Photography Tips & Tricks
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- bigtrickagain0
speaking of leibovitz, here is an article about one of her images that reveals a bit about where the composite parts come from - apparently she rips them off of the scout photographers that she hires:
http://www.pdnpulse.com/2009/09/…- she should have just searched flickr's creative commons.********
- damn... http://www.pdnonline…OSFA
- she should have just searched flickr's creative commons.
- OSFA0
Ok, another question. What type of setup is used to get these results? If I want to recreate a photo like this and I have my white bg and three lights, what would be the best way?
- This is not very good lighting, but use two lights for bg, and one hard flash (beauty dish, bare reflector) high center front.Stian
- You could also add one extra strobe for those highlights on the skin. And grease up the models! :)Stian
- Yeah, so I scrolled down after writing..Stian
- btw, I found the behind the scenes video and the setup is there. Not much help tho...
http://www.hawks.org…OSFA - bottom right ftw.Hombre_Lobo
- DoTheMacarena0
I'd guess, keylight above and slightly left of camera, with a bounce for fill and 2 edgelights, one to the right (hotter) and one to the left of the camera both slightly behind the model, with even lighting on BG (you might need more lights if you don't want to touchup BG shadows).
- Or... smash your strobe rig, get a Yashica T4 and shoot a Vice spread.DoTheMacarena
- OSFA0
I figured it would take more than just three lights. But, if I had to do it with three, what would be the best way? And yes, I know I might end up retouching the bg a bit...
- todaysnew0
pretty much what macarena said.
main light on a boom up high with the axis close to being in line with the camera (maybe slightly camera left)Use a silver hard light reflector for your main light (standard 7"/8.5"/11"/possibly a silver lined beauty dish/etc.)
Pull that main light back far enough to give you full body coverage.
2 edge lights brighter than your main, but even to each other, or adjust how you see fit. If you keep your models close to the background and point these just right they can light your background for you too. The blow back from the background can add to the edge light effect.
Have your make up artist use some lotion or oil to boost the shine on the skin.
- OSFA0
Thanks for the great advice guys! Unfortunately, I am limited to use what I have with me now, so I started playing around with different setups and kinda narrowed to two that more or less gave me the result I am looking for.
A) gives me a bright white bg, while still giving me some side light on the model - a bit similar to the photos above, but, the front keylight makes the model look a bit flat
B) gives me better results on the model using front/angle and a hairline, but the bg softens a bit and gets a liiiittle grayish which I figured I can then edit in Photoshop.
Am I completely off here? Would you suggest a better way to set this bitch up? And yes, i am definitely bringing the Crisco for the oiling!
- bigtrickagain0
Look at the shadows caused by the chins of those models. You can deduce that the keylight is mounted high. I would experiment with your A) setup, but without the softbox on your keylight. You might be able to use just one strobe for whiting out your bg, and use the other strobe pointed at the model as a rim/hair light.
- naked strobe as keylight?OSFA
- maybe a small reflector - 7" - but you can try naked toobigtrickagain
- hmmm interesting. May I ask why? what is the difference between w/wo the softbox?OSFA
- the softbox makes for softer light, so your shadows will have blurrier edges, and your light will be "flatter"bigtrickagain
- the smaller the light source, the less evenly it lights over angled surfaces, so you'll get more distinct highlightsbigtrickagain
- so, if I use it wo the sbox, I'll get richer light? to compensate for the ones I am using on the bg?OSFA
- and wait, 'so you'll get more distinct highlights' is this something I should do or don't?OSFA
- dono about "richer" but it will be brighter w/o the softbox - maybe a stop or so.bigtrickagain
- bigtrickagain0
more distinct highlights aren't inherently good or bad. the bright highlights on the shoulders/breasts of the photos you pasted above are due to more distinct highlights. if you use a big soft source like a softbox or a window, you wouldn't get these bright spots.
- therefore making it look flat!
I see now! Thanks big!!! youse the best!OSFA - don't forget to grease up your models with baby oil, either. it's best to do this yourself, by hand. take your time.bigtrickagain
- hahaha! I hope I don't mess up and have to re-oil...OSFA
- therefore making it look flat!
- vaxorcist0
The more your model has good skin, the more you can move your key light to the side and use a silver reflector on the fill side to get a pop and separation from the background....
