First time in the studio C&C

[Tight Knot]

Agreed, overall, it's not a very sharp shot. Here's a positive though, no glare on glasses :thumbup:

Excuse my ignorance and frustration, but how the heck do you manage not to get glare on glasses when using a flash? And if you do, how do you get rid of it? So confused.

 

[gsgary]

it looks like the focus isn't quite on her eyes

Agreed, overall, it's not a very sharp shot. Here's a positive though, no glare on glasses :thumbup:

Im going to blame the sharpness on poor glass. "poor glass sucks ass"

Aside from sharpness any comments or suggestions?

No not poor glass, poor settings and lighting, no ratio between your lights

 

[reznap]

If you want to nitpick, avoid shadows on the face from the hair. This can be fixed in post, or by moving/restyling her hair or moving the light.

Fixing the hair might have been nice. There are lots of strays around her face and neck.. takes a lot of work to properly clean that up in post.

 

[gsgary]

Agreed, overall, it's not a very sharp shot. Here's a positive though, no glare on glasses :thumbup:

Excuse my ignorance and frustration, but how the heck do you manage not to get glare on glasses when using a flash? And if you do, how do you get rid of it? So confused.

Careful positioning of your lights

 

[Christie Photo]

I think these were shot with continuous lighting and that is why they are soft
1/60 is not fast enough at 80mm if it had been flash you would have been ok

???

Oh... I bet you're presuming this was shot hand-held. It took me a minute to figure out what you're suggesting. I typically shoot at 1/60 in the studio... and down to 1/15 outdoors, but ALWAYS on a tripod.

To the OP: This image is plenty sharp. In fact, if it were any sharper you'd like it less.

Portraiture is not medical photography. It's usually not a good thing to achieve absolute reality, as most of us need some help in our appearance. A bit of softening helps so much with skin texture, hair (Her hair is wreck by the way. Watch for those stray hair coming onto her neck.), and contrast.

I bit warmer would be nice too. Again, you're not going so much for reality as for something flattering.

The light ratio (main:fill) could be a wee bit greater. The position of the hair light bothers me more. Move it a bit so it falls more on the same side as the main and not straight down on her. I wouldn't position the fill any lower. It's fine where it is and will only cause problems with her lenses if lower.

And the clothing is out of key. Consider using a deeper background when working with deep colored clothing.

All-in-all, I think you did fine for your first go at it.

-Pete

 

[Christie Photo]

Excuse my ignorance and frustration, but how the heck do you manage not to get glare on glasses when using a flash? And if you do, how do you get rid of it? So confused.

It's a judgment call. You can try tipping the glasses forward a bit, but not so much that it's obvious. And... you can raise the lights, but not so much that you begin to get too much shadow under the brow and chin.

Occasionally, the curve of the lenses will be so great it's simply unavoidable, making it necessary to do some retouching. The good thing is with digital, it has to be done only once and not on every print.

-Pete

 

[Tight Knot]

Excuse my ignorance and frustration, but how the heck do you manage not to get glare on glasses when using a flash? And if you do, how do you get rid of it? So confused.

It's a judgment call. You can try tipping the glasses forward a bit, but not so much that it's obvious. And... you can raise the lights, but not so much that you begin to get too much shadow under the brow and chin.

Occasionally, the curve of the lenses will be so great it's simply unavoidable, making it necessary to do some retouching. The good thing is with digital, it has to be done only once and not on every print.

-Pete

Thanks Pete,
Question then is, how do you fix it in photoshop CS5 or Adobe lightroom 3?

 

[Christie Photo]

Question then is, how do you fix it in photoshop CS5 or Adobe lightroom 3?

Well... since I minimize the glare as much as I can when I shoot, I've been able to do it myself using the clone tool in Photoshop.

Sorry I can't give you more help than that.

-Pete

 

[Tight Knot]

Question then is, how do you fix it in photoshop CS5 or Adobe lightroom 3?

Well... since I minimize the glare as much as I can when I shoot, I've been able to do it myself using the clone tool in Photoshop.

Sorry I can't give you more help than that.

-Pete

Thanks Pete, the reason I ask, is because I took a photo of a group of people, both with a flash and without, and the glasses are totally flashed. If I use the clone tool, I'm going to lose the eyes totally. I was hoping for some "magic button" in photoshop that would remove the glare from the lenses.

 

[Christie Photo]

...I took a photo of a group of people, both with a flash and without, and the glasses are totally flashed.

Oooo... tough one.

Well, for NEXT time: Work from a tripod and at the end of the exposures, ask everyone to stay in place and remove their glasses for a few more exposures. You can then use those for pasting into place over the flared glasses.

MAYBE with what you have for this one, you can first get the color, exposure and scale of your available light exposures to match that of the flash exposures and do the same. Of course you won't want to do this to every view, but just to the one(s) chosen for printing.

Good luck!

-Pete

 

[Opher]

I think these were shot with continuous lighting and that is why they are soft
1/60 is not fast enough at 80mm if it had been flash you would have been ok

Yes they were continues... they wont let us use strobes yet.

what was your lighting setup?

its a 1:3 ratio. main was a 1000w fill, back, and hair are 500w

I think these were shot with continuous lighting and that is why they are soft
1/60 is not fast enough at 80mm if it had been flash you would have been ok

???

Oh... I bet you're presuming this was shot hand-held. It took me a minute to figure out what you're suggesting. I typically shoot at 1/60 in the studio... and down to 1/15 outdoors, but ALWAYS on a tripod.

To the OP: This image is plenty sharp. In fact, if it were any sharper you'd like it less.

Portraiture is not medical photography. It's usually not a good thing to achieve absolute reality, as most of us need some help in our appearance. A bit of softening helps so much with skin texture, hair (Her hair is wreck by the way. Watch for those stray hair coming onto her neck.), and contrast.

I bit warmer would be nice too. Again, you're not going so much for reality as for something flattering.

The light ratio (main:fill) could be a wee bit greater. The position of the hair light bothers me more. Move it a bit so it falls more on the same side as the main and not straight down on her. I wouldn't position the fill any lower. It's fine where it is and will only cause problems with her lenses if lower.

And the clothing is out of key. Consider using a deeper background when working with deep colored clothing.

All-in-all, I think you did fine for your first go at it.

-Pete

Thank you for the input. It is truly helpful .
I was stuck using a 3:1 ratio and grey back however my next go i will move that hair light.
EDIT: ya no tripod. The school was closed so i could not get a tripod plate from the office. I guess the kept going missing so they don't keep them in the 24/7 studios.




Thank you everyone for your help and suggestions:hug::. If you have more feel free to continue.