The David....C&C please!

[DScience]

So I was messing with my sb-600 off camera, trying out a little different style. My goal was to have a dramatic lighting effect, and I tried to get the right side to be almost a silhouette of the head. I would love to hear what you guys think.

 

[IgsEMT]

I'd recommend placing the flash above the eye level thus giving shadows downward.
This is a great site for some portrait lighting
Portrait Lighting

 

[DScience]

I'd recommend placing the flash above the eye level thus giving shadows downward.
This is a great site for some portrait lighting
Portrait Lighting

Huh, Thank you very much. That's an awesome tip, I never thought of that. lol I'm going to experiment with this...

 

[IgsEMT]

Huh, Thank you very much. That's an awesome tip, I never thought of that. lol I'm going to experiment with this...

No problem.
There's a madness to portrait lighting and its kind of been established by photo gurus for a reason. Of course, once it is mastered thats where improvisations begin and fun really starts but to do that I really recommend mastering basics.

Good Luck & Happy New Year

 

[kundalini]

IgsEMT beat me to it, but agree the the light is too low. I also think the flash is set too far forward of the David, which gives the spots on his left eye, cheek and corner of the mouth. Another thing is that the light spill is much to much in the frame for the effect (I think) you're going for. The use of a snoot or honeycomb grid would give you more control of the direction of the light.

I ran a couple of test shots to give you an idea of what I think you're trying to achieve, but my card reader (or card) is playing funny with me today. If it comes back, I'll post an example or two.

 

[DScience]

IgsEMT beat me to it, but agree the the light is too low. I also think the flash is set too far forward of the David, which gives the spots on his left eye, cheek and corner of the mouth. Another thing is that the light spill is much to much in the frame for the effect (I think) you're going for. The use of a snoot or honeycomb grid would give you more control of the direction of the light.

I ran a couple of test shots to give you an idea of what I think you're trying to achieve, but my card reader (or card) is playing funny with me today. If it comes back, I'll post an example or two.

Thanks a lot Kundalini, I appreciate your help. I thought of a snoot, I will definitely make one and test it out. When you say "set too far forward" what do you mean exactly. Like it should be further from the statu?

If the card reader works, let me know would love to see them!

 

[JustForSneaks07]

that's my first legal name

 

[IgsEMT]

I thought of a snoot, I will definitely make one and test it out.

Snoot is one of those really cool but specialty toys that provide specific effect. If you're actually looking into learning portraiture, I'd recommend diffusion and softening of the light. What you can use snoot for is a hair light - it'll accent the hair and will further emphasize your subject.
Think this way, if the light is nice and pointy - snoot - its pretty specific and used really for emphasis of something. If its more general (reflective or shoot-through umbrella, softbox, bed sheet, etc) its for an overall image (main/key light).

 

[kundalini]

Hmmm, it seems you have dropped the image. So going on memory (not the best choice, I must say) your image was about lighting.... side lighting with the opposite side melting into the darkness. This is slightly different from Rembrandt lighting which includes some detail for the opposite side of the main light source.

Just to have a little play, I tried to emulate your objective. First off, I decided that I wanted to shoot at f/9. This is the metered shot at f/9.... ISO200, SS - 1.3" to get a "zeroed" meter reading. (Still slightly underexposed to my eyes).

As you can see, I have the subject backlit with a diffused window to camera right.

Initially, for some reason, I wanted to shoot an f/3.2 aperture, but it turned out to let more ambient light than I desired (the left ear).

I tightened in the zoom from 62mm to 70mm, stopped down the lens to f/9 and adjusted the flash power to ~1/32th.​

Thinking that might not be enough to pull out all the detail I wanted, I upped the flash power to ~1/16th power.​

Those two images gave me a range that I could play with. BTW, I used an 8" snoot on an SB600 to light the subject. IgsEMT thinks they're only suitable for specialty lighting, but I tend to disagree. Snoots and grids are perfect for when you want to highlight a particular spot in the scene. Some times there is a specific detail you want to highlight....., (one of ...) the only ways is to hit it with controlled directional lighting.​