Dress Up - Second go at OCF, first go with the softbox

[jowensphoto]

Looks like I'll be breaking out the shoot thrus again thank you all! Such a wealth of knowledge.

 

[amolitor]

I like it pretty well as-is. It's not high key, it's just brightly lit with a moderately high lighting ratio. You got nice baby skin tones going on, kids look good overlit a bit, which is why absolutely every baby photographer on earth lights the heck out of them, and/or processes the skin tones way up in post.

The ratio is on the dramatic side for kid photos, I'd say, but I think it works pretty well. The background is slightly too obviously "a sheet" rather than "lovely drapes" or whatever, but honestly nobody's looking at the background. The kid's super cute, you got a nice drape of the pearls. I absolutely love the way the pearls in shadow look, check the sheen on the bit draping against her tummy. They're purely gorgeous.

I don't care how you got the background white. You can smear whiteout all over your computer screen if you want, I think it's pretty successful. Yes, there is a gradation of tone across the background. 19th century painters were at some pains to achieve this, they called it Breadth, so I am pretty sure it's ok.

As for the strip light not working for people, I don't quite get that. I don't have one, I have not fabricated one, but I don't see why you can't feather it pretty successfully. You'll get falloff, but you just put your big photographer pants on and work with it. Reflect it back, or make a picture that works with a pretty strong ratio. If it's good for wine bottles, why isn't it good for kids? Kids, as you may have noticed, are roughly the shape of a wine bottle..

 

[kundalini]

....., but honestly nobody's looking at the background.......

You're talking out of your a$$. Any photographer worth their salt will be looking at the background.

As for the strip light not working for people, I don't quite get that. I don't have one, I have not fabricated one, but I don't see why you can't feather it pretty successfully. You'll get falloff, but you just put your big photographer pants on and work with it. Reflect it back, or make a picture that works with a pretty strong ratio. If it's good for wine bottles, why isn't it good for kids? Kids, as you may have noticed, are roughly the shape of a wine bottle..

Since you don't own a strip box, have never used a strip box and probably don't understand the intended use for a strip box..... STFU. :er:

 

[amolitor]

<edited out the nastiness, this dude's not worth it>

 

[amolitor]

....., but honestly nobody's looking at the background.......

You're talking out of your a$$. Any photographer worth their salt will be looking at the background.

... but I will address this. It turns out that there are many people on the world who are not photographers. You may not have noticed this, since you spend all your time snarking off and being a jerk on internet forums.

 

[kundalini]

....., but honestly nobody's looking at the background.......

You're talking out of your a$$. Any photographer worth their salt will be looking at the background.

... but I will address this. It turns out that there are many people on the world who are not photographers. You may not have noticed this, since you spend all your time snarking off and being a jerk on internet forums.

.
Yep, that's me to a tee......... but you may have noticed this image was posted on a PHOTO FORUM with a bunch of PHOTOGRAPHERS on it.

 

[jowensphoto]

Then what the heck did you light those photos w that you had me look at?! Lol

 

[jowensphoto]

Guys! Calm the **** down. Seriously, don't get my ish locked.

 

[Tiller]

I would grab another yn-560 for a background light. It would also bounce off the background and create a nice rim light for the subject.

Cute baby!

 

[jowensphoto]

I dig the brand^ I use their trigger/receivers - never failed me yet!

 

[Derrel]

>>SNIP>>>As for the strip light not working for people, I don't quite get that. I don't have one, I have not fabricated one, but I don't see why you can't feather it pretty successfully. You'll get falloff, but you just put your big photographer pants on and work with it. Reflect it back, or make a picture that works with a pretty strong ratio. If it's good for wine bottles, why isn't it good for kids? Kids, as you may have noticed, are roughly the shape of a wine bottle..

