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Fair skin Asian model and a black cat.
A friend/model of mine has a black cat. and I am trying to persuade her to do nude shoot with her black cat! I have a technical question about exposure...Take a reading from a grey card, shoot raw and work it out in post production? Any suggestions? Nov 27 20 08:12 pm Link IMAGINERIES wrote: Expose for the Cat. Nov 28 20 01:40 am Link FIFTYONE PHOTOGRAPHY wrote: OK, I'll give it a try, it a try but wont the model be burnt out? (could be interesting) Nov 28 20 02:48 am Link IMAGINERIES wrote: Wouldn't that be about the same thing as taking an incident reading? Nov 28 20 05:38 am Link Mark Salo wrote: Good idea but I don't have a clue on how to do take an incident light reading with a digital camera!! Nov 28 20 06:24 am Link ...walk into a bar. (Sorry, sounded like a joke setup.) I agree the biggest issue will be keeping the cat within the lit scene and out of the model's shadows from poses and squirmy catness. Are you planning to use strobes, continual, or natural lighting? Do you have a gray card? Nov 28 20 06:39 am Link IMAGINERIES wrote: Use a meter then set the camera to the meters reading. Nov 28 20 06:56 am Link ROUA IMAGES wrote: I do have a grey card and use LED lights Nov 28 20 07:01 am Link GianCarlo Images wrote: I had a believe a Sekonic(?) But no idea where it could be.... Nov 28 20 07:04 am Link Then, yes. Have model - or assistant (or cat?!) hold card in front of them while they are in place with lighting set and take a reading off the card (through the camera if no meter). You will no doubt have to bump the cat out of shadows in post a bit either way. But not terribly so. The camera's reading "should be" accurate enough. Funny, just out of curiosity from this thread I went looking for my meter and damned if I know where it went. Nov 28 20 07:09 am Link Thanks!! Good luck finding it could be use as a paper weight Nov 28 20 07:55 am Link Flat lighting to lower contrast. Maybe bounce flash onto white ceiling, shade, etc. Set camera for HDR if possible, and have subject stay still if the shot sequence seems to slow for your particular camera. Some newer ones are quite fast even for still people and I've done some hand-helds with the Olympus in high-contrast scenes (i.e Outside of windows lit by sun along with inside shots and blended in camera. Bracketing and stacking in non-HDR cameras. Watch histogram to insure against blowing out highlights - unless you want that effect. Generally you have more latitude with the shadow side, and use some denoise software if it gets too bad pulling it up. Incident reading from your Sekonic. I know my camera's working EV range from the RGB value S-scale when I calibrated my two Sekonics using their DTS software and their Exposure II chart. I can go +3 stops over to -4 EV under and hold detail within that range easily. If I were to set the camera for HDR internally, I'd go with +/- 2 stop sequence from incident. More than that and the scene looks flat and odd to my eye. The Olympus has some HDR II mode that can take five shots and assemble to one, but I prefer the three shot HDR I as the dynamic range is too much otherwise. Lacking a meter and if you want to shoot a two-shot HDR, I've used a large white styrofoam ball from floral supply or hobby shop, and shoot it until I get the over-exposure blinkies and back it down a third stop which insures I keep my highlight info. Basically, that sets my ETTR shot to retain my highlights. Then I shoot number 2 at 4 stops under and blend in PS,etc.. Lots of photographing "Black Cat" ideas in Google. Good luck! Nov 28 20 08:12 am Link IMAGINERIES wrote: Why make a simple thing difficult? Incidence reading, pretty much fool proof. Find the meter and use it. Nov 28 20 08:57 am Link Simply follow these steps to the letter and there will be no problems: Have the cat measure the nudeness of the proper LED. Put the LED's settings and the model's both on gray to get the perfect balance of light and dark which can be verified by the ratio of chartreuse to mauve when set correctly. Or, the cat could show up wearing gray but will then have to measure the color of the lettering on the camera body (which should also be nude) based on how much the model (who will be clothed) reflects their hairstyle into the darker light of the brighter dark shade. If done properly, all might feel exposed during this incident and should take a moment to reflect. There. Is. No. Simpler. Solution. *Now I'm antsy cause there's a light meter roaming the house unchecked. It just might be acting as a paperweight. Could be anywhere at this point. :-P Nov 28 20 10:43 am Link Thanks every one now I have to talk to the cat who is very camera shy Nov 28 20 10:48 am Link IMAGINERIES wrote: Well, there you go. Nov 28 20 11:31 am Link It's possible by several methods. If you have a incident meter, if you have grey cards, if you have modifiers for your flash (if flash is used), if your have Photoshop (or it's equivalent), and if you have a camera with a wide dynamic range. With a continuous light source: take an incident meter reading and set it on the camera (manual mode). Or, take a reading using the built-in meter using a grey card and set that on the camera. If you are going to light by flash you need to reduce it's contrast by some type of modifier. Use flat lighting to decrease the difference between the shadows and the highlights. You can use a post processing software to pull up the shadow details and lower the highlights. And, of course, if you have a camera that has a wide dynamic range it would make it somewhat easier. If you have none of the above...good luck. Nov 28 20 11:50 am Link As someone that has photographed a pale skinned model with a black cat multiple times( I had a black cat that loved to photo bomb), its not that complicated.. I shot in manual, exposed for the highlights and the cat had plenty of light on it. In light room the models skin measures 89% and the cat measured 11%. I did not use a meter, just dialed the lights up until I liked the results. The situation may confuse the cameras meter but probably not as much as a white dress and black suit would. Shoot in manual and you will be just fine. A light meter could save some trial and error but it is by no means a necessity. Cheers, Noah Nov 28 20 07:21 pm Link JP, I have just seen your post and have to wonder if you really are unsure how to expose this picture. Your portfolio is outstanding not only in beauty but in the technical side. What would be the difference in the exposure issue than with your beautiful Asian model who I assume would have jet black hair. Has that exposure baffled you? Her hair and the cat would be about the same. But my quick response would be expose for the highlights (her skin) and put up the shadows in Lightroom. I am certain you will be able to make this a beautiful image. Dec 06 20 04:17 pm Link FIFTYONE PHOTOGRAPHY wrote: Yes . . . Expose for the cat . . . BUT . . . Stop down 2 stops (otherwise you will have a grey cat and an overexposed model). Dec 07 20 10:25 am Link |
