Portraits from studio lighting workshop

[adamhiram]

These are some shots from a studio lighting workshop I attended over the weekend. After doing a lot of reading and experimentation on my own, it was great to get in-person guidance from someone who actually knows what they’re doing. It was also pretty exciting to work in a real studio with big lights and modifiers. The last part of the workshop involved looking at examples for inspiration, then reverse engineering the lighting to come up on our own take on each.

The idea here was to use gelled strobes to create different looks depending on the pose and angle. A beauty dish was used as the key light on-axis and above the camera, with colored gels inside vertical strip boxes from behind on either side as rim/hair lights.

20180422-DSC_7365a by adamhiram, on Flickr

This was a high contrast shot with hard light from a bare flash, flagged close to the model to create the shadow, and a white seamless backdrop lit from a large softbox. I opted for more of a high key approach here.

20180422-DSC_7430-Edita by adamhiram, on Flickr

This was intended to be more of a low key shot with dark muted tones and controlled directional lighting. The model is lit from above and far right with a softbox flagged to control spill onto the backdrop, and a gridded beauty dish above and to the left used as a subtle hair light. I thought this looked good in black and white with a bit more contrast.

20180422-DSC_7462a by adamhiram, on Flickr

Lastly, this was a different composition using the same lighting, and with a color edit.

20180422-DSC_7465a by adamhiram, on Flickr

 

[Jeff15]

Three and four for me...............

 

[smoke665]

Great set. Looks like you learned a lot.

 

[tirediron]

Overall, nicely done! A few [very] minor niggles as consideration for future work. In #1 her left hand is rather unattractive; had you pulled it a little more to her left side and had her fingers lay parallel and at a slight downward angle I think it would have been much nicer. In #3, the position of her left leg has given the calf muscle an overly bulky appearance. Bringing her right leg just a little forward and making her feet a little more uniform would have nailed this one. As I said, these are minor posing niggles; the lighting is very nice.

 

[Derrel]

A nice set of pictures! Thanks for posting these.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

I really like 3 & 4 also. I wish you much success with your new knowledge.

 

[smoke665]

@adamhiram In looking at this again, it's piqued my interest in gels again. I have some, but I've never really used them. Might be time to pull them out. I've also thought I needed a beauty dish, for some time, this confirms it.

 

[Fotolío]

Hi, I like the second one. Maybe you should work in photoshop the shade on her bíceps, it looks like a scar. The others are nice too but nothing new.


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[zulu42]

Your hard work and study in lighting is really paying off.

 

[adamhiram]

Thank you for the encouragement and kind words, it definitely feels like I'm making progress. I should also mention that I learned that things are a lot easier when you have 5 Profoto monolights already on stands, more than a dozen large modifiers, 30+ feet of space to work with, high ceilings, Oliphant backdrops, and a model that knows how to pose a lot better than I know how to direct! Posing is definitely something else on my long-term learning plan, but one thing at a time...

 

[smoke665]

@adamhiram Thanks to your post Adam, I blamed you for ordering a beauty dish for the AB. It's nice to have someone else to blame for buying more photography stuff. Please feel free to use me whenever you need to float an excuse by the wife to buy. Heck maybe we should start a rotating group of members - this could become a worldwide movement!!

 

[adamhiram]

Thanks to your post Adam, I blamed you for ordering a beauty dish for the AB. It's nice to have someone else to blame for buying more photography stuff. Please feel free to use me whenever you need to float an excuse by the wife to buy. Heck maybe we should start a rotating group of members - this could become a worldwide movement!!

Happy to be of service! I think I've hit my quota for the year, although I'm still considering a boom arm and a textured canvas backdrop...

 

[texxter]

Very nice images, love the variety and I agree that the model knows what she is doing.... thanks for sharing!