Trying out my new kit

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musicalbloke

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Name
Adrian
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Upgraded to a D300, finally got some backgrounds and supports, and putting it all together ended up with some of these. Set up was one speedlight with softbox from the front and and bare speedlight behind the background. Lens was a Nikon 28-70.


CanvasPics_01 by AdrianHartopp, on Flickr



CanvasPics_02 by AdrianHartopp, on Flickr


Do you think they work? What could I improve on?
 
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I like them both, nice expressions and sharp focus in #1. Not convinced about the pose in #2 with the arms out to the sides the crop/pose looks wrong/awkward to me?
 
Paul,

Thanks for the feedback. The pose in #2 was a result of a piggy back without holding on, so does look a bit odd but hopefully explains why.
 
Very nice shots #1 i like the best,i don,t know if #2 would have worked better with the hands showing in the shot.:)
 
I can't remember if I've cropped #2. I'll check when I get in tonight. The only thing that would have made me crop though would be the background getting more creased towards the edges.
 
Thanks for your comments.
Yes, background was very wrinkled towards the edges. I'd not got any clamps available to stretch it out. As for the "shadows", it could be where the background is doubled over and and pegged at the sides.
 
They've got a horrible cyan colour cast in the highlights!

Second shot.... the lighting is way too high. You've accentuated the skin under the bottom girl's eyes and made her look like she has really large eye bags. The shadows on her cheeks and laughter lines are very dark and deep too. Same with the top girl to a lesser extent, but as the light is so high, it's raking across her features, and as a result, the skin on her chin looks really bumpy and unflattering.
 
David, thank you for your comments, much appreciated.

Background was lit from behind with one speedlight so I guess the spread of light wasn't even enough to cover the entire background which would lead to the colour fall off. Is that right?

"the lighting is way too high". Is this physically high, or too bright (power too high)? I was of the understanding that the front light should be high to act as a "sun" and fall down onto your subject. That's how I had it set. I didn't want to run the risk of it being too low and being full into their faces.
 
musicalbloke said:
I was of the understanding that the front light should be high to act as a "sun" and fall down onto your subject. That's how I had it set. I didn't want to run the risk of it being too low and being full into their faces.
Click to expand...

If you do that then you will end up with deep shadows where the light cannot penetrate.
Your key light can be at the same height as your subject, there's no written rule on the height of your key light but as David has pointed out yours seems too high.
A reflector on the ground might help a little but probably better just to lower the light slightly.

I use my key light at the same height as my subjects maybe just a smidge higher but not much.
 
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musicalbloke said:
Background was lit from behind with one speedlight so I guess the spread of light wasn't even enough to cover the entire background which would lead to the colour fall off. Is that right?
Click to expand...

Doesn't sound right to me, no. It may affect the coverage and evenness of the background, but not the cyan colour cast. That's more than likely a processing problem. Can you not see the colour cast there? If not, you may have a monitor calibration problem.

musicalbloke said:
"the lighting is way too high". Is this physically high, or too bright (power too high)? I was of the understanding that the front light should be high to act as a "sun" and fall down onto your subject. That's how I had it set. I didn't want to run the risk of it being too low and being full into their faces.
Click to expand...

Physically high... exposure looks good... it's actually positioned too high. Your thinking regarding being high to replicate the sun is way off.. no idea who told you this, but please ignore them. Mid day sun is a terrible time to shoot outdoor portraits for the same reason... the light is too high and rakes across the face from a steep angle... resulting in dark eye sockets, hard and long shadows from noses, cheekbones and lips, and contrast is too high, so those shadows are made even worse by being excessively dark.

Being your main light lower, and more to the side a little... and use a reflector on the opposite side to control your contrast... it's very high at the moment.

Move things a little at a time though... don't make massive alterations... you'd be surprised how much of a difference lowering it by a few inches can make. Are these proper studio flash heads? If so... you can judge this with the modelling lights. If they're just little flash guns, then you'll have to shoot to see the results.
 
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Thank you, that makes a lot more sense now. I don't have studio lights, just speed lights.

I should get a chance this weekend to try out these alterations so I'll try and post up some new images if I can.
 
I suspect the person meant to have it a little bit higher than the subject but you've gone a bit far. The other issue you're having is using bare speedlites which isn't going to give you great light.

I'd stick a large diffuser in front of it ( a white sheet would do or a sheet of tracing paper ). Keep the speedlite a few feet back and have the diffuser held near your subject without it being in the frame. Notice the difference and experiment with the distance from subject to diffuser, keeping the speedlite where it is so it shines a big blob of light on the diffuser. The closer to the subject the diffuser, the softer the light will be.

Also give bouncing it off a white surface a go.

As mentioned a reflector would do a lot of good too.
 
Speedlight at the front is in a 60cm square softbox, its the one behind the background that is naked light.
 
For a 60cm soft box to make much difference it will need to be pretty close to the subject. It's pretty small as soft boxes go. Softer look you might be hoping for would require a largish soft box used close up ; even a very large soft box used a distance away will stop looking soft and produce light just the same as a bare flash used closer.

You're probably using it a bit far away. If you use a soft box a little bit away from the subject it sort of defeats the purpose and will give you a similar look to a bare flash. Really you need it right up close to get a soft look. If you watch some videos of portrait photographers working with studio lights you'll see the boxes are just out of camera view and often inches from the models.

Even so, I'd say you'll struggle to shoot couples with a small soft box like that. Too far away and the lighting will look harsh and too near and fall off will be too much for decent light on both of them ( inverse square law ) I still would say it would be worth your while trying a diffuser or bouncing the light as I mentioned above

Coupled with that is the problem of using a Speedlite with a soft box at all which is that these lights are not like studio lights in that they are very directional and throw all their light forward. A studio light or a bare bulb flash will throw light in all directions and will make full use of the soft box design unlike the speedlite. Some try to overcome this by bouncing the light with the speedlite facing backwards and so softening things quite a bit.
 
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