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A few recent images taken with the 24-105 on the 5D2 in Vegas:
Wynn, Las Vegas
6d doesn't need a flash when theres bright city lights.
neat, where was this taken?
For instance, I fail to see how, if you are shooting in manual as you advise, you are ever at "the vagueries [sic] of in-camera metering from shot to shot." whether in a studio or not.
Vagueries is a legal spelling, according to Wiktionary, albeit a fairly rare one.
I assume what the author means is that in-camera metering gives you an overall measurement of the shot as a whole, but it will vary from shot to shot as people change angles and their tuxes reflect more or less light. Therefore, it isn't as ideal a tool as an intern walking around with a good light meter and taking measurements at various parts of your set.
That said, this is me speaking with my video hat on. I have no idea how you would do the same thing when using flashes without really annoying the heck out of your subject.
As for the other comment, the usual goal is to light and expose the shot properly so that you don't clip any important white detail and so that important dark detail doesn't get lost in the mud. What constitutes "important" white/dark detail, however, varies....Will reflectors help me avoid the necessity of using a 4 light set up.
Depends on the look you're trying to achieve. I've seen a lot of nice portrait shots taken with only a key light and a fill. That said, sometimes you want a backlight on the person and/or a light on the background.
I'd be surprised if a reflector were ever useful as an alternative to a backlight or a background light, but you might be able to get away with using a reflector instead of a fill light in some situations. I'm not sure how well that would work in practice—it would depend in part on on the number of people in the shot, on how reflective the reflector is, and on whether you can come up with a position where it reflects enough of your key light or backlight to do any good without blocking the shot.
1. better lighting
2. shoot raw and learn raw processing
3. learn what contrast means.
Shooting a black object is not so much about pumping kwatts of light to it or raising shadows. Its all in the reflections /highlights. Play around with some reflectors and/or big softboxes and you'll see you can actually shoot anything black with great definition even in a dark room.
QuoteThe wiki article says that i would need to take multiple pictures at different exposures and combine to get the detail right. Is that the only way?
No, it only says you need to do that when the DR within the scene exceeds your sensors abilities, that is not the case here, you are controlling the amount of light so you are controlling the DR.
I didn't really imply you should follow the zone system, I meant if you don't expose some of the black as grey it will all be a blob!
Here is the most important bit from the wiki "The key element in the scene is identified, and that element is placed on the desired zone; the other elements in the scene then fall where they may."
Now you are controlling the light, so you need to make sure the scene is contained within your cameras DR, if you decide that detail in the dark shadows is important (your key element) you need to expose so the very darkest areas of the scene are black, but that most of the black suit is grey Zone I and II, without blowing the highlights in the white shirt. Then adjust your blacks and shadows sliders in post to get the suit where you imagined it. If there is not enough contrast in the suit to separate the detail you need to use a levels curve control to spread out the tones in the suit.
Agree with what has been suggested by pbd & mt. spokane.
The shot seems to have been taken with white fluorescent light coming from the left casting deep shadows in the already dark clothing. It appears more of an issue with the lighting than the camera.
A few more points -
What camera were you shooting with. I have this weird problem with my 5D3 and the 6D which "seem" to underexpose by 1/2 or 2/3 of a stop. Maybe you are experiencing a similar phenomenon. I usually compensate this by ETTR and bringing down the highlights in post.
QuoteHow do I get the photo to show the detail in dark black clothing?
You need to light and expose for it. So you need the light at the right angle to show the texture and you need to expose so that the texture is not all in Zone 0, to show detail and texture some of your black must be exposed at Zone I or even II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_SystemQuoteIs this a dynamic range limitation?
Absolutely not, you are controlling the light and the dynamic range in a studio environment.
QuoteHow do I get the photo to show the detail in dark black clothing?
You need to light and expose for it. So you need the light at the right angle to show the texture and you need to expose so that the texture is not all in Zone 0, to show detail and texture some of your black must be exposed at Zone I or even II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_SystemQuoteIs this a dynamic range limitation?
Absolutely not, you are controlling the light and the dynamic range in a studio environment.
