Heh, yeah.. outside I'd have space, but during daytime too much ambient light (except in the garage, but that's reserved for a car... stupid cars ). Right now my "setup" is a backdrop cloth on a stand meant for hanging coat hangers from, and a tiny bedside table onto which the cloth also comes. "Reflectors" are basically the white walls of the room. Since I don't have a softbox, I just fired the flash on the opposite direction from the subject, to get the lighting to be something other than very harsh. Since the room is basically white, the light bounces all over the place (who needs umbrellas etc anyway). I'm too embarrassed to post a shot of the setup at least for now...
Here's a "before" shot (already posted this in another thread) with "direct" flash on a tripod from left and up, with only a white cloth put between the subject and the flash:
Here's the current situation, with the flash ("mounted" on a piece fitness equipment, since two beds and fitness equipment take up that room, haha, and I don't even have an actual stand for the flash!) fired from the subject's elevation level in the opposite direction and the white cloth used to suppress unclean lens reflections:
At least the light is indeed softer, and therefore there's no glaring hotspots on the Rolleiflex. I'm actually starting to be pleased with this shot. To get more satisfaction, I'd need a velvet background to absorb more light to get it black, and I'd need to clean up the camera a bit, in larger size there are some dust specks etc. Any of you experienced fellows have any tips on improving this shot (except for telling me to get proper studio equipment )?
not to take the thread on a total tangent but why do you remove all character from her face? unless there was something seriously wrong with the original image and how it presented here to me it looks like you got rid of all her freckles/changed the skin tone.
Phew, finally read all the pages Gotta admit, only glanced through some of the postings. And too bad so many of the older images were missing. And too bad I can't afford all the equipment...
Ah, finally I got just about the result I wanted with the Rolleiflex with the hood up. Had some trouble getting light evenly on the hood as well as the rest of the body. Man, these lighting things can be tricky, especially when you have to make do with makeshift gear! I ended up building a "softbox" out of styrofoam - or whatever its called in English - blocks and a white cloth, and had another styrofoam piece as a reflector. Such a high-tech setup, heheh. Well, at least it did diffuse the flash's light decently. Still not as good light distribution as in the closed hood shot, though. Need to adjust the "reflector", I suppose.
I guess I'll post a shot of the setup soon, I guess I owe it to all the helpful people here, so they can get their chuckle out of it
Anyway, here's the result after over 40 shots:
No post processing except auto levels to brighten up the bright parts slightly - and obviously made the frames Any suggestions on how to improve this? I'm having a bit of trouble getting non-distracting lens reflections (not in this version though), dunno how to overcome that properly. And I'm sorry I keep posting these Rolleiflex shots, but I gotta get these perfect before I can properly concentrate on other items
I'd really need to move my comp to the other room so I could shoot tethered, but that's a no-go since it's not even my room - will have to disassemble the setup for the weekend, too And I just sold the spare computer with USB that we had, crap...
Tom Boucher wrote:
not to take the thread on a total tangent but why do you remove all character from her face? unless there was something seriously wrong with the original image and how it presented here to me it looks like you got rid of all her freckles/changed the skin tone.
I don't want to take this thread too far offtopic - would hate to be frowned upon.
The original had a lot of magenta coming through in both the skin and hair, I evened that out to a more natural hue and removed a couple of skin bleminshes - then generally softened the skin up and sharpened the eyes and lips as the original was a little soft all round.
If you touch up an image then I think you should post what you did so that the others in the forum would learn from it. And as others have said, there are plenty of resources here on how to do that.
Ok, here goes This is basically the setup used to take the shot in my previous post above. Some changes, but the same elements. The "backdrop" is hung on a clothing rack. The "softbox" has styrofoam sides and top, with the other end being covered by white cloth and a white T-shirt for diffusion. Another styrofoam acts as a reflector.
Here's a closer shot. Shows the cloths on the "softbox", as well as another dumbbell (as mentioned earlier, the room holds amongst other things some fitness equipment) holding the cloth in place a bit better, so it does not fold.
One last shot, showing the Interfit Colorflash 300i (supposedly 300Ws) unit shooting inside the "softbox" Also I'm sure you'll notice the rather silly attachment to my Manfrotto 719B Digi tripod. I don't have an actual light stand, so I had to screw it on a regular tripod as well as I could
Here's an output of that exact setup.
Aw, c'mon, at least it's from a different angle
Anyways, this is about as good as I can seem to get for now, with these makeshift stuffs. Bummer. And if this is a funny setup, it's nothing compared to how I did the shot with the Rolleiflex having the viewing hood down
Oh, and in case someone wants to know, this shot had flash at full power, ISO 200, 1/250, f13. Previous shot was the same, except f11, and I think the "softbox" was a bit farther away, and the shirt held by hand closer to the camera instead of being "integrated" on the "softbox".
Not only is retouching an image frowned upon with out permision, you need a serious monitor calibration. You added a nice green hue to the whole thing.
j.curtis wrote:
Not only is retouching an image frowned upon with out permision, you need a serious monitor calibration. You added a nice green hue to the whole thing.
I think it might be your monitor that needs help, mate. The image looks fine on my 20" Apple Cinema Display (recently colour calibrated) in my design studio.
mizuno wrote:
I think it might be your monitor that needs help, mate. The image looks fine on my 20" Apple Cinema Display (recently colour calibrated) in my design studio.
Shouldn't this be a studio thread and not a discussion on a retouched image?
j.curtis wrote:
Not only is retouching an image frowned upon with out permision, you need a serious monitor calibration. You added a nice green hue to the whole thing.
....colour regardless, it's over-cooked with either a gaussian blur layer, skin retouching technique, or something. It gave the skin a 'bruised fruit' look.
Yeah, and don't always unnecessarily include all the images from the previous posting, only makes for unnecessary scrolling and clutters the topic.
And with the mention of topic, to keep this thing even somewhat on topic, will have to see at some point during today or tomorrow if I can get any useful results with my makeshift stuff when I'll most likely try a few shots of my niece - who is a bit over two years old - at some point, if she'll cooperate Already taken a lot of outdoor shots and such of her today, including a full roll with the Rolleiflex, but "studio" shots still missing
Teppo wrote:
Ah, finally I got just about the result I wanted with the Rolleiflex with the hood up. Had some trouble getting light evenly on the hood as well as the rest of the body. Man, these lighting things can be tricky, especially when you have to make do with makeshift gear! I ended up building a "softbox" out of styrofoam - or whatever its called in English - blocks and a white cloth, and had another styrofoam piece as a reflector. Such a high-tech setup, heheh
To help get this thread back on topic..
I love the resulting Rollei shots, excellent work with the materials you had on hand.. When you have a pro lighting setup you're going to be dangerous
Keep up the good work, it'll help inspire people to macguyver a solution from whatever they have to hand.
We have placed a little teaser on the website in the format of an instructional video.
surf to www.doorhof.nl and go to the backstage area there you will find the video.
A professional filmed DVD is at the moment in progress, we hope to release that in 2005.
). Right now my "setup" is a backdrop cloth on a stand meant for hanging coat hangers from, and a tiny bedside table onto which the cloth also comes. "Reflectors" are basically the white walls of the room. Since I don't have a softbox, I just fired the flash on the opposite direction from the subject, to get the lighting to be something other than very harsh. Since the room is basically white, the light bounces all over the place (who needs umbrellas etc anyway). I'm too embarrassed to post a shot of the setup at least for now... 
