Portrait photography

[Suburbanmom]

You may be aksed to take photos of several groups of kids instead of just couples. Middle schoolers don't always have dates for dances, but go as a group of friends. If the dance has a theme, you could have some coordinating balloons nearby to act as filler or extra color. I do a lot with the middle school my kids attend and it is a very good idea to go early and see what the condiditons are. Good luck!

 

[BorisMD]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I ended up just using some of tear off roll paper in the art supply room, and taping it to the wall.

Here's a shot of my "studio" and "photo lab" with my lovely assistants -- my daughter and her friend. They ran the printer and did the post processing (mostly just cropping) and kept track of who paid and for what shot.

A test shot of the setup with the 10-22 lens -- and a somewhat surly looking photographer

My much more pleasant appearing assistants

And here are several shots from the groups -- some shot with the 24-70 and some with the 10-22.

So, some things I learned --

Use a larger background -- these kids have a "herd" mentality
Get to the shoot earlier to play around with settings more
Never underestimate the power of the wide angle lens

Thanks again for your suggestions,

Boris

 

[WillowBelle]

Just curious if any of you photographers here attended the worldwide Help-Portrait day yesterday (the 12th). I attended the local one for me, here in Franklin TN. Had a wonderful time - and met some fantastic people.

 

[AndrewWG]

Well, all of you have been incredibly helpful in the past so now I have to ask about portrait lighting.

I have read that good portrait lighting is now mainly done with strobes, soft boxes, barn doors, etc. I am looking to get a somewhat inexpensive set of lights BUT don't really know what I am looking for and what is good and bad about certain lights. I do know that those who have used Alien Bees seem to be very happy with them BUT my budget is tight. Really don't want to go much more than $400 for a set of 2 or 3 lights. I was looking at the light set below on ebay but am very unsure about the wattages, etc.... Any advice?

Thanks in advance for anything you can fill me in on.

Moderators, please let me know if this is not an acceptable link. I am not selling, just asking advice about the setup.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...RRENCY=0&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_fvi=1&_rdc=1

 

[handicap18]

I'm still searching for a similar setup myself. I was thinking about going with continuous lights though. I've found some setups with CFL bulbs. I have one setup, but its not quite bright enough.

but I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

 

[AndrewWG]

Yeah Kyle I know what you mean. I have 3 500w hot lights myself. They work. I could probably learn to work with them better but they have an average bulb life of like 5 hours and they are hot (as the name implies) and you can probably watch the electric meter run like crazy when they are turned on. I want to go with strobe, but don't want to break the bank to just get a couple nice family shots per year. IF I was to go into portrait photography, I could justify the costs but I don't see that in the near future by any means.

It is a tough toss up between buying the lesser expensive units that may or may not be reliable or spend the big bucks to have a bunch of money tied up in the closet for most of the year.....

 

[SueInBoston]

Hi All,
I'm a long time reader and occasional poster.. I started with a Rebel XT and now owns a 40D as well with a number of lenses and an 430EX flash. My photos have been mostly family, vacation, kids' sports (soccer, basketball, lacrosse) so mostly outdoor stuff.

I volunteer at a women & children homeless shelter. During one party, I took point and shoot pictures for these women. Many of them were so appreciative and said that they don't have any 'good' picture of themselves and their children. So for this holiday season, I would like to do a project for these women. I would like to do a holiday pictures session at the shelter.

The shelter is in a grand victorian building, but it's old and drab with awful, awful (energy saving) lighting. I would need to bring my own lighting. So I'm looking to buy some lights. I tried to research online but the choices are so vast and so much to learn, so I'm coming here for advice. If I'm just doing pictures of 2 to 3 people (mom and 2 kids) how many lights would I need? should I get umbrella lighting? Most important of all, can anyone recommend a good starter lighting set? or give me a quick education on portrait lighting?

If you're in the New England area and willing to let me borrow your lights for a good cause, please let me know...

Thank you for any advice...

 

[photo_chick]

How much do you have to spend and are there any large windows where you can utilize available light?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I'm with Photo_Chick on this. Your first best choice is diffuse window light. Not sun streaming through the window light; you want cloudy day or north side of the building window light. It also helps to have a reflector opposite the window to help fill in the shadows. That can be a white sheet or a large, white painted piece of cardboard.

Using lights makes life easier because you aren't dependent on the light coming from a window. Like everything dealing with photography, you get great bang from the buck for your first piece of gear and rapidly diminishing returns for each additional piece. In other words, a single flash is awesome compared to none; a second flash is nice; a third flash helps a bit; a fourth flash makes a trivial difference, etc.

My basic layout suggestion would be to set your light source (flash or window) in front of and to the side of your subject. If clock terms, if your subject is at the center of the clock and the camera is at 12 o'clock, you want your light somewhere around 1:30 or 10:30. On the opposite side, you want your reflector. Position it so that it best fills in the shadows.

You don't want your flash on your camera. The cheapest way to get it off is a remote flash cable. A nicer way is a flash commander for your camera - something like an ST-E2. It won't make your pictures better; it's just easier to use.

You don't want your flash naked. It's too small. Shoot through a white umbrella. You can use a thin white sheet if you have to. I've even heard of people using shower curtains. The main thing is that you want the light source to be bigger, so shoot your flash through something that will work like a large light source. You can also move everything closer, which makes it bigger relative to your subject.