Also backlights + gobos can do wonders.... gobos are additional light stands with black cards on them placed between the camera and the lights to block the near-inevitable flare that happens when you do a strong backlight... I've worked on white background stuff with 7 or 8 lights and 4 gobos to get a really nice punchy image...
white background does NOT have to equal boring light... but often does.... NOTE that some art directors will jump a bit if you give them an image with a white background that has really nice edge lighting.. it may overwhelm the rest of the page's "harmony".... that happened to me once, as the client saw a boring comp, AD hired me to make it more interesting, then client saw it and said "that's not like the comp" so we had to tone it back down...
- OSFA0
Another question, what would be a safe or ideal camera set up in terms to aperture or speed to achieve photos like this on a white bg without having blurry feet or hands due to motion?
- you need a short flash duration********
- probably 1/2000th of a sec of shorter********
- pardon my ignorance, but wtf does that mean and how can I achieve it or get close to it? Thanks btwOSFA
- short answer is: buy/rent/borrow some serious lighting equipment ): although you can experiment with a shoemount flashbigtrickagain
- flash - you won't be able to duplicate this image very easily with only a shoemount though.bigtrickagain
- Usually the lower you dial down the power on your strobe, the shorter your flash duration will be.Tungsten
- You want the fastest flash sync speed your camera allows. Usually 160 to 250 depend o. Which camera you have.pango
- If you go to the strobe manufacture's website. They will tell you the duration of the strobe.pango
- you need a short flash duration
- bigtrickagain0
very fast strobes. the camera setup doesn't really matter here. ideally you'd get a strobe with a t.5 time of 1/500s or better - because you're shooting inside, if you set your aperture high enough, ideally any ambient light won't matter (this should be generally true if you're shooting with strobes inside) so all the light will be coming from the strobes. thus, even if your shutter speed is low, like 1/30s, your model will still be frozen in motion thanks to the fast strobes.
if you're shooting outside using sunlight, just use a fast shutter speed (and whatever combination of wide aperture and high iso you need to achieve it). for someone jumping like that, i'd say 1/500s or faster would do fine.
- we used to use Speedotron Quad Heads... 1/4000th flash duration, but octopus of wires!vaxorcist
- harv0
Expose for the background. So at least 2 stops over with the lights.
Your going to have to use flash because you wont be able to stop motion without it.Camera settings: ISO :250 , aperture : f8 (it will give you enough sharpness throughout) shutter : 1/250th.
The main thing about this is that your lights have a fast duration. The lower you set your lights the faster the durations. The faster the durations the easier to freeze motion. Try a fill light behind the camera but you might want to use a reflector instead.
Youll have an ass load of light coming off the white background and you might find thats all you need.good luck
- bigtrickagain0
here's a handy chart with flash duration, among other things, listed out for a couple of different strobe setups:
http://www.1prophoto.com/downloa…
- danthon0
here is a strobist article on hacking your flash sync speed.
- harv0
Danthon, that only works with Nikons. You can use the new pocket wizards with canon flashes and get any sync speed. Most DLSR's are only able to handle 250-320th of a second.
- no it doesn't. my canon 30d has an electronic focal-plane shutter - i'm sure other cameras do too.bigtrickagain
- canon who? ;)danthon
- OSFA0
Dumb question... I know this is natural light, but are these photos product of settings or are they heavy retouched after? What would be the best way to achieve these tones?
- bigtrick0
try:
open original of baby. duplicate layer. desaturate the new layer heavily, but not 100%. add a layer mask, revealing all, then paint in the baby and hat and flower so that the underlying layer shows through. add a curves layer to blast out bright areas. copy the mask from the desaturated layer and apply it to the curves layer.
above the original image layer, but below the desaturated image layer and below the curves layer, add another blank layer. fill it with a light pink. set layer mode to screen, and adjust opacity to taste. add a layer mask, and mask out the baby's eyes.
add one more layer, this time a curves layer, and pull the shadows down and the highlights up to increase contrast. fill the mask with black, then use a paintbrush with white and paint the eyes again, so that only the eyes receive the increased contrast.
go to istockphoto and find a photo of a flower. paste it on top of all the other layers.
- that's how i'd try to duplicate the above, anyway.bigtrick
- OSFA0
always there good sir! Thanks!
- utopian1
- and BUMP. 4 years almost to the dayaliastime
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- JG_LB0
just came across this http://www.photoschool.com/