New Lighting

CowgirlMama · Mar 10, 2012

My dad ordered some umbrellas and tripods for flashes he already had a while ago. They finally came last week, so we set them up in our living room last night. Obviously, the living room isn't an ideal studio, but it was a chance to experiment with things before taking the time to actually set everything up. My dad took the pictures, since he refuses to get in front of the camera, so I guess I have to link instead of putting them in the post. If there's an exception, since we were working together, I'll be happy to edit them in.

I'm just curious what you think of the lighting in these and how we could improve it more. At this moment, we're still waiting for the trigger for the flashes, so he fired a flash on his camera onto the ceiling to set the others off as slaves. We had two lights with umbrellas about 45 degrees on the left and right. The one on the left was higher and angled downward over me, the one on the right was level with my shoulders and pointed directly to me.

Untitled | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Untitled | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Village Idiot · Mar 12, 2012

It's flat and there are shadows on the wall from being so close. If this is what you're going for, then it works. I like shadows and drama in my photos though. Try lighting the subject with one light and using the 2nd on the back ground or as a backlight/hairlight.

If you pull the subject away from the wall and you're using the 2nd light as a back/rim/hair light, you accomplish 2 things, you'll have fall off from the main light so the background won't be as lit and the rim light creates separation. Something to play with.

CowgirlMama · Mar 12, 2012

Thanks! I don't want flat light. My dad likes it. That makes it hard when we're trying to work together. *sigh* I'll try your set up over the weekend, when I can do it in a larger space. My living room is not ideal.

Thanks for taking the time to look!