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Portrait
RockyNH 1st portrait attempt!
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<blockquote data-quote="STM" data-source="post: 121451" data-attributes="member: 12827"><p>Rocky I think the lighting in the very last ones are probably the best of all of them. The others have some more hard edged lighting with some less than flattering shadows. I would add a hair light to produce some highlights in the hair and provide some separation from the background. If you are using a ligher background, you should use a separate light there as well. Until you get a lot more experience, I would not use more than 4 lights, as things can get <em>very</em> complicated after that! When photographing someone who is older and has some lines on their face, the flatter and more even the lighting the better. I always get a good chuckle at the commercials on TV pitching beauty products touted to remove wrinkles and they show a "before and after" photo where the before has angled, direct lighting that shows every single pore and wrinkle and the after one which is very flat lighting which magically makes the 60 year old woman look like she's in her 30's. For this kind of shoot, having two strobes at 45 degrees to the model and angled about 30 degrees down works fine. If she wears glasses, as she did here, make sure you are not getting reflections of the lights in them, very bad form! Also, be careful of people who are far sighted as she is, as their lenses can actually form an out of focus image "hotspot" on the cheek. For someone with a smoother complexion, it is best to vary the light intensity of one strobe over the other to give some modeling. A 2:1 lighing ratio is usually pleasing but you can go higher depending on the subject and what you want to do with it. 2:1 means that the key light's intensity is twice (1 stop) brighter than the fill light. Always meter off your main, or key. light.</p><p></p><p>What kind of umbrellas are you using? Are they silver or white, opaque or translucent, square or rounded? The light characteristics of all of these can be VERY different. Silver umbrellas, though they may reflect more light, produce <em>much more </em>contrasty light and produce harder shadows. Translucent white ones, though they have a lot more in the way of light loss, will produce much softer light. I will sometimes shoot <em>THROUGH</em> a white umbrella rather than bounce the light off of it, depending on the effect I want to get. Shooting through actually gives a slightly softer effect. An umbrella, believe it or not, has a <strong><em>focal length</em></strong> just like a lens. In other words, being concave, it will actually focus light to a point based on the radius of curvature of the umbrella. The more concave, the closer the focal point will be from the umbrella, and vice versa. The closer the umbrella is to the subject, the further "out of focus" the light will be, and the softer the effect. Most people, when just starting out, get the impression that the farther away the umbrella is, the softer the light. In practice this is often <em>not</em> the case, and by moving the umbrella farther away all you do is reduce the amount of light reaching the subject by the inverse square law (when you double the distance you <em>quarter</em>, or -2 stops, the light). If you position the umbrella so that the subject is at the focal length, then the light will be the most focused and the shadows the most sharp. There is a formula to figure out what that distance is, but being a Microbiologist rather than a mathematician or physicist, I could honestly give a <em>rat's butt</em> about learning it. Shooting through a white umbrella eliminates this as the convex shape actually spreads the light out rather than focusing it. That is why it will produce a softer effect. </p><p></p><p>The informal portrait below was just such an occasion. It was a very hasty setup and I was really cramped for space so I chose to use one of my white umbrellas and just shoot a 150 WS head through it. The lighting is even and fairly soft. She was young and had a beautiful smooth and flawless complexion so I did not have to do much of anything with it.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://i1338.photobucket.com/albums/o690/photodotnet/traynese_zps958d4ab8.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>I had taken a portrait of my next door neighbor a few months back, who has what I call a "Rand McNally" face because of all the <em>lines</em> on it (don't tell her I said that!), but I can't find it right now. I used two lights in softboxes with a 1:1 lighting ratio and the light was very flattering. I really did not have to do much at all in the way of post processing on it and she was very pleased. If I can find it, I will post it as an example of how to handle people with older or ruddy complexions.</p><p></p><p>The key here is to just <em>keep shooting </em>and don't get discouraged if your first attempts will not be good enough to be used for a cover of<em> Vogue or Cosmo.</em> The more the better and digital, unlike film, is essentially free. Experience is always the best teacher and it is a real advantage to have digital because you can see the results nearly instantaneously. And keep them posting here so we can continue to beat you up and talk about you behind your back over them! