The day I cut the ETTL Umbilical Cord

divamum

C&C always welcome!

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Yup, it finally happened. I figured I was going to be shooting in controlled circumstances, it's somebody who wanted some pretty traditional shots, I had time to set up the triggers beforehand so I wouldn't need to try and think it through on the fly, and I"ve been getting fed up with my background lights plotzing every time I try to light white. In the event, the background lights still plotzed because my batteries were having issues (I forgot to charge all of them the day before, so a couple of sets weren't at max, which Pixel King triggers don't like), but even so. WHAT TOOK ME SO LONG???!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (you may all chorus, "I told you so" lol)

This guy is a concert artist - that's still his main game, although he's moving back into opera now.

In any case. Yes, a lot of them are shot from above. What can I say.... I like it! And I did NOT expect that angle to work for him, but every time I chimped, I found I preferred the more above angle. I'm weird, apparently :rofl

1. 2x3 sb camera left; reflector fill camera right. Thatssit.



2. That time the background lights went off like they were supposed to ................





3. And one of the (many) they didn't........... (fortuntely, I LOVE the way it turns to fashion grey when it isn't lit, so it's all good )




4 On the porch - 100% natural light (for the lower angle fans)


5. Down the porch steps - it was high noon, but I'm ok with this light (it was fairly overcast) - all natural light.

VayCayMom

awesome !!! every single one.

Hackbone

I like the lighting and catch lights a lot. I have a problem with the relationship between his head and shoulders width. His head doesn't match his shoulders. Maybe a long neck, or the open shirt collar lends to the distortion. I don't think it is the camera angle. Maybe he was pushing the body up where he needed to relax the upper torso. What do you think.

divamum

He just has a reeeallllly long neck - did my best to ensure that we had a nice jawline and he was pulling up out of his shoulders, but I wanted to make sure we avoided him looking like ET!

Oh, and yeah on the collar ~facepalm~ the shirt was ALL over the place so I clipped it back to avoid creases, and then the collar pulled too far away. I swear that tailored mens' clothes give me WAY more trouble than anything the ladies wear - drives me nuts!

AlexShark

They are all good and serve the purpose of "documenting the likeness." The lighting is a little harsh, whether with the flash or available light (#4 has some hotspots, but no matter).

So technically, these are the steps that I would take in the future:

1. Create more light/shadow play between left and right. Such contrast creates more of the 3D effect; balanced lighting rarely works for me. The ratio of about 4:1 between the sides is usually good. It's just a matter of dialing down one of the flashes. Yeah, it can still be manipulated when there's plenty of available light. (A side note: take a look at Vermeer portraits.)

2. #1 and #4 are good candidates for a mid-contrast B&W conversion. It always helps to make such decisions in advance. While there's a whole theory behind it, I am a proponent of trial-and-error. It trains the eye to see certain situations in B&W, which can radically change the approach to lighting, clothing, and the background.

3. The angle. Here my beef is not with low/high but with left-straight-right. Take a look at #3 and #5. it appears as if his jaw is a little skewed to his left. And I'm pretty sure that this is what happens to his face when he's offering a posed smile. But this is not visible at all in #4. Why? The left-right angle of 3/4 his right side is great for this guy.

But my constant beef is the character, not just with this set, but always.

The guy has a sparkle in the eye, he's intelligent, humorous, and a little sarcastic. But it takes an effort to ferret it out of these photos. How would you go about amplifying it, making it visible? Surely, not by letting him do it himself. Trained models don't know how to do it. Talk to the guy while you shoot! Converse! Don't let his face freeze in whatever expression he deems appropriate. And simply by choosing the subject of the conversation you will be able to record a whole gamut of expressions. So... set up your gear, test shoot two-three frames to see that everything is OK, and then -- forget about the gear. Don't look through the viewfinder, look at the model, pressing the shutter now and then. Just shoot wide, because he'll be shifting about a little. Crop later.

Hope it's helpful.

alaios

4,5 my bests!

anonymouscuban

I'm not sure what "The Shark" is talking about but the lighting on these is anything but harsh. Exposure is tits on my monitor. The lighting is so fresh and so clean. The photos pop and that's what you want. Posing looks good. Clean up that color and these are perfect. BTW, guy looks a little like Hugh Laurie.

