Studio Lighting Advice

Forget lighting the floor for a moment - that is a separate issue altogether.

Switch off the Hilite.

Part one was fine. You've metered the subject, though it concerns me that you're not trusting the meter. That now means that the subject is properly exposed.

Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, but are you sure that the ISO that the meter is set to is equally set on the camera ?

Take a shot. Everything ok ? If so, you've done the hard part.

Now go to the Hilite. Switch on with lights at lowest setting. Just for clarity, the light heads should be totally encased in the Hilite. By that I mean the reflectors should be inside the Hilite and the zip done up tightly so you don't get any spillage (I can see light on the RHS head in your photo.) The heads should be pointed towards the middle back back of the Hilite.

With the power on minimum, repeat the shot. Your subject should still be properly lit, but your background may not be completely white.

Increase the power of your Hilite lights bit by bit, shooting a frame each time until you get the entire Hilite flashing in your camera's Highlight warning mode.

When we shoot with a Hilite I have the subject almost touching the Hilite.
 
Jerm said:
Forget lighting the floor for a moment - that is a separate issue altogether.

Switch off the Hilite.

Part one was fine. You've metered the subject, though it concerns me that you're not trusting the meter. That now means that the subject is properly exposed.

Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, but are you sure that the ISO that the meter is set to is equally set on the camera ?

Take a shot. Everything ok ? If so, you've done the hard part.

Now go to the Hilite. Switch on with lights at lowest setting. Just for clarity, the light heads should be totally encased in the Hilite. By that I mean the reflectors should be inside the Hilite and the zip done up tightly so you don't get any spillage (I can see light on the RHS head in your photo.) The heads should be pointed towards the middle back back of the Hilite.

With the power on minimum, repeat the shot. Your subject should still be properly lit, but your background may not be completely white.

Increase the power of your Hilite lights bit by bit, shooting a frame each time until you get the entire Hilite flashing in your camera's Highlight warning mode.

When we shoot with a Hilite I have the subject almost touching the Hilite.
Click to expand...

thats ounds to be axactly what i was doing but i will try it all again tonight and post exact results
 
Hi, test results from tonight, this was to show the subject lit, without any background light.

I worked on the power settings from the key light, so in order they are 1/16th power, 1/8th, 1/4, 1/2 and full power.

1/16th

1/8th

1/4th


These folders show that there is a lot of light from the right hand side which is closest to the keylight, but i expected there to be enough power to light the fuill hilite, the images show the shadow being cast from the subject as well.

Any advice is still greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
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Could you enlarge the image please, I'm struggling to see it ;)


(serious note, you need to reduce the combination of images to at least 1024px wide)
 
Can you label the pics?

Full power looks same as half and 1/4 looks less than 1/8 unless I'm reading them wrong. Use the text tool in PS?

Oh and what is your main light? I know where it is ;)
 
gman said:
Could you enlarge the image please, I'm struggling to see it ;)


(serious note, you need to reduce the combination of images to at least 1024px wide)
Click to expand...

They are individual images
 
JonathanRyan said:
Can you label the pics?

Full power looks same as half and 1/4 looks less than 1/8 unless I'm reading them wrong. Use the text tool in PS?

Oh and what is your main light? I know where it is ;)
Click to expand...

Have put titles above each one, the key light is a lencarta smart flash 200
 
gman said:
(serious note, you need to reduce the combination of images to at least 1024px wide)
Click to expand...

donkeymusic said:
They are individual images
Click to expand...

But when placed the way you had them before, even my widescreen was struggling! lol Was only trying to help and you're welcome btw.
 
gman said:
But when placed the way you had them before, even my widescreen was struggling! lol Was only trying to help and you're welcome btw.
Click to expand...

Sorry didn't notice combination, thanks for pointing that out.
 
no problem, glad to be of help before the pixel police arrived and apprehended you ;)
 
I mustn't have had enough coffee yet....

are these all key light or are you setting the hilite lights to the same power and working the power up?

Pics don't seem to fit either of those patterns.
 
JonathanRyan said:
I mustn't have had enough coffee yet....

are these all key light or are you setting the hilite lights to the same power and working the power up?

Pics don't seem to fit either of those patterns.
Click to expand...

