Last night Lewdog and I made another attempt to better understand how lighting works.
I spent the week reading Chucks tutorials, so we used his white towell methoid to set the powers on camera and lights.
We used the main flash/umbrella (430 ex) at the 45 deg angel and high. We set the fill flash (580ex) on a stool with a home made light diffuser (http://super.nova.org/DPR/DIY01/) on it next to the camera. The camera was on a tripod.
In the people section it was suggested to put the fill flash higher (need to invest in a second stand).
Where should the fill flash be in relationship to the camera?
This was our results.
Also, I would like to add ambient light to the room to get the pupils to constrict.
What type of light will accomplish this?
Will adding incandescent light bleed into our shots?
Thank You.
Ken.
Glad you found the tutorials helpful. I'm preaching to the choir here , but it looks like you've mastered the basics of correct exposure and lighting which models the face naturally without any harsh distracting shadows. If anything I find the shadows a bit dark for girl her age and would suggest trying a bit more fill. Its tough to pose a kid that young but with your older subjects start the process by trying to find the most flattering precise, balanced facial angle before setting the lights.
As for fill position I suggest putting the fill directly over the camera so its catchlight falls near the center of the pupil (easy to retouch out that way). A camera-flip bracket does that job nicely. The Stroboframe brackets have a tripod socket on the bottom. An educational experiment is to set-up and shoot with neutral fill, and then without changing anything else rotate the fill around to the shadow side in 15 degree increments, keeping it the same distance from the bridge of the nose (use a string to measure distance). That will allow you to visualize what happens to the modeling of the face created by the key light. As the fill moves back behind the tip of the nose you'll find the cheek on the shadow side will behind to shade it and dark unfilled voids will appear in the smile lines, corners of mouth, etc. The exercise will train your eye to see them. Also helpful during that same exercise is to turn the key light off and shoot with just the fill in each position. That will help you to visualize what the fill is covering and where its shadows fall when it isn't centered. An hour of systematic testing like that is worth a month of trial and error discoveries.
Dilate is wider open, so I think you mean constrict. Something I've noticed with kids is that their eyes seem to dilate more than adults in the same light. To get the pupils to constrict you can also shine light on the wall your subject is looking at. But if you shoot at 1/160th to 1/250th normal room lighting should create normal pupils without affecting the color balance.
Look at the catchlights. The one for the main (top right) can go a bit higher. The fill which you say is from camera position seems to be on opposit side (bottom left). If it was on camera, then that catch light would have been in the center.
This is just my interpretation. Looking forward to what the experts have to say.
bobbyz wrote:
Look at the catchlights. The one for the main (top right) can go a bit higher. The fill which you say is from camera position seems to be on opposite side (bottom left). If it was on camera, then that catch light would have been in the center.
Yes it was on a bar stool next to(but lower than) the camera.
it looks like I need to invest in a bracket and a second light stand.
Chuck, where are these tutorials located at? I been doing some on EOS flash use over at the POTN site. I also been going through several of the lessons and activities at Strobist.
Michael White wrote:
Chuck, where are these tutorials located at? I been doing some on EOS flash use over at the POTN site. I also been going through several of the lessons and activities at Strobist.
Click on his www or go here. http://super.nova.org/DPR/
