johnrennie wrote:
This is one of the few times where shutter was a factor in studio. I dragged the shutter down to 1/15 and had the model pose as still as possible to catch the candle-light flicker.
This one was hand-held, typically you'd need a tripod. I skipped my morning coffee to prevent hand-shake, lol.
I'm to old to hand hold at 1/15, gotta use a tripod. Very fine photo, like the lighting, the model and the composure, all well done. Anyway, please remember this is just my opion, OK? The frist is the models eyes. She seems to be consintrating on something off screen and she looks like a deer cought in headlights. Maybe , yes I realize she must be perfectly still due to shutter speed, if she had closed her eyes. That would have produced a more romantic scean. Her right leg is above the rim of the tub. No problem except you see part of the negligee she has on. Have her sit all the way down into the tub or slide the negligee down below the tub rim and slide the strap down off . Make for an implied nude. Please don't get the idea I'm telling you how to take a photograph, you probley make $5,000,000 a day on your photo's. I just wanted to point out items that distracted me when I frist viewed the photo. Doing good work, keepit up.
Val
Loc: Minnesota
johnrennie wrote:
This is one of the few times where shutter was a factor in studio. I dragged the shutter down to 1/15 and had the model pose as still as possible to catch the candle-light flicker.
This one was hand-held, typically you'd need a tripod. I skipped my morning coffee to prevent hand-shake, lol.
You did a great job with clarity with such a slow shutter speed. The rule is nothing handheld slower than 1/60. Fabuloso!
Thanks! Yeah, I never shoot below 1/60 this was a rarity and I was really surprised I got the shot. It was years ago but I think I was balancing my elbow on my knee.
Human tripod!
Mike... no offense taken at all, your comment's were great. I see what you mean
she had a bit of a dead stare, most likely because I had her remain so still. I liked the idea of closed eyes, wonder how that would have looked. This was her first shoot, she went on to build a very impressive modeling port.
I also see what you meant by the negligée in view. This wasnt an implied shoot however, it was boudoir. Since this is a family site, I didnt post the other images in the set
trying to keep it clean, lol.
John very elegant pictures. I'd like to know more about the setting you used and what lighting. The young lady is a very pretty in those shots. Great work. Maybe someday I'll be able to shoot someone and do as good a job as you.
John very elegant pictures. I'd like to know more about the setting you used and what lighting. The young lady is a very pretty in those shots. Great work. Maybe someday I'll be able to shoot someone and do as good a job as you.
johnrennie wrote:
Some of my earlier work.
Comments welcome!
Very nice work, between the women and the animal, boy you've got it ruff, John.
Thank you Mike, those were sets from 4 separate models. The lighting was different for each set, but typically, I used a very large softbox as my mainlight, a reflector, a hairlight (rectangular or strip softbox) and sometimes a fill-light (shoot-through umbrella) or side-light (long rectangular softbox).
In studio, while using strobes I always shoot at 100 ISO for the best clarity, Im typically on a tripod and shooting between 1/50 and 1/250 on the shutter. Studio lighting is all about your aperture setting, Ill get into that in a sec
I keep my mainlight really close to my models face
typically just out of frame. As with the law of thirds for landscape photography, there is also a law of thirds for softboxes. Divide your box into thirds and never position on the center third. Your light with be feathered and softer from the outer thirds. I like to position the light high, then angle down. When Im able, I look closely at the models eye and look for the catch-light to be between 2-3 oclock (assuming Im lighting up the left side of her face).
When photogs buy their first set of studio strobes the common mistake is to set one up on the right, one on the left. I was very guilty of this when I started out. Thats bad lighting and creates goofy shadows. You want some shading to add depth. Mainlight on one side, reflector on the other, if the reflector aint cutting it add some fill with a shoot through umbrella far away from the subject and high up, angled down. Your softboxes should never be equal distances.
As for aperture
ya gotta have a lightmeter to do it right. It doesnt have to be top of the line, but I prefer the remote meters because theyre way more convenient. I almost always shoot alone without the helpfulness of having an assistant on hand. I like to set my main light between F8 and F11 (in studio). All other lightsettings are a ratio from your main light. The shadowside of the face Ill set 2 to 3 steps below the mainlight, the hair and side lights Ill set 1 step below. If I want that blown-out white background I keep the model at least 6 ft away from the backdrop, use barn-doors on my rear strobes to control spill light and set them high up as I can, angled down and at least 3 steps above my main.
Strobes come with sculpting lights, use them so that you can get an idea of where all of your light will be in the end shot. You have to do a lot of visualizing when shooting with strobes and the sculpting lights really help you do that. In order to use sculpting lights you have to be in a studio or an area where you can kill all the other ambient light. I flip the room lights back on before shooting however so that the model does not have enlarged pupils.
I even use strobes when shooting out-doors, except now the sun is my mainlight and my strobes are my fill, I then measure everything off the sun.
I love talking about photography and sharing my techniques. When other photogs ask me questions I take that as a huge compliment, so thanks for all of your comments and feel free to pick my brain anytime, its a pleasure.
Great work! Love to see more and pick your brain as you give some fantastic lighting set up descriptions.
Bravo!
-Bryan-
Thanks Bryan, I'll post a few more soon with some specifics on each photo... if I can remember them, lol.
I hope this image is not too risqué for a family oriented site, and my apologies if it is offensive to anyone, but its a really cool example of a simple, yet creative lighting set-up.
I shot this one at my friends studio. The set was built. There are only 2 strobes used, a really big 6x8 set high on the left and tilted down. Look at the catch-light in her eye and you can tell exactly where we positioned the main light. The fill light, which also acted as a side-light due to its size was positioned outside the window. So the light from that window is the strobe we used for fill.
Main Light F11
Fill Light F11
Absolutely stunning models and stunning photography!
John several years ago I shot Infared color slides. I hope maybe you can tell me why I haven't been able to see any of the Digital IF color that even closely resembles the film IF color and can digital be made to resemble the film pictures. And if it can please tell me how it may be done. thank you MIke
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