Cheap little portrait setup - now with shots!

Update:

This morning I went to The Flash Centre and agreed to hire an Elinchrom BXRi 2x500 kit. :)
 
silverJON said:
Update:

This morning I went to The Flash Centre and agreed to hire an Elinchrom BXRi 2x500 kit. :)
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Top stuff. (don't forget you'll need a flash meter...)
Soft box at 45 degrees onto the curtains to give a bit of "skid" , another on the party bods 90 degress to the first, shoot at an angle to the curtains to let them fade off a bit - nice set up. Look forward to seeing your results.

Best wishes
Monty
 
Dear all

I've just returned the kit to TFC and come to work, bleary-eyed, aching-footed... I spent 5.30-7.30pm and 9-12pm on my feet shooting. Nearly all with my 50/1.4, handheld, using the fantastic Elinchrom Skyport system and two BXRi 500s. Both at 45 degrees, a main light into a white reflective umbrella at about 7'6" in the air, and a fill at about 1.3 stops below into a shoot-through umbrella at eye level. (My eye level is considering I'm a measly 5'7". :( )

The good news is that it worked! The portaits came out lovely. The greeny ripply curtains looked fantastic, apart from where I had to tape two together, and the burn mark on one of them...

The venue (Grange Holborn hotel on Bloomsbury Way) were wonderful and very accomodating, though they said it was illegal for me to do transactions on the premises, so I'll be selling prints online instead.

Good points:
  • I've NEVER had to worry about exposure so little in my life. So predictable. Needed little adjustment. Wonderful!
  • The shots looked fantastic and were flattering.
  • The radio trigger worked brilliantly once I got it going.
  • The modelling lights, even on the lowest setting, ensured fast, accurate AF all night.
  • The setup lent a great sense of occasion to the evening.
  • 100 drunk people yet I got my £500 deposit back in full...

Bad points:
  • There are always drama queens who refuse to change their pose, who say that all photos of them are 'disgusting', that sort of thing. Very frustrating. (These were people on a music degree, so most of these drama queens were male.)
  • Shine. At least with small light sources shiny specular highlights are restricted to small areas (and people get used to it). With larger light sources the shine is worse, and my polarising filter didn't really help! This was unfortunate for those blokes who were sweaty and had a 'mature hairstyle'.
  • The transmitter refused to work on my hotshoe, only when I connected it to my PC terminal. Good thing I have a K-7!
  • I know you're meant to bring a fill light as close to the subjects as possible, but I had slight problems with flare when I did that.
  • The flash meter wasn't helpful because it gave me a reading to the nearest stop. I could have set the exposure quicker with histograms or just by sight.
  • My feet hurt!


I'll post a sample shot later.

Thank you very much for your (varied) advice!

If anyone has any suggestions concerning the bad points above, I'd love to hear them.

Jonathan
 
Any suggestions concerning my experiences the other day? I'd be grateful!
 
Any chance you could post some of the shots? I'd be interested in seeing some of your best (and worse?) ones if that's ok.
 
Three varied examples straight from the camera:

1.


2.


3.


You can see where I gaffer taped two curtains together and they peeled apart enough to reveal the tape... a bit of judicious cropping will sort that I think!

Main light to the right, at about 7' into a reflective umbrella. Fill light to the left.

C&C on the photos, as well as the likely PP actions I'll have to do to make them printable, would be wonderful please.
 
excellent! Just back from a cruise, all they used was two softboxes, one each side above the subjects and angled in at about 45 degrees - simples! Worked well enough, seems no need for anything too elaborate for acceptable shots that sell to an uneducated public!
 
The exposures look spot on for me, a little PP sharpen for screen/print and these will be just fine.

Just one point, was there a reason for shooting at iso200?

Good thread and an example to all togs wanting advice.
 
Great result, well done!
 
You've done well with this, using a simple lighting arrangement that works equally well with everyone (and used by event photographers the world over) combined with fun poses.

What you've got here isn't actually 1 key light and 1 fill light, it's 2 key lights. The only possible improvement would have been to have both lights at the same effective power, which is the norm for this type of shot.
 
tiler65 said:
The exposures look spot on for me, a little PP sharpen for screen/print and these will be just fine.

Just one point, was there a reason for shooting at iso200?

Good thread and an example to all togs wanting advice.
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dunno bout a k7 but its native on my 5d2
 
Yipee !
Good gear mate - you pulled off a job and came away smelling of roses.
Your lighting is nice.
You made good decisions.
Well played.

I hope you are now Mr confident to do it (or something more adventurous) again.

I say you should snowball your self and QUICKLY invent a project:
A nightclub studio / a corner of a busy street studio / a next to the ice cream van studio / outside the local cop shop studio (tricky but worth it for the people and pictures you'll get).

Do daylight next time and invite people into your two large pieces of polystyrene set up in the most unthinkable place on your local high street.
Two big flats make a studio. Or (as you've just learned) one curtain.

i.e. - quick pat on the back for yourself but don't stop there...