These are all just from the keylight to try and judge the correct setting for the subject, but these still seem too dark even on full power
 
donkeymusic said:
Am using a Sekonic flash meter.

I am setting the camera to F8, 1/125 and iso 200, set the meter to test this and took a meter reading from in front of the subject and altered the keylight until i could measure F8, which was 1/2 power
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What you are doing here seems spot on to me and should be giving you a perfectly exposued subject using just the key light. If it's not then something else must be coming into the equation? :thinking:
 
gman said:
What you are doing here seems spot on to me and should be giving you a perfectly exposued subject using just the key light. If it's not then something else must be coming into the equation? :thinking:
Click to expand...

looking at the 4th images, which should be 1/2 power and give me a f8, does the exposure look okay? still looks dark to me.
 
'k.

It's hard to tell from web thumbnails, but 1/2 power looks underlit to me. Full power looks overlit. It's not a big surprise that this varies from your meter. Lots of meters aren't spot on with digital, sensors vary, camera manufacturers lie about their ISO etc etc. On the expensive meters you can calibrate to the camera body. Also in a tight space it can be harder to meter than you think because as you move around it you will block some of the light.

Anyway, it looks like your camera is about half a stop less sensitive than your meter. Half power on the main and f 6 - 7 looks like it might be right. Then we can turn on the b/g lights.

You have a lot of light hitting the b/g from the key - any way you can move Igor forwards?
 
JonathanRyan said:
'k.

It's hard to tell from web thumbnails, but 1/2 power looks underlit to me. Full power looks overlit. It's not a big surprise that this varies from your meter. Lots of meters aren't spot on with digital, sensors vary, camera manufacturers lie about their ISO etc etc. On the expensive meters you can calibrate to the camera body. Also in a tight space it can be harder to meter than you think because as you move around it you will block some of the light.

Anyway, it looks like your camera is about half a stop less sensitive than your meter. Half power on the main and f 6 - 7 looks like it might be right. Then we can turn on the b/g lights.

You have a lot of light hitting the b/g from the key - any way you can move Igor forwards?
Click to expand...

okay, i can look at that, have to wait til after work tonight to try it.

Yeah "Igor" could be moved forward but then i guessed he was too close to the keylight so would be getting too much light there
 
ok, been playing with the settings again today and now really getting frustrated.

I set the keylight to what looks to me the correct power.

I have then turned on the hilite and set it at minimum power, and worked through the power settings as advised until the light looked correct.

Now i worked my way up til i got to a setting that looked close to right, but not bright enough on the blinkies. so went for the next setting and it then flooded the subject with too much light, like the original image, .

so seem to be on a fine line or nearly there or totally wrong and cant get this right.

have moved the subject back, moved it forward. and another thing is that i still seem to get a shadow to the left of the subject, which i presumed the hilite should elimiate???

so settings when i thought it was correct, subject F8, hilite F11.

pop the photos on the computer to check andtoo light, run auto leels and the colours look great, but i need to get to that point from the camera??

any more suggestions would be great, for me to try.
 
It's obvious what's going on here but I've just re-read the entire thread to make sure. I'm sure.
The problem is largely flare caused by the Hi-lite or your lens or a mixture of both. As I said before, it's very possible that your lens isn't clean, or doesn't have an effective lens hood or even that it has no lenshood at all.

Most of the other part of the problem is light wrap. That's unwanted light from your background (in this case it happens to be a Hi-Lite but it could be any overlit white background) that is hitting the subject from the sides. To some extent that's inevitable with chavgrounds but it can be minimised simply by blocking off the part of the background that isn't needed with black material such as blackwrap, card, hardboard or similar. It isn't difficult to put the white back in PP if you want it.

The remaining part of the problem is that you are still overlighting the background. This isn't actually the cause of the problem, it does make it worse though.

Look at each of these points and eliminate them and you will eliminate the problem.
 
thanks Garry,

will take on your advice and do my best to elimanate each one.

I was gonna to book onto your lighting course tomorrow but was unable due to the date, wondered if you had any more planned for the near future?

thanks
 
donkeymusic said:
thanks Garry,

will take on your advice and do my best to elimanate each one.

