Lighting Tips?

[Tuula]

Does anyone have tips for lighting? Because I'm amateur, I don't want to get into too much fancy lighting or go and spend a fortune on light equip, but would like suggestions for basics that could get rid of the "greyish" scale that I sometimes get. And although I don't want to eliminate that completely, it can just be hard at times to see my full squirting effect.

[DeanCapture]

Originally Posted by Tuula

Does anyone have tips for lighting? Because I'm amateur, I don't want to get into too much fancy lighting or go and spend a fortune on light equip, but would like suggestions for basics that could get rid of the "greyish" scale that I sometimes get. And although I don't want to eliminate that completely, it can just be hard at times to see my full squirting effect.

I can offer some lighting tips as soon as I get an idea of where you are with your skills. Maybe you could post some pics that show that "greyish" scale your talking about. What kind of lights are you working with? Flash/strobe? Continuous light? Natural available light? What kind of camera are you using?

[seeandsee]

You can make it, personally i don't do that, but my friend makes nice results with his own created light's!

[Tuula]

Originally Posted by DeanCapture

I can offer some lighting tips as soon as I get an idea of where you are with your skills. Maybe you could post some pics that show that "greyish" scale your talking about. What kind of lights are you working with? Flash/strobe? Continuous light? Natural available light? What kind of camera are you using?

Hi Dean and thanks for replying.

My skills are not that great, my husband does alot of the shooting (he is by far better than me, but not a professional either) sometimes he is not available, so we decided that I need to learn a few things on my own.

Because I do amateur (and I mean raw amateur) sometimes I just do things on the fly, be it camera (I use a pentax optio - nothing fancy) and sometimes I use my camera phone - hey when you're squirting on the fly, you have to use what's readily available! lol. Mainly I use continuous light, there is alot of natural light available to me, but that's if it's not raining (I live in BC so alot of rainy days here), so I would like to know what I can do to supplement that light when it is dull and dreary outside, but I don't want it to take away my amateur affect (I hope I'm explaining it properly).

And here are a couple of pics as examples.

[DeanCapture]

Originally Posted by Tuula

Hi Dean and thanks for replying.

My skills are not that great, my husband does alot of the shooting (he is by far better than me, but not a professional either) sometimes he is not available, so we decided that I need to learn a few things on my own.

Because I do amateur (and I mean raw amateur) sometimes I just do things on the fly, be it camera (I use a pentax optio - nothing fancy) and sometimes I use my camera phone - hey when you're squirting on the fly, you have to use what's readily available! lol. Mainly I use continuous light, there is alot of natural light available to me, but that's if it's not raining (I live in BC so alot of rainy days here), so I would like to know what I can do to supplement that light when it is dull and dreary outside, but I don't want it to take away my amateur affect (I hope I'm explaining it properly).

And here are a couple of pics as examples.

Ok - this is a bit confusing because on one hand you want to improve your photography - but on the other hand you understand that it's the amateur element of your photography that is attracting your customers. And because you shoot a lot of stuff at the spur of the moment - without setting up any gear or preplanning anything - that makes it even harder to suggest how you might improve your content. You can't shoot pics with your cell phone in a darkened room at the spur of the moment and expect to get good results. The only way to get really "good" results is to have the right equipment and take some time to shoot nice stuff. It basically boils down to this - "you get out of it...what you put into it".

You basically have two options here. You continue to shoot the style that your members have come to expect. Or, you spend some money on some good gear - spend some time on learning to use it and spend some time setting up and producing nice content. I can't help you with the first option but if your up for changing how you produce content and want to put forth the money, effort and time - I can help you with that.

[Tuula]

Originally Posted by DeanCapture

Ok - this is a bit confusing because on one hand you want to improve your photography - but on the other hand you understand that it's the amateur element of your photography that is attracting your customers. And because you shoot a lot of stuff at the spur of the moment - without setting up any gear or preplanning anything - that makes it even harder to suggest how you might improve your content. You can't shoot pics with your cell phone in a darkened room at the spur of the moment and expect to get good results. The only way to get really "good" results is to have the right equipment and take some time to shoot nice stuff. It basically boils down to this - "you get out of it...what you put into it".

