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Lighting help needed please.

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From a lighting stand point how does this look? I was using two 540 flashes triggered wirelessly bouncing off of an umbrella. I see a shadow on the right side of the penquin because sometimes the flash to my right wouldn't fire. Reciever always flashed but not the flash all the times.

 

_IGP1713a.jpg

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have started reading the strobist website lighting 101 I think it is and it is helping out some.

 

Thanks

Jim

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I like shadows in a photo, they help show depth. I'm guessing you had your lights set up kind of like copy light, one left of camera and one right of camera equal distances from the subject.

You might try setting one light near your camera and maybe a little above camera. Set the other light off to one side. Looking at the shadow you have se the light to the side about at the angle your left light is at.

Set this light back a little farther than the center light, and if you can make it so it isn't so soft as the center light. If the shadow produced is to harsh you can move the side light farther back, or you can put a white card off to the side of the photo opposite the side light to bounce some light back in.

 

You have black and white in your subject so that is going to cause some problems. Your exposure is going to have to be right on to get detail in both the blacks and the whites. You might be able to bounce a little extra light into the dark areas with small mirrors or white cards if you want to take the time to place them.

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Nice picture Jim. I struggle with lighting, still have days when it does not behave as I thought (or wished) it would.

 

I agree, bouncing light will help bring our detail, particularly in the dark areas along the side of the stuffed animal...it is hard to see separation between the wings and the body (or background on the right side). It also appears as though the top of the frame is brighter than the bottom.

 

Staggering your lights, one closer and higher than the other, for example, will help eliminate the conflicting shadows seen on the inside of the penguin’s legs; notice how each leg cast a shadow to the inside. You might find it helpful to get your light sources as close as you can to the subject, lurking just outside the area pictured.

 

If you want to draw attention to the penguin, then a simpler background will help. I like the afghan, but would reposition to have a lighter area behind the subject.

 

I have learned a lot from “Light Science and Magic: An introduction to Photographic Lighting” by Hunter and Fuqua.

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Ok now you two. You have totally thrown out my rule of thumb which was keep the lights one on each side of the camera to kind of cancel out the shadows and keep the lights back from the subject for softer lighting. Ok when I get home tonight I will try some of your alls suggestions and post the results.

 

Thanks

Jim

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Jim,

 

I have been reading a lot on strobes.... However, I have been using a Canon Speedlite with a Micro Apollo Light Modifier which goes over my Flash. Basically it is a difuser mounted to a Stroboframe PRO T. It has helped tremendously when photography my subjects. Mounting the flash up top of my camera and difusing the lite has done wonders for me. Check out my blog. www.jaymorrphotography.com/blog for some recent examples...

 

J, it appears to me your exposure is off all together. I pulled it into Photoshop real fast to show you what the exposure should be. Again this is just my take and I hope the feedback helps.

 

I adjusted the curves. Shadows and Highlights. You will see that your colors now stand out.

 

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post-1492-1227939843_thumb.jpg

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