# Single Light Glamour (Slightly NSFW)



## Tropicalmemories (Aug 16, 2019)

I've been playing around with LED lights to see if I can replace off-camera flash with a simpler-to-use, low cost set up.

I think constant lighting works well with my mirrorless camera, as I can see the effect of the light real-time.  But the power is lower than flash, so I need to shoot at wider apertures (hence the slightly out of focus hands).

This was a single LED ringlight through a white umbrella.  After looking at the test shots yesterday I bought a higher power Viltrox LED light and will try a two light set up when my long suffering 'model' gets back from visiting her Mum 

I also tried a black and white conversion in Lightroom using the yellow filter.

Fuji XF35mm @ f1.4. 1/200 ISO 400

Any suggestions or tips welcome.


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## JoeW (Aug 17, 2019)

Lovely shots, lovely subject.  Thank her for being willing to share her work.

I like the shots (both of them).  Here are some suggestions.
1.  Change you angle to her.  Move more to her left so you're not shooting her quite to straight on.  It will emphasize her cleavage more, emphasize her thigh more, the knee won't look quite as big (foreshadowing).

2.  Light her hair better.  Or at least go in post-production and dodge it.  She's got lovely, shiny, coal-black hair and in both photos there is no detail, it's just a mass of darkness.  So maybe you put a light on the side of her hair to bring out some highlights or get a little reflection.  Or maybe some backlighting to give her a modest halo effect and still bring out a bit of hair detail.

3.  A narrow DoF is pretty consistent with a lot of boudoir photography.  In fact,  you should try reshooting this pose but play with the DoF.  Have at least one shot at about f2.8 or narrower so just her face is in focus.  Particularly given the angle you're shooting from, it should be lovely and a classic boudoir shot.

A few last tips on the pose.  One that is a personal preference of mine--have uneven elements within the pose.  Unless you're deliberately going for a pose that is symmetrical, don't make things look so posed.  Specifically, look at where her top is on each shoulder--it's not natural.  Have one side higher (or lower) than the other.  Given this pose and the angle change I suggested, I'd raise the top on her left should a few inches (and then have her hair over it)--give that a try.  

Also, have her open up her right hand (no fist--which stops the visual flow to the pose).  And on her left hand, just have her drop that hand so it doesn't stick out as much.  She may need to move her left elbow more to her right on her lap in order to do that.  Finally, as you play with angles on that pose, look at the fabric on her right thigh.  Not a big issue with this angle on that pose.  But if you continue to move around to her left, you want to tuck that fabric around her butt.  This gives her a longer thigh, a more flowing line.  It will make her look taller and (believe it or not) thinner.  It's part of the optical illusion of how poses affect the perception of how tall, thin, busty, a model will look.


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 17, 2019)

JoeW said:


> Lovely shots, lovely subject.  Thank her for being willing to share her work.
> 
> I like the shots (both of them).  Here are some suggestions.
> 1.  Change you angle to her.  Move more to her left so you're not shooting her quite to straight on.  It will emphasize her cleavage more, emphasize her thigh more, the knee won't look quite as big (foreshadowing).
> ...



All great advice - thank you!

I bought a second light this week, so I can try to improve the light on her hair.  

We'll also have fun working on her poses.


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## Derrel (Aug 17, 2019)

My main  tip would be to tremendously slow down your shutter ...you list 1/200 Second… I think it's too fast… If you were tripod mounted you would be able to go to a much slower speed like 1/30 of a second or even slower. Working with continuous lights 1/200 of a second forced you to stay wide open at F1.4… Thus limiting your depth of field


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## smoke665 (Aug 17, 2019)

Adding to what others have said, just my personal feeling but I'm not sure the high angle works. Normally I use it to make a small subject appear small or vulnerable, but with an adult to me it looks odd. The other thing the wall corner/baseboard in the background is distracting.


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## Derrel (Aug 17, 2019)

I would agree about the hair needing more detail. One technique I use in light room is to make three dodging passes...it is much easier to make it look natural and invisible when you lighten very lightly three times instead of one time. If for example you darken the entire frame by a factor of two stops, then you can lighten areas in three passes of roughly .6 stops. This is a really good technique, and after about a days worth of practice in Lightroom you'll become quite  proficient at it. There are various tutorials around the web about selective dodging such as on the arms,the forhead,the bridge of the nose, etc..


