Portrait, your thoughts on the lighting here. . .

[gahspidy]

Here is an attempt at a portrait with a somewhat moody light. I would like to know if you feel it works well, needs help and if so what do you suggest doing differently.
thanks.

[brhitch]

Gary, Not a bad portrait. This looks to be shot with just one light coming from camera right. It looks a bit flat in terms of the lighting. You might consider a reflector on the left or some kind of hair or back light to give it some more depth. You could move your light closer to your subject to cause they light to fall off more quickly giving it a darker, more moody look also. Hope this helps. Just trying to guess at your lighting on this one and go from that.

[gahspidy]

thanks brhitch for the response. Yes, this is a snoot mounted on a flash head camera right just forward of the subject, and a fill flash mounted on a stroboframe on camera.
I was wondering if it looked a bit flat and I think your right about getting some light to hit the back of the hair/head.
One problem I'm haviing in this is that my apartment is not spacious enough to give me the room I need to really position the subject and lighting, but I'm going to consider that a challenge and keep at it. I'll be try some different approaches, thanks for the feedback

[MJS]

Hey Gary, not too bad for a single flash, from the looks of it. Pick the height up so the key is 1-2 feet above the subjects head and try to get some type of separation between dark haired subjects and dark backgrounds. I have a lumiquest snoot for a portable strobe that works well for a hair or rimlight. Try experimenting with the hair light being the same f/stop as the key light and play around with the fill at 2 stops less than the key light. Unless of course you are using a reflector for the fill side.

Good luck with it.

[gahspidy]

Yes, the key was actually a flash with snoot attached and the fill was on camera mounted on a stroboframe to pick it up. I think this one was a 1:2 ratio. I originally wa shooting the key through an umbrella, but the black bg kept getting lit up. i don't havemuch room to move the subject much further away from the bg. I will try flagging off the key light somehow next time.
I find it both interesting and fun in experimenting with this and challenging needless to say. My son thinks otherwise . . .
thanks Mike

[MJS]

It figures that I make the single flash comment right as you post. You are running into one of the main problems of the studio, not having enough of it. How far off the BG can you come? You might want to look into using foam core or some type of reflector to supply the fill, and then you can use the extra strobe as the hair light. A softbox helps control the light with the key a bit, but you still have the flash on the stroboframe to wash your BG that can cause the hassle. 4-6 feet off the BG with the light on more of a 45 degree over and up on the key may help pull some of it off the BG. It's a different way to think. but studio light is similar to mother nature, it just so happens that you can move the studio stuff around.

[gahspidy]

Mike, your absolutely right. I'm feeling very limited at this point by the amount of space I have here, but the challenge is a part of the fun. I think I can move the subject further from the bg. I had him about 3-4 ft away but I can get a little further than that. I will just have to place a light stand on the sofa . . .
I have another 580 EX ll and a 38" reflector on the way so I will have alot more options.
So, this is only when using a black bg do I want to keep the light away from it so it stays black. If I were using a white bg for a high key shot, I would want to light it up actually. That means the subject could get a little closer to it. I have a 300 watt halogen Flashpoint head. Could that be used to light up a white bg?
Thanks or your info here, I appreciate it much. I think I'm going to have alot of fun experimenting with this although I may have a problem keeping my subject interested:cryin:

[MJS]

white balance will be a critical issue if you mix the halogen and flash and want everything to reproduce correctly. You'll have to gell the hallogen blue to stay in the daylight range of the streobes. I bribe my 12 year old daughter by letting her pose and shoot me when we are done working on a set up. It also doesn't hurt that she has a bunch of fellow middle schoolers who dance and love to shop, they don't mind getting together for a photo shoot with the crazy dad.

[gahspidy]

white balance will be a critical issue if you mix the halogen and flash and want everything to reproduce correctly. You'll have to gell the halogen blue to stay in the daylight range of the streobes. I bribe my 12 year old daughter by letting her pose and shoot me when we are done working on a set up. It also doesn't hurt that she has a bunch of fellow middle schoolers who dance and love to shop, they don't mind getting together for a photo shoot with the crazy dad.

Yes, I was concerned about the WB issue. I remember having an issue with that before I got my strobes together. I had used the Halogen bounced from an umbrella for key and the strobe as fill and noticed the temperature difference, did not like it.
You think I would be better off getting an optically triggered Vivitar or sunpak for bg or might just getting a cooling gel for the Halogen make more sense. The gel option would be cheaper, but would I still be dealing with temp/WB issues?
Lucky you lol, little girls love to have their photos taken and pose and all that, where as most boys I think find it boring and more of a chore.
I'll have to bribe him somehow . . .