critique -studio lighting

C2photo

C2photo

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Name
Audrey
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ok folks ive just messed about abit with my lights in the studio trying to acheive that more 'professional' look to my picture rather than the flat highkey stuff, this set up was very basic and as its a first for me id love to know my rights and wrongs so i can learn from it and improve. this model was very photogenic as u see and flawless skin - i havnt edited these really and i know the background is abit shady but i know that can be fixed with a bit of doudging in psd, i just basically want to know if the light around the face and hair is ok or what areas do i need to improve in to make them better, as ive said this was a very quick set up and session but i think its mayb ok for a first time attempt :) feedback appreciated please

ps the quaity has been reduced for upload these are alot shaper.

1.
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2 .
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3.
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4.
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i have a few more but cant upload them il see how these ones go first :)

thanks
 
We're not that quick, especially on a Sunday afternoon! I think the last is the best personally. The hair light is good, and the bg is also fine. I think the main lighting improvement would be to add a bit of contrast to the face. In all but the last frame the face is only lit by the (uniform and flat) fill light. The last frame, because she has turned her her to camera right a bit, has some of the hair light spilling onto her face, adding some contour and depth. An additional front key light would have the same effect.
 
Personally, the lighting is too flat across the face for my liking - what set-up did you use? I can only guess from the catchlights that there's something like a bit softbox to camera left, and another light source (or a big reflector) to camera left but low down. There's also some light coming in from behind the model (camera right) which I feel it too powerful; the rim/hair light is not having as much impact as it should (i.e. isn't visible enough) in the second and third shots, and in the first shot it's too hot and is concentrating on one spot, which draws my eye away from the model's face. In the last shot, the spill from that rim light has created some unflattering highlights on her cheek that needn't be there.

Did you do any set-up shots and make a note of power settings? Might help for people who can reverse engineer shots better than I ever could.

The model looks great BTW, but I just feel it needs a bit more depth adding into the shot with lighting ratios to give her face a bit of structure.:)

I can't comment on what I'd do until I know what set-up you have used :)
 
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A very quick iPhone critique lol

Looks very flat. From the catchlights I'd suggest just using less lights...Start with one main light and build on that, adding hair/rim/fill IF required! Big if!! Less is more IMO, you'll get more contrast. Contrary to belief, softer light isn't always better...
 
Yayyyyy some criticism :) Yeap u hav nailed the setup exact, tbh I'm not very techical when it comes to lights and setting etc hence why I've posted these so I can learn :) but I didnt think these were prefect and knew the things I've pointed out I had noticed but didn't know if it was a good thing or bad thing. I was trying to get more depth but couldn't seem to get it. Please advice :) thank u both so much for ur replys even it is early Sunday afternoon :) but sure u got a hour exact in bed lol
 
Forget about the background for now, let's look at the main subject.

You've created some very pleasant shots here, and anyone should be pleased either to have taken them or to have commissioned them. But of course there's room for improvement...

You say that you wanted to avoid the flat, high key look but that is pretty much what you have achieved here. Basically, you've stuck a softbox in what is more or less the Rembrandt position (45 deg high, 45 deg left) and then destroyed the shadows created by this, by adding a second light/reflector low down. The results is a pleasant, chocolate box piccie of a pretty girl - but she doesn't exactly jump off the page at me and the shots don't exactly make me rush out to buy a packet of condoms:)

The basic problem is that your lighting has given her a fat face, because all parts of the face visible to the camera have been lit. Yes, you've used a hairlight to good effect and in a couple of shots light from it has accidentally spilled onto the face, helping a lot, but basicly the face is too evenly lit.

I see that you're female, so you should know better, because as a female you know very well what women do to get men to look at their faces - you use eye makeup to make your eyes look bigger and you use lippy to make the lips look bigger. Now, if you had put a single head high up and directly in front of where your model is pointing there would have been a single catchlight in the eyes and it would have been high up, making her eyes look bigger.

And that light would have created a gentle shadow directly below her nose, taking away the flat look

And it would have created a shadow under her bottom lip, making the lips look much larger and much sexier.

And it wouldn't have lit the sides of her face, making her face look much slimmer.

Of course, there would have been a shadow under her chin. Shadows are good, but if the shadow turned out to be too strong for your taste you could have lightened it with a small bit of white paper placed directly under the chin, as a reflector - you don't need one of those silly tri-flectors that just put light everywhere and kill all shadow.

I'm sure that you'll get critiques that are more polite and more tactful, because I don't have those qualities, but I hope that it's helpful
 
My personal taste is for big light sources to gives softness across the main lit area, but with that soft drop-off you get with a big diffused light source. But you may favour hard(er) light from something like a beauty dish. It's all about choosing the kind of light that you like and what light makes the subject look good.

If you want white background then have a flash doing the work in that respect, but just work with a single flash lighting the model, shaping the light so it makes the most of her features and bone structure. She's a really pretty lass so there's no shortage of opportunities with a model like that.

Once you have that main light sorted, then you can think about rim or hair lights - IF you need them.

I don't mind stuff shot on white background but in all honesty, it is a bit cataloguey and if doing full body shots, the subject ends up floating in space; use light on the background by all means but try dialling the power down and work with your shutter speed (below the maximum sync) to give it some tonal range. I really like grey backgrounds, especially those that have a sweeping gradient across them created by a single spot or snoot.
 
