I did a shoot today for a couple of local swim relay teams. They won state, and one even set a record. Shoot went well, but I ran in to a snag. Their swim suits looked black and opaque to the eye, but under a flash they were clearly not. Thankfully they were reinforced in the right areas, but I had to do the swim suit portion in ambient light b/c of the issue.
I have seen this many times in red carpet photos of celebs. However, these girls weren't looking for publicity, but instead some commemorative photos. So my question to those who are more experienced with lighting - is there a way to diffuse the light such that it reduces/eliminates the describe effect on the clothing?
-Brian
BTW - these women are under the age of majority in my state, so I'm not going to be able to post pics to illustrate.
Being able see through the fabric a combination of camera and light angles relative to the lens axis. If you can't see it by eye and the flash reveals it, you might consider the difference between the angle of the natural light (downward) vs, where flash in the hot shoe comes from (lens level). As already suggested I think based on my experience shooting with bracket and flash 16" above the lens that raising the flash on a bracket so it hits at a more downward angle similar to what is seen by eye would probably help the situation.
If doing posed shots also angling the bodies to the camera and flash might also help. Pose the subjects so their back is to the "key" lighting (flash or natural light) then turn the heads back to face the camera. That pose, which works well for women, puts the front of their body in their own shadow. It's a posing strategy I'd use for brides (back when I shot weddings) or when a woman is wearing a low neckline and I want the attention on the face not the cleavage by putting the face in the spotlight and the body in the shadows.
Thanks for the tips. I had my key light in an umbrella about 8' up, angled down. My fill was in another umbrella at floor level, set low power to kill shadows. Maybe I should have tried to remove the fill which was the closest to in line with the camera?
The posing idea is a good one too. I'll have to experiment with doing that on groups of 4. I've done similar on single people and didn't think of it in this scenario. Do you think a different diffuser might work better?
