Barbieri's Spring Photo Shoot

[MarkBarbieri]

We had a bunch of friends and neighbors over to our studio (aka the garage) for a photo shoot. I drive my kids crazy using them as test subjects while I try to learn how to use my lights. I figured I'd trade free pictures for free models and invite in another crop of kids.

I was shooting for a "high key" look. I used a solid white background and white floor cover. I haven't figured out how to make the floor look white instead of gray.

My light setup was pretty straightforward. I used a large softbox on my left as the main light. I used another softbox on my right as a fill. I had two lights with barn doors on the background to blow it out. I had a fifth light with a honeycomb grid for a hair light. I used the modeling lights and my light meter to get the levels about right.

I shot almost everything at 1/250 and f/11. I shot handheld and used a 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens for most of the shots and a 24-70 f/2.8 for the others.

Overall, I'm reasonably happy with the results. I can see a ton of things that I should have done differently, but I think I did much better than the last time. As long as I'm getting better, I'm happy.

Here are a few sample shots:

As usual, I also put together a slideshow of the event and posted it here.

If you have any constructive suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

 

[AndrewWG]

Mark,

Those are great shots. I am going to take a guess that you would need some lights aimed to the floor to blow out the white on the floor in order to make it look not gray. Again, I 'm guessing that the camera is seeing the background as nice and white with your settings, but the light is too dim for it to see the floor as white. Who knows, I may be wrong.

 

[Nikel]

I don't have any useful comments on the lighting. I haven't done much with studio lighting. The pictures are cute though and look nice and sharp.

Here's my cc - Have you done any post processing on these? They look a bit flat and dull. (Disclaimer - I like lots of color and contrast.) IMO, a quick edit would really give these a bit of a wow factor. Here's what I mean: (I hope you don't mind my play. If you do, let me know, and I'll take it right down.)

All I did was unsharp mask to remove digital haze (20, 60, 0), a slight contrast boost, and a slight saturation boost. That made the skin to red, so I did a slight unsaturation of the red tones only.

 

[Miss Kelly]

These look great! I agree with Nikel that they need a little post processing though. A tip to get the floor white, use white tile board from Lowes or Home Depot. The best $12 you will spend.

 

[MICKEY88]

any special reason you are shooting at 1/250

1/60 would give more ambient light and whiten your floor

 

[MarkBarbieri]

am going to take a guess that you would need some lights aimed to the floor to blow out the white on the floor in order to make it look not gray.

That was my first thought, but there are a few problems with the idea. First, unlike the background, I can't shine light on the floor without also hitting the subjects. Anything bright enough to blow out the floor is going to also blow out parts of my subject.

The second issue is light reflected from the floor. I noticed that when my subjects strayed to close to the background, the light reflecting from it started to wash out parts of my subject. I had to maintain a good 3-4 separation between the wall and the subject, which is not possible with the floor.

A tip to get the floor white, use white tile board from Lowes or Home Depot. The best $12 you will spend.

This sounds like a great suggestion. I'll look the next time I'm there.

Have you done any post processing on these? They look a bit flat and dull. (Disclaimer - I like lots of color and contrast.) IMO, a quick edit would really give these a bit of a wow factor.

I did post process them. I did a little sharpening, some exposure adjustment, some cleanup, and some minor tweaks. I kept the colors relatively unsaturated because I thought that it worked best with the high key look. A stark white background and a high contrast subject or high saturation subject was not a look I really wanted for this shoot.

any special reason you are shooting at 1/250

1/60 would give more ambient light and whiten your floor

I shot at 1/250 because that was my camera's highest sync speed. I wanted the highest shutter speed possible to minimize motion blur and/or camera shake. Because I was shooting entirely with studio lights, a longer shutter speed would have made no difference at all in this situation. The only light in the room was the modeling lights on the strobes. Using the modeling lights helped tremendously with getting the lights set up the way that I wanted them.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[alan]

Just one small thought, so obvious it may not be worth saying, but your light meter is presumably going to aim for 18% grey... Maybe you should add in a touch of exposure comp to increase the whiteness

regards,
/alan

 

[Mckymousefn]

I am throwing this out.. but i was told that if you drop your F-stop down two... it would help overexpose it and make whiter.

So you did it at F-11, so maybe try it at F5.6??

Just an idea.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Just one small thought, so obvious it may not be worth saying, but your light meter is presumably going to aim for 18% grey... Maybe you should add in a touch of exposure comp to increase the whiteness

regards,
/alan

Nice thought, but it won't work. First, if I increased my exposure to blow out the white cloth on the ground, I'd also overexpose my subject.

