Softlighter + 1 kid

kdog

Playing around with my new 54" Softlighter powered by a Speedlight, and a single reflector. I realize I need a background, so please try to overlook that. Otherwise, would love to hear your comments.

Canon 5DMII, and mostly the Canon 50mm F1.4 lens although I used the 24-105 on some of them. (The 50mm worked better.) I think I learned a few things. Here are a few of the better shots.

1


2 Softlighter eyes. :rolleyes Also, 50mm F4 for a headshot is still quite a shallow DOF. :huh


3


4


Comments would be great, and thanks for looking.
-joel

kidzmom

What a DOLL you have there! A super beautiful little girl! I really love the ballet shot! Really nice! Her eyes have such beatufiul catch lights in all of them and the pupil size is great too. The DOF is super shallow in 2. Amazing at F 4?! How close were you? The eyes are the least sharp in that shot. I really love 3 and 4. She is gorgeous and looks so cute and mini in 4! Thanks for sharing and enjoy playing with your softlighter (I'm jealous!)

kdog

Thanks, KidzMom! Distance in shot #2 was 2' or slightly less. I just verified that by recreating the shot (sans costume of course) with her standing there using the same camera/lens and measuring the distance. Checking a DOF calculator, I had 1/2" in-front and 1/2" in-back of the focus plane (1" total). That's probably too shallow for me. Any subject or camera movement and any variability of AF is enough to throw off the shot. Next time I'll try F6.3 which would give me an inch either way, hence more forgiving. And obviously a better ($$$) lens would probably would have a more accurate focus as well. The 50 F1.4 did better than the 24-105 for me too.

Thanks again for your input!
Cheers,
-joel

ziggy53

While it's tough to get good light from a single source alone, I can see that the Softlighter II (SL II) is providing a very large emitting surface and very large catch lights. The resulting shadows are pretty soft and nicely feathered. In other words, it's working nicely.

You have a lovely model and she appears to be very patient too. (My kids are older and have no patience at all.)

Positioning the light is a little tough since there is no modeling light, but you can look over the Softlighter to get a pretty good idea of the angle when you set the light. #3 is the sweetest of the bunch with the light positioned above and a natural pose to match. If she had rotated her head a little more to her right, camera left, I suspect that the shadow cast by her nose would have created the classic "triangle" of light on her cheek.

#4 also has very good angles and demonstrates a type of "short" lighting. Add a reflector or 2nd light for fill and it would be improved.

Again, you have a wonderful subject to work with and that makes this sort of shooting fun. I look forward to some future examples.

kdog

Thanks for the comments and tips, Ziggy.

Regarding patience, ordinarily my kids have none. Plus they're usually camera shy. However, I've discovered a new secret weapon. Money. I paid her to do this shoot. $6.00 an hour (or $1 every 10 minutes).

Aiming, distance, and power seem to be important factors with the Softlighter, and of course changing just one affects the other. It's tough to get it all correct with a kid who likes to move around a lot. And ETTL doesn't seem to help much.

I like your idea about going for the "Rembrandt triangle" and will try that next time. I actually did use a reflector on all those shots, but it might have been aimed poorly on that last one. I need to watch that as well.

Thanks again.

-joel