C&C on the lighting please

[tirediron]

Doing some experimenting with simplified set-ups. I would appreciate comments, critique, input, suggestions etc on this image as they relate to the lighting.

For the really keen, a high-res version is located here (4.4 Mb file)

Thanks!
John

 

[rexbobcat]

The whole image seems a bit dark.

 

[tirediron]

For some reason, my images seem to display here as about 1/3 stop under - does that seem about right?

 

[Vtec44]

The shadows are a bit harsh especially on the short side. What did you use to diffuse the light?

 

[adversus]

Doll seems under-exposed.

Doll also seems creepy. Thanks for nightmares.

 

[tirediron]

Better?

 

[tirediron]

The shadows are a bit harsh especially on the short side. What did you use to diffuse the light?

Patience Grasshopper, all will be revealed!

 

[tirediron]

Doll seems under-exposed.

Doll also seems creepy. Thanks for nightmares.

Noted! :thumbup:

Glad I could help!

 

[adversus]

Edit is better.

1. Eyes would look better if they "pop" more. Not sure how you can achieve that with their color, though.
2. The stray strands of hair against the background is distracting to me.
3. Still creepy.

 

[Vtec44]

Better?

It looks under exposed to me still. As far as lighting, all you did was decreasing the amount of shadows on the short side. You now have almost flat lighting. The shadows are still harsh.

 

[tirediron]

Edit is better.

1. Eyes would look better if they "pop" more. Not sure how you can achieve that with their color, though.
2. The stray strands of hair against the background is distracting to me.
3. Still creepy.

I'm not worried about the aesthetics... just the lighting. It's a test shot, but thanks.

 

[tirediron]

...all you did was decreasing the amount of shadows on the short side. You now have almost flat lighting. The shadows are still harsh.

Hokay... a'splain this to me Lucy, how do you get harsh shadows in flat lighting (and yes, I agree it's pretty much flat).

 

[Derrel]

Second shot seems more generously exposed. This looks to me just like a straight flash unit, off to the camera right a short distance...nothing special, really....the light is somewhat hard, but since the doll is "small", the light is relatively larger than if it were a full-sized human subject. I've not been a fan of this type of pinpoint-sized eye catchlights...this lighting reveals a pretty fair amount of detail and gives some feeling of contour, due to the shadows it creates. This is not "pretty" lighting, and it does not seem to work as well with this delicate, high-shine subject all that well. The doll's hair for example, is VERY shiny, as is her pink gown...this lighting is not very flattering for this type of subject, but might actually be pretty good with something a bit more, shall we say, rustic, or masculine, etc.

This is the kind of lighting I think of when shooting with a single, small,bare flash unit held in the left hand, and connected to the camera with a pigtail flash connector cord. Of course, in this instance, the flash seems to be coming from the right hand side, so unless the image has been flipped...or you have a left-handed camera, or tripod-mounted the camera and aimed the flash with your right hand...well, anyway...yeah...it's fairly straightforward plain flash.

 

[Vtec44]

...all you did was decreasing the amount of shadows on the short side. You now have almost flat lighting. The shadows are still harsh.

Hokay... a'splain this to me Lucy, how do you get harsh shadows in flat lighting (and yes, I agree it's pretty much flat).

There's almost no shadows on the doll's face, the light illuminated almost her entire face. However, whenever there's a bit of shadows, ie under the doll's chin or hair casting a shadow on her face, it is hard and sharp. There's almost no gradual line going from light to dark. It's either light or dark.

 

[tirediron]

Thanks Derrel! You're not far off actually; I was experimenting with different diffusers in a beauty dish in attempt to come up with a quicky 'one light, good enough' solution for occasions where I couldn't for whatever reason, set up proper lighting. Oddly enough, my main nitpick was with the catchlights as well, since I feel that they look too much like those from a pop-up flash.