No Drama Here

PhilD41

Yep, this was Grace helping me again. She was quite upset that one of her sisters had come up beside her. As she put it, "she is going to ruin my picture!" I snapped this just to show that she wasn't even in the picture. As far as lighting goes, I think this is getting better. My fill light on camera left is a little too high and still darkens the eyes some. I lowered my key light pretty significantly since I was shooting my kids. I desperately need to find a different backdrop than my old sheet, but it works for now. Adjusting my cameras AF fine tuning help my focus issues greatly!

Anyway.. thanks for the previous help. Any suggestions for lighting with little ones? I have two speedlites stands and umbrellas to work with currently. Always looking to improve!

Camera: Nikon D7000
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 160
Exposure Bias: 0 EV

Qarik

how big is your umbrella and how far away are they from subject?

VayCayMom

Can Grace come over to my house? She is so adorable!!!

PhilD41

Qarik wrote: »

how big is your umbrella and how far away are they from subject?

I have two 43" reflective umbrellas. The Key light is lower about 4' from where she was standing. Flash was 1/8th. The fill light was higher and between 4 and 5' away (both about 45deg) with the flash at 1/32. I don't have much room to work in so I was trying to adjust with the flash strength. I have also about decided that I would do better with shoot-through umbrellas or a soft box. Hopefully I will be able to add them soon.

VayCayMom wrote: »

Can Grace come over to my house? She is so adorable!!!

Sure VayCay! I will send her right over. :-)

Hackbone

Try setting your lights at the same intensitiy (power). Put one light at 4ft and the other at 5.6 feet .........or one light at 5.6 feet and the other at 8ft. (depending on how much room you have.) Notice how this is related to f stops and only works if your lights are set at the same power. This will give you a 3 to 1 lighting ratio which is very pleasing generally. Then take a shot and chimp at the viewfinder and adjust your f stop till you like how the bright side of the face is exposed. Don't worry about the feet settings above just chimp the view finder till you like the bright side of the face.

Then turn your subject away from the closer light that is on a 45 (that will be your main light), Put your fill light on the same side as the main but behind you. The fill should generally not be on a 45 or on the opposite side of you fill as that will cause cross shadows. You should be able to get respectable shots with the reflective umbrellas.

Also don't aim the main umbrella right at the subject but skim it across the front of her face.

An old sheet will work. I use fabric from JoAnn Fabrics all the time and have even used small rugs and shower curtains. The key is to have them about 6 feet behind the subject and at times have a third light with variable power to light it with.

Main light on a 45..........you have to think two planes here........top to bottom 45.........and then from you to the side of your subject as another 45. Adjust that main for these two 45's.

Hope that helps. Keep practicing.

Qarik

so the goal here is to get soft directional light. while you image above is cute and works to some degree, there are some less than ideal shadows going on around her face. Charles suggestion will help with directionality (which you have very little of right now) but to soften the light even more..get those umbrellas even closer. Put them just outside the camera frame (maybe 18 inches). Now your apparent light source is much larger then before and will soften up those shadows and put a nice big catch light in her eyes.

PhilD41

Thank you Charles, I think I follow what you are saying. I am not sure why two lights equal spacing with a single stop difference in strength wouldn't give you the same 3:1 lighting ratio though. (granted, mine were not) Anyway, hopefully I will have some time this weekend to practice some more. I will move the fill around and see if I can do a "form fill" in my very cramped little office.

Thanks, Qarik. I have quite a bit to learn and am looking forward to the journey. I will have to play with the two different lighting suggestions. One to space them out a little further and one to bring them closer. I believe I understand what each will do, but it will be more helpful (and fun) to take a few pictures. :-)

Hackbone

Phil, you are correct that two lights with equal spacing with a stop difference will give you a 3 to 1 ratio.

Qarik is correct that the closer a light is and the larger it is will give you a soft shadow edge. Make the source smaller and or move it further back and the shadow edge gets more defined. Just look at your shadow on the ground and see the sharpness of the shadow (the sun is pretty far away) and then will the clouds move in and spread the source out the shadow edge gets less defined....softer. The f stop method for light placement is just a quick way to set up lights and get a 3 to 1 ratio.

