Daughter - Second Night In Studio

stefeb

Won't wear out my welcome. Here's another of my daughter. I'm primarily interested in your comments regarding lighting, composition, and post processing aside. I know all elements come together to make a good photography, but right now I'm trying to learn lighting techniques.

Lights - AB800 Main Light above and to the left of camera. AB800 as background light. Oval reflector in front of, and to the right of camera.

GREAPER

I am no expert, but I think you did pretty well. I was wondering if you explained the lighting backwards as it looks to me like the stronger main light is above and to the left of the camera with nice fill from the reflector on the right shaded side.

Scott_Quier

I, also, am no expert. The lighting is looking pretty good. You have nice catchlights in her eyes, you have light on her hair to bring some definition there, some nice soft shadows to help define the contours of her face.

That's just some of the positives. One negative I see is that it appears you've blown out her right should on at least one channel - the light is just a bit hot. Turning that down will also reduce the hot spot on her forehead.

This is a huge improvement over what you posted the other day. Well done!

stefeb

GREAPER wrote:

I am no expert, but I think you did pretty well. I was wondering if you explained the lighting backwards as it looks to me like the stronger main light is above and to the left of the camera with nice fill from the reflector on the right shaded side.

You're right, I had the lighting set up reversed. I am going to correct that now.

Thanks for the words of encouragemet.

stefeb

Scott_Quier wrote:

I, also, am no expert. The lighting is looking pretty good. You have nice catchlights in her eyes, you have light on her hair to bring some definition there, some nice soft shadows to help define the contours of her face.

That's just some of the positives. One negative I see is that it appears you've blown out her right should on at least one channel - the light is just a bit hot. Turning that down will also reduce the hot spot on her forehead.

This is a huge improvement over what you posted the other day. Well done!

Thanks Scott. I have not even considered turning the light down. Geesh, the simple things one overlooks.

But, I did notice that hot spot on her forehead. My fix was to raise the angle of the light until the hot spot was just about gone. It was much more obvious before I raised the angle of the light.

denisegoldberg

Nice shot!

This isn't what you asked about, but something that hit me as I looked at the photo. It appears that she is resting on a soft surface. Her arms look fine, and there is enough variation in the surface to know that "bumps" are in the surface material. The problem I had was with the leg that is resting on that surface. My first impression was that there was something wrong with her leg since the lower edge wasn't smooth. I had to look several times before I realized that the edge was because of the surface on which she was perched. (Of course it's very possible that I'm the only person who will have this reaction, but...)

--- Denise

stefeb

denisegoldberg wrote:

Nice shot!

This isn't what you asked about, but something that hit me as I looked at the photo. It appears that she is resting on a soft surface. Her arms look fine, and there is enough variation in the surface to know that "bumps" are in the surface material. The problem I had was with the leg that is resting on that surface. My first impression was that there was something wrong with her leg since the lower edge wasn't smooth. I had to look several times before I realized that the edge was because of the surface on which she was perched. (Of course it's very possible that I'm the only person who will have this reaction, but...)

--- Denise

Thanks Denise. You're right. She was resting on a white muslin backdrop (bunched up, I'm learning), which was atop the living room carpet. I also noticed her fingertips are missing, sort of disappear in the folds. Next time I will pay more attention to the little details.

Scott_Quier

stefeb wrote:

Thanks Denise. You're right. She was resting on a white muslin backdrop (bunched up, I'm learning), which was atop the living room carpet. I also noticed her fingertips are missing, sort of disappear in the folds. Next time I will pay more attention to the little details.

I also noticed all these things, but I inferred from what you wrote that you were mostly interested in the lighting - so that's what I responded to.

If we're going to open it up to a discussion of composition, etc then:

• Her body position looks all twisted and contorted - wish I were still that flexible. It's hard to imagine she's comfortable there.
• She has too much weight in her hand - this will tend to distort her face a bit, making her cheek "bunch up", cause squirrel cheeks. In older people, it will put a lot of extra wrinkles in the face.
• She's got a hair tie or something on her arm - loose it as it's a bit distracting
• Smooth out the muslin. Depending on how plush your carpeting is underneath, you may need to either move to a hard floor or place some plywood under the muslin to keep the smooth surface. With textured muslin, those with printed patterns this is probably not as much an issue.
• You have really excellent DOF - that is to say, you have most of her in focus. If you are going for all in focus, you need to stop down just a touch more as her heel is not in focus. Otherwise, I might open it up a bit and decrease the DOF, thus placing more emphasis on her face. Just a thought.

photogmomma

No real help here, but WOW you have a GREAT "model" to work with! What a cute girl you have there - and I'm so happy she's so willing!

I would like to see more definition in what she's laying on since it's soft, but other than that, I can't say much.

Beautiful job!

stefeb

Scott_Quier wrote:

I also noticed all these things, but I inferred from what you wrote that you were mostly interested in the lighting - so that's what I responded to.

If we're going to open it up to a discussion of composition, etc then:

• Her body position looks all twisted and contorted - wish I were still that flexible. It's hard to imagine she's comfortable there.
• She has too much weight in her hand - this will tend to distort her face a bit, making her cheek "bunch up", cause squirrel cheeks. In older people, it will put a lot of extra wrinkles in the face.
• She's got a hair tie or something on her arm - loose it as it's a bit distracting
• Smooth out the muslin. Depending on how plush your carpeting is underneath, you may need to either move to a hard floor or place some plywood under the muslin to keep the smooth surface. With textured muslin, those with printed patterns this is probably not as much an issue.
• You have really excellent DOF - that is to say, you have most of her in focus. If you are going for all in focus, you need to stop down just a touch more as her heel is not in focus. Otherwise, I might open it up a bit and decrease the DOF, thus placing more emphasis on her face. Just a thought.

The lighting was my main concern, but I am grateful for all the other pointers as well. There's so many things to remember, that I've been concentrating more on the lighting and letting the rest of my photographic skills fall by the wayside.

I've mainly shot documentary type images and birds, were composition is important, but I haven't had any experience posing the human body. So, I'm learning on two fronts, lighting and posing.

Keep the comments coming.

stefeb

photogmomma wrote:

No real help here, but WOW you have a GREAT "model" to work with! What a cute girl you have there - and I'm so happy she's so willing!

I would like to see more definition in what she's laying on since it's soft, but other than that, I can't say much.

Beautiful job!

She's a great child. I am blessed to be able to call her my daughter. Thank you.