First Studio Effort

[dwdallam]

Well, here is my first studio effort. I used three lights and two umbrellas, plus some old T-shirts for reflectors and a piece of plywood for a gobo. I'm going to try ONE light next time with my new relfectors and stand.
3 AB's 800s, Boom, 2 umbrellas. Pretty much that's it.

These pictures were un altered in RAW or photoshop. I just opened the RAW files in PS, resized, and "saved for web." They are over exposed because I was shooting to my laptop, and the LCD screen was showing them darker than they were. I think I can fix most of it in RAW or PS though.

I'm not "proud" of these, but I'm "pleased" that they didn't turn out worse--lol. Any comments are apprecaited, or course.

1. Sister in law and her nephew.
2. Brother and sister in law.
3. Self portrait.
4. Sister in law.

First Studio Shots

[gewitterkind]

mm, they seem pretty noisy

[boku]

Are you asking for tips?

If not, I apologize. If so, here goes...

1) try a longer lens for a more flattering perspective.
2) use less fill light for interest
3) use powder to cut down skin glare
4) more modeling of the key light - avoid butterly/hollywood effect until you have mastered rembrant
5) hair light is essential for these to separate
6) selectively blend in a bit of gaussian blur to flatter
7) move in the key brollie for a smoother light source
I'm seeing noise also - what ISO are you using?
9) Use a grey card to set whitebalance

Well, here is my first studio effort. I used three lights and two umbrellas, plus some old T-shirts for reflectors and a piece of plywood for a gobo. I'm going to try ONE light next time with my new relfectors and stand.
3 AB's 800s, Boom, 2 umbrellas. Pretty much that's it.

These pictures were un altered in RAW or photoshop. I just opened the RAW files in PS, resized, and "saved for web." They are over exposed because I was shooting to my laptop, and the LCD screen was showing them darker than they were. I think I can fix most of it in RAW or PS though.

I'm not "proud" of these, but I'm "pleased" that they didn't turn out worse--lol. Any comments are apprecaited, or course.

1. Sister in law and her nephew.
2. Brother and sister in law.
3. Self portrait.
4. Sister in law.

First Studio Shots
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[Jack Flesher]

Not too bad for a first try!

I would Ditto the hair light comment above and then recommend you cut the BG light light to nill when using a black background.

My usual advice to anyone new to studio lighting is to suggest they work with just one light and a reflector on a still-life set.  The reflector can be a sheet of white foamcore and the still life can be anything simple with recognizable shapes like a ball on a box.  Experiment with only that single light and reflector until you really understand what you can do with a simple kit.  

You can make a scrim out of white translucent nylon if you don't have a softbox or umbrella, but avoid cotton sheets as they are rarely true white.  You can make barndoors and flags out of black matt-board or foamcore and a snoot out of black construction paper or photo-foil taped to your standard reflector. When you are comfortable with that, then work with adding in more lights for fill, BG and hair.

[dwdallam]

mm, they seem pretty noisy
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=54439\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

mmm, that's becaue they were resized to 700 pixels form 4000 and compressed using low compression jpgs.

[dwdallam]

Are you asking for tips?

If not, I apologize. If so, here goes...

1) try a longer lens for a more flattering perspective.
2) use less fill light for interest
3) use powder to cut down skin glare
4) more modeling of the key light - avoid butterly/hollywood effect until you have mastered rembrant
5) hair light is essential for these to separate
6) selectively blend in a bit of gaussian blur to flatter
7) move in the key brollie for a smoother light source
I'm seeing noise also - what ISO are you using?
9) Use a grey card to set whitebalance
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=54442\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Bob you know me, I'm always up for any criticism, even crappy criticism--lol. But you all always give very good criticism.

I tried a 70-200, but didn't have the room .

Fill light, back light, I know, I know! I'm going to use ONE light for a while, like Jack said. Then after I finish reading Light, Science, and Magic--the book, and have much more studio time, then I'll add in more lgihts. I really need to jsut concentrate on using one light and reflectors. I can see that for sure.

