Studio help

Paintedhead123

Paintedhead123

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Jason
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Hi guys, looking for a little help to get started. I have owned my Canon 550d with 18mm 55mm lens for around 2yrs. I have recently bought a manfrotto tripod lights and backdrop. The room I am using is blacked out when in use. I am wanting to do portraite/full body shots but I am struggling, to be honest I haven't got a clue. I wasn't doing too bad when I just had the camera but now with the lights its alot harder than I thought. I might be getting ahead of myself here but I am wanting to create differant shade's/shadowed affects in my shots. The past couple of weeks have been so stressfull:bang:using the lights but I really want to master it. I just wondered if anyone could give some basic tips just to get started ie what to set the camera to as a starting point. Any help would be great just to get me started on the rite track.:thumbs:
http://i1071.photobucket.com/albums/u505/paintedhead1234/043-5.jpg
http://i1071.photobucket.com/albums/u505/paintedhead1234/044-5.jpg
 
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I'm not 100% sure what your wanting to achieve is it shadow on there face or shadow on the background, either way your lighting setup is wrong, if you want flat/shadowless pictures then your setup is correct but if your looking for direction and shadow then you need to move your fill light to the same side as the key and have it on a lower power than your key. Te easiest way is probably to just take away 1 of your lights and play with just 1, then once your needing some fill, add reflector to the other side and take from there.
 
Hi Brian, thanks for your reply its more shadow on the faces I'm wanting to do. What I was wanting to try is were one side of the face would be totally in shadowed out. I will try and find a pic on the net of what I mean. Thanks for the advice on the lights I will give it ago.

Cheers

Jason
 
Your problem is that you are using 2 lights when not only 1 will do, but when only 1 is the right answer.

So, use just one light, and place it where it produces the effect you want. In your case, I suggest (obviously) that it needs to be at 90 deg to the subject.
 
Right you want to do split lighting, if so then as Gary said, start simple, for a basic split lit portrait you will want your key light at 90 degrees , ie right round to the side of you subject, to get the shadow side really dark, you need to make sure there is no ambient light effecting your picture.easiest way to check this is to take a picture on your chosen settings without any flash, you should see nothing but black , then switch your light on meter the light and get shooting :)
 
Garry Edwards said:
Your problem is that you are using 2 lights when not only 1 will do, but when only 1 is the right answer.

So, use just one light, and place it where it produces the effect you want. In your case, I suggest (obviously) that it needs to be at 90 deg to the subject.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help Garry I will give this ago soon as pos;)

Cheers

Jason...:thumbs:
 
bryan elliott said:
Right you want to do split lighting, if so then as Gary said, start simple, for a basic split lit portrait you will want your key light at 90 degrees , ie right round to the side of you subject, to get the shadow side really dark, you need to make sure there is no ambient light effecting your picture.easiest way to check this is to take a picture on your chosen settings without any flash, you should see nothing but black , then switch your light on meter the light and get shooting :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Brian this a great help;):thumbs:I will give it ago then update how I get on.

Cheers

Jason
 
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