Christmas Photo shoot help???

[MicroMommy]

Hello again all Sorry to be a question pest... I know I am not going to be perfect this year, but I am trying to figure out the best lighting and camera settings for this years Christmas photo shoot for my son.

You've probably already read in previous posts that I just got a light kit. I don't have alot of money for the other equipment that I want now, so I've been trying to rig my own stuff (i.e. my wrapping paper background, lol, taped it to my dining room wall). Trying not to use my flash b/c of that.

This is what I've gotten so far...

One umbrella light close to wall @ 45 degrees, the 2nd a couple steps behind on the other side and a tall (non umbrella) light towards center to fill in that space. I know my whole setup is not ideal, but I'm trying to make it work, plus I really haven't mastered the whole lighting or even exposure concept yet.


Aperture Priority, 1/250, f/4.5, 35mm, ISO 1600


Aperture Priority, 1/125, f/4.5, 37mm, ISO 800

What would you do or see I should do differently??? Thank you guys so much for any help you can give me!!

[kristenh]

Melanie- i'm not much good on lighting, but i'm a little surprised that with that much light, you still need iso so high to get okay shutter speed.

i have a couple of other comments- take from them what you will:

i am finding the wrapping paper background too busy and it takes away from your main subject. you could try opening up your aperture more and see if that helps get it fuzzy enough to not be distracting. i would imagine you'd have to have your son farther away from the background to get it out of focus enough that it doesn't detract from your son.

what i like better about the second shot is that you are more at his eye level, and there is more child and background, and less floor, included. what i like less is that there are shadows from the bucket on his arm. what about using the light/umbrella on one side and something big and white off to the other side that will bounce some light, but not a lot of light, onto his face- then one side of his face will be a little less well lit, which will be interesting, and hopefully no shadow on the arm.

there's also a shadow, second photo, under his chin to the left and on his shirt. don't know what to do about that.

hope that helps.

[NicoleScraps]

Ditto that ^
Move him about 4-6 feet out from the background to throw it out of focus a bit.

[MicroMommy]

Originally Posted by kristenh

Melanie- i'm not much good on lighting, but i'm a little surprised that with that much light, you still need iso so high to get okay shutter speed.

Cool thanks for input on the shadows they have... I still don't even notice that stuff yet, lol. I've got to train my eye better. Reference the ISO, I'm not sure really what I am doing. I will definitely go back and try to lower it. The reason I kept it so high was I thought the more I was lowering it, the image came out more dim and kind of orangish. But I'm def going to go back and try again.

Feel free to add any more two cents guys

[zona5101]

You can reduce / fill in the shadow with a reflector. But with 3 lights you should be able to move them around and get the filll worked out. Your main light is a bit too high, it is doing a nice job of throwing the shadow down and away but it is also giving you shadow in the eyes and under the chin... also it limits the catchlights. If you can, lower the main light and move the light on camera left more to the right (towards the camera). Since you have continuous light, the way you control the amount of fill is either with a light modifier or simply more it closer or farther away. So your main light is camera right, your fill light is camera left. Make your exposure based on your main light and vary the distance of your fill light to control the amount of fill...too close and it will over power the main too far and you'll have deeper shadows.
good luck, have fun!

[TBrown00]

I like that you are down on the same level of the subject instead of shooting down.

In addition to the other suggestions on helping to separate your subject from the background: if you have room, move further back from your subject and use a longer lens.