#1

#2

#3

#4

#5



Which lighting arrangement u prefer ?



Source : http://famecherry.com/models/everglades/



Im just a hobbyist, cheers =)

This post has been edited by Wholleymolley: Nov 20 2012, 06:03 PM

I prefer 1 and 4...

so harsh

yeah, very harsh, u see number 3, grass also cannot see d...
y not u just shoot them with simple fill in flash since the whole background is already so bright?

background overexposed,

I am not pro, but as general see, I dislike any of it.

Light too harsh on model.

Background crazy over expose.

Thank you, i like 1 and 4 too hehe




hmm ... how to make less harsh ?

besides shooting at golden hour hehe

bro , try attached with the EXIF n the setting else... u will only get comment like harsh... very harsh... super harsh... n u end up getting nothing here... after u show the exif , i suggest u bring adam_lss for ur next attempt , he seems like he know alot... learn from him , just some suggestion on how to improve urself ^^

of all the ppl u quote me pulak
what i see is how i comment, which is based on number 3, the grass part really out liao ma, no need a genius to tell oso

Expose your picture for the background. Your subject dark nvm
Then fill-in light for the subject with flash/reflector. Dial in the power of the flash (or diffuse the reflector) until it matched the background.

Good idea =)

I used a reflector for this series tho

But yeah agreed, having a artificial lighting will make a diff in flexibility lo

This post has been edited by Wholleymolley: Nov 22 2012, 03:47 PM

err...artificial light supposed to help you...not make things more complicated la
can see you are using reflector in the pics..quite well too.
just that the background is too bright already and the reflector cant do much to help
so in comes flash to fill in.
dial up your shutter speed to darken the background, use flash to light up the model

I'm not a pro and a beginner. IMO, theoretically I think you should meter you back ground and set it to Manual, then only you put flash or reflector. Dear Pros please correct me if I'm wrong. I also somehow suffer canot get the green background like what TS facing.

by the way, what camera and lens you using?

Must bring me already so that I can learn from you

Decreased vibrance better

TS, I do not know if any of this is going to get through but I'm just going to say it. At least I can remind myself..

Backlight technique as your post title suggest is not having the background all blown out. If that's the case, why bother to go outside and find nice background? It's going to be blown out with little to no details left.

As far as most is concerned, backlighting is something to avoid. This is because the bright light from the back will plunge your talent's face into darkness. To counter, flash is used. Else backlighting is used to create a halo effect around the subject but this is always accompanied by at least one light in front to lift the shadows.

When you shoot, do you actually know what result you are trying to get before you release the shutter?

If you are shooting with all the background blown to kingdom come, why bother lugging around all that equipment? Why bother with a DSLR plus a light stand, an external flash and if I am not mistaken, a filter for your flash? Just take a compact point and shoot camera and you can get the same effect. Blown out background.

If you want to show the background you have to preserve the details. You cannot have it blow out. Usually in cases like this, you meter your camera for the background. In doing so, you know that your subject will be underexposed. To counter this, you use a flash and light your subject. End result is both background and subject are lighted and you get details both in your subject and background.

To illustrate further, I am going to post 3 pictures of how I deal with backlighting or when the background is too bright for my liking. You may not agree with me but that's up to you.

First pic - when I meter for the subject with a background that's way too bright:


As you can see, the background is all blown to kingdom come.


Second pic - when I meter for the background:


Here the background exposure is great. I can see details in the sky but the subject is all in shadows. I do not think the model will find this pic attractive.


The solution is to bring out the flash:



Here I shot with the flash held with my left hand, off camera. The flash lights up the subject nicely and the details in the background is preserved. Even lighting for both foreground and background. This is the reason why I lug around gears that weigh like a ton of bricks. If you are shooting beside me with a compact point and shoot camera, there's no way you can get a pic like this. You get either the first or the second pic.

Like I said before, if the first pic is what you are aiming for, and most of your shots here in this thread shows that is the case, why lug around so much gear?

I used a reflector la

Looking at ur bohkeh, for your photo either u used HSS or ND filter, I dont have that yet, thats why still called testing phase



Thanks for the explanation tho, however the main thing what i wanted to achieve in these photos here is the hair light which come from behind or above

FYI, the only filter I had in front of my lens was a UV filter. The flash may have been in HSS. I don't remember and I'm not a stickler for things like EXIF digging. Even if you used a reflector, there's no excuse for blowing out all of your shots.

Hair light will be there even if the exposure is correct. You need not blow out anything for hair light effect.

You have been shooting so frequently and posting up so, so many threads that I find it almost impossible to believe that you don't have any idea about exposures. Do you not know when a shot is blown out?

If you just want hair light and don't care much about the background then it's better to do an indoor shoot and have the model stand in front of a light (don't have to be a flash. Just a light.) with a plain grey or black background. More pronounced hair light.

