First go with Neweer C250 Strobes

Carlh

Carlh

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Carl
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Bought some strobes off amazon, via neweer, 3 strobe lights as I found it such a pain charging up batteries for my flashes. Lighting is all new to me, so please forgive my babbling.

The location is rubbish, my living room, nothing spectacular going on in the background so what I'm posting here, is more to do with the lighting setup and something I picked up on a youtube tutorial.

So I have 2 of the 3 strobes unpacked, onto stands, one has a silver reflective umbrella shooting into and allowing overspill of light on the sides to create my rim light (is it rim light or hair light or are they both the same?)

The other strobe has a white shoot through umbrella to soften the light. I'd use my softbox but that's another story (a large softbox for flashguns, not strobe/mono lights) so I used this fairly small, can be more than 19 inches wide and is about 3 to 4 foot away that the wife and about 2 foot higher than her, shooting down at about 35 degrees.

Lastly, without thinking, I used one of my flash guns, popped it onto the camera, set the strobes as slaves - I think if I used the remote cable that came with each of the strobes, I could have shot at a higher shutter speed (800th of a sec according to the manual), so I went for 160th of a sec, otherwise I was getting a curtain issue with the sync from the flash. Flash was pointing to the ceiling. Aperture was set to F8. Power on the strobes was set to lowest. I did, in camera raw, have to adjust the exposure +0.35 to get it right, was a tad underexposed from what I could see on the backscreen of the camera. I do have a light meter - think I should try using that.

The only things I can see I need to do next time is: Move the strobe with the umbrella more towards the front of the subject rather than 45degrees to the side to fill in some light - but to be honest - any tips on improvements of the position of lights - close - far away? any good links to websites with lighting setups/diagrams like I have provided below?

Thanks for looking :)

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Larger versions can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdhpix/12070280516/sizes/l/in/photostream/

A diagram of how I set it up : One silver reflective umbrella (approx 19", shot into and reflect back towards the strobe, one white shoot-through umbrella (approx 19")

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Ok, no one, even though 60+ people have viewed it - it must be bad and you are all too nice to say so ! :)

Ok, so this is shoot number 3 - shoot number 2 was last night and was a disaster. Just could not get anything right.

Shoot number 2 involved a couple of lights, a chair, speedlite fitted to camera with strobes as slaves.

I've reverted back to basics, one strobe, slave to my speedlite which is on its lowest setting, used as a little fill light with a gary fong diffuser on the speedlite.

This is all cheapo-equipment too, neweer strobes (£50 ea), umbrella (£3), newer speedlite (£34).

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and

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Im hoping the next time, I will have a bit more space, a larger umbrella to soften things more (without artificially doing it through PS via the clarity).

I feel like a total beginner with lighting. Trying my best to read up on tutorials though and take any pointers anyone has.
 
there is still some softness about these..i can see you have a narrow sharp zone and you may want that but in two the eyes are at variance and would look nicer if they were both sharp and some of the face
getting in close like that is my favourite portrait type of shot..for character and persona..
in 1..watch your backgrounds!
you seem to be caught up in lighting rather than the subject..but as i dont have lighting i am a bit envious..
cheers
geof

ps what is your lens focal length and aperture and distance to subject...just for my interest
 
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thanks geof :) I thought no one was going to comment, I'm new to lighting so any tips etc.. really appreciated :)

Yes - for these, I have got caught up in the lighting. :)

I tried using F8/F9 as thats the "usual" portrait aperture but my living room isn't that big and I had light spilling all over the place lol, so pumped it up to F11, 1/200th and 105mm

I could not have been more than 4 foot away from the missus (any further and I would have been sat at on the sofa).

Cheers again geof :)
 
Carlh said:
thanks geof :) I thought no one was going to comment, I'm new to lighting so any tips etc.. really appreciated :)

Yes - for these, I have got caught up in the lighting. :)

I tried using F8/F9 as thats the "usual" portrait aperture but my living room isn't that big and I had light spilling all over the place lol, so pumped it up to F11, 1/200th and 105mm

I could not have been more than 4 foot away from the missus (any further and I would have been sat at on the sofa).

Cheers again geof :)
Click to expand...

well you got me there...with that certainly got the far ground blasted out to no useable pixels
i guess you may have to use manual focus unless you did and do some horse swapping on what you opting to be in focus...
tripod?
i really think you are making great strides here...
cheers
geof
 
Here is the original geof, I've got a cheapo umbrella now to go with my cheapo lights (they're £50 a pop, fantastic lights geof, worth investing in just one to begin with) so I'm going to be having another go this weekend and hopefully the soft light will be more natural and i won't have to touch the image at all.

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just watch your backgrounds and use some fill to get the full face lit even though at differing levels
try not to look up someones nose...:D
get catchlights in both eyes...easy with cloning and make the eyes glisten...dodging
cheers
geoff
 
I have also bought this Neewer 300watt strobe set up as well Carl, still to try it out as the base mount that attaches to the stand arrived broken and I am having a big problem getting it sorted. Hope to get some practice in soon. Type in google search for lighting setups for more info
 
Robbo1100xx said:
I have also bought this Neewer 300watt strobe set up as well Carl, still to try it out as the base mount that attaches to the stand arrived broken and I am having a big problem getting it sorted. Hope to get some practice in soon. Type in google search for lighting setups for more info
Click to expand...

bad luck about that huw, im dreading to find out what the bulbs cost to change lol, good lights though, the model light is great for help the AF.

Had a bit of a nightmare sourcing a softbox for it though, found one in the end, if you want info for it, let me know :)
 
I am in a similar position, have had a few sessions so far with some success (I think), although far from perfect.

If you have an ipad I find this very good (and free)
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/scott-kelbys-lighting-recipes/id499033559?mt=8

Here is one of mine using three second hand lights and various old modifiers that I have (I know the background isn't white, have sussed that now ;) )
Main light slightly right of camera looking down at subject through shoot through umbrella ( Have since used smallish soft-box which seems better).
Fill light slightly left of camera into gold reflector umbrella pointing up (just fancied using the gold one now tend to use shoot through for this one
Background light into reflective umbrella to avoid the subject (I know have got this working properly!)
F.10 1/200 130mm

portrait-1.jpg


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incidentally I had no joy using the on camera flash as a trigger, got some cheap yongnuo ttl radio triggers, they work a treat and I get far better results.
 
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bit of an old post i know but how you finding the neewer Carl? reason i ask is i just got one from fleabay . arrived today and set it all up and tested it and for the few quid it cos cant complain. looks like you did these at start of year so wondered how its fared since then
 
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