B & W portrait, white shirt, blown out hilites . . . Help

[greg_whitten1]

This past weekend I shot about 50 couples / singles at an event on

Tri-X. Background was black seemless with a 10 degree grid spot on

it; Main lite was a large soft box; fill was an umbrella. I did not

have time to vary the lighting from one person / couple to the next.

Metering with Shepard Polaris (f/11), and camera set to f/11.

 

Most turned out very nice (for a run them through process). One

did't turn out as well: a girl with long blond hair and white shirt;

face is exposed well, but shirt is blown out - no detail at all. The

main light was directly in front of, and above, her (so body is

basically facing the soft box).

 

What can I do to keep a white shirt from blowing out like this? Do

I need to have the light more at an angle to the body to "skim"

across, rather than be directly facing (although above / looking

down) her?

 

Thanks

[fotografz]

Greg, assuming that you inspected the neg to be sure there

wasn't any tone lurking there, then you have to meter more

carefully when shooting. Certain light fabrics are more reflective

than others, even when white.

[al_kaplan1]

Some white fabrics, as well as laundry products, have so called "brighteners" in them. They're activated by UV radiation and some electronic flash units put out more than others. Short of putting a UV filter over your flash head there's not a lot you can do about this. Skim lighting will help, throwing shadows into the blouse, but possibly at the expense of flattering lighting on the faces.

 

When you're doing 50 couples you really can't light each on seperately. In the future you might take a second shot with a bit less (1/2 stop?) exposure. If you have dark skinned people in dark clothes give a bit more exposure. Blown out highlights and wedding gowns are common in photos of dark skinned people.

[shawn_mertz]

Your set up sounds good. When you see a similar subject in

that situation you can do a few things close the lens half a stop, I

do not reccomend this, what happens if you forget to change it

back.

 

Simple yet effective, turn her body away from the light, or move

her further away from it or both.

[michael_brandt]

If your shooting a really fair skinned person with blond hair and a white shirt, I would

suggest you stop down a bit. 1/3 or even 1/2 stop. Tri-x can totally handle it. What

are you rating it at?

 

You can also use a 1/2 or 1/4 stop flag to flag off light from her shirt.

 

I would suggest the Matthews Road Rags II series over the Avenger portables.

[chip_willis]

Were they machine printed? If the answer is yes, then that is the problem.

 

If you metered correctly in the beginning, werent shooting faster than srobe recycle, all the detail is proabaly in the negative as needed.

 

Check the negs out.

 

How were the negs developed? I almost always shoot tri x at 320 and do a half stop of push ( sometimes more ) for a good level of contrast that I like.