Daughter's Engagement - Comments Please

I shot this at our University Ag Building. Two umbrellas c/w 580ex and Sigma 70-200 lens. Notice 2 catchlights in the eyes - not sure if I like this effect or not. Just getting into portraits.

The close up of my daughter is a crop of the other photo.

Appreciate your comments.

-Richard

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Not a comment?

Generally twin catch lights are a no no..

Can you suggest a way to avoid this? I used the strobes bouncing off the umbrellas. Perhaps the twin catch lights could be avoided by shooting through one of the umbrellas? How about the photo in general.... I'm a newbie and appreciate your comments.

yogestee wrote in post #5364740
Generally twin catch lights are a no no..

What?

I always work with twin catch lights! One at the upper part of the eye and the other somewhere coming from the fill...

Can you explain?

trickyricky wrote in post #5364761
Can you suggest a way to avoid this? I used the strobes bouncing off the umbrellas. Perhaps the twin catch lights could be avoided by shooting through one of the umbrellas? How about the photo in general.... I'm a newbie and appreciate your comments.

trickyricky,,looking at the image of your daughter it appears you have placed your flashes at equal distance and powerput..What I have noticed there is no "modelling" making the lighting very flat..In theory there should be some exposure difference between the main light and the fill light..About 1 1/2 stops difference is a good starting point..

The easiest way to achieve this is to have your main light source at 45deg and slightly higher to the subject and the use of a reflector on the opposite side of the main light..A reflector will give you a much softer fill with a very soft catch light..Alternately you can use your fill flash directly infront of the subject at half or quarter power..This will move the fill catch light nearer to the main light catch light not making it so obvious..Cloning out the fill catch light using Photoshop is also a good idea..

The wonderful thing about using strobes is that they are so controlable and having modelling lights will give you a good indication on how the final result will look..

yogestee wrote in post #5364936
trickyricky,,looking at the image of your daughter it appears you have placed your flashes at equal distance and powerput..What I have noticed there is no "modelling" making the lighting very flat..In theory there should be some exposure difference between the main light and the fill light..About 1 1/2 stops difference is a good starting point..

The easiest way to achieve this is to have your main light source at 45deg and slightly higher to the subject and the use of a reflector on the opposite side of the main light..A reflector will give you a much softer fill with a very soft catch light..Alternately you can use your fill flash directly infront of the subject at half or quarter power..This will move the fill catch light nearer to the main light catch light not making it so obvious..Cloning out the fill catch light using Photoshop is also a good idea..

The wonderful thing about using strobes is that they are so controlable and having modelling lights will give you a good indication on how the final result will look..

Thanks! That explanation is one I can live with. Actually was quite good.

I had the same thoughts as yogestee about the flat lighting, but he explained how to fix it much better than I could.

Wow - that was really good. You're bang on, equal power output, both umbrellas equi-distance @ 45 degrees from the subjects. I'm going to print your advice and use it on my next "shoot". Anything else you could give me? i.e. composition, camera height etc?

Please expand on your comments... "and having modelling lights will give you a good indication on how the final result will look.."

Thanks!

trickyricky wrote in post #5365023
Wow - that was really good. You're bang on, equal power output, both umbrellas equi-distance @ 45 degrees from the subjects. I'm going to print your advice and use it on my next "shoot". Anything else you could give me? i.e. composition, camera height etc?

Please expand on your comments... "and having modelling lights will give you a good indication on how the final result will look.."

Thanks!

Richard,,It is a good idea to have your camera at the subject's eye level unless you want to shoot for an effect..Composition wise shoot your subject a bit loose so you can crop the image as needed,,don't shot too tight..

Sorry Richard,,I just re-read your original post..I see you are using 530EXs..I thought you were using strobes..Do a test and check the lighting result on your camera screen this will give you some indication..

yogestee wrote in post #5365199
Richard,,It is a good idea to have your camera at the subject's eye level unless you want to shoot for an effect..Composition wise shoot your subject a bit loose so you can crop the image as needed,,don't shot too tight..

Sorry Richard,,I just re-read your original post..I see you are using 530EXs..I thought you were using strobes..Do a test and check the lighting result on your camera screen this will give you some indication..

Would you share a portrait with me that indicates some of the tips you gave me?

trickyricky wrote in post #5366731
Would you share a portrait with me that indicates some of the tips you gave me?

Nothing too glamorous Richard,,pic of my daughter Cheridan..This time she didn't want to be photographed..

Very basic lighting..Main flash bounced out of a brolly at 45 deg to the left and a reflector as fill to the right..This is as simple as it gets..

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yogestee wrote in post #5367404
Nothing too glamorous Richard,,pic of my daughter Cheridan..This time she didn't want to be photographed..

Very basic lighting..Main flash bounced out of a brolly at 45 deg to the left and a reflector as fill to the right..This is as simple as it gets..

Looks good. Catch-light much better than mine. So the idea is to get some shadowing on the face?

Could I get your opinion as to lens use for individual portraits vs. groups as well as f-stops? ie. what did you use for your daughter's pic?

trickyricky wrote in post #5367792
Looks good. Catch-light much better than mine. So the idea is to get some shadowing on the face?

Could I get your opinion as to lens use for individual portraits vs. groups as well as f-stops? ie. what did you use for your daughter's pic?

Richard,,,not so much as a shadow but a darkening..Notice how soft the "shadow" is without any real defining line between the dark and light??

I used a Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8,,,my favourite portrait lens..Choosing a lens is a very personal subjective decision.. No one lens does everything..For groups go wide angle, for portraits a short telephoto is good..Maximum aperture of F/2.8 or larger will work best..

Another thing I forgot to mention,,,the nearer you place your brollies to the subject the softer and larger the catch lights will be..I prefer soft large catch lights..

yogestee wrote in post #5370159
Richard,,,not so much as a shadow but a darkening..Notice how soft the "shadow" is without any real defining line between the dark and light??

I used a Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8,,,my favourite portrait lens..Choosing a lens is a very personal subjective decision.. No one lens does everything..For groups go wide angle, for portraits a short telephoto is good..Maximum aperture of F/2.8 or larger will work best..

Another thing I forgot to mention,,,the nearer you place your brollies to the subject the softer and larger the catch lights will be..I prefer soft large catch lights..

I've a nice 17-55 2.8 Sigma that I like. For a group shot would you use something like F11 for proper DOF to keep the group in focus? Brolly Placement? Another thing I was wondering - when you hit a group with focus points does it matter if you use multiple focus points or only a centre focust point? In other words do the focus points control DOF or is it only aperture?

p.s. what tripod do you use?