help me UNDERSTAND speed lights for portraits, please

andrewdoeshair · Mar 25, 2017

Sorry, I should have been more clear about my specific intentions from the beginning. My overall intentions are to create striking images of cool people who's hair I just happened to have done, whether or not (but mostly not) the hair is the main focus of the image. I want people to want to be as cool as the people in the pictures, and I want to avoid a picture that only says "I cut hair. Look at this haircut I just did"

I'm headed to the airport at the moment, but there I'll have plenty of time to thoroughly read your last few responses. Thanks again and again.

Designer · Mar 25, 2017

Oh, well that clears that up. You still need a hair light. Dark hair against a dark background tends to "blend in" and people still need to see the extent of the hair, even though they are not shopping for a haircut. Even light hair against a light background will benefit. Just watch the shiny reflections that might show up.

The same effect should be done with a model wearing a dark garment against a dark background. People need to see where the model stops and the background starts.

andrewdoeshair · Mar 25, 2017

much appreciated, Designer. I'm going to spend more time thinking about the hair light next time I trap a model in the studio. On the past few shoots I was so focused on getting the beauty dish and reflector right that I just pointed a general 7" reflector somewhere near the hair and called it good.

A package just arrived as I was about to leave for the airport, and it couldn't have had better contents. Perfect way to spend a flight

andrewdoeshair · Mar 26, 2017

That book has been amazing so far. No updates on studio progress, as I'm out of town, but I've started paying a lot more attention to lighting as I'm walking around on this trip. This morning my wife was doing her makeup by an open window and I was like "there it is!"
Shot on iPhone, edited with instagram.

andrewdoeshair · Apr 1, 2017

I just got one of those backdrop racks with the dangly chains on the end, and I got some black paper and gray paper, but I've read that the faux velvet stuff is better than paper. Should I get some of that? I should have the backdrop racks installed Sunday, then I have a few models lined up for Tuesday to give it a test run.

Can anyone recommend a good light meter? My research has turned up everything from $20 light meters being amazing to $300 light meters being a rip off. I don't need anything fancy, I'm sure, I just want to get a better understanding of exactly how much light I'm flicking around.

Thank you

Derrel · Apr 1, 2017

These days, Sekonic is a fine name in meters. They have some good YouTube videos. I guess their 358?

andrewdoeshair · Apr 2, 2017

Light meter in transit. Thank you!

I just finished installing my backdrops. I got gray and black paper by Savage, from Amazon. In person the gray and black look realllly similar in color, but I'm sure I'll be able to get a lot of use out of both. I spent about 3 minutes doing some test shots on my brother, who helped hold the ladder so I didn't die installing the backdrop racks. The black paper is instantly better than trying to black out a white wall in such a small space. Then, for fun and to see if I could, I lit the black backdrop to make it (almost) white. Thanks to that book I finally knew to hit the backdrop from outside the family of angles that would produce a direct reflection, and I kept the light source pretty far so that the exposure across the backdrop would be even. I used to stick a speed light behind the model's head on a little stand and get an over exposed circle around the head, fading quickly and unevenly to dark edges. Like a poor quality vignetting effect. The same backdrop lighting scenario on the white wall produced a flawless "cleaner than real life" white, like he was floating in limbo or something. I'm really excited to put these things into practice. I have two models coming in on Tuesday, and I can't wait to play with the lighting and backdrops. Oh yeah, one of my wall-mounted boom arms stripped a bolt and wouldn't lock, so I took it home to replace the bolt and I ended up snapping the flange that locks it in place. I took a star off of my Amazon review when I went to order a new one. Heads up if anyone buys one (interfit brand). Be careful tightening or loosening the bolts.

andrewdoeshair · Apr 6, 2017

Today I set up a tripod and a mannequin head in my studio and took about 100 photos with varying settings, back drops, and light/reflector/model locations. I got out my tape measure and light meter to write down how much light I lose in a foot, or three feet, behind my fake head. I also tried various (but still very few, in the grand scheme of things) lighting scenarios.

