Lighting Critique Please...

I'm very new to studio lighting... Looking to improve. This is basically SOOC, taken as a jpeg, I sharpened in DPP. Suggestions please! Exif is 1/200, f/8, ISO 100, Soft box for main, umbrella for fill, 2 lights to light background, All Alien Bees. XTI and 70-200 f/4L at 70mm.

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looks nice to me, but i am no expert

Thanks Jam.

You nailed the background, white white, nice.

The lighting seems a little harsh. Do you have a meter?

Try moving the box in as close as possible without getting into the frame, the umbrella is fine but apply a little more fill. This picture, IMHO, should be softer, I would have the main light camera left, fill on the right. Or you could just have them turn a bit the other way

Remember this is just one guy's opinion and I'm far from an expert.

-rich

Rich,

Thanks for the critique. How do you compare your 17-40 to your 85 1.8 ? I'm just about to buy a 17-40 and I'd like to hear you opinion... especially on sharpness. I find my 85 1.8 to be tack sharp, but to long for my studio.

Thanks,

John.

johndevane wrote in post #5935781
Rich,

Thanks for the critique. How do you compare your 17-40 to your 85 1.8 ? I'm just about to buy a 17-40 and I'd like to hear you opinion... especially on sharpness. I find my 85 1.8 to be tack sharp, but to long for my studio.

Thanks,

John.

I love my 85 but I have the same problem in the studio.

Love the 17-40, couldn't do without it in my studio. It's on my camera 75% of the time, next would be the 50mm, for studio work.

johndevane wrote in post #5935781
Rich,

Thanks for the critique. How do you compare your 17-40 to your 85 1.8 ? I'm just about to buy a 17-40 and I'd like to hear you opinion... especially on sharpness. I find my 85 1.8 to be tack sharp, but to long for my studio.

Thanks,

John.

Maybe try the 70-200 at 70 to see if that is enough wider? I'd have to agree though that in general 70-85mm is pretty long on 1.6X bodies for inside.

I like the lighting in the picture quite a bit, though my experience with what you are doing is very low.

To my eye the fill light on the leftmost girl is too low. Since she is closest to the fill I wonder if this has something to do with the position of the light.

would it be possible for you to take a picture of the setup in its places ?
id like to see how it looks.

I'll do ya one better on the setup picture... search "lightingman" and settle in for a long night of learning.

As far as the setup picture, I'll take one this weekend, but there is a thread here somewhere that links to a great tutorial where I learned this style, I just can't remember at all where it is or the great photographers name that did the tutorial... Anyone else?

Looks good to me..

Mabye it is me but it seems everyone has sun burn. Could be WB issue. Did you do custom WB?

The bg is pure 255/255/255 while faces to me look under-exposed. The kids arms on the lady shoulder showing spill.

You have a high key background, but the lighting on the subjects is a bit on the contrasty side...reduce the ratio of highlight area vs. fill. And bring up the overall brightness levels a bit so the hightlight side is not so dark as it is now.

Don't move the lights closer, though. That simply makes the contrast ratio higher! For example, the difference in brightness of 4' vs. 5.6' is 1EV difference over a distance of 1.6'. Move the light back to 8' and the same 1.6' distance is now lessened to about 0.5EV difference! At 16', 1.6' difference is less than 0.3EV difference!

Whoa!!

Wilt, you've moved into a level of technical data I'm just unfamiliar with. I'd love to learn. The way I THINK your teaching is... ummm...

" You have a high key background, but the lighting on the subjects is a bit on the contrasty side...reduce the ratio of highlight area vs. fill. And bring up the overall brightness levels a bit so the hightlight side is not so dark as it is now. "

Does that mean to raise the light on the subjects so that they more match the background?

And...

" Don't move the lights closer, though. That simply makes the contrast ratio higher! "

This means; if I move the main light closer it will make a softer light, creating more contrast, where a light source farther away will be smaller (more harsh) and create less contrast? That seems backwards in my mind.
Shouldn't a softer light be less contrasty?

I'm excited to expand my knowledge and wait for your reply!

Regards,

John

Bobby,

They're sunburned! you can see the tan lines on my daughter on the left. I didn't do a custom W/B, just used auto, but it's a good representation of the scene. We had been water skiing all day! Thanks for noticing the spill light... I fight against that constantly, and I don't win very often. I'm still new at this. Probably just too much background light I assume?

Thanks,

John.

I like the lighting, but I think there's too much saturation on the skin tone, creates high contrast with the white BG.