Studio Shoot - things I got wrong….

MIKEROPHONICS

MIKEROPHONICS

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Mike
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HI

I just did my first studio shoot at a local hire shop (LensLocker in Twickenham) with my photo group friends (who are all way more experienced than me)
I have posted this shot in the people & portraits section - sorry if you have already seen it there.

I wanted a low key moody shot to resemble a Miles Davis photo I had seen - "intimacy" and "lost in the music" were my keywords. The Neil Young Decade guitar case shot will have to wait until another day...

I think it was iso 100, 1/200sec f11 (manual) on D7000 35mm f1.8dx lens
I think the light was a Bowens with a square softbox camera right - triggered by an Elinchrom wireless trigger.

I found it very dark with the modelling light and struggled to focus, so I had to go to manual focus.
The light was on its minimum power - I am amazed that I had to stop down to f11. Is this normal?
Sadly I cut off Wayne's ear! Is there any way to make the light less bright apart from move it away?

I always thought studio lights could be triggered by optical slave method and using my flash as a commander mode - is this a more normal approach?

I think I would love to do a studio light course - it was a fun challenge! I will be buying a soft box for my Sb700 - any recommended versions?

cheers

Mike

View attachment 8293
 
You have really 5 options.
1. You don't say how many panels the softbox had.. Some can have 3 so you can always stop down the light! just add a panel.
2. ND filter on camera
3. Move the light back
4. Change modifier.
5. Change flash head to a lower power head.
 
Modeling lights can be at whatever power you set them... - depends on the heads though... this way your AF isnt compremised.
 
MIKEROPHONICS said:

I think I would love to do a studio light course - it was a fun challenge! I will be buying a soft box for my Sb700 - any recommended versions?

cheers

Mike
Click to expand...

Lastolite ezybox works wel(sih) with speedlights - but due to the reflectors in your SB700 it will struggle to evenly fill a big soft box.
 
I didn't know modelling light could be changed - will investigate next time

I do not know how many panels the soft box had

I think it was the lowest power head there.

Thank you re Lastolite Ezybox tip - will have a look at those.
 
thats the one good thing about shooting with speedlights, 1/128th or 1/64 power (depending on the modifier) lets you shoot at f1.4. Thing is though, there is nothing wrong with shooting at f11. Many studio portraits are shot at f8 or upwards. Good depth of field and maximises sharpness. Don't be so hard on yourself, despite the cropping it's a great shot :)
 
Thank you - that is kind of you to say so

How do people autofocus at f11 though?
 
It's a great shot the close crop works very well in this context, any further back and I don't think it would have been successful. The over-arching problem with images is it's all subjective. One mans marmite is another persons jam !
 
Thank you - I am learning so much here
 
- layers of diffusion can help cut out stops of light, but do remember this will change the quality of light too - from hard to soft.
- moving the light further away will drop its power on your subject
- using a ND filter will cut out a number of stops of light depending on the filter used
- you could set your focus first with the lights on, then switch it to manual then leave it, the subject is not likely to moving that much and F11 would cover that
- sometimes studio flashes are simply wrong for the job, a strobe used in off camera flash mode would allow you to drop the power of the flash right down, studio lights tend to be too powerful if you want to shoot at 2.8 for example
 
dade_f said:
- layers of diffusion can help cut out stops of light, but do remember this will change the quality of light too - from hard to soft.
- moving the light further away will drop its power on your subject
- using a ND filter will cut out a number of stops of light depending on the filter used
- you could set your focus first with the lights on, then switch it to manual then leave it, the subject is not likely to moving that much and F11 would cover that
- sometimes studio flashes are simply wrong for the job, a strobe used in off camera flash mode would allow you to drop the power of the flash right down, studio lights tend to be too powerful if you want to shoot at 2.8 for example
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A neutral density filter is by far the best choice, for most people, most of the time. A decent lens (say f/2.8) fitted with a 0.9 (3 stop) neutral density filter will still autofocus well enough usually.

It's pretty rare for studio flash to be too powerful, as long as the studio flash has a reasonable level of power (200 or 300Ws is about right for most home studios) but for some reason some people still buy flashes that are too big for their working environment. And the flash head needs to be able to adjust down to around 1/32nd of full power. That's 5 stops of adjustment (which some sellers describe as 6 stops, so when buying it's best to make sure that the light adjusts down to 1/32nd and just ignore the number of stops claimed by the seller)

Adding extra layers of diffusion simply spreads the light over a larger area. This has the effect of reducing the amount of light reaching the subject but the light is likely to bounce off of walls and ceiling, destroying control of the light.

