"Your Mission Benny, Should You Decide To Accept It......"

[YoBenny]

The young bride has arrived and she is adorable, her good side is all over so I'm happy with that.
She showed me this link to a local photographer named Allison Davis who did a photoshoot with a
young bride at an old Ice House here in town. She ask if we could do this too?

I myself have taken pictures of this door before, having driven by it and noticed it's distinct features.

The final image with the hay bale at dusk is the one she really likes and I would sure appreciate any advice on how to achieve it, and the others as well.

Here is the Link to Allison's webpage to see the other images. I am hoping to do SOMETHING like this....

(This message will self destruct in 10 seconds)

(OOPS didn't know about the no other peoples pics rule, please go to the link to see the hay bale and other pics)

 

[jwbryson1]

TPF rules prohibit posting images that are not your own.

 

[YoBenny]

I also showed her this little old house I spotted just out of town and she likes the idea of doing something here, if anyone can throw and old dog a bone on how to do that please do, I really need some help here.

 

[MLeeK]

Link to the image, don't post it.
That is a bit of lighting equipment in play there along with a fair bit of skill.

I'd want to have one strobe with a HUGE softbox on it, but I could do it with a few speedlights in a huge softbox.
I'd probably think about a lower powered light behind the hay bale to counteract the shadow a little bit. Maybe.

 

[cgipson1]

The Davis photo looks like a two flash shot (a key and a light fill). Key on camera left at 225 degrees, probably a large softbox. Fill on camera right.. very light touch on that, just enough to lighten shadows. very directional too.. probably a softbox close. Flash was balanced with the ambient light of the sunset to allow underexposure of background for good color, with proper exposure of subject.. with some splash on the bale of hay.

It may be way beyond what you are capable of right now, in other words.

 

[MLeeK]

The Davis photo looks like a two flash shot (a key and a light fill). Key on camera left at 225 degrees, probably a large softbox. Fill on camera right.. very light touch on that, just enough to lighten shadows. very directional too.. probably a softbox close. Flash was balanced with the ambient light of the sunset to allow underexposure of background for good color, with proper exposure of subject.. with some splash on the bale of hay.

It may be way beyond what you are capable of right now, in other words.

I didn't think there was a fill in there because of the shadow from her breast being pretty hard on the arm.

 

[cgipson1]

The Davis photo looks like a two flash shot (a key and a light fill). Key on camera left at 225 degrees, probably a large softbox. Fill on camera right.. very light touch on that, just enough to lighten shadows. very directional too.. probably a softbox close. Flash was balanced with the ambient light of the sunset to allow underexposure of background for good color, with proper exposure of subject.. with some splash on the bale of hay.

It may be way beyond what you are capable of right now, in other words.

I didn't think there was a fill in there because of the shadow from her breast being pretty hard on the arm.

If there wasn't, the shadows would be much darker... it is just a very light fill... enough to define some detail. But I could be wrong, too... wouldn't be the first time. It might only be a reflector, but based on the distance it would have to be to stay out of the shot, I would suspect fill.

 

[amolitor]

Flash, fill, and a carefully chosen time of day for use of the sun as a dramatic element, and as a hair/edge light. You can probably get close with an off camera flash with a flash-mounted diffuser, and something to use as a reflector to fill shadows. It won't be the same, but it could be pretty nice.

Schedule at least two sessions, with the first one intended to sort things out and produce NO results.

Set the time on your camera correctly so you can tell exactly when each shot was taken. Make notes about whether you wanted the sun higher or lower, and estimate what time the shots *should* have been taken for best effect. Write all this stuff down. Now check your newspaper to find when sunset was on the day of shoot #1, and when it will be for shoot #2, and correct your estimated times for the changed time of sunset (unless they're just a couple days apart, more than a week -- check sunset times).

Shoot #1 should be done in white clothing, but need not be the wedding dress. Ideally a white dress, something with folds and drapes, unless the wedding dress is a sheath or something. Frankly, she can wear
a white sheet to shoot #1 if she's not comfortable putting the dress on for it.

Schedule some serious time for yourself between the two shoots to LOOK AT the images. Plan to spend several hours at this, and make SURE you do it, and make SURE you write things down. Two or three separate one hour sessions would be good. Before shoot #1 and between shoots, spend some time with web sites about lighting, ideally with sample images. That way you'll know what to look for in your own images.

By shoot #2 you should have a pretty good list of shots you want to take, and a pretty good idea how to approach them, and a pretty accurate schedule for taking them with respect to where the sun is.

Now go do it. Shoot every shot a bunch of times, like 10 times or more, with very very minor variations in pose and lighting.

 

[YoBenny]

Thanks very much for this great info and joining the team on this suicide mission.

Ok here are the only tools we have for this job. Probably won't succeed because it's a suicide mission after all, but am going for it.
I also have some regular flood lights that stick in the ground with different color bulbs and stuff but have no idea if they might help.

I am thinking trying to do the scene next to the old house since it too has hay bales and is on top of a nice hill and the sunset will be readily available and maybe even the sun itself right on the horizon and hidden behind the old house.

I have a generator so I can power these up out there, but this is what we have to work with folks, and a tough mission!

Please give me ideas on how to use these and THANK YOU for joining the team!

 

[amolitor]

I think you're better off searching for some web sites on "basic portrait lighting setup" and "studio lighting setup" and finding pictures -- both diagrams of where the lights go AND samples of what it looks like when the lights go here, or there, and what it looks like with am umbrella, or a softbox, or a grid, or nothing. Proper explanations are easy with diagrams and pictures, and hard with words. Hopefully someone will post some links.

It's not actually all that hard. There's just a lot of moving parts -- pick out some looks that seem good to you, and that you have the gear for, and stick to those. "Lighting" as a discipline is pretty broad, "lighting" as a "how do I make these 5 photographs of that woman look pretty good" is quite narrow -- attack the small problem, not the big one.

You won't know about "lighting" when you're done, but you'll know how to make those few photographs pretty well.

 

[KmH]

TPF rules prohibit posting images that are not your own.

That is only partly true.

A member can post a photo someone else owns the copyright to, if the member has permission from the copyright holder the member can present to TPF Staff.

Some photos, usually old photos made before 1923, are in the public domain, and some photographers provide a use license terms that would allow their photo to be posted here.

 

[MLeeK]

Thanks very much for this great info and joining the team on this suicide mission.

Ok here are the only tools we have for this job. Probably won't succeed because it's a suicide mission after all, but am going for it.
I also have some regular flood lights that stick in the ground with different color bulbs and stuff but have no idea if they might help.

I am thinking trying to do the scene next to the old house since it too has hay bales and is on top of a nice hill and the sunset will be readily available and maybe even the sun itself right on the horizon and hidden behind the old house.

I have a generator so I can power these up out there, but this is what we have to work with folks, and a tough mission!

Please give me ideas on how to use these and THANK YOU for joining the team!
View attachment 19468

Those are constant lights, aren't they?
You aren't going to get squat for results on this one with constant lights unless you have about a dozen of them all concentrated in the main light location

 

[gsgary]

Just throw them in the trash

 

[YoBenny]

Oh come on this is a misson, McGuiver could make an atom bomb out of an ink pen and a match, I gotta be able to do something here.....
Mission Impossible Theme(full theme) - YouTube

 

[amolitor]

Are the floods more powerful than the lights inside those umbrellas? You could try spiking a couple of floods down and setting the umbrella on the ground in front of them to create a more or less soft constant light from below-ish. I dunno if it's gonna give you enough oomph to really fill effectively in the shots with the sun behind the girl, but it might work.

I'd do some hacking around in the back yard to see what's possible and how much light you have to work with.