First portrait with off camera lighting

I know the background looks like crap. I was very wrinkled (PS work made it better) but I didn't plan on any keepers because I was just practicing to see how the light fell.

This was taken outdoors at dusk. The sun was setting behind her. I threw the backdrop over our privacy fence.

580EX manual 1/16 shot into silver umbrella high camera left about 4-5 feet from model. Large silver reflector about 3-4 feet away camera right. This was 2nd practice session. The night before I learned that I needed to get my light higher.

I am looking for critique of the lighting. How can I improve it. What did I do correctly and what did I do wrong?

Camera settings: 40D and 35L. Manual mode, ISO 100 f/2.0, 125.

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i think you did a good job...

The lighting looks good to me. It's almost perfect Rembrandt lighting.

Notice, however, that there are some hot spots that are a little too noticeable. For example, several small places on her face and most of her throat.

I cannot be sure, but I would think those are all due to the main light being too close. Backing up with it and also backing up with the reflector panel should make it less harsh.

The ratio of the fill light to the modeling light looks about right, because I can see shadows everyplace where they are needed to produce the 3-dimensionality or the facial contours.

Congratulations!

Lighting is good, but extremely flat, almost lifeless. You did a good job at evenly lighting the subject and removing any hard shadows. Next I would try to be more creative.

white balance is way off. main light is too low, nose shadow should move downward toward mouth. fill is a little much, light is pretty flat. imo of course.

suyenfung wrote in post #5942182
white balance is way off. main light is too low, nose shadow should move downward toward mouth. fill is a little much, light is pretty flat. imo of course.

Let's assume for a moment that suyenfung is correct about the color balance (I did not notice any significant color cast, but I don't have calibrated eyeballs:lol

Assuming that you did want to guarantee yourself a perfect color balance. An easy way to do that is to use a gray card (does not have to be 18% Gray - it only has to be neutral in color.)

You would use the gray card to create a Custom White Balance image in your camera that is based on your studio lighting. Then you would have to use that CWB during your shooting.

If everything has been done properly, the colors will be perfect. About the only way it can get messed up would be to illuminate portions of the scene with one source and other portions of the scene with a radically different source.

*************Gray Card***************
Tutorial on Use of the Gray Card for Exposure and White Balance:
http://www.zaffora.com​/W9DMK/GrayCardTutoria​l.htm
or the downloadable PDF version:
http://www.zaffora.com​/W9DMK/GrayCardTutoria​l.pdf

Thank you all so much for your comments and input. I thought it was a little flat also. White balance, not sure. I shot raw so I am going to go back and tinker with it again. The only way to learn is to try, try again.

The white balance looks fine on my monitor too.

Mike

I think that's a good attempt. White balance looks ok to me. Simple PP to remove the hotspots.

Just a preference thing, but I use white umbrellas as they seem more flattering and less harsh for this kind of shot. Either shoot through or bounced.

Maybe you could have used the sunset as the background instead of the man-made backdrop?

Thanks Martin. I have shoot through white but a friend wanted me to try out this silver. There was the privacy fence and lots of neighborhood between model and the sunset. the sun had actually already set behind all of that.

First things first. It IS absolutely a very good first attempt. You've got all the concepts and have an idea of what is supposed to happen but as others have pointed out, there are ares that need some improvement to make it a more interesting capture and more flattering to your subject.

The lighting is a little flat, which means there isn't all that much contrast between the highlight (main light) and shadow (fill light) side of the face and body. If this was a child or infant I would say you did the right thing but adults tend to look better when there is at least 1 stop difference between main and fill. For lack of a better word, it's slightly more dramatic.

Your lights are also falling too low on the subject. You can see how well lit the front of her body and ends of her hair are lit by comparison to the face and the way that the loop off the nose is pointing straight off to the side, whereas it should be angled down towards the corner of the mouth as suyenfung pointed out. You should never lose sight of your subject's face and eyes and they are what lacks life and contrast.

