Studio V Window

I am coming to the conclusion portraits are better with natural light

What do you prefer?

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Well, there's no way to make a comparison here. There's two totally different light sources, each with their own benefits. The first one shows two strobes being used with very flat lighting as a result. If this is the effect you're looking for, great. If you'd have used only ONE strobe, with maybe just a reflector for the first one, the results would have been closer to the second shot. The second shot would have benefited from a reflector (or a larger, closer one) to bring a little "pop" to her eyes.
Apples and oranges here.
I guess the challenge is to use each type of light source to our advantage to get the results we want.

Different model, different makeup, different light (obviously - this is the thread topic) but I agree to the above they cannot be compared.

I know a photographer who blatantly refuses to use flash or ANY artificial light... so much so that she will cancel a shoot if the weather is not 'right'

Others can reproduce her work with a studio full of lights and no artificial light at all.

The answer to Studio V Window depends on what you are shooting and the type of result you want.

Dear chrnat,

Very interesting observation. I assume from your conclusion that you have noticed that the more diffuse light (say from a northern exposure) is more friendly to the model in some ways.

I agree with you 100%, and I will remark on some of the major differences that I see in the two portraits.

1) even though there are significant shadows in the face at the right, those shadows only add to the feeling of depth or 3-dimensionality of the facial contours or structure.
2) There are no hot spots in the portrait at the right.
3) In the portrait at the right I am reminded of a famous National Geographic cover shot of a woman in Afghanistan.
4) In the portrait at the right there is only the teensiest catch-light in her right eye. That could be considered as a negative. However, I will take that over the un-natural two catchlights in each eye at the left.

I appreciate the comments - this is really helping me get better results - thanks

I did have reflectors but as you see (in the eyes) on the new pic on the left it was too low.

Also the reflectors are the back of the brollies not flat. Need to sort it out as again you will see the white highlighting the hair (top right).

The pic on the right is outdoor but I over did the fill in flash I think which was supposed to be just a catch light with the 580 white screen ?

Do youagree

Chris

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When exposing digital images one MUST meter and expose for the highlights (like we used to do when using reversal film.) All three of the images of the beautiful Oriental gal have overexposed highlights (with the possible exception of the very first image, I didn't check the histogram.) And while there was sufficient light to expose the image the light is not particularity flattering to your subject. The name of the game in portraiture is flatter your subject with good posing and good lighting.

In the first image the light is creating an unusual light pattern which highlights her right cheek and the right side of her nose and leaving a shadow in between them. In the second image the light is almost flat, but again we have a slight shadow on her right cheek under her eye. In the third image of the young lady, the flash unit has added exposure to her right cheek overexposing it. A reflector at camera right would have bounced some light into her eyes and a careful meter reading and subsequent aperture adjustment of the camera to reflect the highlight reading on her right cheek would have prevented the overexposure, and you wouldn't have had to use a flash unit.

This young lady has a rather round face, and would benefit from short Rembrandt lighting as this would slenderize her face rather than making it appear rounder as your lighting does.

Benji

thats not true at all.. if you know what your doing you can do the same thing with either one.. Natural light is great but so are strobes if you understand placement and ratios..