My plan is to take portraits with:
· Natural light – the type depends on the weather conditions and will use reflectors / diffusion as appropriate, to get hard and soft lighting conditions, with and without reflectors.
· Fill flash (possibly with additional remote flash / reflector / diffuser)
· Diffused available lighting
In preparation I’ve made two reflectors – one using the shiny side of kitchen foil mounted on a piece of white mount board (so I can use the silvered side or the white side); and the other using gold coloured foil, again on white mount board. I’ve studied the variations of the on-camera flash and also the remote flash (which can be operated using ‘commander’ mode from the camera, or using a radio controlled sender / receiver system). I’ll experiment with the flash attachments / filters / honey combs etc. before subjecting a model to the experience – I’ll document the different settings as I go on.
All images are processed without any changes other than conversion from RAW and cropping. The skin tones, shadows, etc. are as taken by the camera. I could enhance these images in processing, but I feel this would not be the right thing to do for the sake of this exercise.
On an overcast day I took several images of our grandson as follows:
The first three images were taken indoors using natural North light from the window. Camera was tripod mounted, in Aperture priority and centre weighted average metering.
18-200 mm lens @ 46mm, f/4.5, 1/15 sec.
This is without any supplementary lighting effects. I think the camera has underexposed slightly and the slow shutter speed has allowed slight movement of the sitter, so it’s not as sharp as I’d like. Maybe a higher ISO and / or bracketing would have helped.
I then used the silver reflector – reflecting light onto the dark side of his face – This light was too strong, so the shadow side of his face was as light as the naturally lit side. Highlights from the reflection were also very prominent. I discarded that image.
18-200 mm lens @ 46mm, f/4.5, 1/25 sec.
Turning the silver reflector over to use the white card side has produced a much better result. The shadow side of his face is now much clearer and the portrait gives a much more pleasing, softer representation. The card is visible in his eye highlights, so that’s something which I should watch in the future.
I then tried the gold reflector. Again this was too strong and created an unnaturally coloured glow onto the dark side of his face. Again, the eye highlights showed the reflection of the gold board too much. I rejected that image too.
Next I tried the digital flash mounted approx. 2 metres to the side and in front of the sitter. I fitted it with the mini beauty dish which I fitted with a gold reflector and white diffuser. It was fired remotely, using a radio transmitter / receiver system. I set it up to light from the window side (from my left) but further in front of the sitter, to use it as flash fill. The flash was set into automatic but I reduced its EV by 3.0 to reduce the amount of fill. This had the fill effect I was looking for, but the overall image was over exposed and had too much contrast for my liking, so I rejected that image too.
18-200 mm lens @ 46mm, f/4.5, 1/30 sec.
This image uses the same fill flash settings, but with the digital flash set up to fire into the shadow area (from my right). I think this is the best image of the set. The catch light in his eyes and the slightly gold light in the shadow side of his face look good to me. There are gold highlights in his hair too, which make it more pleasing. Controlling the amount of fill flash and diffusing the gold light has worked to keep soft shadows but allow sharpness in his eyes and hair.
We then moved out to the orchard into the shade of the trees, using the leaves to further diffuse the already diffused (by clouds) natural light, where the next two images were taken. The light in the sky was behind the sitter and slightly to my right.
The first image overexposed the lighter parts of his face, probably because of the ‘average’ of the darker areas I the frame. I rejected that image.
I then tried the gold reflector onto the shadow areas to the side of his face, but the gold looked completely wrong in this setting – too obviously artificial, so I rejected this image too.
18-200 mm lens @ 62mm, f/4.5, 1/125 sec.
Using the white side of the board to reflect the light was better. The reflection in his right eye is unfortunate. This is something I’m going to have to watch. I’m not very happy with the darkness of his eye socket here either. The light reflection here has created shadows around his collar, so that’s another distraction. I need to be more careful with the strength of light from the reflector and take more notice of the catch lights in the eyes. Obviously these dark locations with backlighting can be a problem with the exposure and amount of reflected light. I could correct some of these points in Photoshop, but that’s not the aim of this exercise.
Using the silver reflector was unsatisfactory as the effect was increased even more. So that image was also rejected.
I then tried using the reflectors from under the face. The gold and silver reflectors were again too bright for this area, so they were rejected.
18-200 mm lens @ 62mm, f/4.8, 1/100 sec.
The use of the white reflector board was better, but left the sitter looking quite ashen and did nothing for the darkness in his eyes. The catch lights in his are again in the wrong place and too strong. I’m not happy with the results from these outside shots, but I’ve learned from the exercise.
From this exercise I can see advantages in using reflector boards, but care must be taken in dark situations, as they can so affect the image. Things I’ve learned here are:
· Take notice of the catch lights in the eyes - Use fill flash for better results and look for too much reflection from reflector boards
· Use spot metering rather than average or matrix metering
· Use bracketing to get the best exposure
· Be careful with the amount of reflected light – position reflectors further away if necessary.
· Lighting indoors appears to be much more controllable and gives better results.
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