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Had a crack at a portrait setup yesterday, with a sb800 fueled softbox and a sb600 lighting the wall behind.

Not quite sure where that shadow came from, but comments and criticisms are more than welcome.



d200 + 70-200

1/60 f3.2 @ 130mm

Nice mate big improvement over your garage door shots, nice catch light, the background is good (other then the shadow but that could be PP'ed so you don't notice it). I like lighting well done.

Agree with what was said above. Nice lighting all round.

That shadow is a bit of a mystery though... did you have the pop up flash from the camera going off?? It looks to me that the main light is off to the left and I assume the back light was behind you, yet the shadow is on the left as well, so to my way of thinking it's from another light source. If it wasn't the pop up flash, was the light in the room bright enough to have an impact?

I think the lighting is pretty good, but IMO the background is too aggressive. I would rather see a less intense colour there, because (again, my opinion only!) it draws the eyes from the subject.

What do others think?

Matty - as already said, much better!

I agree that the orange/red is a bit too much. The image itself is good, pin sharp and great eye contact.


Was the wall actually this colour?

I've just been at Borge's imaging at Crows Nest and found some nice material for my backdrop system, not cheap though!

Well done.

nice, clean and evenly lit.

very nice lighting. I like the strong color background, since you have a white Tee on.

Light has a nice graduation across the face, and camera right is well lit also.

Catchy catch lights!

You might be including a lot of ambient light at 1/60 f3.2. Unless the room was dark, I suspect the shaddow is caused by another light source in the room... a window, or a ceilling light, wall light, desk light? PC screen?

Much cleaner that the garage door backdrop.

Thanks for the comments everyone, i think using the low apature would have caused the shadow, i had a light on in the room, but i didn't think it would have that much effect on the photo at all... i kept trying to turn the backlight up to get rid of the shadow, with no luck

i suppose i'll have to be carefull when using low apatures.

i'll have another look for some backgrounds, and when i get time i'll keep on trying.

I'll even try and get a better model!

I think everything is great other than the background colour. A muted blue or green might work better.

MattyO wrote:Thanks for the comments everyone, i think using the low apature would have caused the shadow, i had a light on in the room, but i didn't think it would have that much effect on the photo at all... i kept trying to turn the backlight up to get rid of the shadow, with no luck

i suppose i'll have to be carefull when using low apatures.

i'll have another look for some backgrounds, and when i get time i'll keep on trying.

I'll even try and get a better model!

use the cameras meter to measure the light reflected from your subject, if youself, perhaps measure the room light on the back wall at 1/60th. If its at f3.5, then you know the ambient light will contribute. If you want to eliminate it, increase your fstop, and your flash will compensate in TTL, or increase your shutter speed, to reduce its effect. Sometimes you hit barriers when you reach the limits of handshake, or flash synch, or flash power output.

Very nice portrait with good colour and sharpness, but I agree with what it has been said above. I would have had, if possible, a more subdue background. The important thing in the image is the subject, who should not have to compete with the background. Perhaps, you could try to change the background to a less vibrant and darker colour and see if it works better.

how many stops would i have to increase over ambient light to eliminate it?

or is it just a trial and error thing?

MattyO wrote:how many stops would i have to increase over ambient light to eliminate it?

or is it just a trial and error thing?

each full stop will half the light (or equivalent shutter speed).

also depends on your definition of "eliminate it". cutting it a few times over will reduce it substantially.

try starting at f8. (your SB800/600 should get there, depending on distance to subject, and the loss of your makeshift soft box.)

bottom line, just give it a go, and you will see it fall off, and the beam of light from the flash to dominate. it will be much more prominant, the difference between your room light, and the light from the flash.

If you re-shot that shot, my guess is your camera right side of your face would be much darker, and the light from one side of your face to the other graduate faster, to a darker right hand side.