new to studio lighting

weegyphoto · Dec 5, 2010

I recently purchased 2 studio strobes. 1 is 320 W/s and the other is 160 W/s. I have the 160 on my left with a black back, silver reflector umbrella and the 320 on my right behind a white shoot through umbrella. I have the power set the same on both strobes. the problem I am having is that in any photos other than close up protraits is that the left of the photo appears blue and underexposed compared to the right which does expose properly and color balanced properly. could someone please give me some suggestions on how I might balance the lighting without losing facial shadows?

thank you for your help.
if you would like to see an expample of what I'm talking about please see the first couple of photos on my flickr account at:
www.flickr.com/photos/weegyphoto

mwcfarms · Dec 5, 2010

I can't say what the problem would be but I do know that you shouldn't have the power set to be the same on both strobes. You should have a Key Light which is your main source, so stronger light and then hair or accent light which would be less.

But reading your post again, this might be different because they are different Watts which I didnt notice before. I did check your picture out and can't see a huge difference on the first two photos.

Misfitlimp · Dec 5, 2010

So half of the pic is fine and the other is not?

Big Mike · Dec 6, 2010

Ideally, it should matter that you are mixing a silver reflector and white shoot through, but things aren't always ideal. Maybe try using two identical light modifiers and see where that get's you.

Another possibility is that your lights aren't putting out consistent color temps. Are they the same brand? Even so, most lights will vary their color output with their power setting. Good lights are more consistent and cheaper lights will have a greater variation. It also has to do with the electronic design of the light.

Also, the proper 'old school' place for your fill light, is near the camera position, maybe even on the camera axis...and not on the other side of your subject. If there is a color difference between your lights, you might be able to hide it more, if your fill light is lighting the whole scene, with your key light only lighting up where you want it.

weegyphoto · Dec 8, 2010

misfitlimp, the way that I'm seeing it is that one side looks like a cool blue on the background and the other looks exposed to my taste.

Thanks for the tip Big Mike, I will try putting the fill light closer to the camera and see if that helps.
I think that I should have posted the question differnet as in, If I have 2 alien bees, 1 320W and 1 160W, a silver reflector umbrella and a convertible shoot through umbrella, what would be the best positioning of these strobes for accurate exposure when photographing more than 1 individual against a white backdrop. Additionally I would like to know how to prevent the shadows on the backdrop.

thank you for your help.

GeorgieGirl · Dec 8, 2010

If its the white background you are referring to, unless you have those lights set bright and hot, that background will not be white. Its challenging and often the result is a loss of detail in the subjects features or what the subject is wearing.

You have to point the bg light(s) at the bg and off to the side out of the shot of the subject.

In your case I'd still use the lower watt light at the bg to start since the position of the light is going to be closer to the bg and much more direct than any other light to the subject coupled with the bg falloff.

The only way to eliminate the shadows on the bg is with the right placement of the lights, if the bg is lit up well first, then the light for your subject is almost just for them and you can think of it in two zones.

Photographing more than one subject is more of a challenge, set up is still the same for the bg, but you have to try to position the two so that a shadow from the light from the one closest to it does not create a block-out/shadow on to the person next to them as it will require a lot of reflector to fill in that shadow.

So imagine the path of that subject light and know that if you allow the one subject to create an eclipse on to the second person you are going to have to address the dark zone from the subject light block with a fill reflector.

Anyone else care to add to this???

weegyphoto · Dec 8, 2010

Thank you Georgie Girl, that helps. would you use the 320W with the shoot through or the reflector umbrella? Right now I have it as the key light with the shoot through umbrella.

flyingember · Dec 8, 2010

you have almost infinite combinations of lighting possibilities.

I'd start at a different area, what do you want to do in your photo? what kind of mood?

