first try with black muslin

I went with a one light setup for this one. I think if I was to do it again I would have used a reflector on the left side but what the heck, I'm still learning. If anyone has any tips or anything, I'm all ears. Thanks

Maybe a snooted flash camera left, behind the subject to give a rim light?

you can do some pp to get the back totally black. i have a video i can send you if you PM me your email.

Cute baby and I like the prop.

Her face looks a little dark/underexposed and flat... needs more contrast IMO. Also the crop could be a little tighter, too much black at the bottom.

Definitely looks underexposed to me. Adorable subject though!

rmr21 wrote in post #8278708
Definitely looks underexposed to me. Adorable subject though!

Yeah, I found it was harder to get a good exposure with the black background. If I bumped the flash up a step it washed out the skin any lower was not bright enough. I must have been in the wrong metering mode.

That's a great prop, too!

mayerk wrote in post #8278969
Yeah, I found it was harder to get a good exposure with the black background. If I bumped the flash up a step it washed out the skin any lower was not bright enough. I must have been in the wrong metering mode.

Buy a flash meter. And you should be in manual exposure mode anyways in studio environment.

Cute baby BTW.

I don't really think you need to go out and buy a flash meter. Just study the flash you do have and learn how to use it more effectively. This picture is very dark and the lighting is harsh. I agree you need more light. Did you have any natural light at all? When working with 1 flash it's best to try and use natural light then your flash for a little fill. If you spill a little too much light onto the background just burn it in Photoshop
HTH

Agree with it being underexposed. But, I would also like to add that the foreground (black) is over done. Meaning, I feel that there's too much of it.

Crop some of the bottom?

Here is what I came up with after some layer adjustments and such....

* I agree on the crop it needed to come up more.. there was too much dead space at the top.. the lighting is flat and harsh... photo was underexposed and lacking contrast. The subject is soft but i can see that the elmo eyes are sharp so it leads me to believe that is where you focused..your WB was also off..

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I must admit, that's much brighter, but on my monitor it looks much too bright and overexposed. The right side of her face seems to be washed out. But it brings up a very interesting idea, maybe my monitor needs calibration and that could be the issue. WB should be good, I used a grey card before shooting, the fact that its underexposed probably causes it to look off, at least thats my guess.

it looks off... the WB looks redish and warm... on yours...

I think black demands a reflector, second light, or back light of some kind. It is too easy for the dark side of a subject to fall into the background. Unless that is what you were going for.

Mark1 wrote in post #8286724
I think black demands a reflector, second light, or back light of some kind. It is too easy for the dark side of a subject to fall into the background. Unless that is what you were going for.

I agree, I have a second light but chose to only use one to get pronounced shadows. I thought with a second light I would have problems achieving this, but looking at it now, A reflector would have been perfect.