You've got pretty good subject isolation but again, more between the subject's body and the background as opposed to her hair and the background. The top of the head should receive more light. That would happen by simply raising your main light and perhaps the position of the fill source or by adding a hair light of some sort. A hair light can be a cheap flash, strobe or a reflector. You can even use some ambient or sunlight to add highlight to the hair, or a piece of white foam core positioned correctly can bring in a beautiful soft hair light on the shadow side of the head and that really opens things up a lot in terms of contrast and subject to background isolation.

I realize you are working on lighting but just in case you want to work on posing as well, one thing to consider is that she has assumed what is considered a more 'masculine' posture by tilting her head that way. If she were to give a slight tilt the other way, and let the head and far shoulder follow the same line it would look more natural. Nothing says you can't break the rules but I think it's good to learn them and work with them before breaking out.

I know that's a lot to take in but I would start there and see what happens. As I originally said, overall, pretty good for your first attempt. Keep working on it and show us your progress.

the image is not loading for me now but i recall the white balance being cool by several hundred degrees minimum. i bet if you look at the raw it is somewhere around 4800k, i would push it up to around 5500.

sorry i was in a rush when i wrote the last message, it might seem negative but it's not. this is definitely a trillion times better than my second attempt! you did well, you have gotten some fantastic advice here, apply what you have learned and you will be up to speed in no time.

TMR Design wrote in post #5947187
First things first. It IS absolutely a very good first attempt. You've got all the concepts and have an idea of what is supposed to happen but as others have pointed out, there are ares that need some improvement to make it a more interesting capture and more flattering to your subject.

The lighting is a little flat, which means there isn't all that much contrast between the highlight (main light) and shadow (fill light) side of the face and body. If this was a child or infant I would say you did the right thing but adults tend to look better when there is at least 1 stop difference between main and fill. For lack of a better word, it's slightly more dramatic.

Your lights are also falling too low on the subject. You can see how well lit the front of her body and ends of her hair are lit by comparison to the face and the way that the loop off the nose is pointing straight off to the side, whereas it should be angled down towards the corner of the mouth as suyenfung pointed out. You should never lose sight of your subject's face and eyes and they are what lacks life and contrast.

You've got pretty good subject isolation but again, more between the subject's body and the background as opposed to her hair and the background. The top of the head should receive more light. That would happen by simply raising your main light and perhaps the position of the fill source or by adding a hair light of some sort. A hair light can be a cheap flash, strobe or a reflector. You can even use some ambient or sunlight to add highlight to the hair, or a piece of white foam core positioned correctly can bring in a beautiful soft hair light on the shadow side of the head and that really opens things up a lot in terms of contrast and subject to background isolation.

I realize you are working on lighting but just in case you want to work on posing as well, one thing to consider is that she has assumed what is considered a more 'masculine' posture by tilting her head that way. If she were to give a slight tilt the other way, and let the head and far shoulder follow the same line it would look more natural. Nothing says you can't break the rules but I think it's good to learn them and work with them before breaking out.

I know that's a lot to take in but I would start there and see what happens. As I originally said, overall, pretty good for your first attempt. Keep working on it and show us your progress.

Thank you so much for taking the time to type up such a thorough response. I raised the light from the night before but I can see what you mean about getting it even higher. I am more accustomed to photographing children so that may explain why I was trying to get it so evenly lit. I now have some definate points to work on next time. Thanks!

suyenfung wrote in post #5947258
the image is not loading for me now but i recall the white balance being cool by several hundred degrees minimum. i bet if you look at the raw it is somewhere around 4800k, i would push it up to around 5500.

sorry i was in a rush when i wrote the last message, it might seem negative but it's not. this is definitely a trillion times better than my second attempt! you did well, you have gotten some fantastic advice here, apply what you have learned and you will be up to speed in no time.

I finally got a chance to look again at the raw file. It was 5100. I pushed it up to 5500 and it definate looked better. Isn't raw wonderful? Thank you for the advice.

Smugmug is having a service problem so I guess that is why the photo is not showing up.