Hi All

I am racking my brain and I still cannot set up the shot I want.

I have 2 soft boxes, an umbrella light, spot lights, up lighting, and an overhead "hair" light.

What I am looking for is how do I set up to get the shot of soft light on one side of the body and darkness on the other?

What settings on my camera (D80) do I use?

I have done maternity shots, which have turned out great and the couples love them, but I want to go for the more dramatic - in depth photos, and I cant figure it out.

Any help would be great. I have "victims" ready for me to practice on.

Thanks
Kim







Re: Help with Lighting Shot


What I am looking for is how do I set up to get the shot of soft light on one side of the body and darkness on the other?


Put your lighting on one side and a non reflective black gobo on the other hand meter for about a 2-3 stop difference. Set your camera manually for the bright side and drop the shadow side off. If you aren't getting enough of the effect slide a gradient over the part you want dark in Photoshop. Adjust the transparency to the point that you get there.

You could also use your dodge/burn tools.

Either way it is best to start with the lighting and the couple of stop difference. Suggestion find a spot in a room with a window that give a good strong light from one side and go from there.



Re: Help with Lighting Shot


Thanks, I will try it and see what I come up with. I will try and post my pic to get some input.
Kim


Suzan Cooke <scooke7@verizon.net> wrote:
Kim Karsting wrote:

What I am looking for is how do I set up to get the shot of soft light on one side of the body and darkness on the other?

Put your lighting on one side and a non reflective black gobo on the other hand meter for about a 2-3 stop difference. Set your camera manually for the bright side and drop the shadow side off. If you aren't getting enough of the effect slide a gradient over the part you want dark in Photoshop. Adjust the transparency to the point that you get there.

You could also use your dodge/burn tools.

Either way it is best to start with the lighting and the couple of stop difference. Suggestion find a spot in a room with a window that give a good strong light from one side and go from there.




Re: Help with Lighting Shot


kim
interesting shot, i've done that a few time. with natural light and in studio. the effect is great and depending on the light source it also changes the effect.

if you use diffused sunlight, the details will be clean and sharp, but the directional lighting will cast the shadow across the room and out of the shot. shoot in tight to the subject and try to use the largest f/stop you can for depth of field, so that if there is anything reflective in the background it would be blurred out, but look at your shot first and not any distractions before you press the shutter, it'll save you later in photoshop.

oh yeah, make sure that the subject is white of pastel colors so as not to completely blend in with the black background. if it is black, just bounce some light back and behind the subject to separate it from the background, giving it an 'edge' light and define the figure.


good luck

two k


Re: Help with Lighting Shot

kim
do you want to use studio lights or natural lighting? if you want to have more control then studio lighting would be the best.

if you're using strobes, then barn doors would be the best to control the light from going everywhere to become directional on to the subject, if you don't have any, then you can make them yourself with a roll of heavy duty aluminum foil duct tape a couple of pieces of cardboard, rubber bands and a pair of chop sticks. if you want use a DIY clamp on light with a daylight balanced bulb (5600K), if you want a softer effect you can use anyother light bulb, if you want to diffuse it more throw a hanky over it, it's a basic 'clam shell' design, so that the only light that comes out is through the opening that you control. everything is covered with alluminum foil as not to burn, but does get hot...even the two pieces of cardboard. this makes it directional so there is spillage either on to the background or to the lense flaring.

wondering about the rubber bands and the chop stick??? that's to control the amount of opening in the 'clam shell' and keep them in place while you're shooting.

it may look 'mickey mouse'-ed, but for the cost of a barndoor you have a complete light and not have to completely alter your existing light...you can even use a standard 75w floodlamp or spotlight for the warmer 'yellowish' tint.

using a contant lighting instead of strobe, cuts down on the emotion of any babies. it tend to surprise them and then they start to cry. sometimes it takes longer to calm them down during a photo shoot if the light is fixed.

this type of set up is ideal if you have limited space, becaue the light can be adjusted, but the power of the light will fall off the further you move away from the subject. so it's pretty close in to the subject. the stronger light will be in close, while the weaker light is further away, but photographically, it's within 8 feet.

i have some examples of directional lighting on my home page, both studio and natural light.
http://home.earthlink.net/~twokphoto/index.htm

good luck

two k


Cheap digitals found at car boot sales

I am new to this forum so I thought I would start with an interesting post about cheap digital cameras. Has anybody else been tempted to buy cheap digital cameras at car boot sales? I bought what looked like a new PCLine DC-2 VGA for a quid and a Nisis DV Cam for two quid and gave them a go. The results can be seen here

http://sovietcamera.110mb.com/crapdigital/

I think the Nisis DV Cam is 2.1mp but both cameras have what looks like plastic lenses. The images have been photo edited a lot in software as the original images were poor. I have another 2.1mp unbranded pen like digital I bought for fifty pence and now use as a webcam albeit I will take some photos with it soon. The PCLine vga camera has an amazing spec f3 lens with auto shutter speeds from 1/15 - 1/7500 second.

I also have a proper digital Fujifilm E550 camera and produced this interesting album of a Smallholders Show http://sovietcamera.110mb.com/album/ I hope you find this interesting?



Re: Cheap digitals found at car boot sales


The last eight photos were from the PCLine VGA camera. It produces a sort of sharpness in the center that gets very soft in the corners. To edit them I used Paint Shop Pro - so they are not real! The Holga 120 format film camera is I think the benchmark for this type photography.

Here is a link showing what this little digital PCLine monster looks like http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/digital-cameras/pc-line-dc2.asp

However the price looks a bit steep new! It is a horrible looking camera that fits in your pocket and looks as if it will take abuse. it also has a nasty habit of clearing its memory when you turn the thing off. You leave the camera turned on and it falls asleep after 30
seconds - you then wake it up by hitting the mode button!

A toy camera for the kids is I think its real purpose - I doubt if it is still in production.




Re: mysterious horizontal lines on digital photos..

I had this same experience with a Canon Ixus 4, 2 years ago.

I took it to the Canon service center, and they came back to me with a brand new Ixus 5. They said the sensor's got some "problems". Fortunately, it was still under warranty and they didn't have issues giving me a new camera.

Most probably, your cam's got the same problem.

Powered by ScribeFire.