First "Home Studio" Portrait: C&C?

darkdragon · June 11, 2008

In general I'm not a big fan taking portraits, probably because I have just not had enough experience and not great at the "interaction part", however, I am looking to become a decent portrait photographer because I know that people always need portraits and if someone says "can you do our portraits" i don't want to say " :dunno Dunno how".

I did pick up a new flash bracket that includes an umbrella and I think the light it produces for portraits is really nice. I just did a few shots before my flash batteries died. They were all of my neice and this was her favorite and the only one that got put online so far.

For this shot I had the overhead room light turned off, had a light with an improvised softbox pointing towards her back from behind to give a hair light and separate her from the background. I was using the 580EXII flash on the bracket with omni diffuser and pointed at the umbrella which reflected the light back to her.

The two problems I see is the "hair light" is not balanced with the flash or visa-versa and her hot pink shirt is very bright especially compared to the black background.

Do you think dark gray background might work better for someone with dark hair? I think the pink shirt also throws off the skin tone a bit, what do you think?

C&C please, I will be able to work with her anytime as long as it is before bedtime (though that night we missed bedtime by an hour because of the photos, she didn't seem to mind lol)

EXIF

Nikolai · June 11, 2008

Lisa,
welcome to the wonderful world of studio lighting!

I think you did good for the first try, and you obviously want to get better. It's a long, thorny, possibly expensive but a very fun journey.

Few minor comments:

1) Forget about turning off the room lights. Residential incandescents are extremely weak compared to ANY flash. The difference is usually at least 5 f/stops, which for the most dSLRs means "pure black". So leave them on, they would help your AF to work better/faster and lessen the chances for you to knock down your light stand or other equipment.

2) If my own experience is any indication, you can't make a hair light out of reflector. I'm not even sure if it's worth the hassle. Reflector usually can bring it no higher than -1..-2 stops from the main, while what you need is +1/2..+1.

3) Since you're shooting flash, try to make sure the daylight doesn't mess with it. Unlike the room light, that guy can spill in and create a hard to fix light temperature mix. Simply close the shutters and draw a dark drape (bed sheet?) over the windows/doors. This way your White balance could be preset or fixed later in one click.

4) I hope you shoot RAW :-)

5) Since you don't have several lights (yet:-), try to maximize the use of the one you already have. As Mr. McNally mentioned in his wonderful book "The Moment It Clicks", "to make your subject look interesting you don't have to light it all". Try dramatic lighting. Block your umbrella with black poster boards, thus creating a "strip" lighting. Experiment with softer/sharper light by moving the light closer to or farther from the subject. Make your strip horizontal (or diagonal). Make a proficient use of reflector... You can have a lot of fun with your current gear.

And keep posting!

darkdragon · June 11, 2008

Thanks for the tips Nik.

yes, i shoot RAW. I use Lightroom for standard post, PSCS3 for composite work.

I dont need to worry about outside light as the room has one window and i shoot at night (and my house is only 8 feed or so from the unlit side of my neighbors house).

I was at first shooting with the room light on, but the photos I got with that the color was just strange, everything seemed over-lit, but not over exposed. Hard for me to explain. (tried both ways before uploading them to the mac)

as far as the setup. I had a reflector one side (opposite the flash) but for the hairlight i was using a desklamp with a product tent dropped over it as a diffuser. I have since purchased some cool bulbls that match my flash more closely, but have yet to try them.

I know lighting is going to be a hassel. I also make short films and am ALWAYS fighiting with lighting on that end - I use homedepot worklights, but they are just SO DARN HOT. No good for using with models.

Some day I might brake down and purchase a real lighting kit instead of another lens :cry

cmorganphotography · June 12, 2008

You never know what they are going to look like until you upload. I have to keep myself from deleted in camera. You needed more light or some reflectors. There are a lot of shadows hanging and the light is dim. I did the same thing with my first home lit shots. Do you have lamps or strobes? My next purchase is strobes because I'm reading and seeing more and more that the pics i want need strobes.

darkdragon · June 12, 2008

cmorganphotography wrote:

You never know what they are going to look like until you upload. I have to keep myself from deleted in camera. You needed more light or some reflectors. There are a lot of shadows hanging and the light is dim. I did the same thing with my first home lit shots. Do you have lamps or strobes? My next purchase is strobes because I'm reading and seeing more and more that the pics i want need strobes.

This photo is with one flash w/umbrell and a small desk lamp and a reflector. I don't have any other studio lighting, for films i use "work lights" but I'm actually looking for some cool lights - LED or something for studio lights. Also planning to get another flash. I have a bunch of reflectors.

cmorganphotography · June 13, 2008

It's weird that the pink of her shirt ended up on the picture side right of her hair. It's been my experience to over light because the camera always makes it darker. Are there more shots from the shoot?

