 Celeste McWilliams |
Issues with Sharpness Using Studio Lighting I shoot with a D70. When using studio equipment [lights, backdrop, etc], I turn off on-camera flash and rely on studio lights. However, when doing so, my images are significantly less sharp than when shooting using on-camera flash. (Yes, even when using tripod.) Any ideas/suggestions?
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Studio flash or studio continuous lights? And unsharp in focus, or blur?
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Celeste McWilliams |
Using studio continuous lights. Seems like they're unsharp in focus.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
slight blur and/or shallow depth.
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Celeste McWilliams |
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Christopher A. Vedros |
What shutter speeds are you using with the lights? Continuous lights, even if they seem very very bright, usually don't put out nearly as much light as a flash does. If you are shooting with a wide-open aperture, you'll get very shallow depth of field. And if your shutter speed is slow, you'll get slight blur from a moving subject. Chris Vedros
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
You can movement in the face and feet.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
C can you. Yes you can.
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Celeste, Continuous lights are considerably less bright than sunlight, so either you have less depth of field or longer shutter speed. Either way you have blur. This is why professional strobe equipment is so much better for portraits. The light is much less hot than quartz lights and the color is hugely better than fluorescent tubes. You might want to check out lights from Alien Bees (www.alienbees.com) Or Calumet Travelites (www.calumetphoto.com). Either of these units will take a large number of accessories that will enable you to use a lot of accessories to control light. Thanks, John Siskin
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Alan N. Marcus |
While other aspects may be in play here, my first thought is; contrast. My second thought is contrast. A portrait taken by the light of an on-camera flash results in a high contrast image. This is always true if no attempt is made to fill the shadows via use of an additional lamp or reflector. Your flash example reveals a deep shadow. Details in the shadow is missing. I am talking about textures and tone expanses. Conclusion; no effective fill light was provided. High contrast contributes to an illusion of sharpness. The portrait shot with studio lighting is flat and devoid of contrast. This is true because the lighting ratio was hovering around 2:1 or maybe poorer. Photography as we know it is a rendering of a three dimensional subject on a two dimensional media. Images need some contrast to give the portrait some character. We tend to over use the umbrella and diffuser. These accessories are respected lighting paraphernalia. When used, care must be taken to make sure the main lamp is well positioned, normally high and to the side. This main or key light preserves the illusion of a sunny day. A fill is used to illuminate the shadows as seen from the cameras prospective. Establishing a balance between main and fill is important. Too much fill and the image is flat and appears less sharp. Too little fill and the image suffers but it will appear sharper. A 3:1 lighting ratio is desired. This occurs when the fill light arrives at the subject at ½ the energy as compared to the main. If the fill arrives at the subject at ¼ power as compared to the main the ratio is 5:1. The outcome is more contrast. I can’t over stress the importance of light control. Take care here! I only dispense marginal technical advice. Alan Marcus
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