Frustrated with harsh shadows! Help!

jwbryson1 · Nov 17, 2012

Below are 2 quick and dirty shots of my quick and dirty basement "studio" and a sample image of my daughter. I am trying to use the softboxes to get some nice shadows on her face but I am failing miserably and getting sick of this! Please help me. What am I doing wrong?!?!

What I am calling my key light (camera left) is on 1/16 power and my fill light (camera right) is on 1/64 power. I am not happy with the shadows I am creating. YN 560 Mark II units fired with Phottix Strato II radio triggers, Nikon D90, 1/200 second, f/5.6 I think, ISO 500.

1. Studio shot (it's a mess):

http://

Wide Angle Studio 2 by jwbryson1, on Flickr

2. Studio shot 2:

http://

Wide Angle Studio by jwbryson1, on Flickr

3. Portrait 1

http://

TEB Harsh Shadows by jwbryson1, on Flickr

MLeeK · Nov 17, 2012

You are letting yourself get frustrated. Stop. Slow down. It's really very simple-unless you let your frustration take over.
LOOK at your image. 1. Are you happy with the exposure from your key light? I'd say you are. 2. What are you not happy with: the shadows. 3.LOOK at those shadows and where are they falling? On the right side of your subject. SO, what do you need to do to make the shadows a little less?
I'll give you a hint: it has nothing to do with your key light.

MLeeK · Nov 17, 2012

One more thing to add here: Your lights are very far away from your subject. The further a light source is from the subject the harsher the light and shadows will be. The closer the light source the softer the light will be on the subject.

tirediron · Nov 17, 2012

I don't see that as too bad at all. As MLeet suggested, bring your lights in as close as you can (generally they should only be just out of frame) without killing the exposure. Next, reposition the child so that her shoulders are 30-ish degrees to the camera and she is looking into the lens NOT the light. 'Football' shoulders never look good on a female, regardless of age! The other thing that will really help is to get some background/separation light in the equation. If you don't have a third light, then replace the fill light with a large reflector close in, and use that light as a hair/rim or background light.

jwbryson1 · Nov 17, 2012

I thought the further away they are the more dispersed and spread out they would be because of falloff.

jwbryson1 · Nov 17, 2012

I put the softboxes MUCH closer to her and added a 3rd light for rim/hair lighting. The hair light was not diffused--straight speedlight due to lack of time. I am more worried about my key and fill at the moment.

Look better? You people are GOLDEN!!

http://

Revised Light Placement by jwbryson1, on Flickr

KmH · Nov 17, 2012

jwbryson1 said:
I thought the further away they are the more dispersed and spread out they would be because of falloff.

Nope.

The further away the light source is the smaller it appears to be, and because of falloff, to get the same exposure you then have to turn the power up, which negates the diffussion and spread distance adds.

Smaller apparent light sources also make more defined, harsher shadow edges.

By placing a modified light source close, it becomes apparently much larger, requires less power to make the same exposure, and delivers softer light with more diffuse shadow edges.

Tee · Nov 17, 2012

jwbryson1 said:
I put the softboxes MUCH closer to her and added a 3rd light for rim/hair lighting. The hair light was not diffused--straight speedlight due to lack of time. I am more worried about my key and fill at the moment.

Look better? You people are GOLDEN!!

http:// Revised Light Placement by jwbryson1, on Flickr

You should short light this. I bet it would make the image stronger. The hair light is a bit too strong.

MLeeK · Nov 17, 2012

jwbryson1 said:
I put the softboxes MUCH closer to her and added a 3rd light for rim/hair lighting. The hair light was not diffused--straight speedlight due to lack of time. I am more worried about my key and fill at the moment.

Look better? You people are GOLDEN!!

http:// Revised Light Placement by jwbryson1, on Flickr

Much nicer!!!
Tone down that hair light!!!

kundalini · Nov 17, 2012

You're killing (canceling) your modeling (shadows) by having your Fill light so far to the opposite side of the Main light. Try "feathering" the Main light towards the camera so that the center of your light source is crossing in front of the subject. Try moving your Fill light behind the camera along the lens axis. Then try moving the Fill towards the Main in the same arc from your subject up to 18" off lens axis. This will give you an idea of how the Fill will react with the Main to create the modeling. Try having the Fill light 1 to 3 stops less than your Main. Snoot the Hair light to tighten the beam, this can be "feathered" as well, to just "kiss" your subjects hair, not lighting it up.

shefjr · Nov 17, 2012

Definitely a big difference! I have no critique other than thanks for this thread. I've been stalking this post to learn from your mistakes and or trial and error. Honestly I'm sure I'll still have issues when I play with lighting, but hopefully some of this sticks. It's great to have such knowledgeable people to help.

fjrabon · Nov 17, 2012

Yep, when you want soft light, the general strategy is to have your light source as close as it can get without being in your actual picture. The only way you could get away with having lights that far back and be soft is if your softboxes were HUGE. Which, obviously they're not. If you want soft light, push it in close, and turn your power down.

What makes light soft is how big it 'looks' from the point of view of the subject. THink about what a light looks like when something gets closer to you perspective wise, it gets bigger. So, to have soft light, you can either have it really close, or be really big (or both for ultra soft light).

WIth speed light softboxes, if I want soft, diffuse light, I'll often have the light no more than a couple feet away from my subject.

SCraig · Nov 17, 2012

My only nit-pick is that her pupils are dilated. There's an easy way to avoid that but not being a portrait shooter I can't remember what it is. Fire a modeling flash so that the pupils will close down or something simple like that. Someone will know I'm sure.

jwbryson1 · Nov 17, 2012

shefjr said:
Definitely a big difference! I have no critique other than thanks for this thread. I've been stalking this post to learn from your mistakes and or trial and error. Honestly I'm sure I'll still have issues when I play with lighting, but hopefully some of this sticks. It's great to have such knowledgeable people to help.

Stick around and keep learning. I've been on this board for under 2 years and have made some nice friends. Good people with an incredible depth of knowledge who are willing to share and help others learn. The thing I have taken away from my experience here is to give everybody a chance and pay the knowledge forward.

Mike_E · Nov 17, 2012

If you haven't already read this from one of the fathers of modern portraiture.

Zeltsman Apporach to Traditionla Classic Portraiture

You might want to copy it to some where because it's getting harder and harder to find.