Portrait for Critique, please.

[W00DY]

Hi All,

Since I could not make it to Melbourne for the big event, I thought I would make my wife (Sarah) sit through a session

I would like to know what you all think about this one. I was experimenting a lot with 2 SB800's and this was just one of the very varied light setups I tried.

There was one SB800 behind Sarah with a home made snoot (gotta love kid's space food stick boxes!!!) @ 1/10 (I feel this is probably a bit to strong) and a second SB800 on the table in front of Sarah pointing up @ 1/40th

ISO 200, 1/250 @ F/13


PP = skin smooth, white eyes and cleaned up the background just a little.

Appreciate your comments.

W00DY

[phillipb]

Hi Woody,
The rim lighting works well, but I'm not too keen on the light fall off between the face and the forehead, but that's only my opinion.

[W00DY]

Hi Woody,
The rim lighting works well, but I'm not too keen on the light fall off between the face and the forehead, but that's only my opinion.

Thanks for the comments Phillip. So do you mean there is not enough light reaching her forehead? or that it is too hard light?

Cheers.

[Yi-P]

Lighting from below usually creates a scary or horror themed character, and this doesn't really suit the image IMO

Lighting should be better off if you have the key light to the side or an angle from the top (say 45deg and bit above subject). Or have another fill/reflector to fill up the forehead shadows.

[W00DY]

Lighting from below usually creates a scary or horror themed character, and this doesn't really suit the image IMO

Lighting should be better off if you have the key light to the side or an angle from the top (say 45deg and bit above subject). Or have another fill/reflector to fill up the forehead shadows.

Thanks Yi-P,

I agree that below lighting is usually used in horror themed shoots, but I like breaking the mold sometimes . As mentioned I was trying a lot of different lighting setups and also trying to stay away from the 45deg standard (just to experiment).

I was sort of hopping the rim lighting would counter act the low lighting, maybe it just doesn't

Cheers.

[phillipb]

Hi Woody,
The rim lighting works well, but I'm not too keen on the light fall off between the face and the forehead, but that's only my opinion.

Thanks for the comments Phillip. So do you mean there is not enough light reaching her forehead? or that it is too hard light?

Cheers.

Not enough light reaching the forehead. Maybe a bit more fill, even with the built in flash at a reduced output.

[xerubus]

Agree with the above about the fall off. The rim light has worked very well however.

[gstark]

I agree that below lighting is usually used in horror themed shoots, but I like breaking the mold sometimes

Nothing wrong with breaking the mold, just as long as you get the outcome that you're striving for.

I agree that there's too much fall-off into the forehead - you don't say if you had any sort of diffusion on the SB in the front: was there any?

If you want to stray from the 45 degree, try using a softbox right in front of the subject, and up close and personal. Say a half to one meter. The bigger the softbox, the better. As you have done here, control the power of the flash to keep the EV under control.

I was sort of hopping the rim lighting would counter act the low lighting, maybe it just doesn't

What do you mean by "counter" here?

On the one hand, it counterbalances your exposure with the rim effect quite well, but I get the impression that is not your intent. Rather, I think you're implying that you were hoping to get some reflection - perhaps into and around the forehead - from the lighting in the back? This can work, but you would probably need to have the rear light placed from below, pointing upwards and forwards, and then you would need a reflector above and forward of the model to bounce this light down.

With the light placed directly behind the model, you would need a couple of reflectors, one to each side of, and in front of, the model, to try to achieve any such benefit ... but there are better ways to go.