making progress with gels

For those of you that have been following my threads on gelling backgrounds and have been helping me out, I think I may finally be making some progress.

Based on your inputs I made the following adjustments tonight:

1) I replaced my key/fill lights from a Westcott Halo (key) and a shoot-thu umbrella (fill) to a pair of small 16x22 softboxes. The primary reason was to limit the amount of spill on my background as much as possible.

2) I moved my subject further away from the background (8 feet now) and the gelled speedlight for my background (6 feet now) as well. I also had to move my key/fill lights back accordingly.

3) I purchased a nice ottoman bench that I plan to use for posing groups of kids and families. Only cost about $250 from Costo.

4) I put away the seamless gray 9' roll for now and put up my new Boss dark grey 8x12 wrinkle-free backdrop. I was dissappointed that they did not give me the rod-pocket version, but as it turns out, I ended up using it in the landscape orientation (versus the portrait orientation) to give it that bunched up look. I had to use 8 heavy spring clamps to hang it over the rod.

5) I returned the Rogue round grid gel set to my local camera shop and shot with basic Rogue speedlight gels (the ones shaped like the flash head) from my other kit. I set my 600EX to manual mode, 20mm zoom, and used either 1/4 or 1/2 power, depending on the f-stop loss for each particular gel.

Any feedback or recommendations are once again appreciated.

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my setup for these shots....

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Looking like a really nice set up.
I have to ask, is the background curtain white? I have gels but really havn't started studing them yet.

McMongo wrote in post #15546566
Looking like a really nice set up.
I have to ask, is the background curtain white? I have gels but really havn't started studing them yet.

I found that my white background was getting too washed out from the spill, which to a certain degree is unavoidable in confined spaces like mine, especially considering the light colored walls, and white ceiling tiles. I also found that my black background was just too hard to gel nicely. That's why I eventually got a dark grey one.

try building a set of v flats to help control the spill, you've still got light going everywhere and it shows in the background. http://scottkelby.com/​2010/the-scoop-on-v-flats/

I'm assuming the softboxes didn't come with grids?
Even with the colors being slightly washed out, it looks a lot better than where you were at before.

Looks like you've got it set.
As mentioned better control of main and fill spill would be nice but not critical.
Looks like you still have enough room to move the camera back and use a longer focal length lens which will give you more control over background focus.

Background looks good. Personally I like the background more out of focus but your setup works.

On some shots you can't tell AT ALL that the background is artificially colored.

Bravo!

Thanks great info

Looks like you're in a good spot.

Yeah, the first thing that I noticed was the amount of saturation that was washed away from the BG light between the first and second pictures. Either way, it's still a great improvement from what you've previously posted... certainly moving in the right direction.

To show what your lights are doing to the room, you could also take a picture with none of the flashes on (it's probably going to be all black) and one with the main/fill lights on (w/o the BG light) - then check out the differences on the rest of the room. How does the light vary on the walls of the room and on the background?

Further, if you can control that spill more and are able to get color saturation as shown in the first picture, there is no reason that you couldn't get similar results on a seemless gray background... though this may not be what you are looking for, particularly if you want the added texture.

Having said that, I think a lot of the "spill" on the BG is simply caused by the position of the front lights. They are so far away from the subject... when you apply the inverse square law to them, the amount of light on the subject probably isn't that much different than the light that which would be hitting the background. Check out these inverse square law measurements:
http://www.zarias.com …2008/05/inverse​square.jpg

Based on this graphic and your setup, I wouldn't be surprised if the light on your subject and the same light hitting the BG is only a stop (maybe 2) different. Do you have a meter? Have you measured this?

drvnbysound wrote in post #15547276
Having said that, I think a lot of the "spill" on the BG is simply caused by the position of the front lights. They are so far away from the subject... when you apply the inverse square law to them, the amount of light on the subject probably isn't that much different than the light that which would be hitting the background.

I never really understood the applicability of the ISL to my situation until I read your reply a little more carefully and then followed up by watching this very easy to understand tutorial. At the 9 minute mark, the tutorial demonstrates examples of light fall off. Now I finally get it.

Other than moving my lights in closer to the subject, what else can I do to mitigate spill in my confined area? Should I consider getting grids for my small softboxes?

How close is too close? I don't want to blind my subjects.

On the flip side, moving my softboxes closer to the subject, and/or adding grids will likely have negative impacts won't it? Will I still be able to light up a family of five?

Should I consider using larger softboxes, possibly with grids?

I also have at my disposal a large reflector, should I consider using that as fill instead of a dedicated fill light? Or will that contribute more to my spill?

coeng wrote in post #15547468
I never really understood the applicability of the ISL to my situation until I read your reply a little more carefully and then followed up by watching this very easy to understand tutorial. At the 9 minute mark, the tutorial demonstrates examples of light fall off. Now I finally get it.

Other than moving my lights in closer to the subject, what else can I do to mitigate spill in my confined area? Should I consider getting grids for my small softboxes?

How close is too close? I don't want to blind my subjects.

On the flip side, moving my softboxes closer to the subject, and/or adding grids will likely have negative impacts won't it? Will I still be able to light up a family of five?

Should I consider using larger softboxes, possibly with grids?

I also have at my disposal a large reflector, should I consider using that as fill instead of a dedicated fill light? Or will that contribute more to my spill?

You won't "blind" anyone by moving the lights closer, they're just as bright further away, just "smaller". For a family of five yes, you'll likely need to keep them where they are or get larger softboxes. Personally, I feel that when it comes to softboxes, the larger the better. Grids are definitely something you should have, when you can't control spill any other way, grids are very useful.

Blinding will only occur if you move them closer and continue to turn up the power

If you control the light such that you are getting the same light reading on the subject (e.g. you shot the above images at f/7.1) then the light the subject sees is of the same brightness level.