First time with strobes: C&C Please

Postman158 · Feb 8, 2012

Hey guys!

I did a "just for fun" shoot with my friend yesterday to practice with my new strobes. I had two lights, with an umbrella on one of them. Can you tell where I placed the lights?

What could I have done different, for better or worse? This was my first time with the lights, and essentially shot by trial and error, moving the lights after a few shots. Let me know what you think!

By the way, the blue tint in her hair isn't chromatic aberration, her hair is dyed in the back

I believe the shots in the blue jacket were with my 50mm 1.4 and the black jacket was with my 24-70 f2.8L. Feel free to edit if you feel the need to.
1.

2.

3.

4. My goal here was to try and make the background all black.. but I could not for the life of me figure out how to!

ulrichsd · Feb 8, 2012

1, 2 and 4 - light from behind and front left. #3 side lit from the right and soft umbrella front/left. Looks good, I like the background too!

MReid · Feb 8, 2012

These look ok.
A couple are a bit strong with the back light, a couple are a bit weak.
The front light looks pretty good in all of them, in the first few bring it from a higher angle.
Cute model, she is a natural.

JS_280 · Feb 8, 2012

They look great to me! To get the blacked out background in number 4 you could have upped your shutter speed (keeping within sync limits) or moved your model further away from the background to allow the light to fall off. If you had the room, you could have also possibly moved the key light closer to her and lowered the power.

AgentDrex · Feb 8, 2012

Sweet, I have no strobes but I already learned quite a bit from just these few tidbits of information. Thank you!

Postman158 · Feb 8, 2012

Thanks guys! I appreciate the information, and I'm glad they're not terrible! I'd love some more input from more people, to see if theres any way I can improve. Thanks again!

shortpants · Feb 8, 2012

Nice job. I was just playing with the same setup and you're look entirely better than mine lol. You might want to try some fill next time to lighten up the shadows on the face, like for the last photo. The nose shadow is a bit distracting.

Postman158 · Feb 8, 2012

shortpants said:
Nice job. I was just playing with the same setup and you're look entirely better than mine lol. You might want to try some fill next time to lighten up the shadows on the face, like for the last photo. The nose shadow is a bit distracting.

I agree. I think not so much a fill light, but a reflector would have worked. I'm afraid that if I might have used another fill light, I might have over exposed her face. Thank you!

shortpants · Feb 8, 2012

Yeah you can use a reflector, or adjust your settings to account for the extra light from another flash.

KmH · Feb 8, 2012

Nice location. :thumbup:

You can shoot through your umbrellas?

Get them as close to your model as possible (just outside the image frame) if you want nice soft light and diffuse shadow edges that wrap. That makes your light source as large as possible.
Moving the lights further away makes them apparently smaller, if you want harsher light and sharper edged shadows.

Your main light needed to be a bit higher judging by the shadow cast by her nose. But, you don't want the main light so high the nose shadow interescts the upper lip line, even if the shadow has a nice soft, diffuse edge.

If/when you use a bit of fill light, be sure your fill light follows your subjects nose so it is always pointed pretty much directly at it.

Postman158 · Feb 8, 2012

KmH said:
Nice location. :thumbup:

You can shoot through your umbrellas?

Get them as close to your model as possible (just outside the image frame) if you want nice soft light and diffuse shadow edges that wrap. That makes your light source as large as possible.
Moving the lights further away makes them apparently smaller, if you want harsher light and sharper edged shadows.

Your main light needed to be a bit higher judging by the shadow cast by her nose. But, you don't want the main light so high the nose shadow interescts the upper lip line, even the shadow has a nice soft, diffuse edge.

If/when you use a bit of fill light, be sure your fill light follows your subjects nose so it is always pointed pretty much directly at it.

Great info KmH! Thanks a ton. I will definitely move them closer, as they were kinda far from her. I had the ideation backwards, I figured if they're too close, they'll be wayyyy too harsh. I will also raise the main light a bit higher, I see what you're talking about. Thanks for the props on the location. Its a barn we're converting from a barn, to another room. Since its in the process, it still looks "construction..y", which is why I kinda liked it. Luckily there was power, so I didn't have to run extension cords all over the place.

Thanks again, KmH.

Postman158 · Feb 9, 2012

Any other thoughts?

RichardsTPF · Feb 9, 2012

1, 2 and 4 - light from behind and front left. #3 side lit from the right and soft umbrella front/left.

:thumbup:

Like #1,2,3. #4 her face is too bright.

CalamityCreekDesigns · Feb 9, 2012

I would have used my key from the same side as her nose ring. Just my opinion though.

Postman158 · Feb 9, 2012

RichardsTPF said:
1, 2 and 4 - light from behind and front left. #3 side lit from the right and soft umbrella front/left.

Click to expand...

:thumbup:

Like #1,2,3. #4 her face is too bright.

Thank you! It was mentioned by another person I know that I should have kept the picture temperature the same if I'm showing the images together, because it would then seem off, just like you stated. Thanks again!