OK. ; I am trying to do my sons senior pics. ; Here is a first attempt. ; What can I be doing better? ; He will not be wearing the bright yellow shirt in the final pics. I have the main light camera left at approx 45 degrees to him and angled down approx 45 degrees, the on camera flash as the fill and trigger, ; a gold reflector camera right and a flash directly behind his head at it's lowest power. Any advice would be great.
if you don't have any softbox setup, try something like a layer of wax paper in the front of the flash, or some cheap gels, what kind of light is main left, it seems a little strong, and i think you ned just a smidge more right side, the back of his head kind of goes dark, can you move the on camera flash off, raise it up via a cord, so it's more down angle?? i'm sure some other members will have better or more specific ideas, studio lighting is not my best knowledge are.
Thanks Gary, The main is a 580ex through an umbrella, ; the on camera flash is the pop-up flash on the camera. ; It didn't look to me like the one behind his head was doing much of anything so I can probably move it and make it the fill flash or would it be better to place it camera right to fill in that side of his head?
I have a suggestion too if its not too late. ; I think this kind of portrait almost wants to be shot without the on-camera fill to produce more shadow and add depth. ; You might want to try keeping the setup pretty much the same as it is, but use the on-camera flash only as the trigger for the other two lights. ; I shot this portrait of my sister using one light located camera right just out of the frame while using the setting sun as a backlight, essentially the same setup you're using minus the on-camera flash:
I was trying to copy a pic I got off of a google search. ; That pic looks like it had the main light coming from camera left and had the drum lit with the camera right part darker. ; So I want to try all the suggestions, which were greatly appreciated. ; Now all I have to do is get my son home long enough to try it. ; Was I this busy when I was a senior in high school? ;
Probably busier! Might want to look at that image critically to make sure they're not adding that light to the drum head with a small flash with a CTO gel on it... I agree about getting that flash off camera. Similar to Michael's - one of my daughter's engagement pictures. Shooting with a 70-200 zoomed with my son just to their left, about 5' in front of them, with a flash at the end of a monopod w/umbrella (uncropped). I really like to try and get the flash to look like there's no flash there - that the light looks natural. But, as always, look at the shadows, compare it to the sun direction and tell me where the light's coming from... (Hard to keep that sunlight under control with white stuff behind them ; ; )
Creek Park @ La Mirada, CA. It's over a mile long, about 200 yards wide. During the rains, it was freakin awesome to see the creek transformed to a river...
