More Practice @ Studio Lighting

anonymouscuban

So my wife was gracious enough to let me take some more photos of her. I took the advice given on my last thread. I stopped my lens down a bit to f/5.6 and shot at 1/125 to let in a bit of ambient. I switched the umbrellas around and shot through them this time. Set up my main light on camera left and fill on camera right. Also brought them in a bit closer this time to soften things up a bit more. I was also conscious of the light not being too hot like last time.

Overall I'm happy with this set. Here are some favorites. Feedback on them would really be great... again, good and bad.

#1 - Probbly my favorite of the series. She looks so natural here.



#2 - Is this one a bit hot on camera left? Looks OK on one monitor, hot on the other.



#3 - This one I really like as well because of her smile. I think I could have stopped down the fill a bit. What do you think?



#4 - Like the lighting on this shot. What do you think about the pose?



#5 & #6 - Full length shots. Not sure which works better if either work at all. I really get lost shooting full body.





Also would like to hear feedback on post work. Do the skin tones look natural. They look pretty good to me, pretty much how her skin tone is IRL but my monitor is not calibrated. I didn't do too much work on her skin. Trying to take a minimalistic approach there. Used a healing brush on a zit she's got on her nose (she made me), but other than that, no other skin work.

Thanks all for the help on the previous thread. Really looking forward to hearing what you all think of these.

blaser321

Like before still a little hot in some. like the last one a lot in fact it is great see how there is some shadow on the right side


1 would have been great but hot spots on chest and shoulder but it doesn't bother me that much


2 a little hot not bad but it just does nothing for me


3 like it great smile needs more light ratio I hope you don't mind I re did # 3
see what you think the color is off in all the photos too much magenta,red and blue

blaser321

I think you should try using one of you lights as a hair light and other one as a key and
and a reflector like a foam core board on the other

blaser321

Like this one I did not too long a go

anonymouscuban

Thanks for the feedback Blaser. I don't mind that you adjusted the skin tone on the one. At first, looked a little yellow to me but after letting it marinate for a bit, looks good.

I can see your point about the ratio. Again, they looked OK on the camera LCD but then when I uploaded, looked like the fill was to high. I will try the reflector. I know I have one somewhere, just need to find it.

I do have a question about the main light. OK... as you can see, I am still a bit hot on the main. I think I am screw up by setting my aperture and then adjusting the power on the strobe to get good exposure. I would assume there is a point where the lot get to bright and causes hot spots or am I OK doing it this way? Would it be better to set the power on the main, then adjust my aperture to get proper exposure? Am I making any sense?

I think next time, I will take a few shots with just the key light. Then a few with the fill or reflector. I need to dig out my software to run tethered. I don't have it installed on my new laptop. I'm sure that will help a lot too since I don't have a meter.

zoomer

Looks like you are on the right track, very pretty model.
Keep experimenting till you find a look you really love.

divamum

When my lights are giving me something too hot, it's usually because they're too close. Just try moving them back a few inches.

Also... think about why you wanted to add ambient - did you actually need it? Really, unless you want it for a specific look or NEED it to boost lumens, then there's no reason; you can just stay at your native synch speed and run with it. I lower my SS and add ambient when I want to incorporate the ambient light as part of the look (ie the shot I did where the lamp is on in the background); as gentle fill when I need my 2nd flash somewhere else (ie bg or hairlight); or to help contribute to a more natural daylight look; or if my flash batteries are low and I don't want to tax them quite so much. It can help with all of those, but it will also contribute a mixed light colour which even a custom WB doesn't always fix, so you need to keep an eye on that if you're going to incorporate it into the shot

One thing I did last week which really - REALLY - helped me understand and improve my lighting in advance of my "Hollywood" style shoot was to set the lights, shoot with each one in turn (ie one at a time), then a shot with both, then a wide shot of the setup. When I reviewed, I started to get a much stronger sense of what I was doing!!

I also found that by using 1 light+ reflector for quite a while I started to understand HOW the light was working a lot better. Combinging that with the idea above has reallly helped me to understand both what I'm trying to achieve, and better ways of getting to that.

Have fun with it!

anonymouscuban

Another question...

When setting up the lights, do place them higher than the subject so they are pointing downward or do you set them up pretty even with the face? For example, with short lighting.

anonymouscuban

OK... here are couple more. I did some adjustments on skin tone. Only other thing I did to these was bump contrast with curves adjustment and sharpened in LR.

sweet caroline

Place them higher! Our brains like to see things lit from above. I have two flashes, so I use one as key light and one as hair light. I use a reflector for fill. You need more shadows.

blaser321

I found a skin color chart in CYMK there is a math to it is not all ways right but it will git you in the ball park

Qarik

your wife is still too hot

blaser321

The last photo is much better the skin tone just below and left of the hi light on the camera left cheek is C=18 M=36 Y=37
so if you leave the magenta alone it should be C=7 M=35 Y=44
I never go by the numbers exactly just watch as you go and go back and forth it may take a minute to see if it's right