Help! ...Portraits

weephillie

weephillie

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Name
Phil Monk
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I want to try my hand at portraits. I want to set up a 'studio' at home whilst I experiment with some subjects.

My problem is; I don't have any special lighting. Does anyone have any suggestions to what 'household' lights may work well. I would like to light my homemade backdrop as well as my subject.

Also, where would be the best place to potition the lighting. Does anyone have a diagram of a 'beginners' set up?

Over to you, wise ones!
 
Thanks, I'll have a read through those. Any more tips would be welcome!
 
For my first portraits as seen HERE I used 2xA2 pieces of card mounted on a board for the backdrop.

As well as having a reflector, I also used an A2 piece of white card to reflect light back onto the model.

I would suggest placing your set up by a large window, or somewhere where there is a lot of light so you could simply use natural light for the photos.

I did have a flash and an umbrella, but you could do all of the above and achieve decent results... Just have to wait for a nice sunny day..

There was good section about this in DSLR User Magazine last month where they showed how to go about taking portraits.
 
xSitara™;1323045 said:
I'm really surprised that no one else has posted any information.
Click to expand...

So am I. I'm sat here with my bed sheet and some table lamps wondering if it's really gonna work! :)
 
I was actually looking forward to some more info, i mean no one has actually stated whether it's possible to use stuff at home rather than purchase professional photography equipment. Hhhmm!
 
weephillie said:
I want to try my hand at portraits. I want to set up a 'studio' at home whilst I experiment with some subjects.

My problem is; I don't have any special lighting. Does anyone have any suggestions to what 'household' lights may work well. I would like to light my homemade backdrop as well as my subject.

Also, where would be the best place to potition the lighting. Does anyone have a diagram of a 'beginners' set up?

Over to you, wise ones!
Click to expand...


:shrug:
what lights will you be using ? desk lamps . main lights in room . halogen lamps.

what room have you got to work in ..?
what lens will you be using ..

what are you looking to get..?

full frame shots of people . head and shoulders shots? head shots.

just a few pointers..

also i feek your best bet is to try something yourself :nuts: then post up what you got and go from there you will get alot more help

as in " i was trying to get this shot!! and ended up with this :puke: anyone help"

just imo


md:wave:
 
Do you want to take high key (zarias.com) or mid/ low key shots?

If you have no lighting then a big window/ French doors and a reflector (something big and white or silver) will help you take some portraits using natural light, but it depends what you're you're trying to achieve.
 
MD is right, more info helps people to give more useful answers.

Starting point - studio flash is by far your best option.
Second best is hotshoe flash, off camera. A bit limited but you can get pretty good results with it. It's just more fiddly, more trial and error required.
If you don't have either of the above then natural light through a window can produce excellent results too, using a piece of white card or any other material to reflect light on to the dark side if required. You could hang a white sheet over the window to diffuse the light if necessary (you might want to if direct sunlight is coming into the room.

The correct position of any light is whatever works, in other words, position it where it produces the effect you want. Forget about lighting setups and be creative.

Household lamps etc are simply far too low powered, use one of the suggestions above.
 
Weephillie, I'd just use available light from the window as a starting point. Some of the best portraiture I've seen is the stuff using available sunlight, diffused by a net curtain. The you can make yourself a reflector from some card with crumpled foil wrapped arodn it, just to soften any shadows. Shoot in black & white and you'll have no colour cast issues.
 
You can accomplish a lot with hot shoe flashes.

All the pics in this thread used only Nikon strobes. Once you're experienced with the equipment it's not fiddly at all.

Natural light, a nifty fifty (50mm/1.8) and a reflector are a great - and very cheap - way to get great portraits, I'd start with that, find out what type of portraits work for you then buy lighting stuff accordingly.
 
rdh said:
You can accomplish a lot with hot shoe flashes.

All the pics in this thread used only Nikon strobes. Once you're experienced with the equipment it's not fiddly at all.