The other problem is that you are assuming that I'm using an incident meter instead of a reflective meter. The meter in a camera is a reflective meter. It's designed to meter the light reflected from a subject. Because it doesn't know how reflective the subject is, the meter guesses that it is 18% gray. That's why white's underexpose and look grey and blacks overexpose and look gray.

I was metering with an incident meter. To use it, you carry it over to the area you are photographing and let it read the light hitting that area. When working with strobes, you can set the meter to fire the strobe and read the amount of light it puts out. Because it is reading the light itself, you needn't be concerned with the reflectivity of the subject (well, not as concerned - you still have to worry about the total dynamic range of your scene).

To meter the setup I shot, I first picked my shutter speed (1/250 - the max sync speed of my camera) and the aperture I wanted to use (f/11 for good DOF and sharpness). I then set the meter at 1/250, fired the flashes, and checked the meter. I adjusted the lights until I had a two stop overexposure (f/22) across my background. I didn't want it any brighter as there was no need and I didn't want any more light reflecting than necessary.

Next, I metered my main light and made sure that it matched my exposure (f/11). After that, I metered my fill light and set it for one stop under my main light (f/8). I'm lazy, so I just wagged it with the hair light.

 

[jann1033]

great job Mark..like this better than the garden theme i think..and i like the softer colors. I might like a subtle vignette around the landscape shots just to soften the floor a little. nice posing, really like the little girl in the frilly pink dress, her expression matches the pose nicely( pensive i guess you might call it?) and the hula hoop is a nice touch...ya done good
oops didn't see the slide show. guess you did do the garden thing so yet another emily letilla moment ie "nevermind"

 

[DVC Jen]

Mark you can also use the dodge tool in PS to whiten the floor so it looks the same as the backdrop. It is a bit time consuming but it looks really nice and flowing after it is done.

 

[labdogs42]

I like the pictures a lot! Especially the one of the baby. I'm not sure what a "high key" effect is, but I guess I like it, if that's the look you achieved. I would love to some day get into the whole studio lighting thing. I'll have to go and check out your slide show. Thanks for sharing, Mark!

 

[Furgus]

Super easy way in Photoshop to get your floor all white. Open it up, duplicate the layer. Image, Adjustments, Exposure. Crank up your exposure to totally blow out the background. Hold down the Alt on PC (Option Key on Mac) and click the layer mask button in the layer pallet. This will make you a nice layer mask on the duplicate layer. Switch to a soft brush and paint the area that you want bright white. Works like a champ.

 

[SharonLowe]

Nice job Mark.

Paper usually works better than cloth for a seamless/wrinkle free look but if that isn't an option, the white tile or even just large white boards would help.

High Key - I would want the subjects even brighter for a true high key effect. Almost washed out but not flat. Although the floor is a problem, I like the girl in the pink dress the best.

 

[SharonLowe]

Here's what I think of when I think of high key portraits. Mark, I hope you don't mind.

 

[nitroy2k]

hehe cute girls... i could put my sister here she is evena more preaty then other girls

 

[MICKEY88]

Nice job Mark.

Paper usually works better than cloth for a seamless/wrinkle free look but if that isn't an option, the white tile or even just large white boards would help.

High Key - I would want the subjects even brighter for a true high key effect. Almost washed out but not flat. Although the floor is a problem, I like the girl in the pink dress the best.

Hm interesting thought,,,I just read a tutorial last night over on photocamel and the photographer said that is a common misconception of younger /modern photographers...

he said
If you type in high key photography into any search engine you will find lots of photographers calling high contrast images high key, and overexposed images being called high key, but these are not true traditional high key images.

he later said this...



The term HIGH KEY has been questioned on another forum I frequent and I wrote a little something there that should be included here so here it is.

First I believe we must establish exactly what a high key image is. Since the advent of Photoshop and the internet, the definition of what a high key image is has seemed to have virtually overnight evolved into any image that is overexposed, or has a white background, or an image in which the subject is wearing white clothing, or any combination of any or all of the above. So I turned to Norman Phillips' book Lighting Techniques For High Key Portrait Photography for a definitive definition, and I quote, "High key is the term used to describe photographs with white or bright backgrounds and usually with bright lighting situations that render subjects in a light tone similiar to that of the background. The ultimate high key portrait is one in which the background is a clean white and the subjects are also attired in white. High key exists wherever the predominant tones in the image are somewhat brighter than the middle key."

