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First attempts in my new basement studio, C&C welcome

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digitalphotoguy

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OK I spent the last few month building out a 13 x 24 space in my basement. The process can be seen here:

http://www.pbase.com/kluken/the_basement_project

I had done a few attempts at pportraits in my living room, but controlling thelighting and the limited space made it tough, I had mixed success with those. Well last week I got my autopoles and my seamless and picked up some plexiglass and my Bees were already moved in. So it was time to do my first shoot witht he new digs and start to get practice. My initial observation is that the LCD on the Canon 5D, whie nice is a horrible indicator of how good or bad the shot is. Shots that looked liek the subjects lighting was too hot were actually the oposite. But at least the full Dr was captured so I coudl fix it in Bibble and PS CS2. So here are a few shots, I woudl love to get some real serious feed back on both thelighting and the finished product. THANKS!







(I feel this one th epose is a little uncomfortable looking and the hair light was off hitting her face, didn;t relaize it until post)



(This one i think the face is a little under exposed)



Previous work can be foound here:
http://www.pbase.com/kluken/portraits
 
is Decent.

Not sure about the looks. Angel wings with that Bizy Bikini ???? ;)

Color seems off as well.

Oh, BTW, buy a light meter, and take all the guess work out. You won't bother looking at a LCD display ;), especially when shooting kids.

--
Regards, Phillip @ Keepsake,

I've never carried bags for anyone, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night ;)
 
THANKS!

I do have a light meter, but I should have trusted it more than my eyes on the LCD. I used the Light meter to get set up then look at the LCD for feedback to tweak, I need to stop doing that. I'm looking at shooting tethered to help take more gues work out of the equation. The skin tones I deliberately saturated that deep, and they seem to look a tad better on my calibrated monitor in PS.
 
Great shots. Looks to me like they could use a little more light on the face. Looks like your key was about level with her head. If you raise it up a little, it will not only throw more light on the face, but it will also get your catchlight at about 2 o'clock and cast a better shadow from the nose.

Please keep in mind that I am learning myself, so take with a grain of salt.

Pretty model and good posing too.
 
I am not sure whether you have "moved" the pictures to sRGB color mode before putting it on the web. Browsers are not Photoshop, do not forget about it.

Otherwise, the pics seem to lack contrast. They are somehow washed out.
 
Phillip.

I'm just curious. How do you look at these and assume no light meter has been used. I have no experience with one and while I understand in theory how one would help... and I just re-read the original post and I see no mention was made of metering...

Do you use one pretty much all the time? or I suppose in your own studio after learning what works you can stick with it and pretty much alter that a bit at a time...
Thanks for the insights.

Keith-as to the shots. The look prett good. (the wings might be a bit much:) but overall nice work - and thanks for posting the studio construction shots.

Doug.
Too much to learn... Too little time.
 
cul8er said:
I am not sure whether you have "moved" the pictures to sRGB color
mode before putting it on the web. Browsers are not Photoshop, do
not forget about it.

Otherwise, the pics seem to lack contrast. They are somehow washed
out.
Click to expand...
I didn;t move it, but my probelm is I always output to sRGB and probably shoudl do a SAVE FOR WEB in PS CS2. I also had some colr settinsg screwed up in PS CS on this batch, I still get confused as to how I have to have the Color MAnagement settings in PS set vs. the PROOF Setup options.
 
dhowell said:
Phillip.
I'm just curious. How do you look at these and assume no light
meter has been used. I have no experience with one and while I
understand in theory how one would help... and I just re-read the
original post and I see no mention was made of metering...
Do you use one pretty much all the time? or I suppose in your own
studio after learning what works you can stick with it and pretty
much alter that a bit at a time...
Thanks for the insights.
Keith-as to the shots. The look prett good. (the wings might be a
bit much:) but overall nice work - and thanks for posting the
studio construction shots.

Doug.
Too much to learn... Too little time.
Click to expand...
Thanks, the wings were her idea, I really want to spend some time cloning out the wing straps and I suggested next time she use a solid colored bikini, like a black, red or white.
 
brent_code3 said:
Great shots. Looks to me like they could use a little more light on
the face. Looks like your key was about level with her head. If you
raise it up a little, it will not only throw more light on the
face, but it will also get your catchlight at about 2 o'clock and
cast a better shadow from the nose.

Please keep in mind that I am learning myself, so take with a grain
of salt.

Pretty model and good posing too.
Click to expand...
Thanks, never realized what you mentioned. I need to get another softbox, I got a medium AB box and it is too small for full length shots, I am going to look at a larger SB for the key and move the smaller one to the fill.
 
After looking more at your studio construction I'm curious, why not just paint everything black instead of draping all the walls and ceiling? Does that allow much more flexibility? I just painted my extra garage space all white and slowly seting up a shooting space (hate to be so presumptuous as to call it a 'studio')...
Thanks again for the shots.
Doug.
 
The OP mentioned looking at the LCD, "My initial observation is that the LCD on the Canon 5D, whie nice is a horrible indicator of how good or bad the shot is. Shots that looked liek the subjects lighting was too hot were actually the oposite."

That tells me right there that the shots weren't metered, or I suspected. He was either looking at the LCD for a hint if he was close, or the histo, or both. When you learn to meter, and setup lighting like you "WANT" the images to be shot in, you don't rely on the camera's LCD to tell you that.

Now having said that, you'll see some pro's shooting with some type of small monitor hooked up to the camera to see what is where and how much needs to be moved. This is usually the case when mulitple lights 5 and more are being used, and the shot they want is very specific, with regard to lighting.

