gdelena
10th of June 2009 (Wed), 11:22
Big lurker here, but basically I'm a long time photog (crime scene - work and nature- for fun) attempting to make the jump into some light portrait work using battery powered strobes off camera. I've pretty much gobbled every piece of info I could from the strobist blog and videos to the minimalist stuff Zack Arias is doing....so my fundamentals are fairly grounded....BUT I'm friken terrible at creating lighting setups. Its a mix of lack of creativity/vision and a tiny bit of technique that can only be obtained with experience.
Gear I have at hand:
Lenses - 70-200 f/4, 50 f/1.8, 60 f/2.8, 17-50 f/2.8 10-22 f/4
Bodies - 30D, 40D
Flashes - (1) 430EX, (2) SB26
Triggers - (2) cybersyncs
Light mods - (2) 30" shoot through umbrellas, (1) 60" shoot through, (1)24x48 Westcott Apollo softbox, fold up 36" reflector sil/whi, home made snoots, gobos. Gels
Background - stands and seamless paper - white/thunder grey 53"
My 'go to' setups are:
1) Softbox elevated and 45deg off camera side, grey background with subject far away enough to kill it to black (with and without reflector fill)
2) Softbox elevated and 45 deg off camera side, grey background with subject close to background and bkg lit by snooted flash low power to create a slight halo
3) #2 but gelled background for color....sometimes not snooted for full color bkg
Other than these 3 really simple setups, my mind always seems to go blank when shooting. I've got my first non-mannequin/family shoot coming up and would love to add something to the repertoire. I tried to do a backlit/silhouette shot that didn't work (don't have a bare bulb flash and the light was wrapping too much after bouncing on walls n ceilings). Don't think I have enough juice to do a white seamless blowout either...
I'm trying to keep all my gear portable so no recommendations that involve my needing enormous rolls of paper or gobos.
Any suggestions? The inclusion of sample pictures and lighting diagrams would be greatly appreciated!
Gear I have at hand:
Lenses - 70-200 f/4, 50 f/1.8, 60 f/2.8, 17-50 f/2.8 10-22 f/4
Bodies - 30D, 40D
Flashes - (1) 430EX, (2) SB26
Triggers - (2) cybersyncs
Light mods - (2) 30" shoot through umbrellas, (1) 60" shoot through, (1)24x48 Westcott Apollo softbox, fold up 36" reflector sil/whi, home made snoots, gobos. Gels
Background - stands and seamless paper - white/thunder grey 53"
My 'go to' setups are:
1) Softbox elevated and 45deg off camera side, grey background with subject far away enough to kill it to black (with and without reflector fill)
2) Softbox elevated and 45 deg off camera side, grey background with subject close to background and bkg lit by snooted flash low power to create a slight halo
3) #2 but gelled background for color....sometimes not snooted for full color bkg
Other than these 3 really simple setups, my mind always seems to go blank when shooting. I've got my first non-mannequin/family shoot coming up and would love to add something to the repertoire. I tried to do a backlit/silhouette shot that didn't work (don't have a bare bulb flash and the light was wrapping too much after bouncing on walls n ceilings). Don't think I have enough juice to do a white seamless blowout either...
I'm trying to keep all my gear portable so no recommendations that involve my needing enormous rolls of paper or gobos.
Any suggestions? The inclusion of sample pictures and lighting diagrams would be greatly appreciated!