What does #4 mean?

6) Yeah true that. I can also move the light closer to diffuse it more I think? Ah yes, you say that in #7--lol.

ISO is 100 man. I think it is the jpg. Remeber, I resized these from their original RAW down to 700 px wide and compressed the hell out of them for web use.

9) Yes. Does the AWB not work well for studio lights?

[dwdallam]

Not too bad for a first try!

I would Ditto the hair light comment above and then recommend you cut the BG light light to nill when using a black background.

My usual advice to anyone new to studio lighting is to suggest they work with just one light and a reflector on a still-life set.  The reflector can be a sheet of white foamcore and the still life can be anything simple with recognizable shapes like a ball on a box.  Experiment with only that single light and reflector until you really understand what you can do with a simple kit. 

You can make a scrim out of white translucent nylon if you don't have a softbox or umbrella, but avoid cotton sheets as they are rarely true white.  You can make barndoors and flags out of black matt-board or foamcore and a snoot out of black construction paper or photo-foil taped to your standard reflector. When you are comfortable with that, then work with adding in more lights for fill, BG and hair.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=54446\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Yes agreed on all fronts here. The nylon is a good idea. I have two umbrellas, one shoot through and one silver/white. I willb e getting my 20% grid next week. Thanks for your comments.

As always, all comments are very welcome.

[dwdallam]

mm, they seem pretty noisy
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I think that's because they were resized to 700 pixels from 4000 and compressed using low compression jpgs. I shot it using ISO 100 at about f 2.8 -  4 @ 250.

[boku]

What does #4 mean?
9) Yes. Does the AWB not work well for studio lights?

Go to this link for a brief description of lighting styles: http://www.vividlight.com/articles/1615.htm

I always getter better results in my studio if I first shoot a grey card (or in my case a WhiBal) and calibrate the whitebalance manually from that. You will get perfectly colored skin tones.

[Jack Flesher]

Another note on WB...

MOST studio strobes will actually change color as the power is changed.  (The exception here is the Profoto D4.)  So if you want to maintain critical color control on your set,  when making minor changes to lighting it is generally better to move the lights closer or farther away than it is to change their power output.  Of course large movements to the lighting can drastically alter the lighting effect itself, so it is better to re-WB after a significant change.  

Cheers,

[dwdallam]

Go to this link for a brief description of lighting styles: http://www.vividlight.com/articles/1615.htm

I always getter better results in my studio if I first shoot a grey card (or in my case a WhiBal) and calibrate the whitebalance manually from that. You will get perfectly colored skin tones.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=54511\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Nice. I'll try that from now on.

[dwdallam]

Another note on WB...

MOST studio strobes will actually change color as the power is changed.  (The exception here is the Profoto D4.)  So if you want to maintain critical color control on your set,  when making minor changes to lighting it is generally better to move the lights closer or farther away than it is to change their power output.  Of course large movements to the lighting can drastically alter the lighting effect itself, so it is better to re-WB after a significant change. 

Cheers,
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=54514\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Yeah that makes complete sense. I'm going to have a friend who wants to model for me come over soon, and she knows it may talke several hours. So I will have more time to tweak each shot than I did shooting inlaws on Christmas.

I'll post them after I get them. However, I'll be dealing with a &**(-up 8 foot ceiling. I really wish I had a place I could set up. Even a garage with high rafters would be great.