I was gonna to book onto your lighting course tomorrow but was unable due to the date, wondered if you had any more planned for the near future?

thanks
Click to expand...

Not in the near future, the next one at my studio will probably be in either March or April.

But there are still a few places on the one in Maidstone on the 28th November, if that's anywhere near you.
 
Garry Edwards said:
It's obvious what's going on here but I've just re-read the entire thread to make sure. I'm sure.
The problem is largely flare caused by the Hi-lite or your lens or a mixture of both. As I said before, it's very possible that your lens isn't clean, or doesn't have an effective lens hood or even that it has no lenshood at all.

Most of the other part of the problem is light wrap. That's unwanted light from your background (in this case it happens to be a Hi-Lite but it could be any overlit white background) that is hitting the subject from the sides. To some extent that's inevitable with chavgrounds but it can be minimised simply by blocking off the part of the background that isn't needed with black material such as blackwrap, card, hardboard or similar. It isn't difficult to put the white back in PP if you want it.

The remaining part of the problem is that you are still overlighting the background. This isn't actually the cause of the problem, it does make it worse though.

Look at each of these points and eliminate them and you will eliminate the problem.
Click to expand...

Hi Garry,

Not had chance to try anything today but will be tomorrow so was re-reading your post, and i have not been using a lens hood, as i didnt think this would matter much in a studio environment but will be trying that tomorrow, i always presumed they were used for outdoors photography to reduce the flare from the sun but can see why this would be possible in the studio.
 
Garry Edwards said:
It's obvious what's going on here but I've just re-read the entire thread to make sure. I'm sure.
The problem is largely flare caused by the Hi-lite or your lens or a mixture of both. As I said before, it's very possible that your lens isn't clean, or doesn't have an effective lens hood or even that it has no lenshood at all.

Most of the other part of the problem is light wrap. That's unwanted light from your background (in this case it happens to be a Hi-Lite but it could be any overlit white background) that is hitting the subject from the sides. To some extent that's inevitable with chavgrounds but it can be minimised simply by blocking off the part of the background that isn't needed with black material such as blackwrap, card, hardboard or similar. It isn't difficult to put the white back in PP if you want it.

The remaining part of the problem is that you are still overlighting the background. This isn't actually the cause of the problem, it does make it worse though.

Look at each of these points and eliminate them and you will eliminate the problem.
Click to expand...

ok back is getting beter so had chance to try this again, madea few changes upon Garrys suggestion, cleaned the lens, poppe on a lens hood also lowered the light rather than having it a lot higher so it was more in level with the subject and also introduced a bit more colour rather then the grim butler.

took all readings again, and got them to how i thought they looked good and came out with the following, then editted it a bit in Photoshop to try and get the white floor, not much though, think there is a massive improvement, until im proved wrong, but hopefully moving in the right direction.

before

after


Let me know what you think, thanks
 
Still too much light from the background, but a massive improvement:)
 
Garry Edwards said:
Still too much light from the background, but a massive improvement:)
Click to expand...

just thinking i didnt meter the background, i was just turning the power up until the blinkies were flashing.

I didnt think there was much wrap on these photos.

where do you see too much light coming from?

thanks
 
donkeymusic said:
just thinking i didnt meter the background, i was just turning the power up until the blinkies were flashing.

I didnt think there was much wrap on these photos.

where do you see too much light coming from?

thanks
Click to expand...
There is still some wrap on his boots, shoulders, the top of the chair back etc, with the usual loss of edge detail
 
checked the settings yesterday and had the background lit at F16, played around more and got it around f11 and looked like they had less wrap going on, will check test shots on pc tonight and post here for further advice.

thanks
 
Few more test shots, i dont think these show any wrap but would likeyour opinion.





Thanks
 
donkeymusic said:
any advice would be great, thanks
Click to expand...
I don't think that anyone can give you any more advice - you've followed my advice and the results are much, much better. If you want to avoid all wrap then you need to avoid using a blown out white background
 
Garry Edwards said:
I don't think that anyone can give you any more advice - you've followed my advice and the results are much, much better. If you want to avoid all wrap then you need to avoid using a blown out white background
Click to expand...

Thanks Garry, i guess i need to just fine tune the settings, just wanted to make sure i was getting to a point that was acceptable.

thanks
 
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