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Shooting Glamour in the Studio with the 458B + 468MGRC4
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Shooting glamour photography can be like shooting traditional portraits with traditional lighting setups. However, modifying the standard approach to portraits can add more life, more interest to your shot when you know what you're doing.
When it comes to shooting glamour, rules are actually guidelines. The most interesting glamour shots out there in the real world are taken by photographers who have veered from the "rules" to come up with their own bag of tricks for shooting.
This lesson will show you a couple of simple modifications you can make to a standard portrait lighting setup to enhance the appeal of your images. After reading this, you will probably come up with some good ideas of your own.
(Click on any image below for an enlarged view.) |
Topics Covered:
- Programming the Camera Settings
- Setting Up the Background
- Setting Up the Flash
- Setting up the Manfrotto 055CLB tripod
- Choosing the Manfrotto 329RC4 3-Way
- Setting Up the Main Light
- Setting Up the Fill Light
- Setting Up the Separation Light
Manfrotto Equipment Used:
Other Equipment Used:
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Setting up the Background
We set up two 12 foot light stands, about 10 feet apart, at the back of our set. Each stand was initially set about four feet tall so we could attach our background pole easily. When setting up any light stand, it is best to secure the horizontal leg braces are parallel to the floor; this offers the broadest footprint and therefore the most stable footing (figure 1).
The background pole was assembled and fixed on top of the two light stands. The hole on each end of the pole slides over the threaded post of the light stand, and the wing nuts were hand-tightened to secure the assembly (figure 2).
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The background can now be attached to the background pole. A-clamps can be used to hold the background on the pole however, our background has a sewn-in channel at the top allowing the cloth to feed over the pole.
For this, we fed this end of the pole into the sewn-in channel of our background cloth until the cloth was all the way on the pole. (figures 3 and 4).
Figure 5 shows the background assembly.
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Figure 5 |
To raise the background, the light stands are extended until the desired height is found (figure 5).
This is done by loosening the locking knob on one section of the light stand's center column, raising that section, then re-securing the locking knob by hand-tightening. If doing this alone, it's best to raise each stand about 2 feet at a time until finished.
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Setting up the Manfrotto NeoTec 458B Tripod
With glamour and fashion the key is speed. You have to be fast to get the perfect shot as your model poses to give you the best look. Because of this need for speed we chose the fastest tripod in the world: The new Manfrotto 458B NeoTec. To put it simply, this is the easiest to use and fastest tripod on the market. You simply pull on the legs into the position and they lock automatically. Then to pack it back up you just press the release button and the legs slide smoothly back to the compact position, no more screws, knobs, or leavers to deal with. The following figures illustrate how to set up the NeoTec. |
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| To set up the NeoTec simply hold it at the approximate height you wish and pull the legs to the floor one at a time (figures 6 and 7). The legs lock solid at any position as soon as you let go. |
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| Once you have set the legs to the length desired spread them out by pulling them out into position (figures 8 and 9). |
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| Of course, it's always best to use the tripod legs to raise and lower the camera, but if you need some extra height you can use the rapid center column for quick positioning. To fine tune the height of the tripod using the column, loosen the locking knob and slide the column up to the desired height and tighten the locking knob (figures 10 & 11). |
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Choosing the perfect head
Just as important as the tripod for glamour, it's a must to have an equally fast and strong head. For this lesson we chose the new Manfrotto 468MGRC4 Hydrostat Ball Head. |
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This new hydrostat head (from the words 'liquid' and 'static') uses fluid pressure to securely lock very heavy cameras with long lenses in any position with the simple, effortless half-turn of a locking knob. We love this head because it's fast to unlock and position the camera, but more importantly, when we lock the camera down and walk away we know that the it's locked rock solid.
Furthermore, Manfrotto's hydrostatic locking system almost eliminates the additional framing micro-shift that normally occurs with photographic heads as the rotational movement of the locking handle/knob is transferred to the rest of the head, so we never have to worry about losing framing. Because the 468MG uses fluid pressure and not a twist-lock mechanical brake to block the ball, the twisting motion isn't transferred, so your shot stays exactly as you planned it.
When we're behind the camera and need some flexibility to change framing and angle without having to lock and unlock the head every few seconds, we set the 468MGRC4's ball friction to just the right amount to counterbalance the camera, and then lock it off only when we need to move away from the tripod and let go of the camera.
We chose the RC4 quick release plate system version from among the 6 models in the 468MG family because we liked the support the larger plate gave us, and because it was compatible with another of our favorite studio heads - the 405. |
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| Now we need to attach the camera to the head. The Manfrotto 468MGRC4 head comes with a Quick Release camera plate, so you can quickly remove the camera from the tripod. To remove the camera plate push the silver safety lock button and pull the release lever at the same time and the mounting plate will release from the ball head (figures 12 & 13). |
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| Secure the camera plate to the camera with the proper mounting screw (the 468MGRC4 comes with a 1/4-20 and 3/8" mounting screw) remember, although the plate needs to be firmly attached to the camera, you do not need to over-tighten the mounting screw. Then place the camera and mounting plate assembly onto the ball head and gently press it until it clicks into place... we're ready to start taking pictures. |
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Setting up the Key/Main Light
For this photo session, we will use the Quantum Q-Flash strobe light head in a Photoflex medium LiteDome soft box as the key light, or main light.
