First attempts at studio lighting

[LoriKelso]

El cheapo light set, but it's a start. Unfortunately the photos came out looking like school pictures. Not the effect I'm looking for. I realize now that I should have him further away from the background, but what else would have helped? PS he really is that light complexioned, poor thing takes after me.

[eos_o_eos]

The red background is a bit overpowering for me. Lighting is very even and its a really good early attempt. You need to add interest by playing with the ratio and position of your heads. I have not zoomed in on the eyes yet, what did you use for flash?
You are quite correct about moving him away from background and it would be a good idea to play with just one head to start with and add a reflector on the other side. You will learn about flash control a lot quicker this way.
Go have fun! :)

[LoriKelso]

Used no flash, only the lights. I have an off board flash coming for Christmas, though. Thanks for the encouragement!

[D. Craig Flory]

Hi Lori;

I see very flat lighting and the catch lights in his eyes show me why. There are 3 catch lights in his eyes ... evenly spaced.

What you need to do: Position one strobe behind the camera fairly high as a form fill. Position a 2nd strobe at a 45º angle as your key (main) light. Position your 3rd strobe as a background light.

Use a flash meter to get a ratio of about 3:1. Work for a nice loop lighting pattern.

[LoriKelso]

D. Craig, this is entirely stupid, but I have to ask or it may take forever to find out. When I position the background light, should it be on the floor tilted to the area behind his head? With no hairlight?

Now I've just gotta get a flash meter, and figure out how to use that, LOL!

[D. Craig Flory]

D. Craig, this is entirely stupid, but I have to ask or it may take forever to find out. When I position the background light, should it be on the floor tilted to the area behind his head? With no hairlight?

Now I've just gotta get a flash meter, and figure out how to use that, LOL!

In my studio, I have 3 background lights. For head & shoulders, out to half length, I use 1 background light on a rolling light stand. I have a half-round background reflector on it. It is positioned behind my subject angled up ... with it behind the shoulders. ( I have a 2nd half-round reflector I sometimes use with women which has a slit cut out of the back which allows some light to shine on the back of the hair which gives a nice glamour look)

For ¾ lengths, and full lengths, I turn off that light and roll it out of the way and turn on the other two background lights. They have umbrellas and are positioned to criss-cross the lighting across the background to give an even lighting.

I have a Bogen Wall-Boom mounted on the wall which extends in & out as well as up and down. The strobe has barn doors to control the light as well as diffusion material.

My fill is permanently mounted on a 2nd Bogen Wall-Boom in the back of the camera room. It has the strobe faced away from subjects with an umbrella so it gives non-directional light.

All my strobes are Photogenic Powerlights ...except for the hairlight which was purchased from www.Tallyns.com (http://www.Tallyns.com) . Four of the Powerlights are 600 watt seconds and two are 375 watt seconds.

I'll try to do some images to show my set-ups.

[D. Craig Flory]

Hi Lori;

I'm posting a senior portrait head & shoulders portrait. I got an 11X14 back on Friday of this pose that looks terrific and will look great on their wall. I hope this will give you an example to try to emulate.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i93/DC47/1044in8X10.jpg

[LoriKelso]

Beautiful shot! Thanks for the info, I'll be trying your suggestions later this week and will post my results. Hopefully, they'll be much better.

[D. Craig Flory]

Beautiful shot! Thanks for the info, I'll be trying your suggestions later this week and will post my results. Hopefully, they'll be much better.

Hi Lori;

I did some images in the camera room this afternoon for you. Here's one showing one of my four posing stools with the key light and the main background light with the normal reflector.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i93/DC47/MainBackgroundLight.jpg

[D. Craig Flory]

Hi Lori;

In this one I turned the background light off and swiveled it around so you can see the reflector. (in the background are my other two background lights which will be shown next)

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i93/DC47/MainBackgroundLightReflector.jpg

[D. Craig Flory]

Hi Lori;

In this one you can see my other two background lights along with the main one, key light, posing stool, and the hairlight on the Bogen Wall Boom. (In a portrait, you wouldn't see the lights or stands)

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i93/DC47/AllThreeBackgroundLights.jpg

[Meaty0]

Hmm. Wow! That must be one crowded studio you have there Craig. Is it really necessary to have three background lights? What would the image look like if you only had the one main background light (i.e. the one behind Teddy)?

[D. Craig Flory]

Hmm. Wow! That must be one crowded studio you have there Craig. Is it really necessary to have three background lights? What would the image look like if you only had the one main background light (i.e. the one behind Teddy)?

Hi Paul;

You missed where I said that I use the single light for head & shoulders out half-length. For ¾ length, full length, and groups I take that out and usew the other two. They are NOT ion the center of the room as in that photo. I did that to show all in the same image. They are at the sides of the room and not showing in portraits.

My camera room is small ... 13 feet wide by about 20 feet long.

[Meaty0]

Sorry to highjack your thread Lori and thanks for the info Craig. From your image of the "live" subject above :-) , it seems as though your Key Light is to the left of your camera (at 45deg to form fill light?) and you have the subject's head turned towards the Key Light. Is that your preferred setup? If the light was to the RIGHT of the camera, are the shadows too big?

(Sorry for all these questions, but studio photography is starting to interest me).

[midnitejam]

Great job on focus, exposure and especially skin tone. It's difficult to capture accurate skin tones when you're shooting blue-eyed red heads with freckles (I am a blue-eyed red head with freckles).

Flat lighting rarely works well for most models. But I think it works better here than with most applications because your model is very very photogenic. Less-than-perfect models require modeling with various lighting techniques in order to hide their structural flaws and skin blemishes. No such requirement with your model.

Broad light helps to hide blemishes and to make a narrow face appear to be wide. Short light is less compasionate toward blemishes and causes wide faces to appear narrower. Almost Any lighting setup would work with your particular model.

[D. Craig Flory]

Sorry to highjack your thread Lori and thanks for the info Craig. From your image of the "live" subject above :-) , it seems as though your Key Light is to the left of your camera (at 45deg to form fill light?) and you have the subject's head turned towards the Key Light. Is that your preferred setup? If the light was to the RIGHT of the camera, are the shadows too big?

(Sorry for all these questions, but studio photography is starting to interest me).

Yes, on the senior portrait, my key light was to my left. As you can see, that gave me a nice shadow by the nose and on her cheek. This is short lighting. If I had her face the same way and lit from the other side it would have been broad lighting. I usually only use broad lighting on someone with a really skinny face.

[LoriKelso]

D.Craig, thank you so much for the help on the actual placement of the lighting, I really appreciate you showing me how you place the lights. It's so wonderful to be able to get information from people whose work you truly respect. I honestly had no clue how helpful professsionals were willng to be. Thank you.

[Broncobear]

The red background is distracting, I ave a small set up I put together that cost me about 125 dollars. I use flourscent lights and the background options are grey, black for people portraits and I also have blue, white, green for specific coloured objects.