First Portrait Post

after much reading and some practice i have posted this in the hopes you can give me some pointers. these are shoots of my girls i did tonight both at ISO 200 @ 50mm F6.3 C+C welcome and NEEDED...
1.

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Very nice work, those images have alot of pop. The color balance is right on. I love the lighting, what did you use?

very nice, my suggestions: I would make is to try and bring up the background a touch with a light on it and perhaps iron it , or smooth it in pshop or you could shoot with the lens more open to have less depth of field. Using the 50mm makes that hard but this would give the photo scene more depth. If you can get the camera further back then the zoom you have might allow you achieve a lower DOF. I think your model lighting is great but if the overhead beauty light were softened somehow. Not sure what it is and what your setup is , but i " see " some people using things like a white cloth to disperse it a bit more or firing that light through a softbox or into a small reflector .. it seems quite focussed. Firing that light onto something reflective might also catch the background and light it a touch.

I see in your sig you have one flash of the camera . You did well in that case , maybe if you posted how you took the shot ( as in do you have a photo of the setup ) you might get some ideas from here that are practical for what you are " playing with " .

freefallu wrote in post #2091665
very nice, my suggestions: I would make is to try and bring up the background a touch with a light on it and perhaps iron it , or smooth it in pshop or you could shoot with the lens more open to have less depth of field. Using the 50mm makes that hard but this would give the photo scene more depth. If you can get the camera further back then the zoom you have might allow you achieve a lower DOF. I think your model lighting is great but if the overhead beauty light were softened somehow. Not sure what it is and what your setup is , but i " see " some people using things like a white cloth to disperse it a bit more or firing that light through a softbox or into a small reflector .. it seems quite focussed. Firing that light onto something reflective might also catch the background and light it a touch.

I see in your sig you have one flash of the camera . You did well in that case , maybe if you posted how you took the shot ( as in do you have a photo of the setup ) you might get some ideas from here that are practical for what you are " playing with " .

thank you for your advice i will try what you suggest. i have posted my setup so you can see what I'm working with. as you can see i have two 26" softbox and one AC strobe with a home made snoot all made by yinyan . simple and cheap the background is from walmart the stool too! as you can see my space is limited i'm lucky my better half gave me this much to work with..lol

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Hi,

Im very new to studio photography , so perhaps somebody with more experience will post. Looking at that , if you could lose the snoot cover and diffuse that light source slightly ( something opaque like a lampshade or frosted bowl ) that might scatter the light a bit better i reckon your in business. or why not push the backdrop to the left and vary bouncing the strobe the white roof to scatter it with some " spill " on the subjects head and some on the backdrop.

That or put the softbox half way between the snoot position and the post and a touch higher and lose the snoot ?

Either way , the biggest thing I see is to stop the " burn " on top of the girls head, i have a snoot and played with it a little and never really like what it did. Focussed burn was the best i got out of it..

The other thing is to iron that big crease out of the background. I have seen some suggest spraying them with a mist of water so the crease naturally falls out.

Also it looks like you have another few feet for the tripod to move back ? Id mess about with that and maybe shoot at 70-80 mm , with the lens closed down a bit so you keep the back drop OOF.

All ideas and like i say , im new to studio stuff and just learning myself. As for what your partner gave you to " play with " ,, man your luckuy , Im waiting for a room in my office to become free to set my stuff up .. right now i have to pack away the sitting room before i start to " unpack " my studio

Nice captures thanks for sharing

freefallu wrote in post #2093441
Hi,

Im very new to studio photography , so perhaps somebody with more experience will post. Looking at that , if you could lose the snoot cover and diffuse that light source slightly ( something opaque like a lampshade or frosted bowl ) that might scatter the light a bit better i reckon your in business. or why not push the backdrop to the left and vary bouncing the strobe the white roof to scatter it with some " spill " on the subjects head and some on the backdrop.

That or put the softbox half way between the snoot position and the post and a touch higher and lose the snoot ?

Either way , the biggest thing I see is to stop the " burn " on top of the girls head, i have a snoot and played with it a little and never really like what it did. Focussed burn was the best i got out of it..

The other thing is to iron that big crease out of the background. I have seen some suggest spraying them with a mist of water so the crease naturally falls out.

Also it looks like you have another few feet for the tripod to move back ? Id mess about with that and maybe shoot at 70-80 mm , with the lens closed down a bit so you keep the back drop OOF.

All ideas and like i say , im new to studio stuff and just learning myself. As for what your partner gave you to " play with " ,, man your luckuy , Im waiting for a room in my office to become free to set my stuff up .. right now i have to pack away the sitting room before i start to " unpack " my studio

here is a second try with some of your advice.. i like the way the head it lite but to me it seems to lack the "pop" the first two did. do you agree? i'ev played with it for about an hour could not get the same feel as the others

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Looks terrific to me.

queenbee288 wrote in post #2094587
Looks terrific to me.

thanks still learning

sweet , your daughter seems like mega happy to have her picture taken. The lighting is a lot different for sure and while more flat , i think getting rid of the really white spot is a step forward. In regards to the background , this one has a wrinly back , but you can see how just a little light on the back helps give more pop , its not evently lit as in flooded but does get some. Im really hopìng somebody with more experience can guide you more, as im at the extent of my knowledge. I dont have specific experience with the light overhead ( beauty light ) which is the one that needs adjusting ( i think ).

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