Lighting Practice - Seeking Feedback

anonymouscuban

So after 9 months of zero photography due to our remodel, I finally dusted off the strobes and decided to do a little practice. I still don't have a light meter so I had to chimp quite a bit to get the lighting to what looked ok to me. These are pics of my lovely wife who puts up with me enough to stand in front of the camera while I practice.

All of these were shot with two AB400 strobes modified by umbrellas. One camera left and the other camera right. I've totally forgotten the little I learned in the months before I stopped shooting. I would really appreciate some feedback on these... the good and the bad.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5

reyvee61

I'm not the most qualified for technical aspects of lighting like this but I know a nice shot when I see one.
The shadows are soft and the lighting is set up in a way that provides nice transitions from light to shadow.
She's lovely and these are great for someone who says he's out of practice...

blaser321

If anything the light camera left looks a little hot like the model
photos all looks good
pose in 1,2,3 look good. hand on the hip in 4,5 looks too posed
lighting in 2 and 3 look the best to me the light may be the same but the angle is better
the lighting in #1 is too even- flat
a meter makes it easier and repeatable but not the most important think I love mine

divamum

The light in 3 is the most interesting to me. I'd agree that 1/2 look a little hot on CL.

Good to see you back! Btw, I know with AB's you may just get their dedicated softboxes, but if not, I can highly - HIGHLY - recommend the Photek Softliter - I hugely prefer it to regular umbrellas.

anonymouscuban

Thanks all.

I agree that lighting on 2 and 3 is much more interesting. Nice shadows which give depth. #3 is probably my favorite out of these.

They are a bit hot. I noticed after I DL'd them. They didn't appear hot on my LCD and I had no "blinkies". The weird thing is that the histogram also showed no blown highlights, which I found strange. If she's up to it, I want to give it another go tonight.

I've never shot with softboxes. Would you say that the light is much softer than when modified by an umbrella? Also, the umbrellas I have are both reflective and shoot through. I may try shoot through position tonight just to see.

My biggest challenge is posing. My wife turns into a robot when the camera comes out. If I don't direct her to do something, she won't. I need to get her relaxed. The hand thing for example, I also noticed it looks unnatural after I got them on my puter. She's not relaxed. I tried to make her laugh a bit so she can relax but it didn't work to well. I guess she is out of practice too.

BTW, here is my favorite shot of all only because I got her to laugh, which I love doing. Not the sharpest shot but a great moment captured for sure.

divamum

The shoothru side will definitely be softer - it's harder to control light from a shoothru because you lose some out of the back which bounces around in a room (see Nik, I AM learning! . I prefer softboxes even more (and because they're dark on the back the light isn't quite so everywhere), but the size (lack thereof) of my space and the cost drove me to the Photek which gives a very similar result.

anonymouscuban

Diva... thanks. That makes sense about the light loss and bounce. I will give it a shot tonight. I want to get some softboxes but spending a few hundred dollars right now is not in the budget. We have our trip to Asia coming up in December and we're trying to minimize spending. I will look into the Photek though. Maybe I can fit those in.

divamum

The 45" Photek runs about $60 and was worth every penny - I wish I had room to use the 60" one too! I note too that they've now started making a version with a diffuser which will fit more easily over speedlights - sure wish they'd had that when I bought mine earlier this year! I got it from Adorama.

ETA: The shots in the red dress in my Hollywood shoot were with the Photek. I had the other flash set as a hairlight, but 1. it didn't always pop 2. I didn't always need anyway. I put up a foamboard reflector to camera left to add just a tiny bit more fill, but even without it I loved the light.

Qarik

They all appear about 1/3 stop too hot. Including your wife.

divamum

^^

Touche, Qarik!

reyvee61

Qarik wrote: »

They all appear about 1/3 stop too hot. Including your wife.

Was gonna say...she's a lovely subject to photograph...:D

anonymouscuban

Thanks guys.

I converted a couple of these to B&W. Went with a soft look. What do you think? Too soft?

reyvee61

Very nice, perhaps a wee bit much loss of detail on her eyes..
Do you have the ability to soften skin without effecting the rest of the details as in Color Efex Pro's Dynamic skin softener?

anonymouscuban

reyvee61 wrote: »

Very nice, perhaps a wee bit much loss of detail on her eyes..
Do you have the ability to soften skin without effecting the rest of the details as in Color Efex Pro's Dynamic skin softener?

