How do I take well lit photos?

[Sturmovik]

I´m trying to photograph a model with very dark colours, what do you guys recommend to end up with a well lit photo?

Thanks.

[Black Knight]

At the moment I'm using a large piece of mid-grey art card clamped to a table with one end of the card shoved up under the fireplace mantle to make it curve.

Main light is daylight coming through a large south facing window about 8 feet from the table, to the right

Camera is a Fuji Finepix S5600 on manual set at F/8 and the flash on, shutter speed is in the region of seconds, dictated by the amount of light coming thru the window. Sensitivity [old fashioned ASA] is 100, 200 or 400, again depending on the light coming in. I have a couple of cards with crumpled foil on them standing on the art card to the left to bounce some daylight back to the model from that side

I get this;

and

[bhouse]

5 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

a model with very dark colours

1 Try to pose the model in front of a background that is darker than the model

2 plenty of diffuse light. 

3 Light source - the sun: set the scene up outside under light cloud (the cloud diffuses the harsh sunlight)

4 Light source - indoors: either use light from a window that doesn't have the sun streaming through it or plenty of artificial light. If using artificial make sure the light colour matches ( eg all cool white or all warm white)

4a @Black Knight's suggestion of crumpled foil reflectors to increase light is excellent

5 Put the camera on a tripod or rest it on something solid

6 Start with speed 400, aperture F.11, and shutter speed 0.5 second. If the picture is to dark, lengthen the shutter speed (double it each time until you get reasonable results then tweak). If the picture is to bright, reduce the exposure time (halve it until reasonable then tweak).

7 Good luck and post the results!

[Jinxman]

Agree with all of the above, and if you have the facility shoot in RAW mode rather than jpeg as it will give more latitude with the processing.

[Sturmovik]

14 hours ago, bhouse said:

4 Light source - indoors: either use light from a window that doesn't have the sun streaming through it or plenty of artificial light. If using artificial make sure the light colour matches ( eg all cool white or all warm white)

The light I used was warm white, I´ll change it for a light bulb that gives a cool white light. 

I´ll try to find and dust my old camera, because I´ve been shooting with my phone.

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

 

Edited May 1, 2018 by Sturmovik

[Julien]

Daylight white LED bulbs I find are the best, and a photo tent as they diffuse the light properly. You can get them on amazon cheap enough.

 

JUlien