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## tirediron (Aug 17, 2019)

Pretty much all the stuff Joe said.


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 19, 2019)

Thank you all for the great tips!


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 19, 2019)

I've not had a chance yet for another go with my 'model' - she had Mother visiting duties this weekend - but here's an edit of one from our last session trying to apply some of your advice.





Will post more after we've had a 're-shoot'.  I also bought another light last week to help with hair lighting.


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## smoke665 (Aug 19, 2019)

One word....Wow! I like this one very much!


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## Derrel (Aug 19, 2019)

This newest shot is much better than the originally posted shot---the darker background and the lighter subject really adds drama!

I am curious to know if you began by darkening the entire frame and then lightening her up with the adjustment brush tool? Regardless, the final product looks pretty good!


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 19, 2019)

smoke665 said:


> One word....Wow! I like this one very much!



Thank you - all credit to my model - but the shirt was mine!


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 19, 2019)

Derrel said:


> This newest shot is much better than the originally posted shot---the darker background and the lighter subject really adds drama!
> 
> I am curious to know if you began by darkening the entire frame and then lightening her up with the adjustment brush tool? Regardless, the final product looks pretty good!



Thank you for the feedback!

I used the brush to extend the dark curtain to give a cleaner background, as I noted the feedback about my messy backgrounds.

I then tried to add more highlights to her hair - but this was not very successful - so I need better light next time.

Then by using a yellow filter for the black and white conversion - this lightened her skin tone.

I also chose a more interesting pose and lower angle shot.

I now need to try and combine the learning into out next 'photo-shoot', but also try to keep it fun.

Not easy!


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## JoeW (Aug 19, 2019)

Tropicalmemories said:


> smoke665 said:
> 
> 
> > One word....Wow! I like this one very much!
> ...


Well, we knew you contributed something to this shot.  ; )

I agree with  Derrel on this.  Background is much better.  Her hands contribute more to the flow--less distraction.  Her knee (because it's straight at the camera) looks bigger so if it was turned to her right she'd have a longer, more flowing thigh and the knee wouldn't look as big.  All lovely photos, she's great, your work is very nice.  Keep posting.


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## smoke665 (Aug 19, 2019)

Derrel said:


> If for example you darken the entire frame by a factor of two stops, then you can lighten areas in three passes of roughly .6 stops



Interesting. I'm curious if you also adjust other sliders besides exposure on the adjustment brush IE Highlights, shadows, clarity, etc. This somewhat similar to a "Cookie cutter" lighting adjustment I learned in PS. With that approach you add a curves adjustment layer with a white mask. Pull the top right corner down to darken the image. Click on the mask then take a very soft black brush and dab in where you want more light revealed. Changing the opacity of the brush reveals more or less.

I need to try your method to compare it to the PS approach. Of late I've been drifting toward the dappled lighting approach.


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## Derrel (Aug 19, 2019)

I often use the adjustment brush to paint on a number of things, such as tooth whitening,skin softening, clarity, most often dodging, at times sharpness, at times saturation, it just depends what the image needs.

One of my favorite techniques I learned from an online tutorial from Tony (Danny? ) Diamond. This   Technique is designed to increase the appearance of three dimensionality, and it involves painting on a little bit of lightening to the area on the face above the eyes, along the bridge of the nose, and along the arms. Use a soft edge brush, and add a little tiny bit of lightning on these areas, and then proceed with your normal retouching routine.

 One of my favorite techniques is too darken the whole image to "paint on light",using the adjustment brush and the dodge setting. This is a really good way to make a photo look much more like a painting. Typically I will darken the whole image around three stops to four stops so that I have a very dark image, and I will typically "paint on light" in increments of about 9/10 of a stop. I do this over three or four operations.


