General

[wrongbloke]

Heh, now that I have you attention....

My wife has been on me for years to take photos of her more. I would like to, but with school and my thesis I don't have a lot of time for photography these days. However, with some planning, I can prolly make it work.

She wants to get a hotel in downtown the weekend after valentines day so I thought this would be a nice opportunity (we are kinda poor so our apartment doesn't really lend itself to being much of a setting lol). What I would like is some advice on lighting etc.

I was thinking of keeping it classy so I probably wouldn't use the interior lights but instead rely on natural window lighting. The windows will probably be facing north, east, or west and we will probably go there closer to the end of the day and be there until late the next morning. Barring being on the east or west when the sun is rising/setting its probably going to be pretty dim. What would be a good iso setting to use without getting too much grain? I'll be shooting in raw and I have Lightroom of course, but I'm a sharpness nazi lol. My lenses are all either 1.4 or 2.8 wide open, but I don't want to sacrifice too much Dof, and would prefer to shoot around 5.6-8.

One type of shot that I was considering was her in front of the windows with the city behind her. I of course would want to get a shot that is more than a silhouette but how should I go about getting an exposure that has her well lighted as well as the scene behind her? I was considering going to the used camera store and buying a cheap flash unit to operate off of a remote to use for fill, how does that sound?

Any other suggestions as well would be helpful, hell, maybe I'll post some of the pics as a thank you

[alpha434]

What a coincidence! I was thinking of asking you to take sexy valentine's pictures of my girlfriend, and maybe her girlfriend?

[wrongbloke]

Originally Posted by alpha434

What a coincidence! I was thinking of asking you to take sexy valentine's pictures of my girlfriend, and maybe her girlfriend?

hmmm, we should definitely talk about that....

[ballyhoo33]

For the window-cityscape background shot that has the model well-lit:

1. Use a tripod.
2. Use an off-camera flash.
3. Set your camera to the aperture priority mode (Av on a Canon) and let the camera meter the background (make sure there is no glare on the window)
4. Write down the settings
5. Turn your camera to the Manual mode (M on a Canon) and dial in the settings.
6. Re-focus on your model. Tell the model to hold still since the shutter speed will probably be low.
7. Take photo and check it for under/over-exposure.
8. Re-adjust flash power and location if there are exposure issues or if there are unwanted reflections on the window.

For bed, chair, table shots with a blurred yet legible background, shoot at around 4.0 and have some space between the model and background. Be aware of the background, make sure there aren't things (vases, photos, bedposts, etc) that appear to be growing out of the model's head. Watch out for unwanted stuff on tables in the background. Bring props: flowers, pedals, scarfs, hats, jewelry, etc.

If you're going to a camera shop, try to find a collapsable 3-way reflector. This will help remove shadows on the models face. These are espceially helpful if you want to use natural light but don't want a hard shadow on the model's face opposite of the window.

[wrongbloke]

Originally Posted by ballyhoo33

For the window-cityscape background shot that has the model well-lit:

1. Use a tripod.
2. Use an off-camera flash.
3. Set your camera to the aperture priority mode (Av on a Canon) and let the camera meter the background (make sure there is no glare on the window)
4. Write down the settings
5. Turn your camera to the Manual mode (M on a Canon) and dial in the settings.
6. Re-focus on your model. Tell the model to hold still since the shutter speed will probably be low.
7. Take photo and check it for under/over-exposure.
8. Re-adjust flash power and location if there are exposure issues or if there are unwanted reflections on the window.

For bed, chair, table shots with a blurred yet legible background, shoot at around 4.0 and have some space between the model and background. Be aware of the background, make sure there aren't things (vases, photos, bedposts, etc) that appear to be growing out of the model's head. Watch out for unwanted stuff on tables in the background. Bring props: flowers, pedals, scarfs, hats, jewelry, etc.

If you're going to a camera shop, try to find a collapsable 3-way reflector. This will help remove shadows on the models face. These are espceially helpful if you want to use natural light but don't want a hard shadow on the model's face opposite of the window.

you sir are the man!

one question though, when metering in Aperture priority which metering mode should I use? I assume whole frame average? or should I spot meter on my model?

[CJOttawa]

You want to throw the background out of focus to make your subject pop.

The closer you are to your subject, the more out of focus the background will be.
The longer the lens you use, the more out of focus the background will be.
The larger the aperture (f/1.8 good, f/22 bad), the more out of focus the background will be.

Use a fast, mild telephoto lens with a wide aperture.

[Finnigan]

Originally Posted by wrongbloke

but I'm a sharpness nazi lol.

If you are doing portraits, you might consider soft focus. Maybe you were just referring to the resolution of the raw format?

[Skibbo]

Darn it dude! You used the whole bait and switch. I was expecting some hot pictures of your wife and some brass....oh well

and because don't think this was posted yet