Little Brother - Lighting and WB

[johnStock]

Took this picture of my little brother tonight while playing around with off camera flash. I did two edits in ACR and then DPP.
I'm wondering how the WB, exposure and overall lighting look. What should I have done differently?
Also, how is the noise? The one I processed in ACR (and shown here) looks a little noisy, but I like the warmth. Whereas the other in the set on Flickr seems a little cold, but less noisy.



EXIF:
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/2.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV

The one thing I wish I had done differently was use a reflector to highlight his left arm a little more. Not a big fan of how it just disappears.

Any other suggestions are always welcome, and feel free to edit.

Thanks,

John

[RuthieMae]

I am far from an expert on studio lighting or OCF so take my cc with a grain of salt...lol

I do like the dramatic lighting. The shirt looks blown in some spots, they eyes have no light in them (maybe if you moved your light up higher to get some light in the eyes?). He looks like he has no left arm (as you mentioned). Even though it seems to have some technical errors, I still really like the image though. I'm betting it would look good in BW too.

[MrJones]

I like the lightning but the missing arm really kills it...
sorry

[BigFuzzy]

I think the lighting is very well done (though I'm never a fan of the floating against a black background look).

I would, however, consider cropping it to get that right arm out (as you noted) cropped at his shoulder and a little off the bottom. So in general, put him a bit more to the upper right of the frame and i think it'd be quite good.

[Niresangwa]

Agreed on the arm - how high was the key light and also, how close was it? i would suggest either backing up the light some (flag it if that produces issues with spill) or stopping down to f4 or 5.6 to prevent blowing the shirt out.

It's pretty well done though - well on its way to being a great shot, but the lack of fill on the right, and also you're missing some separation from the background, so you need to figure out a way to get some rim light in there - that way his blonde hair wont blend into the black background

If you had 2 strobes and reflector, you could keep the key where it is (left and high), cross light from the back (right and low) and use a reflector front right for a little fill and you would be bang on I think. If you don't have a second flash available, heck, get a fairly powerful lamp or AC light behind him...

...as it is: a contrasty B&W might allow you to blag it as a high drama moody shot

[johnStock]

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

Agreed on the arm - how high was the key light and also, how close was it? i would suggest either backing up the light some (flag it if that produces issues with spill) or stopping down to f4 or 5.6 to prevent blowing the shirt out.

It's pretty well done though - well on its way to being a great shot, but the lack of fill on the right, and also you're missing some separation from the background, so you need to figure out a way to get some rim light in there - that way his blonde hair wont blend into the black background

If you had 2 strobes and reflector, you could keep the key where it is (left and high), cross light from the back (right and low) and use a reflector front right for a little fill and you would be bang on I think. If you don't have a second flash available, heck, get a fairly powerful lamp or AC light behind him...

The strobe was 90 degrees off his right, and was pretty close. I was definitely having some issues with spill. Had to fix it a little in post. Making a flag is on the to do list for today
Good point about having rim light, I'll have to see what I can come up with, I've only got one strobe.

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

I think the lighting is very well done (though I'm never a fan of the floating against a black background look).

I would, however, consider cropping it to get that right arm out (as you noted) cropped at his shoulder and a little off the bottom. So in general, put him a bit more to the upper right of the frame and i think it'd be quite good.

Gave it a try, I think it looks ok. I think it would of been better if I'd gotten it right in camera to begin with

Originally Posted by RuthieMae

I am far from an expert on studio lighting or OCF so take my cc with a grain of salt...lol

I do like the dramatic lighting. The shirt looks blown in some spots, they eyes have no light in them (maybe if you moved your light up higher to get some light in the eyes?). He looks like he has no left arm (as you mentioned). Even though it seems to have some technical errors, I still really like the image though. I'm betting it would look good in BW too.

I burned the shirt a little bit to tone down the blown out spots, almost looks a little grey to me now though... thoughts?

Also, what should I have done to get a little more light in his eyes? They don't "pop" quite as much as I'd like. RuthieMae, would moving the light up higher have done it? Or with the pose would it have just caused raccoon eyes? Should the light have been more down shooting up into his face?

Thanks for all the responses!

[Niresangwa]

Originally Posted by johnStock

Also, what should I have done to get a little more light in his eyes? They don't "pop" quite as much as I'd like. RuthieMae, would moving the light up higher have done it? Or with the pose would it have just caused raccoon eyes? Should the light have been more down shooting up into his face?

Thanks for all the responses!

A bigger light source would have helped. Was this bare bulb, or did you have something on the head? The bigger the light source the better chance you have of getting it, and of course having the camera-eyes-light source lines clear of course.