new continuous light softboxes

I purchased 2x continuous light softboxes from amazon to fool around and start getting used to them. Can you please give me your opinion? Bear in mind that this are the first photos taken with them and that the model (myself) is not very photogenic!

The first seems like there is way too much ambient, which is a primary problem with most continuous lights ... Just not enough power to shoot anywhere except in complete darkness.

The second is g ood if you were going for "creepy". Nothing wrong with creepy. Actually creepy might not be the right word, brooding maybe.

What were your camera settings?

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17717935
The first seems like there is way too much ambient, which is a primary problem with most continuous lights ... Just not enough power to shoot anywhere except in complete darkness.

The second is g ood if you were going for "creepy". Nothing wrong with creepy. Actually creepy might not be the right word, brooding maybe.

What were your camera settings?

1/30 and f3.5 (photo 1 ambient + 2 softboxes at 45 degress left and right, photo 2 darkness and one softbox to the right (around 70 degrees)

Many thanks for the input. How do you know about the ambient light on the first one? I am going to try and take one this evening with no ambient light (similar to second photo) to see how it looks. I see quite good photographs achieved with continuous light, so I want to practice as much as I can until I have the right set up at home.

does anybody know if there are adaptors to attach a flash gun to the bulb adaptor?

Thanks!

cubatahavana wrote in post #17718544
How do you know about the ambient light on the first one? !

i'm really smart.



Just years and years of doing taking pictures plus seeing such flat light in the first pic. notice the deep shadow in your right eye socket, that makes it pretty clear that there is a strong light over head that is providing a whole bunch of light.

next time, turn down the room light, using the same 45° placement, put one light really close to you and then the other on the opposite side 2-3 times as far away. Assuming they are of the same strength this will show you the effects of The Inverse Square Law, and will provide better "modeling" of your face by having one side darker than the other.

another problem with continuous lights is that when you want to move to flashes or strobes, they become useless. I'm not saying you can't rig something up to use the softboxes with flashes, but it is not going to be an easy fix.

Your ISO and shutter speeds are too low. The settings for your images were 1/15s f/4 ISO100 and 1/20s f/3.5 ISO100. Continuous lights don't provide the burst of high speed light like a speedlite or a strobe, so you need a slower shutter speed to capture the ambient light (continuous lights are ambient light). Your 70D can easily handle an ISO setting of 800 which would give you 3 more stops of light. Normally for portraits, you'll want your shutter speed to be at least 1/60s to eliminate any movement (My personal preference is around 1/125s, but I don't shoot with continuous lights).

You could also increase your aperture setting to f/2.8 with your 100mm macro lens to get another stop of light. This would give you a little less DOF, but shouldn't be a problem for a portrait and you may like the result even more.

You might try starting with just one light which could give you results similar to the second image. Once you can reproduce images consistently, add the second light. Keep changing the distance between your light(s) and subject until you understand the results you'll get at varying distances. Also move the light(s) in a circle around your subject to see what type of shadows are created by the different positions. This can take quite a bit of time if you're doing self portraits, so you may want to practice with an object (perhaps a ball) just to see how the lights and shadows can change dependent upon distance and location in relation to your subject. Have fun with it. You're off to a good start.

BTW, just to show an example, this shot was taken with a single speedlite in a small portable softbox. This was just a quick setup because my daughter wanted a pic of her with her boyfriend.
This one was taken with a 7D, 17-55, at 55mm, 1/60s f/10 ISO250.

The problem with most continuous light softboxes is that you have rather limited power controls. So you end up with flat light like the first, or dramatic light like the second.

If you can return them in favor of flashes you would much better off in the long run. The answer to your question about adapting to flash is probably not. Without seeing the actual softboxes I can't be definitive but most of these continuous light setups are dead end proposals, marketed to people who want to take baby steps into lighting. The gear usually doesn't adapt so the next step is starting over.

you can do a lot with LR / PS

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/y428​Wt

Thanks a million for all the input. Will try again with a higher ISO and trying to control the light a bit more. I'll post the results here for more advice

Thanks again!

keep in mind that ISO will not provide any difference between ambient and your softboxes, it will bring everything up equally.

Trying in darkness with one light only

How do you like your last image? It's classical Rembrandt lighting (often a reflector is used on the shadow side to provide a little fill to lighten the shadows).
IMHO, this is a nice improvement over your previous efforts.

I'm happier with it, even though I think the eyes are a bit out of focus maybe? Trial and error is the way to learn!

cubatahavana wrote in post #17719377
I'm happier with it, even though I think the eyes are a bit out of focus maybe? Trial and error is the way to learn!

F/2.8 will give you less DOF, so it will be a little more difficult when shooting self portraits to get the eyes in focus (although the eyes look in focus to me). You could drop the shutter speed to 1/60 and change your aperture to f/4.5 to get similar results, but with more DOF. (I'm not sure how familiar you are with the "exposure triangle".)

bob_r wrote in post #17719390
F/2.8 will give you less DOF, so it will be a little more difficult when shooting self portraits to get the eyes in focus. You could drop the shutter speed to 1/60 and change your aperture to f/4.5 to get similar results, but with more DOF. (I'm not sure how familiar you are with the "exposure triangle".)

Was going to try a take on 1/60, but the camera's battery ran out! Will keep practicing. Thanks a lot!

cubatahavana wrote in post #17719310
Trying in darkness with one light only

- at 100mm, F2.8 and that distance, your DoF is too narrow if you miss the eye
- you can see the very front of the hair on your mustache is tack sharp - thus your eye is not
- clearly you are doing a self portrait, but F5.6 / F8 at that distance and FL would have been better