First real portraits from the home studio...

CTUphoto

Okay, so In August we moved from NC to VA because of my job. The new job has allowed me a little more time at home (not much, but even the little bit is noticeable). So over the past 4 months I've been dedicating more time behind the lens and other related areas (building my smugmug site, watching and participating in the forums here, flexing my photoshop muscles, etc).

While the new house is only slightly larger than our old one, somehow I've managed to talk the wife into letting me build a small studio in our basement area. It's nothing fancy.

I went to JoAnn's fabric and bought two 6'x12' sections black and white fabric (at something like $2 a yard). It's not anything that would ever last if I had to move it regularly. I've got it tacked to the wall with thumbtacks right now.

For lighting, all of my stuff was bought off of eBay from the Amvona store. I've actually owned the XL-sized softbox from them for about 3 years now, but I recently added to that a L-sized softbox and the biggest octagonal lightbank that they sell (it's HUGE...like 7ft across). Unfortunately, I only have two light stands, so I'm currently limited to only using any two of the above lights at any given time. For the shots below, the L and XL softboxes were used.

So this past Sunday, in preparation for sending out holiday cards to the family, we wanted to take a family portrait (and individual ones of the kids). My wife dolled them all up, we got in our fancy duds and I snapped away for as long as the kids would sit still (which wasn't very long at all).

I was using my old Canon digital Rebel (6mp) and a 10mp Olympus E-510 (the Oly is another story all together).

I will be the first to admit that I am not very good at all at posing people. For my two youngest kids, I let them sit on the stool and I snapped as many of the candid looks as I could. My oldest daughter was a little more cooperative and receptive to instruction, so percentage-wise more shots of her came out. The family portrait was taken last...the kids were quickly losing any composure they had, so we did a couple using my 2-second delay remote control.

I'll get around to posting more as I get time to put them through some photoshoping. I wanted to share the first 4 here though (one of each kid and then the family portrait).

1.

Okay, so this is my oldest. She's a TOTAL drama queen. I can only imagine what she's going to be like when she hits puberty. That said, she was the most cooperative of the bunch. She's still losing some of her baby teeth, and her front teeth may need some work later on in life too, so in addition to getting a couple of her grinning, I asked her to be serious for a handful of them. I thought this one was pretty good. Composition is a little off to me (wish I'd included more of her hand in her lap, etc)....what you're seeing is the original composition, not cropped down or anything.

2.

Next up was my middle child. She has near-perfect teeth (now), but she is not comfortable in front of a camera the way my other kids are. She doesn't give a very natural smile. Instead of having her say "cheese" which usually draws her fake smile, I had her say a half dozen other things and had some successes there ("shrek's bugers!" was one of her favorites).

3.

The facial expression makes me laugh every time I see this one. "How you doin'?" My son was last in line, and he is by far the one with the least amount of patience.

4.

Last shot before we started making funny faces at the camera and then got changed and went for ice cream.

Okay, so interested in CC. Exposure? Skin tones look okay?

I'll probably start a separate thread in one of the other areas, but does anyone else use Amvona's lights/equipment? Thoughts on those?

Any thoughts on what should be next for the home studio? What I mentioned above is pretty much all that I have right now.

Ann McRae

The family portrait is wonderful - everyone looks really comfortable and relaxed.

Overall, I think there is too much pink in your skin tones on all your shots - originally I opened it on the iMac, and they were really pink. On the cinema display, there is still considerable pink.

Have you seen this tute?

Having taken many photos of my own kids over the years, and knowing absolutely nothing about studio lighting, I think you've done well. I am not so fond of the shot of your older daughter, but you and your family know better than I if that one catches her personality. The other two are really cute.

Good work

ann

CTUphoto

Ann McRae wrote:

The family portrait is wonderful - everyone looks really comfortable and relaxed.

Overall, I think there is too much pink in your skin tones on all your shots - originally I opened it on the iMac, and they were really pink. On the cinema display, there is still considerable pink.

Have you seen this tute?

Having taken many photos of my own kids over the years, and knowing absolutely nothing about studio lighting, I think you've done well. I am not so fond of the shot of your older daughter, but you and your family know better than I if that one catches her personality. The other two are really cute.