Derrel · Dec 8, 2010

MY guess is that the silvered umbrella is causing the cooler lighting, and the white shoot-through is giving a significantly higher color temperature. A good illustration can be found by going to the Photoflex web site and looking at their PDF catalogue,which has a good series of test photos of a cup and saucer, illuminated with their MultiDome softbox, which comes with user-replaceable gold and silver "metallized" fabric inserts....and what makes it so valuable is that they use both the gold and the silver inserts both WITH and WITHOUT the white fabric front diffusing panel...I happened to be on the site earlier today, looking at some new softboxes. Photographic lighting and studio equipment for the photography, film, and video industries: Photoflex Products

Gold umbrellas will create very warm "yellowish" light. Silver, metallized umbrellas create a cooler, some say "blueish" color. Shoot-throughs vary with the fabric,and their age....I have some 30 year-old white shoot throughs that are so yellowed with age that they add 1,000 degrees Kelvin of warmth...

The situation you are encountering is pretty common, and shows that one cannot just mix and match light modifiers without the differences showing up. Sometimes the differences are small, or welcome--but other times the differences are not welcome, or are quite large.

I like metallized silvered umbrellas for stuff that is going to be converted to B&W, or which is shot on actual B&W film. Speedotron makes a fine Super Silver umbrella.

weegyphoto · Dec 8, 2010

I'm thinking your last question was actually a hypothetical question but I think right now, with the Holiday family portraits I'm actually just trying to get even lighting without losing depth in the photo. I understand that will most likely change when getting back to using creative lighting to change the mood of the portraits, which I understand will almost certainly take a considerable amount of practice.
I've actually had better success up to this point with natural lighting I think mostly because since I don't have experience with strobes I have to "guess" to some extent and with natural light it was exactly how I composed the shot before I hit the shutter button.
I think I understand that the question is sort of rediculous and there are possibly 1000's of different configs and settings for the lights. Thanks for not calling me out on it.

weegyphoto · Dec 8, 2010

Thanks Derrel, that makes a lot of sense. Not knowing anything about strobes I guess that since Alien Bees set this up as a package that it could be used together without issue. What you are saying is almost exactly what I'm seeing. Very useful and I guess I will be getting another shoot through or a softbox.

Derrel · Dec 8, 2010

I just went by your Flickr pages and looked at tyour studio shots of the family with the dog and little boy, as well as some of the other stuff with the toddlers...one does not really want totally even lighting. Even lighting would be 1:1, or perfectly even on both sides of the face. That's good for "beauty" work, where one wants the face to look smooth and perfect, and to show off makeup or lipstick or other cosmetic products or close-ups of beauty salon/beauty industry stuff.

Having "some shadows" is actually what makes photographic subjects look three-dimensional, and makes things look BETTER than flat, dull 1:1 lighting. Normally, a 3:1 lighting ratio is considered standard in portraiture of the type you are doing. Here is what *I would suggest*.

Put the silvered umbrella on the 320 W-S light, and the shoot through on the 160 W-S light. Put the main light, the 320, off to the side of the set at around 25 to 40 degrees, so that it casts a shadow on the opposite side of the nose, and a bit lower than the nose, but NOT touching the tip of the upper lip. Put the fill-light the 160 W-S with shoot through, RIGHT NEXT TO the camera, and aimed straight ahead at the same height as the camera. Do not put it off to the side of the family or child--put the fill light right NEXT TO you and the camera. Again, do NOT put the fill off to the side!!!!

With a 320 main and a 160 fill, if you had the SAME, exact type of modifiers, this would tend to produce a 3:1 lighting ratio if both modifiers were an equal distance from the subject. This is one reason lights are sold/made in differing powers like 160,320,640,and 1200, or 200-400-800-1200-1600-2400.

So....main at 9 feet, fill at 9 feet, main at 320 watt-seconds, fill at 160 watt seconds...this ought to give you a nice roughly 3:1 ratio in your shooting area. The shoot-through will tend to have more "ambient spill" than the balc-backed silver brolly, and so that is why I am suggesting it be used as the fill-light, and again, placed right next to you and the camera, and aimed straight ahead, from right at camera height.

weegyphoto · Dec 9, 2010

Wow, I guess you couldn't ask for better direction than that. I sure do appreciate it! I have a couple of shoots this weekend and will give it a whirl...thankfully friends so they wont mind being my test subjects.