Scott_Quier · June 13, 2008

Nik, as usual, has lots of good advice. And, I have to agree with many here who have said that this is a good first attempt. I would have been thrilled had my first attempt been anywhere near this good. Anyway, here's some more tidbits:

Keep the house lights on. If they appear to be contributing to the exposure, either increase your shutter speed (usually, first choice but not possible with this image as it was shot at 1/250) or stop down your lens a stop or so. Either of these, or both, will reduce the ambient contribution to your image. Of course, if you stop down your lens, you will have to boost the power of your flash lighting.
When shooting into an umbrella, loose the omni diffuser. This is putting a double whammy - in terms of light loss - on your flash. Your umbrella will do a more than adequate job all by itself of diffusing your flash for you.
Hair light - loose the diffuser. You want some hard light on the hair to bring out some real glow. The hair itself will actually diffuse the light a bit. Like Nik said, you want the hairlight to be +1 to +2 over your key light. Putting a diffuser on it, will drop that light by at least a stop, maybe more. For an example, take a look at this image. The hair light was provided by Mr. Sun - no diffussion.
Background color - black is good. If you want it lighter, put some light on the background. If this light is not gelled, your background will, depending how much light you put on it, go to gray or white. Want a colored background, just gel your light. Here's an example of a black background lit to gray. The hair light is a snooted flash above and behind her and to camera left.
Very soft light - that's a good thing.
But, the light is flat. That's one of the drawbacks of camera/bracket mounted flash. If you move your flash/umbrella setup to one side or the other (and up a bit if you can), rather than directly in front, of your model, you can achieve some interesting shadows on the facial features. Remember, lighting isn't, necessarily, about removing all shadows, but putting shadows where you want them. Then, with the light to one side, put your reflector to the other side and quite close to the model. This will tend to help soften (but not remove) the shadows. For portraits, this is a very nice combination. Here's an example of what can be done with some shadows.
Research lighting techniques. Some key words to google: "Rambrant lighting", "Loop lighting", "Butterfly lighting". That will get you started.
Pink shirt throwing off the color of the image - I would tend to discount that as a factor. More likely is the possibility of not correctly setting the White Balance in the photo.
This image is lacking punch. A little curves work for contrast will help there quite a bit.
Posing - turn her body away from the camera just a bit. I'm thinking I would have her turn such that, in this image, her right shoulder where closer than her left to the camera. This would allow the rest of the pose to remain as is, except her eyes which should track back to the camera. The result, I think would be quite cute and better than this one.
Cropping - You've done a great job of placing her face (the primary point of interest) into one of the power points (no, not as in Microsoft Powerpoint). I'm referring to the "Rule of Thirds". However, I think I would crop a bit more from the top and the bottom. The bottom because the bright spots on her jeans are distracting and, besides, you don't crop across/through a joint if you can avoid it (just a rule of thumb, but it pretty much works). And from the top to better balance the photo once a bit has been cropped from the bottom.

That was a lot to digest all at once and I don't want you to think that this is a looser shot (read my first paragraph again!). I think this is a wonderful photo - just needs small tweaks to make it great!

Finally, thanks for providing a description of your shooting conditions/setup and a link to your EXIF. That information made it soooooo much easier to provide targeted C&C!

LensCap · June 13, 2008

Nik and Scott,
Excellent comments/suggestions as usual, this one is going into my "Portrait Stuff" folder (along with a lot of your other stuff).

Thanks!!!

darkdragon · June 13, 2008

Wow guys, thanks for all the feedback. Scott, that is some great information. I do have a book on lighting "Light Science & Magic" but haven't made it very far into the book yet.

I have read Art Scott's thread about lighting a black background with gels, which is one of the reasons I went with black - it seems to be most versatile of the colors.

I have read about turning the model, I can't believe I didn't think of that. I was concentrating on camera settings, flash, and trying to get a sharp image and I told her to do whatever she wants for posing. Maybe I should have her read a modeling book.

To answer another question: YES there are other shots from this night, I think I got about 10-15 off before the batteries in the flash died. I don't currently have any others online though. I think I will put one up to show the difference with same basic settings but the overhead light in the room on. I _might_ be able to get that online tonight, depending on when I get home.

Thanks again everyone, I can use all the help I can get

Nikolai · June 13, 2008

Scott_Quier wrote:

Nik, as usual, has lots of good advice. And, I have to agree with many here who have said that this is a good first attempt. I would have been thrilled had my first attempt been anywhere near this good. Anyway, here's some more tidbits:
....

Finally, thanks for providing a description of your shooting conditions/setup and a link to your EXIF. That information made it soooooo much easier to provide targeted C&C!

Greate writeup, Scott!

Scott_Quier · June 13, 2008

Nikolai wrote:

Greate writeup, Scott!

Thanks but I'm just repeating what I've learned from other folks here and other places - I didn't invent any of that!

First "Home Studio" Portrait: C&C?

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