[Jonathan Wienke]

My preferred studio setup uses 4 lights: main, fill, hair, and background. I use B800s for main and fill, and B400s for hair and background. I use normal stands for everything but the hair light, which is on a boom stand so I can get it more or less directly overhead without the stand appearing in the frame. The main & fill lights fire into umbrellas, as does the hair light when the ceiling is high. In the second image, the ceiling was low, but white, so I simply aimed the hair light at the ceiling and used it as a reflector. The background light is aimed directly at the background with no modifiers except a flag (to prevent spill on the subject in crowded locations) and a gel if I'm using the gray background and want to tint it. Here's a few samples:





In the first shot, there is about 10 feet between the camera and subject, and another 10 feet or so between subject and background. In the second shot, the distances are about 8 and 5 feet respectively. Note the difference in the degree of backdrop blur; both backdrops have similar texture and patterns but are different colors. For some things, there simply is no substitute for distance.

[dwdallam]

My prefe. . . . snip
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Sweet pictures. I love seeing what others are producing. Space is not going to happen for me for a while, so I'll just need to make due.  I wish I could get more BG blur too. One way I have been geting around that need for deep space and BG blur is to use my 800s on their lowest setting and then use additional material in front of them to further cut the light, which allows me to use F 2.8 at 250 using the 24-70. It's hard in my limited space, but I'm gonna get creative with it too. I'll have pictures to share by Tuesday.

[Jonathan Wienke]

I wish I could get more BG blur too. One way I have been geting around that need for deep space and BG blur is to use my 800s on their lowest setting and then use additional material in front of them to further cut the light, which allows me to use F 2.8 at 250 using the 24-70.

Well, that's certainly one approach, but the subject DOF at that distance/aperture combination tends to be such that you get portraits with one eye in focus and one eye OOF, and forget getting everyone in a group shot in focus. BTW, that's the reason group shots require far more light than single-subject portraits: not only do you need to light a larger area, but you simultaneously must stop down enough to get the entire group in focus simultaneously. Shooting with a 20D or other 1.6x camera instead of a full-frame body mitigates this problem somewhat, but certainly doesn't solve it.

[focker]

Here is another link to help understand lighting, I think it's fairly well laid out and easy to see the different lighting: http://www.rpallagi.hu/Articles/BPL/BPL.htm

[dwdallam]

Well, that's certainly one approach, but the subject DOF at that distance/aperture combination tends to be such that you get portraits with one eye in focus and one eye OOF, and forget getting everyone in a group shot in focus. BTW, that's the reason group shots require far more light than single-subject portraits: not only do you need to light a larger area, but you simultaneously must stop down enough to get the entire group in focus simultaneously. Shooting with a 20D or other 1.6x camera instead of a full-frame body mitigates this problem somewhat, but certainly doesn't solve it.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=54735\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

And that is so true.

[dwdallam]

Here is another link to help understand lighting, I think it's fairly well laid out and easy to see the different lighting: http://www.rpallagi.hu/Articles/BPL/BPL.htm
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=55161\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Great another good link. I also read a book a couple days ago at Borders on portrait lighting. It gave lots of tips on posing people too, such as masculine and feminine poses, camera hight for full, half, and face shots, etc. I may buy that book, but I don't really like the way it is laid out.

[dwdallam]

I didn't do the portrait shoot today. Since I live in Northern California in the USA and we were hit by probably the first Class One hurricane in our history on Friday around 7AM, I had to call it off.

I have three trees leaning against my house at this time and power was just restored yesterday after a full 72 hours off. No damage on the house luckily. All of the branches missed the windows and other structures.

My sister in law, who had just dropped my brother off at the airport for a business trip was caught alone, and had her driveway in our outlying areas blocked for a day, no water, no power, and 1500 lbs of Tuna, Slamon, and Rockfish (They have a commerical and sport fishing outfit)  in two huge freezers. So I had to clear that and get the generator running--she actually had everything set up and running, but blew a fuse from having too much on one circuit.

Anyway, things are getting back to normal, and I'm going to rechedule tomorrow. With luck, since this is our storm season, I'll have something to show in a week or sooner.

Oje the upside, I received my universal mount and honeycombs for teh AB's, and I also got teh B&H 5 in 1 color disks and stand. However, the damn disks they sent were the wrong color. So I need to send those back.