First Portrait...

My wife says she wants a photo. Bugs, flowers, birds...fine - but people???

First attempt:
I sat her on a fitness ball and had her lean forward a bit with her arms on the back of a chair sitting in front of her. Black backdrop. Two off-camera TTL flashes bouncing off the low, white ceiling - left and right - both about 1/2 way and at a 30 deg angle - same level as her face. Cropped, fixed a couple of spots and set the 'skin tone' in post.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

TF


Attachment 71001

I'm by no means a portrait shooter. But I think there may be some shadows, especially on the left side, that are unflattering to her face.

Still 100x better than anything I could have done. I'm horrible at portraits. Humans are a hard species to photograph :P

From what I've been tought to look for, and based on the information you've given, it appears you need to move the key light (right side of photo) up about 2 feet from it's current position. This will create more pleasing/flattering shadows on the left side of the face. You'll know the strobes are positioned correctly when the shadow from the tip of the nose points at the edge of the mouth (on left side of photo) and a bright triangle is revealed on the left side cheek below the eye. This is known as "the Rembrandt effect". It will also give more pleasing catchlights in the eyes - the give away that shows the lighting setup was exactly as you described it to be :wink:

Your exposure is dead-on though!

I know nothing about lighting. That's a warning.

You'll get really flattering light with a single strobe placed a few feet above the camera, make sure it's diffuse. On-camera fill (-1 or -2) is good too. Put the other strobe behind her, either to light the background or to light her back.

Don't blame me, I warned you.

TF,

I'm not a portrait expert, PM Alison or Adina for portrait tips.

Is one flash stronger than the other? I find the right side to be too much in shadow and not very flattering.

I think that you need some reflectors pointing the light from the right lower side and some softners on the flash as there are some shadows creeping in bottom of the neck by shirt.

But it does come down to what you are looking for.

Roger R.

Do you have a shoot-thru umbrella or two? If you don't, they're fairly cheap.

You could try using one with each flash. And instead of of positioning them left and right, try going clamshell, placing one at high center (firing downward) and the other at very low center (firing upward).

Or you could just use one light w/ST at high center and bring in a reflector below, bouncing upwards.

Or you could place one light w/ST medium high at 45 degrees to the right or left, use a relfector on the opposite side, and use the other light for a hair/background/kicker light.

Any of those setups would improve things.