Portraits

[clemmb]

I usually shoot outdoors. This is the first time this year I used my lights. A Sunpak 120J in umbrella for fill, 120J in softbox for key and Vivitar 285 in softbox for hair. All shot with 5D @ ISO 160, 24-105 @ 105/f11.


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[Mark Elberson]

I think they look great! Can you tell me more about your lighting setup (locations, distances, etc.)?

[Maleko]

Awesome shots there.

[Chuck Lee]

Mark,


Beautiful work. Your a strobist dude! The light on the infant's face in #2 is "wow!"


The only critique I would offer is that they seem a little crop cramped. I know you may have done this for the post here. You'll definitely want to add room around the images before they're framed. Oh, and I just noticed, the older girl in #4 needs here teeth whitened. Lasso in PS and using hue and saturaturation to desaturate yellow. Works like a champ and she'll have that white Orbit glinting smile. Tip: Thelarge pupil in the eyes indicate a very low level of ambient light before the flash. You can control the amount of color in the eyes by controlling the ambient room light that controls the pupil size. If your flashes are bright you'll never see the ambient in the photo.


I have never shot on black. I want to try this now.


1) What material did you use for your backdrop and arm rest drape?


2) Did you need to post proccess out flaws in the material?

[clemmb]

<span style="font-size: medium;"]Thanks for the complements and suggestions. I have always been a strobist. I feel I have improved quite a bit this year because of the discussions on this forum(thanks all). I set this up in my living room. Pretty tight quarters to work with.
The fill light is a Sunpak 120J reflecting in a 41&rdquo; Translucent Umbrella on a light stand behind me up high. About 12&rsquo; from the subjects. The other 120J in a softbox [url="http://www.photoflex.com/Photoflex_Products/LiteDome_xs/index.html]Photoflex LiteDome X-Small 12x16x9[/url] camera right as close to subject as possible one to two head heights above them. The vivitar 285 with a [url="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/62832-REG/Westcott_2200_Micro_Apollo_Softbox_.html]Westcott Micro Apollo Softbox - 5x8" (13x20cm)[/url] mounted over the subject with a [url="http://www.photoflex.com/Photoflex_Products/LiteDisc_Holder/index.html]Photoflex LiteDisc Holder[/url] as a boom.
The 120Js set to half power. At half power they recycle fast and are about the same power as the Vivitar 285 at full power. I had 1-1/3 stop difference between the key and fill. Vivitar set to &frac14; power.


<span style="font-size: medium;"]I have had the backdrop for over 20 years. That&rsquo;s how long I have been a strobist. I went to a fabric store and found a black material that I liked. I had the lady sew two together to get the width I needed. It is hung about 3 feet behind the subject. Being black you cannot see the seam. In the third photo I did blur the foreground a little so you could not see the fuzzies. She was on the floor. I lowered the backdrop so she is on it.



<span style="font-size: medium;"]This is the first time I did this totally wireless using a [url="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/374387-REG/MicroSync_VMTRH_Digital_4_Channel_Radio.html]MicroSync[/url] radio slave. Shure is nice not having a wire connected to my camera.


<span style="font-size: medium;"]
I cropped close because I am planning on putting these in a small announcement book. The type where each page is a photo so there is no frame. I do struggle sometimes with not leaving enough room for cropping to an 8x10 so I installed an 8x10 crop screen in my camera. It gives me guide lines so I do not cut anyones head off. Canon sells these for the 5D but when I was using an XTi I had Brightscreen install for me. If anyone is interested in these you can have them installed by Brightscreen or check out ProCrop.


Mark