I've found that I really like my beauty dish and reflector set up like a clam shell, then my second strobe used as either a hair light with black backdrop or as a backdrop light on the white wall, but I keep getting an issue with a dark side (see first photo of girl with short hair). I started using a speed light set to slave to get rid of the dark side, but the highlights are really specular compared to what the BD creates (see second photo of girl with short hair). Today I bought another trigger so I could put my speedlight inside a big soft box since the slave feature doesn't work with it in there, and as I was practicing with my dummy head I tried hitting it with the speed light alone, a shoot through umbrella, and also in said softbox.

All of this to say, I know from what I've learned of hair that there is no substitute for experience. I'm trying to gain that experience with lighting any chance I get (model or mannequin) while I record and study my results enough that I can start to pre plan them. When I do a haircut I know where I'm going to end up before I even take out a comb (I'm wrong 1% of the time). Usually during the haircut I'll know right where I want to put my camera to get the righ shot (I'm still wrong about half the time). I want to be able to calculate lighting before I take out my camera, and maybe even before I finish the haircut. For now I do a lot of guess and check, which is embarrassing and stressful when I have a live model. I'm sure it won't happen tomorrow, or even within a month, but that's my small goal for now. I want to get that experience and eventually confidence.

Derrel · Apr 6, 2017

A great post! You have learned so much. Congrats on the backgrounds! You now are using the Inverse Square Law with understanding.

andrewdoeshair · Apr 11, 2017

I recently bought Peter Hurley's tutorial about posing people for head shots, and it's been pretty helpful. 3 years ago thinking about ISO, aperture, and shutter speed felt like rocket science, and now it's automatic. Last month thinking about lighting felt like rocket science, and while it's nowhere near easy or automatic yet, I've been able to systematically place one light at a time and get good enough results (hopefully I can get to amazing results someday). Now posing a model is a big and scary task, especially trying to think about it, be fun and personable with the model, and still think about lighting and camera settings all at once. Portrait photographers are amazing, I look up to you guys so much.

Here at the beginning of today's session Chloe was stiff and uncomfortable

Then I got her to laugh a little

Finally I felt like I got her to loosen up and have fun with the camera. As you can see, I was also changing lighting and backdrops along the way, just trying to experiment as much as I could in the short window that she'd put up with me.

I just wanted to check in with some progress. I still need about a metric crap load more practice, but the ideas and answers you all have given me in this thread have been a total game changer for me and I wanted to share where it's taken me so far.

Derrel · Apr 12, 2017

This has been a fascinating and productive thread. You've clearly learned a lot over the past few weeks. I know this thread started off with speedlights in the title, but this has evolved into so much more than just speedlights. Your posts and photos and your willingness to buy actual studio-type AC-powered flash units and modifiers have turned this into one of the better Beyond The Basics threads that TPF has had in a long time. It's been enjoyable to be part of this. Your practice sessions and all the work you've spent on learning and refining your lighting set-ups have really payed off! Kudos to you, Andrew!

andrewdoeshair · Apr 26, 2017

I visited the salon in LA again but I brought very minimal photo gear this time. Last time I went out there I brought one of my strobes with a 16" beauty dish and a big round reflector, but I failed to think about lighting the hair so I got face-only shots of my haircuts all day. This time I used a single speed light on camera, a bounce card made from a note card, and a backdrop made from a haircutting cape. The other stylists there thought I was a photography wizard! I wanted to share this little bit because since the start of this thread I've gained a lot more understanding of lighting, and with this recent visit to LA I was able to really see the benefit. I feel like I was able to get better photos with less equipment this time (makes ya feel like a champ). The light bouncing off the ceiling lit the hair well enough, and the light bouncing off the card lit the face well enough. Those Peter Hurley videos from F Stoppers have been pretty helpful as far as posing my models. I'm still mostly lost when I do that, but it's been easier to notice things like neck wrinkles, soft jaw lines, and mismatches eye sizes since he broke these things down so systematically.

This is Heather, I did her hair in LA then got a few photos (using the on camera speed light and the haircutting cape backdrop). After I was happy enough with the lighting at F7 or so I lowered the flash power and got some at F2.8, which I haven't done in a long time. I got so hooked on the way my Sigma 50mm art lens looked at tighter apertures that I forgot how nice a little blur can be. These are both right off the camera and (especially the second one) could use some white balance correction.