First Shoot with Lastolite Hilite: Advice Please

ianbarber

ianbarber

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I have been asked by a friend if I will take a few photographs tomorrow of his kids and wife for a xmas pressie for his parents.

I havent really done much with portraits but he is ok with that.

All I have for lighting are Speedlights, (I know these are not ideal)

Been experimenting today and I can get a fairly good even light in the highlite at f11 at ISO 200 so I am guessing that my working aperture needs to be around f5.6.

Will f5.6 be to shallow for portraits? or should I think about raisinf the ISO to get around f8
 
Main problem with Speedlights I find is slow recycling, so if you can keep the power down - say to one quarter in the Hilite - that will help enormously. Get the f/number you need by cranking the ISO which won't be a problem with a D700. Aim to get the HiLite half a stop brighter than the main front light, one stop max. If you go to two stops, you're just promoting outline bleaching and flare - plus you're wasting valuable power.

Check your DoF here www.dofmaster.com For kids on a D700 I would guess at f/8, preferably f/11 to allow a little freedom of movement - basically the higher the better depending on the best compromise you can reach with flash power and ISO. But if you can keep both heads/eyes in line, you'll be fine, but it won't be easy ;)
 
ianbarber said:
Thanks Hoppy

I will be using my new camera that I purchased a week ago which is a Nikon D3s so i'm guessing that I should be able to increase the iso to around 800 (fingers crossed)
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ISO800 easy, I wouldn't think twice about 1600. Basically ISO is the only control you've got - the shutter speed is fixed obviously, and aperture fixed by the DoF you need.

So you're just balancing ISO against flash power/recycling, and personally with a camera like that I'd go for the ISO. Nobody will thank your for perfectly clean low-ISO images if they're out of focus or you've missed the moment because the flash was still making its mind up.
 
Ian, a D3s?? Wowsers, I was jealous of your D700!
 
ianbarber said:
Just been looking at a youtube video with Mar Cleghorn demonstrating the Hilite.

He keeps going on about "2 stops brighter" . Any ideas as to why he suggests that
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Probably for the same reason that he's on video saying that the camera should be set to auto white balance when using flash:lol:

Basically you have a choice: Use your common sense or assume that everyone who gives advice on the net knows something about the subject.
 
ianbarber said:
Just been looking at a youtube video with Mar Cleghorn demonstrating the Hilite.

He keeps going on about "2 stops brighter" . Any ideas as to why he suggests that
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Is that the one where he's using a train? My own theory on that, and it's only a guess, is that because the train is effectively illuminated by the HiLite and is always considerably darker obviously, then if you over expose the HiLite by a lot, you might just get the train to blow as well.

I'm not sure that's the best way of doing it but getting the train properly white is always a difficult balancing act so I guess that's an option. It also depends on the subject too, like a blonde hair and a white blouse is going to be far less tolerant of over exposure than dark hair and a dark top. Basically you're dancing around the very limits with a train - you can't light it separately like you can the background because the subject is standing/sitting/lying on it, so you've got to take liberties somewhere - with exposure, processing parameters (especially contrast) plus at least a bit of 'grey mopping' in post is usually inevitable.

Different people have evolved different ways of doing it (the reflective floor trick seems popular) usually after a lot of trial and error - it's difficult! I find that the histogram and with blinkies enabled is the best way of setting things up and getting close to pure white, then a final nudge at some stage in the imaging chain to take it to fully blown white. That may include a bit more over exposure than is ideal. But leaving aside the train for moment, if you want a white background, then 1% blown is pure white, and two stops is 200%. That's going to have consequencies.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Probably for the same reason that he's on video saying that the camera should be set to auto white balance when using flash:lol:

Basically you have a choice: Use your common sense or assume that everyone who gives advice on the net knows something about the subject.
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Garry
Don't think Mark Cleghorn has said that in years - I subscribe to his training and have watched many films and whilst I might not agree with everything says, I've never heard him say use AWB using flash. In fact he uses a fixed WB (flash) for pretty much all shots (easily amended in RAW) or a custom WB.

I find the training actualy quite useful.
 
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ianbarber said:
Just been looking at a youtube video with Mar Cleghorn demonstrating the Hilite.

He keeps going on about "2 stops brighter" . Any ideas as to why he suggests that
Click to expand...

2 stops brighter is fine when you are in a studio with plenty of space. I shoot at f8 with the background around f13 now, Using f16 meant too much light spilling around my small livingroom and causing issues.

Regards the train, even at f16 the train will look muddy. I use lightroom and a quick exposure tweak using the automask feature means that is sortd in a few strokes of my pen (using a wacom tablet)
 
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HoppyUK said:
with blinkies enabled is the best way of setting things up and getting close to pure white
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This was recommend by Richard to myself some time back and i always use it now :thumbs: but as said it's inevitable you will need some PP on the floor to brighten it up, i do this by selecting the quick selection tool in CS5 then just select the area you want pure white, then you either use an exposure or levels adjustment layer, then move the first white slider to the left, this leaves the rest of the subject intact, you have to play around to get it right but that's just trial and error :)

EOS_JD said:
I use lightroom and a quick exposure tweak using the automask feature means that is sortd in a few strokes of my pen (using a wacom tablet)
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Could you elaborate on your lightroom methods a bit more please JD as i would like to try something different to CS5 to see how i get on, many thanks.
 
TG. said:
Could you elaborate on your lightroom methods a bit more please JD as i would like to try something different to CS5 to see how i get on, many thanks.
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In Lightroom, select the Adjustment brush. In the Brush Settings dialogue box make sure Auto Mask is selected. I use density 100 and a large soft feathered brush. Make your exposure on the brush +1 or higher.

Now run the centre + of the brush over the area you want to brighten. With Auto Mask on it will not change the exposure of any other colours.

I also do it in s and after using the magic selection tool to get the grey floor selected I feather that and use levels or curves to lighten.

Lr seems quicker as I don't need to export to edit.
 
EOS_JD said:
In Lightroom, select the Adjustment brush. In the Brush Settings dialogue box make sure Auto Mask is selected. I use density 100 and a large soft feathered brush. Make your exposure on the brush +1 or higher.

Now run the centre + of the brush over the area you want to brighten. With Auto Mask on it will not change the exposure of any other colours.

I also do it in s and after using the magic selection tool to get the grey floor selected I feather that and use levels or curves to lighten.

Lr seems quicker as I don't need to export to edit.
Click to expand...

A great bit of advice that!! I forgot that feature even existed as I never use it un-ticked.. ;)
 
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