bringing my equipment to do a portrait, help please

[iPhoto17]

i have 1 spot lamp with an incandescent bulb and 2 halogen lamps. since the 2 halogens are very very very bright i dont have to really worry about even lighting and just make sure theyre positioned right, i basically just want to get rid of shadows and make sure everything is good with that.

since its gonna be bright with all the lights ISO 100 or 200 would be good?

and my camera doesnt have a white balance for halogen lights, just incandescent and other outdoor situations.

and one more thing, as far as aperture goes should i make it as wide as possible for the fastest shutter speed possible and just mess around with different f stops and shutter speeds?

thanks in advance for the help

 

[dukeboy1977]

i have 1 spot lamp with an incandescent bulb and 2 halogen lamps. since the 2 halogens are very very very bright i dont have to really worry about even lighting and just make sure theyre positioned right, i basically just want to get rid of shadows and make sure everything is good with that.

since its gonna be bright with all the lights ISO 100 or 200 would be good?

and my camera doesnt have a white balance for halogen lights, just incandescent and other outdoor situations.

and one more thing, as far as aperture goes should i make it as wide as possible for the fastest shutter speed possible and just mess around with different f stops and shutter speeds?

thanks in advance for the help

Just my opinion, but let me give it anyways...lol If it's bright out, a low ISO will be good or should be anyways. Probably whatever your camera's baseline is. My camera don't have a WB for halogen either, but I play around with my Photoshop elements lighting and such so I make it work for any conditions. As far as aperture goes, do what you feel is best. If you want a crystal clear background, which is usually not recommended for portraiture from my point of view, make it so...but for me, I recommend a middle-ground aperture and go from there until you get just what you're looking for. Good luck

 

[iPhoto17]

i have 1 spot lamp with an incandescent bulb and 2 halogen lamps. since the 2 halogens are very very very bright i dont have to really worry about even lighting and just make sure theyre positioned right, i basically just want to get rid of shadows and make sure everything is good with that.

since its gonna be bright with all the lights ISO 100 or 200 would be good?

and my camera doesnt have a white balance for halogen lights, just incandescent and other outdoor situations.

and one more thing, as far as aperture goes should i make it as wide as possible for the fastest shutter speed possible and just mess around with different f stops and shutter speeds?

thanks in advance for the help

Just my opinion, but let me give it anyways...lol If it's bright out, a low ISO will be good or should be anyways. Probably whatever your camera's baseline is. My camera don't have a WB for halogen either, but I play around with my Photoshop elements lighting and such so I make it work for any conditions. As far as aperture goes, do what you feel is best. If you want a crystal clear background, which is usually not recommended for portraiture from my point of view, make it so...but for me, I recommend a middle-ground aperture and go from there until you get just what you're looking for. Good luck

yeah, thats what i pretty much had in mind as well, its not like im limited to only take 1 picture and it has to be perfect the very first shot

 

[iPhoto17]

would i even need the spot lamp if the 2 halogens will just overpower it?

 

[tirediron]

Set your WB to auto, shoot in RAW and colour-correct in post. I would not mix incandescent and halogen light-sources as that may well give you some "interesting" colour-casts. I've never tried to shoot with halogen hotlights, so I can't offer much in the way of advice there, but I would make sure that you also bring some reflectors; if you can't afford/don't have proper photo reflectors, large pieces of white card-stock will work.

 

[iPhoto17]

Set your WB to auto, shoot in RAW and colour-correct in post. I would not mix incandescent and halogen light-sources as that may well give you some "interesting" colour-casts. I've never tried to shoot with halogen hotlights, so I can't offer much in the way of advice there, but I would make sure that you also bring some reflectors; if you can't afford/don't have proper photo reflectors, large pieces of white card-stock will work.

ill bring something to reflect or put something in front of the lights to diffuse them if they are too bright, i used the halogen to light up those skittles in my last post actually and have shot a few of my friend using it and im very pleased with the lighting they provide

 

[iPhoto17]

ive never shot RAW before, how is it different than JPG besides the fact that it hasnt been converted to JPG and has all the pixels left in tact, i do not have a RAW image viewer on my PC and cant find one for vista

 

[Blake.Oney]

Do you use photoshop? If not here is a list of some free programs. The first few are all RAW workflow apps.

