T6i: Best Settings for Glamour/Model Photography

[bonhomme]

My wife is a model with beautiful milk chocolate skin, and we enjoy taking glamour/lingerie/boudoir shots of her in our free time.

Because I'm shooting fairly rapidly (several hundred shots in an hour or two), I've left my T6i in Auto mode, and this has resulted in a number of under/over exposed shots, and poor focus at times, along with inconsistent flash operation. I'm not a professional, nor even an advanced amateur,  so I'd really appreciate some tips/tricks to improve my shots.

We normally are shooting in the BR, with 2 small (48") umbrella reflectors and about 11,000 lumens (2x80w) of CFL lighting. I shoot from as far as 6-8 feet away, or as close as 2-3 feet for head & shoulder closeups.

The lens I'm currently using is an 18-135mm IS  zoom, which was recommended as a really good all around lens, however it seems to have depth of field issues.

Any and all help appreciated and TIA.

[kvbarkley]

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@bonhomme wrote:

The lens I'm currently using is an 18-135mm IS  zoom, which was recommended as a really good all around lens, however it seems to have depth of field issues.

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Too little or too much DOF?

[bonhomme]

Thanks for your reply.

When I'm  shooting her from 6-8 feet and she's posing on the bed "inline" with me, I have to be sure to focus on her face, else if I focus on her body, the face will be out of focus. If she's posing "perpendicular" to me it's less of an issue. I understand that going to a higher F stop may help with this, or perhaps a different lens?

The DOF isn't a huge problem ATM, as I'm more concerned about the under/over exposure issues. 

[kvbarkley]

It is all F-stop. It is one of the compromises. Having a APS-C camera helps here, since it has a larger depth of field.

[Waddizzle]

I noticed that I was getting the occasional series of under/over espoused shots, and couldn't figure out why.  And, I still haven't figured it out, but I have a real good hunch, because the problem seems to have gone away.

Pay attention to your thumb as you take shots, because the AE Lock button is really easy to unknowingly press.  I switched to using Back Button Focus.  It took me a couple of weeks, but I noticed that the problem seemed to have gone away..  My best guess is that giving my thumb something to do, probably stopped me from hitting AE Lock. 

On your T6i, the AE Lock button is probably the one that is repurposed as BBF.  I'm not suggesting that you try BBF, not at all. Just pay attention to where your thumb is on the camera body.  You could be unknowingly pressing the button.  I think I was.

[Waddizzle]

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bonhomme wrote:

Thanks for your reply.

When I'm  shooting her from 6-8 feet and she's posing on the bed "inline" with me, I have to be sure to focus on her face, else if I focus on her body, the face will be out of focus. If she's posing "perpendicular" to me it's less of an issue. I understand that going to a higher F stop may help with this, or perhaps a different lens?

The DOF isn't a huge problem ATM, as I'm more concerned about the under/over exposure issues. 

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Select the Canon 7D camera, because it has the same size sensor as your camera body.

 http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html

[bonhomme]

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@Waddizzle wrote:

I noticed that I was getting the occasional series of under/over espoused shots, and couldn't figure out why.  And, I still haven't figured it out, but I have a real good hunch, because the problem seems to have gone away.

Pay attention to your thumb as you take shots, because the AE Lock button is really easy to unknowingly press.  I switched to using Back Button Focus.  It took me a couple of weeks, but I noticed that the problem seemed to have gone away..  My best guess is that giving my thumb something to do, probably stopped me from hitting AE Lock. 

On your T6i, the AE Lock button is probably the one that is repurposed as BBF.  I'm not suggesting that you try BBF, not at all. Just pay attention to where your thumb is on the camera body.  You could be unknowingly pressing the button.  I think I was.

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Thank you! This indeed could be my problem, because several shots from basically the same pose will look entirely different in exposure and I've been wracking my brain to understand why.

I know there are probably indicators like the exposure meter in the display, which are sending me clues, and I just haven't learned to use them yet, but it still doesn't explain why some of the shots from the same basic pose differ from the others. So I'll be more careful in the future not to be pressing that AE lock button.

[bonhomme]

Tried Av mode last night and it was a disaster. Probably 25-40% of the shots were blurred and unusable due to motion on either my part or the wife's. The shutter speed was very slow due to the fixed F8.0 I was trying to shoot with, in order to reduce the DOF issue. I was also using Auto ISO, but had limited it to 1600 because of the potential for graininess.

I was very conscious about keeping my thumb away from that AEL button, and it actually felt unnatural for it to be anywhere near it, so I don't think that's been my problem after all......

Basically, I need a point & shoot mode that will return decent pics with good exposure, and I can work around the DOF issue. Again, this is for fairly fast shooting - sometimes up to 10 shots per minute, so I don't have time (or the knowledge/expertise) to check & adjust all settings. (Models tend to get impatient quickly, and my wife is no exception :))

[Waddizzle]

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@bonhomme wrote:

Tried Av mode last night and it was a disaster. Probably 25-40% of the shots were blurred and unusable due to motion on either my part or the wife's. The shutter speed was very slow due to the fixed F8.0 I was trying to shoot with, in order to reduce the DOF issue. I was also using Auto ISO, but had limited it to 1600 because of the potential for graininess.

I was very conscious about keeping my thumb away from that AEL button, and it actually felt unnatural for it to be anywhere near it, so I don't think that's been my problem after all......

Basically, I need a point & shoot mode that will return decent pics with good exposure, and I can work around the DOF issue. Again, this is for fairly fast shooting - sometimes up to 10 shots per minute, so I don't have time (or the knowledge/expertise) to check & adjust all settings. (Models tend to get impatient quickly, and my wife is no exception :))

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You said the problem was under/over exposed shots.  The AEL button should have nothing to do with focus, unless you have reprogrammed it.

If you are using the built-in flash, you may need an external one.  The built-in flash is not very bright, and can barely reach about 10 feet.  It also tends to cast shadows.  You may also benefit from having brighter ambient lighting, too, such as what a videographer might use.

Did you get a chance to look at the DOF calculator at the link I posted?

[John_SD]

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@Waddizzle wrote:

I noticed that I was getting the occasional series of under/over espoused shots, and couldn't figure out why.  And, I still haven't figured it out, but I have a real good hunch, because the problem seems to have gone away.

Pay attention to your thumb as you take shots, because the AE Lock button is really easy to unknowingly press.  I switched to using Back Button Focus.  It took me a couple of weeks, but I noticed that the problem seemed to have gone away..  My best guess is that giving my thumb something to do, probably stopped me from hitting AE Lock. 

On your T6i, the AE Lock button is probably the one that is repurposed as BBF.  I'm not suggesting that you try BBF, not at all. Just pay attention to where your thumb is on the camera body.  You could be unknowingly pressing the button.  I think I was.

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I am still not completely used to BBF yet, but I am getting there. Once in a while I still find myself pressing the shutter button half way in an attempt to acquire focus LOL. The thing I really like about BBF is that I love having the focus locked with basically a tap of the button. Makes it easy to recompose without having to refocus.