Lighting critique welcomed

What were you trying to achieve?

Top thought from me is that I'd prefer eye contact. It's nice & sharp on the click through and you've got a good squinch going on :) Expression is very neutral though and doesn't engage me much - esp with the lack of eye contact. However if it's a lighting study - none of that matters.

You've filled in most of the shadow & there's no nasty shine, but your eyes are in a bit of shadow that I'd want to deal with somehow. Head tilt perhaps? Lifting the eyebrows maybe? It's a minor point. For me, the lighting is "ok". As in "it's not bad - but it doesn't do much for me". No moody shadows, no drama...
This again rotates back to what you were trying to achieve. Smooth lighting that fills most of the gaps? Success.

As always - please take what you like & leave the rest, and I am not a professional.
 
Cheers Ian,

Not bothered about how I look to be honest. More about the lighting.

I actually prefer the lighting on this one to when I use 2 large softboxes.

Thanks for replying.
 
Hi,

I think the light source may have been a little to high as the shadows under the eyes are quite obvious. Slightly lifting the head may help or maybe even pop a reflector under the subject to fill the unwanted shadows even if its subtle.

Also I think its missing catchlights in both eyes.

Love the shirt by the way!!
 
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It's a fine pic.. let's take that as read?

On to the picky stuff.. the lighting looks reasonably natural but it doesn't read quite 'right' - it's not clear which is the key, which is fill and which is accent light.

If the fill light was truly on the camera axis then you could turn it up a little to lift the shadows in the eyes sockets.

Apologies for banging my own trumpet again.. take a look at this if you haven't already:
https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/article-1-2-3-lights-for-portraits.127/

I've taken the liberty of 'enhancing' your pic to show what I mean..

You can see that the shadows of both eyebrows fall towards the nose. That makes your eyes look closer together than they really are.
The shadows of the cheeks near the nose fall in contradictory directions.
There is a probably a similar effect going on with the nose shadow falling in two directions at once. That's barely perceptible, but both of those together make the face look somewhat bulbous.


demo.jpg
 
Many thanks Simon for the comprehensive reply.

I'll give it another go. I only have 2 lights at the moment and no clamp to hold a reflector although I'm thinking of getting something for this task.

The fill light was 45 degrees to the right of me, are you suggesting a light on the camera plane (facing forwards) would be a better bet?

Actually I think I'll try just the one light with a reflector as then I'll be able to see what differences the angle of the reflector makes.

Again, thanks for the time taken to post.

Terry.
 
GreenNinja67 said:
Many thanks Simon for the comprehensive reply.

The fill light was 45 degrees to the right of me, are you suggesting a light on the camera plane (facing forwards) would be a better bet?
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly that.

If the fill source is huge - like a large white reflector extremely close in or the whole ceiling - then you can position it pretty much anywhere as it's not really casting any shadows. Any other fill needs to be on the lens axis. Then the extra shadows fall directly away from the camera & so can't be seen in shot.
 
Also I can see a little bit of a reflection on his forehead, so that should be avoided next time ideally. And whatever it takes to mitigate the chin (pose / less fill / black card?)
 
Like this thread the support given is most welcomed, as I am also confused as to why you have fill light above the camera.
Maybe I'm just confused with the names given to various lights.
When ever I play around with my speedlights I just use the one speedlight in a softbox with a reflector the opposite side. In my head that's a fill.
Am I wrong in thinking this way ?

@GreenNinja67 sorry for asking questions in your thread.

Fine selfie by the way. All I noticed was the lack of catchlights. Never new why they wasn't present but I know now.

Gaz
 
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