Oh Beebs! One of my favorite topics! I'm always looking for new and cool ways to take photos, so I'm definitely going to be checking out Sarah's guide.
The irony is that, through the influence and advice of friends over the last couple of years I've developed my own studio that's eerily similar, including a clickable texture-changing backdrop. I also discovered a nifty lighting technique which I'll gladly share with everyone.
My studio has a hollow sphere that serves as the outer shell - I can change the colors on it for different effects, or else drag my insert shell in from behind the studio and click it to alter textures as shown here. I have about 20 or 22 different landscapes, nature scenes, cityscapes etc that I 'borrowed' from the net. I'd be happy to share them with whoever asks as long as they're not resold. I don't want to get into copyright problems.
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The lighting trick I learned is as follows: You create 3 invisible prims. Light prim 1 is the largest, Light prim 2 is a little smaller and light prim 3 is next smallest. They're positioned at 120 degrees around the focal point and linked so they can be moved or rotated as needed. Light 1 will be the brightest of them to create the primary shadows and 3D relief. Light 2 is a dimmer offset, and #3 is to counter overly heavy shadows behind the model. They all use a medium orange tint for warmth, since we don't ever want bright white light (think facelights
). Other colors could be used to explore different photo effects.
Light prim 1 features:
Intensity .750 (it rounds to .749 for some reason), Radius 5.0 and falloff .50. I have bumped the intensity at times if I'm looking at a dark subject or want more dramatic shadows:
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Light prim 2 features:
Intensity .350 (again it rounds down to .349); Radius 5.0 and falloff .50.
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Light prim 3 features: Intensity 0.102; Radius 10.0, falloff 1.0.
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Last thing I do is to set the World Environment to MIDNIGHT, because I don't want the changing daylight to screw up my shot. I'll rely solely on the artifical prim light. The effect is a very nice, subtle ambience that requires very little Photoshopping unless you're nerdy like me
(I usually use a 50% transparent overlay and Dodge/Burn brushes to accent highlights but that's my own personal preference).
This is unretouched, just cropped:
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I have no doubts whatsoever that my technique needs work. So Imma be watchin' this thread like a hawk for other ideas
Let me know if anyone wants my background textures.
Cin