Let's talk monolights

[blastingcap]

This was a random chick off Craigslist, and I was pretty surprised by how it all turned out. I didn't think I'd find anyone nearly as good looking as her on Craigslist!

No offense to her, and it's not your fault as the photo was done nicely... but your wife is five times hotter. Lucky man, you!

 

[Throckmorton]

lol well I think she's hot enough to where I wouldn't need a beauty dish to accomplish that, and if i was showing her off, I'd have told you she was 5'11" when I posted the pics. Ok, now I'm showing off...

Wow, how tall are you?

 

[virtuamike]

If you want to get away from the dilated look, then either use stronger modeling lamps or increase the amount of ambient light you're working with.

Also got falloff toward the bottom of your frame, something to keep in mind if you ever shoot full body.

 

[shortylickens]

I have found a white room with lights bouncing directly off the walls actually works OK for me.
But then you seem to be going after a more professional look.

 

[Syborg1211]

No offense to her, and it's not your fault as the photo was done nicely... but your wife is five times hotter. Lucky man, you!

Ha, thanks!

Wow, how tall are you?

I'm 6'5".

If you want to get away from the dilated look, then either use stronger modeling lamps or increase the amount of ambient light you're working with.

Also got falloff toward the bottom of your frame, something to keep in mind if you ever shoot full body.

I don't think her eyes are dilated. My modeling light was on full blast, but she's part asian so her pupils aren't going to be easily discernible from the typically dark brown iris. I think you're mistaking the catchlights in her eyes as her pupils.

As for the falloff, I think the light on the model is even for the most part, but you're seeing the falloff in the background. I think this is the problem when you have no backdrop and only have one crappy monolight for background lighting. I also didn't have any space to camera right so both my main light (beauty dish) and background light (bounce umbrella) were camera left. I definitely need a backdrop and more lights can't hurt ha.

I have found a white room with lights bouncing directly off the walls actually works OK for me.
But then you seem to be going after a more professional look.

Do you mean as main lighting? I'm definitely going for a more professional look as I'm trying to build up a portfolio to eventually start making some money doing this.

 

[shortylickens]

Thats my opinion.
Get a perfectly white room, skip the umbrellas, and just face the lights to the wall. Bright lights, but you can go dirt cheap just by hitting up Home Depot and buy cheap fixtures & bulbs.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Thats my opinion.
Get a perfectly white room, skip the umbrellas, and just face the lights to the wall. Bright lights, but you can go dirt cheap just by hitting up Home Depot and buy cheap fixtures & bulbs.

You can get nice illumination that way, but you have very little control over the light.

 

[shortylickens]

You can get nice illumination that way, but you have very little control over the light.

Dimmers?

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Dimmers?

Control meaning, directing it into certain places and away from other places, having diffused vs. direct light, having some parts dimmer vs. lighter, having it strike the subject at certain angles (can be important for hairlights to get the right "glow" in the hair)... all kinds of things.

A pro portrait photographer will generally have a setup of 4 lights: main, fill, hair, and background. All of these are at different angles and different powers, and different levels of diffusion. There is generally enough control and separation that the main light will not spill over to the background, the background light will not hit the subject, etc.