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Great advice Garry with def take ur advice on board and yours to sg - as I said I'm only starting to dip my toes into this as I'm use to photographing children with highkey background which works I think for kids as they would never sit still for these kind of set ups, but I'm looking to get abit more professional looking results and know I've a lot to learn yet. This really was my first attempt at it but I know with great advice like u hav all gaving il hopefully get it mastered in no time resulting in more appealing images :) - well here's hoping, can I just ask I hav cheapest lights which I bought to set up bowens studio on a box x200w heads and elichrome dlite kit 200 &400, should these b enough to create the look I'm after or should I buy new lights? Great advice guys thank u all so much for taking the time to reply :) open to alot more criticism - I can take it lol
Xx
 
Ps is there Ne certain settings I need to use for these lighting set ups, becus my studio all White and reflects alot of light I 'hav to use a shutterspeed 200 f20 and know this doesn't sound the norm but it seems to work for my enivoment - is this wrong and if so how can I change this? :)
 
Your lighting equipment is perfectly OK. If you need an aperture of f/20 then you're using far too much power, turn your lights down so that you can use f/16 maximum with your D700 (if you had a cropped-sensor camera then you would have to use f/11 as a maximum because anything smaller creates diffraction limitation, which reduces the overall sharpness.

You don't need to use a shutter speed of 1/200th, the shutter speed is all but irrelevant when using studio flash, unless there is an extremely high level of ambient light present.

All white studios are a disaster when it comes to creative light control - get some black drapes to prevent unwanted light bounce.
 
Thank u Garry :) I was thinking of even painting my ceiling black - should this help? As far as power of my lights they do seem to do the job but I don't think I know how to work them proper, as I said before I know nawthing really technical, Is there me books or site u could recommend for me to hav a look at on studio lighting? Ur advice is much appreciated :) x
 
C2photo said:
Thank u Garry :) I was thinking of even painting my ceiling black - should this help? As far as power of my lights they do seem to do the job but I don't think I know how to work them proper, as I said before I know nawthing really technical, Is there me books or site u could recommend for me to hav a look at on studio lighting? Ur advice is much appreciated :) x
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Yes, painting the ceiling with matt black emulsion will be a massive help.

As for knowledge, you could always spend a whole £5.99 on one of my tutorials:)
 
Gary's post #7 is very helpful. I'll be putting some of my own shots up soon to test the new home studio setup. Would be very happy to have a model as pretty as yours to work with. She's got great hair too, which you've lit well on a couple of shots. Looking forward to seeing new shots if you can use the same model and take on board the advice above.
 
Thanks she's actually a friend so it's no bother for me to get het in for another sitting, she asked me to do these pictures as she needed an image of herself for a wedding competition she entered to win a dress or something lol she's very happy with them, it was a quick session and tbh I just used it as an excuse to mess about and practice lol but lot more to Learn Harrys advice is brill as is everyone that replied to my post :) very helpful indeed,

I Gona get her to model for me again using the advice I've been gavn and repost my results :)
 
I'm with Harry :D I think.

Way too many lights and reflectors. IMHO, less is usually more with lighting. Just some comments, in no particular order.

Start with one light, eg softbox, with and without a reflector. Beauty dish would be nice to try in the classic directly above position, but a softbox would still be good there. Would slim her face down nicely, show a bit of shape.

The white background adds nothing to a shot like this - let it go light grey. Avoid cutting out around hair in post, it looks like cobwebs.

Lose the hair light - you sometimes need a hair light to separate dark hair from a dark background, but not here. Maybe use it for effect, and I would try from above/behind and get some nice sheen going on her parting.

Stronger makeup on eyes and lips. Dark nails clash with the soft/pretty look.

HTH :)

Edit: re equipment. What you have is more than fine. But you don't have to use it all at once!
 
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thanks richard :) yeap i find just becus i hav all four lights i need to use them all, althou i did turn one off lol def going to take ur advice on board might actually get her in again and retake them althou she thinks there perfect, becus of the reason of the pictures should i mayb take her back in and reshoot them, as the competition obviously is about looks and mayb i havnt made the most of ciara,s, althou im sure the judgeings not that strict or prob not even bothered about lighting etc lol they just want a picture they dont care how its taking, ciara is very pretty thou and id love her to won and if my photograph might help then so b it - i might reshoot - she might kill me thou lol regarding make up ciara did her own and wanted a natural look and the nails were from the night before lol she just wanted a picture but i wanted to experiment, but i do intend to do alot more stuff like this for paying clients so i need the lighting to b perfect :) just need practice now.
 
C2photo said:
thanks richard :) yeap i find just becus i hav all four lights i need to use them all, althou i did turn one off lol def going to take ur advice on board might actually get her in again and retake them althou she thinks there perfect, becus of the reason of the pictures should i mayb take her back in and reshoot them, as the competition obviously is about looks and mayb i havnt made the most of ciara,s, althou im sure the judgeings not that strict or prob not even bothered about lighting etc lol they just want a picture they dont care how its taking, ciara is very pretty thou and id love her to won and if my photograph might help then so b it - i might reshoot - she might kill me thou lol regarding make up ciara did her own and wanted a natural look and the nails were from the night before lol she just wanted a picture but i wanted to experiment, but i do intend to do alot more stuff like this for paying clients so i need the lighting to b perfect :) just need practice now.
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Judges should be quite good at seeing beyond the image to know if the girl is right for what they want. And so much depends on things you don't know, like do they want blonde or dark, long or short hair, what other girls on their shortlist are like, that sort of thing.

One thing though, if she has a good figure it might be nice to show a 3/4 length. They perhaps just asked for a head shot, but unless it's specifically excluded I'd throw one of those in rather than another head shot.

On the too many lights thing, and re your point about the black ceiling, good lighting is about creating both highlights and shadows to show shape. And with that in mind, good light modifiers and studio technique is not just about putting the right kind of light where you want it, but also keeping it away from where you don't want it.

That doesn't mean that multiple lights is a bad thing, just build them up one at a time. I like to treat different areas as separate subjects, eg face is the main subject obviously, hair might be a second, background a third. And each of those areas might have more than one light on them, but always start with one and take it from there.
 
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