That's the basics - large, diffuse light source in front and to the side of your subject and a reflector or fill light to fill in the shadows. You can tweak a lot of stuff from their (balancing ambient and flash, adjusting the color of the light, adding additional lights, etc), but that is where you want to start.

 

[SueInBoston]

How much do you have to spend and are there any large windows where you can utilize available light?

I would like to stay around $200. I didn't think about daylight as I volunteer in the evening and I know some of the women/children have activity/school during the day. Anyhow, the front room windows only get sun in the morning, the back kitchen/dining area have great natural light but is very, very institutional looking.

 

[photo_chick]

$200 won't get you much in the way of lights. It can get a basic 2 light flood set with umbrellas, or maybe 1 strobe.. continuous lighting is usually cheaper and IMO easier to work with when your first starting out.

I wouldn't spend a lot of cash on reflectors, get a sheet of R-Matte from the insulation department at the hardware store and cut it to what you need. It has a shiny silver side and works just as well as the low end store bought reflectors in many cases.

Work lights from he hardware store can also help, but they are very harsh light and difficult to work with.

If you could work a time so that you could shoot when the light is good, you can get rid of the institutional look using a backdrop. And backdrops can be anything from a few yards of fabric to a micro fleece blanket form Walmart (one of my favorites to use). And you don't need a fancy stand for them either.. just use some clothes pins to clip it where you want it or even over a broom handle and brace that where you need it.

There are a lot of ways to get a setup for next to nothing, but you may have to McGyver something up.

 

[wenrob]

To do a very simple set up like Mark suggested you can get a shoot through umbrella kit and reflector for relatively cheap. This is the umbrella kit I have:
http://www.amazon.com/Westcott-2332-43-Inch-Collapsible-Umbrella/dp/B003BYRO6A/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1289667206&sr=8-15
And these reflectors are pretty popular and inexpensive:
http://www.amazon.com/Opteka-Collapsible-Reflector-Translucent-Carrying/dp/B001JSJWRY/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1289667381&sr=1-3 (you could go much cheaper, using a white foam board or even a car window shield)
Then all you need is a trigger. I'm a Nikon girl so I don't know what that would cost for your camera as mine is controlled by the camera. But I'm thinking the whole set up would easily come in under $200.
For backgrounds I have used sheets pulled super tight and fleece throws both of which are super cheap right now.
Great thing you're doing, please let us know how it turns out.

eta:That reflector says list price $69.99 sale $25.99-I've never seen them go for more the $35, ever.

 

[AlbertZeroK]

Well if u want cheap then constant light not flash is cheapest. If you are a bit of a do it yourselfer, some pvc pipe frame with a white sheet stretched over it with work type flood lights behind it would be less than$ 100, less if u have a set of flood lights or use clam om lights. Although your color may be off so you may have to use a custom white balance.

 

[handicap18]

I don't know Canon as well as others, but I do believe they have a wireless transmitter so you can use your speedlight off camera. Canon ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter.


With my Nikon setup I use 2 speedlight flashes that are remotely controlled from the camera.

You can put a diffuser on the flash.

 

[mabas9395]

Assuming natural light from a window isn't possible with your evening plans, I would go with a basic white shoot through umbrella and stand with connector cord to get your flash off your camera. I have an off-camera flash cord from flash zebra and love it.

Since you already have the 430ex flash, this kit should only run you about $120. Just make sure you practice, practice, practice before you do the real thing. Flash placement (angle and distance to subject) is not as easy as it looks the first time you try it. But once you get the general idea, its very easy to produce basic portraits.

 

[SueInBoston]

Thank you all...

I'm sure I'll be back with more questions once I get the umbrella and start practicing.

 

[SueInBoston]

A little change of direction..

I got this set of Smith & Victor on Craigslist at a reasonable price..

http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Victor-...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1290094660&sr=8-1

and I'll pick up a reflector as some suggested.

now to backdrop...
I like the idea of a fleece blanket..what color works best for darker skin tones?

TIA

 

[littlekidagain]

I will be in Disney in a couple of weeks. My father-in-law wants a couple of family picture done in all 4 parks. This is the first trip out of the last 4 that the whole family will be together! Can anyone give there best location to do this. Any sample would be great! I will be taking the photos, so any input would be great.

 

[handicap18]

I use a fleece blanket for photographing baby girls. For most of my portrait work I use 1 muslin background that I bought a few years ago. It has a blue/gray tone to it and looks nice. Its 10' x 10'. I think I got it for $80.

For lights, I got frustrated with 400 watt continuous lights in an umbrella set up. It just wasn't bright enough. I had to keep the ISO at 800 and couldn't go any higher than f/5.6 at 1/60th. Normally, not to bad, but even with that you get a lot of motion blur. So you still will have to use your speedlight (get a diffuser for it!!!) and use the umbrella lights as fill.

If things go well for you, then you may want to consider another speedlight and use the wireless transmitter. I REALLY like this set up. Its relatively inexpensive. Add some 24" softboxes and you have a very professional looking setup for about $500. I would love to have the Alien Bee setup, but for how often I do portraits its not cost effective for me. I can handle what I have now and really like the results.

I'll post some of my shots after my shoot tomorrow.

I'd be interested to know how you like the umbrella setup and how it works out for you.

 

[AlbertZeroK]

We should note that alien bees are cheaper if you do not mind the added setup time. My 580ex ii flashes with a quantum turbo external battery costs about what. Two cheap alienbees cost depending on the options you get. I love my setup because of how easy and fast it is vs using my alienbees but it is not a cheap way to go.