The middle key in the digital world is 128 which is 18% gray and is exactly 1/2 way between pure black "0" and pure white "255."

Kenneth Hoffman in his internet article on High Key Photography states: In photography [High key] can easily be acheived by choosing elements of a white or pastel color placed on a white or very light background."

From DIY Photography.net. "To create a high key image you need to set your exposure levels to a high degree but watch out not to overexpose. High key images lack contrast and also there is a lack of shadows in the picture."

About.com Photography says, "High key pictures [can] contain small areas of dark tones, for example in the iris of the eyes in a portrait."

New York Institute of Photography Dictionary of Photography says under High Key: "A photograph made up entirely of tones above the middle tone with no heavy shadows."

Lastly a definition from the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (UK) and the British Professional Photographer's Association."High key-A scene with delicate tones or pastel colors. A photograph which contains large areas of light tones with few middle tones or shadows."

So according to the above, a high key image must have:
1-A white or very light pastel background.
2. Subjects(s) dressed in white or light pastel clothing.
3. Little or no contrast.
4. Little or no heavy shadows.
5. Few middle tones.

A high key image will not have:
1. Any overexposure of the subject.
2. Any areas below the middle tone except for small areas like the iris of the eyes.

The question has been raised as to whether a dark skinned subject dressed all in white and photographed on a white background would be considered high key. According to the above I would answer yes. Nowhere is it stated that that the skin of the subject has any bearing on the key of the image.

Benji was the photographer

 

[AndrewWG]

hehe cute girls... i could put my sister here she is evena more preaty then other girls

And people wonder why I don't post photos of my DD.

 

[SharonLowe]

Hm interesting thought,,,I just read a tutorial last night over on photocamel and the photographer said that is a common misconception of younger /modern photographers...

he said
If you type in high key photography into any search engine you will find lots of photographers calling high contrast images high key, and overexposed images being called high key, but these are not true traditional high key images.

he later said this...



The term HIGH KEY has been questioned on another forum I frequent and I wrote a little something there that should be included here so here it is.

First I believe we must establish exactly what a high key image is. Since the advent of Photoshop and the internet, the definition of what a high key image is has seemed to have virtually overnight evolved into any image that is overexposed, or has a white background, or an image in which the subject is wearing white clothing, or any combination of any or all of the above. So I turned to Norman Phillips' book Lighting Techniques For High Key Portrait Photography for a definitive definition, and I quote, "High key is the term used to describe photographs with white or bright backgrounds and usually with bright lighting situations that render subjects in a light tone similiar to that of the background. The ultimate high key portrait is one in which the background is a clean white and the subjects are also attired in white. High key exists wherever the predominant tones in the image are somewhat brighter than the middle key."

The middle key in the digital world is 128 which is 18% gray and is exactly 1/2 way between pure black "0" and pure white "255."

Kenneth Hoffman in his internet article on High Key Photography states: In photography [High key] can easily be acheived by choosing elements of a white or pastel color placed on a white or very light background."

From DIY Photography.net. "To create a high key image you need to set your exposure levels to a high degree but watch out not to overexpose. High key images lack contrast and also there is a lack of shadows in the picture."

About.com Photography says, "High key pictures [can] contain small areas of dark tones, for example in the iris of the eyes in a portrait."

New York Institute of Photography Dictionary of Photography says under High Key: "A photograph made up entirely of tones above the middle tone with no heavy shadows."

Lastly a definition from the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (UK) and the British Professional Photographer's Association."High key-A scene with delicate tones or pastel colors. A photograph which contains large areas of light tones with few middle tones or shadows."

So according to the above, a high key image must have:
1-A white or very light pastel background.
2. Subjects(s) dressed in white or light pastel clothing.
3. Little or no contrast.
4. Little or no heavy shadows.
5. Few middle tones.

A high key image will not have:
1. Any overexposure of the subject.
2. Any areas below the middle tone except for small areas like the iris of the eyes.

The question has been raised as to whether a dark skinned subject dressed all in white and photographed on a white background would be considered high key. According to the above I would answer yes. Nowhere is it stated that that the skin of the subject has any bearing on the key of the image.

Benji was the photographer

I was trying to say the same thing in a lot fewer words The girl I redid was a quick and dirty because I didn't think Mark's was quite at that definition.

 

[MICKEY88]

I was trying to say the same thing in a lot fewer words The girl I redid was a quick and dirty because I didn't think Mark's was quite at that definition.

but your retouch slightly overexposes the girl.. that's why I don't think it meets the original/standard definition of highkey..