DSLRUsers.com

Here are some from the shoot I participated in this weekend past. I struggled here more than I did at the beach the week before, but I am some what happy with these.

Any tips will be greatly appreciated!

Cameron these are great!

I noticed a few things.

#2 It's quite bold to use green as a key light when lighting what seems like a fashion/glamour type of shoot; as opposed to some sort of goth/death/saw 3 theme. Despite this the image holds up! I think it may be the pose etc. PErhaps try to capitalise on the green and reduce the white light from the right with a vignette.

#3 looks really nice for a low key. The right could be better positioned but easier said than done.

#4 is technically all good! Remove that bottle from her a$$ though.

hth coming from a portrait (and everything else) noob.

Thanks Suren

I was second shooter that day so I didnt have much input with artistic direction so I cant claim that the Green gel (my Honl kit in use) was my idea though.

Call me stupid, but I only just noticed the bottle in #4....

For the low key shots #3 is definitely my favourite - both the pose and lighting.

With the first I get the feeling that her face is out of focus - it may or may not be but thats the impression I get from looking at the image.

Cameron...

Good work with Emma... I hope you enjoyed it... She's usually a lot of fun to shoot with.

The first 3 are a little dark for my liking, but perfectly valid shots.

What lighting and modifiers were you using? How were you metering the shots?

Overall, a valiant effort... If I had one tip to give, you need to get lower down when shooting. All of these shots are shot from the model's head height so you are a. giving the appearance of looking down on the model b. suffering some lens distortion of her body.
Unless I am going for a particular effect, I always try to have my lens at the vertical midpoint of the frame (e.g. if shooting the full length of the model and she's filling the frame, your lens should be at belly button height.)

as usual, take my ramblings with a grain of salt,

#1 - you are slightly taller than the girl, I think its important to get level to ensure you do not shoot 'down' on her - the frame on this one needs works imo, you have chopped off her feet and it feels like you are in no mans land in terms of the composition - how about cropping tighter, somewhere below her right hand. Otherwise take one step back and get all of her in teh shot.

#2 I like this better than the first, pose is better and the framing/composition more appealing, again it has a top down feel to it, getting level with her head would have been better imo.

#3 - hmm, I will leave this one atm - I have a vision for the PP on this that might work..

#4 - the favourite for me, I prefer the lighting in this one more than the others, all teh images are clearly staged so I think having good quality studio style lighting is also appropriate in this case! The lighting is all good imo correctly placed and balanced. The upper body pose and head tilt is on the mark too. As suren mentioned remove that bottle

For me, the lighting in the 3rd is the best - extremely subtle, very low key. It reminds me of photos Gary took and printed out a couple of years ago of Benedicta from the Balmain shoot - very low key where the viewer has to put in some effort to understand the shot.

I think the green light in the second is too strong - obviously this was the key light but I think it doesn't suit. I think it would have worked better as a rim. Also, the window in top right is distracting.

The 1st and last are good shots, but not of the same standard as number 3. Take on board the others' comments about shooting height and miscellaneous bottles.

Cameron,

Can I just say I'm really happy you're getting more into portraiture

With an excellent subject, life becomes 10 times easier.. not to say it's a kill joy.. but it makes life easier in watching someone direct as a second shooter and later reuse these guiding methods of posing a model.

I have no criticism to give as most of what I would mention has already been said. But mate, great to see you having fun shooting this style of image. great job considering the usual subjects I see in your photographs consist of green leafy, blue skies and dangerously good looking food. haha

Remorhaz wrote:For the low key shots #3 is definitely my favourite - both the pose and lighting.

With the first I get the feeling that her face is out of focus - it may or may not be but thats the impression I get from looking at the image.

Thanks Rodney!

leek wrote:Good work with Emma... I hope you enjoyed it... She's usually a lot of fun to shoot with.

The first 3 are a little dark for my liking, but perfectly valid shots.

What lighting and modifiers were you using? How were you metering the shots?

Overall, a valiant effort... If I had one tip to give, you need to get lower down when shooting. All of these shots are shot from the model's head height so you are a. giving the appearance of looking down on the model b. suffering some lens distortion of her body.
Unless I am going for a particular effect, I always try to have my lens at the vertical midpoint of the frame (e.g. if shooting the full length of the model and she's filling the frame, your lens should be at belly button height.)