Moving the light further away from the subject will indeed reduce its effective power, but will also change the quality of the light. The most obvious effect is that the light becomes harder because it is further away and therefore smaller, but there are other related effects too:
1. Moving it further away will affect the fall off of light caused by the Inverse Square Law
2. Moving it further away will affect the angle too - you may not be able to get it high enough, or far enough to one side as you would like
 
I've nothing else to add to all the excellent advice above.

Just wanted to say that's a great image. Well done.
 
As someone mentioned, the model light will have no effect on your photo, so feel free to crank that up to allow for easier focusing.
If the head was fairly powerful (even set to its lowest power), and close to the subject, then it can be tricky to get the lower f stops.
We have bowens gemini 500's in the studio, and if they are close to the subjects, we are generally looking at f7 @ ISO100, even with a massive softbox, with 2 panels in.
I like the thought of the ND filters. Maybe something to consider for us, especially with newborns, as they look much better at a wider aperture.
The other option is to take the light further away.
Not sure if you had one available for the shoot, but a beauty dish would work wonders with this style of photo.
Love the image!!
 
AnA Photography said:
As someone mentioned, the model light will have no effect on your photo, so feel free to crank that up to allow for easier focusing.
If the head was fairly powerful (even set to its lowest power), and close to the subject, then it can be tricky to get the lower f stops.
We have bowens gemini 500's in the studio, and if they are close to the subjects, we are generally looking at f7 @ ISO100, even with a massive softbox, with 2 panels in.
I like the thought of the ND filters. Maybe something to consider for us, especially with newborns, as they look much better at a wider aperture.
The other option is to take the light further away.
Not sure if you had one available for the shoot, but a beauty dish would work wonders with this style of photo.
Love the image!!
Click to expand...
Buy a Lencarta Smartflash for shooting newborns, an easy swap out and you'll get your larger apertures.
 
Thanks for the nice comments re the shot

Phil - what is so different about the Lencata light? I am keen to learn all these things
 
MIKEROPHONICS said:
Thanks for the nice comments re the shot

Phil - what is so different about the Lencata light? I am keen to learn all these things
Click to expand...
It's a lower powered unit, some newborn photographers are leaving out their usual studio heads and using the lower powered heads normally bought for home studios, to take advantage of the lower power / shallow DoF.
 
Thanks for that Phil. Something to look into!
Never thought about replacing the heads!
 
Phil V said:
It's a lower powered unit, some newborn photographers are leaving out their usual studio heads and using the lower powered heads normally bought for home studios, to take advantage of the lower power / shallow DoF.
Click to expand...

I have just bought 2 of the iLux 150s for exactly those reasons but also some more, I need a hair light on a tall stand so a much lighter head and as light from the rear appears brighter I do not need as much power. Same low power is also good for narrow depth of field food shots.

Mike
 
Phil V said:
Buy a Lencarta Smartflash for shooting newborns, an easy swap out and you'll get your larger apertures.
Click to expand...

Good advice, Phil. There's also the RX One from Elinchrom, a 100w/s strobe, to consider. Think I'd reach for an ND filter though.

I've been told a typical Speedlite will be equivalent to 60w/s with a strobe, so even lower powered strobes have a lot more oomph than a Speedlite.
 
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I've used speedlites in the studio for wide-aperture shooting, as advised above. Yet another approach is to use continuous (e.g. tungsten) lighting. This way your shutter speed isn't limited by your flash sync speed and you can use wide apertures easily. Furthermore, since the light is continuous you have no worries about focussing under a weak modelling light, and what you see in the viewfinder is what you'll get when you press the shutter (just remember to set your white balance appropriately, of course!).
 
JennyGW said:
I've been told a typical Speedlite will be equivalent to 60w/s with a strobe, so even lower powered strobes have a lot more oomph than a Speedlite.
Click to expand...

That's about right. It's interesting to remember than (in ball park figures) a 60W/s flash with duration of (say) 1/500th of a second is equivalent to 30 kilowatts of continuous lighting! Even at the lowest setting studio strobes are equivalent to a few kilowatts of continuous lighting - this is why you can shoot at f/11 in the studo - and why an 800W continuous light works so well at f/2 :)
 
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you do need alot of light to match a flash, and a studio light is normaly 4-5 times more powerful than a speedlight?
some cameras have a iso 50 setting, thats another possibility

i like the picture btw :)
 
I actually think it's a very nice shot (Admittedly might be a little better with the other half of his ear like you said though)
 
Thanks for the kind comments
 
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