My daughter and an Alien Bee

DavidS

This is my second time using my Alien Bee and the first time with a background. The background is white, but it turned out grey in this shot. I know I can lighten it by backing the flash up, but that will make the light harder. Are there other ways to lighten the background with one light? I know I need to get the creases out of the muslin and that my daughter is looking a bit stiff. She was very tired. Any C&C is appreciated.

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Art Scott

DavidS wrote:

This is my second time using my Alien Bee and the first time with a background. The background is white, but it turned out grey in this shot. I know I can lighten it by backing the flash up, but that will make the light harder. Are there other ways to lighten the background with one light? I know I need to get the creases out of the muslin and that my daughter is looking a bit stiff. She was very tired. Any C&C is appreciated.

i think the portraits are very nice.

by 1 flash do you mean that you only have 1 flash and not 1 main and 1 background? If you had second flash then you would ever so slightly over expose the background and it would then become white.

As for the wrinkles in muslin.....that is muslin....if you want silky smooth then I suggest paper but then paper does not have the life expectancy of muslin by a long shot.....and I prefer the wrinkles in muslin it gives a little more "life" to a portrait.....

Icebear

You could move your daughter as close to the background as you could so the exposure values are closer, but you'l lose more than you'd gain. I've about gone blind trying to see any difference between #1 and #2. What am I missing?

They're (It's) nice. I'll bet your daughter likes it, and she probably doesn't think the background's a problem either

DavidS

Art Scott wrote:

i think the portraits are very nice.

by 1 flash do you mean that you only have 1 flash and not 1 main and 1 background? If you had second flash then you would ever so slightly over expose the background and it would then become white.

As for the wrinkles in muslin.....that is muslin....if you want silky smooth then I suggest paper but then paper does not have the life expectancy of muslin by a long shot.....and I prefer the wrinkles in muslin it gives a little more "life" to a portrait.....

Thanks Art. Yes, I only have one studio strobe. I do have a manual speedlight that can act as a slave. I may try it as a background light.

How do you store a muslin? When I took it out of the package I sprayed it with fabreeze to get the creases out and had to wait about two hours. I can't do that on location.

DavidS

Icebear wrote:

You could move your daughter as close to the background as you could so the exposure values are closer, but you'l lose more than you'd gain. I've about gone blind trying to see any difference between #1 and #2. What am I missing?

They're (It's) nice. I'll bet your daughter likes it, and she probably doesn't think the background's a problem either

Thanks for the comments. Sorry to about make you go blind. I inadvertantly posted the same shot twice. It has been corrected now. I glad to hear the background does not bother you. It probably is not that bad, but I want to get white.

LiquidAir

If you want to blow out the muslin without overexposing your daughter, the only way is for the light to be closer to the background than she is. That'll severly limit your lighting options. Normally if you want to blow out the wrinkles you need both a separate background light and some distance between your subject and the background. In this case she is sitting on the background.

Paper will give you a smoother background, but it does get ripped up in a hurry if you are placing your subject on it. If you want to do shots like this often, I'd suggest getting a roll of white linoleum to lay down.

All that said, I don't find the background at all distracting in this shot, so I think you have done quite well. The second one, in particular, is quite nice.

ShepsMom

Awww David, she is just beautiful!! Backdrop does appear grayish looking, but it doesn't spoil the shot. Very well done!

photogmomma

Very, very nice! I'm loving the second shot a bit more, but they are both very well done!

Briggie

not sure how much space you have to cart your stuff around, but how about a tube of PVC pipe, long enough to fit the width of your background, and roll the muslin onto the pipe. you could iron the sheet before rolling. you could eliminate creases that way? just an idea! lovely exposure, BTW!

Scott_Quier

What a lovely young lady you have there. You are blessed!

I've been looking at these off and on all day, trying to figure out what it is about them that I like...

These are good examples of what can be done with one light source. You have a good example of loop lighting the first (it's almost Rembrandt Lighting) and the second is very nicely done Butterfly Lighting.

I like the pose of #2 much better - it just looks more relaxed to me. For my taste, if the light had been moved to camera left and a reflector placed at camera right, you would have made a dynamite combination - a relaxed pose and nice soft loop lighting.

I guess you can tell I like loop more then butterfly?

Well done - for what ever my opinion is worth.

DavidS

Thanks Kenneth for the advice and nice words.

Thanks Marina and Andi. You are too kind.

Thanks Briggie for the advice and compliment.

Thanks Scott for the advise and nice things you said. I need a lot of practice with lighting. I should have caught the head turning into the light on the second one. I prefer loop and Rembrandt lighting over butterfly as well.