First studio portrait

Setup:
lamp camera left, flash behind the girl

f/7.1, 1/125, iso 200

I am sad about the background! I should probably have used a higher aperture but I wanted the girl sharp all around. Should I simply just move her further away from the background?! Or can I do something else?

This is what the background looks like:




And this is what I managed to do with post processing - what do you think?

I usually place the subject at least 2 meters from the background if I can...They are nice pics...

A little playing around.

Hmm, how did I set up the lamps... I think I used 2, left and right, but I was in front of one of them so used a silver reflexer (you call it reflexer?) left side, low - this caught the light from one of the lamps shooting against the white background (on her right, more or less).

A couple of things that come to mind..
Maybe you could have used a fill light as you can see some darker areas on the right...
If not a fill light maybe a reflector..

And secondly, i would've liked the image to be cropped a little higher or a little lower

pedroj said:

I usually place the subject at least 2 meters from the background if I can...They are nice pics...

Click to expand...

Okay, thank you!

Are there anything else to be aware of with black background maybe? Looking through the images, its the ones with black I got problems.

The first set should have been shot in portrait. The light behind her does nothing. Maybe should have been more power. The second, she needs cast lights in her eyes and all of her head. When ever chopping off part of someones head, do the same with their chin. An even crop which tells you're concentrating on her face and not the whole head.

WhiteLight said:

A couple of things that come to mind..
Maybe you could have used a fill light as you can see some darker areas on the right...
If not a fill light maybe a reflector..

And secondly, i would've liked the image to be cropped a little higher or a little lower

Click to expand...

Yes, reflector, not reflexer


More fill light, noted. I just wanted to try working with only 1 lamp for some of the images. Got some with 2 lamps too.
I will try to crop it a little - thank you.

FastGlass said:

The first set should have been shot in portrait. The light behind her does nothing. Maybe should have been more power. The second, she needs cast lights in her eyes and all of her head. When ever chopping off part of someones head, do the same with their chin. An even crop which tells you're concentrating on her face and not the whole head.

Click to expand...

Okay. I am so not a portrait oriented girl.. but I will try this. I think the light behind separates her from the background? But maybe this will come, if using more power - but please note, I worked with one lamp for this and not 2.

The last part you are writing, I am not really understanding what you mean?

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wud said:

Okay. I am so not a portrait oriented girl.. but I will try this. I think the light behind separates her from the background? But maybe this will come, if using more power - but please note, I worked with one lamp for this and not 2.

The last part you are writing, I am not really understanding what you mean?

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Click to expand...

Yes background light separates the subject from the background, but that also depends on how much distance exists between the subject & the background..
You could point it at the back of her head or on the background directly...

I think FastGlass meant if you cut a piece off the forehead, then you would be expected to cut off a piece of the chin as well or keep it proportional..
all that only while cropping/composing, not literally of course

Yes. It did sound confusing now going back and reading. I read in the first photo. Flash behind. I though you where trying to do highlights from behind. So looking at the photo to me seemed to justify needing more light. And yes to the previous post. When cropping off some head it is generally done so some of the chin is cropped as well creating a balanced look. It's perfectly ok to chop off parts as long as it's done with pleasing results. Nice photo's though. Nice contrast from main and fill. Just some thoughts I think need improving. Remember, it's so easy for people to pick apart photos.

Just my opinion.

The first photo, although it's sharp and the expression is nice, your main light is way too low. I can see the shadow of the nose going up on her left cheek. Normally, the shadow should be making a triangle going down from the nose. This leaves the under part of the nose in the shadow and hides a little or the highlight she has on her left cheek between her nose and mouth.

The second shot, I find under-exposed or just too dark. I don't know if it could be brought up in post, but I find her eyes are way too dark for my taste.

​You'll have to practice using your camera in vertical crop position…

FastGlass said:

Yes. It did sound confusing now going back and reading. I read in the first photo. Flash behind. I though you where trying to do highlights from behind. So looking at the photo to me seemed to justify needing more light. And yes to the previous post. When cropping off some head it is generally done so some of the chin is cropped as well creating a balanced look. It's perfectly ok to chop off parts as long as it's done with pleasing results. Nice photo's though. Nice contrast from main and fill. Just some thoughts I think need improving. Remember, it's so easy for people to pick apart photos.

Click to expand...

Okay, so more power with 1 lamp. Noted
I am not really agreeing on the cropping, dont think you have to cut a chin because you cut the head - but maybe I'll get a more intimate image with this suggestion, but on the other hand, I will remove to much of the background (leaves). I did the cropping in PP since I couldnt get close enough with the lens, so made a new (bright) edit. I prefer the one without the top of her head.

Its fine, I posted it to learn what to do better next time!

Marcel said:

Just my opinion.

The first photo, although it's sharp and the expression is nice, your main light is way too low. I can see the shadow of the nose going up on her left cheek. Normally, the shadow should be making a triangle going down from the nose. This leaves the under part of the nose in the shadow and hides a little or the highlight she has on her left cheek between her nose and mouth.

The second shot, I find under-exposed or just too dark. I don't know if it could be brought up in post, but I find her eyes are way too dark for my taste.

​You'll have to practice using your camera in vertical crop position…

Click to expand...

I really have a problem with dark images.... Dont know what I/my screen/my eyes are doing wrong.

But here is one with 2 lamps, this really shouldn't be to dark! Right?

2 lamps with softbox in front of her, one more than the other - left and right side.
And fail - speedlight behind her, so not needed with a white background. On camera it looked right, on computer nooooot :/

Very difficult to get a white-white background I think, only small adjustments makes it tint either rosa, grey or blueish.


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