Getting Used To Indoor Shots With Flashgun

[Paul Lange]

Today I set up a small area with a blind I managed to get for free on on the local Freecycle website, 2 lamps with low power daylight bulbs and my flashgun with the DIY ice cream tub diffuser. Still have to practice more and I can see why you need lights with a fair amount of power; the daylight bulbs are only about 30 watts. I did manage to get a few shots that looked semi professional though. This one is my favourite but again free models mean family and its hard not to let sentimentality get in the way of being objective.

 

[Hamish Gill]

This is the third time I have written this I keep clearing the text by acident ... Right ...

I like it
The compo is spot on and the tone and light are pleasing ...
I'd maybe concider removing the vignette on the left, or adding one in on the right

Was the shadow from her head intentional?

 

[Paul Lange]

The shadow was sort of intentional, I didn't have enough lights not to have one. The vignetting is just light fall off from the lights. I see what you mean now although I quite liked the shadow. I think I may need to crop almost to the shoulder on the left. I've think I've forgotten how to see, I spent hours upon hours in the studio painting but that was over 10 years ago and I haven't really done anything like it seriously until now. Its amazing how much you forget over time. I seem to struggle with assessing composition some times these days.

 

[Hamish Gill]

You can get rid of shadow usually by just moving the subject away from the back drop a bit ... Or by using a reflector of some sort ...
The compo is good mate, It's a nice shooting angle too ...

 

[Paul Lange]

I tried the vignetting on the RHS and it lead onto something else.

This is the shot with the LHS vignette darkened up a little.

I then reversed the vignette on the whole picture until the RHS vignette was almost compensated.

Then I tried a crop on both sides. I know some people dont like square crops but I think that the crop should be subject dependant.

Cant wait for my umbrellas and remotes to arrive so I can experiment a bit more.

 

[Paul Lange]

The backdrop was a 80cm wide blind so I had to have her close to it. Gonna get some cheap sheets and stuff soon I think.

 

[Hamish Gill]

I think the square crop is quite successful actually!
Maybe try moving her into the right side of the square a touch?
If you are recroping try a 10x8 landscape with her off centre a touch ...
I think you are def on to somthing with a tighter crop as the shadow becomes less noticable

 

[Paul Lange]

Its quite interesting really having never actually tried portraits seriously. Certainly a learning curve as my first attempts were fairly bad but gradually they are getting better. It seems that harder light is good for black and white shots an diffuse light is better for colour shots. Does that sound about right?

 

[Hamish Gill]

I wouldn't say it's a rule ...
Hard light and black and White go well together I suppose ... If you watch the shadows you can get very strong images that way ...
Hard light is maybe more often used for male portraits but even that's not a rule by any stretch
Hard light is more revealing of imperfections so I suppose is harder to get flattering of females they are happy with ...
Erm but yeah, I certainly don't stick to any rules ...
There are quite a lot of tutorial videos about the web, YouTube has quite a few good ones on portrait conventions ...
But all the best ones say it's good to take on board what they say but find your own style etc