Chuck wrote:
> of years ago when this shot was done. Your landscape bias is
> showing here with your attempt to open up the shadows in the
> background. But it's a people picture and not a landscape or
> architectural shot. In a people picture the people are the
> subject, not the leaves in the tree behind them. Brightening
> and opening up the background attracts attention away from
> the people which is the opposite of what I want to do.
Not to add another kick to Moose here, but I'm agreeing with
Chuck. In outdoor portraiture, you want to create a seperation
between the subject and the background. We can do this two main
ways:
1. Narrow DoF
2. Brightening or Lowering the background.
As a general rule, a narrow DoF is going to be the better way to
go for a single person portrait. Group portraits have the
opposite problem--you struggle to get enough DoF. Also, with
group shots, you rarely use a telephoto, but either a normal or
a wide-angle lens. A 35mm wide-angle (and equivelents in
different formats) is one of the handiest focal lengths for
group shots because you can usually get everybody in AND your
flash-to-subject distance is kept somewhat under control.
Controlling the light-level of the background is another key
tool at our disposal. By raising or lowering the background 1/2
to one stop will create a distince seperation. If you raise the
background, you WILL almost always blow out the highlights. This
is perfectly ok in this case since there isn't anything back
there that you want anybody to really look at anyway. If you
drop the background down (under-expose it) it creates a slightly
warmer, more inviting, picture.
These days, I've been pretty much a two light, two reflector
person. I almost always use the Lumiquest-Ultrabounce equipped
Vivitar 285HV on the stroboframe as it gives sparkling eyes
without overpowering the subject. I'll also use a stand-mounted
strobe fired into a large umbrella off to the side a bit.
Depending on mood, I'll rotate the flash around the subject to
provide more rakish lighting. I like using large reflectors
down by the people's feet so it provides a little bottom fill to
take out double-chins and wrinkles. Also, if I have assistants
handly, I'll have them stand just behind and to the side of the
subjects and have them hold the reflectors to bounce the light
back at the back of the heads.
One REALLY COOL lighting technique for senior portraits of young
women is to invert the stroboframe-ultra(omni)bounce equipped
flash below the camera and put a studio-light softbox above the
camera. If you have another softbox, put it above and behind
the head (hair-lighting) or have somebody hold a large reflector
there--as that is usually more than enough light to do the task.
Back to the interior lighting madness--I usually like to use no
more than two umbrella-equipped lights. Any more than that and
things start to lose their mood. I've also used screw-in flash
units that replace regular light-fixture bulbs with flash. It
is so important to balance indoor lighting with the window
lighting. Having the outdoors about 1-stop overexposed is very
desirable. However, with digital, I find it so easy to take two
exposures--one for the windows, one for the interior and just
stack them in an editor. This way, you can also go to tungsten
lighting. I actually prefer to use tungsten lighting instead of
flash because you can use the regular interior lighting without
getting mixed colorcasts. It's easy with digital to
colorcorrect the WB of each individual shot before the merge.
Oh, with tungsten lighting it's much easier to see what is going
on with shadows and even lighting as you set the lights up. It
takes a whole lot less time than taking flash-meter readings
over and over and over again. Bounce the tungstens into the
reflectors just like you do with studio flash units. I also use
a lot of ceiling bounce. If you angle the lights just right you
can throw the light to the far end of the room without screwing
up your front-to-back lighting ratios.
If all else fails or you have florescent lighting, load up the
Fuji Realla--it's the best mixed-lighting photographic capture
medium ever made.
AG
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