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Photoshoot in studio with 15-50 S and NX1'body flash, any advice ?

Started May 13, 2016 | Discussions
DjBastien New Member • Posts: 10
Photoshoot in studio with 15-50 S and NX1'body flash, any advice ?
1

Hello everyone!
I am a newbie in the world of photography and I need your help.
Tomorrow I will shoot a friend in a studio we rent for an hour.
I don't have any experience shooting in studio as well as taking portrait pictures. However I am really happy to have this great opportunity tomorrow.

This is the only gear I own:
Samsung NX1
15-50 S

My model also has no experience (except for selfies hehe).
The goal of this photoshoot is to help her setting up a portfolio and she also needs pictures for an application.
The pictures that she needs are pretty basic: http://imgur.com/8WVwmQ4
but once again we both have no experience.

Do you have any advice regarding the setup of the lights to achieve good results?
Do I need to use a flash in a well-lit studio? If so, how should I set up the flash of my NX1?
Any advice in general that you would give to a beginner?

Thank you for your help!

Samsung NX1 Samsung NX11
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Finder80
Finder80 Regular Member • Posts: 267
Re: Photoshoot in studio with 15-50 S and NX1'body flash, any advice ?
3

I would advise you not to get into a studio without some training or at least some idea of what you're getting into. Otherwise there's no advantage I can think of taking pictures in a studio.

If a white background like your example picture isn't mandatory, just go outside in the shade for more flattering lighting, with a nice blurred background using the larger aperture to your advantage.

 Finder80's gear list:Finder80's gear list
Samsung NX500 Sony a7R II Fujifilm X-T3
OP DjBastien New Member • Posts: 10
Re: Photoshoot in studio with 15-50 S and NX1'body flash, any advice ?
1

Finder80 wrote:

I would advise you not to get into a studio without some training or at least some idea of what you're getting into. Otherwise there's no advantage I can think of taking pictures in a studio.

If a white background like your example picture isn't mandatory, just go outside in the shade for more flattering lighting, with a nice blurred background using the larger aperture to your advantage.

Thanks for your feedback

I don't think the white background is mandatory but it is a personal preference. I like the 'clean' feeling it provides. In my surroundings I can't think of any other place with a plain and clean background with decent lighting.

It is true that beforehand I could have trained myself outdoor, but the rent was cheap and out of curiosity I want to know what it takes to shoot in a professional environment (setup, lightning, ...). I know I am going unprepared, but tomorrow's shooting is nothing serious, and it will certainly help me next the time I'll come back after much training and preparation.

As of now I would like to know how can I make the best out of my modest rig for tomorrow, and whether I should use the flash?

Once again, any remark is much appreciated

otto k Senior Member • Posts: 2,252
Re: Photoshoot in studio with 15-50 S and NX1'body flash, any advice ?
1

What finder80 said.

TLDR go watch some YouTube videos on the subject - Matt Granger and the like.

OTOH shoot at 50mm f/8 1/100s or faster, do use the flashes (do they come with the studio, ask them what they have of flashes, softboxes, reflectors, etc). If you have just your on camera flash you should mostly forget  about it  or use it as a fill flash and use larger apertures and slower shutter to be in lower ISO range. Again, see some videos on the subject. 

Ifyou are not satisfied by results in the studio, go outside, find an open shade (under the tree or similar) and you will get much better results. If the background is far away and not too busy it will look fine (it will be mostly blurred at f/2.8 or similar).

But, if you want to shoot in studio in the future you should get a flash and use to use it off camera - either by extension cord, radio or optical trigger, etc.

 otto k's gear list:otto k's gear list
Canon EOS 600D Samsung NX1000 Samsung NX500 Sony a6400 Samsung NX 30mm F2 Pancake +10 more
Finder80
Finder80 Regular Member • Posts: 267
Re: Photoshoot in studio with 15-50 S and NX1'body flash, any advice ?
1

And like Otto said, if you are shooting inside the studio anyway, use off camera flash, never on camera. Figure out a way to trigger the off camera flash, optical, by wire or radio transmitter.