I know in my studio, based on distance of the lighting from the subject, what I should have the camera set at, but I still meter just to make sure I'm very close. I meter all my wedding formal shots which are taken with my studio lighting as well.

--
Regards, Phillip @ Keepsake,

I've never carried bags for anyone, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night ;)
 
pfiltz said:
The OP mentioned looking at the LCD, "My initial observation is
that the LCD on the Canon 5D, whie nice is a horrible indicator of
how good or bad the shot is. Shots that looked liek the subjects
lighting was too hot were actually the oposite."

That tells me right there that the shots weren't metered, or I
suspected. He was either looking at the LCD for a hint if he was
close, or the histo, or both. When you learn to meter, and setup
lighting like you "WANT" the images to be shot in, you don't rely
on the camera's LCD to tell you that.

Now having said that, you'll see some pro's shooting with some type
of small monitor hooked up to the camera to see what is where and
how much needs to be moved. This is usually the case when mulitple
lights 5 and more are being used, and the shot they want is very
specific, with regard to lighting.

I know in my studio, based on distance of the lighting from the
subject, what I should have the camera set at, but I still meter
just to make sure I'm very close. I meter all my wedding formal
shots which are taken with my studio lighting as well.

--
Regards, Phillip @ Keepsake,

I've never carried bags for anyone, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn
last night ;)
Click to expand...
I actually did meter and when I saw the results in the LCD they looked way hot on the face, so I cranked both lights down a few notches. I am still learning lighting and metering and on a previous shoot in less than ideal cirumstances I metered and trusted it and foudn all the shots to have hot skin tones, I suspect it was all the bouncinga nd reflecting light. this room has the walls covered with Commando cloth so I have much more control, so I will learn to trust the meter and ignore the LCD. I am also looking at shooting tethered as I have a computer with calibrated CRT in the room and can get instant feedback.
 
I wanted full control over any bounce and reflected light. The Commando cloth is non-refelective, while even a flat black paint will refect light. With such a tight space I wanted to avoid stray light. I had to crank up my AB1600's to full power with colored gels against the commandoto get a decent backgound s it tell me it is controling the spill great. Also if I want to convert the room back to anything else not as hard to repaint white as it would be for black.
 
I really shouldn't comment as I too 'just' got my hobby studio set up, so keep that in mind...

I think the whitebalance might be off. I noticed that even when using auto and flash preset white balance on my camera, skin tones came out too red. I set a custom w/b using an Expo disc and firing a shot into the strobes. That seemed to correct the issue.

just a thought.

--
Jesse A.
-------Ultra-Amature Time Capture Snatcher--------
My stock photo portfolio
http://www.dreamstime.com/resp155987
and other photos http://jascher.smugmug.com/
 
I'd change the composition to include more of her chest. For example, on the second shot, you'd have a perfect "border" if you just included the border of her sweater/top. On that first one, try including the entire bustline-- that usually helps a shot feel more natural and not as cut-off.

Just a personal preference, but shooting on plexi often works better if you prop the model up on something and shoot from a bit lower-- this model looks like she may not be on the tall side already and your shooting angle doesn't help much. Lovely model though.

I also find the gray bands top and bottom on the full length shots a bit distracting. Again, just a personal preference, but I think it's more effective to either go all white or all gray for a backdrop.

Also, on your meter-- it may need calibrating. This is easy to do and it's not uncommon for meters to be a half-stop off or so.
--
Pete Springer
http://www.petespringer.com
 
dogwood said:
I'd change the composition to include more of her chest. For
example, on the second shot, you'd have a perfect "border" if you
just included the border of her sweater/top. On that first one,
try including the entire bustline-- that usually helps a shot feel
more natural and not as cut-off.
Click to expand...
Thanks, good point, never realized it.
dogwood said:
Just a personal preference, but shooting on plexi often works
better if you prop the model up on something and shoot from a bit
lower-- this model looks like she may not be on the tall side
already and your shooting angle doesn't help much. Lovely model
though.
Click to expand...
Yeah, my problem is ceiling height. My studio is only about 13 wide by 24 long, and the ceiling is 9.5, between the seamless hanging and the hair light I am tight on head room. But I will try some things to see if I can improve on this one, again thanks!
dogwood said:
I also find the gray bands top and bottom on the full length shots
a bit distracting. Again, just a personal preference, but I think
it's more effective to either go all white or all gray for a
backdrop.
Click to expand...
Yah me too, I need to try reprocessing these. This is due to my lighting being off, it was white seamless and I pretty much bothced the lighting, the BG lights are way over powering the foreground so the WB is coming up off. I will focus more on getting the lighting better next time.
dogwood said:
Also, on your meter-- it may need calibrating. This is easy to do
and it's not uncommon for meters to be a half-stop off or so.
Click to expand...
I have the Sekonic 358 and I may send it back to them as it shoudl still be under warranty and have them check it. Also I know Canon cameras are notories of being off a bit on their ISO, so the meter may be right but the camera may be off.

Again thanks!!
dogwood said:
--
Pete Springer
http://www.petespringer.com
Click to expand...
 
No need to send the meter back-- it's not a problem with the meter. Sekonic actually has a way for you to fix it yourself. It's covered in other threads here -- the exact steps elude me. Chuck is well versed on the steps-- it basically involves a facemask histogram, seeing if you're under or over exposed, and holding down the right keys on the meter (I have the details somewhere-- can't find them right now) and changing the meter slightly. I'm sure there's better info somewhere else on the web too-- just wanted to post to let you know it's easy to do yourself and actually recommended to do it before each shoot (though it's rare for anybody to actually follow this). I just shoot in RAW so I can make the adjustments myself in post.
--
Pete Springer
http://www.petespringer.com
 
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