Glad to hear you cut that cord. Are you using a light meter? If not, I'm even more impressed. If you are going to bypass TTL, you may want to invest in a meter. I can't live without mine. It just takes all the guess work out. You also can't get consistent ratios with setups without a bunch of trial and error. Most of all though, it really speeds things up when you switch up your light setup during a session. Keeps things flowing without having your subject sit through a bunch of test shots. Makes you look like a pro too!!!

divamum

Thanks Alex's (Alexes? Aleces? )

Cubano, no light meter. I set it up beforehand by trial and error, and then just tweaked exposure a little once I got him in there. Very different way of working for me, but I'm super-pleased with the results. I still fully intend to use ETTL in changing conditions (eg outdoors), but indoors like this it's stupid not to. Definitely "duh - why'd I hold out so long against this?" (as I always suspected it would be, if I'm honest lol). These were speedlights, of course, too, not studio lights. In my tiny space, full-size lights would be a liability rather than asset............!

Shark:

Quite right on #4. I meant to comment on the light in that one and got interrupted while posting and then forgot. That light with the rim behind his head looked GREAT in camera, but i'm actually quite disappointed with it once I uploaded - it's ok but, as you rightly point out, those hot spots are nasty. If I can't hfs or burn the out of existance, I may toss the shots. Still have to finish culling and processing, so we'll see....

1. Create more light/shadow play between left and right. Such contrast creates more of the 3D effect; balanced lighting rarely works for me.

My headshots typically tend towards flat-ish lighting, by choice. I can get away with a bit more high drama for opera (vs actors), but I just like a somewhat even light for this purpose. I should experiment more, however - always nice to have choices

2. #1 and #4 are good candidates for a mid-contrast B&W conversion.

Headshots these days need to be colour. I do conversions of every shot the client chooses so they have one for programs and playbills, but I can't really shoot "for" bw, as these days submission headshots are expected to be in colour.

The guy has a sparkle in the eye, he's intelligent, humorous, and a little sarcastic.

WOOT!! If you see that, then I nailed it. In point of fact, his ROLES are the qualities you describe... but he himself is incredibly reserved and quiet. Not exactly "shy", but verrrry mild-mannered and almost deadpan. He himself said that others have commented how he leaves his personality onstage. So while we of course were looking for shots to sell him in his tyipcal casting, he also said he wanted ones which read very much as himself and "easy to work with". What you say strongly suggests we got that

Btw, my indoor shooting space is TINY - it's my living room, which is 10x14 BUT when you take into account furniture etc I probably only have about 6x11 working space. Shooting wide is something that seldom happens

PS I don't think I ever stop talking when I shoot - I bounce all over the place and am a total doofus. This guy was pretty easy to get to connect to the camera, but he did tend towards a tad bland. Had to work hard to get him to change it up a bit, but I think we did get multiple looks across the session overall

pathfinder

I have said for years that ETTL is great for kids and those folks who won't stand still or are running around - who are unable to stand where you tell them to stand. In other words, their flash to subject distance is continuously variable.


But for real studio shooting where YOU CAN control where the subject poses, AND their relationship to the lighting, shoot full manual flash. Once you have the lighting setup, until either the subject or the lights move, the exposure never varies, and you can concentrate on posing and composition.

I prefer #4, the darker brown background works much better than the white for my taste, and I like the more quartering view in #4 as well.

Does the top of the head HAVE to tangent the edge of the image frame for the head shots you are doing?

Very nice set, diva, capturing your tastes and presenting your subject in an engaging warm light. More dramatic lighting can be very pleasing too, but may not be what you want for your professional portraits for working performers.

anonymouscuban

You'll notice that in most headshots the top of the head is cut. Actually, you'll see a lot with some really odd framing. I've seen some with one ear cutoff, the entire scalp gone, etc.

divamum

Yeah, pretty typical in headshot land to cut into heads - main goal is to get those eyes in a place where they command maximum attention. THat said, his hairline means I can't cut into his hairline ENOUGH imo - just the tip is a little weird. Will probably play with the crops before I upload his proofs.

kdotaylor

One word: WOW

kdog

These look great, Diva. My only concern is that he has the same tight-lipped crooked grin (except for #1 where it's a tight-lipped even grin) in every shot. Did you capture any other looks? Maybe that's what 'Shark was looking for when he suggested talking to the client -- to try to get some different emotions.

divamum

Like these?

I just didn't like his toothy grin as much as the 'intense smirk" (although of course have a few to include for him to choose from), and the "sinister" ones - will be useful for some roles, so he needs them - seemed a little too mean for my taste. In other words, I think it's me who has unwittingly picked the samey expressions for posting. But although he didn't have a ton of expressions to give me - these took some work (very sweet guy, just NOT demonstrative when he isn't singing) I think there is some range there for him to consider - he of course will get these as proofs (they've had no real editing, just basic processing)

AlexShark

He looks like House!

divamum

Ha! So funny. He's not terribly tall, so the Hugh Laurie comparison never even occurred to me, although I can see what you mean now you point it out!! lol