biggerry wrote:The first group shot might be helped alittle by giving the picture a bit more room, ie just a fraction wider to encompass the ladies shoulders on each side - I just feel a little cramped when looking at it, like its half way between a group shot and a group mug shot, am i making sense here?
Gerry, I agree with your comments, however, any wider would show elements of the background (namely white concrete pillars) which would have disrupted the 'feel' of the background. Accordingly, I have compromised and gone for the tighter shot. Even still, there is one element in the background which I had to try to conceal post as I couldn't do more pre.
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I will try to get the lighting diagrams up soon, but, a quick description:
Group shot:
1. Large softbox (horizontal) above photographer just below ceiling level angled down with the light on about 3/4 power or so.
2. Smaller softbox behind group at camera left, light on about 1/4 power
3. SB800 with white shoot-through brollie behind group camera right. Flash on about 1/8th power
4. Slave on bench behind group angled up at the wall.
5. I may have had the Metz facing the camera but obscured behind the bloke in the middle to provide a bit of rim lighting. I don't recall, and I may not have used it for this shot.
6. Camera aperture at about f8 and shutter speed at /250th I believe to kill some of the ambient.
Single portraits.
1. Large softbox (vertical) camera right (main light), at about 70 degrees away from camera. 1/4 power.
2. SB800 45 degrees camera left for fill at about 1/16th or less through shoot-through brollie.
3. Small softbox behind and to the left (from camera's perspective) for hairlight.
4. Slave as above.
5. Metz as above.
6. Aperture at about f/4.5 for narrow depth of field.
For the portraits of the blokes, I was initially trying a different lighting technique, along the lines of
this photo of Lance Armstrong (the first one), but, apart from killing this one in post, I think I got no-where near.
I am happy for anyone to try to diagnose where I went wrong (my set up was two softboxes behind and at an angle to subject, SB800 shoot-through above camera facing down to subject's face), but my initial diagnosis was:
1. Too much power from softboxes.
2. Brollie in front of subject not high enough and too much power.
3. Lens too wide open.
4. Rear hairlights needed to be further back and at a sharper angle so there was no spill onto the face of the subject.
Anyone else want to give ideas?
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:04 pm
Nah, I will stick with what I am paid to pretend I am good at!
