what should I have done?

[stacy]

Too late for this shoot...but if I had put honeycomb grids over these lights would it have kept the light off the

paneling? What would you have done here? I used 2 softboxes- probably 45 degrees inward

 

Thanks!<div></div>

[Ed_Ingold]

Remember, the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence. Move the soft box(es) higher and off to one side until you can't see the reflection, and don't use a flash close to the camera axis.

 

Pick up a copy of "Light - Science and Magic" by Hunter, Biva and Fuqua. This book explains the principles in detail and gives many examples.

[rnt]

Actually kind of a nice 'halo' effect. Making lemonade out of lemons, centering the reflections on each head wouldn't have been so bad.

 

In the future, moving the softboxes further to the side so that the reflections fall out of the frame might work. Bouncing the strobe off of a white wall and/or ceiling might work as well. You could try spraying the wall with matte spray, intended for reflective subjects. The ultimate solution to specular reflections (what you have) is to polarize the lights and cross-polarize on the camera. Might be tricky with softboxes.

[brooks short]

Lowering the lights a bit and dropping the camera height would "walk" the reflections below the models heads. As a bonus you might be able to reduce the keystoning of the vertical lines.

[richard_cochran]

If your light position didn't change, a grid either wouldn't have helped, or wouldn't have allowed light to reach your subjects.

 

That paneling is almost like a mirror as far as glare is concerned. You've got to arrange things so that, if you replace the paneling with a mirror, you can't see the lights from your camera position. That probably means moving the camera and/or lights.

 

If the grid was tight enough and aimed so that no light would spill to the spot where the glare is visible, then not much light is going to be reaching your subjects.

[ronald_moravec1]

Ceiling bounce and let the white bedspread reflect up to fill in the shadows. This is standard butterfly lighting for portraits.

[twmeyer]

if you wanted to bounce, you would also probably want to block the light off the top of the wall,too. Bounce

would work as far as the people goes,because you don't need a catch light and don't have to worry about filling

in the eyes. I would have either bounced, powering down the strobes and dragging the shutter to get some warmth

from the bedside lamp. Or hung a gridded strip light just outside the top of the frame, pointed just in front of

your couple.<p>A good read for you in this regard would be <a

href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/1879174030/ref=dp_proddesc_0/002-2802348-1696004?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books">"Matters

Of Light and Depth"</a> by Ross Lowell. It deals extensively with understanding the importance of "motivated"

lighting... that is, creating lighting that appears to be emanating from easily imagined sources. This helps to

avoid a problem I see in this picture, in which lamps are casting shadows, rather than emitting light... t<p>I

need to note that modern photography seems to deliberately favor unreal lighting. Many portraits made in the

popular style of 2008 seem to be lit by spotlights from UFOs. If you like this style, ignore this posting.

[will_perlis]

The above mentioned "Light - Science and Magic" and "Matters Of Light and Depth" are about the only two lighting books anyone needs, I think.

 

My question is, didn't you see those reflections when you were shooting? In posed scenes I'm always leaving something visible that shouldn't be there, so I've learned to do careful inspections of at least the first couple of shots. IMX there's nothing particularly photogenic about power cords or the edges of Pelican cases.

[stacy]

Thanks everyone for your responses! I did see the reflections when I was shooting this- earlier this summer, but

wasn't too bothered by them. It was only when I was going back through I wondered about the grids. But I guess

that would not have helped anyway. Thanks for the book recommendations too- I know I have "light, science and

magic" someplace (not that I've done more than skim it though). and I'll pick up the one you recommended Tom. I

do enjoy modern lighting "from ufo's" too- but not exclusively :)

 

Have a great Friday!

[tim_klimowicz]

I LOVE it as it is.. Looks kinda retro-ish, and the double reflections do good in creating contrast between the hair and the

wall.

 

Very well done in my book. The picture would seem a lot more flat and boring if you tried to remove the highlights.

[stacy]

Thanks Tim- took a look at your site and you have some awesome images online :)