You will have to excuse my ignorence when I ask this, but is it possible that JohnE and dennsyb could possibly let us know what ratios they have their flash strobes at for some of their shots and the distance they put the light source for the effects they are after. And if relevant the Fstop.
Matt
Check out JohnE's post in page 41. The ratio for the lights are marked on the images. The f-stop is extreme relevant because it dictates the ratio (difference) between seperate lights. HERES a link to a short article explaining some about ratios.
Thanks. I must have overlooked JohnE's layout for one of his shoots on page 41. The link was helpful as well.
Time to get back into the studio and play some more. Im yet to find a willing model to pratice on, so at the moment the 20D is on timer and I'm the photographer and model in one. haha.
JohnE:
Thanks for the comment. Your studio and setup rocks too.
My studio/home has 22 ft ceilings and 180 degrees of natural light.
J.A.F Doorhof:
Don't look too hard for the background. My partner Robert L. and I actually designed and built it ourselves. It was basically a 4x8ft "best tile" board. We first created a template with two rows of holes and repeatedly routered the pattern onto the board. We then lined the holes with plastic rings to give it dimension and a sleeker look.
OliverSilk: Thanks for the kind words.
Here's my set-up for that shoot: Fill AB1600=Full, Main AB1600=Half, Hair AB800=Between 1/2 and Full, and Background AB400=Half
Here's two pictures of the background been made. It was taken with my camera phone. Hehe....
Finally finished the studio for portrait work (product stuff has been going on for a few weeks now).
Here it was a few weeks ago with the free standing backdrop support. I wasn't happy with it as the stands were easy to trip over and they couldn't support the weight of an expan system for papers. In addition, because of the shape of the room and the suspended ceiling, just bolting a set of expan hooks to a wall or ceiling was going to be difficult:
So, I got a friend to make up a support system in steel (satin black powder coated) for me that is free standing (bolted to the floor). This works really well and is very stable. Easily strong enough to hang heavy vinyls from as well but I currently just have three paper rolls on a expan system.
As you can see, I've also hung some black polycotton material on the side walls to cut down on bounce flash affecting shots. It can be easily taken down if required as it is only velcro'ed to the wall.
Very nice Ian you certainly have done alot to the new studio from what it once was.
Im in the process of converting half of my long loungeroom into my first studio. Are your backdrop screens 8 foot wide and what is the make of the backdrop stand you have there?
Also with the white backdrops what type of white do you go for.
razo wrote:
JohnE:
Thanks for the comment. Your studio and setup rocks too.
My studio/home has 22 ft ceilings and 180 degrees of natural light.
Wow 22' ceilings and all that natural light. Nice. I'm impressed with your efforts with planning your shots. That's quite a bit of work into that background. Kudo's. Thanks for sharing.
matt1975 wrote:
Are your backdrop screens 8 foot wide and what is the make of the backdrop stand you have there?
Also with the white backdrops what type of white do you go for.
Thanks
Matt
Hi Matt,
The original back drop system is simly a pair of stands and a cross pole. No makers name on them and I picked them up 2nd hand and cheap The backdrop cloths came with it and were (IIRC) 8 foot wide and 8 foot long. In the first shot, I have just the black one there. Sorry, again, no makers name on the cloths.
Hope I understood what you asked.
Chris Anderson wrote:
Ian where did you get the black curtain material and hangers?
C
I bought a 25 metre roll of black polycotton "sheeting" (same material used for bed sheets) for £60. The actual material is 2.28 metres wide. So I got the missus to get the sewing machine out and she joined two lengths together to make a 4.56 metre wide single piece of material (in my case is 3.28 metres tall). She then hemmed the bottom and at the same time added a small amount of lead weight to stop is blowing about when the wind machine is on.
Next she hemmed the top but also sewed on some "hook and loop" (Velcro). The "hook" side went on the curtain. The curtains are actually attached to the heating pipes the circle the room. I simply stuck on the "loop" (sticky backed) onto the heating pipes but only 3 metre length.
I then hung the curtain (very light in weight) directly onto the pipes. As the curtain is 50% wider than the sticky "loop" you have to bunch it up as you stick it up. This gives the curtain like effect, rather than just having a flat sheet of cloth.
The whole lot above was done twice (obviously) for each side of the room.
Now it has been up a few days, the creases have falen out and it looks even neater. I can take it down in about ten seconds.
So materials are:
1. Polycotton sheeting material in black, although I guess grey would work.
2. Sew-On velcro "hook" (in black to match material)
3. Stick-On velcro "loop" (in white to match water pipes when curtain isn't up)
4. Some small lead weights, looks like shot (supplied by curtain makers)
5. Understanding woman who will do some sewing for you.
Please help me understand something about metering.
I've read here to set the camera for the main light. Let's say you meter your main light to f11 at 1/250 then meter the rest of your lights to whatever ratio you desire. Do you again meter firing all lights and set you camera to that final meter reading? With all lights I would guess the reading of the main light alone would result in an overexposed picture if that's where your camera was set. Or do you set your lights such that the final meter reading with all lights will result in a reading of f/11 at 1/250?
Thanks for helping a noob. Next weekend I will be practicing on my niece before her high school prom so I hope to have some setup pictures to add to this great thread. By the way, if you haven't noticed this thread has 550+ posts, 185,000+ reads and when I switch to print view it would have been 300+ printed pages!
It's a Giant Softbox (30" x 60") with Rotating Speedring from Alien Bees.
How do you like it? I am starting with a small kit in my living room 11x14 and will eventually move into a finished basement 14x18 and will be doing some portraits, some full body others just waist up and nexk up and need a softbox. I wanted an Westcott Apollo Mono, but can;t swing the $140 + $20 for reflector now, but as I just got my light I can get 20% off the AB stuff still, so I was thinking of getting either the large or giat SB from AB for now and eventually adding the Apollo later on. Many say the AB SB does nto hold up, I don't plan on tearing it up/down frequently but still don't want a flimsy SB.
.
The backdrop cloths came with it and were (IIRC) 8 foot wide and 8 foot long. In the first shot, I have just the black one there. Sorry, again, no makers name on the cloths.