[Dave]

Killing 2 birds with 1 stone here.

1) Rob popped a decent review of this bargain bit of kit for £15 .... so I bought one :- http://www.pixalo.com/community/supp...tml#post176444
2) Les challenged me to try out lo key lighting. Studio Shoot - Window Light + Fill in Light

So I've used my SB-800 flashgun (with diffuser) off to 1 side of still life subject, using Phottix Wireless Remote. Used a piece of white paper to right side of object to push some light back on to black background to provide a bit more texture to shot, but also highlight edges of statue head.

Has it worked Should I try firing flash through sheet of grease proof paper to diffuse light further ? Any advice welcome

[Les Meehan]

Dave, good effort! I'm going to give you a detailed critique OK? I know you are keen to do studio stuff.

Whenever I see any image where the subject contains a face I look at it as a portrait/model shot to assess the lighting, then as a still-life. So, in this example I would look at the lighting on the face to check the position of the main light. Here I see that the nose shadow is quite strong and this is the first one I look for. In this case the nose shadow is virtually going sideways, as opposed to e.g. going downward, indicating your flash was almost level with the middle of the face. I suspect you did this because of the brim of the helmet blocking the light from the eyes if you placed it higher. OK, having established where your light is I now look where the shadow ends i.e. the tip of the nose bit and see here that it doesn't quite touch where the cheek shadow is. A useful hint for lighting a face: either have the nose shadow touch the cheek shadow to form the classic 'triangular' lighting OR reduce the length of the nose shadow to echo the shape of the nose better. Also, having the nose shadow going downward always looks more natural since we are used to the Sun being in the sky above. In the position in this image the nose shadow is probably in the worse place possible creating that rather odd shaped highlight on the near cheek.

The reflected light is quite warm, what did you use for this (a table lamp or coloured card?) Although this is a low key image, I would have liked a hint of detail in the darkest parts (this may be present in the original so ignore if so). This is where expert control of lighting shows itself. Since with studio lighting you have TOTAL control, you need to be able to match the lighting contrast to your camera/intention: you cannot blame the weather if the contrast isn't right or whatever. In these digital days, I would suggest that having too much fill light is better than too little since you can always darken shadows later in post-process whereas if the lighting contrast is so high that the shadows are empty i.e. no detail, you cannot get any detail back later.

Have you studied the idea of lighting ratios? If not, I would suggest we have a chat about them.

The BG, I would have been tempted to light the BG to give some tonal gradation i.e. a graduated light to dark from behind subject (to start with). Many pros do this automatically to separate the subject from the BG even with low key shots. Totally black BG's are not as common in pro work as in amateur pics. Again, I appreciate that in this image you may have more detail than I can see here and you do mention bouncing some light into the BG.

You ask about making the light softer. This is usually dependant on the surface qualities of the subject. In this case, metal tends to reflect strong highlights and thus would suggest a large, soft light source so yes making a trace screen would be good here (and for people/models too). Bear in mind that the softer light source will affect the edges of the shadows and you need to ask what it is you want for the subject/image.

I think that will do for now, thanks for having a go at this following my suggestion. Using a 'bust' is useful for practicing since you don't have to worry about inter-action with a static subject (I also use a head bust for messing about with ideas).

Hope some of this helps for next time.

Cheers

Les

[Les Meehan]

Dave

Just dug out this old sample of triangle lighting to show how the nose shadow meets the cheek shadow. Ignore quality, its very old scan!

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Les Meehan

Have you studied the idea of lighting ratios? If not, I would suggest we have a chat about them.

Nope


Tx for the advice Les ... will have another play

[Dave]

Another play to try & get shadows in right place. Bit of nightmare having the rim of helmet . Did try to bounce some back with white paper as reflector, but it eother lost all the shadows, or at least most on face apart form the darkest one caused by helmet. Note I wanted to keep it dark & moody, so have no problems with shadows blending into background on this shot.



Ah well, will play some more & sort out lighting for grad background

[Rob Barron]

I like your first one best here Dave. Only two things I would change:
1 - Clone out the orange reflection on the left cheek as that looks a bit like this soldier has rosy cheeks <g>

2 - Use a slightly narrower aperture to bring the rear shoulder into focus. It might be that you deliberately wanted it to fade away into the BG, not sure.

I'm not sure how much more diffused you can make the light but if you can spread the white light more then I would dfinitely do that. There seems to be two different coloured lights reflected here, the bright white of the flash and a more orangey light which could be a house light or it might be a reflected light carrying the colour of the card or wall or whatever it is bouncing off.

It definitely has a dark and sober feel to it so you have achieved that well and there is enough separation between statue and BG for it to be clearly defined. The angle is good with just enough showing of the statue's right eye and cheek.

Good to see you're making use of the Phottix, I can't fault mine at all.

Cheers,
Rob

[Les Meehan]

Dave

I'm looking at your first image now in a darkened room and it looks loads better than before (sorry had too much light in room). This negates some of my criticism regarding lack of detail in shadows.

Les

[Dave]

Didn't want to say your monitor was a tad off

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by Les Meehan

Dave

I'm looking at your first image now in a darkened room

Les

Is that part of the treatment?

[Les Meehan]

Originally Posted by Dave

Didn't want to say your monitor was a tad off

Dave, tell me, tell me, tell me, if I make comments that don't tie in with what you see in the image. I often have the sunshine coming through my office window while surfing the net and of course that completely messes up my display which I tend to forget in the heat of the moment.

New years res, only comment on images when I'm sitting alone in the dark (preferably after taking several glasses of my chosen medication ) so my monitor image looks proper.

Sorry matey!

[Les Meehan]

Originally Posted by Dabhand16

Is that part of the treatment?

Yes, with copious amounts of Rioja to keep me going!

[Dave]

NP Les, as I have same problems cruising Pixalo on laptop , until I get on main rig with decent screen

[nichpr]

Dave, one of my goals this winter is to work on my still life and studio skills with my new found favorite technique of off camera flash. In fact, just got a second speedlight that I can use with the Nikon CLS. The CLS will allow me to adjust the power of the off camera flashes on the fly from the camera. So, in the case of the reflected light on the shadow side of your bust above, you could increase or decrease as needed once you see your first efforts.
Les, want to say how much I appreciate your detailed comments regarding how to manage the facial shadows. I learned a lot in just that one or two paragraph of yours above. - Thanks