New Sweater...

[oldmacman]

... Well, new to my daughter. She picked it up at the thrift shop today. As we are on holidays, we did a quick photo shoot to "document" the item. C&C appreciated.
These were all shot against a white backdrop with one light camera left and a gold reflector camera right. Kinda wish I had a soft box at home. No retouching except cropping and the yellow fill.

1. White keyed the background

2. Tested the key with a yellow fill

3. Snooted a light behind her head and the yellow is the gold reflector.

 

[SabrinaO]

How did you get the yellow background?

 

[Robin Usagani]

tell your daughter that life is beautiful. She needs to smile more haha. I like 1 & 3. The yellow fill is too bright. Maybe tone it down more.

 

[PerfectlyFlawed]

K... First of all she looks SUPER depressed. Shes very pretty and should SMILE
Second... the Yellow, OUCH!..:meh:

I like it on the White background, However.. the 3rd shots background brings out her eyes more.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

I need to know more about the lighting because I just never get the bg anywhere near that right.

Details please. Watts, modifiers, placement/height/distance.

DD is lovely!!!

 

[ghache]

I need to know more about the lighting because I just never get the bg anywhere near that right.

Details please. Watts, modifiers, placement/height/distance.

DD is lovely!!!

shooting a white background is that that hard, get your background lights 2-3 stops higher than your main subject and you should have a white background...

 

[GeorgieGirl]

I need to know more about the lighting because I just never get the bg anywhere near that right.

Details please. Watts, modifiers, placement/height/distance.

DD is lovely!!!

shooting a white background is that that hard, get your background lights 2-3 stops higher than your main subject and you should have a white background...

Ignore the highlight monitor in the camera that is saying overexposed? I haven't done that yet, I've just turned down the lights so it stops. I might end up about 1 stop more but Ive never reached for 2 or 3.

Just go for it???

 

[oldmacman]

I need to know more about the lighting because I just never get the bg anywhere near that right.

Details please. Watts, modifiers, placement/height/distance.

DD is lovely!!!

shooting a white background is that that hard, get your background lights 2-3 stops higher than your main subject and you should have a white background...

Ignore the highlight monitor in the camera that is saying overexposed? I haven't done that yet, I've just turned down the lights so it stops. I might end up about 1 stop more but Ive never reached for 2 or 3.

Just go for it???

My process is to meter the light hitting the subject with a flash meter. I have a cheap set of strobes that I have worked with long enough to know how the light balances. There is no digital readout on the back as you get in the more expensive lights.

I'll use a flag or throw on barn doors to help reduce any spill to the subject. In this case, I used barn doors as I didn't have any flags at home. I know this isn't scientific, but I take my first shot after light metering and if the background has too much fall off, I just adjust the output of the strobe. I guess I could meter it, but I'm usually pretty close on the first shot anyway so I don't mind doing it this way. I think the key is guarding against spill and bounce back. In this case, the strobe is at 45deg to the backdrop. Sorry, I guess it's a little misleading when I said I used one light camera left, as I was only thinking about the exposure for the subject.

Here is a sketch of the set up if you are interested:

 

[sydneykimi]

Did you use yellow paper or just color gel?

 

[Big Mike]

I need to know more about the lighting because I just never get the bg anywhere near that right.

Details please. Watts, modifiers, placement/height/distance.

DD is lovely!!!

shooting a white background is that that hard, get your background lights 2-3 stops higher than your main subject and you should have a white background...

Ignore the highlight monitor in the camera that is saying overexposed? I haven't done that yet, I've just turned down the lights so it stops. I might end up about 1 stop more but Ive never reached for 2 or 3.

Just go for it???

You don't have to have the backbround so overexposed that it's blinking on your screen, but just shy of that should be good. The key point is that you are getting more light onto it (or reflecting off of it) than the subject. That's why is so important to have a separate background light(s).

 

[Big Mike]

Oh, and I don't think that she looks depressed...she just looks like a teenager who's dad is making her sit for photos.

 

[oldmacman]

Did you use yellow paper or just color gel?

I have shot gels into the backdrop and I love the way that looks. The shot with yellow was the same setup as the white background and I was testing how well the white would colour select in PS. I was pretty happy with the strands of hair that are maintained when the white was replaced with yellow and the contour is nice and clean around the figure.

 

[oldmacman]

Oh, and I don't think that she looks depressed...she just looks like a teenager who's dad is making her sit for photos.

Exactly

 

[Big Mike]

I have shot gels into the backdrop and I love the way that looks. The shot with yellow was the same setup as the white background and I was testing how well the white would colour select in PS. I was pretty happy with the strands of hair that are maintained when the white was replaced with yellow and the contour is nice and clean around the figure.

It still screams 'PHOTOSHOP' to me. Try putting a gradient on the yellow, and maybe taking the brightness down a notch.

 

[oldmacman]

I have shot gels into the backdrop and I love the way that looks. The shot with yellow was the same setup as the white background and I was testing how well the white would colour select in PS. I was pretty happy with the strands of hair that are maintained when the white was replaced with yellow and the contour is nice and clean around the figure.

It still screams 'PHOTOSHOP' to me. Try putting a gradient on the yellow, and maybe taking the brightness down a notch.

Yeah, I hear what you are saying but the yellow really was a test to see how clean the keying worked. It's funny that a post from a couple months ago, where I used gels, someone indicated it looked like I had photoshopped the background. In this shot, where I state that it was photoshopped, there is a question about whether it was done with gels. Here's one of the blue gel shots from a couple months ago and, just for fun, the yellow shot with your suggestion on a gradient.