Natural light, a nifty fifty (50mm/1.8) and a reflector are a great - and very cheap - way to get great portraits, I'd start with that, find out what type of portraits work for you then buy lighting stuff accordingly.
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To be fair you have over £1000 worth of flashes and accesories to light those images, the OP from what I can make out wants to do it on a budget.
 
weephillie said:
I want to try my hand at portraits. I want to set up a 'studio' at home whilst I experiment with some subjects.

My problem is; I don't have any special lighting. Does anyone have any suggestions to what 'household' lights may work well. I would like to light my homemade backdrop as well as my subject.

Also, where would be the best place to potition the lighting. Does anyone have a diagram of a 'beginners' set up?

Over to you, wise ones!
Click to expand...


Try them out and see how they come out, as others have said once an image is posted people will help you improve it.
 
..MD.. said:
:shrug:
what lights will you be using ? desk lamps . main lights in room . halogen lamps.

what room have you got to work in ..?
what lens will you be using ..

what are you looking to get..?

full frame shots of people . head and shoulders shots? head shots.

just a few pointers..

also i feek your best bet is to try something yourself :nuts: then post up what you got and go from there you will get alot more help

as in " i was trying to get this shot!! and ended up with this :puke: anyone help"

just imo


md:wave:
Click to expand...



Yup - post an attempt - however 'poor' in your opinion so we can add a comment

Best way to learn IMHO

DD
 
Thanks for all the helpful comments.

As I dont even have a flash other than the camera's own pop up, I am going to have to play around and see what I can acheive. I have got some halogen floods to light a white background to try and create a high key shot. I'll post my efforts when I get that set up.

However, as I couldn't wait to have a go, I took the advice of jayeshpp and just sat my daughter in front of the window. I just experimented with different angles and was amazed with the results. I am posting what I think is the best shot. I made it B&W and altered the levels in PS.

I would be interested to hear your comments. I like it but I'm sure the pro's will see it's flaws.

3293770082_a76d3ce637.jpg
 
Good effort if cropped a little tightly. This type of lighting without the use of a reflector is usually more suited to masculine subjects, but that is not to say it should be solely confined to them.

You may have found the image even more pleasing if you had relected just a little more light back into the darker side of the face using something as simple as a piece of white card would have done.

Photography is all about painting with light, and as you practise more and more you will find out what works for you and what doesn't. When you find something that works, try to adapt it to further improve the image and you will soon be producing outstanding hopefully unique images.
 
Yes it is a nice photo but i agree its cropped to tight & needs a little more light on the left side of the face,but very well done.:)
 
I agree that the dark side needs a little more light. I will try a reflector next time. I don't know if there is a right or wrong way to crop and how close you can get in. I must admit I like the close crop, but then again I'm just a novice!
 
I think seeing the whole head would have been better,but its trial & error.:)
 
I think should mostly foget the comments about the crop as it really is a matter of personal preference. Best to work on the light and the suggestion to use some form of white card to reflect some light back on the lft of her face would make quite a difference.
Good shot if this is your first effort.
 
Glad the advice helped :)

If you dont already have a reflector, you could make one really easy using cardboard and tin foil, that will be very effective to reflect the light back onto the subject.

You can also stick a diffuser onto the built in flash to use as some fill in light, but it needs to be diffused well as it tends to look quite harsh if its bare.
 
I've had another go at this portrait lark and here are couple of my efforts. I'm still very new to it and would be grateful for any tips on where I may be going wrong.

The 'high-key' one was difficult trying to get the background totally white. I lit the background (a white sheet) with a halogen lamp. I then over exposed it until it bleached the background out. I don't know if this is the correct way to do it. I used my pop-up flash (as I don't have any other) on half power.

The B&W photo was taken in front of the window but this time I used a reflector. I then cropped it down.

3328079641_f3416d1b9b.jpg


3328079877_a87456de30.jpg
 
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