Thanks for the tips John, I'll def keep it in mind for next time....I well and truly have been caught out with shooting at eye level as for lighting....Nikon CLS (2x SB-600 and a single SB-800 all in manual) with a reflective and a shoot thru brolly and some green Gel (Honl Photo Sampler kit). I was metering on feel.

aim54x wrote:Thanks for the tips John, I'll def keep it in mind for next time....I well and truly have been caught out with shooting at eye level

Not caught out... It's all part of the learning process. I did exactly the same in the beginning...

aim54x wrote:as for lighting....Nikon CLS (2x SB-600 and a single SB-800 all in manual) with a reflective and a shoot thru brolly and some green Gel (Honl Photo Sampler kit). I was metering on feel.

I use a similar number of speedlights (or sometimes just one) but usually try to use the full capability of Nikon's CLS, by having both slave flashes on Remote (one on Group A, other on Group B), use the pop-up flash as the Commander and then in your flash menu set Group A & B to TTL and control the relative power by setting exposure compensation as desired on each group. With the relative strengths set on the back of the camera, you can then still achieve different lighting (high key / low key) without changing position or touching the flashes by spot metering off different parts of the body / scene.

Hope this makes sense.

leek wrote:I use a similar number of speedlights (or sometimes just one) but usually try to use the full capability of Nikon's CLS, by having both slave flashes on Remote (one on Group A, other on Group B), use the pop-up flash as the Commander and then in your flash menu set Group A & B to TTL and control the relative power by setting exposure compensation as desired on each group. With the relative strengths set on the back of the camera, you can then still achieve different lighting (high key / low key) without changing position or touching the flashes by spot metering off different parts of the body / scene.

Hope this makes sense.

Funnily enough I use CLS exactly as you describe (and using the speedlights in Manual as well at times - like on this shoot)...however it is a pain that the pop-up does not have the capability for a Group C.

aim54x wrote:pop-up does not have the capability for a Group C.

Perhaps consider a SB800 on SU-4 mode. You can use this as a kicker or background light which might not really need that much tweaking.

surenj wrote:

aim54x wrote:pop-up does not have the capability for a Group C.

Perhaps consider a SB800 on SU-4 mode. You can use this as a kicker or background light which might not really need that much tweaking.

I had that set up on this shoot....SU-4 mode works really well....as does CLS I was easily 10m+ away and CLS didnt miss a beat even then!

aim54x wrote:I had that set up on this shoot....SU-4 mode works really well....as does CLS I was easily 10m+ away and CLS didnt miss a beat even then!

Oops I missed the light from the 3rd flash. I am still struggling to see it in your photos. Do you have a setup shot?

I forgot to ask? Did you have much ambient light in the scene?

Also, where was this location? [unless it's a secret]

surenj wrote:

aim54x wrote:I had that set up on this shoot....SU-4 mode works really well....as does CLS I was easily 10m+ away and CLS didnt miss a beat even then!

Oops I missed the light from the 3rd flash. I am still struggling to see it in your photos. Do you have a setup shot?

I forgot to ask? Did you have much ambient light in the scene?

Also, where was this location? [unless it's a secret]

Well most of these shots that i have posted here only use the SB-600 duo or the SB-800 + SB-600 but when we did use all three lights I had the SB-800 in SU-4. I think Alfred had some setup shots...but I didnt bother.

Was there much ambient? Well not really unless you were close to the car wreck and even then there wasnt a lot of lumens, up against the wall there was just enough to see.

Location? well it is in Alexandria....

I'll post up some set up shots in the next day or two, just knocking off a couple of sets and tedious essays atm

biggerry wrote:I have a vision for the PP on this that might work..

two things that draw me to this image - the lines of the hair and the red lipstick make it 3 things, the tilting head also works for me.

surenj wrote:Also, where was this location? [unless it's a secret]

I hate how people keep these things secret

its the old dunlop factory in Alexandria

aim54x wrote:but I didnt bother.

No problems.

biggerry wrote:its the old dunlop factory in Alexandria

Thankx Gerry and Cameron. I thought access was blocked....

Like that PP Gerry; it really suits the mood!

biggerry wrote:

biggerry wrote:I have a vision for the PP on this that might work..

two things that draw me to this image - the lines of the hair and the red lipstick make it 3 things, the tilting head also works for me.

Thanks Gerry, I like your rework, it works well. However, it seems a bit too bright at the same time...maybe somewhere in between, but I will have a play with it and find something that works for me.

surenj wrote:

biggerry wrote:its the old dunlop factory in Alexandria

Thankx Gerry and Cameron. I thought access was blocked....

Well we got locked in on the way out....it was lucky that another gate was opened.....