DSLR Photography Forum

Please savage these pictures.

I am "developing " the "Amazing Rufus' No-studio, studio"

Here is an example or 3.

Please see
1/ Background
2/Pose
2/Cut/paste/smooth technique

.............And tell me what needs improving.

The set-up in this situation is:
10D set to manual,
550ex set to manual, and fired at 128th output straight up
1 Vivitar 285HV on manual, fired into a gold reflector, (picture left)
Diffuse sunlight, (picture right.
12x12 room, with blue walls and copper water pipes running across it.
Bronze wall lamps, and one dead moth.

Great photos Ruf. #2 is absolutely perfect. The exposure is right on and so is the lighting. #1 and #3 have a lot of shadows but what bugs me is the gold hotspot. It is very distracting and too bright. It simulates sunshine very much and with the shadowing on the subjects it just seem so odd. I must say too, you did a great job of not getting reflections on the glasses.

I like everything but the gold reflector. It gives you different color temps on each side of the 1st picture - I thought she was lit by a tungsten lamp (very yellow) whereas the light on him (diffuse sunlight) is much cooler.

Pose in #1 isn't very warm/tender/fuzzy. Baby seems to be an afterthought and is too low / far to the left. Will be way too close to the frame when this is framed.

Middle pic is the best but c/b warmer. If you used sunlight wb, don't! diffused indoor sunlight is much cooler than direct outdoor sunlight. Also flash wb should be warmer. Cloudy, shade, flash wb settings work better. Notice how the blue is also bluer in this one than the others.

Gold really looks yellow in pic 3 because of the blue b/g. Makes her look jaundiced. Against a warmer bg it may work better. Remember, a blue bg will bring out yellow and orange in skin tones (which you've then accentuated); a green bg will bring out more reds/pinks.

Q1: Can you have them look at each other and/or the baby, instead of at the camera?

Q2: How did you trigger the Viv? Those are great cheap flashes!

I would love to see more of the baby... I was thinking that maybe if you had mommy in a chair.. in a rocking chair... both faces would be closer and mommy's hand wouldn't need to be holding the baby, also it would have a more motherly mood..... Her hand in the last picture distracts a bit....

I was thinking that If she were in a chair you might work with shadows simulating the grid of a window in the background... Well just an idea...

I really don't know well about the colors in the clothes, but I think it would be nice to have a neutral color in mommy's blouse... light pink or blue... or beige... I don't know what to think about Dad's labels on the t-shirt but I would clone them out....

These are my thoughts Rufus, I hope they help... and thanks for sharing these pictures, they are very motivating I would like to take some pictures like these ones as well....

hi

I agree with most of the previous post. I also think that the faces of the parents should be closer to the baby.

Thanks for charing

Regards

christian

In haste................

MANY THANKS!!!

These observations and comments are top-notch, thank you very much!!

Details:
Slej said:
Q1: Can you have them look at each other and/or the baby, instead of at the camera?
Q2: How did you trigger the Viv? Those are great cheap flashes!

Yes, they do look at each other, and the baby, in some of the pics, just not these.......
Optical slaves, with everything set to manual, (10D, 550ex, 285hv).

HOWEVER.... A friend is working on INFRA RED SLAVES, which will enable the triggering of ANY hot shoe gun from a common controller. I'm buying the first two. The rest of you will have to form a queue!

IRMA:
I'd love to use props, but the space is so cramped in their living room, that there just isnt any way to include anything else!

BYRT, yes, there are other images which are more, well.... soggy, soft, and sloppy!

PETO, when you refer to the gold hotspot, are you talking of the BG gold area, or the reflected golden flash?