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nhowell · Joined: 09 Jun 2011 Posts: 5

Please critique this photo. First time doing studio-like shots and am learning lighting techniques.

jhuls · Joined: 02 Jan 2012 Posts: 1046

it's a bit washed out and flat. I think the focus would be improved if your exposure was correct. Right now it looks soft and noisy, also there is a hair in front of her eye you will need to clone things like that out.

You might be able to fix this photo a little with a levels or curves adjustment.

nhowell · Joined: 09 Jun 2011 Posts: 5

Thanks for the feedback.
I'm still trying to figure out this whole noise thing - and am a real beginner when it comes to lighting. I'll try playing with levels and see what comes out of it.

copidosoma · Joined: 17 Nov 2009 Posts: 3783 Location: Canada

Two likely sources for noise.

1. You weren't using the lowest iso possible. Looking at the reflections, you had studio lights so you should have enough power to light this at iso 100 (or whatever the lowest you can go is).

2. Major exposure/levels adjustments in post processing. If the original (straight out of the camera) shot had a grey background and you tried to blow it out using your levels adjustment then you are also likely changing the exposure on the rest of the image. Trying to fix something that is underexposed is going to really bring out the noise (and result in blowing out highlights and light areas in the image, like the sides of her face).

I suspect this one will need a reshoot with better lighting levels to keep from having everything blown/washed out.

Having said all that, I'm sure the portrait experts around here will be able to give you much more useful information.

p.s. what happened to her other shoulder? Seems odd that none of it is visible.

Edit: now I see her shoulder, sorry, viewing this on a laptop :)

rinder99 · Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 2:33 pm

More like this. move the lights back a bit because you will get hot spots..But it is noisy and that can cause a drop in resolution also the shadow on her chest will get ya. Nice beginning though.Hang in there.Your getting some blowback from the background. Background must be lit separately and distance to background is a huge factor. The reason we who do Portrait work rely on Flags or lighting the background from the rear instead of the front which is what I do..Hers one of mine. Balanced Lighting and skin tone.

hhltdave5 · Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 2:40 pm

It almost looks as if you have a side lighting thing going on which was too hot and washed a good deal of detail out. That, or you were blowing out the back ground with a background light at you had some spill over onto the model.

When doing an isolation such as this your model should be at least 5 feet from the backdrop. This will give you room to put the background lights in a good position to avoid any spill over. There are other means to block this spill over light but I do not know what you have equipment wise.

When doing portraits and you set up your lights always do a test shot and look at it CLOSELY before going on. If you looked at this image with a critical eye I believe you would have seen the exposure problem and could have adjusted your lights.

Understanding lighting is critical to shots like this and you must be able to control the lights to get the type of shot you are aiming for.

You have a good base and concept for this shot. You just need to work on the technical aspects of the shot to get it just right. Remember, do the set up, take a test shot, look at it carefully, make adjustments if necessary then when you are happy with the results proceed with the actual shoot.