How to imporve background lighting.

[eugenep01]

I am new to studio type setup and trying to figure out my possibilities with equipment I have.
I have following setup:
Dlite-4 kit as Main light and fill light.
580EX-ii as background light.
I am triggering my 580EX-II via pc sync cord from my self made sync plug and 580EX is optically triggering Dlites.

Seems like there is not enough spread for background light in my current setup.
How can I improve my background lighting without moving 580ex further away from backgound).
I have one more flash (430EX) that I can probably use if I add sync port to it by doing DIY posted on this forum.

[iqbal624]

I have the same problem!
would love to hear some advice about this.

[Aszental]

use the 580 and the 430 on either side shooting into the background.

Is your keylight on in that shot? If so, move it to camera right so that the reindeer isn't blocking the light for the child.

[vincent_su]

Did you use the flip down for UWA from the flash?
If you did, here is plan B. Since you have another flash, you can try to position the flahes to the left and right of the scene and shooting about 45 degrees to the background. That'll give you the distance and coverage.
Another alternative is that since you have two d-4s, you can use them for the background and use the 580 for main and 430 for fill.
I'm sure more strobist in this forum will have better ideas.
The pix is very cute, when you are done twicking the lights, please post for oohs and aahs.
BTW, the prop's brightness seems to be overwhelming the kid a little bit. You may want to try to block some light for the prop (I know you didn't ask. If you don't like it, let me apologize in advance.)

[S-Man]

http://www.zarias.com/?p=71

Go there and read. The principles are the same. I think if you have 430s or 580s instead of studio strobes, you may not need barndoors/room dividers. But you definitely need to create even light on your BG.

[hawk911]

Use the Dlites for main and fill (I'm assuming with the supplies softboxes) and the other 2 flash units for BG. As suggested, at 45 deg on the BG. Don't expect rapid fire shots, because the flash units will be at full power or close to it and recycle times will kill any rapid shot-taking.

You didn't say, but you'll need to use either Cactus triggers for the flash units, or some other trigger method- shooting in manual mode on the flash units. Set the Dlites for optical trigger.

[bobbyz]

I think you need to do things step by step.

1. You want to make white bg using your 580-II. You need to make sure how big of the surface area you want to make white. Just take test shots with 580ex pointed at the bg. Hope you have a light meter to make sure exposure variation at different places is small. Try to hit f8 within 1/3 stop on the white bg area that will show in the final frame. Move the 580 away from bg if you have to to get more spread or use wider zoom setting. If 580 doesn't have enough power, bump ISO to 200. You can hardly find any difference between ISO 100 and ISO200 in studio shots. And doing this you get twice the power from your flash.

2. Now you can bring your subject and make sure he is properly exposed. I would go for arround f5.6 or so on the subject's face. Use your d-lites at main and fill. You have to watch how much of your main/fill fall on the bg.

3. Having tree in the farme and properly lighted is going to be a problem. You need to decide if you want it or not. For tree lights to show, you need to shoot at lower SS to get ambient light in. It will lot easier to do if you were using dark/black bg instead of white.

These are just my recommendations, I would let the experts chime in.

[bobbyz]

I think if you have 430s or 580s instead of studio strobes, you may not need barndoors/room dividers.

Why is that?

Light is light you need to control the spill on your subject whether you use hot shoe flash or studio strobes. Now what you use to control the spill is up to you.

[S-Man]

True, but as I said, you may not need them due to the (possibly) tighter beam pattern of a flash.
I'm not sure what the degree spread is on some studio strobes, nor am I sure of the spread on shoe flashes.
But if you place the flashes behind the subject, there should not be spill on the subject.
I was not implying that light control was not needed simply because they are shoe flashes.

[eugenep01]

Thank you guys for your suggestions. By the way that picture was just a sample of poor background lighting, reindeer would not be located there in actual shot. From your suggestions I will use 2 flashes for background lighting. I will have to put them on widest setting, i am not sure if I had it set to widest setting on my sample shot, thanks for suggestion. Another question, should I use some kind of diffuser on flashes for wider light distribution? Something like one that looks like a shovel, posted as diy here on forum?

[eduardofrances]

http://www.zarias.com/?p=71

Go there and read. The principles are the same. I think if you have 430s or 580s instead of studio strobes, you may not need barndoors/room dividers. But you definitely need to create even light on your BG.

x 2 on this recommendation

[eugenep01]

x 2 on this recommendation
I have read his tutorial, the difference for my setup is distance of the subject to background. He has room, 11 feet between subject and background, I have only about 3-4 feet between Christmas tree and background. That is a big problem in my case.

[S-Man]

Wow. I didn't realize he had 11'...that could be a problem for me too...darn.
Like he said though, the more room you have, the less curse words you'll say. The smaller room you have, the more curse words you'll say. :lol:

[vincent_su]

For short distance from the white background, try to under expose about 1/2 to 2/3 and do the fill light in PP to minimize bleeding.
You can always use softbrush and highlight tone setting in brush tool to clone out not-so-white background.

[wcameron]

I want to add another shout out for the tutorial mentioned above. I've been struggling with lighting for a while and I've never found a tutorial like this. It is without a doubt the best free tutorial on high and low key lighting that I've ever seen.

[TMR Design]

Lighting large backgrounds evenly can be problematic especially with Speedlight's. You need some distance from the flash to the background to get the coverage and to allow the falloff to be more gradual and even out the hot spot. The rectangular flash head of a Speedlight also makes it a bit challenging.

Zack's tutorial is an excellent one but one thing he stresses that many people overlook is having completely even light. If you have a hot spot in the center and the falloff at the edges and corners is down by 1/3 stop or more then you'll have gradations and vignetting. Most people compensate for that by cranking the power but then it creates a center hot spot that is dramatically overexposed and well into clipping. If your subject is too close to the background then that center hot spot is going to return a lot of light back to the subject area and potentially causing wrap, ghosting and halos around the subject.

Remember, the most important aspect of lighting for a pure white background it the evenness of light without overexposure. You want the right amount of light, but not too much. Too often photographers pour massive amounts of light on a background to get it white. The term 'blowing out' the background is what is happening but not what is intended or needed. We don't blow out a background to make it white. Proper exposure for white is just below being blown out. Blowing out a background means driving it in to clipping. Just because something appears white doesn't mean it's the correct exposure. More often than not white backgrounds are blown out and overexposed.

Take control of the light and know exactly how much you need and at what levels. Don't let the light boss you around and control you.

[wcameron]

Great comment TMR. That is very helpful. I have struggled with background lighting. The other thing that is often overlooked is the need for separation between subject and background. That has been the biggest challenge for me and many other shooters. You need depth and height to really take this to it's best effect. Now if only I had a HEATED garage I could use that lol

[TMR Design]

Great comment TMR. That is very helpful. I have struggled with background lighting. The other thing that is often overlooked is the need for separation between subject and background. That has been the biggest challenge for me and many other shooters. You need depth and height to really take this to it's best effect. Now if only I had a HEATED garage I could use that lol

Background lighting doesn't have to be difficult but many make it difficult by not completely understanding how to do it. I don't have a large studio and I light for pure white backgrounds on seamless that is 9 feet wide and 8 feet high. It's all about even lighting.

[acousticvibrations]

is your background Seamless paper?

[wcameron]

Yes. TMR did say that it was a seamless background that he uses

[TMR Design]

Yup, 9 foot Super White seamless paper.