32 Free Software Solutions For Photographers | DIYPhotography.net

 

[KmH]

ive never shot RAW before, how is it different than JPG besides the fact that it hasnt been converted to JPG and has all the pixels left in tact, i do not have a RAW image viewer on my PC and cant find one for vista

Have you noticed - You're the only poster in this thread that doesn't use the keyboard's shift key and proper punctuation?

In poker, that's known as a 'tell'.

RAW images have either a 12-bit (4096 colors per channel) or a 14-bit color depth (16,384 colors per channel) and are like a film negative, allowing the final image to be controlled by whoever developes it.

JPEG only has an 8-bit color depth (256 colors per channel), is a lossy compressed, final, ready-to-print format that is not intended to be edited any further, because almost 80% of the original color data has been discarded to compress the file.

The editing that is done in the camera to make it a JPEG is done globally (to the entire image) to the image and the edits were decided on buy a committee, not you. JPEG stands for - Joint Photography Experts Group.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/RAW-file-format.htm

 

[iPhoto17]

Do you use photoshop? If not here is a list of some free programs. The first few are all RAW workflow apps.

32 Free Software Solutions For Photographers | DIYPhotography.net

thanks, i dont have photoshop anymore so one of these is bound to work

 

[iPhoto17]

ive never shot RAW before, how is it different than JPG besides the fact that it hasnt been converted to JPG and has all the pixels left in tact, i do not have a RAW image viewer on my PC and cant find one for vista

Have you noticed - You're the only poster in this thread that doesn't use the keyboard's shift key and proper pnuctuation?

In poker, that's known as a 'tell'.

RAW images have either a 12-bit (4096 colors per channel) or a 14-bit color depth (16,384 colors per channel) and are like a film negative, allowing the final image to be controlled by whoever developes it.

JPEG only has an 8-bit color depth (256 colors per channel), is a lossy compressed, final, ready-to-print format that is not intended to be edited any further, because almost 80% of the original color data has been discarded to compress the file.

The editing that is done in the camera to make it a JPEG is done globally (to the entire image) to the image and the edits were decided on buy a committee, not you. JPEG stands for - Joint Photography Experts Group.

Tutorials - The RAW File Format

so, if i were to bring my memory to wolf camera with the RAW files on it would they be able to print them out, also, arent RAW files only really noticeable difference between them and JPEG when you want to enlarge them considerably?

 

[gsgary]

Why do you want to get rid of shadows ?, you need shadows to create form

 

[iPhoto17]

Why do you want to get rid of shadows ?, you need shadows to create form

i just dont want any distracting shadows, it needs to be a "flattering" light, ill try different things

 

[oldmacman]

[arent RAW files only really noticeable difference between them and JPEG when you want to enlarge them considerably?

As Keith pointed out, the colour space is much larger with a RAW file. It's one of the reasons the size is so much larger than a jepg. When a Jpeg is compressed, it throws out colours that aren't being used, even if you would like to use them later. This means you have less flexibility in getting the colour you want, restoring detail in shadows and recovering hot spots. With RAW, you also have control over sharpening and how it is applied and a better range of tones in any given colour. Of course, you need software that will permit you to do all those edits. Most people use a combination of photo management software (LR3 or Aperture ) and Photoshop.

 

[iPhoto17]

[arent RAW files only really noticeable difference between them and JPEG when you want to enlarge them considerably?

As Keith pointed out, the colour space is much larger with a RAW file. It's one of the reasons the size is so much larger than a jepg. When a Jpeg is compressed, it throws out colours that aren't being used, even if you would like to use them later. This means you have less flexibility in getting the colour you want, restoring detail in shadows and recovering hot spots. With RAW, you also have control over sharpening and how it is applied and a better range of tones in any given colour. Of course, you need software that will permit you to do all those edits. Most people use a combination of photo management software (LR3 or Aperture ) and Photoshop.

interesting, maybe the next photography class i do will get more into that. i guess ill try to find a cheap photoshop to buy