How's the lighting on this?

InsuredDisaster

How would you change or improve the lighting on this? I've got some remote speedlights. Certainly would like to improve on this if possible. Thank you.

Trevlan

InsuredDisaster wrote:

How would you change or improve the lighting on this? I've got some remote speedlights. Certainly would like to improve on this if possible. Thank you.

That fisheye is looking really sweet on this shot. Looks like f7.1, maybe a full blast from the flash. What was the shutter speed at? Your flash over powered the sun at what appears to be 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Maybe 1/1000th sec?

I find the house rather distracting. This same pose/intensity in an open field would really add to the drama.

Lighting wise, I think this worked really well. If you could position a bare bulb under his hand, giving a rim light from the bottom, I think it would add to the action of the hand.

Now, if you want to take it a step further, maybe you could get him in a martial arts uniform. Preferably black in this kind of light. lol. Nice shot!

adbsgicom

I'm no expert on getting this lighting right (still trying myself), but, what is the goal on the lighting? The flash that was on camera right is very strong and lights his knee, body and part of his face. Is this where you wanted the light? Were you wanting that much brightness on one side of his face? Was the back hand picking up that same flash? Love the use of the sun!!!

The house doesn't work, but I don't think you were worried about that for this exercise. Can you share what you were doing for the setup? Manual or TTL/CSL on the flash? Where the flashes were and what power (and models)?

Thanks for sharing this experiment.

InsuredDisaster

adbsgicom wrote:

I'm no expert on getting this lighting right (still trying myself), but, what is the goal on the lighting? The flash that was on camera right is very strong and lights his knee, body and part of his face. Is this where you wanted the light? Were you wanting that much brightness on one side of his face? Was the back hand picking up that same flash? Love the use of the sun!!!

The house doesn't work, but I don't think you were worried about that for this exercise. Can you share what you were doing for the setup? Manual or TTL/CSL on the flash? Where the flashes were and what power (and models)?

Thanks for sharing this experiment.

Thanks for the responses.

First, I was mainly experimenting, so I didn't immediately have this in mind. My goal as for the lighting was to illuminate the subject in heavily backlit conditions. After shooting a few shots,I realized the fist was too dark, so I moved an SB-600 under the fist a bit (which probably why the knee is a bit bright. The SB-800 Commander was also turned on a bit to help light the fist.

So I had one light on the fist, and another one aimed at the subject for overall illumnation. A third was used to try to eliminate some of the shadows cast by the main strobe. However, there is a shadow on the face I'm not really happy about. All of the strobes were on manual, mainly as the distance didn't really change much from shot to shot, and while the TTL is probably amazing, I wanted the lighting to remain as consistent as possible from shot to shot. I can't really say what the power was on each flash, but not too much. The flashes are just off camera actually.

The rear hand was probably picking up the "global" light which was set about waist high. I actually did want it to be something you notice, and I think the brightness does bring it to atention. Maybe it failed a bit though i don't know. To me though, the brightness of the fist, face, and second fist sort of lead my eyes through the photo a bit.

The liked the sun as well. To me, it sort of comes off as some sort of energy force from the fist. I don't know if anyone else saw it that way


The house and everything else in the background is of course quite distracting. However, getting such poses in public might have led to unwanted attention.


Any tips or further suggestions?

I really appreciate the feedback so far.

kdog

I like it, house and all. Very creative. Great job.

-joel

InsuredDisaster

Thanks!

adbsgicom

InsuredDisaster wrote:

Thanks for the responses.

First, I was mainly experimenting, so I didn't immediately have this in mind. My goal as for the lighting was to illuminate the subject in heavily backlit conditions. After shooting a few shots,I realized the fist was too dark, so I moved an SB-600 under the fist a bit (which probably why the knee is a bit bright. The SB-800 Commander was also turned on a bit to help light the fist.

Looks like you hit your goals very well. Given my other post, I still have much to learn about flash control (and getting to the right settings before my kid's attention wanes). I haven't played with snoots, but if you want to control the spread a little more, you could make a cheap on and see how that helps. I think you made a very interesting and fun image.