Studio shoot settings/setup check

shabba

shabba

Suspended / Banned
Messages
936
Edit My Images
No
Hi all,

Sorry in a rush but wanted some quick advice....doing a few basic headshots, looking to ensure I'm using the right settings & setup.

I have 2 flash heads with stands & brollies & a reflector.

I put the lights at full height (7ft) about 10ft apart and at each corner in front of the subject model, pointing towards them.

The lights shoot away from the model and bounce the light back of the brolly.

I have them usualy set around 20% power (they are cheap lights).

I put my camera in manual, around 1/80th and F8, ISO200. Shoots seem ok but not as good as some I see.

Any advice? I use the reflector by having the model hold it and bounce a bit of light back to cut out some shaddows.

This has literally all just been guess work, so I could well be doing it totally wrong! This is not for a paid job or anything by the way.

there is a little natural light in the room but most probably gets cut out by those settings I guess.
 
Ok but as I say the shots aren't the best!

This sort of example
photostream
 
Sometimes the shots come out a bit softer, also what WB does everyone use?
 
Question is, what are you trying to achieve?
Your lighting arrangement sort of works in that it puts light on the subject - but why oh why are you putting 1 light each side? Doing that lights each side of the face, making every face look fat. And you're effectively using 2 suns, but if you step outside you'll find that there's only one, so using more than one will always look unnatural...

Use a single light, high up and directly in front of where your subject is looking, as a starting point - that type of lighting will define the shape of the face and show its character. Then see whether you have any shadows that you find unacceptable, and if you do either use a second light from the camera position (on-axis fill) or a reflector to mitigate those shadows as required.

Colour balance? A custom white balance is best, but with cheap lights there is often so much variation between one shot and the next that it's impossible to get consistent results.
 
Just need corporate looking (zzzz) photos.

Will try the single light method. Thank you for the reply/info.
 
Have a read on this guy's site for Rules Of Good Portraiture and you will also find classical light setups for portraits too.

Two light sources will yield more depth in your shot that a single light source most the time. But like Garry said, you can't make them the same strength "corporate sytle" or not.

The Butterfly lighting is common and that is a single beauty dish above the head with a reflector (or another light source) below the face to bounce light in for fill.
 
Thanks for a very nice link Tuco ................. good portraiture info
 
Garry Edwards said:
You're effectively using 2 suns, but if you step outside you'll find that there's only one, so using more than one will always look unnatural.
Click to expand...

David Bailey made that point, in his own inimitable way. Shame that it's nonsense then. There is only one sun, but a) it is never always a direct light source and b) it is never always the only light source. Step outside and you'll see light bouncing at you from all angles and types of surfaces. As a result using more than one light will not always result in unnatural looking shots.

Another point, what is natural looking? Video games designers switched on to the fact that adding fake lens flare made their driving games look more natural and realistic because people were used to watching racing on TV, not from the cockpit of an F1 car. Real blood looks unrealistic on film, a lot of food photography uses trickery e.g. mashed potato as vanilla ice cream because the real stuff doesn't look right.

What looks 'natural' or realistic isn't necessarily what is natural or real and creating that look, if it's what's desired, is the real skill of lighting.
 
So Bail and I have both got it wrong then?:)
I'm not saying that there should never be more than one light source, if I believed that I would only ever use one light source...

What I am saying is that there should only be one apparent light source. Other than in specialised applications like event photography, putting one light each side is the province of total beginners/Practical Photography articles and some of the books on portrait photography...

The trick, almost regardless of subject, is to use one light to produce the effect required (to define the shape of the face, draw attention to the best qualities of the subject etc) and then to add any other lights or reflectors needed to mitigate any unwanted shadows caused by the first light, and then to add any kicker lights needed to add interest, reveal texture etc - a hairlight for example.

Using one light each side looks unnatural because, on this planet anyway, there is only one sun and even people who know nothing about photography see that a photo that has conflicting shadows looks wrong somehow. 2 lights from opposite sides also lights far too much of the face generally, killing good bone structure, killing shadows and making the face look fat.

What I'm saying here is very different from saying that only one light should ever be used, or that lighting needs to be natural to look natural.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I'm not saying that there should never be more than one light source, if I believed that I would only ever use one light source...
Click to expand...

No, but you did say "using more than one (light) will always look unnatural" which is wrong.

You expand on it and clarify which helps, but then you confuse matters again by saying:

"Using one light each side looks unnatural because, on this planet anyway, there is only one sun and even people who know nothing about photography see that a photo that has conflicting shadows looks wrong somehow."

There's no reason to presume that the lights have to be set in a close enough ratio for them both to cast shadows. There's also no reason to presume that lighting from a single point won't look unnatural; it's as hard to make a single light source look natural in the studio than not.

I'm not saying that lighting from both sides is the way to go, just that if you're looking to suggest that it isn't, the reasons why have to be either 100% right or expanded upon enough to clarify precisely what you mean.
 
I think what Garry meant was that using more than one light source will look unnatural - but only if they're both as bright as each other or the same distance and angle either side of the model...

That's my understanding of it, anyway - FWIW...
 
I guess that is why the lights are called, key, fill, hair, kicker and background. ;) And the key and fill typically have ratios of strength for a desired affect.
 
AlanSmithee said:
I guess that is why the lights are called, key, fill, hair, kicker and background. ;) And the key and fill typically have ratios of strength for a desired affect.
Click to expand...
Sort of, but terms are sometimes interchangeable. And fill ratios are really just a form of shorthand to get people started, they certainly aren't carved in stone.
If fill ratios are taken too seriously then lighting can become about as creative as painting by numbers.

Good lighting is about pushing the boundaries and experimenting, not following formulae.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top