Sure. I can create a mask on the softened layer and remove the effect from any part of the image. I thought I did that in both but it looks like Only did it in the first B&W and not the second. If you look, you'll see the first one the eyes still have detail. Second one, not so much. Can't believe I missed that.

So I got the green light from the wife to practice some more tonight. We'll see if I can improve. Going to try the shoot through umbrellas this time and also be a little more conscious of hot spots.

One question... when you guys are shooting portraits, what are you guys doing as far as aperture and shutter. These I shot at 1/200 @ f/2.8.

divamum

You've got tons of power in those lights - the only reason to shoot at 2.8 would be because you want the dof for creative blur. Even bokeh-junkie me shoots at around 4+ when I'm using flash and a plain background and don't want maximum shallow effect ......

Oh, also, you will lose a bit of light (maybe a stop or so?) when you shoot through instead of bounce. Easy enough to turn the AB's up a tad

anonymouscuban

Cool. I will try stopping down the lens a bit. What about shutter?

divamum

Assuming you want to shut out all ambient, shoot at your highest synch speed. If you want to let some ambient in, then drop it down.

Photogbiker

A lot of my thoughts have been hit, but I'll recap and add one.

Overall too bright. Knock things down a bit and play more with a bigger difference in lighting ratio (ration of exposure light side of face to darker side, try for at least 1 stop). Can be fun to experiment with even 2 or 3 stop differences. Go to extremes and settle back to the middle, or not.

I really like the soft BW. When you are going soft, the higher key exposure works better. Gives the '40s glamour look a la Hurell. Sharp eyes would be great here if you can. Old guys would smear vaseline on a UV filter and leave a clean spot in the middle. Eyes, nose and mouth sharp, rest of it soft.

I am usually around f5.6 to f8, sharper aperture range of most lenses. Unless you are outdoors and trying to blur background I see no reason to go 2.8 with all the flash power you have. Use a blank wall and experiment with another light either blasting it white, or a soft spot behind the head.

Flash affects aperture, ambient affects shutter and you control both.

Digital is much easier to allow experimentation, especially if you shoot tethered and can see results on screen in real time. Even so, buy a flaah meter! Even before a soft box, get a basic flash meter. I bought a Polaris years ago for right around $100 and can't imagine going back to guessing. I was shooting film when I bought it so the experimenting you are doing would have been crazy expensive. Even so, buy a meter and really learn the lights and ratios of main to fill to hair to background.

When you dial in that perfect Rembrandt lighting, or high key or low key (intentionally) it is very rewarding.

Keep it up, love your work.

anonymouscuban

Thanks guys. I understand how aperture and shutter affects light but its nice to get a refresher. I'm not really sure why I was shooting at 2.8. I will stop the lens down somewhere between 5.6 and 8. Will need to see what looks good as far as ambient.

I have two lights right now. I want to get a nice reflector and I definitely want a light meter. I've heard a lot of people say you don't need one but I like to be precise with things and it just seems a light meter will get me closer to that than chimping ever will. I do have software to shoot tethered but never tried it. Will have to.

One more question. Last Christmas, I got some honey comb grids for my lights. What affect would placing a 40 degree grid on a light and then shooting through an umbrella? Is that just nonsense?

Icebear

I really like the soft treatment you did. Be very careful if you try to keep the eyes sharp and soften the rest, 'cause it will very likely look fake. I think I'd crop most of your images a bit tighter, but that's usually my preference. I'd comment on the hotitude of your wife, but that would violate my "gentleman's rule" that says it's really creepy to notice the attractiveness of any woman younger than your oldest child.

Beautiful and a good sport too. I think that's an appripriate observation.

Qarik

anonymouscuban wrote: »

Thanks guys. I understand how aperture and shutter affects light but its nice to get a refresher. I'm not really sure why I was shooting at 2.8. I will stop the lens down somewhere between 5.6 and 8. Will need to see what looks good as far as ambient.

I have two lights right now. I want to get a nice reflector and I definitely want a light meter. I've heard a lot of people say you don't need one but I like to be precise with things and it just seems a light meter will get me closer to that than chimping ever will. I do have software to shoot tethered but never tried it. Will have to.

One more question. Last Christmas, I got some honey comb grids for my lights. What affect would placing a 40 degree grid on a light and then shooting through an umbrella? Is that just nonsense?

it would make it more softbox like.