First Attempt at Christmas Portraits

rexbobcat

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My first attempt at Christmas portraits for a family. They came out O.K. I guess. I was kind of nervous because there were so many. I used constant lights, not strobes, and my 24mm.

A few things I'm not happy with:

There is significant light fall-off between the front row and the back row. If anyone knows how to help prevent this, please let me know. :)

Some of the color temperatures of the faces are different, but I tried to get them as consistent as I could.

The woman in the middle behind the little girl (not the baby) has part of her chin hidden behind the little girl's head. She said something about it when I showed them the photo, but I didn't fix it to the extent that I should have. :(



 
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I don't see the huge fall off you are talking about unless you have corrected this in post. My biggest suggestion would be to get a hair light so the men don't blend into the darkness.
 
I don't see the huge fall off you are talking about unless you have corrected this in post. My biggest suggestion would be to get a hair light so the men don't blend into the darkness.
Ah, gotcha. Would you set the light pointing up from the floor I assume?
 
Ah, gotcha. Would you set the light pointing up from the floor I assume?

If it has to be behind them, then I would fire it into the backdrop to create a gradient. The gradient becomes the separation.

Against black, though, I would have it gridded and above their heads. With a larger group like this, you may need it on a boom to get it into position. Failing that, you could try setting up 2 gridded lights. The trick will be to get it consistent across all four guys.
 
No where near enough light plus all the back rows heads blend into the background, you need a 4 light setup 2 at 45 from front and 2 high at 45 from behind to separate them from the background
 
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You know what, they all look pretty good and happy and its a nice sharp photo for the large number of them that you had to consider. Yes, there is no separtation/hair lighting, but I like the background nice and black like this, but you certainly have a very good effort. (Not a fan of the B&W)
 
you can mess with the raw file and really increase the exposure, trace the subject, create the gradient on post.
 
Yeah, I didn't realize the whole backrow head thing until y'all pointed it out. And yeah, there isn't a whole lot of contrast in the b&w. That's what they wanted though, so I obliged.I didn't even think about the hair lights. Looks like I'm going to have to invest in some. Would a flash on low power work? Or would I have to have two lights absolutely? Ugh. I feel so bad now that I know I messed these up. XP
 
2 would be better but if you don't shoot group that often 1 would work with 3/4 people all depends what modifier you use a brolly can be used as a hair light/backlight i usually have it set about 1 stop below main light
 
You can do the hair light with a low powered off camera flash. Seen it done many times. Fire it fairly low on the back wall at 1/16 or 1/8 and it will give enough seperation and possibly not gradient the background. The strobist blog and a few other places have done this, and it has worked for them. I have not done this.
 
There is significant light fall-off between the front row and the back row. If anyone knows how to help prevent this, please let me know. :)
Feather the light so that it's pointed at the back row and falling off toward the front for more even distribution (tilt it up). Or you can get some more light from above, using more lights with modifiers, or reflectors just out of frame. If you're going to shoot groups, invest in a couple of booms. They come in handy for lots of stuff, but especially in group shots.

Some of the color temperatures of the faces are different, but I tried to get them as consistent as I could.
Are you using different kinds of light sources? If you are, that's going to always give you trouble unless you figure out a way to gel some of them into a single consistent temperature, which is going to take some experimentation and work. Easier to just make sure you're using consistent light sources that don't have any (or much) difference in color temperature between them. Also, use a gray card to calibrate so that you have a valid color temperature anchor. You can always adjust warmer or cooler from there in post if you feel the composition warrants it.

The woman in the middle behind the little girl (not the baby) has part of her chin hidden behind the little girl's head. She said something about it when I showed them the photo, but I didn't fix it to the extent that I should have. :(
Just have to pay attention while shooting for that sort of thing.

For large group shooting, it's also good to know how to composite so that you can bring in different heads, faces and even body parts from different shots for one image that gets it all "right". Great shot but one person is blinking? No problem - pull in their face from another shot where they're not. You could do the same thing to correct the hidden chin, if you have a shot to pull it from and have some compositing skills. It's a handy thing to have in your editing toolbag.
 
Next time when this happens with little ones on laps, just have them sit off to one side or tilt their heads and that will take care of that issue. If you could have had a portable light on a stand that would have helped to get rid of the drop off of light in the back. Nice shots though for first attempt.
 
There is significant light fall-off between the front row and the back row. If anyone knows how to help prevent this, please let me know. :)
Feather the light so that it's pointed at the back row and falling off toward the front for more even distribution (tilt it up). Or you can get some more light from above, using more lights with modifiers, or reflectors just out of frame. If you're going to shoot groups, invest in a couple of booms. They come in handy for lots of stuff, but especially in group shots.
Some of the color temperatures of the faces are different, but I tried to get them as consistent as I could.
Are you using different kinds of light sources? If you are, that's going to always give you trouble unless you figure out a way to gel some of them into a single consistent temperature, which is going to take some experimentation and work. Easier to just make sure you're using consistent light sources that don't have any (or much) difference in color temperature between them. Also, use a gray card to calibrate so that you have a valid color temperature anchor. You can always adjust warmer or cooler from there in post if you feel the composition warrants it.
The woman in the middle behind the little girl (not the baby) has part of her chin hidden behind the little girl's head. She said something about it when I showed them the photo, but I didn't fix it to the extent that I should have. :(
Just have to pay attention while shooting for that sort of thing.For large group shooting, it's also good to know how to composite so that you can bring in different heads, faces and even body parts from different shots for one image that gets it all "right". Great shot but one person is blinking? No problem - pull in their face from another shot where they're not. You could do the same thing to correct the hidden chin, if you have a shot to pull it from and have some compositing skills. It's a handy thing to have in your editing toolbag.
I had to do the post-compositing thing with the baby. She wasn't originally smiling in this shot, but in the next one she had a big grin so I laboriously decapitated her from that shot and put her head on her body in this shot. I was kind of excited that I got it right. I didn't know how to do the chin thing. The first photos actually had her chin hidden worse so. XP
 

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