A trip to B&Q and a quick headshot job..

rgrebby

rgrebby

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Richard
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I do a lot of actor headshots and everytime I do I add extra full length shots, loads of other stuff so that they want to buy more pictures and not just a couple headshots, it was raining today though so couldnt shoot outside...

Today I had the pleasure of shooting Carys, a comedien and figured i'd do her a studio type shot. However I dont have full time use of a studio or even a large space. The other issue is im not keen on the floating on air type shots that you sometimes get with a studio.

Anyway, with my limit space (and I mean really limited, maybe a 3msq room with a white wall and brown carpet, 2 single beds and a big wardrobe) I set up my 2 flash guns. One at the back and the other on a 32" softbox to light the subject.

I also went along to B&Q and bought 2 sheets of white hardboard 1220x610 or so for £4 each.

Simple stuff but here is the final simple studio image.

edit - I realise my silly signature is in the way :p

first shot in my home "studio" hah ;)

carys-2.jpg
 
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Excellent,

B&Q as photographic studio suppliers isn't new either. ..MD.. put me on to some 3mm acrylic sheets that they sell. Place this over white paper for the same effect you have there but being clear you can put it over green/red/black etc too. I was using a sheet of white board prior to that and it works surprisingly well :)
 
The effect is good and she looks like she had fun too.
 
Nicely thought out, there's a wee dark blotch on the image 3/4" away from the R of your sig in the image,

Df
 
cowasaki said:
Excellent,

B&Q as photographic studio suppliers isn't new either. ..MD.. put me on to some 3mm acrylic sheets that they sell. Place this over white paper for the same effect you have there but being clear you can put it over green/red/black etc too. I was using a sheet of white board prior to that and it works surprisingly well :)
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How much were the acrylic sheets?
 
That's really good for what you had available, just shame about where you put your sig as it's distracting from the image, still i guess you can always move that :)
 
TG. said:
That's really good for what you had available, just shame about where you put your sig as it's distracting from the image, still i guess you can always move that :)
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+1 for anything special I 'print' a jpeg in lightroom so position the logo to look its best :D
 
Impressive stuff in such limited space, well done. So a 10 foot by 10 foot room, with 2 beds and a wardrobe - that's ridiculous.
 
cowasaki said:
Excellent,

B&Q as photographic studio suppliers isn't new either. ..MD.. put me on to some 3mm acrylic sheets that they sell. Place this over white paper for the same effect you have there but being clear you can put it over green/red/black etc too. I was using a sheet of white board prior to that and it works surprisingly well :)
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Sounds ideal. What size was it and how much please.

john

Sorryyyyyyyyyyyyy see someone already asked this.
 
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middlearthimages said:
Sounds ideal. What size was it and how much please.

john
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They didn't have the 6'x4' pieces in when I went with Dave earlier in the month, which would have cost £35. I bought a 4'x4' piece which was £22. It is ideal because you don't actually have to have it covering the whole floor just the area in front of the model so that you get the slight reflection and therefore a floor anchor point for your image. Placed on top of a piece of white paper as used in backdrops and it gives a great white floor (see all ..md..'s images). I have also placed it onto some black velvet and it looks great although no images yet.

The white Melamine idea is also pretty good too. You could cover the back in something else to give you two alternate looks, maybe paint in with black gloss or something. The white board idea also gives you a nice big reflector too and that is what I now use my piece of white board for that I still have. I am not sure what my piece of board actually is (it is about 3mm thick) as it was left by Galaxy66 Mal for my sons terrarium when Mal bought a compressor off me last year but my son got a kitten instead !
 
middlearthimages said:
Thanks for that. Good idea for the reflector too.

john

PS the photo looks really good too. I should have commented on the photo first!.
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The best stuff is the thin white board that is normally used in the back of pre-packed wardrobes etc. Thin, light and shiny...... Melamine can be a bit heavy in larger pieces.
 
The large 180cm x 120cm x 2mm liteglaze acrylic sheets are still half price instore in homebase. They started the offer back in june which included some of the smaller sheets too, but now only seems to be the biggest ones. They could always get them cut them to your preferred size then you have some extra sheets :)
 
cowasaki said:
but being clear you can put it over green/red/black etc too. I was using a sheet of white board prior to that and it works surprisingly well :)
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The problem with clear though, and glass, is that it can have double reflections.

Not always that noticable on a full length, but it can be obvious if they're in a pose that brings them closer to the ground (and a larger reflection relative to the scene); laying or sat on the vinyl, etc, and REALLY obvious in something like a small product photo.

The white hardboard works great though. It's a tip Zack Arias shared on his CreativeLive thingy a couple of weeks ago (although he gets his from Home Depot and they call it "Tile board").
 
Kaouthia said:
The problem with clear though, and glass, is that it can have double reflections.

Not always that noticable on a full length, but it can be obvious if they're in a pose that brings them closer to the ground (and a larger reflection relative to the scene); laying or sat on the vinyl, etc, and REALLY obvious in something like a small product photo.
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I agree with you, I bought some of those acryllic sheets on ebay before and used them on product shots. The problem is I can really see the texture of whatever I put underneath it and its distracting sometimes.
 
technics100 said:
What PP has been done?

Thanks
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forgot to mention - love the shot

did you add the LH side in PS?
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Ok, so quick shot and PP description. I shot in portrait with the 24-70mm. The door opens onto the spiral staircase here so I was out on the hall halfway up the stairs to get a full length shot in.

The back wall was white with a little cream skirting board at the bottom. I just put one of the boards on the lip and it curved down to the next one. Then I placed the 2nd board on top of the other one so you couldnt see the join.

I put the model on the join, maybe just a little bit closer to me so the relection wouldnt need fixing.

Fired one SB26 at the background and then used the other SB26 on a 32" softbox.

The rear SB26 was blowing out some but not all of the background, she was about 3 feet away from it maybe less so I didnt want spill.

As I said I shot in portrait orientation so after I get it into LR3 I moved it straight into PS and duplicated the layer. Then used the replace colour function and rmoved the mostly white background. (max brightness, min Sat) using the +selection tool I got rid of most of it, however you sometimes blow out some of the subject doing this but thats ok...

Then I apply a layer mask to that top layer and use the brush to erase parts of the subject that got blown out. The original layer below has the unchanged image and thats what shows through.

Once thats done I use the white brush and clear up and edges around like the brown carpet that didnt get removed using the replace colour tool.

At this stage we would just have the girl standing in a white studio with a slight shadow/refelction under her to grown her slightly.

Adding the space on the side is simple. Since the BG is white, set your background colour picker to white and then use the crop tool. Dragging outside the canvas will extend it and use the background colour and then its all done.

Hope that helps.
 
rowla said:
The large 180cm x 120cm x 2mm liteglaze acrylic sheets are still half price instore in homebase.
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Thanks for the link. Just popped past homebase, tried to get one but they were all damaged. They said the next local store couldn't find any (showed 5 in stock), and looks as though they'll be discontinued. So I bought one of the damaged ones (looks like 5'x4' now instead of 6'x4') for a tenner. Bargain, will have a play.
 
I ended up painting one side of the acrylic sheets gloss white. It means that you get a great even white with no chance of dirt/marks on the back.
 
Hodders said:
I ended up painting one side of the acrylic sheets gloss white. It means that you get a great even white with no chance of dirt/marks on the back.
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Interesting, what did you paint it with? Gloss? How even is it?
 
If you use a gloss roller instead of a brush you should be able to get it pretty even
 
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