All the shots from my camera are untouched so a true assessment can be made. note:
Alex posed as a lighting test subject, no direction of posing was made.
For the rest, I will list what needs improvement on posing and lighting.
-Shot all on 85mm with varying aperatures of f4 and f5.6. I started out with this error without realizing it until after the shoot; the apertures were too low. There is lack of focus on the two person shots, the subject behind is blurred. Shoot at least f8 or above to grab both planes of focus.
-The rim lighting is a miss. Here, the light became more of a side lighting; a better position would be placing the light high above and more behind the model. My Manfrotto clamp would be useful in that case.
-Some distracting elements in the foreground, caught unaware by me until importing into the pc. Taking the time to move objects is worth the effort.
-Shooting from behind the shoot through umbrella caused light leak into the camera causing lack of contrast - those images where it had whiteness throughout.
-Unnecessary shadows under the noses, caused by light source being off axis of subject's face.
-Poses could be pushed more by introducing more angles, not viewfinder-wise but by bending the poses themselves. More tilts, weight leaning, elbows out.
Post your suggestions in the Comments. And hope this will help out in your scenarios.
3 comments:
Next time we'll get that clam shell lighting. I don't know what was up with my 580. I had never had that problem before. But I have never had it mounted directly to the shoe either. My trigger fits in between the cold shoe and flash.
It's interesting that you got light leak resulting in low contrast (washed out look). I didn't find any of that in my few shots. I think it could be that lens and it's wide aperture or something about the hood or design.
I must say though, we need to find a better location next week (though I don't think I can make it). It worked well for the break poses, but for portraits, it was a bit cramped and the background was so ugly.
Just got some additional notes from Nikonians. To brief:
-black on black - crop in more
-softbox would be better choice
-raise rim lighting
-hide chair grill
Well in PS for mine, I've hidden the chair and made the black, darker (some dirt splotches that were reflecting light are now gone).
Softbox does prevent light spill. One of my contacts on flickr has this really nice gridded softbox. I would love one of those, but they're uber expensive.
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