Victoria - First shoot with studio lights

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62
Name
Jezz
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all, got an entry level 2 head studio kit few weeks ago and had a proper go with it last night, studio lighting is all very new to me so i have a lot to leard, anyway here are a couple from last night, any help with the lighting and composition greatly appreciated
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Anybody? lol
 
Thankyou :)
 
I got the interfit ex150 kit, only 150w heads but more than enough for a home studio, havent had to use them over half power yet even in a dark room
 
Interesting... I'm currently looking at studio kits, may have to revise my choices.

I look forward to seeing more of your shots :)
 
Thanks, i will post up more shots as i do them :)
 
A mentioned nice start... have you carried out skin smoothing on these... it looks as if you might have been a little excessive, to my eye. but that is just my opinion, I am sure you will get some better crit from people who use lighting all the time.

Cheers

Nigel
 
Thankyou Shutterman, yes i have done some skin smoothing using the adjustment brush in Lightroom, it seems to work well, although now looking at them, i agree maybe the 3rd shot is a little overdone, need to practice making it look a little more realistic!
 
Thankyou Shutterman, yes i have done some skin smoothing using the adjustment brush in Lightroom, it seems to work well, although now looking at them, i agree maybe the 3rd shot is a little overdone, need to practice making it look a little more realistic!

Which method did you use, was it using clarity and taking it in to the negative value to reduce the detail in the skin.

Or was it some other method.

Regards

Nigel
 
Yes i'm pretty sure it just reduces the clarity of the area you select with the brush, it has a preset for soften-skin so i use that
 
You have CS4.. why don't you do the skin-smoothing in there on a seperate layer and masking bits out??

I like these though.. but as mentioned above, there's something not right about the skin softening.
 
I have never done skin smoothing in PS, as i have only just started shooting portraits i have not done any skin smoothing really so just used the preset skin smoothing in lightroom :) what would you use for skin smoothing in cs4?
 
Well I have cs3, and to cut a reasonably long process short, I duplicate the layer, and on the new layer go filter>blur>surface blur, then looking at the settings I have now, although they may be quite intense, set the radius to around 50% or less with a threshold of 82. then set a layermask on the same layer, fill with black and then switch to a white brush with smooth edges and paint over the skin. if you go over the edges or anything, press 'x' to switch back to black and paint over the mistake. Try and avoid fully painting over lips, the line between chin and next, where the end of the nose meets the face.. etc etc. When your mask is done, right click of the mask in the layers palette and select 'apply layer mask'. Once you've done this, you might need to adjust the curves to make the layer slightly lighter, and set the opacity of the layer to 50% or lower.
 
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Thanks Louise i will have a play with that method :)
 
Thanks RHD, always shoot raw so will have a play with the wb in lightroom :)
 
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