Emmy~new backdrop

JulieLawsonPhotography

Hey all!

I shot these Friday with a new fabric that I bought. I'm also using the Nikkor 35mm 1.8 lens. I've also recently purchased 2 softboxes. I was wondering if anyone would CC my lighting. Is my lighting ok?

1

2

3

4
just throwing it in there. Another image from the 35mm test. :lust

thanks

Freezframe

#1 is so natural !
I don't see anything real distracting,,,,
Minor hot spots on her face but not over whelming....
Shadow in #1 but again not distracting.

Brady

pwp

My only minor nitpick is that I would have her sit a little further away from the backdrop. She is so close, that it looks like she is leaning on it, and you lose some of the depth to the photo, leaving it looking flat, though your lighting is pretty good!

Scott_Quier

I don't know exactly what you were going for with your lighting. Most photograhers are looking for light to give a little depth to the portrait .... to help make the model's features a little more 3D.

If that's what you were going for .... well you missed the target in #2 and #3. In these, your key light is pretty much right behind/beside the camera (take a look at the catchlights). The key light in this position will tend to eliminate any shadows caused by facial features - making for a pretty flat image.

As an alternative, try this:

• Position your model, or have a mental image of where you want your model to be ('cause your little girl is not going to sit still while you set up your lights )
• Place you key light about 45° off the front of her face. And, if you have the vertical space, place the light above her eye-level. Set it's power to about 1 stop higher than your fill. You do have a flash meter, right? They make life sooo much easier when you are attempting to shoot with manual strobes.
• Position your fill light very close to your camera-model axis.
• Bring you model in and give it a go.

This lighting setup is the classic "loop lighting". The key light will generate your shadows for you. The fill light will ..... fill the shadows .... making them softer and (generally speaking ) more pleasing.

As others have already indicated, you need to have some space between your model and the backdrop. This will allow you to throw that background a bit OOF, reducing the extent to which the backdrop competes with your model for view attention. A smaller aperture will help in this as well.

JulieLawsonPhotography

Scott, I value your detailed input. I'm going to see if I can't convince my oldest daughter, maybe my niece to sit for me. I knew the lighting was flat and just kind of blah.
I was shooting this in my basement and it was very low ceilings and is narrow. My little one couldn't get too far from the backdrop because of this problem. I'm going to bring everything to the upstairs living room where there is a little more playing room. I'll post in a new thread the results. I did print off some diagrams of different lightings. I'm such a hands on learner and in the last few years I really don't feel that I've achieved the look that I'm going for. I'll keep playing with the lighting and asking for CC, hopefully something will click with me.

Scott_Quier wrote:

I don't know exactly what you were going for with your lighting. Most photograhers are looking for light to give a little depth to the portrait .... to help make the model's features a little more 3D.

If that's what you were going for .... well you missed the target in #2 and #3. In these, your key light is pretty much right behind/beside the camera (take a look at the catchlights). The key light in this position will tend to eliminate any shadows caused by facial features - making for a pretty flat image.

As an alternative, try this:

• Position your model, or have a mental image of where you want your model to be ('cause your little girl is not going to sit still while you set up your lights )
• Place you key light about 45° off the front of her face. And, if you have the vertical space, place the light above her eye-level. Set it's power to about 1 stop higher than your fill. You do have a flash meter, right? They make life sooo much easier when you are attempting to shoot with manual strobes.
• Position your fill light very close to your camera-model axis.
• Bring you model in and give it a go.

This lighting setup is the classic "loop lighting". The key light will generate your shadows for you. The fill light will ..... fill the shadows .... making them softer and (generally speaking ) more pleasing.

As others have already indicated, you need to have some space between your model and the backdrop. This will allow you to throw that background a bit OOF, reducing the extent to which the backdrop competes with your model for view attention. A smaller aperture will help in this as well.