Photo booth question

[Designer]

Do you think one light straight on will handle that these types of things or make odd shadows?

You already know that will produce flat light, but yes, you won't see shadows if your light is right above and behind you. That's the definition of flat light.

 

[Summer75]

I am going to shoot RAW so I am not too worried about the colors persay. My light should dominate over the flickers of the florescent lights in the room.

Raw files or not, mixing colors of light make it nearly impossible to get the colors right.

It's not the flicker, it's the color.

If you can't eliminate the florescent light completely, then your best option might be to gel your light to match and set your camera WB to "florescent".

Then you can correct the colors.

I am bringing lighting so I believe that will eliminate the florescent light. I am going to under expose for the environment and than bring in lights and expose properly for that, to dominate the light for the shot. Am I correct in expecting that to deal with eliminating the florescent light problem?

 

[Summer75]

this video outlines that lighting setup:



I don't think you'll have an issue in that regard...

Thank-you for this! Very helpful. Takes some of my worries away.

 

[Summer75]

Step & Repeat backdrop.

The main problems with using a reflector are (1) It needs to be placed opposite(ish) to the light to work which means your fill light will come in from the shadow side and NOT fill in the eyes, under chin, etc; and (2) reflectors generally need to be fairly close. I use a Lastolite Triflector when I'm doing location headshots, and it's usually literally just out of view; in fact I often crop the edge of it out of the image. A second light will make your life much, much, MUCH easier.

I don't have a diagram handy, but it's pretty simple. Assume the camera to be the center of the set-up: The couple is about 8' away, and the background 6-8' behind them. The key light is about 30 degrees to my right and 1-2' in front of me. The fill light (large umbrella) is just to my left, and about 1-2' behind me, and set so that it's providing 1.5 stops less light on the subject than the key.

The key light is set so that the light head is about 7' high and the umbrella angled down at about 30 degrees (approximately). The fill light is set so that the light head is about 6' high and more-or-less level.

So I did end up getting a second light in the end, which I can use to light the background or the subjects, depending on the scenario. I played around with your instructions and my living room is abit on the small side so I had my subject about a foot away from the wall, and I was about 7 feet away. No matter what I did there was 2 shadows of the subject on the wall behind. Is that a lighting issue, or just because the subject was too close to the wall?

 

[Designer]

Step & Repeat backdrop.

The main problems with using a reflector are (1) It needs to be placed opposite(ish) to the light to work which means your fill light will come in from the shadow side and NOT fill in the eyes, under chin, etc; and (2) reflectors generally need to be fairly close. I use a Lastolite Triflector when I'm doing location headshots, and it's usually literally just out of view; in fact I often crop the edge of it out of the image. A second light will make your life much, much, MUCH easier.

I don't have a diagram handy, but it's pretty simple. Assume the camera to be the center of the set-up: The couple is about 8' away, and the background 6-8' behind them. The key light is about 30 degrees to my right and 1-2' in front of me. The fill light (large umbrella) is just to my left, and about 1-2' behind me, and set so that it's providing 1.5 stops less light on the subject than the key.

The key light is set so that the light head is about 7' high and the umbrella angled down at about 30 degrees (approximately). The fill light is set so that the light head is about 6' high and more-or-less level.

So I did end up getting a second light in the end, which I can use to light the background or the subjects, depending on the scenario. I played around with your instructions and my living room is abit on the small side so I had my subject about a foot away from the wall, and I was about 7 feet away. No matter what I did there was 2 shadows of the subject on the wall behind. Is that a lighting issue, or just because the subject was too close to the wall?

I'm back now. Subjects should be farther away from the backdrop (wall). I would say more like 8 to 10 feet would be a minimum to avoid shadows on the backdrop.

Also; the camera at only 7 feet from your subjects is too close. 15 feet is about the minimum, farther is better.

You have now realized the limitations of portraiture in a small place.

 

[Summer75]

Step & Repeat backdrop.

The main problems with using a reflector are (1) It needs to be placed opposite(ish) to the light to work which means your fill light will come in from the shadow side and NOT fill in the eyes, under chin, etc; and (2) reflectors generally need to be fairly close. I use a Lastolite Triflector when I'm doing location headshots, and it's usually literally just out of view; in fact I often crop the edge of it out of the image. A second light will make your life much, much, MUCH easier.

I don't have a diagram handy, but it's pretty simple. Assume the camera to be the center of the set-up: The couple is about 8' away, and the background 6-8' behind them. The key light is about 30 degrees to my right and 1-2' in front of me. The fill light (large umbrella) is just to my left, and about 1-2' behind me, and set so that it's providing 1.5 stops less light on the subject than the key.

The key light is set so that the light head is about 7' high and the umbrella angled down at about 30 degrees (approximately). The fill light is set so that the light head is about 6' high and more-or-less level.

So I did end up getting a second light in the end, which I can use to light the background or the subjects, depending on the scenario. I played around with your instructions and my living room is abit on the small side so I had my subject about a foot away from the wall, and I was about 7 feet away. No matter what I did there was 2 shadows of the subject on the wall behind. Is that a lighting issue, or just because the subject was too close to the wall?

I'm back now. Subjects should be farther away from the backdrop (wall). I would say more like 8 to 10 feet would be a minimum to avoid shadows on the backdrop.

Also; the camera at only 7 feet from your subjects is too close. 15 feet is about the minimum, farther is better.

You have now realized the limitations of portraiture in a small place.

I want to thank you so much for answering to my post. For the first time I am actually happy with the results from my living room. Since my living room is so limited in space, I know that I will have even better results on location when I can spread out more.