question about lighing

[Karen McKenzie]

I have been noticing in the studio I have been getting a hot spot on the upper part of the person's cheek closest to the light and sometimes on the far cheek. Not sure what is wrong with my set up to be getting that or is it that the person just has chubbier cheeks when they smile? Here are 2 examples. I am sure it is some stupid thing I am doing but I can't figure it out.

In both of these the softbox was about 2 ft to the side and about 2 ft in front of the person.

[Jennifer Kastens]

Wow you're really getting nitpicky now! I'll be curious to see what anyone has to say though. I have a quick ? for you though Karen...on the first image, what is the light skimming her collarbone opposite of the main light. It's really pretty.

[Karen McKenzie]

I am thinking that is just part of that spill from the main. I also have a kicker light on both sides of her with the one on the side of the main being about a stop lower than the one opposite it.

On the shoot with the first girl I was using a reflector first but was getting so much spill onto her far cheek and then the reflector light it made that side really bright. I took the reflector away but still couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong in getting the spill.

[Tim Babin]

Karen, do you have any other lights on, falling on the subject other than that in the softbox? Reflectors?

[Don Hughes]

Looks like shiney skin to me. A little baby powder would fix it.

[Karen McKenzie]

Tim, I have it pretty much set up like it was when you were here. The hairlight is almost as far back as the backdrop is and tilted towards her. I have a kicker on each side aimed towards the back side of her head. I have the 4x6 parallel to the camera in front of her and about arm distance to the side of her. I was using a reflector in the first shoot but stopped because it was really making the far side bright- it was in the exact same position as the main but on the other side. In the second one I did use the reflector and didn't seem to blow out that side.

Don I never thought about shinny skin. Wonder how I could test this doing a before powder and after with my poor practice child. How do you get someone to have shinny skin?

[Don Hughes]

Some skin is shinier than other skin. Clean skin is usually pretty shiney. You can see it when you look at the face. I keep a little can of baby powder handy. It only takes a little bit.

[Karen McKenzie]

Thanks, I will try this.

[Larry Lee Letzer Sr.]

Had a really shiny boy earlier today. I always keep powder in the studio. I had him wash his face then I lightly applied powder and got rid of about 90% of the shine. Too much powder will make a person look artificial.

[Wayne Rutherford]

Karen,
I had the same trouble when I used the 4x6 very close to subject.
It is a specular highlight of the surface of the softbox.
If you put a mirror on the plane of her face you will see in the camera
the front of the softbox.
My solution was to move the softbox about 1 - 2 feet closer to the camera.
thus the mirror does not see the box but the lighting is almost identical.

[George Dean]

What kind of powder?

George

[Larry Lee Letzer Sr.]

What kind of powder?

George

My wife went to the store and bought five different compacts each a different color shade of powder. I use a dauber that comes with the compact to apply the powder very lightly. Maybe its not sanitary, but I have been doing this since the 70's without one complaint.

Of course with digital, its easy to tone down the shine after exposure, but the powder covers the shine and less PS work.

[Gary Affleck]

The catch light doesn't match the pic of your soft box. Catch light is on the opposite side of the face as the catch light on that first one. How close was a reflector on that first one. It appears that it as strong as your main. G

[Mark O'Connell]

Karen, to me it looks like the hairlight is too bright or in the wrong position. The bottom photo shows a dark shadow under her hair on her left side, and the highlight on her chin seems to be from the hairlight. I would almost guess the top image is hairlight intensity too. Lower the power of the hairlight and test again. Usually the hairlight should be about 1 stop less than the main to take into account the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflectance theory.

[Karen McKenzie]

I will work on the light positions this weekend. With the hair light on and off and see what it is doing. Thanks for the suggestions.

Gary, I am sure the softbox on the first one was on camera right. I am not 100% sure but think by this time I had gotten rid of the reflector on camera left because it was over powering the main and without it it looked to me like I was getting too much on the opposite side of her face (which might have been either the hairlight or shine on her face)

I did look at my other images from that session and even her outdoor images have that bright shine on her forehead and she wore basically no make up so I am leaning towards shine and will be carrying powder with me now.