Portrait advice

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
Hi Gang. My wife asked me to take some headshots for her business, and I'm hoping any of the experienced portrait shooters here can give me practical advice.

I don't have a lot of equipment (or space), being on a bit of a tight budget. For indoor lighting I've got two soft boxes, plus one speed light (with remote triggers for off-camera), and one shoot-through umbrella.

I took these yesterday as a trial run. The first two were my attempts at Rembrandt lighting, with my speedlight set up camera-left and shooting through the umbrella. There's a soft box camera-right for fill on that side:

Janis Rembrandt (1 of 1).jpg


Janis Rembrandt 2 (1 of 1).jpg


And this was my first attempt at clam shell lighting. There's a soft box right above her head, pointing down. She's holding a white reflector under her chin to bounce it up. And she's sitting with her back right on a softbox pointing straight at the camera (learned this watching Gavin Hoey):

Janis Clamshell (1 of 1).jpg


In the first two pictures I had a black backdrop, and sat my wife as far away from it as I could so that light dropoff would keep the background dark. But with a small room, that wasn't quite far enough and I needed to then darken the background in post. You can see around the fringes of her hair where the processing did not darken completely, making it look rather obvious in parts.

So for those of you who are adept at portraits, I'd welcome any advice or suggestions you may have on how I could up my game. I'm mostly looking for advice on the photography side, not post processing. So, lighting, posing, and gear tips. Those sorts of things.

Thanks very much!
 
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Dangerspouse

Senior Member
I would suggest that you pick just ONE of those lights and work with it... rather than try to use ALL that equipment... :)

Thanks Fred! So you prefer single lighting? What was it about these pictures that made you think my multi-light skills are deficient? I'd really like to get better at various styles which rely on multiple lights, so I'm eager to hear how I can improve if you have an thoughts in that direction. This was my first time trying this, so I'm basically a tabula rasa open to instruction!
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Here are some tips I just cut from a course syllabus...

Diffuse light. Soft light flatters.
Longer Lens for better image compression. 85-200mm range.
Use portable lighting when natural won't do it.
Wide aperture to blur background.
Smaller aperture for group shots.
Use framing.
Shoot through something.
Use gels.
The Background should be tied to the theme and add to the story. Usually, a simple background highlights the subject best.
Compose using the rule of thirds.
Everything in the scene for a reason.
Focus on the eyes.
Make sure light is reflected in the subject's eyes to make them sparkle. Called catchlight.
Picture with movement is always more interesting.
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
Thank you for all that! I will say though that several perhaps do not apply to portraiture ("Picture with movement is always more interesting" may not be useful for corporate headshot pictures I'm trying for, for instance, and with no background at all there is no need to blur it). But that's a very handy list to have, so I appreciate you passing it along for my benefit :encouragement:
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Your subject is Portraiture... your singular focus is a Corp. Head Shot... <--that's just one aspect of Portraiture... There are more than "corp Head Shots" within the scope of Portraiture... There's Formal, Informal, Candid, Industrial...
 

hark

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For indoor lighting I've got two soft boxes, plus one speed light (with remote triggers for off-camera), and one shoot-through umbrella.

I took these yesterday as a trial run. The first two were my attempts at Rembrandt lighting, with my speedlight set up camera-left and shooting through the umbrella. There's a soft box camera-right for fill on that side.

I'm a little confused with your gear, DS. Are you using one speedlight with the shoot thru umbrella and using the softbox simply as a white reflector with no speedlight? :confused:

The shoot thru umbrella is going to throw light everywhere. That's a downside to using one. If you have any black material (ie black clothing perhaps), can you use a few clothespins to flag the umbrella on each side with the black material? Those black items will help keep the light on her and not so much everywhere else. And the inverse square law might come into effect. How far away was your umbrella? The closer the light is to your subject, the more quickly the light will fall off. That will also aid in keeping the background darker. And did you have wiggle room to lower your flash's exposure? If you move the light closer, turning down the power will help control what hits her face.

For the clamshell lighting, how far overhead was the light? She appears to be a tad overexposed overall. The shadowed butterfly beneath her nose is barely visible - it's almost too light.

I'm nitpicking here. I'm not seeing even shadows. For example, the butterfly shadow beneath her nose looks to have a slightly more-shadowed area on the left when comparing it to the right (similar to the effect loop lighting has on the side of the nose but in a different location). I just don't know if you can see it. Then the shadowed area beneath her chin appears to be slightly stronger under the right side of her chin compared to the left. But directly beneath her chin I don't see any shadowed area at all (meaning her neck right in line with her chin has no shadows). Again, that leans towards her being a little too overexposed.

Overall these are great executions to work with lighting!
 

hark

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After thinking this through for a few minutes, my guess is your overhead light might not have been perfectly straight (thinking it might have been tilted to throw light towards the left a tad). The slight loop light effect to the lower left side of her nose as well as the left area being just a tad brighter beneath her chin on the left side makes me wonder if the overhead light was tilted just a bit. The light might have bounced more camera left beneath her chin. Perhaps not so noticeable to eye until you look closely at the shadows.
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
Thanks so much for all that Cindy, it gave me a lot to thing about and some observances I wasn't aware of.

