Lighting Problems (Lack of Knowledge)

[Olympus E300]

Made another attempt today. I moved the softboxes around a little bit, added a little backlighting and tilted the eyeglasses a touch to avoid those pesky reflections. Again, please disregard composition and muslin creases - I'm working on lighting at the moment (one step at a time...LoL).

 

[kundalini]

Forgot to mention in my last post, but you're probably better suited for portrait orientation than landscape in this type of shot and having your model off center. Much improved from the first session. :thumbsup: But your lighting is still quite "safe".

One more thought.... the back of the hand square towards camera isn't your friend IMO. In this case it draws the viewers eye towards the bottom of the page ( with the bright highlight) rather than to his face.

 

[Olympus E300]

Much improved from the first session.

Thanks!! I'm trying... =)

...the back of the hand square towards camera isn't your friend IMO. In this case it draws the viewers eye towards the bottom of the page ( with the bright highlight) rather than to his face.

Excellent advice! I fully agree...

Cheers!!
- Dan

 

[bazooka]

That looks better. The backlighting I was proposing would be on the subject, to separate them from the background more. Most TV broadcast lighting that I've been involved with was mounted about 30 to 45 degrees (possibly more depending on the grid and floor situation) above and behind the subject, sometimes off to the side a bit, not necassarily directly behind. Maybe google "3-point lighting". This is what I was taught in school anyway.

 

[Olympus E300]

That looks better. The backlighting I was proposing would be on the subject, to separate them from the background more. Most TV broadcast lighting that I've been involved with was mounted about 30 to 45 degrees (possibly more depending on the grid and floor situation) above and behind the subject, sometimes off to the side a bit, not necassarily directly behind. Maybe google "3-point lighting". This is what I was taught in school anyway.

Thanks Bazooka. I'll search 3 point! Cheers!
- Dan

 

[Olympus E300]

Okay, so I looked at your post again at the broarder questions. But, I also have a couple.

From your equip list:
Flash : FL-50R (wireless) Is this a bare flash 28" off the floor?
Softbox : 20" wide x 28" tall 1000W with 5 daylight bulbs (Temp = 5500K) \
Softbox : 28" wide x 20" tall 1000W with 5 daylight bulbs (Temp = 5500K) Are these continuous lights? Cool or Hot?

From your setting:
ƒ-Stop : ƒ/3.9 If shooting behind a backdrop such as this and unless you're going for a particular style, IMO, an aperture of f/8 may have worked better to make sure the entire depth of your model is in focus. The shallow DoF works well with head shots, but again IMO, 3/4 shots don't work as well with blurred effect.
ISO : 320 Is this your max synch speed?
Exposure Time : 1/10 sec A bit long to ask a model to stand still. I would think a shutter speed of 1/125 up to synch speed would be better suited with your lighting gear.


Okay, out of the red... Looking at your diagram, I would suggest to try another approach. Instead of having your softboxes 10' away from the subject (geesh, you must have a warehouse to shoot in ) move them to just out of frame... literally, when you see the soft box in the view finder, back off an inch. Getting the light source closer to the subject gives a more evenly spread and softer light. It also drops the power settings, which in turn increases recharge time (for battery powered lighting). You'll need to decide which is main and which is fill. Set them to a ~2:1 ratio so that the fill is one stop less than the main. Try the main light at 45°/45° (45° off camera axis, 45° above model)....... crap, you've got a third light.... Hmmm, right so, take the third light, put it on a stand and place it behind the model. You can try facing it towards the model for the rim light effect or pound the background for the halo effect.

Another option would be to place one of the soft boxes as a main placed above the model ~12" in front and have a reflector below him to bounce some light to fill in the shadows.

WOW!! How did I miss this post? LoL...I was going back and reviewing this thread when I realized that I hadn't read this post. My gosh indeed!! Now to answer some of your questions :

(1) Flash : FL-50R (wireless) Is this a bare flash 28" off the floor?

I have a diffuser on this flash. One of those units that slips over the flash. Its about 8x5" square and flat



(2) Softbox : 20" wide x 28" tall 1000W with 5 daylight bulbs (Temp = 5500K) \
Softbox : 28" wide x 20" tall 1000W with 5 daylight bulbs (Temp = 5500K) Are these continuous lights? Cool or Hot?

These are continuous lights, yes. They are cool.



(3) ƒ-Stop : ƒ/3.9 If shooting behind a backdrop such as this and unless you're going for a particular style, IMO, an aperture of f/8 may have worked better to make sure the entire depth of your model is in focus. The shallow DoF works well with head shots, but again IMO, 3/4 shots don't work as well with blurred effect.

I'll take this into consideration on my next shoot...Which might be tomorrow if I have the time. Thanks for the heads up!!



(4) ISO : 320 Is this your max synch speed?

I'm fairly certain that I can get away with 100 which is what I was using today.



(5) Exposure Time : 1/10 sec A bit long to ask a model to stand still. I would think a shutter speed of 1/125 up to synch speed would be better suited with your lighting gear.

Again...Thanks for the heads up. I'll set the exposure to 1/125 for the next shoot. Cheers!!



(6) Okay, out of the red... Looking at your diagram, I would suggest to try another approach. Instead of having your softboxes 10' away from the subject (geesh, you must have a warehouse to shoot in ) move them to just out of frame... literally, when you see the soft box in the view finder, back off an inch. Getting the light source closer to the subject gives a more evenly spread and softer light. It also drops the power settings, which in turn increases recharge time (for battery powered lighting). You'll need to decide which is main and which is fill. Set them to a ~2:1 ratio so that the fill is one stop less than the main. Try the main light at 45°/45° (45° off camera axis, 45° above model)....... crap, you've got a third light.... Hmmm, right so, take the third light, put it on a stand and place it behind the model. You can try facing it towards the model for the rim light effect or pound the background for the halo effect.

Another option would be to place one of the soft boxes as a main placed above the model ~12" in front and have a reflector below him to bounce some light to fill in the shadows.

Well...I wasn't sure how close to get the lights to the subject. Without spending much time today reading the information in the links supplied throughout this thread, I was thinking the opposite. Now I'm leaning towards bringing them in much, much closer! Thanks again. I sure hope I have time tomorrow to play with this!!

Cheers!
- Dan