cgardner
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Dedicated FM
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 p.1 #2 · First try with white seamless | |
Petty good overall. The exposures aren't consistent shot to shot. Some the background is just under clipping which is ideal, in others its blown out which really isn't necessary perceptually and just exacerbates the flare problem.
The toy shots look OK but its difficult to have any frame of reference for "normal" The kids look underexposed. Here's one I looked at in PS and corrected with screen (to lighten) and soft light (to add contrast) adjustment layers.
There is very nice natural modeling on the boy's face with highlights and shadow in the natural places - highlights on raised surfaces / shadows on lower ones but it looks flatter in the shots of the with girl. He was looking up into the light more than, she was.
A meter is great for setting ratios and exposures set, but best tool I've found for tweeking exposure, especially on white backgrounds, is the clipping warning in the camera playback. I set my foreground lights first with the background off putting a stand with a target containing a white towel to judge the point of clipping in the camera playback. I raise exposure to the point the towel, placed where the face will be, begins to clip.
Then I bring up the background lights. For that session I was using a hair light on the right, which was set 1/3 stop below clipping on the towel, then everything else was keyed visually to it so there would be separation between the rim light and the white background. The background actually needs to be quite a bit darker than 255 to pull that white-on-white of perceptually but the brain tunes on the background keys off the brighter tone in the foreground. If the background is 255 it makes any whites in the foreground duller by comparison.
Setting foreground then bringing up the background also makes is much easier to spot the effects of flare by comparison of the before and after test images. The eye becomes a poor judge of exposure and contrast when exposed to bright light, but the over exposure warning will objectively reveal when and exactly where clipping is occurring and whether the light on the background is even. Using the target keeps the subject from getting impatient. While the photographer is futzing with lights and lens they can be relaxing or doing final touch-ups. Remove target, insert face, start capturing perfectly exposed shots 
Chuck
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