Very first "studio" test shots, 50mm 1.4

SteveM

Shay Stephens, through his kindness and wisdom, helped me decide on a portable studio type system, using Canon 430EX and 580EX flashes, umbrellas, the Canon wireless trigger and a Canon 50mm 1.4. Thread here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=26957&page=5

Welp, I promised some shots, so as embarrassing as they may be, here are some of the very first shots out of the box. No real setup, just plug and play.



He was a willing participant and quite the looker!

There are a couple others in the gallery here: http://www.downriverphotography.com/gallery/1971599/3/100363552
with originals and EXIFs.

Thanks again, Shay!

Shay Stephens

SteveM wrote:

Welp, I promised some shots, so as embarrassing as they may be, here are some of the very first shots out of the box. No real setup, just plug and play.

Good start! Now try it with one light brighter than the other by a stop or two, and on opposite sides of the camera, each about 45 degrees from the camera and as close in to the subject as you can get without the lights showing in the frame. That will make the light falloff greater and the background will get darker.

The further the lights are from the subject, the less light falloff will be and the further the light will travel relatively undimmed.

With that setup, you should get some nice main light and fill light coming from an angle that will give the model more of a 3d look rather than a flat lit 2 dimensional look.

After that, start trying what you can do with a single light, or one on the subject and one on the background...the sky is the limit, so go nuts :-)

Scott_Quier

You got most of this setup working very well. The eyes are very sharp. Nice job.

But there's something missing! I think you need to work on positioning the lighting so that you get some sort of catch lights in the eyes.

BTW - how big is the room you're working in? I've been giving some small thought to setting up a small studio (just for playing around) in my home as well.

SteveM

Scott_Quier wrote:

You got most of this setup working very well. The eyes are very sharp. Nice job.

But there's something missing! I think you need to work on positioning the lighting so that you get some sort of catch lights in the eyes.

BTW - how big is the room you're working in? I've been giving some small thought to setting up a small studio (just for playing around) in my home as well.

Hmm, you can't see the catchlight? I even flipped out the catchlight card on the 580EX!

This is actually in my basement, and I'm probably 15' away from the wall behind Mr. Squarepants. Another 15' wide from basement junkheap to junkheap. Heh. It could certainly be deeper though, because I'd like more distance between the subject and the background for the blur, and with the 50mm (x1.6) I'm going to have to climb in the dryer to get even a 3/4 shot of anyone taller than Mr. Squarepants. Ha. Wish me luck!

Nee7x7

Ahhhh...Spongebob! With a 6 year old in our home, we get to watch Mr. Squarepants every single day...after day...after day...(but ya know, we love him, too! Yesterday we were laughing our own squarepants off watching the show with our grandson, !).

Steve, I know nuthin' about flash photography or studio lighting, so my perspective comes from that of a housewife...

Dude, you need to iron that backdrop!!!

Otherwise, it looks pretty good to me. :P

Cheers!
~Nee

SteveM

Nee7x7 wrote:

Ahhhh...Spongebob! With a 6 year old in our home, we get to watch Mr. Squarepants every single day...after day...after day...(but ya know, we love him, too! Yesterday we were laughing our own squarepants off watching the show with our grandson, !).

Steve, I know nuthin' about flash photography or studio lighting, so my perspective comes from that of a housewife...

Dude, you need to iron that backdrop!!!

Otherwise, it looks pretty good to me. :P

Cheers!
~Nee

! Yes, we too have a 6 year old and I've come to find out that on the combination of three channels, Spongebob is available 20 out of 24 hours a day. But don't fret, for that 4 hours, there is always DVR that is 70% full of cartoons. Thankfully, it really is a good show.

No no, with the backdrop I was going for a monochromatic mosaic effect... well, okay, it had just come straight out of the package. Ha. Everything had, honestly. I have a feeling it's going to be quite a challenge getting those superhard creases out. Maybe I'll spraystarch it and iron it, so I can just stand it up on it's own without the background stand.

Thanks for looking

Shay Stephens

Embrace the wrinkles

SteveM wrote:

I have a feeling it's going to be quite a challenge getting those superhard creases out. Maybe I'll spraystarch it and iron it, so I can just stand it up on it's own without the background stand.

Another tip about fabric backgrounds. When it comes to wrinkles, if you can't beat them, join them. Store the fabric scrunched up. Pull it out after a few days, rescrunch it and store it again. Soon, it will have so many wrinkles that it looks intentional and quite pleasing. This is how I store and use mine.

SteveM

Shay Stephens wrote:

Now try it with one light brighter than the other by a stop or two, and on opposite sides of the camera, each about 45 degrees from the camera and as close in to the subject as you can get without the lights showing in the frame. That will make the light falloff greater and the background will get darker.

With that setup, you should get some nice main light and fill light coming from an angle that will give the model more of a 3d look rather than a flat lit 2 dimensional look.

After that, start trying what you can do with a single light, or one on the subject and one on the background...the sky is the limit, so go nuts :-)

Here's the next step, based on some of the suggestions from this thread (including ironing the background! Ha! I will scrunch my light grey one though) and a little more practice. Also Shay, I bought your light meter, and I have to say, I cannot get any meaningful result from it. Even with calibrating and compensating, it seems like every fricken change in lighting I have to recalibrate and it's way off. WAY off. Instead of using the light meter to adjust my camera, I'm using my camera to adjust the light meter for almost every shot. I HAVE to be doing something wrong. Anyhow...




Based on the light and his expression, I think the aliens are coming.




My son Zac the ham.

One of the tests of my wife. I got a little too happy with my soft focus action in CS2.

Scott_Quier

SteveM wrote:

No no, with the backdrop I was going for a monochromatic mosaic effect... well, okay, it had just come straight out of the package. Ha. Everything had, honestly. I have a feeling it's going to be quite a challenge getting those superhard creases out. Maybe I'll spraystarch it and iron it, so I can just stand it up on it's own without the background stand.

Thanks for looking

Wash the sheet, only half-dry it, then iron it. This will take those creases right out - this from my wife who is the expert in our house (though she will let me do the laundry if I work from the recipe!).

The shots, especially the third one of your son, are very well done. I've got some catching up to do (as if there were some sort of contest).

SteveM

Scott_Quier wrote:

Wash the sheet, only half-dry it, then iron it. This will take those creases right out - this from my wife who is the expert in our house (though she will let me do the laundry if I work from the recipe!).

The shots, especially the third one of your son, are very well done. I've got some catching up to do (as if there were some sort of contest).

Thanks Scott. A lot of muslins aren't machine washable, so I'll have to be careful. I believe the ones I bought specifically said they were machine washable, so I think I'll try that with one and stick to scrunching the other. These puppies are 10'x20' and could really become a pain to iron more than once, ever. I can't imagine having to iron em after storing them each time. I'm considering going with paper for the occasions I want that totally smooth look, but then I have to think, how am I going to transport a 10' roll of paper to a location? I guess nobody ever said photography was easy, eh? Ha!

Thanks for the comments!