What's new

First time with lighting equipment for CC

DaevidClarke

TPF Noob!
Joined
May 31, 2010
Messages
186
Reaction score
0
Location
Maryland
Can others edit my Photos
Photos OK to edit
d80 / 35mm

out of 200 shots this is one of my favorites. Any CC would help greatly, especially on the lighting.

sorry about the watermark :D

brittany_01_by_d_clarke-d32g3wi.jpg
 
what were you using for lighting?
also on the pose, coming from a woman, her backside looks BUDONKUOLUS! HUGE! I know it can't really be that big because her arms are nice and thin.
Her face looks teeny tiny, with her posed this way it is not flattering to the model.
as far as the lighting, it could work like this if this was the look you were going for, under exposed, dark moody, but if you were trying to get nice even lighting, then no, it is set up wrong.
I can not offer much advice unless you show/tell your set up and camera settings.
 
this was af. i had it on single point focus and it was focused directly on her left eye. not sure how that could have missed. :( as for the exposure, i wanted to keep it slightly moody, which led me to underexposure by a wee bit. not sure it came across that way...
 
what were your settings as in shutter speed and aperture?
Also, what were you using for light?
 
what were you using for lighting?
also on the pose, coming from a woman, her backside looks BUDONKUOLUS! HUGE!

lulz. it is big in RL but i can see how her dress makes it look comically big. somthing to watch out for. i was going for slightly moody, but i think it missed. All i was using was 2 lamps..one soft on her right and BG and one hard on her left. like i said, this was my first time using any lighting equipment.
 
im sorry. this was actually shot with a 10-24 wide angle, which would account for the distortion. and it wasnt correctly exposed sooc. fixed it in ps. shot at 4.5 1/30. :(
 
Okay, I'll give it a shot.

First off, it looks as if your main light is 90° (side lighting) to the model and only slightly higher than the model and full on to the middle third of the frame. This leaves her face underexposed and the prevalent shadow on the wall. This is a portrait, correct? The first rule of portraits is that it's all about the mask.... the face. However, your lighting is accentuating the other parts rather than her face. To further that, the black dress is underexposed because there is little, if any, definition to her dress and footwear. The lighting position also makes her arm and hand the brighter parts of the shot, which is where the eye will naturally go to first. I do like the lighting ratio. Next time consider using the 45x45 lighting position. That is 45° off camera axis and 45° above the model.

As far as composition, your choice has left the hand, front leg, etc to be to foremost element..... not the face. Females should not have the hand position square to the camera as this is a masculine position. Bring your subject 6-10 feet from the background. this is especially true here because the block wall is non-essential. Use a larger aperture to separate the subject from the background to isolate them... pop.

While the fishnet stockings and continuing bare skin can be sensual, the camera position makes the bottom end look BUDONKUOLUS (thanks Crystal)... I have no idea what that means, but it seems appropriate. One of the issues with these types of shots is that a longer lens will help much more than a 35mm lens to compress features and give a more pleasing result.

Not too bad, but just a few things that came to mind. Thanks for sharing.
 
thanks kundalini. theres a lot of good advice in your post. next time i shoot ill try out your suggestions and "donts" for portraits. i really appreciate the feedback.
 
Move her about three feet further from that wall as well (as long as space allows) This will cause her to pop a bit more, and not be so flat against it.

Lighting can make or break a shot like this.







p!nK
 
and one more thing! lol Did you focus and recompose this shot? Did you focus press shutter half way down and then recompose the shot? I think that could be why the knee is in focus and not the face.
 
thanks for all the advice everyone! ill compile it in my head and apply it for next time. :D
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Back
Top Bottom