Another try at portrait lighting-- C&C welcome.

[jwbryson1]

My older girl. Two YN 560s left and right at 45* shot into reflective silver umbrellas, one SB-700 fired through a cheap plastic homemade snoot for hair lighting. Minimal PP in LR4, maybe some WB adjustments, teeth whitening, and some sharpness correction.

C&C welcome. Thanks for looking.

http:// Taylor Portrait Hair Light Snoot by jwbryson1, on Flickr

 

[jwbryson1]

No comments?

 

[theraven]

Seems a little dark to me, her shirt blends into the background. Maybe try it a little lighter or with a different shirt on?

 

[sactown024]

the face still looks like it may need more lighting, I am going based of the looks of the photo, i dont know a lot about off camera flash, yet.

 

[Rosy]

maybe a bit more light coming from the right and a brighter shirt

she is adorable!!!

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Nice!

Foe the sake of CC it appears a half stop or so dark, and if you want to use a black shirt for the low key light and black background thats great but the stuff on the front of this shirt is a little distracting.

 

[tirediron]

Mebbe gel a red or green strobe on to the background so that she stands out a little more?

 

[Derrel]

I think the light is coming in from too low of a position, and there is too much fill light...the light has no clear and definable "direction"...I think using only ONE umbrella, placed higher, on the left hand side, would work better. It appears to me that the two umbrella set-up is causing there to be no definable main light side,m and no definable fill side...the light is just....there... Also, the white balance seems a bit cold. Looking for shadows to show me a direction of where the light is coming from, I see almost no shadows, so that makes me think the two umbrella flash units are firing at the same exact power level.

 

[jwbryson1]

I think the light is coming in from too low of a position, and there is too much fill light...the light has no clear and definable "direction"...I think using only ONE umbrella, placed higher, on the left hand side, would work better. It appears to me that the two umbrella set-up is causing there to be no definable main light side,m and no definable fill side...the light is just....there... Also, the white balance seems a bit cold. Looking for shadows to show me a direction of where the light is coming from, I see almost no shadows, so that makes me think the two umbrella flash units are firing at the same exact power level.

Damn, you are GOOD. :mrgreen:

I tried 1 umbrella and it just didn't do it. I kept having harsh shadows, so I moved to 2 umbrellas and for the love of God, even when I put them where I think they belong, the light on her face is never like what I am expecting. I did lower the light a bit to try to help and I ended up pushing the power levels to the same output, and this is what I got. It is definitely dark and I've lightened it a bit in LR4, but I haven't posted it yet.

Hurricane is slowing my internet connection...:waiting:

 

[jwbryson1]

Mebbe gel a red or green strobe on to the background so that she stands out a little more?

Definitely trying this next. I have my gel packs but I need to cut them to size and try this.

 

[jwbryson1]

Nice!

Foe the sake of CC it appears a half stop or so dark, and if you want to use a black shirt for the low key light and black background thats great but the stuff on the front of this shirt is a little distracting.

Yeppers. Definitely too dark. I will adjust. Thanks for the post.

 

[kundalini]

You can definitely do black-on-black, but you'll probably want more lights. Derrel is dead on about having the lights setup on both left and right. Try having you Fill light, near the camera and on the same side as the Main. Try Fill light 1 to 3 stops less than the Main, depending on the amount of modeling you want.


Looking at the diagram in this post, it seems that I forgot to add the Fill light at the camera, but it was there, a 47" octabox.
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...t-post-your-photos-setups-19.html#post2478949

 

[Big Mike]

It looks like you fell into the 'all too common' trap of using two light.

Two YN 560s left and right at 45* shot into reflective silver umbrellas

You end up with very flat lighting, which is 'nice and safe'...but it's also boring compared to what you could do by only using one light.

Portraits are all about light vs shadow. What parts of the face are 'lit' and what parts are in shadow. What is the difference (in brightness) between the lit side and the shadow side. Those are the main concerns when you are thinking about portrait lighting.

As usual, Derrel has given some good advice. I'll echo that using one light would give you a more interesting photo (with 'better' lighting).
One of the best bits of advice for the budding studio photographer is to 'turn off the fill light'...at least until you really see it's purpose.

So, start with one light in front at 45 degrees. This is your main light, it's job is to create the lit and the shadowed areas on the face. If there is no other light on your scene, the areas where the light doesn't hit at all, should be very dark. If you use a hard (small) light, the edges of the shadow are hard lines...if you use a soft (large/close) light, then the edges of the shadows will transition smoothly over a greater distance.

So once you have your main light giving you the highlights and the shadows that you want you can decide if you want to use a fill light. The job of the fill light is to add light to the scene, specifically the areas where the main light isn't hitting (filling the shadows).
But if you put your fill light at 45 degrees opposite your main light, you risk adding light to only the shadow areas, which evens out the lighting on your subject and you end up with a boring ratio of light to shadow.
The old school / traditional place to put the fill light, is very close to the camera axis/position. The fill light would then give you an even 'wash' of light. It lights up the lit areas as well as the shadows, allowing you to keep control of the ratio.

The third light is a nice touch. It gives separation between her hair and the dark background, but as mentioned, her shirt is still lost. Adding another light or two (kickers) is one way to fix that, but you could also add a little light to the background to help with separation.