Have my first studio shoot coming up.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Slvrbck
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Slvrbck

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Hi all,
A friend of mine has asked me to take some tasteful nude shots of her as a gift to her boyfriend.

It will be a few "firsts" for me:
  • Studio shoot
  • Nude shoot
  • using studio lighting

A friend recommended a studio to use so I have it booked.

It is a apartment that the fella has converted into a studio with a bedroom, kitchen, living room etc...
Blue Moon Studio
He has 2 Bowen 500 flash heads with brollys and diffuser box that he is letting me use :eek:

I will be using my D400 with a Nifty Fifty and my Kit lens for the shoot.

Can anyone offer any advice, tips?
Cheers
 
perhaps book the studio beforehand to have a go with a fully dressed model and play with the lights first? turn the lights off during the shoot if using the flash, to avoid white balance problems. get yourself a reflector to take with you(doesnt mention any equipment except the two lights)

enjoy it!:thumbs:
im sur eoyu will get plenty of people offering to hold the reflector while you shoot away
 
Make sure you are clean and tidy, fresh breath, and smile a lot.

Ask the models questions and they will help you out with poses etc.

Do not worry if it takes a little time getting your settings correct as the models understand that all situations are different.

Compliment the model, show them a couple of your shots on your camera that you are pleased with and you will gain confidence with that.

For the nude shots do not worry, for a start try getting them to be implied nude so as to ease your way in to a naked shot.

Keep smiling and chatting to the models.

There is more but if you follow these you will not go far wrong.
 
Hi flatch,
Cheers for replying, you where one of the people I was hoping would comment.

Turn the lights off in the studio when I use the flash?
Cheers for the tip.

My timing was a bit off to be fair, the only time my model was free was this coming Sunday, the following week I am going to the studio meet where Glitter is doing a sesion all about posing models....
 
Cheers for the great advice tiler65...
Will keep it all in mind.....
 
Have a look at the website Missboudoir.com in the gallery you'll find some really nice styles that you could try to replicate... I try to shoot from head to foot when they are lying down, foot to head is particularly unflattering on women! You can also get some lovely shots if you lye them down but prop their legs up on a wall, and shoot from the height of their feet (if you get what I mean).

Don't dive straight in with nude shots. Get her used to being infront of the camera first with some clothes on, then 'strip' her down gradually. You should get some more natural poses this way as she will gain confidence as you go along.

If you don't have the time or money to go and book the studio before hand as suggested, I would recommend booking it for an extra half hour or so before, so that you can at least get used to the lighting kit and how it works with your camera! Plus, do you have a flash meter? You don't want to spend half an hour sat working out which settings you need to put it on before you even start!

Good luck, have fun!!! :)
 
Turning the lights off in the studio will make absolutely no difference.

Nude shots are no different to any other, except that there is more skin to get unwanted reflections on, so your first job should be to learn the basics of studio lighting. I have some guides in the Lighting section that may help, then get some practice...
 
Slvrbck said:
Hi flatch,
Cheers for replying, you where one of the people I was hoping would comment.

Turn the lights off in the studio when I use the flash?
Cheers for the tip.

My timing was a bit off to be fair, the only time my model was free was this coming Sunday, the following week I am going to the studio meet where Glitter is doing a sesion all about posing models....
Click to expand...

now im scared:eek:, i know b****r all, listen to gary though

gary, i dont know whether you clicked the link to the studio, but it looks like he has various different lights in there, wall and ceiling mounted. will the flash overpower them so they wont make a difference or some other reason?:shrug:
 
Fletch, the the flash will overwhelm any other artificial lighting to such a degree that it will make absolutely no difference at any normal shutter speed.

Obviously if you used say 1 sec shutter speed then the ambient light would make a difference - but studio flash is normally used at around 1/60th - 1/125th sec.
 
thanks for clearing that up for me gary:thumbs:
 
Cheers for the advice Aimee_K & Garry.
The advice about easing into the nude stuff.

Will take a look at that link now Garry, cheers
 
Garry Edwards said:
Fletch, the the flash will overwhelm any other artificial lighting to such a degree that it will make absolutely no difference at any normal shutter speed.

Obviously if you used say 1 sec shutter speed then the ambient light would make a difference - but studio flash is normally used at around 1/60th - 1/125th sec.
Click to expand...

So I should be aiming for 1/60 to 1/125??
I'm such a newbe :lol:
 
Garry Edwards said:
Turning the lights off in the studio will make absolutely no difference.
Click to expand...


Garry, do you not feel it is worth darkening the room to get the benefit of the modeling lights? If he's using two heads of equal power and has them set to proportional then they'll give a reasonable preview of what sort of effect the lights will give... won't they?
 
oh dear, when i use my lights, i tend to aim for bout iso100 f8-11 and shutter to suit(normally bout 1/250th for me. that is with a background though, since you have things in the background your going to have to alter the aperture to get the DOF that you need for each of the shots, thus altering the other settings to suit exposure.

keep an eye on what is in the bg as well, dont let things cut through the head and such if avoidable
 
Looking at the studio images it may well be nicer to mix studio with ambient light, or even just use ambient light, as it appears to have big windows - though with a nude lady around you may need to be on a high floor for that one!

