Critique My Portrait Using Getto Lighting!...

[GMAN]

Here's my 1st portrait of my son...I'd like to enhance the light a bit more, so any advice would be much appricated. I used my Canon XSI on manual. I use two cheap spot lights that I purchased from the local hardware store. The main light I used had a 300 watt bulb that I had hanging above and to his right. The other 75 watt bulb was connected to the back of the stool he was sitting on, pointing back toward the wall, slightly tilted upward!..I like the image, and being that used manual mode, I did fairly well, I think?...Want more light?...


Camera Model Name
Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Firmware
Firmware Version 00.00
Shooting Date/Time
2/11/2010 08:06:56
Tv(Shutter Speed)
1/13Sec.
Av(Aperture Value)
F5.6
Metering Modes
Spot
Exposure Compensation
0
ISO Speed
400
Lens
EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS
Focal Length
131.0 mm

[zona5101]

I think your lighting is very nice. It is soft, the shadow side is equally nice providing a very good ratio of light and shadow. The light is controlled and not blowing anything out or putting areas into completed darkness. On the not so good side, the image is not sharp. It appears to be camera shake as opposed to a focus issue and the 1/13 of a sec shutter speed seems to support that. You color balance is off (unless you were going for that look.) He is a handsome youngster and I know the two of you will have loads of fun working on portraits together! Have fun!

[sk66]

Originally Posted by zona5101

I think your lighting is very nice. It is soft, the shadow side is equally nice providing a very good ratio of light and shadow. The light is controlled and not blowing anything out or putting areas into completed darkness. On the not so good side, the image is not sharp. It appears to be camera shake as opposed to a focus issue and the 1/13 of a sec shutter speed seems to support that. You color balance is off (unless you were going for that look.) He is a handsome youngster and I know the two of you will have loads of fun working on portraits together! Have fun!

+1...........

[GMAN]

Thanks for the information!...

You might be right regarding the lack of sharpness?..I had the camera on a tripod, but its just a cheap one, should have used a timer, or wired trigger!...You mentioned balance?...I wanted my image brighter, but since i'm a beginner, I felt I was fortunate enough to have the image turn out at all!...I think if I put the light closer to the subject, and increase the back lighting, I could get better results?.....

I've been YouTube -ing tips on portrait photography trying to gain as much information as I can....I see that they have a book available on this site that I can download...

[irishmuth]

^^^Agree.

With this lighting set up, I'm surprised that you had to go to such a slow shutter speed to expose the shot properly. If you zoom all the way out to 55mm on your lens, you could drop the aperture down to F4 and that would allow you a little bit quicker shutter speed while obtaining the same exposure. Hopefully that will deliver a sharper image.

As for the white balance, it's very yellow. Perhaps play with the camera's custom white balance or fix in PP (see attached image). If you don't have a gray kard to set custom WB, you can always shoot a plain white piece of paper...it's less exact, but I think it would be closer than using the current WB setting.

Edit: if he is against a white wall, you can sorta use that as your guide for WB...even if the lighting has a yellowish hue, the proper WB should make that wall white in your image.

[GMAN]

Keep in mind that I'm a beginner, and my attempt to ensure proper white balance might not have been correct..I took some plain white construction paper and had my son hold it against his chest, Clicked the sutter halfway, while in custom white balance mode. I don't recall how or if I saved that setting?...A novice mistake, I guess because after thinking about it, I don't know the exact procedure to apply that WB to the camera?....I was using my canon XSi.....I'll try using my standard 55m lens and aperture at F4, and see what happens!...Thanks.....

[irishmuth]

Originally Posted by GMAN

Keep in mind that I'm a beginner, and my attempt to ensure proper white balance might not have been correct..I took some plain white construction paper and had my son hold it against his chest, Clicked the sutter halfway, while in custom white balance mode. I don't recall how or if I saved that setting?...A novice mistake, I guess because after thinking about it, I don't know the exact procedure to apply that WB to the camera?....I was using my canon XSi.....I'll try using my standard 55m lens and aperture at F4, and see what happens!...Thanks.....

No problem at all - I think you might have missed one step in setting the custom WB (I have the Canon T1i and I'm going to assume it's the same or at least similar). Next time you do this shot, have him hold up the white paper (sometimes copy/typing paper is "more white" than construction paper, but the construction paper should get you pretty close). Take a picture with most of the frame filled with the paper (you may have to put the lens on manual focus because the camera probably won't focus and shoot on a solid white piece of paper). When you're taking this initial picture of the paper, it does not matter what WB setting you have the camera on, but it should be properly exposed (use whatever aperture/SS/ISO you plan to use for the picture of your son). After taking the picture of the paper, click on menu on the top left of the camera. Under the second red camera icon from the left, there is an option for Custom WB. Choose that. The picture you just took of the paper will appear. Hit "set" and it will ask you to confirm that you want to use that image to determine custom WB. Select "yes." Now, when you take the pics of your boy, just make sure that the WB setting on the camera is set to custom and you're all set.

Even though it took a long paragraph to explain, it's really quite easy and take about 30 seconds to do. Just keep in mind that the WB you just set is specific to that exact lighting set up. One you're done, you'll need to change your WB for whatever new scene you're shooting (either using another custom WB that you set, using auto WB (AWB) or one of the other presets on the camera).

Hopefully that all makes sense. The only thing I didn't explain was how to change the camera's WB settings - it's the setting just below ISO on your camera's main display.

[GMAN]

Yes- I knew that I was suppose to something, but I just wasn't sure...After reading your reply, its quite evident that I didn't do it correctly...I read your words exactly somewhere else, but couldn't remember the steps!...Thats what you get for being a Newbie...I wont forget that next time!...Thanks

[irishmuth]

Let us know how it works out.

[ttosifa]

Originally Posted by irishmuth

Next time you do this shot, have him hold up the white paper (sometimes copy/typing paper is "more white" than construction paper, but the construction paper should get you pretty close). Take a picture with most of the frame filled with the paper (you may have to put the lens on manual focus because the camera probably won't focus and shoot on a solid white piece of paper). When you're taking this initial picture of the paper, it does not matter what WB setting you have the camera on, but it should be properly exposed (use whatever aperture/SS/ISO you plan to use for the picture of your son).

FWIW, check to make sure you need to focus. My Nikon D700 does not need the picture to be in focus to take a custom WB. But, as said, it is important to have most of the picture to be the white paper/board, and for the exposure to be correct. I use a 2'x3' white foamcore board most of the time since it is bigger and thicker. This way there is less of a problem of blocking the light that you are trying to color balance with your shadow, and there is less of an issue of having light behind the picture influence the resulting WB.

A white reflector also works well if it is not translucent.