Out of the box the Q-Flash needs some minor assembly before we set it on the boom and boom stand. First you must install the flash tube. It has four pins that insert into the strobe head. Make sure the red dot near the pins lines up with the red dot in the receiving end of the strobe head.
NOTE: Make sure the power cord is not plugged into a power source when inserting the flash tube.
For more information on the Qflash check out the lessons on Web Photo School.
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| Once we had the Main/Key light set up and attached to a Photoflex Medium LiteDome, we attached the entire assembly to a boom and boom stand. We set the light over and in front of our subject (figures 14 and 15). |
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Programming the Camera Settings
Now that we have our key light set up, we are about ready to begin shooting. Before we do, The camera needs to be programmed to the desired settings.
We want to shoot in the Manual mode to have greater control over aperture and shutter speed settings.
The exposure dial at the top, right of the camera can be rotated for mode selection. Rotate the dial until the M (Manual) setting is next to the indicator mark.
We also set the camera to Manual Focus mode and, because we're shooting with strobe lights, which are daylight balanced, we need to set the camera white balance to 5500º K.
We want high quality image resolution for our shot, so we set to the TIFF mode and we set the ISO to 100 for our session.
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Figure 16 |
The EVOLT E-300 uses a CompactFlash media card for recording the images. We are using a Lexar 1 gigabyte CompactFlash card for our session (figure 16).
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And Now We Shoot. . .
We asked our model out to the set, sat her down and posed her in the position we wanted. We then made our final camera height adjustments; this is made very easy due to the quick adjustment features of the Manfrotto 458B NeoTec tripod.
We set the camera height to just above eye level of our subject, and then tipped the camera down slightly to frame our shot. Our first photo was taken using only the main light positioned as shown earlier in the lesson, in front of and above our model. Figure 17 shows the result. |
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Figure 17 |
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Our results show a good-looking shot, we have very nice skin tones and over all contrast, but we need some more spark in the subject's eyes. We locked off the tripod head so we could walk away from the camera.
To get the spark we need, we add a second light. Following the same procedures as for the first light, we assembled a portable flash unit and attached a Small HalfDome to the light. Then we put the light and soft box on a light stand and placed it in front of the model, tipping the light up into her eyes so it would also fill in the shadows under her chin and under the rim of the hat (figures 18 and 19).
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| With the fill light in place we again framed up our model and made a second test exposure (figure 20).
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Figure 20 |
Figure 21 |
Now we see that spark in the eyes and the skin looks even better with the addition of the second light (figure 21).
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Our next step was to add some separation of the subject and the background. To accomplish this we set up a Dedo light unit.
The Dedo DLHM4-300U is a 150 watt tungsten focusable light unit that comes in a kit with four lights and all the accessories you will need to create great effects in many of your shots.
For this lesson we set one of the DLHM4-300U heads on a 10 foot light stand with casters attached. The casters allow the light setup to be easily moved so our assistant could make minor corrections quickly. Then we set the light just behind the model and pointed it towards her back (figures 22-24).
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Figure 24 |
We looked through the lens and had our assistant make adjustments to the lights' positions to get the effect we wanted, once we were happy with the light positions we posed the model and made the next exposure (figure 25).
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Figure 25 |
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Now our shot is really coming alive. The result shows a glow around the subject which adds a sense of depth and separation of our model from the background, which helps to make the image more more vibrant and interesting.
The following figure shows the progression of the shot to this point, one key light, the key light and fill light, and the key, fill and the separation light (figure 26).
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| At this point we asked the model if she could put her hair up so we could see the separation light better. While she was in make-up, we added a magenta gel to the Dedo light to add some more color to the final shot (figures 27).
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Figure 27 |
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The following results show the model's hair up and the effects of the light first without and then with the gel (figures 28 and 29).
The key to shooting glamour lies in trying new things to add interest. Adding a backlight and changing its color using gels is just one idea for getting different looks from the same session, but you can also try anything from changing pose, clothing and hairstyle, to introducing props into the shots.
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We sped things up a bit and took some more playful shots of our model. We unlocked the head leaving just enough friction that we could move the camera freely to follow the model’s movements, but still steady the camera. Some of these are shown below (figure 30).
We cropped in on these shots to put more attention of the model's face and less on the hat.
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| For more texture and variety, we added the wrap and got this shot - a nice, crisp image with lots of fine detail from the result of using all the right tools (figure 31).
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Figure 31 |
Manfrotto Equipment Used:
Other Equipment Used:
Recommended Links
- To learn more about Photoflex equipment, go to www.photoflex.com
- For more tips and techniques on lighting and cameras, visit
www.webphotoschool.com
and sign
up for access to the Member Lessons.
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