Lighting setup

[smoke665]

Does that answer your questions, or is it too vague?

No I understand the approach now. Thank you.

 

[matrosov]

Thanks a lot guys. Spent the last few days driving the wife and the kids insane. Will post some photos in a little while for you to pick apart. I'm getting there but still having difficulty with highlights on one side of the face and shadow on the other. Definitely something that can be smoothed out with light room but far from that clean even look. I'm trying to get to the point where I can blow some of that stuff up to hang on the wall, I know ambitious of me .

 

[photo1x1.com]

Thanks a lot guys. Spent the last few days driving the wife and the kids insane. Will post some photos in a little while for you to pick apart. I'm getting there but still having difficulty with highlights on one side of the face and shadow on the other. Definitely something that can be smoothed out with light room but far from that clean even look. I'm trying to get to the point where I can blow some of that stuff up to hang on the wall, I know ambitious of me .

we´re gonna get you there together, don´t worry

 

[matrosov]

Ok girl actually came out semi decent enough. Some lightroom help was needed, mainly with vibrance and a bit of clarity, but not much. Boy I am still struggling with, his are as shot didn't do anything in LR yet. I think it was just a softbox for all of them at 5 o'clock What do you guys think? Guess next step is to move the slaves forward instead of keeping them clipped to the backdrop bar and put them up on tripods, like 1x1 suggested. I don't mind a little shadow but with the boy I am getting too much of a spread on his face.

 

[matrosov]

These ones I think is when I gave up and shoved the softbox right in his face.

And while I'm at it. Can someone drop a link if you already have a good Photoshop background that you bought that might fit these shots. I am getting overwhelmed with thousands of thousands choices out there. Please don't go looking on my behalf. Only if you already bought something that might fit and kept a link to it.
.

 

[Derrel]

In these shots the background paper needs more light on it, to make it white--meaning more light on the paper in relation to the amount of light on the subjects. There are two,separate lightings going on: one lighting for the paper, a second lighting for the subject. The difference between the two matters, since there is only one camera exposure.

The white background paper needs either MORE light added to the paper, OR you need to use less light on the subject, and to then adjust the camera exposure to the new, lower-light-level-subject-exposure.

Without a flash meter, you have no way of knowing what is what in terms of the correct exposure, but basically, the slave flashes are not giving wnough light to "drive up" the papper to pure white, WITH the amount of light and the camera exposaure being used for nthe softbox light!

The easiest suggestioin is the counter-intuitive one to the noob to studio flash:LOWER the POWER on the softbox light, and then open the lens up a little bit, and also, raise the ISO up!!!! YOU ARE UNDER on the backdrop paper, so you need to make exposure adjustment via the f/stop and ISO.

Use LESS light on the people, and open up the lens a bit, and jack up the ISO. Less light on the people, and the f/stop and ISO adjustments will effectively "boost" the power of the slave flash units relative to the exposure for the people. This is called key-shifting. You need to shift the papper "up" a couple stops. There is a "relartionshiop" between the two "lightings" you are creating. The relatioinship is not properly being lighted, nor exposed the right way. Once you make the right relationship, this will magically be better. it is not so much the "amount" of light you have but the relationship between foreground lighting and background lighting!

 

[matrosov]

I needed to post those pics while kids were tethered to the backdrop, now I have to go corral them again. How much can I safely boost ISO up if end goal is to blow it up to something sizeable. Call it 8x10, 300ish?

 

[Derrel]

With good lighting, like flash, noise is not too visible. I would think that ISO 800 to 1,000 would be easily do-able at a mere 8x 10 inches. Not sure what camera you have, but I would not fear ISO noise when using studio flash. NOISE is not the enemy: dull, flattish lighting is the thing you want to get away from.

You need to get the exposure relationship right. You need to thiunbk in terms of getting MORE light on the background in realtionshiop to how much light is being used on the foreground subject. Currently, you are using too much light on the foreground subjects, and not enough light on the paper.

 

[photo1x1.com]

It seems you are having a lot of light spill from the slaves to your kids. You need to remove that.
As always Derrel is right. You need to balance the light outputs accordingly.
In regard to the workflow:

• Start with the slaves. Point them towards the background and shoot the background with slaves only. Adjust camera settings until you get a pure white (or very close to it - use your histogram).
• Next: power on the softbox and adjust the sofbox-flash until your kids faces are well lit
• Finally make sure no light from the slaves hits your subjects directly (only bounce from the background wall is OK - noting else). How you do that is totally up to you, but the cheapest method is the one I mentioned above PLUS it adds some fill light to the darker side of the faces.

Well, and yes: full body shots are much more difficult. Everything that doesn´t capture the floor is a lot easier. If you really want to capture the floor: think about removing the softbox and bouncing the light from the opposite wall (the one behind you) if it is white. This will create a new huge softbox. The floor will then be closer to the flash than the kids and therefore get more light. But this only works if the wall isn´t too far away.

In regard to noise - the background is white, so you won´t see any noise there. Only the darker parts of your image will have noise and you won´t realize much because once you get it right, there won´t be a lot of dark parts (avoid dark clothing).
In regard to photoshop backgrounds: try to photograph some out of focus backgrounds (not too much)whereever you are. That would look more real. But you could also use the lens blur filter in photoshop to create an out of focus background. In general I´d think about using the isolated on white images though.
You could also use this site: freepic.com - I purchased a subscription - it´s 9.99 per month. Buy one month subscription and download everything you´ll need for the future. Be aware though that there are adds on the site. The first row usually is shutterstock and can´t be downloaded in the subscription, but rather links to shutterstock.

 

[Tinyhousepictures]

I think this is good advice..

6 Portrait Lighting Patterns Every Photographer Should Know

In classical portraiture there are several things you need to control and think about to make a flattering portrait of your subjects, including: lighting ratio, lighting pattern, facial view, and angle of view. I suggest you get to know these basics inside out, and as with most things, then you can break the rules. But if you can nail this one thing you’ll be well on your way to great people photos. In this article we’re going to look at lighting pattern: what is it, why it’s important, and how to use it. Perhaps in another future article, if you enjoy this one, I’ll talk about the other aspects of good portraiture.

Lighting pattern I’d define as, how light and shadow play across the face to create different shapes. What shape is the shadow on the face, in simple terms. There are four common portrait lighting patterns, they are:

• Split lighting
• Loop lighting
• Rembrandt lighting
• Butterfly lighting

There are also Broad and Short lighting which are more of a style, and can be used with most of the patterns above. Let’s look at each of them individually.

Read the article here 6 Portrait Lighting Patterns Every Photographer Should Know | photographylightbulbs.com

 

[fmw]

Thanks a lot guys. Spent the last few days driving the wife and the kids insane. Will post some photos in a little while for you to pick apart. I'm getting there but still having difficulty with highlights on one side of the face and shadow on the other. Definitely something that can be smoothed out with light room but far from that clean even look. I'm trying to get to the point where I can blow some of that stuff up to hang on the wall, I know ambitious of me .

You can do a lot with reflectors for shadow fill. Get yourself a book on studio lighting.