 Diane M. Black |
Which ASA is best for B/W studio I've recently begun to explore studio photography.All of my experience is outdoors! I am curious as to which asa is best for B/W studio 100 or 400? I've played with both, but still working on the lighting end, which I think I'm close. Also, what is the best light set up for groups of 4 and 5. I've got individual set up to where I am happy. But My first test group, left me deflated!! MANY MANY Many shadows!! HELP!!!! Most Appreciatively, Diane Black
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Justin G. |
Don't know much about studio photgraphy but where you were working with natural light, you're now working with artificial controlled light. Knowing that you can control the amount/direction/intensity of the lighting makes you want a slower ISO (same as ASA if i'm not mistaken) for finer grain (or less noise as this site slowly turns into Better"Digital"Photo.com) anyways the slower ISO will give you better quality pictures film or digi. If you're shooting film, I personally think Kodak's 125PX with yellow filter is flattering for skin tones, but I have recently tried and fell completely head over heels with Fuji's Neopan Across 100. Great film, didn't have the yellow filter on and my wife's skin tones came out great!
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BetterPhoto Member |
But if you shoot a birthing class of nine families at one year reunion time, 400 would go a long way to allowing you to freeze your very mobile subjects. Base it on your subject just as you would anticipate this outside of the studio.
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Justin G. |
Very true Chris and I'm not arguing against you I was just saying that the lower the speed is better because studio, formal posed shots are generally enlarged to 8x10 commonly and 11x14 and the every now and then 16x20 or larger. With 400 speed I wouldn't count on going larger than an 8x10 wihtout any grain. Grain gets quite noticeable at 400. I haven't used the faster speeds enough to judge which are the best ones for grain, but i'm sure that you can get away with pushing the neopan across 100 to 200 without substantial loss in sharpness and grain (technically gain in grain, but sounds funny!) basically, chris your right and Diane if you're shooting a large family or possible crazy youngins, try the 400 wihtout enlarging too much and try pushing the acros to 200. all in all you can pull off 11x14 with midgrade consumer lenses, but probalby not much more. i've shot with canon's 50mm and enlarged with a nice 80mm and get pretty darn good results but i'm not sure if I could pull of 16x20 unless I stop down substantially on both. Summary: get the slowest you can possible pull off for best grain and sharpness. but if you got kids, try neopans 400.
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Diane M. Black |
Christopher and Justin, Thank you so much for all your feedback! I've experimented with both. I'm not sure why you are recommending 400 with family photos. Can you elaborate more Justin? I'm not expecting to go any larger than 11x14 at the very most. Typically 8x10.
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Justin G. |
We were just saying that because if you have a lot of people in the picture, it's really hard to get every single one of them to perfectly freeze every time you release shutter, especially if you have kids in the picture ... no pun intended :-). Anyways, higher ISO for faster shutter speeds to get everyone sharply focused.
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Diane M. Black |
That makes totally perfect sense!!! Thanks so much!!! If you can think of any other helpful hints, I would greatly appreciated the input!!!
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Justin G. |
Well have the peeps kinda talk amongst themselves and this will relax them a little, hopefully. Tell them not to pay attention to you because you need to get your camera settings all set up and it might take a few minutes. Advice them that there might be a couple test flashes but this is just a part of your routine. Basically you're going to take a few pictures of them before hand when they aren't ready and they are their most relaxed. We know it only takes a very short time to setup but they don't so just fire a few away when they're talking and giggling and playing and coax them into thinking you're just setting up settings.
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