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rweakley
9th of April 2011 (Sat), 18:25
I currently work in the photo studio in Pensacola and take pictures that are used by promotion boards for Marines. They are all the same pose, a 45 degree angle standing at attention. I use white seamless paper and two umbrella flashes. I just did extensive searching and can't find the brand of the monolights. I will have to post that on Monday when I go back in to work.

I am having a problem with the lighting. The subjects' faces and chests are usually well lit. From about their thighs down it gets much darker. Also the paper they stand on has a lot of shadow, which makes things difficult because we select everything but the subject and remove it. When the shadows start to blend in with a grayish glare off the black shoes, it makes it hard to select around the subject.

In any case, what are your suggestions for lighting? The center of the umbrellas are currently about waist high, and aimed pretty level. We have one to the left and one to the right of the camera. aiming in at about 45 degrees or so.

I will post a photo of our setup and an example of what the subject looks like on Monday when I go back to work.

PhotosGuy
9th of April 2011 (Sat), 22:48
From about their thighs down it gets much darker. I'm guessing that you're going to have to move the umbrellas farther away to even out the light. What f-stop are you shooting at now? We have one to the left and one to the right of the camera. aiming in at about 45 degrees or so. If you're going to do that, you should think about adding a background light to make selecting easier. When the shadows start to blend in with a grayish glare off the black shoes, it makes it hard to select around the subject. You can adjust the contrast during the selection process. Maybe this will help: Selecting areas in PS. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39994)