Registered: Nov 18, 2002
Total Posts: 8543
Country: United States
The best approach for Santa shots is to copy the way its done at the shopping Mall where you always see the same set-up: a single flash with a small SB a few feet above the camera. It's not great lighting in the sense of creating dramatic modeling, but accomplishes the most important goals of seeing the faces in the photo clearly with light in the eyes and no distracting nose shadow even if the face isn't square to the camera.
Natural light comes from above, creating downwards modeling on the face with highlight and shadow so for a natural look in artificial light its necessary to raise the key light above the head of the subject. A tripod is too low to that as a substitute for a light stand.
Here's what I suggest. Make a diffuser as shown here: LINK Material isn't critical, a couple of sheets of photo paper and staples will work fine.
Just put the flash on the camera , or on a bracket above it if you have one, and when shooting, stand on a stool or chair. That will raise the POV of the camera and put the top of the diffuser near the ceiling where you will get a nice mix of forward light from a downward angle from the diffuser, and bounced fill off the ceiling from the spill. That's the technique I used to take this shot with single flash:
Note the highlight pattern on the face? That's the modeling resulting from the downward angle and centered alignment of the light to the face. That "mask" pattern of highlight is what tells the brain the pattern of contrast it sees in a 2D photo represents a 3D face.
The contrast pattern dynamic works identically on a perceptual level -- highlights are perceived to define the raised areas, shadows the lower -- whether the object is a face or a rock. But with a face you have the added consideration of eye contact so check and make sure there is light in the eyes (i.e. catchlights) and the nose shadow isn't causing a distraction. Those two things, plus a good expression on the face, are about 90% of what goes into making an effective portrait in a "photo w. Santa" situation.
Chuck
