Positioning of Strobe's ...

rCOSIO · Jul 29, 2010

Ok guys,

Put together some things to shoot in my garage, for a lil home studio. Have a white paper backdrop, one strobe with umbrella (silver in/black out), one strobe with softbox, and one Canon 430 exII ... shooting all with wireless trigger ....

Where should these guys be positioned .... for a while I was shooting with the umbrella to camer's left position high, pointing down towards chest area, with 430 on right side of camera pointed up towards face (i didnt have the other strove with softbox at this time)... and ehhh i can get away with it after post editing ...

but, i got a strobe w/softbox added, and my backdrop looks horrible with my setup with just the two (from above), so any ideas ...

Where should i position strobe w/umbrella, strobe w/softbox, and 430 flash?

Thanks ...

Browncoat · Jul 29, 2010

Human nature cracks me up sometimes. "Hey, I just bought all this stuff, now what do I do with it?"

Next time, try: "Hey, this is what I want to achieve, what do I need to buy?"

rCOSIO · Jul 29, 2010

Hey browncoat, thanks for the wise crack. I have been shooting with my strobe w/umbrella and two 430's for quite a while now. Was satisfied with what I had after post editing.

Although, i no longer have a second 430 to use (only one now) and just picked up an additional strobe w/softbox.

Was just curious to see how others would position these three lights for a very small home studio: Strobe w/umbrella, Strobe w/softbox, and 430exII Flash.

* Actually only purchased the white paper and backdrop stand, everything else was given to me.

Thanks Anyways though ...

KmH · Jul 29, 2010

What is it you are wanting to light in your home studio? People? Products? Model airplanes? Crafts? Clods of Dirt?

Place the lights where they give you the effect you want.

There is no cut and dried placement, though there are some common portrait lighting styles like Rembrandt, Clamshell, broad lighting, short lighting, butterfly lighting, split lighting, etc.

A medium gray (Savage - Thunder Gray) would have been much more versatile.

rCOSIO · Jul 29, 2010

Sorry bout that KMH ... good piece of info missing. It just mainly for people/portraits ...

Just looking for some basic setups that can be helpfull ....

Alpha · Jul 29, 2010

Three-point lighting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Browncoat · Jul 29, 2010

You're welcome. Sometimes it takes a wisecrack for people to go back and re-read what they've posted. It can be hard for others to pick up on what you assume is already implied.

Check this out, might give you some ideas:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRbOZfmd7mE[/ame]

KmH · Jul 30, 2010

rCOSIO said:
Sorry bout that KMH ... good piece of info missing. It just mainly for people/portraits ...

Just looking for some basic setups that can be helpfull ....

There are bunches all over the Internet.

I've listed some you can explore further.

This will show why a gray background is so useful:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDGn4VzEOlU[/ame]