Easiest way to get decent lighting is by putting the flash in an umbrella or softbox and place it at an 45 degree angle to your subject, pointing down at your subject at an 45 degree angle. It would be nice to have some kind of reflector to light the shadow side of the subjects face so its not too dark.

If a gray background if fine, stick with the above formula, otherwise you will need to light it to make it white. Put a second flash behind the subject, pointed at the background to do this. Make sure the subject isnt too close to the background when you do this to avoid light spilling on her too (reflected by the background).

There are some youtube movies you can watch, search for a one light setup. Gavin Hoey of adorama has some easy to understand ones.

Goodluck and let us know how it worked out!

 Finder80's gear list:Finder80's gear list
Samsung NX500 Sony a7R II Fujifilm X-T3
trac63 Contributing Member • Posts: 814
Re: Photoshoot in studio with 15-50 S and NX1'body flash, any advice ?
1

DjBastien wrote:

Do you have any advice regarding the setup of the lights to achieve good results?
Do I need to use a flash in a well-lit studio? If so, how should I set up the flash of my NX1?

Are there strobes with wireless triggers available?

If so, one would typically use a flash meter to set up each of the strobes individually. Basically, you stand where the model will be and take an incidental light reading for each light source.

Keep it simple. One key light and one fill light is all most people need.

OP DjBastien New Member • Posts: 10
Re: Photoshoot in studio with 15-50 S and NX1'body flash, any advice ?
2

Hi all,

First of all thank you for all of your precious pieces of advice, they really helped me! I have watched videos about the different ways to trigger external flashes and how to set up good studio lightning.

Concerning the lightning, the owner of the studio helped me to set up a huge softbox hanging from the ceiling and placed at around 45°C of the subject and a reflector by the other side of the subject .

The problem was how to trigger the softbox. The radio trigger wouldn't work with my camera and I don't have any external flash. So I figured out a way to optically trigger the softbox with my nx1 body flash without flooding my subject with unwanted light by placing a piece of tape right in front of the flash (slightly folded in the middle otherwise it wouldn't trigger the softbox). Looks crappy but did the job really well  Sometimes the flash wouldn't trigger the softbox resulting in the picture becoming very dark, but it happened very rarely.

I shot everything between 35mm and 50mm with the biggest aperture. I somehow was really into having ISO 100 that I didn't really pay attention to the shutter speed (between 1/80 and 1/100 but sometimes as low as 1/60). I will be more careful next time! Nevertheless, I am happy with the pictures I took, some of them have sharp details.

I used face detection + manually adjust the focus (zoom and focus peaking on the eyes when i could)

My model turned out to feel pretty comfortable posing for the pictures for a first time, the music did help I guess. I also had to make the effort to be more talkative that I usually am to not let the silence come in.

To conclude, it was really enriching and worth it! Thanks again for your comments. Next session will be outdoor!

I'm just letting in a few samples

slightly out of focus silly me

otto k Senior Member • Posts: 2,252
Re: Photoshoot in studio with 15-50 S and NX1'body flash, any advice ?
2

Don't be afraid, ISO 200 looks the same, anything up to 800 you can print to 60x40cm with no issues.

Iwould shoot with faster shutter, especially with movement - 1/100s or faster.

Two images are front focused - when shooting portraits you want the focus on the eye so use smallest point for focus, place it where you want the eye to be and trust the af. You can also use focus and recompose but with this camera there is no need for it really. The images will look ok scaled down.

All in all  nice images for your first try on studio, I think your friend will be pleased as well

 otto k's gear list:otto k's gear list
Canon EOS 600D Samsung NX1000 Samsung NX500 Sony a6400 Samsung NX 30mm F2 Pancake +10 more
Mr.NoFlash Senior Member • Posts: 2,374
Re: Photoshoot in studio with 15-50 S and NX1'body flash, any advice ?
1

Select a number of poses for basic shots - poses which look good on the type of person you shoot ( so look for pictures of similar models ).

For face portraits with the 16-50 use digital zoom ( perhaps only possible jpg-only ) and test this before the shoot.

I see you already had the studio time - so my advice is for outdoor also

 Mr.NoFlash's gear list:Mr.NoFlash's gear list
Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W1 Leica Digilux 3 Samsung NX300 Fujifilm X-M1
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