Lighting with "Studio"

KTBoom2006-E510

Hello...

I am going to be doing an infant shoot tomorrow in my house or "Studio" lol. All I have is my Speedlight 580EXII on camera to use and tested it out today. Can you tell me which lighting looks best? The photos are all unedited and using both my 70-200 Tamron AF 2.8 lens and my 55-250 Canon AF 4-5.6 lens. Thank you for the help.

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This one has been edited....

MileHighAko

Are you able to get the flash off camera at all? I'm not familiar with your equipment, but if you can manage it, it will improve your results tremendously. I'm on my laptop, so I can't comment very well on the above, but #3 looks best on my monitor. The white balance in #12 looks off to me - skin looks blue. One other comment I have is to put some distance between your subject and your background and the wrinkles in your fabric will disappear.

KTBoom2006-E510

On my monitor (which is set to the default calibration) #12 looks neutral. I guess to figure out if the color is off or not would be to have some more inputs from others to see if my monitor is off on the colors.... That would be interesting to find out. I am not sure if my flash can go off camera.... I dont have any cables or anything for it. Anyone else have this flash 580 EXII and my camera Canon XSi? Any help appreciated, thanks!

anonymouscuban

12 definitely has a blue color cast. Can't help you with the flash since I shoot Nikon and am not familiar with canon systems.

KTBoom2006-E510

I am not sure if I should change my monitor or to leave it alone because when I print the pictures out, they look the same they look to me on my monitor.... Hmm
Does anyone else have some more input on lighting?

jpc

I like the lighting in #9 and #11. #12 is definitely blue. Not bad for just on-camera flash. If you can get it off-camera, and above to the right, you can use a reflector on camera left to fill shadows. I personally don't like a lot of shadows on kids, which is why I picked #9 and #11.

KTBoom2006-E510

Great. Thanks. How is the skin tones in the rest of the pictures besides #12? My shoot was resceduled to next Wednesday, so I have more time to play around with lighting and color.

jpc

Tones look good, but 2,4,5,6, 8 and 10 are underexposed.

AmazingGrace0385

If you have the funds, you can get that flash off camera pretty simply. http://youtu.be/8sKK_lvQiVA This shows you how - minimum you need a light stand and a wireless trigger. An inexpensive 5-in-1 reflector would benefit you as well. You could put the light one one side and the reflector on the other to balance the light.

Definitely not bad on camera. The edited version #12 looks best for color. The unedited photos are all extremely yellow - what are your settings? Exposure wise I'd say #11. For a baby, I'd want even light, so I'd probably bounce off the ceiling or use a lightsphere.

Quincy T

Even an E-TTL cable and a tripod for the flash would be good for getting it off camera, but doing so should be your priority. On camera flash, bounced, is alright and some situations, but having the option to move the flash off of the camera is fairly vital for this kind of work.

KTBoom2006-E510

Thank you. I am planning on getting more equipment soon when I can. I am just not getting back into this after taking a little over a year off from my hand surgery, so I have some time to make up and some more clients to win over. So, I am hearing that my color is good for one person, but others disagree?? Wow, what am I to do.....

theprincereturns

colors look ok to me. But dido on the underexposure. Just FYI - When i shoot with a flash i always seem to have to dial in 1/2 to 2/3s stop overexposure to get the base exposure up to where I want it. This will obviously vary by camera & flash though.

Hackbone

Color is so subjective and we all see it differently. Most monitors are probably not caliberated so the colors will be different from one to the next. When viewing on a monitor you are seeing your colors projected and when viewing a print you are seeing them reflected. That is a big difference plus your room light affects your color also. I don't think your colors are bad, maybe a tad warm for me but that is a personal choice. The last one is definitely cool in color. My big problem with your work is lack of separation from the background. You need another flash coming in from the back corner to separate your subject from the background. Try to purchase an umbrella for your flash. They can be gotten very reasonably $20ish or thereabouts. You will like the results much more than direct flash.

Ed911

I guess I'm a day late...but here are some suggestions for the future...try bounce flash. If you have a white wall nearby...aim your flash at that. Make sure that you point the flash so that no light from the flash directly strikes the subject. This technique uses the wall as a giant light source...and produces some nice effects. If you have a reflector...you can shoot the speedlight into it...and bounce the light on to the subject.

Adjust your flash output and your camera settings to get the results that you like.

Trial and error until you get what you like.

Also...one tip...stay back around 15 feet...otherwise you will run the risk of distorting the subjects features closest to the camera. Hand and feet will look larger than they are supposed to.

Good luck...

Sam

I will address the lighting. You have two Canon 580 EX flashes. You don't need radio triggers one 580 can trigger the second 580. There are some set up criteria and it needs to be line of singht, but indoors the triggering beam should bounce off walls and work.

Try using one with an umbrella or just set it up to bounce from a different direction. Use the on camera flash to bounce from a different direction or just for fill with the off camera flash as the primary light.

You may want to use a high ISO and or drag the shutter to bring in more ambient and tone down that shot in a cave look.

I think you did good with the expressions. Watch out for cutting off limbs. Shoot a little wider and leave room to crop. There are some white balance issues, but I'll leave that for later. Shoot RAW and you can take care of the WB in post. Be careful however if the ambient light you bring in is incandescent and or different than the flash temps. Ambient day light would be best, or if the ambient is incandescent, try using 1/2 CTO gel.

This will probably leave you with some research to do.

Sam

Elaine

I was surprised when you said #12 was edited because it looks quite blue/cold to me as well. The colors in #1 look much better on my calibrated monitor. If you can't get the flash off camera, I would also advise bouncing it off of something. If you don't have a white wall, maybe hang a white sheet on the wall or place a large piece of white tile board on the wall to bounce off of? A great place to get help on bouncing your flash is Planet Neil. Here is a good article on bouncing flash to get you started.