First Portrait with New Home Studio - C&C please.

[jwbryson1]

I just got my first umbrella (45" Photoflex combo shoot through/black back reflective) and set up my small home studio. This is my first time ever using the umbrella and I'd love some feedback. Please be as harsh as necessary. I want to learn. This was shot at ISO 400, f/16, 1/200, 90mm and I did a bit of PP in LR3. I lightened it a bit, cropped a bit, and did very little skin softening and sharpening.

I'm not thrilled about all of her skin quality. I think it needs to be sharper in places and I think I could use some selective burning, but to be honest I struggled a bit with this.

I also see some light sneaking in through the backdrop over her left shoulder and the back of her head. That needs to be corrected.

Thanks for looking.

EDIT: The umbrella was 45 degrees camera left and 45 degrees from her face, and was slightly higher than her head. I used a large piece of white corrugated plastic sitting on a chair camera right to reflect some light on the left side of her face for fill.

 

[jwbryson1]

Trever, I like your small home studio. I have the "junior" version of your studio! (also paid for by the way. )

 

[mwcfarms]

Can I ask why ISO 400 and F16? Thats quite the DoF for a studio portrait. The light is really good for starting out. You can see the shadow right underneath her nose and I think I see the inverted triangle under her eye. At work on a crappy monitor. I would fix the WB, to me her skin seems a tad too pink again it could be crappy work monitor. I think you could just use a brush in LR to get rid of the light coming through the backdrop. I'm no lighting expert either. I am sure someone who is can chime in.

 

[CCericola]

1. Since the background is a thin muslin either set it up in front of a wall or double it over to prevent light shining through.
2. If you want the light that close to your subject I would use the umbrella as a shoot through soft box. The lighting is a bit harsh. If you would like to use it as an umbrella move the light 4-6 ft away from her.
3. It is just 1 person, you don't need to shoot at f16. Try metering for f8 or f5.6

 

[jwbryson1]

Just in a rush I guess to get some shots with my new equipment. I dialed down to f/16 to kill the ambient light and so the backdrop would go away. It's REALLY bright outside today and I have windows near me. I know that I will be getting more comments on that.

I am also working on a monitor near a really brightly lit window and it's really hard to see much detail. Just anxious to get some photos up so I can get some feedback.

Thanks for the post and the comments.

 

[jwbryson1]

1. Since the background is a thin muslin either set it up in front of a wall or double it over to prevent light shining through.
2. If you want the light that close to your subject I would use the umbrella as a shoot through soft box. The lighting is a bit harsh. If you would like to use it as an umbrella move the light 4-6 ft away from her.
3. It is just 1 person, you don't need to shoot at f16. Try metering for f8 or f5.6

Thanks! Great idea to double the muslin to eliminate see through light. I had not thought about that.

 

[analog.universe]

I dialed down to f/16 to kill the ambient light and so the backdrop would go away.

Stopping down your aperture and then boosting the ISO doesn't kill your ambient. All it will do is get you diffraction from the tight aperture, and more noise and less dynamic range from the ISO boost. You'd have the same exposure and ambient level at ISO100 and f/8.

 

[jwbryson1]

I dialed down to f/16 to kill the ambient light and so the backdrop would go away.

Stopping down your aperture and then boosting the ISO doesn't kill your ambient. All it will do is get you diffraction from the tight aperture, and more noise and less dynamic range from the ISO boost. You'd have the same exposure and ambient level at ISO100 and f/8.

Understood. I dialed down the aperture first and it was underexposed, so I then increased the ISO. I'm new, aight?

 

[CCericola]

You are partly right. Changing the shutter speed will change ambient but has no effect on flash exposure (unless you go above the max sync speed for your camera). Changing aperture or ISO will affect both ambient exposure and flash exposure.

As far as getting a nice black background, remeber your lights and your subject need to be away from the background. I suggest 4-6 feet for the subject.

 

[gsgary]

Shooting at iso400 is letting ambient into your shot, F16 will let ambient into your shot because F stop controls your flash so the smaller you go less flash is let in, shutter speed kills your ambient light