First try with my new lights

Just set up my new Einsteins, two light set up with one soft silver umbrella, one octobox, and my 580exII set up as back light. Using the cybersystem. Wife not crazy about sitting for an hour, but she did. CC welcome as I'm new to this.

thanks Jeff

Looks underexposed to me. Also, the lighting on the face looks flat. Maybe increase the ratio between the two main lights for more definition.

Do this. Forget all the 580ex and what not. Start with one light and pick your choice of modifier. Now use light meter or chimp to get the proper exposure. Then add 2nd light.

Is your monitor too bright because your image is dark.

Looking at the catchlights in the eyes, it appears that the dimmer light source was farther from the camera while the brighter light source was closer to the camera...and THAT results in the frontal lighting which fails to 'model' the facial features.

Your weaker Fill typically should provide overall general illumination of the face, while the stronger Main provides Highlights for better facial modelling.

In your photo you have somewhat mimic'd the frontal lighting of a beauty dish, and anyone other than an exceptionally beautiful model is not best photographed with a beauty dish. Your wife looks quite nice in the lighting, but she might be more pleased with a more conventional portraiture setup.

very dark

Ignore the presence of the the flash tube in your Einsteins. Turn on ONE light, modelling light only. Move it around your wife

• from differing elevations (high, middle, low) and around her face.
  
• Move it from camera right to camera left,
  

There are two competing catch lights in here eyes, one of which is completely obscuring her pupil. I agree with what the others have said-start with one light, probably the octabox, and move it around to find the most flattering light. The size of the catchlights indicates your lights were not very close to your wife. Moving the octabox closer will result in softer, more flattering light.

My suggestion to those who are trying to learn lighting is to first start with a single HARD light source. The use of modifier like softboxes is meant to reduce shadow definition. But when you are learning lighting it is important to learn the affects of precise placement, and hard sources permit you to better see the effect via the placement of shadows.

Thanks for all the comments. I will work on everything and give it a go. Thanks again for all the information, I'm just starting out with the lights.

Jeff

This one is from the same sitting. Lighting I think is a little better. Is it still too dark?

Yes, it's still too dark. Do you have a light meter to measure the light? It takes the guessing game away.

s2kennyc wrote in post #14604640
Yes, it's still too dark. Do you have a light meter to measure the light? It takes the guessing game away.

Yes, the cyber commander, I think it's me in my PP. I'll work on it.

Thanks, Jeff

If you have CC, its a simple matter to get the Einsteins set for head shots (portraits).
Here is one from a head shot session I did recently.
One E640 about 45* camera left with a mid-sized soft silver PLM (no diffusion).
Second E640 at camera position with small white PLM as shoot through with silver spill kill.

The key to getting the lights set properly is to read each individually with dome facing light. For this shoot each light was putting out about the same power.

Then take a reading with the dome facing the camera from subject position for the base exposure. I confirm by shooting a color checker in the light setup. That provides a handy reference for white balance and exposure in Lightroom.

As you can see, there is some post processing, but no exposure adjustment. Just skin smoothing and vignetting.