First self-portrait

[EOBeav]

Just got my new strobe gear this week, so I took some time this afternoon to mess around with it. Just wanted your general thoughts about exposure and lighting, in addition to anything else you can think of that would add to the discussion. Thanks in advance for your helpful comments.


Self Portrait by Rick.Scheibner, on Flickr

EXIF:
Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Exposure 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture f/7.1
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV

Additional strobe information on the Flickr page.

[JFSanders]

Pretty good lighting. Nice environmental portrait. The logo is distracting though. People tend to fixate on them in such photographs. What does it stand for?

Jim

[MattG]

I think I would have been tempted to underexpose the background by a stop or even two to add more drama to yourself, as the exposure on you from the strobe appears absolutely spot on and I like the strong pose you created.

[EOBeav]

Originally Posted by JFSanders

Pretty good lighting. Nice environmental portrait. The logo is distracting though. People tend to fixate on them in such photographs. What does it stand for?

Ha, I wasn't even really thinking of my wardrobe at the time. This was more of a put-everything-together-and-see-if-it-works kind of a thing. The R on my shirt really isn't a logo, just reminding people to not use the word "Retarded". I'll be thinking of details like that when I shoot again.

Originally Posted by MattG

I think I would have been tempted to underexpose the background by a stop or even two to add more drama to yourself, as the exposure on you from the strobe appears absolutely spot on and I like the strong pose you created.

Great advice. I was actually doing all of this manually, so underexposing the background would have also under exposed me. I could have used the reflector, though, instead of the shoot-thru, which would have let me increase the light on myself.

Thanks to both of you for your helpful advice.

[NicolaB]

Can't help with the lighting, except is it making you squint or is that the two blue horns and the spike through your head

The exposure looks good and I would do a curves bump to make your skin tones pop - minding that your cheek and right forearm doesn't blow the reds.

Keep the strong pose but relax your fingers - you do look quite nervous about being in front of the camera

hth

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by EOBeav

Great advice. I was actually doing all of this manually, so underexposing the background would have also under exposed me. I could have used the reflector, though, instead of the shoot-thru, which would have let me increase the light on myself.

Actually, no I think you're wrong. Your background is ambient light which is different than the light hitting you (your flash). You could have under exposed the background by making your shutterspeed faster as that is what controls your ambient light. The only thing that would have underexposed the light on you is if you changed the f/stop which is what controls the flash lighting.
So, I think that's what MattG meant was to make the background (ie ambient light) darker so you popped out more from it.

[Rentham]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

Actually, no I think you're wrong. Your background is ambient light which is different than the light hitting you (your flash). You could have under exposed the background by making your shutterspeed faster as that is what controls your ambient light. The only thing that would have underexposed the light on you is if you changed the f/stop which is what controls the flash lighting.

Yep, underexposing the ambient 1 or 2 stops is the magic formula for cool, dramatic lighting. Add some rim light for extra fun.

In this case, he'd run up against the sync speed problem since he's already at 250th using a manual flash and Pocket Wizards. With the LP160 already at max power, he could have moved it in closer and stopped down his aperture to keep correct exposure on himself. The smaller aperture and the shorter flash-to-subject distance for more rapid fall off would both contribute to the desired effect.

[EOBeav]

Great comments, all. That's exactly why I post in the critique forums, to be able to learn more about all of this.

So, how can I reduce the ambient (background) light without also reducing it on myself? My flash was at full power, and about as close as I could get without it interfering with the composition. Stopping down, from what I can tell, would reduce the light for both. Unless there's something I'm not taking into consideration, which is completely possible. My other suggestion was going to be to turn the umbrella around and reflect it rather than shooting through it. That would increase the available light but of course alter the quality.

Thanks for your helpful comments.

[Rentham]

Originally Posted by EOBeav

So, how can I reduce the ambient (background) light without also reducing it on myself? My flash was at full power, and about as close as I could get without it interfering with the composition. Stopping down, from what I can tell, would reduce the light for both. Unless there's something I'm not taking into consideration, which is completely possible. My other suggestion was going to be to turn the umbrella around and reflect it rather than shooting through it. That would increase the available light but of course alter the quality.

Like Al said, shutter speed controls ambient. While shutter speed is the primary factor in ambient exposure, that variable is usually fixed and contingent on your max sync speed. You can knock the ambient down a little bit by stopping down your aperture. Flash exposure is controlled by aperture, flash power, and flash to subject distance. ISO has an effect, but it will increase or decrease the exposure of both the ambient and flash.

If your flash is at full power and simply cannot be moved any closer without being in the frame, then you are at the limit of your equipment. You can do a few things. You can maybe cheat your ISO down to 50 (if the XSi does that), and open your aperture a bit to compensate for the lost flash exposure. You can wait until later in the day when there is less ambient light. Or you could get a strobe like an Alien Bee that will give you f/11 or f/16 and let you overcome modestly bright light.

Here's an example:


Here's the strobist info I attached at the time:

Strobist: AB1600 at 1/4th in an Apollo 28" softbox, boomed and pointing almost directly down. SB-25 bare at 1/1 to cam left for kicker. Shot in my driveway with a fair bit of ambient to overcome.

The background was a white garage door, at about 6PM in late May last year. Once I hit 1/200th shutter speed, I was maxed. So I had to go up to f/22 to kill the rest of the ambient. Because of the boom I was able to get the softbox in very close. It is just outside the frame. Obviously this in an extreme example, as you won't often want to kill all ambient. But the principle is the same even if you want to go down a stop or two.

[EOBeav]

I learned something new today. Thanks everybody for your great advice.