Am I in the right direction? C&C perhaps?

[John27]

So we're finally venturing into light (Scary!) and tonight we got our shtuff setup for the first time. This is a one light setup, though we will have a second speedlite before long.

I didn't take any pictures of the setup, but basically it's a Yongnuo speedlite fired through a shoot-through umbrella nice and tight on the subject (My lovely wife), and a second 'bounce' umbrella (with no light on it) at the same height, and directly to the opposite of the shoot-through (acting as a reflector)

No cropping, did adjust the white balance with a gray card and made some minor exposure/tone edits.

Main idea here is the lighting. The background is atrocious, I know that. But we set this up in our living room, were more concerned with the lighting than anything.



So, am I moving in the right direction? Do I have the right idea? Thoughts?

-John

 

[tirediron]

The lighting is good, 'though perhaps not the most exciting, but that will come with time. There's a little bit of reflection-clouding on the left (image right) lens of her glasses, so raising your flash just a hair next time would likely take care of that.

 

[John27]

The lighting is good, 'though perhaps not the most exciting, but that will come with time. There's a little bit of reflection-clouding on the left (image right) lens of her glasses, so raising your flash just a hair next time would likely take care of that.

Great! I actually noticed the clouding but chalked it up to her glasses being dirty, good to know that's what it's from (and thus, what to look for!)

As far as exciting, I'm trying to get even and consistent right now. Though I am fascinated by what people come up with. Any ideas for some one-light setups that would be a bit more exciting? I've got a couple reflector umbrellas that I've been using as reflectors, I've got a couple stands.. and, well, posterboard always works! But only one light (for now). I'm looking forward to trying this stuff on a sunny day though, using the sun as one light and the flash as the other. The only thing I HAVE tried, is something I saw online, metering to black out the entire frame, bare speedlite mounted high up, lower power, subject looking 'into' (actually, to the side of) the speedlite, and creating a really dramatic shot. But I don't think a shot like that has a lot of real practical uses.

I appreciate the comments! Still learning ALOT, but once you start to kind of 'figure stuff out' it's really neat.

 

[tirediron]

Don't forget, you can always use sun/window light as another light source. Head over to the Strobist Blog and browse their Lighting 101 section. A ton of great info there.

 

[John27]

Don't forget, you can always use sun/window light as another light source. Head over to the Strobist Blog and browse their Lighting 101 section. A ton of great info there.

I have been reading lighting 101, that's a GREAT blog.

 

[KmH]

I can't add much to John's summation of the lighting. However measuring the exposure using ACR, and the histogram indicate the image is 1/2 a stop underexposed.

For head shots try and keep the camera a bit lower, and the subject a bit higher in the frame. Having which ever eye is closest to the side of the image on a ROT power point makes for a stronger composition.

A lower camera perspective will also help minimize a distracting or poor background. A crop off the top, to an 8x10 aspect ratio, will move her right eye closer to the ROT power point

When I had subjects that wore glasses, whenever possible I took the lenses out of the frames for the shoot, and put them back in when we were done.

As far as the under exposure, my goal was to have caucasian skin highlights that measured 235 to 240 in the red channel.

After adding a 1/2 stop of exposure in ACR I used the Color Sampler Tool to verify the red channel values -

 

[KmH]

I've moved your multiple image C&C request post to it's own thread in the People Photography forum.

Additionally, the more photos you post for C&C in each thread, the more general, and less useful C&C becomes. I recommend posting no more than 2 at a time.

 

[John27]

I've moved your multiple image C&C request post to it's own thread in the People Photography forum.

Additionally, the more photos you post for C&C in each thread, the more general, and less useful C&C becomes. I recommend posting no more than 2 at a time.

Gotcha. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.