Best wishes
Monty
 
MiniMonty said:
Yipee !
Good gear mate - you pulled off a job and came away smelling of roses.
Your lighting is nice.
You made good decisions.
Well played.

I hope you are now Mr confident to do it (or something more adventurous) again.

I say you should snowball your self and QUICKLY invent a project:
A nightclub studio / a corner of a busy street studio / a next to the ice cream van studio / outside the local cop shop studio (tricky but worth it for the people and pictures you'll get).

Do daylight next time and invite people into your two large pieces of polystyrene set up in the most unthinkable place on your local high street.
Two big flats make a studio. Or (as you've just learned) one curtain.

i.e. - quick pat on the back for yourself but don't stop there...

Best wishes
Monty
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Thanks a lot! A lot of stuff to consider there... I'll come back to you on that one!

Garry Edwards said:
What you've got here isn't actually 1 key light and 1 fill light, it's 2 key lights. The only possible improvement would have been to have both lights at the same effective power, which is the norm for this type of shot.
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Interesting. The left light was more than a stop dimmer than the right light, and shot through an umbrella as far away from the head and as close to the subjects as possible, which was how I understood the fill light to have to be set up, but I guess the other (reflective) umbrella wasn't as reflective as it ought to have been! Whatever, it worked :)

tiler65 said:
Just one point, was there a reason for shooting at iso200?
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Yes - something somewhere in C.Fn is set so that I couldn't access ISO 100, so I didn't bother trying and just enjoyed the extra DoF. I could have done it, I guess, but I don't think there's any noise at 200 on the K-7.
 
Not sure why everyone is getting so carried away about these shots. They show loads of errors in composition - framing - cropping - yes, even lighting. If you stick up a couple of lights and squeeze the trigger you'll get a picture - but this is not the sort of level that you should be aiming at.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Garry Edwards
What you've got here isn't actually 1 key light and 1 fill light, it's 2 key lights. The only possible improvement would have been to have both lights at the same effective power, which is the norm for this type of shot.

Interesting. The left light was more than a stop dimmer than the right light, and shot through an umbrella as far away from the head and as close to the subjects as possible, which was how I understood the fill light to have to be set up, but I guess the other (reflective) umbrella wasn't as reflective as it ought to have been! Whatever, it worked
Click to expand...

I'm not being critical of what you've done, you're happy with the result and that's what matters.

I'm just pointing out that
1. Event photographers generally try to get flat lighting - it gives everyone a fat face but it works for their purpose - and to do that they use a light of equal power on each side.
2. Fill lighting is really on axis fill, i.e. it has to illuminate all of the subject as seen by the camera, which means that it has to come from the camera position.
There is an exception to this, which can work although it isn't true fill lighting - placing the second light exactly where the subject is looking (where the subject is looking off to one side).
 
awp said:
Not sure why everyone is getting so carried away about these shots.
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I wouldn't say folk were getting carried away, just trying to give the person some encouragement, although as you say their is room for improvement for composition etc, but they do look like fun shots, which is what these type of events seem to be about, and i don't the participants are to worried about if a bit of elbow is missing here and there :) you can see Lot's of this sort of stuff on you-tube, and a lot of photographers seem to be making money at it, however your right in saying about aiming at a higher level, but then i guess we all should want to do that ;)
 
silverJON said:
Yes - something somewhere in C.Fn is set so that I couldn't access ISO 100
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I believe that this is 'Hilight Tone Priority' ? No idea what it does, but if you switch it off you can get ISO 100, and also L which I believe is ISO 50.
 
awp said:
Not sure why everyone is getting so carried away about these shots. They show loads of errors in composition - framing - cropping - yes, even lighting. If you stick up a couple of lights and squeeze the trigger you'll get a picture - but this is not the sort of level that you should be aiming at.
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Who stole your happy pills today?

What the OP was after was advise on how to light to shoot these pictures. Given the timeframe, expectation and location these are more than satisfactory. The OP was never aiming to have these displayed in an art gallery, he was aiming to satisfy his market, which I am sure he has done. I think he will do a little PP on these before he lets the clients see them and everyone is happy.
 
Funny how you read stuff and see so much of yourself in another person.

I've been asked to do the same, for about 100 odd people as well. All the info has been a massive help, also to see that other people challenge themselves in the same way as me. My advantage is that if they don't like the photo's they don't have to buy and they know what they are getting as I'm doing it at the cost of the prints/frames.

Good luck and I'm sure if you'e put your name down for it, even if you don't have full faith in yourself, you do just fine.
 
Not sure why everyone is getting so carried away about these shots. They show loads of errors in composition - framing - cropping - yes, even lighting. If you stick up a couple of lights and squeeze the trigger you'll get a picture - but this is not the sort of level that you should be aiming at.
Click to expand...

I'll bet you a fiver not one of the customers made any such comments. When will pros realise that its not what they want to shoot it's what the customers actually want. On my recent cruise the togs didnt really like the work. It's not real photography as such it's all set up shots and the work is more about selling. I am sure you would be even more critical of the work turned out on the ship but they sold loads and made money........
 
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