Please let me take a polite approach to this with a little experiment. I've seen how you're lighting your still lifes, which are like wine bottles, but with vases and flowers. Yet still, inanimate objects, and very narrow in width, and pretty short compared to even an 18-24 month old toddler. So...let's "make" a strip light for you. Set up your lightstand and speedlight 12 inches from an open door that leads from one room to another. Tape 36 inches of typing paper over the open door, which is cracked open precisely 8 inches. Then, call your older daughter into the next room, and shoot some pictures of her, using the light that comes from your home-brewed strip light.

The issues? The kid will move, more so than a wine bottle. The kid is five times wider than the bottle and 2.5 times taller, and maybe 50 times larger in volume. The "sweet spot" of the light will be about four inches wide and 24 inches tall, with STEEP fall-off at the top and bottom of the beam on "most" Chinese made strip boxes when a speedlight is used inside, and not a 360 degree, circular flash tube from a studio monolight or flash head.

It's like herding wild cats, using a strip box on a real-life, live-action, 3-D,slobbering, toddling, wandering, amused, moving kid, AND the best part with speedlights? You are shooting totally blind, due to lack of modeling lights. The thing with strip lights is they were really designed for studio flash, but they look cool. However, there's kind of a difference in the way speedlights light up some modifiers, versus the way round flashtubes with 360 degree output, around a "doughnut" shaped flash tube. There is also only ONE distance from flash to baffle to front diffusion cover. A strip light is a very rigid device, with options of a grid or louvres, but only a little bit of mods are possible. Not much "range" of effects on a strip light.

A MUCH, much,much,much better solition is a 11.5 inch parabolic reflector with a 50 to 65 degree beam spread; a metal honeycomb grid in 10,15,20, to even 35 degree spread, then a snap-on mylar diffuser, or two stacked or even three stacked mylar diffusers (or Tuf-Spun, whatever), and then a set of 2-way barn doors. Now that, that actually "WORKS', AND WORKS "RIGHT". It is a strip of light that YOU can control to the nth degree in terms of specularity/diffusion, spread, and width. And, with real studio flash units, you can actually SEE where the damned thing is aimed! Woo-hooo!

NO offense, but hey...I could go to the dump tonight with my semi-automartic .22 and maybe hit a rat and killone or two if I fired 500 rounds in the dark...if I used a .410 shotgun with a flashlight taped under the forestock. I could probably kill 1,2,or 3 of the little buggers each SHOT. Right tool, used with enough light to SEE WTF is happening...

 

[Robin_Usagani]

if you have only one light and dont want shadow, put the subject farther away from the background and or raise the light. That way the shadow will be below the frame and not on the wall. As far as 8"x36" softbox, why not? It is bigger than a bare flash.

 

[cgipson1]

if you have only one light and dont want shadow, put the subject farther away from the background and or raise the light. That way the shadow will be below the frame and not on the wall. As far as 8"x36" softbox, why not? It is bigger than a bare flash.

Because if you get it far enough away from the subject to light anything bigger than a pop bottle... the light will be just as hard as using bare flash. The way a flash puts out light... I bet there is one big hotspot in the middle of the softbox.. with very light light at either end. Hardly optimal...

 

[Robin_Usagani]

I never said anything about putting it far away. Keep it close to the subject. A softbox usually has a mid baffle to spread the light more to avoid what you were saying.

if you have only one light and dont want shadow, put the subject farther away from the background and or raise the light. That way the shadow will be below the frame and not on the wall. As far as 8"x36" softbox, why not? It is bigger than a bare flash.

Because if you get it far enough away from the subject to light anything bigger than a pop bottle... the light will be just as hard as using bare flash. The way a flash puts out light... I bet there is one big hotspot in the middle of the softbox.. with very light light at either end. Hardly optimal...

 

[NoelNTexas]

I would ad a little fill from the left, maybe a reflector. Also, what size was your softbox and how far away was it? Seems like a smaller light source. Just my own opinion but the light looks a little hot and hard for nice smooth baby skin.