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Please can somebody help me. I own a 4 light studio set up consisting of 2 x 200W & 2 x 400W Elinchrome D-Lites. I have had consistent problems whilst using my white backdrop and flooring to blow out both the background and floor to a crisp white. Using the 200W lights at the back without any softboxes, I have no problems whatsoever in blowing out my background, but I am unable to obtain a nice white floor, no matter what angle or positions I place the lights at the front.. How can I obtain consistent white background and floor without over exsposing my subjects...
just use the dodge tool set to highlights in photoshop at about 5% to get rid of dark area. Then duplicate the layer and change layer mode to screen to bleach the image more to ensure it is pure white.
james
What settings are you using.......ie Aperture & speed.....?
Also how are you setting your lights up.....!
You could try lighting the backdrop to f16 with the backdrop lights, Then set your forward subject lights to f8.
Then set your camera to 1/60s @ f/8.........! As a starting point, Adjust + or - dependant on results........!
I'm taking a guess here, That you may be using to higher shutter speed......
If you don't have one already, A Light/Flash meter will be of great help....
You need brollies not Photoshop - get it right in studio and in camera - don't shoot bad then fix it in edit.
Sorry for the rant.
Softboxes on your back lights will control the light quite tightly - brollies will give you more spread of light - trying to cover the floor and the back drop with two lights is asking some but it can be done.
You may need to the PS the edges where the light falls off.
The trouble you'll have is burn out on the edges of your subject esspecially if they where white or cream as well. Front lighting become more head on to blance the top down light from the brollies.
I'll put up a shot done with 3 lights and reflector in my PF - Called "Studio."
We all have our own way of doing things and although I might have a different approach to Peter Davey, he is absoluely right in saying that this is something that needs correct lighting, not rescuing in PS.
Reflective umbrellas on the background work, but personally I prefer to use two softboxes. The one on the right illuminates the left and vice versa, this will produce fairly even background lighting, edge to edge, without the light spill that umbrellas create.
That leaves the floor. There are various ways of dealing with it, a good one is an overhead softbox on a boom arm immediately above the background. The softbox is fitted with a honeycomb to control light spill and avoid flare, and it points at the ground where required. Of course, some of the light will spill onto the back of the subject but that's not usually a problem. Not a cheap solution, but an effective one, and justfied if there are a large number of shots.
Or you could fit a light behind and pointing forwards/downwards to illuminate the floor. ideally, it should be one of the special background reflectors. Unfortunately the Elinchrom one is ridiculously expensive for what it is. You will need to experiment with the angle, too acute and you'll lose a lot of the light because of cos law, which will mean increasing the flash power unnecessarily, which will degrade the edges of your subject.
Of course, any light facing forward to illuminate the background will cast a forward shadow. This can be mitigated by placing an efficient reflector at camera position to catch the spare light and push it back. Generally, subtle shadows are OK but of course burning them in is an easy job if you really want pure white.
Of course, if you really were taking high key portraits and not just shots with white backgrounds you wouldn't have this problem
Think of it this way - raddical I know, light is like trying to control water on a flat surface with no sides - it goes everywhere unless you contain it
Good points from Garry BTW.
Thanks for the quick responses from people.. I'm pretty new to forums and this is the first time I've ever posted anything... I'm trying to avoid the Photoshop option because technically I'm keen to get things right from the start. I own a Sekonic L308S light meter, but unfortunately because I shoot a lot of family/children, I try and use as higher speed as possible (1/200s) which is the most my EOS5D will sync with the Elinchrome D-Lights. It was a bad move buying the light meter, because there is no 1/200 setting - It jumps straight to 1/250... A lot of my work is close cropped, so I can dispense with having to blow out the floor, however, I need to be able to use this option for some of the poses if people want full length shots... I posted one of my photos for critique last night called Unveiled, which is in the portrait section if anybody could kindly look at it. When I set up my lights, I tend to set up the back on high power to cfover the whole of the backdrop overlapping in tghe middle, which also covers a lot of the floor at the back of the floor curve and I place my subjects forward outside of the spill area so the light doesn't over expopse them, which tends to work. If I use my light meter based on my front settings, it tends to vastly over expose (I'm probably doing something wrong) so I end up taking a few test shots, (I always shoot manual) and adjust either the aperture or speed until the histogram looks about right. Are umbrellas a much better option than softboxes or is it simply personal preference... I tend to not have softboxes on the back lights to ensure the backdrop stays really white, whilst I use a medium sized softbox (the standard which comes with the D-Lites) on the front for key light and the smaller D-Lite Softbox on the other side for my fill which I generally have 1/2 to 1 stop lower than my fill. But the settings mean i generally end up shooting f9-f16 depedndent on what I'm trying to achieve. I like the sound of the boom arm with the overhead. I assume this would mean a 5 light set-up????
Blanchie,
It's clear that you just don't understand the basics.
Forget about the shutter speed when using studio flash. It doesn't matter which shutter speed you use as long as the shutter is fully open at the time the flash goes off, so there's absolutely no point in using a high shutter speed (unless you have unwanted sunlight streaming into your studio), there's no point in changing the shutter speed and it doesn't matter in the slightest that your meter doesn't have 1/200th written on it. Adjustments are made using the aperture only.
I don't know how you're using your meter, but you should be using it in incident mode, from the subject position and pointing back towards the camera. The whole idea of a meter is that it takes away the need to make guesses bases on the histogram.
If you use too much power on your background the bounced light will degrade the edge detail on your subjects as well as causing flare.
Elinchrom have just announced a new range of softboxes with honeycombs. They won't be cheap, but there are cheaper brands available with Elinchrom-fit speedrings.
Take a look at the 'More free downloads' on the Photolearn website, basic info that may or may not help you.
Thanks Gary
Apologies if I don't understand the basics...
I shoot lots of families with young children... When they are not being statically posed and are being captured naturally doing whatever children do, I've historically found that using 1/60th or 1/125th just doesn't stop the movement sufficiently to capture a sharp, crisp image without blurring. When using adult, still models, yes, I opt for a lower speed... I obviously need some professional guidance of some sort, even to the point of the correct use of the light meter and set upo. I'll take on board the comments kindly put forward here and see how it goes...
I have a studio day in Jan - I'd send you a PM but you don't have it enabled.
Let me know, Peter.
Quote: Thanks Gary
Apologies if I don't understand the basics...
I shoot lots of families with young children... When they are not being statically posed and are being captured naturally doing whatever children do, I've historically found that using 1/60th or 1/125th just doesn't stop the movement sufficiently to capture a sharp, crisp image without blurring. When using adult, still models, yes, I opt for a lower speed... I obviously need some professional guidance of some sort, even to the point of the correct use of the light meter and set upo. I'll take on board the comments kindly put forward here and see how it goes...
I there's enough ambient light in your studio for blur to show at 1/60th or 1/125th then there's far too much, and you need to block it out.
It's easy to test. Just take a shot at whatever aperture you normally find yourself using (say f/11) at 1/125th without any studio lighting and see whether there is enough light to actually register. There shouldn't be.
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