Can somebody help me with a lighting issue?

[fl_chic96]

For those of you who use a background light, I was wondering what kind of light you use and where you place it? Sometimes my pictures turn out with a gray looking background like in this example. My picture just looks so drab. Thanks for your help!

 

[fl_chic96]

Acutually now that I look at it the whole picture looks flat to me. :x

 

[Ron Evers]

No pro here but I would forget the 1/3 rule & crop the picture to the child alone. I like the highlights in her eyes.

No granddaughter Ron.

 

[Don Kondra]

Greetings,

Some camera, lens and lighting set up info would be helpful.....

And try not to beat yourself up so much, that's not a bad shot

Cheers, Don

 

[Computer_Generated]

It's no a bad shot. It's a little underexposed. You can kind afix it in photoshop. This is really quick and I've blown out a lot of stuff here but it gives you an idea I guess. Sorry again if I've ruined your image.

 

[fl_chic96]

Greetings,

Some camera, lens and lighting set up info would be helpful.....

And try not to beat yourself up so much, that's not a bad shot

Cheers, Don

Thanks... My camera is a Nikon D80 with a Nikkor 18-135 mm lens. The lighting I use is a small softbox camera left with an umbrella fill at about a 45 degree angle. I am trying to figure out what I can use for a background light and if it would even help. Sometimes I can get really great pictures, lighting wise, other times they are blah. I need to figure out how to get the same good lighting results every single time.

 

[fl_chic96]

It's no a bad shot. It's a little underexposed. You can kind afix it in photoshop. This is really quick and I've blown out a lot of stuff here but it gives you an idea I guess. Sorry again if I've ruined your image.

I did touch it up a bit in photoshop but when I tried to make the white backdrop white, I blew it out too.

 

[manaheim]

It's no a bad shot. It's a little underexposed. You can kind afix it in photoshop. This is really quick and I've blown out a lot of stuff here but it gives you an idea I guess. Sorry again if I've ruined your image.

Ooof... no offense intended, CG, but that correction is -harsh-. Honestly, all I think the shot needs is a bit of saturation and a bit of contrast.

for example...

 

[Don Kondra]

I don't have a problem with the backdrop color.

You could try another umbrella in front of the soft box (camera left) and slightly behind your beautiful model. I'd start high and point behind her right shoulder.

You've got highlights on her eyes, no shadows on the nose but perhaps more light behind her would remove the shoulder shadow and give the body more dimension.

Typical guy answer, MORE POWER

Cheers, Don

Oh, and, are there any other lights on in the room? Or window light?

 

[Computer_Generated]

Ooof... no offense intended, CG, but that correction is -harsh-. Honestly, all I think the shot needs is a bit of saturation and a bit of contrast.

for example...

I agree, that was a ... umm tad harsh. lol No it was a massacre. I was just an example of how some lighting might get fixed via software. I apologize to the OP that was a horrible thing to upload as advise.

IF this helps... I did some reading and they suggest that the background lighting should be a minimum of 1 stop overexposed from the subject.

 

[Village Idiot]

Your lighting info sucks. So you got a softbox and an umbrella. Um...what's behind them? If you're using hot lights you're going to have trouble getting it properly exposed.

As was said above: More power!

Turn your strobes up about two steps and use a narrower aperture so that your subject is properly exposed, but you have enough light hitting the background. That or get another Vivitar 285HV and another Pocket Wizard and set it on the floor and fire it at the background.

Oh yeah, that's right, I have no idea what you're using so it's kind of pointless to offer advice on what to do/use.

 

[three_eyed_otter]

The first image shows changes I made in Lightroom...Whether they are photographically correct I don't have a clue, but to my eye I prefer the modifications--maybe a tad on the darkside (contrast?). If Iwere choosing between the 2 photos and it were my child I would choose the mod photo.

have a good one
3Eo

 

[Ron Evers]

t-e-o, I prefer the cropped version but not the over-red skin colour.

 

[Jedo_03]

For those of you who use a background light, I was wondering what kind of light you use and where you place it? Sometimes my pictures turn out with a gray looking background like in this example. My picture just looks so drab. Thanks for your help!

Hi Chic
I just did this quick in PS7 - you'd have to enlarge and fix the spaces between the strands of her hair on the original
Make a duplicate layer
Go Magic wand and select all of the 'grey' background with 25 tolerance
now go 'select' Feather - 10
now go Image|Adjustments|Levels
Click on Set White point eyedropper
Click it on the 'grey' background (i chose left middle)
Turns bleach white
Go OKAY
Now go Window|Layers
You see Layer 1 Copy selected
Adjust the Opacity slider - I chose 80% -ish
Now go Select|Inverse and adjust the exposure of the girl
Flatten layers
Sharpen in L*a*b
You owe me a chocolate bar...
Jedo

 

[Flash Harry]

the background needs to be lit seperately to make it white it also needs about two stops more light than the subject, ex: backdrop f22, evenly lit, subject lit at f11, shoot at f11. H