How was this shot?? Help Please

[thomas_bradley]

I have been trying to figure out how to get this really nice perspective and lighting on full length shots for

ages. I am using a crop (1.6) and 30mm prime(2.8) & 17 - 85mm zoom(4.5) I have 4 bowens heads 3X 500 1 X 1000 and

plenty of other tools. Is it that its just not possible with my lens/camera? The problem I get is that the model

always ends up looking too far away????

 

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<a href

="http://www.modelmayhem.com/pic.php?pic_id=485e8d6f37bf4&date=2008-06-22%2013:35:45&id=745840&pid=7243185">here

is the link.............</a><BR><BR>

 

Any help appreciated<BR>

 

Tom

[barry_kenstler1]

Thomas,

 

Looks like the following to me:

 

A medium toned color or medium-light gray seamless paper background.

 

A fairly hard light source behind and to the left of the model, at about head height. A regular head/monolight with barn doors would give you this look. To get a handle on the source position, draw an line back from the hard leg shadow to the right-front of the model back to the left. This source is definitely brighter than the next brightest source, probably about a full f-stop or a bit more.

 

A large, soft source to the right of the subject, placed about shoulder height. There is not a lot of spill on the background, so I would guess this is a large, recessed softbox which is feathered away from the background. If that is the case, putting a large black flag or panel between the softbox and camera would be advisable.

 

There may be another weak souce of fill lighting back near the camera (see reflections on raised shoe is first image).

 

The lighting I just described will give a similar result, but the image may certainly have been created differently.

 

Good luck in your attempts.

 

Barry

[thomas_bradley]

Thank you for that. Any ideas if it is possible to get the perspective with the tools I have mentioned above? The problems I encounter are strange perspective and loss of sharpness and detail. The model always looks very far away. what kind of apertures should I be working with...T

[charlesheckel]

I have no idea what your problem with "looking too far away" is. You may need a closer camera position. If the

problem is too little foreshortening, so that the image looks flattened, you need a shorter focal length. In general, five

feet is a normal shooting distance and your zoom lens should be able to zoom out to disclose a full figure at five

feet.<p>The lighting looks like one diffused unit at the model's left, probably a large softbox, and one undiffused unit

behind the model and to the right. The shadow on the floor should give you a clear clue as to placement.<p>The

shot is quite contrasty with a stylistic use of burned highlights and lost shadow detail. For creative dynamism and

narrative impact it is simply not enough to leave the model's shoelaces untied--tie them together. ;-)

[thomas_bradley]

haha iI have some shots I want to do in this style. I will ensure all laces are tied. So basically there should be no reason on earth why I couldn't create an image with that same perspective given my lens ? i have been avioding full length shots for this reason! how sad.

[Matt Laur]

Just to clarify... if you're not getting the "flattening" you want, which does come from foreshortening, you need a LONGER focal length. Hard to say without EXIF data, but my gut tells me that was shot from a good 25+ feet away with something like an 85mm lens (um, if it were an a cropped sensor camera ... or maybe 100mm on a 35mm frame/sensor). Being closer, with a wider angle lens, would produce some tell-tale artifacts in the sizes of nearer/farther body parts.

[thomas_bradley]

ok thats probably my problem. everywhere I looked it seemed that 50mm was ideal for full length. I got a 30mm prime for my crop so same as. ok so I know this is going to call for a test shoot but does the distance away from the model affect the distance from the ground you position the camera? I have been trying at about waist height about 5-7 away at 30mm(crop). I guess back to the studio then...

[Matt Laur]

The important thing to remember, here, Thomas, is that 50mm is always 50mm. On a cropped-frame camera, you're just seeing less OF what a 50mm lens captures and projects into the camera. You could use a 30mm lens to produce more or less the same field of view, but only a 50mm lens will produce the <i>perspective</i> of a 50mm lens. And in the example you've provided, a wider lens would have produced a perspective that made the model's closer-to-the-camera shoe (and laces!) look much larger, relative to his body. A longer focal length, used from farther away, keeps that under control.

[charlesheckel]

Foreshortening exists only when some objects--here, body parts--are significantly closer to the camera than others. Shooting a Buckingham Palace horse guard standing at attention from waist level will give little foreshortening, shooting a mounted one will give great foreshortening (a tiny face in a shako above an immense horse face with Brobdignagian teeth). Your distance from the model affects the degree of foreshortening you get--great distance, little foreshortening, short distance, much foreshortening. The focal length controls the visual angle, which tells how much cropping you're going to get. If you can back off as much as ten feet, zoom to a full-figure crop, and tell the model not to do a can can, you should be okay.

[nathan_stiles]

First, I think Barry's right. There's definitely two light sources, and the one to the left is harder and farther away. The one to the right is close, but I think lower than what Barry said-- after the arms next to it and the leg, it falls off before it hits the face faster than it does the far leg.

[navarro]

<blockquote>The important thing to remember, here, Thomas, is that 50mm is always 50mm. On a cropped-frame camera, you're just seeing less OF what a 50mm lens captures and projects into the camera.</blockquote>

<p>Correct.</p>

<blockquote>You could use a 30mm lens to produce more or less the same field of view, but only a 50mm lens will produce the <em>perspective</em> of a 50mm lens.</blockquote>

<p>Yes, and no. First part of your sentence, correct. Second part, incorrect. The focal length of a lens does not "produce" perspective, where you are standing relative to your subject produces perspective.</p>

<blockquote>And in the example you've provided, a wider lens would have produced a perspective that made the model's closer-to-the-camera shoe (and laces!) look much larger, relative to his body. A longer focal length, used from farther away, keeps that under control.</blockquote>

<p>No, and yes. A wider lens would not have produced that kind of perspective...having to stand close to the subject with a wide lens in order to fill the frame WOULD produce that kind of perspective...which is why standing back with a longer lens "keeps that under control".</p>