Improvisational studio!

[schmoo]

Been playing around with the idea of having a simple studio setup at home, and even though what I've got is pretty jury-rigged, it was a lot of fun. I have limited experience with all things light-related so this was a big project of mine. :D

http://sheepzeit.smugmug.com/photos/129010545-L.jpg

http://sheepzeit.smugmug.com/photos/129010579-L.jpg

http://sheepzeit.smugmug.com/photos/129010596-L.jpg

http://sheepzeit.smugmug.com/photos/129010677-M.jpg

http://sheepzeit.smugmug.com/photos/129010700-L.jpg

Skin tones OK? Backdrop too distracting? I couldn't stop the lens down enough to get it blurred, or back up further because of the length of the room. But still opinions/advice/constructive criticism is welcome!

[Frog Lady]

hey schmoo - looks like you had fun on this shoot! I really like some of the creative poses. Nice job!

I can't comment on the skin tones, but the backdrop is definately noticable (in a not so good way) particularly in the last shot (and to some degree, but not as bad, on the 2nd and 3rd shots. I wonder if you could blur it in PS :dunno

C.

[gmonkeh]

shots look good to me, lighting looks good. Background is an easy fix, with some levels correction to make it pure white and some masking.

[gefillmore]

love the color comp exposure pose of the first one-

the mask thing?-

well, whatever-

the backdrop in the last one, is, well----



cool

[saurora]

Looks like you had fun! I particularly like #3 and #1, in that order. Like others have said, you can polish up the backgrounds. Keep it up!!! :thumb

[Rhuarc]

Nice shots! Really like the lighting and tones. What type of jury rigged setupa re you using? I'm looking to set up a jury rigged studio sometime and am wondering what you use.

[schmoo]

Thanks! As for props (like the mask) I had no ideas in mind as this was pretty much just two good friends volunteering to help me out while I figured out the basics of studio setups and lighting. They were paid in bagels and OJ. One of them had the mask in her bag from a masquerade event the night before. As you can see wardrobe wasn't even considered as she's in a t-shirt! :D

My setup consisted of lots of soft natural light from two big windows behind me (facing south, so indirect), a backdrop stand that my husband constructed for me that worked very well, a dropcloth and a 580EX flash that I bounced off the walls to get the shadows. That's it. I wouldn't mind having real lamps perhaps, but currently I don't have any plans to do enough studio work to really justify it.

Oh and I was very inspired by gmonkeh's recent beautifully minimalized studio work. ;)

As for cleaning up the backdrop... are we talking about Andy's handy-dandy white background tutorial? (http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1077012) :dunno

[gmonkeh]

Oh and I was very inspired by gmonkeh's recent beautifully minimalized studio work. ;)

As for cleaning up the backdrop... are we talking about Andy's handy-dandy white background tutorial? (http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1077012) :dunno

Well thank you, that's really nice to hear :) Yeah Andy's tute is perfect. But first you have to clone out the creases and other stuff from the background. Make sure you use a soft low opacity (around 25%) clone brush. And just do a few passes. Using low opacity allows for a more subtle clone job.

Lex