First time with two flashes

[abarickman]

I am pretty new to using artificial light. Up to this point I had been working with a single 430EX. My friend just got a 430EX II so I asked to borrow it to try out a 2 light setup. I used my favorite model, my son, sporting his LT jersey. My sister gave him the shirt and wanted a picture of him in it so I was able to kill two birds with one stone.

I wanted to do the simplest lighting setup I could think of that utilized two lights. I used a shoot through umbrella camera right and a rim/hair light behind and to the left. I eyeballed the ratio since I don't have a meter. My model is not the easiest to work with so I did not get a chance to play a lot with the ratios. I think I would have liked to try the hair light a bit softer to see that that would have looked like. I also placed white poster board at his feet because it gave him a spot to stand behind and provided a small amount of fill from below.

Please provide feedback on the exposure and lighting (ie ratios, placement etc). Any other advice is also welcome of course. Be as brutal as you want, I just want to learn.

Exposure: 1/200 at F5.6
ISO 400
Camera: Canon 40D
Lens: 50mm F1.8



Larger: Flickr Photo Download: LT Jr.

[candleman]

looks good for a first attempt.
(good use of reflecor too)

in looking at the image on the right

the Main light looks fine..

Fill light:
i proably would have given a bit more fill with the reflector by holding it against my body or legs.
the hair light would have bounced back off it and created the fill.
you want to fill the shadows on the cheeks a bit.. not necessarily under the chin.


in terms of your settings... they look fine to me..
f/5.6 is good.
you could have dropped the ISO.. but this at least saves you blasting the strobes too hard.. the strobes recycle faster so you can get more "burst" shots in.

the big issue i notice is with your hair/rim light
its too poweful... its actually casting a shadow.. so we have shadows going in two directions (one fro the main light, te other from the hairlight) and thats iun natural to people.. because we are so used to seeing only one light source (the sun) casting shadows in one direction.


2 things i do with my hair/edge lights.

1. make sure it doesnt cast a shadow in the opposte direction.
see the shadow cast by his ear on his cheek?
this means reducing the power.. in combination with the next step..

2. lift it higher
a higher position will illuminate the neck and shoulders more.. you can see the shadow creating a "cut" line across the back of his neck caused by his shoulder.. .
it will also lighten up more of the top of his head.. which loks more natural as thats what we are used to seeing from the sun.

but really.. for a first go.. it looks nice
keep going

and you have a handsome little model there.

[abarickman]

Thanks Candleman. Great feedback. I thought the hair/rim light might have been too bright but I did not know why. Now you have provided me a couple of things to look for and try next time. Thanks alot.

[candleman]

no problem bud

[ARKreations]

Wow - this is a great example and analysis - an initially good subject with concise, constructive, and substantiated feedback clearly illustrating where improvement can be made. I'll definitely put this knowledge to good use. Thanks much to both of you!