Red Passion !!!

Again here i am trying something new (for me) and just love the dark more dramatic background. I am working with a friend of mine here (hair stylist) to create some interesting work. This is again the first time any of these models have done any photographic work. personally I would have preferred more light on the hair, and main light to be slightly lower. So we learn.









With darker images such as these, I generally prefer viewing them in a dark background as well, as it does seem that the viewer see's more detail int the shot.

Johan,

I like the more gentle handling of the skin. Watch for lateral lighting as it accentuates prominent features in the face or in the knees or ankles. That's why we might generally start with a very large frontal main light.

The posed gestures are better but still need to go up another level. I like the effort being put into makeup! That is the most important start for this type of work. What light sources do you have?

Vary your models! One who is experienced will really help you. State for yourself and us an end use as a goal we can understand as otherwise we have no ruler by which to measure what your present.

Where does this work fit in to any long term goal for this type of work you might have? Here, It's not at all necessary to have any wish besides skill improvement, entertainment and exploration. Still, if there is something more concrete it would be good to know.

Asher

Asher, thanks again for the comments and crit.

My main goal here is to create a high fashion look which I would like to show off hair and clothing, and create an overall classy chic look so to speak, which models can use in their portfolios and I could use in mine.

Lighting consists on main light, which is the broncolor mobil pack with a 2 meter octobox with a honeycomb grid on it. My accent lights are 600w cheap jinbei with small 60cm x 60cm softbox. hair light is a small 200w light with a small softbox. The main is about 4 foot away and about 30 deg to camera right with the hair light on a boom about 3 foot behind the model up above. What I feel i really need to do is calibrate my lightmeter (sekonic 358) to my camera, which i will do soon once i have some DVD's i have ordered.

Due to budget restraints and various other problems, it is not so easy to get very experienced models down here in South Africa, althoug i would love to be able to do it.

At the end of the day, I am planning on shooting a lot lately and working with a stylist and doing our own makeup (man that is hard) to create a great portfolio and trying to achieve a high fashion look. I hope that make sense and is enough, or the right information you require to assist me.

Regards
Johan

I have a sekonic 358 as well, if you need any help calibrating it just let me know and I am glad to be of assistance.

Charlie...don't tease me

I would be greatful for any assistance. I have ordered Franks DVD sets, but I have not got them yet.......hmmm...african postal system...they are very efficient

well what part of the process are you stuck on? the begining

I learned from Frank's DVD's also, so if I get anything wrong perhaps he will chime in.

First thing you need to do is get an 18% grey card such as the QP101

http://www.qpcard.se/BizPart.aspx?tabId=84&tci=137

Which ever version you get make sure it is 18% grey and not a white balancing card which often is not 18%.

next you need to put a big modifier on your lights so the light is very even and place your grey card flat relative to the light, don't angle it towards your camera, for instance pin it to a wall and point the light straight at it.

now adjust the light output until the meter to read f/11 at the grey card, make sure the meter reads f/11.0 not f/11.2. (you can use any measurement eg. f/8, f/16 etc, f/11 is for demonstration)

now that the light is measured f/11 at the grey card set your camera to f/11 with the iso and shutter you use in studio (for me that is, RAW, iso 100, 1/125s) and the lens you use the most, I believe there will be slight variation between different lenses, wether it is enough to need to calibrate for every lens on every shoot I highly doubt it. now stand next to your light and take the picture of the grey card.

upload that picture into your computer and preferably use the software native to your camera (example if you shoot nikon use capture nx, etc.) if you don't have that software on your computer you can use what ever RAW editor is available and make sure all auto settings are off, all of them. no curves or anything like that.

now select just the part of the picture that contains the 18% grey patch and look at the histogram, if the spike is dead center then your light meter is calibrated to the camera you used, if it is to the left or right of center then you need to adjust the calibration of the meter.

if i recall correctly on the 358 hold both iso buttons down at once and rotate the dial, also if it is over exposed to the right of center i believe you add positive compensation to bring it down to center, under exposed = negative comepnsation. after adjusting compensation take another picture with all the same settings and from the same place and recheck if the 18% grey spike is in the center of the histogram, if not continue adjusting until it is.



My camera was 6/10 of a stop off.

If you have any questions or I lost you somewhere or somebody notices I said something wrong please chime in.

Charlie, thank you very much for taking the time to provide me with the information. I have ordered the grey cards as well from Frank, so I suppose I will need to wait for those....anyway your explanation seems simple enough for even me to do

I will give it a go. 6/10 out on your camera is a lot......I have a feeling mine is the same.......oh I am looking forward to playing around when i get the stuff.....

Again thank you very much.

yeah I thought 6/10 was alot to so at the workshop last week I asked frank what the most off a camera he had seen was and it was more than that, so I don't think it is to unusual.

I need to redo my calibration, I used a big card board kodak 18% grey card that had some variance across it, now that I have the QP101 card I think it will work better.

Your welcome

Hi,
Make sure you use an 18% graycard.
The whitebalancing cards are often much lighter than 18% gray.

Thanks Frank, are the dynatec cards you sell right for the calibration ?

the dynatec are for white balance use, not for calibration, they are not 18% grey. the QPcard 101 are for calibration, they are 18% grey.

Thanks Charlie, i will order one.

Try to get the QPCARDS 201.
They are now supported by ACR calibrator and can help you to make a nice profile for your camera.

Thank you Frank will investigate.!!!