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 20, 2019)

Derrel said:


> I often use the adjustment brush to paint on a number of things, such as tooth whitening,skin softening, clarity, most often dodging, at times sharpness, at times saturation, it just depends what the image needs.
> 
> One of my favorite techniques I learned from an online tutorial from Tony Diamond. This involves painting on a little bit of lightening to the area on the face above the eyes, along the bridge of the nose, and along the arms. Use a soft edge brush, and add a little tiny bit of lightning on these areas, and then proceed with your normal retouching routine.
> 
> One of my favorite techniques is too darken the whole image to "paint on light",using the adjustment brush and the dodge setting. This is a really good way to make a photo look much more like a painting. Typically I will darken the whole image around three stops to four stops so that I have a very dark image, and I will typically "paint on light" in increments of about 9/10 of a stop. I do this over three or four operations.



We've still not had a chance for another shoot, but I wanted to try your process of darkening the whole picture, then 'painting' light using the eraser tool.  This was another shot from the same session - but a different angle to try and show her legs in a better way.  (And the scarf is mine  ).  I wasn't keen on the background, but with your darkening technique it looks better.

I only use Lightroom on a tablet, so my attempt is crude, but I certainly see the potential.


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 20, 2019)

...... but I think the color version works better for this one, and the areas where my 'color-by-numbers' painting skills let me down show less in the color version.


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## Derrel (Aug 20, 2019)

For an early effort, a valiant attempt. Me learning this technique was out of necessity. I shot a whole bunch of on location studio lighted portraits. I had used a gray fabric as a background, but I decided the colors would pop more against black. On my profile page are about four or five photos that show how this technique is done including adding hair highlights. 

As you can see all of those photos were originally done against a medium gray fabric, and I darkened it to black and then lightened up each and every frame. All of that light has been "painted on".


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## smoke665 (Aug 20, 2019)

Tropicalmemories said:


> 'painting' light using the eraser tool



I'm assuming you meant adjustment brush here. Yes Derrel's suggestion seems to have merit. One thing I haven't tried yet is using the tone curve to target specific areas to darken then bring back with the adjustment brush.

Your lighting, posing and camera skills are quite good. Where you seem to struggle is on scene awareness (background and surroundings). It's important to slow down and asses the scene before you snap the shutter. Can you move the location, change your angle,  move something, change your DOF, change your lighting. Rank your scene from the most important to the least important then shoot in a manner that accomplishes that.


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 20, 2019)

Derrel said:


> For an early effort, a valiant attempt. Me learning this technique was out of necessity. I shot a whole bunch of on location studio lighted portraits. I had used a gray fabric as a background, but I decided the colors would pop more against black. On my profile page are about four or five photos that show how this technique is done including adding hair highlights.
> 
> As you can see all of those photos were originally done against a medium gray fabric, and I darkened it to black and then lightened up each and every frame. All of that light has been "painted on".



Nice images on your profile page - I like the black background with the bright red clothing 

I'll keep practicing!


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 20, 2019)

smoke665 said:


> Tropicalmemories said:
> 
> 
> > 'painting' light using the eraser tool
> ...



Yes, I seem to suffer from 'Background Blindness'.

Think we need to try more outdoors too.


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## smoke665 (Aug 20, 2019)

Tropicalmemories said:


> Yes, I seem to suffer from 'Background Blindness'.



One thing that might help. I'm OCD and have terrible short term memory, so out of necessity, I generally have a shot list (poses, setups, etc). I'll setup and even shoot a copy (minus the subject) so I can adjust the lights, move things around, change angles, and get a general idea of camera settings. Once I'm satisfied with that, I move the subject in.


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## Tropicalmemories (Aug 20, 2019)

smoke665 said:


> Tropicalmemories said:
> 
> 
> > Yes, I seem to suffer from 'Background Blindness'.
> ...



Good idea - I'll try the pre-shoot and can check backgrounds as well as lighting.

My model gets fidgety after a short while - so if all is ready in advance we can keep the session light and spontaneous.


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## smoke665 (Aug 20, 2019)

Tropicalmemories said:


> My model gets fidgety after a short while



Yup, not a lot of difference between my DW and a toddler on the aspect.


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## Donde (Aug 23, 2019)

Much prefer color version. Don't think the b&w is at all appealing. Nice photo.


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## Jeff15 (Aug 23, 2019)

Colour edit for me................


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