Portrait attempt #4

This was another portrait attempt, and I think this went a lot better than last time!

Again, bear in mind, these shots are just for testing my light, not posing or even the facial expressions. So I would just make changes to the lighting, then have the subject look at me, take a photo, and then evaluate the lighting changes. That is what you are seeing here, nothing more.

SETUP A

First up, I had a three light setup with one main umbrella light in front and two bare flashes behind. This is a setup I am hoping to use for small groups so I wanted to get a feel for how it works. In the end, I don't think it is very good for a single subject (at least not how I was using it), but I think it can work well for say five or more people.



I felt that was just way too dark on his face at camera right.



Just a funny head angle here, but notice how his head angle changes the lighting!



Got rid of that darkness from the first photo, but now it is a little too bright on his cheek and there is a funky shadow on his neck.



I liked the lighting in this shot quite a bit, but the nose lighting/shadows look bad.



This was where I finished with this lighting setup. A decent portrait in my opinion.

SETUP B

Next up, we have a simpler, two light setup. Umbrella in front, bare strobe off to camera right as a hairlight.



The light at camera right is too bright, and it is creating a really odd look on his ear.



I liked this one quite a lot, but the light was hitting his nose a little too brightly, so I needed to fix that.



I turned off the light at camera right to get a feel of precisely what it had been contributing; yes, it was the source of that nose highlight I was wanting to get rid of.



This was, in my opinion, my best portrait lighting of the evening. I would prefer a touch more light in his eye socket area, but I felt that overall, this had a pretty nice, dramatic look to it.



That is the same lighting setup, but the main light in front is turned off so you can see what it had been providing.

SETUP C

Next setup is two shoot through umbrellas, one on either side of him, in front. Then a third light behind him, bare flash, aimed upward to provide light for his hair in an attempt to separate him from the background.



In this initial shot, I can't see any contribution from the light in back and everything at camera right is too dark.



Now we are getting light from the back, but his ears have light shining through them!



His ears are more under control, the shadow in his eye socket is opening up a bit.



In this one, his ears seem to be fine, we have separation from the background, but the light on his face seems too flat.



I dropped the output from the light at the right a bit, which provided more modeling, I liked this one better. The shadows aren't harsh, he is separated from the background, we called it a night at this point.