Family Shoot

[LadyLin]

Hello all,

I am brand spanking new here and so very excited about the never ending learning and growing!

I currently have a 450d, and access to my father's 40d, which I really have not paid much attention to (heavy compared to my 450 :)). But I will be using it soon.

I have taken a few portrait shots in available light - using any light that was available (eg. no speedlites or flashes etc but if a light was on, then using that, as well as daylight). Recently I took some promo photos of a singer and personally, was proud of 'some' of the shots. He was happy with them all but I could see lots of areas I want to improve in.

A friend has asked me to take pics of her and her siblings (5 of them in total) for their Mother's Day gift to their mum (late I know!). I have:
a 50mm f/1.4;
a 17-85mm f/4
a 28-135mm f/4
two speedlites (Uncle's 580ex and a Dad's 430ex)
a shoot through brolly and stand
two reflectors (one 42 inch the other 22 inch)
a medium sized speedlite softbox
a tripod

I also have a background setup with white and black fabric drops.

I have tried some shots with my daughter using the brolly setup, and they look ok... I can see the play of light.

But I am rather nervous about this shoot for my friend. I don't want to disappoint her, but mainly myself.

Can anyone suggest a setup for me to make it through this? I am going to shoot these in a house at their request, and therefore no light really besides my speedlites (the 580 will be on camera and the 430 will be on a stand).

I really want to learn and grow from each of these opportunities I'm given, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks all,
Lin

[gonzogolf]

Lin,
The nice thing about digital is that you can see what you are getting and adjust from there. So you can kinda work your way through this if your friends will indulge you a little. Given that I dont know a whole lot about the location of the shoot I'm going to make some generalizations. Let me know if I get something wrong. I'd keep my lighting as simple as possible to start with. If the ceiling is low enough and white I would bounce the camera mounted 580 to provide some soft light over the entire scene.
I'd probably use the shoot through brolly on the second flash fairly close to the axis of the lens (close to camera) and about eye level to provide a bit of light to fill shadows under their eyes and give them a catchlight. This sort of lighting will provide you a fairly flat light without a bunch of shadows. Its a good place to start, and after you get a few "safe" shots then you can move the brolly light a bit more to one side or another to play with the shadows with the reflectors to fill.


I dont know what you want the background to look like, but I would avoid the black backdrop as you wont have a light to use to separate dark hair from the background. If they have a tastefully decorated room you might go that route using a more natural setting than a faux studio look. You can also drag the shutter (slow shutter speeds) to allow more of the room light to show but be aware you can have white balance issues if you do that.

[LadyLin]

Thank you so much for your help :) I applied these rules and although I still need to practice, they dramatically improved my shots. I really enjoyed doing this for the family but one thing for me to work on is directing people to sit/stand a certain way. I found this a bit difficult as some people don't just naturally pose comfortably.

Thanks again for your tips! I really appreciate them :)

[gonzogolf]

Do we get to see the results? I'm glad I could help.

[LadyLin]

oh sure! I am a bit nervous LOL! posting my shots in a big professional forum like this.

here is the link to two of them, as you can see it's a slow process getting them up there. I am still processing them and will add more to this area for the family to choose from.

http://lmlawler.smugmug.com

Next I am shooting a couple of babies. So I have a bit of time to research that beyond a bean bag and soft blanket LOL!

[gonzogolf]

Lin,
They look great. Dont be afraid to post here. Yours won't be the worst things on here for sure. There are some people who post harsh critiques, but others will be helpful. The only thing I would say about the shots is that your B&W conversion is a little flat, the whites arent quite white and your mid-tones are a little dark. Just for kicks, try using your levels setting and brighten up the whites and nudge the midtones a little.

[LadyLin]

thank you so much for your support :) I will surely post more LOL! I must admit I know nothing about B&W conversion but I really want to learn to be able to offer great family shots to people - so they can blow these up and display them in their home. I must admit though I'm limited at present but I want to master the gear I have before moving onto other larger frame cameras like the 5 and so on.

I feel the B&W is a little flat too. I thought maybe because I shot it with only one speedlite in a brolly and the other on camera bouncing on the ceiling, and wasn't able to get a bit of rim around the subjects. I wanted them to 'pop out' a bit more, I think I know what you mean.