Otherwise, Garry is of course correct in that as you'll probably shoot with flash at around f8 or higher and your sync speed being maybe 1/125-1/250 would mean without the flash either nothing or sod all would record as it'd all be so far underexposed; hence although you are making two exposures (one the flash the other the ambient light), only the flash will record on the subject

Leaving wall-lights on though should allow them to record and may add interest, so leave them on for your first shots and see what you think on your camera monitor - if they blow too much or add nothing of interest, turn them off

:thumbs:

DD
 
Flashman said:
Garry, do you not feel it is worth darkening the room to get the benefit of the modeling lights? If he's using two heads of equal power and has them set to proportional then they'll give a reasonable preview of what sort of effect the lights will give... won't they?
Click to expand...


Yep - that's a useful consideration too

See how easy this studio lark is

:lol::lol::lol:

DD
 
if you have a laptop slvbk take it with you, then you can upload the shots and make sure your happy on a bigger screen than your little one on the camera.
 
Yes I will take my laptop with me.
With the 350D I could connect to the laptop and see the shots as I took them.
Do you know if you can do that with the 400D?

Can't seem to get it working......

I read a post earlier in the week where someone had been told that studio shoots where easy...... Full of crap me thinks :lol:
 
Some interesting points here...

Yes, turning off the room lights does help to enhance the effect of the modelling lamps, it's just the exposure that's unaffected at normal shutter speeds.

And yes, combining ambient (wall lights) with flash is a very useful technique - but of course it requires a long shutter speed, and frankly someone who is working in a studio for the first time might like to keep things simple...

Looking at the website, this is clearly a 'glamour' studio. The lighting provided is a bit basic but he may have studio windows (I have) which are fake windows that lead nowhere but which can be backlit to provide window effect, ideal for when a window is required, or for silhouettes.

Using the camera at 1/250th (if it will synch at that speed) is pointless in a studio and it's risky too. It simply doesn't follow that just because a camera/dedicated hotshoe flash combination will work at 1/250th, that studio flashes will too. Normally they won't, that's why people normally use 1/60th-1/125th with studio flash. Some of the cheap Ebay flash triggers won't work reliably at anything faster than 1/30th
 
the 1/250th was using a cable to the d lites for me, but i will stop that down a bit now i know that
 
Cheers for clearing that up Garry,
I have little to no experiance in studio work so I was concerned that 1/60th wouldn't be fast enought to compensate for camera shake, but I guess as I have the extra time, I should use that tripod I have gathering dust.
 
Slvrbck said:
Cheers for clearing that up Garry,
I have little to no experiance in studio work so I was concerned that 1/60th wouldn't be fast enought to compensate for camera shake, but I guess as I have the extra time, I should use that tripod I have gathering dust.
Click to expand...
With flash, the 'shutter speed' is the duration of the flash - which will be something like 1/1000th second, so you'll struggle to get camera shake when using flash:-)

Of course, if you do decide to combine the wall lights etc with flash then you'll need very long shutter speeds to capture the wall lights, and a tripod will be essential for that
 
Today is a learning day for me :)
Cheers Garry....

I don't think I am brave enough to try anything fancy this time, and although I am doing it as a freebe for a mate I still want the images to be good enough for her to give to her boyfriend....
 
1/250th works every time on my Nikon & with an infra red trigger too - so not sure where the risk comes from Garry; even if I exhaust the batteries (bad planning!) the sync cord always works at 1/250th too. But yes, in a totally darkened room it is irrelevant and even 1/30 or more would be fine with just the modelling lights on

As for pointless - not true of my set-up either as I have massive windows which although they have blinds let in enough light for 1/60 to be recording something I don't want, potentially leading to a mix of still & camera shake

As we said on my 'Studio is easy - discuss' thread - it's not really is it

:D

DD
 
DiddyDave said:
1/250th works every time on my Nikon & with an infra red trigger too - so not sure where the risk comes from Garry; even if I exhaust the batteries (bad planning!) the sync cord always works at 1/250th too. But yes, in a totally darkened room it is irrelevant and even 1/30 or more would be fine with just the modelling lights on

As for pointless - not true of my set-up either as I have massive windows which although they have blinds let in enough light for 1/60 to be recording something I don't want, potentially leading to a mix of still & camera shake

As we said on my 'Studio is easy - discuss' thread - it's not really is it

:D

DD
Click to expand...
Glad to hear that 1/250th works for you - but as I say, that isn't always so.
I take your point about light coming in through windows, but I believe in the KISS principle, so I make life as simple as possible by excluding all daylight from my studio - in fact you could develop a film in it with the lights out!

When I said that ambient light levels don't matter, what I should have said was that ambient artificial light doesn't matter
 
Cheers all,
I am a fan of "KISS" (and the band :lol:) so for my first time I think I am going to stick to just the flash lighting
 
Garry Edwards said:
Glad to hear that 1/250th works for you - but as I say, that isn't always so.
I take your point about light coming in through windows, but I believe in the KISS principle, so I make life as simple as possible by excluding all daylight from my studio - in fact you could develop a film in it with the lights out!

When I said that ambient light levels don't matter, what I should have said was that ambient artificial light doesn't matter
Click to expand...

Is it a dungeon then ???

:lol::lol::lol:

I made, what turned out to be, a mistake by choosing a position with large windows - yet the space didn't suit window light - so now I'm trying to block it out and resolve the 90 degrees the temperature seems to rise to in summer!

:(:(:(

DD
 
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