[W.j.christy]

I need help, I am attempting to take the yearly Christmas photo with may daughter as the subject. This is the first year for fireplace type photo and I was hoping for one of those warm just lit by fire with the mantle Christmas lights glowing. However, I am having a lot of trouble getting the desired look. Attached is what i currently have. I like the composition but the reflection in the fireplace and how bright it isn't for me. My setup is the following, a Pentax KIII with a 35mm F2.8 limited lens 2 AF540 FGZ triggered by the acon R930 wireless trigger system. shutter speed is about 1/80, ISO 500, @F2.8. I am using two umbrellas to diffuse the light and the set up is in my living room. This photo was taken after dark. I would like to somehow make the firelight and mantle lights more prominent with the flash just for fill on my daughter with a color closer to that of fire light to keep that ambiance.

Any suggestions on getting that warmer old time Christmas feel without my reflection in the glass of the fireplace would be most welcome.

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[blues_hawk]

Interesting project.
I'm no lighting expert but I had a couple ideas I thought I'd share to deal with the reflection. You can probably scrub that in post with a healing or careful use of a cloning tool, but since you are doing setups, you could either remove the glass during shooting, or you could try a slightly different angle to move yourself out of its reflection and put up a sheet for it to reflect, or even set the room up for a scene you would like reflected. Personally, I think letting more shadow into the shot would give it a "hearth" atmosphere so maybe adding some vignetting could be a thing to try. You might also try using a gradient filter to control the scene while letting the xmas lights flare and sparkle.

I would defer any of my answers to any studio hound that should one come to your aid.

[Unregistered User 8]

A good quality polarizer filter will remove most of your reflection from the fireplace glass, and perhaps use bounce flash on camera with the faster, standard shutter speed. My K-3 does a great job with wireless compatible flashes, so I can't help you with your triggering system, as I have never used them.

May I suggest that you do some practicing with on camera/off camera bounce flash using the ceiling, walls, etc (without your daughter present) until you get the look you want. Play with flash position, flash power output, camera EV compensation,........ then when everything is the way you want it, sit your daughter in position for the final shot(s). If the look of your pix gets closer to what you want, but still not quite there yet, post them here for more input.

There are much more experienced " flashers " here than me, so hopefully they will give better help than mine. I can only state what I would do.

Good luck.

Edit - From the exposure of the (white?) fireplace wall, the image appears to 1.5/2 stops underexposed to me also.

[pentaxus]

Try using 1/30 sec. That will brighten the ambient light.

[UncleVanya]

I’m not sure of all the options but my first thought is that you should shoot multiple shots and combine them after.

Shot 1 - cover the fireplace glass with black paper or cloth.
Shot 2 - no flash, exposed for the lights of the fire and mantle.

Merge the shots.

[Unregistered User 8]

Hi Joel, apologies for altering your image without permission, and know that it has been deleted from my computer, but the tweaked image below has only had the exposure increased, and a slightly warmer hue added, with no other changes done. I didn't try to take the changes too far at all, but only as an indication of what I thought you are wanting to achieve. Again, please accept my apologies if I have overstepped the mark.

Edit - Joel, please report this post if it offends, and I will delete it.

[vonBaloney]

As far as the reflection, one way is to just don't be there. Shoot off-center then crop, i.e. be off to the side not in front of the glass (the center of the uncropped photo will just be the wall or whatever). But it will still make an ugly reflection of something I think unless you can manage to really isolate the illumination on the kid (candlelight?). Or maybe shoot from an oblique angle to the fireplace, possibly so your daughter's profile would be reflected if that looks good.

[pschlute]

Any suggestions on getting that warmer old time Christmas feel without my reflection in the glass of the fireplace would be most welcome.

I note you are using spot metering. That is going to be problematic..... if it is placed on the black fire surround you will get over-exposure or on the white wall you will get under-exposure (which is what you have here). Matrix will be better although you will probably still need to overexpose to account for the prominent white wall. For what you are attempting I would also change from Av mode to Manual.

First do some test shots without the flashes to get the ambient light correct. Look at the images and the histogram to guide you. Don't use auto white balance as it will fight against you as you try different things. Use daylight WB and you will get a nice warm glow.

Then add the flashes for fill. I think two umbrellas are dominating the lighting. I would suggest trying one or two snoots aimed at your daughter. You can add coloured gels to these to warm up the light. Manual power control on these and experiment by turning up the power a notch each time. If you are getting a shadow on the wall behind her, you could angle one flash at the wall to reduce it.

Another suggestion is to use a gold reflector placed on the floor and angled toward her face, lit by a gelled snooted flash.

Your fire looks pretty, but the glass is not helping with reflection and will be troublesome if you move the positions of the fill flashes around.

Finally you need to to bribe your daughter as she is going to get fed up as you try out all these new ideas practice your setup with something like a large fluffy toy before you bring her in.

[Wasp]

A polarizer is worth a try.

If you happen to have a shift lens, it can be used to make the camera disappear.

Using a tilt-shift lens for mirror portraits

[Dale H. Cook]

I was going to suggest warming the shot slightly, but pjv beat me to it. I have often manually adjusted the white balance in my K-70. Setting the color temperature slightly cooler than daylight can do wonders for skin tones.

[ProfessorBuzz]

Any chance you could use a longer lens and get out of the scene entirely?

[AstroDave]

A good quality polarizer filter will remove most of your reflection from the fireplace glass,

Depends on the angle. But, as noted by several above, changing your angle wrt to the glass can get you out of the picture (the more side-on you are to the glass, the better).

Can you open/take out the fireplace glass door(s) for your session?

[Michail_P]

Looking at your shot , I wanna say I wouldn’t need a flash. The whole concept is revolving around the fire. So maybe making it bigger and brighter, then expose for the flames +1~+2 stops and bringing up the shadows in pp. • using a reflector for a secondary source would make nice portrait photos. Just saying, I wouldn’t mind getting a warming atmosphere in low light.
Edit: changing the composition is a great way to avoid your reflection. Self timer should work too.

[W.j.christy]

Thanks for the suggestions! I am going to try a polorizer and start playing with stacking images to see how that works. All you ideas are great!

[morenjavi]

Hello, you have a really lovely daughter!

As you, I like to prepare some pics for sending to the family for Christmas. Usually I took just a classic pic of all the family near a christmas tree.
But a couple years ago, I tried to make something a bit different. I had the idea of my daughter illumitated by a candlelight or similar. Looking for inspiration and setup ideas, I found a really useful video from David Hoey that is... gold. I'm sure you can find inspiration and ideas there.

In my case, I prepared a couple of 'winter pics' that I liked a lot. I don't know if It's exactly your situation, but I think the idea can be useful: a photo where your daughter is illuminated by the fire.
The problem with a fire, or a candlelight, is that the light is really dim, so it's neccesary to add an external (warm) light to simulate that the subject is illuminated by the candlelight (or fire).

But it's better to see David's video, who explain such concepts way better than me . The setup is simple, you just need a candlelight or similar, and only one external light with an orange gel.

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