Playing with off camera lighting C&C welcome

[wgp1987]

Nothing special, just my Punisher action figure on my chair. Shot with the 70-200 at 70mm, f7.1, 1/125 iso 100 ... overexposed the background with a canon 199a and lit the subject with my nissin di622. I wanted to attempt a silhouette as well so let me know what you think of that as well.

[/url] Punisher Action Figure by Wes P. Images, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url] Punisher Action Figure - Silhouette by Wes P. Images, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[Kerbouchard]

You watermarked your action figure? Weird.

Only other comments would be your background light is a bit hot and is bleeding onto your subject which is why your silhouette isn't a silhouette and why his arms are a bit hot in the first one. And I think it's weird that you watermarked a picture of an action figure.

 

[wgp1987]

Great to know. Is it better to move the subject further away or shoot a lower power setting? haha I watermark everything. I dont think its weird?

 

[Kerbouchard]

Great to know. Is it better to move the subject further away or shoot a lower power setting? haha I watermark everything. I dont think its weird?

Depends on how much space you have, how bright you want your background, and what kind of spread your flash has. Either should work, but it would probably be easier to just dial the flash down 1/3rd of a stop unless that causes your background to turn grey, and then you are left with moving your subject further away from the background.

Shooting the silhouette shot first is actually a good way of making sure you aren't getting any spill from your background lights and that they are at the level you want them. Well, as long as ambient isn't contributing a lot to the shot.

 

[wgp1987]

Great to know. Is it better to move the subject further away or shoot a lower power setting? haha I watermark everything. I dont think its weird?

Depends on how much space you have, how bright you want your background, and what kind of spread your flash has. Either should work, but it would probably be easier to just dial the flash down 1/3rd of a stop unless that causes your background to turn grey, and then you are left with moving your subject further away from the background.

Shooting the silhouette shot first is actually a good way of making sure you aren't getting any spill from your background lights and that they are at the level you want them. Well, as long as ambient isn't contributing a lot to the shot.

thanks for the tip. the flash i have doesnt have much for controlling the power so would diffusing work? I had the flash on the ground shooting upwards. would having the flash to the side shooting across be better?

 

[Kerbouchard]

If you can't adjust the power of your flash very easily, than I would start with just moving your subject another foot or so away from the background and moving your camera back that same foot. Shouldn't have to change anything else.

Moving the flash to the side will probably cause your background to be lit unevenly and adding a diffuser to reduce the power will actually increase the amount of light that gets to your subject since the light will be spread in more directions.

If you like shooting things like that, I would recommend picking up a copy of Light, Science, Magic...it's worth it's weight in gold when it comes to controlled lighting situations.

 

[Derrel]

Without that watermark, those images might have showed up on some Korean action figure web site!!! Better safe than sorry, right?