setups and shots with home studio setup Thread

Great thread, spent all morning reading through this for tips and some of the ideas are great. Think I'm ditching the cloth background for paper when shooting against white. I have plotter paper to experiment with later tonight.

My little set up is 2 fixed lights, 1 Yongnuo flashgun and a D3100, I'll post some pics later of my results.
 
Here is my setup, think its paper from now on mind, like the idea of the reflective floor surface too mind.


20131024_190519_zps28fadab8 by Colin Cummings, on Flickr


And here is one almost straight from the camera, all I did was up the contast a little. (crappy image quality as its from a shrunken jpeg)


970716_471772089568535_1869077855_n by Colin Cummings, on Flickr




And my girls with a few tweaks in CS2. Not Perfect but I like it. Need alot more practice and this thread will be a huge help.



M-DSC_6288 by Colin Cummings, on Flickr
 
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Colin, I think there are lovely (y) apart from the bg but you already know that

H
 
Hell on earth said:
Colin, I think there are lovely (y) apart from the bg but you already know that

H
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Why thank you but I know they are miles off the quality of some other peoples submissions on this thread. Its just trying to find the time to practice.
 
Ok, been playing around with my mini home studio below and dragged my daughter away from an early night to strike a few poses to get the settings right. Getting there me thinks...



2 fixed 5500W lights to blow out the background, ditching the cloth for paper now. Single Yongnuo 560 Flash with triggers shooting into a silver umbrella. Ignore the paper joins, I 'borrowed' some plotter paper from work which is no where near wide enough but it works better than the cloth background.

Also interested in getting a perspex panel for the floor too.


Untitled by Colin Cummings, on Flickr




And this is what I get....



DSC_8961-2 by Colin Cummings, on Flickr



DSC_8989 by Colin Cummings, on Flickr



And with a black background, no back lighting and flash off to the left. ISO100, 1/20, F7.1 (I think) and flash about 1/8 power.




DSC_8947 by Colin Cummings, on Flickr


Oh, and my daughter insisted that she get a picture of ugly old dad too!



DSC_8993 by Colin Cummings, on Flickr
 
Colin, buy something to give you a solid base under the sheet as the wrinkles are distracting.

With the flash on your couch it's way too low. It's uplighting your subjects and uplighting is often called horror lighting - think torch under the nose and you get the idea. Get the main light high enough to get a catchlight in the eye at around 10pm / 2pm sort of area and you will be on your way to creating better images.

Brollies throw a lot of light around. I reckon you could use just one on your backdrop to get an even light as it's a pretty small sheet. 2 lights for a wider backdrop. Also don't throw too much power at it. Use the blinkies on the camera to get it just blinking and no more then you are set.
 
EOS_JD said:
Colin, buy something to give you a solid base under the sheet as the wrinkles are distracting.

With the flash on your couch it's way too low. It's uplighting your subjects and uplighting is often called horror lighting - think torch under the nose and you get the idea. Get the main light high enough to get a catchlight in the eye at around 10pm / 2pm sort of area and you will be on your way to creating better images.

Brollies throw a lot of light around. I reckon you could use just one on your backdrop to get an even light as it's a pretty small sheet. 2 lights for a wider backdrop. Also don't throw too much power at it. Use the blinkies on the camera to get it just blinking and no more then you are set.
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Think 4mm perspex would do the trick but not desparate for that just now.

Didn't think about the height of the flash, I might have to get a new stand to mount the flash, only thing is I have a trigger on the hotshoe of the flash. How would you then mount it to a stand?

I plan to get a wider roll of paper, those 2 sheets were an experiment last night from plotter paper from the office. I did try with 1 light and it seemed to cause a spot behind the subject, maybe I just need to play around with 1 and 2 lights to get it right.


Do you think a small softbox for the flash would be of help, I sometimes think the light can look harsh?
 
The quality of the light hardness/softness is controlled by the size of the light source in relation to the size of the subject.

So the harshness is due to the small size of the light source in relation to the relatively large subject. A bigger source like a softbox will soften the light at the same distance. Getting it closer increases the relative size and so is softer again. Moving a light source away will create hard light again.

