Richard #10917320

The problem for lighting models is that they move. She was in my apartment kitchen, which is about 15x12. The room is fairly light in color, but has only one window, which is not at all placed well for photos. I like soft light for the most part, and trying to make light look natural, though we will be shooting soon with more variations and some harder angles, and a little more skin... But this shoot was limited in that is wan't in a studio, and I had very little equipment.

I had pretty much just moved from the US to Romania (arrived October 2, this was October 5th). I brought "portable" lighting... 3 YongNuo flash heads (an amazing value) and several umbrellas for lighting. Regretfully I found out the day of the shoot that I forgot the flash head mounts for the light stands. That made it a little difficult to adjust the position of the flash heads, which I had to place using the plastic stand they come with, and propped them on chairs with the umbrellas. There is a fairly simple, classic 2-1 light ratio on the umbrellas (right and left) and I believe I was shooting 1/128 power with the on-camera head pointed at the ceiling, or even slightly back from the subject. I sometimes put a toilet paper tube on the on-camera flash as the trip (ridiculously effective solution), and that way I can use the third flash for back or hair lighting, and it front fills slightly, but I prefer to have the head on camera adjustable so I can fill when I want, mute, etc. I had purchased remote units for the flashes, but they didn't arrive before I left. Obviously not the most sophisticated setup, but you can't always shoot in a fully equipped studio. The shoot was supposed to be fun, a little casual. I just love shooting with her... not all models are fun, creative and enthusiastic, and sometimes you need to encourage them. I never have to work to get her interested. She has absolutely no makeup on. She just looks like that.

Like most of my shots there is post-processing. Here there is some contrast enhancement, a little color saturation, sharpening AND softening. I probably slightly lightened the white of her eye, and enhanced the natural lip color slightly. The depth-of-field effects are as shot with the 2.8 EX lens wide open. Note the very sharp wisps of hair above her face, and the blurred ones surrounding her face. I appear to have been focused on the tip of her nose. I believe I took something like 700 photos in 3 hours with several costume changes and varied settings.

So my question is, why the question? I assume you don't like the lighting? I'm honestly not quite sure why this shot seems so top-lit, as the umbrellas were below eye-level to the right and left (as you can see in the catch light). I'm shooting up from the floor, which explains some of it...

Have I got you covered?

Richard #10918597

For a long time people were my least favorite subject, mostly because they moved and I just didn't have the right equipment. One of the first times I shot Carmen, she surprised me by taking me to a restaurant where she worked as a belly dancer... The Sigma camera I had with me was wonderful for many things, but not low-light. I hadn't brought an external flash because she didn't tell me where we were going. But I've shot concerts with it, but it is FAR better to shoot low light and people with my Canon 7D. I use the same lenses (purchased for the Canon mount) that I used with the Sigma, and that helped my cross over. But I still keep the Sigma for digital Infrared, and some special equipment I use.

#10918868