You basically have two options here. You continue to shoot the style that your members have come to expect. Or, you spend some money on some good gear - spend some time on learning to use it and spend some time setting up and producing nice content. I can't help you with the first option but if your up for changing how you produce content and want to put forth the money, effort and time - I can help you with that.

Honestly, it's not an issue to spend the money, so don't take my comments as being such, I have no qualms doing so at all, because I would like my customers to see the full squirting shots and be happy with it (nobody has complained but me lol). As I'm sure you know good quality squirting content is hard to find and well i can keep up with the demand if I wanted to sell it, very easily. That's not me being arrogant that's just the way it is lol. If wanted to glam i could but my raw content sells way better thean my glam, so i stick with what makes me the most money, although I could do both, but I choose not to.

And those shots were shot with my digicam not my cellphone (the one of my tits was shot with my cellphone, rest digicam) and my avatar is shot with my cellphone so to me not too shabby for a camphone, so that's where i'm confused about the lighting and as I said earlier it could be because of the dreary natural lighting.

Basically i guess what i would like to know, is when I'm at the studio and it' sucks outide what can i do to improve the lighting, so it catches the full squirting effect without taking away from my amateur feeling. All I want them to do is see it alot more clearer but not lose the raw edge of my content.

[Paul Markham]

You need to experiment with the equipment you have. Try different lighting set ups, different back drops and different angles to capture the best way to display what you're selling.

To capture the squirting effect I suggest you use a dark back ground that you light so to get a contrast between the back ground and the squirting.

My advice is go spend some money on decent equipment and experiment to capture the "amateur" effect. Amateur photography can be captured with a $10,000 equipment set up. You just need to degrade the image and learn to light better. Well worse to be honest but better for "amateur".

Why don't you show your face? I would think that would send sign ups soaring.

[VV]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

You need to experiment with the equipment you have. Try different lighting set ups, different back drops and different angles to capture the best way to display what you're selling.

To capture the squirting effect I suggest you use a dark back ground that you light so to get a contrast between the back ground and the squirting.

My advice is go spend some money on decent equipment and experiment to capture the "amateur" effect. Amateur photography can be captured with a $10,000 equipment set up. You just need to degrade the image and learn to light better. Well worse to be honest but better for "amateur".

Why don't you show your face? I would think that would send sign ups soaring.

Paul alot of girls make tons of money and they dont show their face. Some people don't want their face out there due to security reasons. Guys don't really care either for the most part. At least the guys that pay bills of the girls I know and they bank hansomely

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by VeronicaV

Paul alot of girls make tons of money and they dont show their face. Some people don't want their face out there due to security reasons. Guys don't really care either for the most part. At least the guys that pay bills of the girls I know and they bank hansomely

I'm sure you're right, but would it make more money showing her face?

More money, more conversions and more traffic?

I wish it was not so, but sadly it's very often the look on the girls face that paints the picture. But I understand the privacy thing. I tell the girls "You want to stay private? Then keep your clothes on and go home, I'm not wasting my time working with someone who will sell 50% of what she could sell showing her face." OK only 60% if she has a hot body.

It's about ROI. I did say "send sign ups soaring" did not imply she does not get any.

[VV]

Paul you are SO missing the point and taking the the thread off topic. This thread is about lighting, not if she wants to show her face. So lets stay on the subject at hand. If you want to discuss face shots you can always open another thread

[Globofun]

If a model doesn't want to show her face, she could wear a gas mask..........and I could buy that content!

[papagmp]

To get the thread back on track....

Looking at the my best guess is the biggest part of the problem is quantity of light - at least not enough for the camera(s) being used.

In addition, the green tint is probably coming from either the underexposure issur or the presance of standard florescent lights. These will almost always distroy the quility of a picture even id flash fill is used.