TBH the hardest thing to light (and the least appealing these days) is a high key look. So much easier to work with a dark background with just one or two lights.
 
EOS_JD said:
The quality of the light hardness/softness is controlled by the size of the light source in relation to the size of the subject.

So the harshness is due to the small size of the light source in relation to the relatively large subject. A bigger source like a softbox will soften the light at the same distance. Getting it closer increases the relative size and so is softer again. Moving a light source away will create hard light again.

TBH the hardest thing to light (and the least appealing these days) is a high key look. So much easier to work with a dark background with just one or two lights.
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Thanks for the input, need all the help I can get.
 
I really like these,good setup.:clap:
 
Hi all,

Love this thread and been coming in and out of it all day!

I'm after some advice if possible. I kinda panic brought a set up a few months ago. Never used it but don't think it's actually up to scratch.

This is what I bought...

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1250W-light-...rb/$T2eC16hHJH0FG1jwUn4TBSFer,5)1g~~60_12.JPG

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1250W-lig...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item3f0c36b99d

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Photo-Studio...d5/$(KGrHqMOKpYFHmoBFdYuBR8jd5edig~~60_12.JPG

I'm doing a smash the cake shoot in a couple of weeks and I know the room is poorly lit which we shall be using so lighting will be essential.

Having talked with my friend we agreed a lilac background would suit the girl so I purchased a lilac backdrop to use.

I set it up yesterday to see what I could achieve and these were the results...

10633608675_b3900fc0c2.jpg


10633868263_681c86f41d.jpg




More links but I can only add 6 images...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7325/10633610965_341aefbcf7.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7375/10633611515_9cc32cda69.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5475/10633618124_cb2615fe10.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5497/10633611415_09b3dcbe42.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2824/10633610255_eb09c7e3ed.jpg

The first thing I am doing is getting a dark wood laminate flooring as it clashes with the lilac.

I guess I am disappointed as with natural light I have been able to achieve this...


https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net...x720/1374960_573226989380332_1801242479_n.jpg

1378520_573227206046977_463855725_n.jpg


1374960_573226989380332_1801242479_n.jpg

1374960_573226989380332_1801242479_n.jpg



1393764_573226666047031_469072883_n.jpg



Having looked at this thread I believe I need some sort of flash studio and I had no idea that the background was needed to have light produced against it!

I have a Nikon SB-700 so it's possible I can use this.

So my question is can somebody recommend a suitable studio set up?



Thanks
 
bigtel said:
Hi all,

Love this thread and been coming in and out of it all day!



Having looked at this thread I believe I need some sort of flash studio and I had no idea that the background was needed to have light produced against it!

I have a Nikon SB-700 so it's possible I can use this.

So my question is can somebody recommend a suitable studio set up?



Thanks
Click to expand...

Your photos in natural light are so beautiful!
 
Tampa Steve, you should be able to edit that floor to get white very easily
 
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A very simple setup One 450 x450 studio light front right and two of the same lighting the background which is a white sheet of paper. Studio is 8' wide 7' high and 19' long…


View attachment 3660
 
I have a sheet of what's called tile board . It comes in 8'x4' sheets.
 
Oh and a different model. Lol
 
Lightroom exposure brush and auto mask (mentioned above)
 
Only just seen this thread, what a great idea, have scanned through a couple of pages but will read it more thoroughly later when I have more time.

In the mean time, a couple of examples from me. Difference between first and second shot is I turned off the key light and ramped the hair light up a bit for the second.

This:


Amy by Ian-Highlander, on Flickr

And this:


Amy by Ian-Highlander, on Flickr

Taken with this set up.

setup1.jpg



Also this:


Marina by Ian-Highlander, on Flickr

And this:


Marina by Ian-Highlander, on Flickr

With this:

setup2.jpg
 
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Saw this thread whilst searching for information on home studio backgrounds, love all the set ups and advice given on here, thanks so much it's given me lots to think about :ty:
 
Tampa Steve said:
quick question, i have a few shots where i can only describe as having a 'mark' on dark clothing, like a sunspot. how do you stop these from happening. Took loads of photos, but only appear on a few so a bit baffled by them.
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sounds like flare
 
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