Help! Two Sisters: My Grandmother & Great Aunt

[SandeeWig]

I've wanted to do this shoot for a long time. My grandmother is nearly 80, my great-aunt 67 and I don't have any photos of them together. After studying the DIY site for 3 days straight, my (dear, sweet, and amazingly supportive of my habit) husband built some indoor equipment for me since the weather is less than optimal for outdoor portraits right now. This would be the first time ever attempting an "indoor portrait shoot".

So, for the shoot I had a backdrop, a panel diffuser stand and a light on a pole (you can see my setup on flickr). We set up in front of a large picture window (subjects facing window) in hopes of having some fill/extra light. I also had a reflector sitting in a chair opposite the light, and a desk lamp pointed at the backdrop.

A few things I learned based on this day: 1. A 120 watt "daylight" bulb is not bright enough; 2. that desk lamp is not the way to go; 3. I am immensely ignorant of portrait lighting and have lots and lots (and LOTS) to learn; 4. I don't think my P&S "does" fill-light; and 5. I must always, always, check and recheck my settings. I bumped up my ISO to 800 about halfway thru the shoot and never turned it back down, so have some noise issues going on in many of the pics which is driving me nuts. Oh, and don't forget my tripod!!

Anyway, I offer this up to you kind people who have suffered through my long and boring explanation, to get your feedback on what I should do to this (and any others from this shoot on flickr), and how I could do better the next time. Including:

*lighting recommendations for direct/hot light behind the diffuser (what's the best wattage for this?)
*how is the light pointed at the backdrop supposed to work? How high should it be pointed & at what angle? The one I used turned the tips of my grandmother's hair green in many of the shots.
*at what angle is that darn reflector supposed to be angled? I'm not sure it did anything to help (maybe because the direct light wasn't bright enough?).
*composition, shadows, WB, post-work that can make it better, etc. etc.

Any and All comments welcome. Feel free to edit and repost any of the pics from this shoot back to this thread. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!



Exif:
Camera: Canon PowerShot S3 IS
Exposure: 0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 10.8 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: did not fire

[JoesPhotos]

7265 is my favorite. Seems these two ladies are hilarious. That was easily protrayed in that capture.

May I suggest you read the 6 Steps in the following lighting They helped me GREATLY. The link above starts with Step 6. Messed up link, but just click on the Step 1 in red. And good luck.

[peeperita]

thank you for a wonderful presentation for critique....

your husband is so indulgent and he must listen well to have come up with this studio for you.....


i tried to find your camera's product manual online to show you that you do indeed have the ability to fill flash....if you have a hard copy of your manual, look in the index for flash exposure compensation and play with it a bit......although, given the set up for this image, i don't think it would apply......fill flash is generally used in much brighter situations where you want a fairly strong amount of fill to compensate for harsher shadows....

you're right that you needed a stronger light behind your diffuser panel....if it had been a particularly sunny day, you would have moved that panel and your studio closer to the window.....as far as what wattage bulb would have worked, i only have "hardware store ghetto lighting"......included is an old 500watt halogen work light that really seems to work well for me....

the light pointed at the background is supposed to help separate your subject from the bg.....normally you would position it in such a way that the brightest area is somewhat hidden behind your subject.....see how yours worked behind the woman on the left?.....her hair would have just disappeared into the backdrop had you not used it.....the angle is usually pointing up at an angle...

the angle of the reflector depends on the light source that it's bouncing......you'll be able to tell what goes where when you start fiddling with it......it should shine light into the shadowed areas......i think you had it right, but your light source just wasn't strong enough.....also, if it had been closer to your subjects, it would have filled a little more.....

compositionwise, you did very well.....it's a bit tight in the frame, but it still works well.....one change i would consider next time is to have those beautiful eyes looking at the lens....

peeper

[Nathan deGargoyle]

That is a beautiful shot Sandee as are the others in the set. The ladies must be proud to have such a talented granddaughter/great-niece!

[SandeeWig]

I'm so grateful to you all for looking and taking the time to comment. I am actually a little surprised I have not received more critical feedback; I mean, I think they are ok, some even pretty good, but I don't know...seems like they could/should be so much better.

Originally Posted by JoesPhotos

7265 is my favorite. Seems these two ladies are hilarious. That was easily protrayed in that capture.

May I suggest you read the 6 Steps in the following link... They helped me GREATLY. ... And good luck.

Thanks for the link and your comments, Joe. Yes, you're right, they are quite hilarious when they get together. I have lots of pics of them cutting up, but unfortunately I was too, so the camera shake is horrid! The photo you mentioned is one of my favorites too.

Originally Posted by Peeperita

your husband is so indulgent and he must listen well to have come up with this studio for you.....

Peeper: You have no idea! He did all that in 2 days...by hand! (stupid Lowes wouldn't cut any of the PVC pipe for us!).

Thank you so much, Peeper, for all of your feedback and constructive comments. You are always so thoughtful to take time to look up things about my camera. I do have the manual, and am pretty sure I read a while back about how to use the fill flash. I had set it up on 3/4 full in manual mode, and -1 in Av mode, but I think you're right, there was just not enough light to begin with so the flash just took over. This shot is an example of when I used the flash and you can't even tell there's any light coming from the direction she's looking. Gotta find me a high wattage light. I think the 250watt will work well facing my backdrop though so nothing lost there.