If you're stuck with the light, go to a professional bulb store and explain your problem - there is a huge range of bulbs offering different color temperatures and light spectrums. The bulb store I use lets me borrow bulbs for a day or two to see how they work. In addition, don't be afraid to use a small flash - this does not have to take away the amateur effect but will defiantly increase the color and clarity of the images.

These images were all taken on my cell phone:


Each picture uses light differently - the first one was shot as I was driving through Montana With one of my models - I had just bought her a new toy and she was bound and determined to use it even if the truckers watched (they did and she loved it). It uses light from my left and backlight to accent the girl's face and the toy.

The second picture is of my ex - shot by our front room with side-light from our window (I should have left the padlock on).

The third picture was taken in my back yard after a light snow at about 5:50 in the morning as the sky was starting to glow. Each picture uses natural and or available light to accent the subject.

Hope this helps.

Light is an entire subject that we could go on for years discussing (and I hope we do)

[papagmp]

Originally Posted by Globofun

If a model doesn't want to show her face, she could wear a gas mask..........and I could buy that content!

I'm sure if I dig in my old negatives - I have some for you - LOL - Those were the days.......

[Tuula]

Paul you're on my ignore list and have been for a while now, so don't bother wasting your time posting in my threads. The face comment - I don't show my face on boards, it is against my contract, just like I don't post links on boards either. Call it stupid if you want to, but when you have a nice small niche, you keep things quiet in order to protect your investment.

[Tuula]

Originally Posted by Globofun

If a model doesn't want to show her face, she could wear a gas mask..........and I could buy that content!

Yes, I know we were going to that last year and I apologise for that Globolfun, but I wasn't expecting to get pregnant either lol, so maybe after the baby is born, then you can have squirting, lactating, gask mask wearing content lol.

[Tuula]

Originally Posted by papagmp

To get the thread back on track....

Looking at the my best guess is the biggest part of the problem is quantity of light - at least not enough for the camera(s) being used.

In addition, the green tint is probably coming from either the underexposure issur or the presance of standard florescent lights. These will almost always distroy the quility of a picture even id flash fill is used.

If you're stuck with the light, go to a professional bulb store and explain your problem - there is a huge range of bulbs offering different color temperatures and light spectrums. The bulb store I use lets me borrow bulbs for a day or two to see how they work. In addition, don't be afraid to use a small flash - this does not have to take away the amateur effect but will defiantly increase the color and clarity of the images.

Hope this helps.

Light is an entire subject that we could go on for years discussing (and I hope we do)

Thank you for the advice, so would I be looking for iridescents? (I don't know if I'm spelling that right?). And what would be a good small flash to invest in? And can you set that up on a tripod too? (if so, I will invest in another one).

[Head Boy]

Would it be worth Tuula getting one of those white umbrella thingies (you see I know all the tech terms ) to reflect some of the window light. How about gluing some cooking foil to a board to get reflected light as an alternative?

[Tuula]

Originally Posted by Head Boy

Would it be worth Tuula getting one of those white umbrella thingies (you see I know all the tech terms ) to reflect some of the window light. How about gluing some cooking foil to a board to get reflected light as an alternative?

lol funny thing is I know what you mean hahaha, we're sad aren't we? ah well who cares. Where I do the shoots there are two huge patio doors plus side windows so when it is sunny there's alot of natural light, but good luck in the winter time with all the rain, it is so dark and dreary. I don't have to tell you about rain and dark and dreary Head Boy, no wonder they call this British Columbia ... should've just called it England the second lol

Oh and do those umbrella thingies clean easily? That's something I need to consider given the potential of it getting squirted on lol.

[Head Boy]

Originally Posted by Tuula

dark and dreary Head Boy

I don't understand that expression.


I like doing things like making reflectors from tin foil. You can crinkle the foil to try to get a diffusion effect, or paint it with a coloured wash.

Another trick is to smear vaseline over the lens (well a clear filter anyway), so that you get a softer effect. Do photogs still do things like that?