To soften those lights try putting a sheet over the open end ( we call that a sock when used on a light) and wrap it as much as you can around the open end of the umbrella.

PhilD41

Okay, She would shoot me if she knew I was putting this up here, but here is my first attempt at real portrait lighting. I really need to do something about my background. The green sheet is getting old. :-) I tried the "Form Fill" lighting and in my space, it is a little harder to do than I though it would be. It is fairly cramped quarters. Anyway... not the best but a good start.



Exposure Time: 1/200
F Number: f / 11
Exposure Program: Manual
ISO Speed Ratings: 200
Metering Mode: CenterWeightedAverage
Focal Length: 50mm

The lights were closer together than I would have like so I did make a 1 stop difference between them. I could space the out enough. I should have also dialed down the F-stop as I had to bump up the exposure in post quite a bit. I was trying to darken the background, but with her only about 3' in front of it there wasn't much I could do. Anyway... All suggestions welcome. Hopefully I will have more time this weekend.

Hackbone

Try taking you main light and don't point it at her but point it across the front of her at a 90 degree angle. Now this is confusing......keep it on the 45 plane but then turn it away from her toward the front of her. Let it wash across the front of her so to speak. This will alter the ratio a bit and you will have to compensate in some fashion to keep a pleasing ratio. The female form looks better when you turn her away from the main and bring her head back toward the main.

Try dropping you ISO as low as it will go and is there any ambient light hitting the bkg? If you can keep the ambient to a min that should help with the bkg. How about adding a vignette to darken the bkg.

I think this attempt is much more pleasing than the other.....what are your feelings on it?

PhilD41

Thanks for the response! The main light was turned to her front, but it was also probably a little less than 45. This probably shifted the light more than I realized. As for her position, she was turned toward the key light looking back to the camera. I will try reversing this. I will also try moving everything into a larger room after the kids go down. This should give me a little more to work with.

As for ambient light, there wasn't much at all. The room is lit with three compact florescent, that were only about 8 inches over her head. I opted to turn these off with made the room pretty dark. The light on the background is all from the flash... which was closer to it than I wanted. I did do a little work on the back ground to smooth it out and add a slight vignette. Nothing I would sell, but I am not their yet anyway. :-) To your point, it looks better than what I was doing, and I can visualize where it need to go... I think. I appreciate the help along the way! Hopefully a new attempt later today.

WingsOfLovePhoto

It looks like with your wife that you were aiming for loop lighting? If that is the case then the umbrella needs to be up a bit higher to make the "loop" under the right side of her nose (camera left) be a bit lower. You also seem to have loss of detail in her hair on the dark side so you would need either to bring that light up in intensity or add a hair light to the mix.

Since i am a new oldie around here I don't know what everybody has but if you have a some bucks I would invest in a light meter. Nothing can give you more info in a studio setting than one. I use it every shoot to get exact ratio's I want.

But looks like you have willing subjects for lots of practice. Keep up the good work!

PhilD41

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote: »

It looks like with your wife that you were aiming for loop lighting? If that is the case then the umbrella needs to be up a bit higher to make the "loop" under the right side of her nose (camera left) be a bit lower. You also seem to have loss of detail in her hair on the dark side so you would need either to bring that light up in intensity or add a hair light to the mix.

Since i am a new oldie around here I don't know what everybody has but if you have a some bucks I would invest in a light meter. Nothing can give you more info in a studio setting than one. I use it every shoot to get exact ratio's I want.

But looks like you have willing subjects for lots of practice. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Snady, I am not sure if "willing" is exactly what I would call them. I am not exactly sure what loop lighting is, but I have google for that. :-). I was trying a "form fill" lighting scheme and missed. As for a light meter, I have debated that. Bucks is one thing I don't have, but as with my gear, I can always save and invest. I have looked around here and there though. I expect that I will end up with one if I ever want to get too serious.

PhilD41

Okay, here is the last shot I was able to fit in this weekend. I really don't like the pose (will need to work on those as well) but feel the lighting is at least going in the right direction. I had a stop different between the Key and Fill light, but I think the fill is still a little bright. It was almost directly behind me just a little to camera right, same side as the Key. Anyway... this may be it until next weekend. Also I did get a few of the kids I may put up in a new thread. I look forward to your words of wisdom!