I'm guessing here, but I think the problem with the light I used facing the backdrop is two fold: 1. it's a desk lamp and not ideal for this use, as I could not really get it low enough to the ground and angled the way I wanted it; and 2. the bulb had to have a slight yellow tint to it since it produced a greenish reflection back onto my subjects' hair from the black sheet I used. I got the effect I wanted (separation between background and subject), but the color cast it produced totally ruined it.

They do have beautiful eyes, don't they?! Fortunately, I did get several of them looking straight into the camera. Thanks for the suggestion.

Originally Posted by Nathan deGargoyle

That is a beautiful shot Sandee as are the others in the set. The ladies must be proud to have such a talented granddaughter/great-niece!

Nathan, wow! Thank you so much for such a nice compliment! So very sweet of you. I think they thought I was crazy at first for wanting to do this, but they were more than willing and had a great time doing it. Many thanks for looking and taking the time to comment.

Again, thank you all so much. Anyone else have any thoughts? Please share!

[KodiakStar]

Have you seen RussHeath's threads "I shot ____" (my wife, my family, etc)?

Let me try to find some links, if you have not. He has great stuff on using hot lights that I have not been able to quite replicate!

Part 6 -- DIY Softobx for More Serious Light (a tutorial)

As for the shot. I think you covered your basic problems. Needing more light and less ISO. What was your white balance set on? I can't give critical feedback on lighting because of my computer screen and being color blind... but you may want to shoot in RAW if your camera supports it so you can tweak it more in PP.

Do you have a tripod? For a point and shoot, it may be helpful with these lighting situations to make your shots more consistent, and lower any hand shake, since it seems like it is a pretty slow shutter speed, so any small thing you can do to eliminate those minor problems will help.

Where you zoomed in at all with the camera?
If you were zoomed in at all, consider zooming with your feet, or cropping down later.
It should give you a lower F stop, (shooting more "wide open") so you can lower the ISO and get less noise.

I have used 250w hotlights, and they didn't quite do the trick. Looking at the stuff that Russ did with the shop-light type florescent light fixtures may be the way to go for these shots for you.

[SandeeWig]

Originally Posted by KodiakStar

Have you seen RussHeath's threads "I shot ____" (my wife, my family, etc)?

Let me try to find some links, if you have not. He has great stuff on using hot lights that I have not been able to quite replicate!

Part 6 -- DIY Softobx for More Serious Light (a tutorial)

Thank you KodiakStar! Actually that is the same link provided above by Joe. Guess it's a must read! Headed there now w/ notebook and pencil.

[KodiakStar]

I had just wrote a bunch more up there when you have time.

But also, rather then 6, start with 5, then go back to 1.

5 is probably going to be closest to your setup and budget

[SandeeWig]

Originally Posted by KodiakStar

As for the shot. I think you covered your basic problems. Needing more light and less ISO. What was your white balance set on? I can't give critical feedback on lighting because of my computer screen and being color blind... but you may want to shoot in RAW if your camera supports it so you can tweak it more in PP.

Do you have a tripod? For a point and shoot, it may be helpful with these lighting situations to make your shots more consistent, and lower any hand shake, since it seems like it is a pretty slow shutter speed, so any small thing you can do to eliminate those minor problems will help.

Where you zoomed in at all with the camera?
If you were zoomed in at all, consider zooming with your feet, or cropping down later.
It should give you a lower F stop, (shooting more "wide open") so you can lower the ISO and get less noise.

I have used 250w hotlights, and they didn't quite do the trick. Looking at the stuff that Russ did with the shop-light type florescent light fixtures may be the way to go for these shots for you.

Thank you for the additional feedback. I just finished reading all 6 parts of that tutorial and there is some awesome info in there! Thanks to you and Joe for the link!!

To answer your question, the WB was set on auto. I did that because I knew they'd be changing outfits and I was trying (trying) to remember to check and test various other settings (aperture, ss, iso (ugh, forgot about that one at one point)) so did not want to screw everything up by having jacked up WB after every clothing change.

My P&S doesn't shoot in RAW unfortunately, but I'm hoping to resolve that w/ a dslr before the end of the year (which will probably create a whole host of new problems for me to solve! )

I do have a tripod and just totally flaked on remembering to take it. I had a list and everything! It just got overlooked. That would have made all the difference in the 50+ shots I have to scrap b/c of camera shake.

As far as zoom goes...I was zoomin in, zoomin out, movin in, movin out. Probably more so with the lens than with my feet, but some of the really close ones I physically moved in to take. Had not considered, however, that moving in (versus zooming) would allow me to shoot more wide open, thus lower ISO. Thank you. I'll definitely remember that in the future.

Still so irritated I bumped up to ISO800 and then forgot to change it back.

You're right the shop lights definitely work very well. I'm going on a hunt for a 500 watt shop halogen light next weekend. I think the 120 I used might've been slightly - like, just a little - more effective without the diffuser panel. Seems I diffused my way out of any effective light whatsoever! Good thing they were sitting in front of an 8' wide picture window!

Thanks again for your comments/feedback.

[kencaleno]

Here's my photoshop "tweak": Regards, Ken