Sorry to make another thread like this. I guess everyone's kit is a little bit different. Please don't recommend buying more gear, my time and budget won't allow it right now.
My wife talked some friends into coming over for portraits/headshots on Sunday. My experience with this stuff is minimal, and studio/portrait lighting is deceptively harder than I originally expected. They're a local dance troupe and I'd really like to make some good results that they can be proud of and put in their portfolios. Some of them are experienced models and have done this before, but some have not. Fortunately, the experienced girls will help with posing, so I'm not worried about that.
My primary goal is to do basic head-and-shoulders portraits against a white background. Simple enough, and I think I've been able to accomplish "pretty good" results with my practicing so far. Secondary goals are to get some creative shots in. I have a few specific ideas, and I'd really like to tailor each creative shot to each girl's personality and interests.
Here's what I'm working with:
Day-Flo EZ-Lite Fluorescent/studio lighting kit, click to see my exact kit
:
- (3) 20"x20" softboxes with 350W fluorescent lights. 5400K temp (daylight), three stands and one boom for softboxes
- Backdrops: 53" white seamless, black muslin, white muslin.
- Reflectors: Lastolite Trigrip with silver and gold reflectors. Also, two 2'x3' white foamcore boards.
- Speedlite 430EXII
- Homemade beauty dish for Speedlite**
- Camera and lenses shown in sig.
- Gonna attempt to get the tether to the laptop working.
- Studio space is my 14x14 dining room, I can step back into the entry hallway to give myself an extra few feet of shooting space to use a longer lens.
- West-facing window with afternoon/setting sun. Shoot is scheduled from 4 to 8 PM so I'll have changing light coming through the window if I don't block it out with the blinds/blanket.
** The Speedlite and beauty dish give a MUCH colder light than my softboxes. I've ordered some gels, hopefully they will be here by Saturday and I can try to balance the color. Otherwise, I can't combine the Speedlite/BD with the softboxes without getting some very weird results - yellow light from softboxes and blue light from beauty dish. But that's another thread.
1) Simple portraits with white seamless BG.
For the plain white portraits, I was getting some pretty good results practicing on my wife, though it seems that I have to choose between lighting the background and using the boom for a hair light. Maybe I can use the speedlite to blow out the background, or if my gels get here in time, use the Speedlite to color the white seamless.
Problem: how do I know if it's exposed properly? I've been practicing with my wife, but she is very fair-skinned with very light blond hair (the proverbial Scandinavian bride in a white dress). I'm having trouble reading the histogram and not underexposing - a properly exposed portrait of my wife against a white BG will have a histogram that is a mountain on the right and nothing else. Hopefully the other girls will make it a little easier, but I really don't know if I'm doing it right.
Any tips for using an overhead softbox for hair light? Seems like it's too big and soft and bright to be a hair light. I'm good at making things on-the-fly - maybe I should make a grid out of cardboard or poster board to direct the light straight down?
I'll post some of last night's experiments when I get home.
2) Creative shot: Blacked-out background
I was VERY inspired by the shots of Michelle Trachtenberg in Maxim a couple months ago (click for google image results, mild NWS). I don't think I have the space or backdrop size to do full-body shots against a vanishing background., but I was getting "OK" results with the Speedlite/BD/reflector for headshots. I made some cardboard GoBos for the softboxes which worked pretty well too. I experimented a little bit with my wife sitting in a big black corduroy beanbag in front of a black backdrop, again with "OK" results. We've got a little dark-colored vanity/hutch that I'd like to include if I can, drawing inspiration from THIS PHOTO.
Any tips on achieving something similar with the gear I've got?
3) Creative shot: Shadow dancer-style
Last idea is to shoot with the white seamless between the model and the camera, drawing inspiration from shadow dancers like THIS and THIS. Last time I experimented with shadows, I learned that I need the object casting the shadow (in this case the model) located very near where the shadow will fall (white seamless), and I need a single strong, hard light source that is far away from both. I've had some decent luck with photographing shadows in the past, though not really this style. I might be able to pull it off with the Speedlite on full power, and the wide-angle diffuser on the front. This is my experiment for tonight.
The seamless paper is pretty thick, so I might iron my white muslin and use it instead, so I can get away with a lower-powered light or a faster shutter speed.
Any other tips?
Any other creative shots I should try to experiment with? I've got tonight and all day Saturday, I plan to experiment on Saturday afternoon as the sun sets to see what will happen with the light coming in the window.
