Lighting Critique

[maxness]

Hi all,

I took some indoor portraits of my cousin for her senior year since she already had some outdoor shots. I've been reading and working on lighting, but am still struggling at times. I'm looking mostly for lighting critique but am willing to take any and all suggestions and/or criticisms.

This is my favorite shot of the set, but the rest can be seen on Flickr (Flickr Stream).



Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

Thanks!

[zona5101]

The lighting position look good...the color balance looks off (too warm) as the whites aren't white. You could photoshop the wrinkles in the background too...but the lighting looks good...maybe a 1/2 stop-3/4 stop or so dark. I don't see any detail in parts of the hair and the blacks slacks

[maxness]

Thanks for the reply. The color balance is probably off because the room I was in has soft yellow paint on the walls and for the life of me I couldn't find my gray card. Will need to work on color correcting it.

[ttosifa]

Originally Posted by maxness

Thanks for the reply. The color balance is probably off because the room I was in has soft yellow paint on the walls and for the life of me I couldn't find my gray card. Will need to work on color correcting it.

A few things here: Notice that you don't always need a gray card. It looks to me like you used a sheet that was close to white. That can be your "gray card" for adjusting colors.

Since the room was yellow, this picture most likely would have a mix of light colors. Your main light would most likely be one color, and any reflected light would have the yellow mixed in. So the gray card would allow you to color adjust for only one of the lighting sources, and the other would remain "incorrect." Not a bad thing, just something one should notice before taking the photo and, if undesired, should correct. Surround her with white board, or minimize reflected light. I think you are getting some reflected light, because her shirt seems white nearest the (let's call it) the flash, while on her hips her shirt seems more cream-colored. Making that part white turns the front purplish, which one might expect. In short, a gray card is not a panacea.

The lighting perplexes me. To me, it looks too far away and too far left (edit: I also meant to say too high). You have lots of hot spots on her forehead and nose (too far away or perhaps oily skin), and they are relatively high on her head. Her right eye is sort of raccoonish, consistent with too high. But I can't figure out her left eye. It looks less raccoonish than the right, when I expected it to be more given what I see. Did you by chance lighten or dodge (or is it burn, I get the two mixed up) that eye? If you did, it's out of balance with her right eye. If you didn't, then please share your lighting setup. I am truly stumped.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by ttosifa

A few things here: Notice that you don't always need a gray card. It looks to me like you used a sheet that was close to white. That can be your "gray card" for adjusting colors.

Since the room was yellow, this picture most likely would have a mix of light colors. Your main light would most likely be one color, and any reflected light would have the yellow mixed in. So the gray card would allow you to color adjust for only one of the lighting sources, and the other would remain "incorrect." Not a bad thing, just something one should notice before taking the photo and, if undesired, should correct. Surround her with white board, or minimize reflected light. I think you are getting some reflected light, because her shirt seems white nearest the (let's call it) the flash, while on her hips her shirt seems more cream-colored. Making that part white turns the front purplish, which one might expect. In short, a gray card is not a panacea.

The lighting perplexes me. To me, it looks too far away and too far left. You have lots of hot spots on her forehead and nose (too far away or perhaps oily skin), and they are relatively high on her head. Her right eye is sort of raccoonish, consistent with too high. But I can't figure out her left eye. It looks less raccoonish than the right, when I expected it to be more given what I see. Did you by chance lighten or dodge (or is it burn, I get the two mixed up) that eye? If you did, it's out of balance with her right eye. If you didn't, then please share your lighting setup. I am truly stumped.

Dang, and I thought I over-analyzed things, lol! Not that this is a bad thing... EXCELLENT critique, what great detail! Haven't seen you around lately, welcome back.

True about the grey card not being the be-all and end-all. I photographed a baby once indoors, using natural light coming in from sliding glass doors, and I (almost, sometimes I forget) faithfully used my grey card for CWB in-camera. The lesson I learned: I hadn't realized the recessed lights were on directly over the baby for the first half-dozen shots or so, and the white balance in those photos was a big, fat, hot mess, due simply to the different color temps of the natural light vs. the recessed lighting. Even with shooting in RAW, there was just such a mix it would have been a nightmare to try to "fix" in post processing. I did get some cute shots, but I only showed them in BW. After we shut those lights off, the rest of the session was fine, after I reshot the grey card (the walls were white).

Again, nice job with picking apart the details.

To the OP: I'd love to see a SOOC of this, if you have one handy. It's probably got a lot of potential, particularly if you shot in RAW.

[ttosifa]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

Dang, and I thought I over-analyzed things, lol! Not that this is a bad thing... EXCELLENT critique, what great detail! Haven't seen you around lately, welcome back.

Thanks! Just thought I'd see what was going on here at DPS. Since you and Zona are still posting, it seems everyone is in good hands! (I don't recognize too many of the others.) I too think there is potential here, and it seems the request got a bit lost in the shuffle -- thought I'd bump it up a bit!

Have a good summer!

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by ttosifa

Thanks! Just thought I'd see what was going on here at DPS. Since you and Zona are still posting, it seems everyone is in good hands! (I don't recognize too many of the others.) I too think there is potential here, and it seems the request got a bit lost in the shuffle -- thought I'd bump it up a bit!

Have a good summer!

There are a couple of new folks as well as established members here too that give some GREAT critique, but thanks for the shout out. Don't worry, critique hasn't fallen to pieces by your absence. LOL! But again, it's good to see you back. Glad you bumped this thread...it's really quite a nice shot, and I don't have anything more to add than you and the previous posters did. You have a good summer too, and I hope to hear more from you around these parts. I always did learn a lot from you - you were once of my first online "teachers" about color issues.

[maxness]

The lighting setup was a 300W constant sunlight-balanced light going thru an umbrella elevated to 45 degrees above and was pretty close, probably within 3 feet or so. I think I had another of those shooting at the background. No flashes were used.

The right eye looks that way because our family has excessively dark circles under our eyes, so I fixed it a bit but lowered the opacity on that layer so they weren't completely gone because that would be very obvious. My guess is that is what you are seeing, something that is partially light and partially a cosmetic issue.