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03-09-2012, 04:21 AM   #1
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Help with lighting

Hi All,
I've been taking photos all my life but only recently collected a decent lighting setup so flash lighting is a little new to me.

What have I done wrong here ?
It's the eyes I'm concerned about. White washed from the flash.

In this portrait attempt, I lit the subjects face with a flash through umbrella about 2 feet away.


Last edited by chromo; 03-09-2012 at 06:35 PM.
03-09-2012, 05:30 AM   #2
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I admit I have never seen this before. I think the distance is right, but I think you need to turn the power down on the flash.by the look of the exif, it says you shot at F22, you should try to power the flash down to around F8 or F11.don't change the distance as the closer you are to the subject, the softer the light is. is it bounced in the umbrella or a shoot through?
if it is bounced, you might want to put a "sock" at the end to diffuse the light more,.(light material over the opening end of the umbrella)

hope this helps, good luck
03-09-2012, 06:00 AM   #3
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I think what you are seeing is the reflection (catchlight) in the eye. The umbrella is so close that its catchlight is huge and is roughly the same size as the iris. So instead of seeing the black in the center of the eye, you are seeing a large reflection of the umbrella.

You can try to raise the umbrella a bit so that the catchlight is higher. Aiming down at 45 deg is usually a good look as it simulates the sun a bit more naturally.
03-09-2012, 06:19 AM - 1 Like   #4
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There are a few things you could have done to improve this shot, first, power down the light and open up your aperture, this will do 3 things, first it will mean your light will recycle faster and will extend the flash tube's life and it will mean less diffraction from your small aperture (unless you need the extra DOF try to remain within the lens' sweet spot).
When shooting profile view, make sure the model looks a little towards the camera side, not too much, just a tad so there is no so much of the white part of the eye showing. Also do not have her look up straight into the umbrella but rather a little below; this along with placing the umbrella a little higher will mean the specular (catch light) will be at the top of the eyes rather than straight on the pupil.
I would also place the umbrella farther behind or farther in front of the subject (relative to camera position) this will either create deeper shadows on the unlit portion of her face, or open them up some more, and will also move the specular so as to not wash out the iris.
Here is an example with similar lighting set-up. I know it's not exactly a profile, but the lighting principle is the same: note how the model is looking slightly to her right (where the camera position is) rather than straight ahead. Also note the position of the light high and behind her relative to camera position, placing the specular near her top eyelid and to the right (relative to camera) of the pupil. The light position also deepens the shadows on the unlit portion, but the large (40") umbrella allows for a nice soft transition (feathered shadow boundaries). I also used a small speedlight zoomed in to 105mm as an accent/hair light placed very high, camera left and slightly behind the model to highlight the hair and get a little extra separation.

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03-09-2012, 06:22 AM   #5
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Yes I had the umbrella as shoot through.
I wondered about powering the flash down so I will have to try that. I used my newly acquired Profoto studio set for the flash so it's got plenty of adjustment possible.

If you, enoeske, are right, then that will be harder to fix. Should I have used a smaller light source like a smaller umbrella perhaps ?

The subject has fairly light greeny grey coloured eyes which prob doesn't help matters.
03-09-2012, 06:25 AM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by chromo Quote
Yes I had the umbrella as shoot through.
I wondered about powering the flash down so I will have to try that. I used my newly acquired Profoto studio set for the flash so it's got plenty of adjustment possible.

If you, enoeske, are right, then that will be harder to fix. Should I have used a smaller light source like a smaller umbrella perhaps ?

The subject has fairly light greeny grey coloured eyes which prob doesn't help matters.
Just raise the light stand up a bit more and tilt the light down. You can back it away to make it appear smaller. Turning the power down will only help you shoot at a more reasonable aperture.
03-09-2012, 06:46 AM   #7
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Here is approx the way I had it setup.
Not much room at my place so I used the kitchen this time.

The camera is purple.
The backdrop is blue.
Orange is the subjects head.
I made a mistake before. I remember now that I used the umbrella as reflector and that's it with the profoto on the right.
The small pink circle lower left is a small flash angled towards the ceiling and the subject for soft light in the dark areas.
The other small circle a small flash on top of the wall mounted cupboard pointed straight up at the ceiling for hair highlight.


Last edited by chromo; 05-03-2017 at 04:23 AM.
03-09-2012, 07:16 AM   #8
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Are you using a light meter?

What's a pretty weird angle to light at and I don't see the rim speedlights in your image at all...
03-09-2012, 11:01 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by kenyee Quote
Are you using a light meter?

What's a pretty weird angle to light at and I don't see the rim speedlights in your image at all...
The angle makes perfect sense, just raise the umbrella and tilt it downwards. The speedlights are not adding much because they are being shot at the ceiling and he was using f/20, which more than likely killed the light they were adding, in any case it would not have been a rim light, it would just raise the "ambient" light. Shooting with the main light with a lower power setting and using a larger aperture (while keeping the speedlight power constant would give you more ambient light, but bouncing off the ceiling won't give you rim highlights.

The size of the umbrella is not the problem, it's the placement and the direction the model is looking coupled with the eye color and contrast formed by the specular highlight. I have shot with a 40" reflective umbrella about a foot from the model's face and got a great beauty shot. It's all about placement.
03-09-2012, 11:55 AM   #10
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Here is another example. full profile, one softbox (24" square). The original image was half body portrait but I've cropped so you can notice the detail in her eye.
The softbox was a little more than a foot from her face. It was high and angled down towards her face by about 45°. Notice that although she is in a profile, her eyes still look a bit towards the camera side diminishing the white part of the eye visible on the camera side, and although she is gazing upwards, the catchlight is still near her upper eyelid. The specular highlight covers much of the pupil, but not all, and leaves the iris visible. This time the softbox was placed slightly in front of the model (from camera position) to eliminate the shadows on the camera side of the face. I am also attaching a simple lighting diagram so you get an idea of how the light was placed (top down view)
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03-09-2012, 01:37 PM   #11
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The 2 small lights are small flash units equivalent to Pentax AF160 as I only wanted to add to the ambient and get a small hair light.
If fact the way the lighting is, is what I was after, just the eye is the problem so I'll try again on the weekend using your advise and see what happens.

When I took these photos it was late at night (as you can see in the exif) and she had no makeup on. No prep at all, just a quick hair brush.
I only took 3 shots to get this result as the whole idea was to test the lighting on a subject, not to actually capture a portrait. Thing is, it turned out better than I expected since it's my first attempt so I know I've got plenty of room for improvement.

Thanks again.
03-09-2012, 02:18 PM   #12
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Great! The more you test new lighting setups and practice, the better you'll get! You have the gear, you have the basics, now all that's left is to experiment and have fun.

Cheers
03-09-2012, 10:44 PM   #13
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Here's the eye up close

Last edited by chromo; 05-03-2017 at 04:23 AM.
03-12-2012, 08:57 AM   #14
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Should have clarified the weird angle thing...what jase036 did is more common (roughly 45 degrees to subject).
I think the eye is a bit weird in chromo's photo because the light is nearly straight on and you're nearly perpendicular to it w/ your camera...
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