I've seen countless posts from others about the posing and composition of your shots so I'm not even going there. The technical part of getting exposures right should be at least adhered to.

Well do you know the fundamental diff between a shot done using hss and one done without ( say example with a reflector ) ?

I know the flaws of the photos la, i know how to overcome them after this test

This post has been edited by Wholleymolley: Dec 10 2012, 10:51 AM

The fundamental difference is that with a flash your camera can communicate with the flash and get the exposure. With a reflector, you basically have to figure out the exposure yourself.

Which comes back to the same basic thing : exposure of your shot.

Yes. I admit I'm being harsh. This is because time and time again you say you're experimenting and trying this or that and asking for advise. Problem is you never take the advise.

I dunno. I apologize for being rude. Sometimes when I see your thread, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. Sometimes it makes me kinda angry. Like now for instance.

I'm sorry for being rude. I've said what I have to say. So I'll be quiet now.

Thats not exactly it bro, when we look at fundamental theory

Shutter speed - control ambient

Aperture - control artificial lighting ( such as flash )


If you got HSS it allows u to sync ur flash up to 1 / 5000 at least, that allows u to decrease the ambient light while at the same time use ur flash to light up ur subject the way u want
( this allows u to just allow aperture to remain at say f1.8 so it preserves ur bohkeh )

If u dont have HSS u can only sync to max 1/200 or 1/250, then u have to stop down aperture which kills the mood and bohkeh

I use reflector so the lighting cant overpower the surrounding ambient coz its the same level or weaker



Sorry bro, my reply just now was because a knee jerk response. I have retracted my words.

Sorry, but I need to correct your statement a bit to prevent misleading information to beginning photography learners.

and talking about harsh sunlight, to me I won't even want to place my model facing the harsh sunlight directly, either find a shaded area use the sunlight to create a rim light around her hairs, that should stop up my shutter speed a lot, and still maintain a sharp image. I rarely use flash in this situation, since a reflector is already good enough to expose the shadow area of the model and make the overall image look natural, 1/500s at f/2.8 also no problem

This post has been edited by geekster129: Dec 10 2012, 11:32 AM

Ur statement is even more confusing la, a great part of explanation was replaced by the word "automatically"

OK. Noted. Sifu!

Ok. I need to add one more thing. Then I'll be quiet.


Discounting the fact of whether one is using HSS flash or reflector or any other light for that matter, isn't it important to get the exposure right?

Let's say you are using a reflector and you cannot overpower the background light. Logical to assume that reflected light will lose some intensity.

Question:

1. Why are you trying to overpower the background? In this case, the sun. Why not just meter the scene for the background and use the reflector. This will get your subject a little under compared to the ambient/background exposure. With a little PP, the shot would look better, don't you think?

2. You cannot control the light from the reflector other than it's direction but you can control your shutter speed, right? Assuming you want to use a certain aperture setting, you can adjust your shutter speed to get correct exposure level, can't you? If you have already adjusted the shutter speed to the max and the shot does not come out right, then it's an impossible shot that you are trying to get. Why not change location or try something else?


Getting into the nitty-gritty details about HSS flash and shutter speed and aperture all basically lead back to one of the most basic things in photography : which is the exposure of your shot. It goes back to how you want your shot to be exposed. Although it's subjective as to what is the 'correct' exposure, it make sense to think that one has to strive to get to an 'acceptable' level.

Suggest u explain to beginning photography learners how come u observe the following phenomenon if u really wanted to help them

---

Added on December 10, 2012, 12:23 pm1 ) Because i encountered a recent shot by my favourite photographer who use a technique which overpower background light, I want to try to emulate those shots hence my initial tests on this matter which start with reflector first

Yeah got a few ppl suggest shooting under then pp again after saw this set, but sometimes shoot under the colors turn out diff a bit, later will investigate this further


2 ) The test was done at plenty of locations with background exposures of various levels http://famecherry.com/models/everglades/

Whats involved now is the relation between subject exposure and background exposure

But sure, choosing a background which is less blown out can help la












This post has been edited by Wholleymolley: Dec 10 2012, 12:23 PM

The student becomes the teachers... Pretend ask dumb question later on prey on weaker kind people giving humble comments....

haiz... seem many argument at here.

It doesn't matter what techniques & ways you use, the most important is master the technique you use to create good photos.

Wholleymolley, he use reflector to get better pictures but not effective, still need more practices. You need to learn how to change the angle and position of the reflector to get proper and balance light or reduce shadow on the subject.
Not just simply reflect the light on the subject which create "ugly" lighting on her.

shootkk, since you are good on using off hand @ wireless flash Techniques, if add a softbox at the flash, then can reduce the shadow on the subject, sure can see improvement for the photos.

You got to be kidding me.lol.You are giving a relevant comment or you are just trying to increase the number of your post?