How I shot the piggy

[jeffreyw]

Hey,

First of all, sorry for posting 2 images. I know the rules say 1 image per thread but you'll soon see why I made two.

Anywho, this is a picture of my saving pig I made today in my improvised DIY home studio thing.

I used the following settings on my camera (Nikon D300S):
Focal 56mm (Lense is a Nikkor 18-200mm VR II)
S 100 / 5f
ISO 200
Strobe power output1/10th in a shoot tru umbrella.

I used a small glass table with a normal light bulb under it lighting up under the piggy. My main light source is front right of my camera (Nikon SB-600). There is a reflector left of the piggy (which is a silver umbrella :P). Here's a image of the set up:


I didn't do much post processing except for a little bit of tweaking in lightroom.

Any advice on how I could have done this better with the limited equipment I have? (This is all I own). I was also wondering; do you think this image is over exposed?

Hope to hear what you guys think

PS I even made up the bed before I took the 2nd image :P

[jeffreyw]

Was it that bad that no one replied? I'm dying to know what others think really. If it's not well taken then please do share (we can only learn as much from our mistakes if we're being told we made them )

[Nicole]

It's not really a bad thing that nobody replied. How I Took It tends to focus on you as the original poster providing a description of how you shot it, there aren't usually tons and tons of replies. If you're looking for more critique of your shot you could try reposting in the critique area.

On my screen the piggy looks a little underexposed compared to the background. Was there a particular look you were trying to achieve with this shot? e.g. white seemless background, ominous shadows over the piggy bank, reflection of the piggy bank in the bottom of the shot, or something else altogether?

[vijaysanand]

the piggy shot is awesome! Thats an interesting thought about lighting technique. I would like to try that too!

[Daytonj6]

One thing I will say, cause I don't know much about fixing lights (I am still learning how to and all).

If you have PS, guessing you do cause you have a high-end Nikon.
Reconstruct her eyes.

use the eyedropper to select the yellow in her eyes, use the brush with that selected colour and get it fitted with the rest. use a hardness of anywhere between 80-100% and dab it.
Both eyes, and then shrink it, use a nice black shade, and dab the pupils in.


this in my opinion will make her look less 'sad'