First Shoot from my NEW studio and NEW flashes

[doziergraphic]

ok, so I finally got the lights set (2 160w monolights - sometimes with sometimes without the umbrellas).

All the reading, video watching and forum posts and when the time comes, it's hard to slow down and go through the logistics.

Fortunately, it's my friend and her son, who likes having his pic taken, so took about 300 shots in an hour or so, MOST were crap imo and the lighting KICKED MY BUTT! Not giving up, going back at it in a few days for another round to work it out. Learned a lot, but not happy overall. Too bad cause the little guy was really workin' it!

The background was white, (except the hot pink one) but couldn't get it to come out that way in RAW post-production. Need to concentrate on the background lighting next time.

No retouching on these other than a quick run through Elements preset adjustments then converted to jpeg. Thought I'd throw a few up here to commemorate my first try. Thanks!

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[arcooke]

Seeing some white balance issues here.. their skin is too yellow. Unless they are naturally yellow people, in which case nice pics.

 

[doziergraphic]

yep, white balance was a problem throughout. Tried to find the white balance point in RAW, but had a hard time with finding a white point in his shots, and the numbers on her jersey didn't give me the white I needed.

White balance (and proper background light) are 1 - 2 at the top of my list of things to concentrate on next time, as well as getting that eye-focus consistent.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

Manual/Custom white balance is the only way to go, IMHO. With this, you will not have this problem again.

Lastolite, Manufacturer of Greycards for Colour Correction and Exposure Control.

Nice friends!!! :thumbup:

 

[VujayPrabhakaran]

the pics are wonderful!

 

[MohaimenK]

yep, white balance was a problem throughout. Tried to find the white balance point in RAW, but had a hard time with finding a white point in his shots, and the numbers on her jersey didn't give me the white I needed.

White balance (and proper background light) are 1 - 2 at the top of my list of things to concentrate on next time, as well as getting that eye-focus consistent.

Try doing the WB off of the background. It's grey so it'll get you closer than doing it with white. Don't find white point with white. Yeah it sounds weird but it doesn't work

 

[Big Mike]

I'm wondering if you had some other lighting affecting your 'studio'. The white on the jersey looks good, but the skin tones (especially the boy) are quite yellow. I'd guess that maybe you had a halogen or tungsten light on that side of the room?

You can adjust your white balance (especially if you're shooting RAW) but if you have more than one type of light source, the difference will show up and that's not so easy to fix.

As for the white background, as you can see, just having a white surface isn't going to cut it. The reason is that with most surfaces, you have the inverse square law. The further the light is from the surface, the less light you get reflecting off. So because the background is further from the lights than the subjects, the light that is good for the subjects, isn't enough for the background.
The solution is to use additional lights that shine just on the background. One could work, but two (one from each side) makes it easier.

 

[gsgary]

The lighting is very flat, try using a black backdrop 1 light as a hair light 1 at 45degress and a reflector opposite at 45, also next time when you have set your camera take a shot without the flashes the shot should be black if not you are getting ambient light in the shot

 

[KmH]

White balance isn't about white. It's about 18% gray.

Often, what your eye perceives as white (like the stripes in her shirt), isn't. Our brains compensate in ways a digital camera can't.

The best white balance card made today is the Whibal card from Digital Photography - RawWorkflow.com - WhiBal Certified Gray Card for White Balance.

I also use the X-RITE ColorChecker Passport for studio shooting: X-Rite: Get exactly the color you need, every time, anywhere in the world.

 

[Derrel]

Except for the overly yellowish skin tones on some of these, I think you did pretty well for a first-time shoot with a brand new set of lights. I personally think that what we are seeing is the Sigma lens's inherently warm color rendition; the whites on most of these look close enough to white (and I do not think I am being fooled), and the background papepr runs through a normal range of values based on my experience, but the SKIN tones look warm...yellowish...and that is a SIGMA lens characteristic I have noticed on all my Sigma lenses (100-300 f4EX, 18-125 DC, 80-400 OS, 180 3.5 EX Macro)...an individual lens has its own distinct color rendition...NIKKOR lenses are cool...Sigma lenses are very warm; Tamron is cooler than either Tokina or Sigma...this is not an inherently good or bad thing, but just the way it is. On shot #4, I think all you need to do is go to selective color, and select the Yellows, and cool them down a bit.

 

[doziergraphic]

Quick update - I won't have chance to revisit editing until wed BUT...

duh, I did a black backdrop, then went to white, then the pink THEN hung the pink backdrop on the SIDE wall so as to not wrinkle it, then went back to the white backdrop (all the shots posted were in that segment because I was finally getting a hang of the lights).

Well, obviously there was a pink cast on the white on my originals, so THAT is a major reason for my white problem (along with all the other points you've all made above, thanks so much!).

So I'll be shooting again hopefully at least twice this week. I'll also be going through and re-editing starting with RAW on these to reset the white balance and see what I get.

I have a feeling the yellow cast is due to mistakes by me regarding that pink wall (geez!) and just not having them set properly. Don't think i even turned the key light up above halfway mark of the dial.

so a LOT I need to pay attention to next time, but of course, that's why we experiment.

Again, thanks so much for the feedback, helps incredibly!

 

[doziergraphic]

Try doing the WB off of the background. It's grey so it'll get you closer than doing it with white. Don't find white point with white. Yeah it sounds weird but it doesn't work

The ORIGINAL backdrop is white (not sure if that's what you meant, or the color it actually came out as). White cotton fleece - the hot pink and black are also cotton fleece, black shots not included - from JoAnn Fabrics ($4.99/yd bought three yards for generic head & shoulder shots).

 

[doziergraphic]

here's another shot from this session with the black backdrop. With this one, I took the jpeg straight off the card and edited it in Professional Portrait, bypassing photoshop or elements. Experimenting, so interested in others' views of these types of programs.

 

[bentcountershaft]

I've still got a whole lot to learn about lighting so I can't really offer any critique or advice. The last one looks nice to me. The one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that she doesn't look like Joseph Addai at all.

 

[Derrel]

here's another shot from this session with the black backdrop. With this one, I took the jpeg straight off the card and edited it in Professional Portrait, bypassing photoshop or elements. Experimenting, so interested in others' views of these types of programs.

I thiunk her hair has way too much cyan in it, leading to a sort of too much chlorine in the pool green-tinged look to her hair, so to counteract that, I opened the image in PS, and went to Selective Color, selected the Yellows, and then removed 80 units of cyan, which immediately made her hair look a prettier, more blonde color that I "think" might be a fairly accurate representation of the shade of her hair coloration. NO other editing was done.