Thursday, April 8, 2010

Day 209: Military portrait

A couple of photos that I took of Meryl today in his uniform.



And with the goofy looking beret...

Yeah, you can tell he's trying not to laugh.

If anyone knows of any good resources so I can learn more about studio lighting, I'd appreciate a nudge.  There's something no quite right about these, but I can't quite put my finger on it...

6 comments:

Thewindblowsnorth said...

What was the setup you used? I've helped out a friend a bit with some studio lighting but haven't done any studio work. I'm interested in learning too. I've read this site and found it useful > http://www.diyphotography.net/lighting-diagrams

Darren

Delyna said...

These are great! Well done! You have a gift for photography.

Maureen@IslandRoar said...

Love his twinkly eyes in that last one!

Lynn said...

Dar: First one was one light on my right. I wanted dramatic shadow. The other two were standard, a light on either side, but I was messing around with how far back to put them, because it didn't matter what I did, things tended to really wash out. I was doing it in my living room, so space is a bit limited--not to mention trying to navigate the landmines of kid's toys! I had the overhead light on to try to light the beret, but it didn't work so well. I only have strobes and really need a continuous light to set up for hair. I keep ending up lighting the background up too much otherwise. I have tons to learn. Like how to use my light meter properly, which would take away much of the frustration, I think. Thanks for stopping by and for the site--I'm going to go check it out.

Thanks Delyna! I'm still such a novice, but I'm having fun learning.

Maureen: Isn't it funny? We were trying to manipulate the silly headgear, and it just wasn't cooperating.

Anonymous said...

For sure having accieved things to be proud of.

Please have you all a wonderful weekend.

daily athens

Unknown said...

Lynn,
Cool! This is the sort of photo that I rarely try, but I'll take a stab at it.
Top photo: I like the goal of dramatic shadow. I think that the "something not quite right" is the near-lack of illumination of his right side. With the background completely black, a reflector placed to the left out of view (on Meryl's right) might be enough to lighten his right side, just so he doesn't look like he's going to be sucked into the darkness behind him.
The alternative might be to have him turn his torso a little to his left, so that the single light illuminates all of it.
Hopefully...neither of these ideas will destroy the 'dramatic shadow' that you're looking for.

Perry