ddemers

Posing and lightning techniques for studio portrait Photography

(provides lots of diagram about equipment location and distance from subject)

J.J. Allen

Amherst Media

Portrait Photographer"s handbook 2nd edition

(Good diagrams and explanation)

Bill Hurter

Amherst Media

Hello

A friend of mine who is the main photograph for a Canadian TV firm painted his studio Neutral grey mat. I am planning to do the same in my basement. The major point to remember is to get a paint that will not reflect light and will not alter the white balance by introducing a new color cast.

My actual basement is white (mat) and way too clear when I am shooting Low-key portrait. A darker grey paint will absorb most of the reflections.

Good luck.

Hello Alicia

As the other members indicated, all their answers are valid and effective. I just complete the same setup as yours with far less wattage (500w Key, 250 Fill + SB-800 hairlight) in the same kind of basement and I was having the same issues. My room makes 12' x 14' appx. Here is the link to illustrate the following explanations: http://arienta.smugmug.com/gallery/2346095

What I did first is make sure my 3' x 4' softboxe was not spilling to the background so I place my subject (my kid) at 8 feet away from the black background. Then I place my Soft-Boxe at 45 degree, to my right, 3' from my subject (11 ft from the background) at F8.

Then at 45 degree to the left of my kid, I placed a fill light (250 Watts) with a std reflector at F5.6. To make sure both lights did not spill to the background I place a 2' x 3' black panel to be used as a Flag or barndoor if you want! Since both light are at 45 degree, they do not reach the background.

Finally, I used a hairlight with my SB-800 (F9) with a snoot attached to the ceiling at 45 degree on the back of my kid to create some light in the hair.

I measure the amount of light that reach the background and I was at F2.8.

I do get a solid black background as you can see on these series of pictures with an idea of my setup. Now I do plan to paint my ceiling Mid-grey to eliminate the reflections on my white walls and ceiling.

If you do have a wide-angle, take a picture of you setup from all the corners of your room and you will see how much light spills on the ceiling and background it helps a lot.

The final recommandation would be to not use umbrellas but smaller soft-boxe or beauty dish with flags on top of them and on one side to avoid spillage on the background. The last trick, keep your modeling light on, and walk from the back of your studio to see if you can have a direct view of your modeling lights from the back. If you do see light, you get spillage, use a biger flag or adjust the angle. A longer studio is easier.

Good luck!

Daniel

Did we changed something on the Photonet web site recently that will

affect the way we used to be referenced on the Google search engine?

During the past month, I use to tell friends that they just have to

type my name in Google and I was the third site to be referenced.

Since saturday or sunday October 16th, I do not appears at all in

the Google search engine, at least not in the first 13 pages...

Let me know if we did changed the way we are now referenced in these

search engines.

Regards