really, very rarely do I ever desire speeds above 1/250 (using my D200) because the ISO is all the way down. If I'm just in an insanely lit place and I want to shoot wide open (I don't know why I'd be using strobes there are not scrims, reflectors, and such) I'd slap on an ND filter.

The ONLY time I love having a high-speed sync is when I'm out of the studio and using my flash for fill (instead of having an assistant hold a reflector).