Good work

ann

Ann, Thanks so much for the feedback! I hadn't seen that tutorial before on the skin tones. I will definitely take a look at that and re-do some of the post work on them. Thanks!

-JB

Agnieszka

Oh my ... haha .. I love the pose of your oldest! They're all gorgeous! I huess I would just make sure to darken the background for your youngest, so all the photos are the same (might work with selective colors - blacks - and slide the slider way to the right). Very nice

Icebear

Oh my . . .
It's Bette Davis!

Scott_Quier

Agnieszka wrote:

Oh my ... haha .. I love the pose of your oldest! They're all gorgeous! I huess I would just make sure to darken the background for your youngest, so all the photos are the same (might work with selective colors - blacks - and slide the slider way to the right). Very nice

Or lighten the background in all the others. As they stand now, there is very little separation between the background and the blacks found in the clothing. This is especially apparent in the the group shot.

The modeling look very nice and I really love the expressions of your oldest and youngest. The picture of your boy put a smile on my face.

You can/should be proud of your family and of this effort. Well done.

kombizz

good work

dogwood

Nice shots but they would be greatly improved by using rim lights to seperate the subjects from the backgrounds. You could also use a kicker on the background itself... personally I like rim lights more. See how this model stands out from the black background even though her dress and hair are black?

CTUphoto

Scott_Quier wrote:

Or lighten the background in all the others. As they stand now, there is very little separation between the background and the blacks found in the clothing. This is especially apparent in the the group shot.

The modeling look very nice and I really love the expressions of your oldest and youngest. The picture of your boy put a smile on my face.

You can/should be proud of your family and of this effort. Well done.

Thanks Scott. Truly appreciate the feedback and compliments.

CTUphoto

dogwood wrote:

Nice shots but they would be greatly improved by using rim lights to seperate the subjects from the backgrounds. You could also use a kicker on the background itself... personally I like rim lights more. See how this model stands out from the black background even though her dress and hair are black?

Hey Pete, thanks for the feedback and example. In your example shot, where is the rim light positioned? Almost directly above?

-JB

dogwood

CTUphoto wrote:

Hey Pete, thanks for the feedback and example. In your example shot, where is the rim light positioned? Almost directly above?

-JB

Justin:

Well, there are actually three rim lights in my example (one above and behind, the other two above and off to the side), but even one light will make a difference. I often use a single strip dome (half-softbox) positioned up and to the side behind a model/subject just to give a little 'sculpting' light on their side. Works nicely on a white background too.

- Pete

CTUphoto

dogwood wrote:

Justin:

Well, there are actually three rim lights in my example (one above and behind, the other two above and off to the side), but even one light will make a difference. I often use a single strip dome (half-softbox) positioned up and to the side behind a model/subject just to give a little 'sculpting' light on their side. Works nicely on a white background too.

- Pete

Thanks again! The ceiling height in my little studio area might be a factor for shooting adults (standing), but I might be able to squeeze my the smaller of my softboxes up there when shooting kids (it even came with a mask to turn it into a quasi-strip dome).

studio12c

CTUphoto wrote:

Hey Pete, thanks for the feedback and example. In your example shot, where is the rim light positioned? Almost directly above?

-JB

Justin: They are great shots, I personally like skin tones to be on the warm side so I don't see a problem with your shots. If you take a closer look at Pete's photo you will notice a couple of things. The shadows on right side of the face and there is only one catch light in her eyes. The nice thing about having a studio and a house full of models is the ability to practice. Try moving your lights around so you have a key light positioned that will create a little shadow on the side of the face. The most common ratio is 3 to 1. So if your key light is f.11 try to get the shadow side to f.5.6. You don't need a meter to check this. Get is close and use your cameras meter. In Petes shot it looks like he used a light coming from the right rear of the model to accent her hair and create separation. He calls this his rim light. (Is that right Pete).
The rim shot should be one stop more then the key light. A portrait photographer who I really respect and has provided me with countless words of wisdom told me many years ago. Keep the eyes sharp and look at the shadows.