Testing new Studio Setup...

Up until recently I have been predominantly shooting against a black background with two studio strobes.

I thought it would be time for a change so have got my self a white paper roll. This was OK except I found myself still clear cutting and my ultimate goal is little or no PP.

So I invested in two more lights to white out my background. From what I have read here so far the goal here is not to over do it with the background.

My setup is as follows (all strobes 200 w/s)
Key light 60 deg from backdrop powered at 1/2 power, approximately 2meters from subject
Fill light 45 deg from backdrop on opposite side from key, 1/4 power
Two backdrop lights each a 1/4 power approximately 1 meter from backdrop.
Subject is just in front of the backdrop lights.

Camera is set to ISO100, shutter 1/60s & f/5.6 This is what the flash meter came out at with all lights on, not sure if I need to be metering with the backdrop lights on or off. The meters sensor is facing forward though so shouldn't 'see' the backdrop strobes.

Here is a test shot from the above setup with no PP except for resizing, any comments of suggestions on this setup?

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Meter with all the lights on, if they don't affect the exposure then it doesn't matter if they're off or on, if they do then you want them on. Keep the power as low as you can to still white things out, otherwise you may lose contrast. That's a nice classic studio shot, don't limit yourself to ISO100, go to 400 if you need to for DOF, there's hardly any noise at 400.

tim wrote in post #5496072
Meter with all the lights on, if they don't affect the exposure then it doesn't matter if they're off or on, if they do then you want them on. Keep the power as low as you can to still white things out, otherwise you may lose contrast. That's a nice classic studio shot, don't limit yourself to ISO100, go to 400 if you need to for DOF, there's hardly any noise at 400.

Yes my goal is to keep the power on the strobes down, more about keeping the recycle time down than anything.

Will bump up the ISO for some more DOF though.

FlyingPete wrote in post #5496041
Up until recently I have been predominantly shooting against a black background with two studio strobes.

I thought it would be time for a change so have got my self a white paper roll. This was OK except I found myself still clear cutting and my ultimate goal is little or no PP.

So I invested in two more lights to white out my background. From what I have read here so far the goal here is not to over do it with the background.

My setup is as follows (all strobes 200 w/s)
Key light 60 deg from backdrop powered at 1/2 power, approximately 2meters from subject
Fill light 45 deg from backdrop on opposite side from key, 1/4 power
Two backdrop lights each a 1/4 power approximately 1 meter from backdrop.
Subject is just in front of the backdrop lights.

Camera is set to ISO100, shutter 1/60s & f/5.6 This is what the flash meter came out at with all lights on, not sure if I need to be metering with the backdrop lights on or off. The meters sensor is facing forward though so shouldn't 'see' the backdrop strobes.

Here is a test shot from the above setup with no PP except for resizing, any comments of suggestions on this setup?

Your FILL light MUST be within 20 degrees of your camera position. You can set up your MAIN anywhere you want, but for portraits 45 degrees is as good a place as any. MEASURE - with a flash meter - your FILL. Then measure your MAIN. The MAIN should be almost but not quite one stop brighter than the FILL, so adjust your FILL to bring it up or down to that amount. That will give you a 3:1 lighting ratio.

The flash measurements are done with the flash meter AT THE SUBJECT position and each light is measured separately. That gives you the ratio. Then you pop them together, measure that, and that's your taking exposure. If the MAIN is f5.6, and the Fill is f4 + 20%; then together you'll get something like f5.6 + a half.

After that you can mess with the background/hair/accent lights. It's all about that two light setup to start.

The reason that the FILL must be within 20 degrees of the camera position, is that it MUST see both sides of the subject's face. If both flashes were set to expose at say f5.6 (again measured at the subject position) then the one set at 45 degrees - the MAIN - "sees" only one side of their face, and "one" amount of light strikes that side. The FILL light, again at f5.6 strikes BOTH sides of their face. "One" amount strikes the shadow side, and "One" strikes the highlight side. "One" on the shadow side is 1. "One" on the highlight side is from the FIll, PLUS "One" from the highlight side is from the MAIN, and that = 2.

THIS IS A 2:1 lighting ratio! IT IS NOT STOPS! The almost one stop difference between the MAIN and the FILL that I suggested first is a 3:1 lighting ratio, and since the arithmetic is a little more complicated I won't take you through it.

For all of the other photographers who will insist that a 3:1 lighting ratio is a two stop difference between Highlight and Shadow (which is about 6:1), I want you to continue to believe that,and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE compete against me!