Portrait Help with 2 light umbrellas

[mishmatta]

I recently purchased a light kit that contains 2 umbrellas, 2 light stands and 2 300w bulbs (I think they are considered 75w daylight balanced bulbs).

They are spectacular when it comes to lighting up a room!

My questions (I have 2) are obviously beginners questions, so any input from the pro's would be greatly appreciated!

Question 1) I use one of my two hot shoe flashes along with the umbrellas. Is this correct? I ask because without the flash, even on my tripod, the pictures do not have enough light (I'm talking indoor portraits here). But when I use the flash, I deal with shadows, or an over-exposed look, even when I diffuse the flash. If I step the flash down, I run into the problem of not enough light. I'm having a hard time reaching that happy medium.

Question 2) Other than the umbrellas and the flash, is there any other "lighting" that is a must have for professional looking indoor portraits? I have a few of those home depot clamp lights that I use 120w daylight bulbs in to provide extra lighting for behind the subject, etc.

I really want to elliminate shadows and enhance the studio look. (And I am trying to pull the subjects from the background, along with all the other basic suggestions) So any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks!

[WooD]

What camera settings are you using with your lights?

[mishmatta]

My camera settings varied....

What I settled on for the best lighting was f5.6 1/20 or 1/30. 200iso. I was using my pentax af-200fg with a diffuser. I can post a picture for you to see, but I'm just wondering if a softbox is something I should invest in, and if so, one or two? Should I get a big one to point downward at my subjects to elluminate them?

Attachments are pictures taken yesterday with that setup. Camera setting for each are as follows:

picture #6043: 37.5mm focal length, f5.6, 1/20th, iso 200
picture #6239: 23.1mm focal length, f5.6, 1/30th, iso 200

I should also point out these are night pictures.

[zona5101]

that second one is really quite good...

[k9mom]

I agree, the second is nice -- good composition.

Re: lighting... it would help if you share your light placement, i.e., position, height and angles. Could be the shadows are a product of not having the main light high enough, at the right angle, etc. Also, a reflector might be useful for fill to soften the hard shadows you're concerned with...

Here are some articles/videos that might be of help:

Tutorial: Umbrella Lighting

pro photo life » Blog Archive » video: episode 14, the classic three light portrait

pro photo life » Blog Archive » video: episode 13 , beautiful portraits with just one light

pro photo life » Blog Archive » video: episode 12 , quality of light

(there are a lot more useful videos at pro photo life worth checking out)

[Benji]

Originally Posted by mishmatta

I recently purchased a light kit that contains 2 umbrellas, 2 light stands and 2 300w bulbs (I think they are considered 75w daylight balanced bulbs).

They are spectacular when it comes to lighting up a room!

My questions (I have 2) are obviously beginners questions, so any input from the pro's would be greatly appreciated!

Question 1) I use one of my two hot shoe flashes along with the umbrellas. Is this correct? I ask because without the flash, even on my tripod, the pictures do not have enough light (I'm talking indoor portraits here). But when I use the flash, I deal with shadows, or an over-exposed look, even when I diffuse the flash. If I step the flash down, I run into the problem of not enough light. I'm having a hard time reaching that happy medium.

Question 2) Other than the umbrellas and the flash, is there any other "lighting" that is a must have for professional looking indoor portraits? I have a few of those home depot clamp lights that I use 120w daylight bulbs in to provide extra lighting for behind the subject, etc.

I really want to elliminate shadows and enhance the studio look. (And I am trying to pull the subjects from the background, along with all the other basic suggestions) So any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

The two images you posted here are two on camera flash lit shots. The other two lights that you used in their creation were doing basically nothing photographically other than adding some additional ambient lighting to let the camera focus faster. They didn't affect the exposure of the image in the slightest. What you have done is rather like turning your headlamps on at noon in order to help the sun illuminate the road ahead of you. The flash completely overpowers those little ambient bulbs. You need a/c powered flash units to get professional results IMHO.

Benji

[mishmatta]

K9Mom: Placement.....

Ok. Each umbrella is 300w. umbrellas were on the sides of the subject, slightly to the front of them (closer to the camera). Umbrellas were sitting at about 6 foot. Angled towards the subjects.

Camera was centered about 5 foot away from the subjects.

Clamp light was pointing towards the back of subjects (towards background).

Benji: you said "You need a/c powered flash units to get professional results IMHO". Can you explain what that is exactly. Are you talking about an off-camera flash? I'm not sure if I'm correct in what I'm thinking you mean. If that's what you mean, what do you recommend as far as placment, and am I pointing directly at the subject? Or bouncing it?

Also, if I were to get a softbox, would you recommend a continuous lighting softbox, like my strobe umbrellas, or something that would fit an off camera flash? I haven't done anything with an off-camera flash, so that's new territory to me, but I'm willing to take that path if it gives better results.

And lastly, with a softbox aiding in the lighting, is a flash always going to be necessary or should the continuous lightiing be sufficient?

[archersdad]

Originally Posted by Benji

You need a/c powered flash units to get professional results IMHO.

In my opinion, a photog can create excellent pictures using nothing but battery powered strobes; either on or off camera. For off-camera check out strobist.com(especially their strobist 101 and 102 links on the right side), the strobist flickr group, or my flickr below for some examples. If you want to use on-camera, Neil van Niekerk shoots almost exclusively using on-camera flash and produces some fantastic work.

If you want to use hot-lights, you will either need something a bit more powerful (400W at a minimum) or bump up your exposure by using a larger aperture or higher ISO. There are some good, inexpensive hot-light setups detailed on diyphotography.net.

Your light placement looks good, just make sure you get the lights as close as possible to your subject without intruding into the frame.

[Benji]

Originally Posted by archersdad

In my opinion, a photog can create excellent pictures using nothing but battery powered strobes; either on or off camera. Your light placement looks good, just make sure you get the lights as close as possible to your subject without intruding into the frame.

Yes a professional photographer with 10 or 15 years of experience CAN produce and excellent image using toy d/c powered speedlights, but amateurs can't. With speedlights you have no modeling lights to tell you what you are going to get when the flash goes off, so you shoot, look at the LCD screen, move the light shoot again, move the light again, shoot a third time (and apologize to the client for wasting so much time) and look yet again at the LCD screen and sometimes move them one final time in order to get a pleasing image. Then when you do a different pose, you get to joyfully go through all of that all over again. The pro using real lights (a/c powered flash units) sets up the lights, poses the subject turns the modeling lamp on and checks the lighting, moves the light until he sees what he wants and shoots. A 580 EX is around $380.00. I bought a used a/c powered Photogenic 200 W/S flash unit for $95.00 two weeks ago from a local camera store and it works perfectly. Even new you can find cheap a/c powered units for well under $100.00 that are around 150 W/S.on the 'net.

The image below was shot using my $95.00 used Photogenic 200 W/S unit. In fact EVERY light (except the fill light) that I used in this image I bought used.

Benji

[benjamieson]

Originally Posted by Benji

Yes a professional photographer with 10 or 15 years of experience CAN produce and excellent image using toy d/c powered speedlights

Wow,

That's so way off mark and inane I've deleted the rest of my response for fear of getting banned!

I would suggest anyone considering speedlights as an option for portable lighting utterly ignore the post above this.

Ben