testing out the new softboxes

[dannylightning]

what do you guys think of the lightning., got my mom to let me take some test shots. she does not really want to pose or anything but she will stand there and move around a little bit.

 

[tirediron]

The quality of the light is nice, but they seem about 1/2 - 2/3 stop under-exposed to me. Glasses can be a huge pain, and those with shiny, metal frames the worst of all. Watch out for reflections both in the frames, and especially the lenses. These aren't bad, but they could improved with subtle adjustments to the light placement.

 

[dannylightning]

I am very cramped in my space with two 40 inch softbox umbrellas, not much room for adjustment of the lighting. they were very close to her and she was very close to the backdrop.

One of my best friends runs a bar, there is a big basement there, I just asked him If I would be able to set up there. Ill see what he says.

I fixed these 2 up a little.. changed the white balance and upped the exposure. the Jpeg came out much darker and different looking than the raw file. so I had to readjust the Jpeg images.

as far as the reflections in her glasses I am not sure what to do about that, I am using 2 speedlights.

 

[tirediron]

It's just a matter of subtle and slight changes of angle between the light and subject. Remember: Angle of incidence = angle of reflection. Think of your beam of light as the the path of a snooker ball. Your shot starts at the light and her glasses are the bank.

 

[dannylightning]

makes sense, thanks for that tip about the glasses, that will be helpful. today was just a quick test, I think I am pretty happy with the results. saturday I should have plenty of time to play around with this but Ill probably be taking selfies.

 

[Rick50]

Looks like progress. Nice to see the background come out dark even in cramped quarters. Next think a bit about shadows. Here everything is lit but flat with no shadows.

 

[dannylightning]

I think the lights may have been too close, one was turned all the way to the lowest power, the other was turned one step up.

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[tirediron]

Close is good - in a lot of my portrait work I'm actually cropping out the edges of modifiers.

 

[dannylightning]

So I am guessing the fill light might not need to be pointed directly at the person ?

Anyone want to come over and give me show me the best position for the fill light lol

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[Derrel]

I think the reflection control is very,very good! The reflections of the lights on her eyeglasses are very,very minimal, and are not objectionable. I see a couple tiny specular reflections; a quick click-click with the clone tool and those will be eliminated adequately I think.

Fill light placement and aiming is something every shooter needs to arrive at for himself. The "classic" fill light is placed VERY close to where the lens is, and aimed straight ahead at the subject. Again--from VERY,very,very close to where the lens is...as close to the lens as one can get it is the classic placement, which is called on-axis fill light. However, there's some leeway in most things, so...the fill light can be placed off-axis a bit as well.

However: when the fill light is placed at the same angle, or close to the same angle as the key light is, then it can become more of a "second main light", or "a competing main light"...it can in fact eliminate the shadows of the main light entirely, leading to very flat, uninteresting lighting. When the output level of the main and fill are identical, and the angles are the same, then there's really no lighting ratio to speak of, but more of a 1:1 type of scenario.

In many situations a fill light is not really needed, and the lighting will actually look better or more interesting with ONLY a main light, with no fill light, or with just the main light unit, and then a reflector's "bounce" as the source of the fill-in light.

 

[dannylightning]

Thank you, I had the fill light at more of a angle than the main light. If I don't angle it it is in the way of my subject. I thought the videos I watched said to do it that way. I guess I was wrong.

I did snap one shot of my punching dummy just using one light and it definitely had more shadows on one side.

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[Braineack]

If I don't angle it it is in the way of my subject.

Depending on the setup, i might literally shoot between a sliver of space between light modifiers.

Similar to pictured here: 45 degree Portrait Lighting Setup

That also a really good read for you.

Here's a selfie i took with a nearly identical setup: Just Another Selfie | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

You need to bump the power of your key light a bit, all the images are underexposed.

 

[KmH]

So I am guessing the fill light might not need to be pointed directly at the person ?

Sometimes. It is known as 'feathering' the light when you angle it off the subject.

 

[astroNikon]

for the glasses lift the ear pieces of the glasses up a little bit above her ear to get an angle which will help minimize the light reflection..

 

[Braineack]

buy her non-reflective/anti-glare lenses.