To answer your question(s), in the Rembrandt shots the speedlight was mounted in a shoothrough umbrella, yes. The soft box has a constant light in it (not a speedlight). I suppose it may have had the effect of a simple reflector. I was counting on the inverse square law to knock down all the light on the backdrop, but the physical space of my room did not allow me to quite get the distance I needed, so I had to rely on post to drop the exposure to full black.

I adjusted both the distance of the umbrella to my subject, and the dispersal pattern until I got that damned little triangle to appear, lol. The umbrella was about 3 feet to her left, and if I recall I had the light set to f/50 width. I started with f/120 if I recall, but that was too much like a spot-light, and harsh. So I widened it to disperse a bit more.

For the clamshell, the overhead soft box was only an inch or two over her head. Now that you've pointed it out to me, I see what you mean about possible over exposure. I think - just my amateur guess here - it may be more to do with the reflector, which she was holding right below her chin, just out of shot. It really did reflect! I appreciate you pointing that out to me, it's certainly going to be something I pay particular attention to going forwards!

:encouragement:
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
After thinking this through for a few minutes, my guess is your overhead light might not have been perfectly straight (thinking it might have been tilted to throw light towards the left a tad). The slight loop light effect to the lower left side of her nose as well as the left area being just a tad brighter beneath her chin on the left side makes me wonder if the overhead light was tilted just a bit. The light might have bounced more camera left beneath her chin. Perhaps not so noticeable to eye until you look closely at the shadows.

Ah! I'll pay attention to that also, thanks. FWIW, I did find that the slightly more hair puffing out on her right side (left side of the picture) did cast shadows, whereas her right side hair being pulled back more did not. Something I'll have to account for also in the future.
 

hark

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I don't want to throw you for a loop, but Joel Grimes does what he calls Rembrandt Cross Lighting. Instead of the light being approximately 45-degrees to the subject, it is at 90-degrees. So the light shoots perpendicularly across the frame. It is positioned in front of the subject - not next to them. You'd probably have to watch the video to understand. I'm just thinking of an alternate lighting setup where your background can remain darker in camera by taking into consideration your current space. He also uses grids to help prevent too much spill. Flagging your shoot through umbrella like I mentioned previously would probably yield a similar result.

And he DOES achieve the Rembrandt triangle this way! Down the road, maybe this will be another tool in your arsenal if it is anything you'd consider trying. Just throwing it out there. At least I'm not throwing you under the bus! :loyal:

 

hark

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Maybe @WayneF would be able to give you some helpful insight if we can get him to respond. He is quite knowledgeable about lighting. He's kind of a lighting guru! :cheerful:

Not sure if you even know who he is, DS. But he's exceptionally knowledgeable in this realm.
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
Maybe @WayneF would be able to give you some helpful insight if we can get him to respond. He is quite knowledgeable about lighting. He's kind of a lighting guru! :cheerful:

Not sure if you even know who he is, DS. But he's exceptionally knowledgeable in this realm.

Thanks for this, and for the video!! Fantastic stuff. You're right, I am not familiar with Wayne. If he ever does pop in I'd love to hear what he has to say, but in the meantime you have been a real font of information, and I'm very thankful!
 

hark

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Thanks for this, and for the video!! Fantastic stuff. You're right, I am not familiar with Wayne. If he ever does pop in I'd love to hear what he has to say, but in the meantime you have been a real font of information, and I'm very thankful!

I really don't want to dominate your thread, DS, so for that, I apologize. There aren't too many people here anymore who know a lot about lighting. In the meantime, take a look at this post by Wayne. Maybe you will find some of the links he mentions to be informative while we wait and see if he responds.

https://nikonites.com/flashes/18668-some-basic-questions-sb-700-a.html#post229802

Maybe @kevy73 can be of help. He tends to do a lot of weddings, but perhaps he knows some things about Rembrandt and clamshell lighting. Offhand, other than these two, I am not sure who else really excels in lighting knowledge. Maybe @Horoscope Fish but I'm not sure.

Possibly one more - @RocketCowboy because he took the New York Institute of Photography course and really excelled with his photography.
 
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BF Hammer

Senior Member
I will just throw in an idea, but I am not a flash guru by any means.

First photos are low-key exposure. I believe you would want to shoot with spot metering there, and add negative exposure compensation as needed.

Last photo is more high-key. Again, spot meter on face and add some positive exposure compensation if needed.

I would think you should ditch the umbrella for low-key and try a more directional light modifier. Maybe even go to the supermarket and buy a box of plastic drinking straws and form them into a snoot that can be taped in front of the flash to direct the light one-way only.
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
I will just throw in an idea, but I am not a flash guru by any means.

First photos are low-key exposure. I believe you would want to shoot with spot metering there, and add negative exposure compensation as needed.

Last photo is more high-key. Again, spot meter on face and add some positive exposure compensation if needed.

I would think you should ditch the umbrella for low-key and try a more directional light modifier. Maybe even go to the supermarket and buy a box of plastic drinking straws and form them into a snoot that can be taped in front of the flash to direct the light one-way only.

Cool and innovative way to use drinking straws, I never would have thought of that! Thanks for that, and all your thoughts/advice here. Much appreciated :encouragement:
 
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