How best to position my lights?

Chrisly2009

Chrisly2009

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Hi guys

Im having trouble getting rid of shadows in my images.
Im photographing a baby with her dad tomorrow at their home.

I've done this before and the first time I discovered that it was quite dark in the room.
I tried using a wireless flash shot through an umbrella to one side of the subject and a reflector the other the first time which worked ok but not brilliant.

I've now tried to introduce 2 lights from the budget jessops range 336VM.
These small lights have a Guide Number of 36m, outputting 100 Joules. Power can be adjusted from a quarter, a half and full power, with a recycling time of 4sec at full power.

So where in the room do you position the two lights and then the off camera flash with umbrella to best illuminate the subject and avoid shadows???

Do you have one light forward and one light back??? im confused.

Im also having trouble with settings on my camera. I still find that the readings on my camera meter are nowhere near the speed I would like to capture sharp images - any suggestions please???
 
Sorry for my short answer - typing on a phone!

In short - do NOT try and remove shadows - shadows give the photo depth and realism - with some of my early studio shoots I balanced the light too much and got 'flat' results.

Use one light above camera and slightly to the side - if necessary use a reflector or another light on the other side at a fraction of the power to soften the shadows slightly - but don't remove them!

Phil
 
Also - be aware you can have problems triggering the slave guns using a camera-mounted flash gun as the pre-flash can trigger the slaves and then the actual shot doesn't get any power.

Phil
 
Im having trouble getting rid of shadows in my images.
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Why do you want to get rid of shadows in your images? The whole point of studio lighting is to create shadows by placing the light where it creates the right kind of shadows in the right place...
So where in the room do you position the two lights and then the off camera flash with umbrella to best illuminate the subject and avoid shadows???
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Where would the light come from if you weren't using flash? It's normally overhead when you're indoors, and the same applies to outdoors too, so a good natural position is fairly high up, to give a natural look. I suggest that a good starting point is to place one light fairly high, somewhere near the camera and pointing towards the subject.

OK, you have more than one light, but start with just one, having more lights doesn't mean that you need to use them all...

If you find that the shadows are in the wrong places just move the light around until you're happy with the shadow positions.

Then, and only then, if you find that the shadows are now in the right places but too harsh, add a second light (or a reflector) to fill in those shadows a bit. Most of the time, the best place for that fill light is where the camera lens is, so stick it as close as you can to the lens.
Im also having trouble with settings on my camera. I still find that the readings on my camera meter are nowhere near the speed I would like to capture sharp images - any suggestions please???
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Your camera meter doesn't work with flash and doesn't even know that you're using flash. The camera must be on manual, set the shutter speed to 1/125th sec and use the aperture (f/numbers) to adjust the brightness
 
Thanks Garry and Phil. I just tried one light above my subject and right next to my camera with my 580ex flash to one side through an umbrella and the exposure is much more pleasing than when I tried two lights.

I set my camera to 1/125 and 4.0 in manual like you said Garry and the histogram is perfect. Wow this is great news as tomorrows shoot is fast approaching.

I have alot to learn but this is a great start.....i'll continue to experiment

Really appreciate the fast responses guys.
 
One last question about depth of field and the decreasing light levels please.

So my images are perfectly exposed at 1/125 at 4.0 on manual mode which will be great for my baby shoot, but when the dad comes into play with the baby, I feel that 4.0 isn't going to be sharp on both subjects.

If I increase the stops to say 5.6 or even 8.0, Im obviously getting a darker image. So how or what do I adjust to get my exposure correct at 5.6 or 8.0????
 
Chrisly2009 said:
So how or what do I adjust to get my exposure correct at 5.6 or 8.0????
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You will need to double or quadruple the power output from the flash head at f5.6 and f8 respectively to get the same exposure.

Alternatively, you can double or quadruple the ISO value on the camera, but that might make the image more noisy.
 
For me, shadows on faces etc are a good thing, though its best if they are soft and not too pronounced (unless of course you are going for that look).
Shadows behind things are a nuisance at times, as i struggle to get enough room to get my model/item far enough from the background (due to space).

In those instances ive been using a background flash, but that doesnt always solve it.

I did watch (shame on me) Katie Prices modelling program thing the other night and the photographer was taking shots in a medium sized room with the models close to walls and there were shadows everywhere and everyone loved the pix...... so goes to show that what we sometimes get obsessed about here doesnt always translate to real world pictures :) the guy was really good too (forgot his name).
Even on other modelling/photography shows ive noticed them do things that are technically "wrong" or considered bad practice, cutting off at limbs, phantom hands and fingers, specular highlights, cluttered backgrounds etc... and yet the pictures still look great and they get high marks and everyone loves them....... maybe we get too critical on forums like this (ive had some real biting remarks about things that you see often on shows like this). I do understand what makes a good pic and what things to avoid, but its strange when you see pro's do the same thing and its all considered good....

weird :)
 
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One last question about depth of field and the decreasing light levels please.

So my images are perfectly exposed at 1/125 at 4.0 on manual mode which will be great for my baby shoot, but when the dad comes into play with the baby, I feel that 4.0 isn't going to be sharp on both subjects.

If I increase the stops to say 5.6 or even 8.0, Im obviously getting a darker image. So how or what do I adjust to get my exposure correct at 5.6 or 8.0????
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It's just a problem with the very low power of your flash heads. Whatever the sellers may say, the true output is probably less than 50 j and they rely on a mirror-like reflector to produce a usable amount of power, which you then need to diffuse with a softbox or umbrella, which spreads it around and cuts it right down:(

Short of buying different lights, the only solution is to increase the ISO settings on your camera. With some cameras (my D3 and D700 for example you can get away with quite high ISO settings without losing much image quality, but with some cameras it can be a bit of a problem.

I did watch (shame on me) Katie Prices modelling program thing the other night
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That's disgusting:)
 
Yeah, i felt grubby watching it :)
There are a couple of nice models on there, the others are pretty nasty :)
but its interesting watching it to see lighting setups and camera gear.
 
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