Critique My Lighting

Kinda hard to compare directly to tungsten as the output falls off much faster than tungsten. Here are the photometrics. I'm using two z90's in the first two examples.

http://www.zylight.com/servlet/Page?template=p_s_support

If I had to hazard a guess I'd say they are similiar to 100-150w fresnels. They seem to be about half of the power of my lowel prolight (250w) at 4-6ft with the pro light set to a similiar beam angle - the z90 has a rather wide spread.
 
Jeff Anderson said:
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ZylightGrab1.jpg


ZylightGrab2.jpg


here's a third one for the heck of it (not using zylights though)
Grab3.jpg

grab3.jpg
Click to expand...
Not a critique but an obvious noob question here:
In all of these shots, it looks like the key is camera right and fill is camera left. Or another way to say it is the fill side of the face is the dominant side facing the camera. Is this standard procedure?. Seems to me that this is the way it is always done. At least I have not noticed the opposite situation so I am wondering if it is aesthetically acceptable or unacceptable to have the key on the dominant side of the face? I suppose it might look flatter but haven't ever noticed any examples of it.
 
I dont know how "standard" it is, its just the way I usually do it to show more gradiation across the face with shadows. Someone more experienced could probably answer that better as I really dont know. Good question though.
 
gco said:
Not a critique but an obvious noob question here:
In all of these shots, it looks like the key is camera right and fill is camera left. Or another way to say it is the fill side of the face is the dominant side facing the camera. Is this standard procedure?. Seems to me that this is the way it is always done. At least I have not noticed the opposite situation so I am wondering if it is aesthetically acceptable or unacceptable to have the key on the dominant side of the face? I suppose it might look flatter but haven't ever noticed any examples of it.
Click to expand...


It's not the standard but many consider it more aesthetically pleasing.

It's called a "far side key". I'm not positive why it looks better but it just seems less flat and more "dramatic". It's all subjective though (like everything).
 
Actually, that makes sense. If it was "near side key" I would imagine the lighting would be harsh as PaPa said. Probably look real flat and featureless. Maybe that is why I have never noticed it being done:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
Near side key, a softer key, and/or a more on-the-nose key would have helped the older woman quite a bit. Sometimes flat is good, especially if you have definition between subject and background.
 
I know this was lit for an interview but I guess it really boils down to what kind of look and feel you are going for...me i'm personally a huge deakins fan!;)
So I like to play with the source and build around it.
I like that the sun is coming through the windows, The cool thing about blinds is that you can use it to direct light like a mini egg crate...I would've played with the angle of the blinds to direct the sunlight and used a foamcore to bounce fill. (might also allow for a harder backish cross light)
personally shooting tele is usually more pleasing for mids.
when you want someone to pay attention to a character it helps when you isolate the talent using shallow DOF.
again personal preference but i like to keep very little headspace/room above the head so maybe a little tighter frame.

anyways bottomline is individual choices and tastes differ and one mans titanic is another mans showboat!
 
Good point on softer nearside/flatter key-ProfessorU.
Matt's pics seem to confirm that, especially the first one--wow.
 
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