1st Studio Shoots CC Please

[jstpeter]

Would love some good honest critiques and have 1 question on set up. I have done some reading and studied lots of work on this forum and decided this year I would set up a makeshift home studio in the garage and practice with some friend's children. Over the weekend I shot three children for Chirtmas cards. I enjoyed it and the parents were very happy, but would love to hear from you all since this is my first venture into studio portraits. Everything prior was outside or sports related.

Set up:
White Muslin sheet,Softbox right, Umbrella flash/model lamp left, makeshift hair light above, silver reflector below, Lens 70/200 IS
Question: How do you get your camera to recognize you are set up with an external flash. It does not read in the camera and so I had to manually trick the camera when setting Fstops and shutter speeds. As you can see the EXIF data shows no flash fired. I was connected via a sync cable

Sample Photos
F11 1/125


F9 1/125


F9 1/125


And since I could not resist I tried my hand at a HDR portrait as well!

[epoh]

Question: How do you get your camera to recognize you are set up with an external flash. It does not read in the camera and so I had to manually trick the camera when setting Fstops and shutter speeds. As you can see the EXIF data shows no flash fired. I was connected via a sync cable

What do you mean by this? How do you get the metering right? If that's the question you either need a hand-held meter, or you just have to play with the settings a bit to find the correct exposure.

I'm on my laptop which does not have a very good display, so I can't comment much on the exposures or colors, but some of the pictures (1 & 4) seem too hot on one side. And in 2 is looks like it could have used a little more light reflected back up on the bottom right.

ETA: You got some great expressions out of the kids! I think many would argue that's harder than learning the technical stuff. :)

[JohnT]

Need some fill on their left side in 1, 2, & 4. The wrinkled background is distracting. Watch your WB; the white looks pink.

Cute kids with nice expressions. Keep shooting!

[jstpeter]

Thanks!

Epoh, the question probably shows my newness to the in studio meetering thing. I am used to the "in camera metering" while the flash is on the hotshoe. With it off camera I had to manually set all settings to get proper exposure. I guess this would be what the meter would do.

John T - Question on the fill on the subject left side. Can this be achieved by moving the reflector camera right to bounce the flash or do I need a second strobe? I found with the softbox on the left the flash overpowered the light from the softbox still giving some shadow. My intent with the reflector below was to bounce light into the eyes.

Backdrop - I read several threads about seemless backdrops - and I guess the correct way is to use a paper instead of the muslin sheet, or is there a better option? Can you meter to just overexpose the backdrop to give more of a seemless backdrop

FYI # 4 most lighting is post process via HDR technique.

[epoh]

Originally Posted by jstpeter

Thanks!

Epoh, the question probably shows my newness to the in studio meetering thing. I am used to the "in camera metering" while the flash is on the hotshoe. With it off camera I had to manually set all settings to get proper exposure. I guess this would be what the meter would do.

John T - Question on the fill on the subject left side. Can this be achieved by moving the reflector camera right to bounce the flash or do I need a second strobe? I found with the softbox on the left the flash overpowered the light from the softbox still giving some shadow. My intent with the reflector below was to bounce light into the eyes.

Backdrop - I read several threads about seemless backdrops - and I guess the correct way is to use a paper instead of the muslin sheet, or is there a better option? Can you meter to just overexpose the backdrop to give more of a seemless backdrop

FYI # 4 most lighting is post process via HDR technique.

If you are using off-camera lighting and/or multiple light sources, a meter is probably your best bet. If you don't have one, you just have to take some time up front (and throughout the shoot) to make sure you are getting the right exposure. Be sure the histogram is as big as you can make it in the playback.

If you are wanting the background totally white, and the subject evenly lit, you really need at least 2 light sources and a reflector. 1 light for the background, 1 light for the subject and a reflector for the other side of the subject for even lighting.

Another option is to make use of some sunlight. If you are shooting indoors, setup near a window and use that to light your subject and your flash for the backdrop. Diffused sunlight is about the best light you can come by. :)

[CaptainTom]

I ALWAYS recommend to newbies ( no offense ) in the studio to KISS (keep it simple stupid).
Start with one light and shoot with it until you get the best results you can get. Then add a reflector or another light and start all over again.

The wrinkled background is distracting. Three ways to solve it. 1- iron 2-shoot with a shallower DOF 3- move your subject farther away from the background.
problem with #1 is it's a lot of work and will show wrinkles anyway
problem with #2 is you have to understand DOF and be able to calculate it for best results.
problem with # 3 is if you have a small room, you're stuck, and if you move away you will have a color change on the background unless you light it.

learn about aperture vs. DOF ... it will work for you in every kind of photography.

[jstpeter]

Amy, Tom

Thanks for the feedback. Having started with sports photography the DOF and aperture thing had only 1 speed for me WIDE OPEN! So now I must get a better understanding and learn the subtle difference between my Fstops. Sounds like I should have stopped these down a few. I think my lighting problems was forgeting to light the backdrop from what you all have told me. I had a flash a softbox a hair light and reflector all on the subject and nothing on the backdrop.

[CaptainTom]

With your setup I'd shoot with the softbox as my main light, the reflector for fill, and the flash on the background. Move them around and adjust their power as needed.

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

With your setup I'd shoot with the softbox as my main light, the reflector for fill, and the flash on the background. Move them around and adjust their power as needed.

Exactly what I was going to suggest.

[dtscds]

You are much braver than I for giving it a go with kids as your first try!
The C&C you are getting is, as Amy said, just the technical stuff. You really got it right with the expressions and posing. I am not 100% crazy about #2 but the rest are MONEY IN THE BANK!

[jstpeter]

CD,

I think I would rather photograph children then adults:) I think sports photography helps me here. Shooting kids is the same, in that most of the time you give little to no instruction on posing and rely on capturing the action as you see it. Having their mom do something silly behind you always helps. Then it is just about capturing the peak action as in sports! And they don't care if their hair is out of place or they have drool coming down their lip! Of course I have not dealt with parents yet that were not friends! could be a different story on if they care or not, and by the way thanks for the nice words about the shots.

[epoh]

Definitely move your hair light so it's a backdrop light. Play around with the positioning of the lights and the power levels until you have no shadows on the backdrop and even lighting on the subject. Teddy bears and Dolls make decent stand-ins. ;)

[jstpeter]

Teddy bears and Dolls make decent stand-ins. ;)

Too funny, getting ready for these kids I probably took 300 shots of a stuffed longhorn on a plant stand. If someone walked in and saw me they would have thought I was crazy! The Longhorn was easier to follow however.