B & W Portrait

[jcdeboever]

Ahh, well I invested in it, promaster 600w monolight. Maybe turn it into a snoot hair light? The model lamp is helpful bit very dim. Any suggestions?

Not sure what exact modeling lamp it uses: I found a Promaster 600 9at this URL: ProMaster PSF-600 Portable Monolight | Lighting: Portable/Photo/Stage and Studio - Lighting: Portable/Photo/Stage and Studio) that has a mere 10-Watt LED modeling lamp in it...that is going to be very dim; as far as constricting human eyeballs, a 10-Watt light is not going to do too much.

I dunno...I personally like to see COLOR in the human eyeball, so I favor brighter modeling lights; to me, that zonked out on heroin look is unappealing; for that reason, a LOT of speedlight-lit stuff looks bad to me.

Modeling lamps range from 10- to 25-Watt, to 3 x 25 Watt, to 100, 150-, or even 250- or 300-Watt quartz halogen bulbs; different types of lights have different usefulness. The difference between a single, 10- to 25-Watt lamp and a 150 or 250-Watt quartz halogen light is very real; with the first type, you can barely focus unless the lens is fast and the conditions are optimal; with the 150- to 250-Watt quartz modeling lights, there is PLENTY of light to both constrict the eye, so you have color in the eye, and plenty of light to focus by, and to 'see' by. One give you a dimly-lit studio, the other lights up the shooting area.

In the current era, there's a trend toward low power draw, and low-Wattage LED bulbs, whereas older, professionally-oriented lights tend more toward higher-draw bulbs in the 100-,150-,250-Watt range. There is no one, specific answer.

As far as snoots go: not a big fan of snoots, never have been. I prefer honeycomb grid accessories in 7,10,and 20 degree spread; More useful, more adaptable than a snoot.

It is the 10w. Crap. So if you made the same mistake I did, what would be your next purchase?

 

[jcdeboever]

Wow. Man I got a lot to learn. Very compelling.

How did you get the dark thirds background? Wonderful really.

 

[Derrel]

[QUOTE="jcdeboever"[/QUOTE] It is the 10w. Crap. So if you made the same mistake I did, what would be your next purchase?[/QUOTE]

I dunno...depends on how important studio type lights are to you...depends on budget...maybe it's no big thing to you...opinions are divided on light types...I prefer pack and head systems, most younger people like monolights...

 

[Gary A.]

Wow. Man I got a lot to learn. Very compelling.

How did you get the dark thirds background? Wonderful really.

This was window lighting and the background dark-light, I think, was created by the corner of the room. This was taken in her college apartment. Hasselblad 500 C/M, Zeiss 80mm, Tri-X.

 

[otherprof90 32]

Experimenting with B & W portrait. Might as well use the Nikon F but trying it digital. Looking for improvement tips in general. Really disappointed that the pupils are huge using the monolight. Can't figure out how to get around that in the future. I noticed that a lot of European photographers have their subjects pupils big for some reason. I don't care for it, it really bugs me. I played around with this for a while and everytime I tried to bring in better tonal range, I was unhappy with the results, kept coming back to this.
D7200, 35mm1.8, f/5.6, 1/125s, ISO100, AF-S, Center Weighted metering, WB Auto1,

View attachment 129689

A note on large pupils: psychologists confirm that when you see something that interests you, your pupils dilate. Someone being interested in us makes them more appealing and, literally attractive. Women in the Renaissance knew this instinctively, and would put drops of belladonna in their eyes to dilate the pupils and make them, the women, more attractive.