Studio Lighting

[kbohanan]

I am still fairly new to photography and usually shoot outside but recently decided to start shooting in a studio. I have a very limited space and the lighting I am using is off camera flash into a white umbrella. I was hoping someone could give me some advice on what lighting works best in small areas? Thanks so much. Here is a sample of what I have done. I feel like I can't quite get the look I want. I hope the attachment works. I am new to this forum.

[Donald]

Hello - and welcome to CiC.

You'll see I've put your image into the post so that people can see it a better size.

For help in posting images, have a look at the 'How do I post images ....' thread available via the HELP/Rules tab on the menu bar above.

As fro commenting on you image, I'll leave that to those who do more portrait work than I do. But one thing you need to think about is the background. The one thing I'd suggest is that you begin to work through Colin Southern's 'School of Portraiture' series that you can access here. Irrespective of your resources, this will provide you with some high quality advice and guidance. And it's free!

[Colin Southern]

Hello "kbohanan",

A couple of things don't look quite right;

First up, can you tell me more about your lighting setup? In theory, off-camera flash into an umbrella is fine - but in practice, if you'd done that, you wouldn't have had the hard shadows behind the young lad, and the point light sources wouldn't have been visible in his eyes - so I'm a bit puzzled as to how you've got the lighting setup.

Second, I think you may have applied some inappropriate post-processing options; the overall appearance is almost as if you've used the clarity slider instead of a proper sharpening workflow - so perhaps you can tell us a bit more about the processing that you've done as well?