Using two speedlites on white backdrop - need stofen or any other modifer?
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HoppyUK
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No. A Stofen will be hard to control and very wasteful of precious light. Put them either side at about 45 degrees, in identical positions/distances. That way, the light fall off from each gun is the same, and they fill-in eachother and balance out for even coverage.
Make sure there is no light from the background guns spilling directly on to the subject from behind. Use a small bit of card or blackwrap or something Blu-Tacked to the head to prevent that.
Make sure there is no light from the background guns spilling directly on to the subject from behind. Use a small bit of card or blackwrap or something Blu-Tacked to the head to prevent that.
HoppyUK
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If you point the guns at two places, you will get two hot spots. You should aim them at exactly the same place in the middle. Precision is critcal - same guns, same power, same distance, same height, angle everything.
The advantage of having two identical guns (and assuming both guns put out exactly the same amount of light when set to the same power, not always the case!) both guns will project an identical beam, falling off in exactly the same way across the background. Therefore, each gun will fill-in and balance the other exactly.
That's the theory. If you still get a hot spot (quite possible) then flip down the wide panel and/or move the guns back to get more distance and improve evenness of coverage. I can get within about a quarter of a stop over about a six foot wide area which is pretty good. In reality it's hard to get it much better than that and in practise it's fine.
The23rdman
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Either have a nice reflective piece of vinyl or mount board on the floor or fire a light at the floor.
HoppyUK
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A cloth train isn't really much good if you want pure white. It's usually not bright enough, you'll struggle.
Getting a pure white background is relatively easy because you can light it separately and basically just over expose it till it's right. You can't do that with the train as if you try to light that and over exposure it, you also over expose whatever is standing on it at the same time.
To get a white train, you need a very bright material to start with (I use regular background paper) and then either some skill with post processing, or a reflective covering for the floor, or quite likely both.
There are lots of threads about this on here, but I can tell you now there is no easy or guaranteed way, and you're not getting off to a very good start using cloth.
Getting a pure white background is relatively easy because you can light it separately and basically just over expose it till it's right. You can't do that with the train as if you try to light that and over exposure it, you also over expose whatever is standing on it at the same time.
To get a white train, you need a very bright material to start with (I use regular background paper) and then either some skill with post processing, or a reflective covering for the floor, or quite likely both.
There are lots of threads about this on here, but I can tell you now there is no easy or guaranteed way, and you're not getting off to a very good start using cloth.
HoppyUK
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