New set of photos for CC (Using Scott's suggestion)

JulieLawsonPhotography

Or at least, I tried to follow your suggestion. Please let me know how these look. I most definetly see an improvement, but still want to make sure that I'm on the right track.

adbsgicom

Really nice. I like the first one best of all. The hot-spot in the b/g is a little too much in the last one, and it seems to have messed up your metering since the face seems a bit dark there. Nice posing though, cute kid.

JulieLawsonPhotography

adbsgicom wrote:

Really nice. I like the first one best of all. The hot-spot in the b/g is a little too much in the last one, and it seems to have messed up your metering since the face seems a bit dark there. Nice posing though, cute kid.

Thanks. I tried using on of my lights behind the fabric...but couldn't adjust the strength of it. I should have brought up my hair light as used that instead.

adbsgicom

Your lighting is way beyond what I end up with -- so kudo's on getting so much of it right.
Why couldn't you control the rear light? The Nikon system has zones or groups or something like that for controlling the individual lights in your group, right?

zoomer

Crop is to tight in the first one to my eye, try to avoid the mid chest crop, go above or below. I like the slightly from above angle.
There is a hot spot on the back ground in 2 and 3.
She is to close to the back ground.
I really like this shot, very nice.

2 and 3 not sure why her hand is in the shots like that, does not add to the photo.

Move the light just a little bit higher so it is shining from above just a little bit more.

Very pretty young lady, you are on the right track.

Howitzer

you couldnt move the light away from the fabric? so it wasnt so bright in one spot?

JulieLawsonPhotography

In the studio realm of things, I learn through trial and error. When I do come across something that works, I usually don't know why I did what I did to get that result. Does that make sense. I really could use a "teacher" local to show me with my lights how to achieve certain results. The rear light has two switches, the on and off and the other is half power and full power. I tried the rear light because I saw an example of someone doing that and I wanted to try it. trial and error though, I'll get it.

adbsgicom wrote:

Your lighting is way beyond what I end up with -- so kudo's on getting so much of it right.
Why couldn't you control the rear light? The Nikon system has zones or groups or something like that for controlling the individual lights in your group, right?

JulieLawsonPhotography

My set-up was wider than the basement, but still wasn't able to move it any farther back. Next time I'll have thought out placement of the room i was in and will move it farther back.

Howitzer wrote:

you couldnt move the light away from the fabric? so it wasnt so bright in one spot?

JulieLawsonPhotography

How far away from the background do you suggest. She was about 3 ft from the background. I appreciate the CC on the cropping, I do need to watch that. Which light would you move a bit higher?
This is my oldest, she was gracious enough to pose today.

zoomer wrote:

Crop is to tight in the first one to my eye, try to avoid the mid chest crop, go above or below. I like the slightly from above angle.
There is a hot spot on the back ground in 2 and 3.
She is to close to the back ground.
I really like this shot, very nice.

2 and 3 not sure why her hand is in the shots like that, does not add to the photo.

Move the light just a little bit higher so it is shining from above just a little bit more.

Very pretty young lady, you are on the right track.

zoomer

Maybe 6 feet or more and try a larger f-stop so it blurs more.
The main light from photo left, see the large catch light in her eye, it should be in the upper corner of her eye putting the shadow of her nose down a little and to the side.
As it is is good , but you are looking for improvement??

JulieLawsonPhotography

Just wanting to make sure that I'm setting the lights correctly. I was able to use a lower aperature this time than in previous times, which is a plus for me.

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

zoomer wrote:

Maybe 6 feet or more and try a larger f-stop so it blurs more.
The main light from photo left, see the large catch light in her eye, it should be in the upper corner of her eye putting the shadow of her nose down a little and to the side.
As it is is good , but you are looking for improvement??

Scott_Quier

Wow, the difference between this set and the last set (on which I commented and provided a suggestion of where to start with your lighting) is like night and day. What an improvement.

I'm not very good at posing people, so I will leave that to those who know what they are talking about. But lighting, I think I have a decent handle on that so here goes

First thing I notice is that you put a lot of thought into this. It appears you have the same lighting positions in all three, just altered the power of your lights to achieve different shadow effects.

1. Very nice, soft lighting .... very appropriate to the soft skin/features young ladies are so often lucky to enjoy. The ONLY negative I can see in this image is the slight blow-out from the light behind the background, but your daughter is positioned very well to cover that. The exposure on her face is just about spot on ... her forehead is a touch hot, but that can be easily corrected in post. To get this a bit better in studio, try moving your key light just a bit further away from her. This is a very strong begining and is sooooo much better than so much that one sees from professional photographers.
   
   
2. The down-side - your daughter moved (or the camera moved) exposing the bright spot from the flash behind your background. Not a big deal, but something to watch out for in the future. From a lighting standpoint, this is my favorite of the bunch. The shadows are there, provding nice sense of 3D. I think the fill could have come up just a bit, but ..... WOW!!!!
   
   
3. Exposure wise, this is the best of the lot - no blown skin! Generally speaking, higher lighting ratios are more often seen in portraits of older ladies and males. As an exercise, this works, but is not my favorite for young ladies of your daughter's age.
   
   Note the angle of the shadow cast by her nose - getting your key light up a bit higher will cause this shadow to angle down her face in more "pleasing" manner - just something to think about as you are setting up the spacial relationships between your model and your lights.

Getting back to the fact that it is evident you really thought about what you were going to do for this session before you really got started - lighting is really not difficult. For all practical lighting purposes, light always follows two "laws":

1. Except for difraction around sharp edges and curvatures of the space-time continuum caused by very massive bodies (think black holes), light always travels in a straight light between the light source and it's point of impact.
   
   
2. The strength of non-columnated light (ie, anything but lasers) is inversely proportional to the distance from the light source. Specifically, everything you double the distance between the light source and the subject, the strength of that light at the subject is only 1/4 what it was at the first positioning. Amazingly enough, this can also be read as, "Every time you double the distance between the light source and the subject, the strength of the light at the subject falls of 2 stops." Here are a couple of links that might help you visualize this:
   • Inverse-square law
   • Inverse Square Law, Light
   • The Inverse Square Law - what it means to Photographers

So, if you can either visualize straight lights and line-of-sight, you can use the above laws to explain/deduce the lighting required to achieve any result and, contra-wise, reverse engieer the lighting used to achieve a photographic result.