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="STM, post: 121451, member: 12827"] Rocky I think the lighting in the very last ones are probably the best of all of them. The others have some more hard edged lighting with some less than flattering shadows. I would add a hair light to produce some highlights in the hair and provide some separation from the background. If you are using a ligher background, you should use a separate light there as well. Until you get a lot more experience, I would not use more than 4 lights, as things can get [I]very[/I] complicated after that! When photographing someone who is older and has some lines on their face, the flatter and more even the lighting the better. I always get a good chuckle at the commercials on TV pitching beauty products touted to remove wrinkles and they show a "before and after" photo where the before has angled, direct lighting that shows every single pore and wrinkle and the after one which is very flat lighting which magically makes the 60 year old woman look like she's in her 30's. For this kind of shoot, having two strobes at 45 degrees to the model and angled about 30 degrees down works fine. If she wears glasses, as she did here, make sure you are not getting reflections of the lights in them, very bad form! Also, be careful of people who are far sighted as she is, as their lenses can actually form an out of focus image "hotspot" on the cheek. For someone with a smoother complexion, it is best to vary the light intensity of one strobe over the other to give some modeling. A 2:1 lighing ratio is usually pleasing but you can go higher depending on the subject and what you want to do with it. 2:1 means that the key light's intensity is twice (1 stop) brighter than the fill light. Always meter off your main, or key. light. What kind of umbrellas are you using? Are they silver or white, opaque or translucent, square or rounded? The light characteristics of all of these can be VERY different. Silver umbrellas, though they may reflect more light, produce [I]much more [/I]contrasty light and produce harder shadows. Translucent white ones, though they have a lot more in the way of light loss, will produce much softer light. I will sometimes shoot [I]THROUGH[/I] a white umbrella rather than bounce the light off of it, depending on the effect I want to get. Shooting through actually gives a slightly softer effect. An umbrella, believe it or not, has a [B][I]focal length[/I][/B] just like a lens. In other words, being concave, it will actually focus light to a point based on the radius of curvature of the umbrella. The more concave, the closer the focal point will be from the umbrella, and vice versa. The closer the umbrella is to the subject, the further "out of focus" the light will be, and the softer the effect. Most people, when just starting out, get the impression that the farther away the umbrella is, the softer the light. In practice this is often [I]not[/I] the case, and by moving the umbrella farther away all you do is reduce the amount of light reaching the subject by the inverse square law (when you double the distance you [I]quarter[/I], or -2 stops, the light). If you position the umbrella so that the subject is at the focal length, then the light will be the most focused and the shadows the most sharp. There is a formula to figure out what that distance is, but being a Microbiologist rather than a mathematician or physicist, I could honestly give a [I]rat's butt[/I] about learning it. Shooting through a white umbrella eliminates this as the convex shape actually spreads the light out rather than focusing it. That is why it will produce a softer effect. The informal portrait below was just such an occasion. It was a very hasty setup and I was really cramped for space so I chose to use one of my white umbrellas and just shoot a 150 WS head through it. The lighting is even and fairly soft. She was young and had a beautiful smooth and flawless complexion so I did not have to do much of anything with it. [IMG]http://i1338.photobucket.com/albums/o690/photodotnet/traynese_zps958d4ab8.jpg[/IMG] I had taken a portrait of my next door neighbor a few months back, who has what I call a "Rand McNally" face because of all the [I]lines[/I] on it (don't tell her I said that!), but I can't find it right now. I used two lights in softboxes with a 1:1 lighting ratio and the light was very flattering. I really did not have to do much at all in the way of post processing on it and she was very pleased. If I can find it, I will post it as an example of how to handle people with older or ruddy complexions. The key here is to just [I]keep shooting [/I]and don't get discouraged if your first attempts will not be good enough to be used for a cover of[I] Vogue or Cosmo.[/I] The more the better and digital, unlike film, is essentially free. Experience is always the best teacher and it is a real advantage to have digital because you can see the results nearly instantaneously. And keep them posting here so we can continue to beat you up and talk about you behind your back over them! :) [/QUOTE]
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RockyNH 1st portrait attempt!
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