I will play around with the levels and post a reply with what I've done. I hope I can get this! B&W are just so stunning if you get them right lol!

[Titus213]

Lin,
They look real good to me, certainly nothing you should be afraid to post here.

Nice work, your worries are not necessary.

[gonzogolf]

thank you so much for your support :) I will surely post more LOL! I must admit I know nothing about B&W conversion but I really want to learn to be able to offer great family shots to people - so they can blow these up and display them in their home. I must admit though I'm limited at present but I want to master the gear I have before moving onto other larger frame cameras like the 5 and so on.

I feel the B&W is a little flat too. I thought maybe because I shot it with only one speedlite in a brolly and the other on camera bouncing on the ceiling, and wasn't able to get a bit of rim around the subjects. I wanted them to 'pop out' a bit more, I think I know what you mean.

I will play around with the levels and post a reply with what I've done. I hope I can get this! B&W are just so stunning if you get them right lol!

I think the captures are great, your technique was fine, especially given the restrictions you were working under. Even the best captures can use a little tweaking in post processing. I hope you'll keep showing us your work.

[LadyLin]

Hi all,

thank you so much for your help :) I have added another shot I am working on to the site. I hope to have more of these but working on a computer for my regular job, and then sitting in front of it again for images does my head in lol! Anyway I am hoping to pursue this more, and start allocating 15 minutes a day for editing. So easy to shoot shoot shoot but then processing takes the longest :) Like the dark rooms of old my father keeps telling me - photography doesn't stop after you click!

Please let me know how I can improve on the second shot (it is the colour one of the singer). This shot was under even heavier restrictions! 2 hardware tungsten floodlights which I turned off because they were so hot they were making a hole in the props we had them up against; working in a garage, and then decided to use the off camera 430 pointed against a reflector camera left with the on camera 580 pointed way away - behind me lol!

http://lmlawler.smugmug.com

Thanks so much,
Lin

[gonzogolf]

Hi all,

thank you so much for your help :) I have added another shot I am working on to the site. I hope to have more of these but working on a computer for my regular job, and then sitting in front of it again for images does my head in lol! Anyway I am hoping to pursue this more, and start allocating 15 minutes a day for editing. So easy to shoot shoot shoot but then processing takes the longest :) Like the dark rooms of old my father keeps telling me - photography doesn't stop after you click!

Please let me know how I can improve on the second shot (it is the colour one of the singer). This shot was under even heavier restrictions! 2 hardware tungsten floodlights which I turned off because they were so hot they were making a hole in the props we had them up against; working in a garage, and then decided to use the off camera 430 pointed against a reflector camera left with the on camera 580 pointed way away - behind me lol!

http://lmlawler.smugmug.com

Thanks so much,
Lin

I only see one color shot on your site, so I'm assuming its the right one. The one of a man, showing half his face. I cant think of a single thing you could have done better. I'm not saying this as false flattery or to be encouraging. It looks great, not sure what else I would recommend on it. I'm not a big fan of cutting faces in half for effect, but it works well here. Keep up the good work! Time to start posting instead of linking so everyone can see.

[Peacefield]

I also think your images look very good. The only suggestion I can offer is that, given the number of people in this portrait, you need to be careful of falloff. In the two B&W's, the people on the left are clearly lit more fully than those on the right. Play around with the angle of your primary light or use of your fill light to bring up the right side of your image. I've had trouble with this with very large groups and, if necessary, you can fix some of this through PP, but feathering the primary light should be a help.

[Atiyeh]

ya know, for 'just starting' I think you're doing great, keep it up!

[LadyLin]

oh thank you all! I really appreciate your comments and encouragement! I will surely keep posting the images here (not linking anymore :)).

Yep, I also agree with the 'fall off' (I wasn't aware of the word but I could see that in the shot) with the b&w image.

I had two speedlites, one at camera left into a brolly, the other on the camera pointing to the ceiling. I am going to be investing in a set of Elinchrom D-Lite 4's so I'm going to ask a question about those in another posting lol! Just to make sure I have the right advice as I would love to start playing round with this stuff so I can shoot larger families properly.