My first "real" portraits

[atlcruiser]

Hi All,
These really are my first ever real portraits

A buddy of mine owns a metal recycling place in downtown Atlanta. He asked if I would like to come over and take some "snap shots" of some of his best customers...all of whom are characters . His plan is to put prints up around the shop as appreciation of their busines and to show them they are valued; many of these folks are pretty down on their luck with alcohol or drug issues.

The "snap shot" request was pretty funny...I told him he had no idea.....

Never, ever have I taken portraits like this. I actually used my El Cheapo strobes for the first time!

Deardorff 810
360 Commercial lens
HP5+ @ 800
rollo pyro

What I had was 2 Britek PS 300H strobes with reflected in umbrellas. The one to subject left was at 45' and on full. The one on sub right was furthur away and at about70' and lower to the subject. I wanted sort of a side light. I dont think that worked so well! The 2nd light was on 1/2 as well.

I metered things and got 1.5 stops diffference between L and R. Upon looking at the prints I dont see that so much.

Meter reading was F32 for 1/8". I shot at F22 for 1/8". I used HP5+ @ 800 in rollo pyro. I think they were all about 1 stop underexposed. I 100% forgot about any bellows issues! Might explain the underexposure.

I took 10 exposures in about 30 minutes... chop, chop, chop!

I had delusions of fancy lighting and poses but the noise, people, confusion and speed of the whole thing made me scale back the plan. I lost 3 negatives to subject movement and serious blur as a result.

I had a blast and I think the folks did as well.

Any suggestions are welcome....I enjoyed this and would like to do more of it.

thanks


1112 BW 810 19.jpg by urbanlandcruiser, on Flickr


1112 BW 810 20.jpg by urbanlandcruiser, on Flickr

[atlcruiser]

1112 BW 810 15.jpg by urbanlandcruiser, on Flickr



1112 BW 810 16.jpg by urbanlandcruiser, on Flickr


1112 BW 810 23.jpg by urbanlandcruiser, on Flickr


1112 BW 810 21.jpg by urbanlandcruiser, on Flickr

[John NYC]

What I had was 2 Britek PS 300H strobes with reflected in umbrellas. The one to subject left was at 45' and on full. The one on sub right was furthur away and at about70' and lower to the subject. I wanted sort of a side light. I dont think that worked so well! The 2nd light was on 1/2 as well.

I metered things and got 1.5 stops diffference between L and R. Upon looking at the prints I dont see that so much.

Nice job on the speed 8x10 session!

I think the main reason you can't see much difference is due to the fact that there is a ton of spillage from reflected umbrellas and almost no directionality of the light (hardly any shadows will be created). Or perhaps your meter was turned in a way (hard one direction) that gave you an impression that there was a 1.5 stop difference which would not really show up on rounded surfaces like a face? Or was the ambient light changing as well?

[RPippin]

They look fantastic. I wouldn't worry about the whole exposure thing being off, I know others do but the subject matter and the expressions and emotions you captured are just great. To me it's portraits as they should be.

[chassis]

david, nice images. To my eye the exposure looks on target. Sharpness is very good. The expressions of most of the subjects is fun. I prefer a larger aperture for more out of focus area, with an increase in emphasis on the face and eyes. Overall nice work.

[Brian C. Miller]

What I had was 2 Britek PS 300H strobes with reflected in umbrellas. The one to subject left was at 45' and on full. The one on sub right was furthur away and at about70' and lower to the subject. I wanted sort of a side light. I dont think that worked so well! The 2nd light was on 1/2 as well.

I metered things and got 1.5 stops diffference between L and R. Upon looking at the prints I dont see that so much.

Meter reading was F32 for 1/8". I shot at F22 for 1/8".

You had a good session there!

The umbrellas spread a lot of light. You'd get a difference in lighting if one side didn't have an umbrella on it at all. Based on your meter readings, it sounds like you let in a lot of ambient light. A strobe pop on my Speedotron brown line lasts 1/300th-sec, and I'm sure that the Britek aren't that different. When shooting strobes, you use the guide number and f/stop, and your shutter is set to just slower than the strobes' flash time. For instance, I would set my shutter to 1/200.

Since you rated your film at 800 and it was still underexposed, I'm guessing that you only got light from the modeling lights and any ambient lighting.

[Frank Petronio]

You made the connection and got great expressions - that is far harder than the lighting and printing.

But... I would devote a little time with a DSLR and the strobes shooting a willing volunteer or even a vase of flowers... move the lights in closer, let the background fall where it may, experiment.

[Jay DeFehr]

These feel right. Congratulations. Thanks for posting.

[r.e.]

I think that there's the potential for a great project here.

[Larry H-L]

Really nice stuff here.

With a leaf shutter, you can strobe synch at most any shutter speed. If you crank up the shutter speed next time you won't lose shots to motion blur. If you lower the shutter speed, more ambient light will bleed in.. That could be a plus / minus depending on the situation.

Thanks for sharing these.