First shot at off-camera flash

Here's my first attempt at off-camera flash using a cheapie white umbrella on a stand along with a remote trigger for the flash. What are some things I need to work on next? (all straight out of the camera, conversion from RAW to .jpg via LR2.2)

#1


#2


#3




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I am posting so I can be suscribed. Can't wait to hear what Sharkey or STScott come in to say, as this is my weakest area (well I am weak in many but this one is hardest).

I like #1. Not too much else to add but a nit pick that I have NO IDEA on how to correct, but I don't like that her shoes are so black that they lose and detail of being shoes. It is almost like you erased her feet more so than she's wearing black shoes.

#2. I a little hot IMO. Are you using umbrella as a reflector or are you shooting through it?

#3. Nice one again, as in #1, maybe a tad too hot but nice over all. I do have a nit pick that I do not not how to correct and hope someone comes in and advises on. It is the shadow on the mans right eye and nose and his shadow on her right arm. Specifically on the arm (the one with his shadow on it) I would like to see none it or all of it. But it looks like the arm is missing its hand.

Wish I new more to say buddy, but that is about all I got in the ole' brain housing group right now.

All three are printable, and all 3 are nice. But in the spirit of a critique that is what I got.

Cheers!

I like shooting thru the umbrella with the umbrella closer. I really like a portable softbox like the Chimera for portraits.

Nice shots.

Very good Scott! I too am a total newb at off camera flash, I am just lucky to have STScott so close to me I can bounce stuff off of him and he can tell me if I am going down the right path or not. I, like Duke don't really know how to correct some of the things I see that would make me say "Wow", but I can give this a beginner's shot. STScott, feel free to strike me down on any of these!

#1 is really good as I know my biggest weakness is full length photos. I love getting up close, but full length I suffer. I like the background being sharp, but black; as it really sets the mood of the photo. If it were a little lighter, then I would say maybe make it a bit soft, but the way you have it is good.

#2 is what I love doing. I love getting up close to people. The one thing I would have done on this one is brought out a reflector and set it up to her left in order to kill the shadow on her neck and bring out her ear just ever so slightly. I love using my reflector because it does all the calculations for me. No matter what I flash is set at, it will give me a stop or three less light based on how far I have it away from the source. It is my favorite tool for this kind of stuff and it was less than $10. Most womens look better when shot with either two sources, or a reflector. Unless you are going for a more dramatic look to the photo, then you can get away with a little more harshness on the shadows.

#3 is also pretty darn good IMO. The faces are brighter than the rest of the photo and that draws you to them. If I had to get really, really picky I would just say that on the next shot you need to get all of his pinky in there.

Scott, if we ever find time to meet up I've got quite a few videos I can get to you. I have some of the Kelby Training on off camera lighting, and the Zack Arias DVD One Light. Zack is the king of one light lighting and is very good at teaching his methods.

Not bad for your first attempt. I would create a bit more shadow to make it pop more.

#1 is a bit overexposed. There are times to light the large side of the face but for most part, especially with females, light the "short" side of the face. Background is a bit dark so opening up aperture would have helped. You got her upper body right though. You always wanna see both shoulders but have the body angled to the camera. I would have raised my camera height just a tad - don't wanna see female nostrils.

#2 Good catchlight in the eyes. Face is a bit flat due to overexposure.

#3 is the best. Good pose. Always light the female even if that means sacrificing the male. I would have angled his far shoulder a bit more towards the camera.

A lot of things are subjective. What I found was my favorite photo was never the couples favorite. The important thing is that they like the photos.
Keep it up.

The second one of your pretty wife captures her mood very well.

The only tweak might be POST-PRODUCTION and doing some gentle color/shade etc. saturation adjustments in Photoshop etc.

I like the "Annie Leibovitz" approach. Some of the most striking personal shots is getting individuals to dress in black and white clothing and taking images in B&W.

RB

sharkey said:

Background is a bit dark so opening up aperture would have helped.

Click to expand...

Question... I have always been told that if I want to darken or lighten the background that shutter speed is the way to go. For example, if I am firing at 1/125th f8 and I am getting good exposure, but want a little more out of the background, then I simply just need to drag the shutter back to 1/100th. Nothing changes with flash power since it is fining around 1/1000th. But if I open up to f6.3 then now I am too hot and need to drop flash power a couple of stops.

Basically everything I have been studying has told me, "aperture controls flash power, shutter speed controls ambient". I know that with a more open aperture you will naturally get more light at a given shutter speed, but it will also throw your flash way off balance too.

Oh yeah, Scott are you shooting with your flash in manual mode?

#1: Overall this one looks good to me. Especially for being SOOC.

#2: This one looks good to me as well. I do wish she was making eye contact with the camera instead of looking right.

#3: This one feels tight to me. I'm guessing he's leaning up against the tree, but the back of his shirt looks odd. And, as someone else mentioned, the pinky was cut off.

For all 3 what I am wondering is what time of the day it actually was. Did you use the flash to kill most of the ambient, or was it actually after the sun went down?

I haven't really dabbled in OCF yet, so I have no ground to speak on. To me, it seems like all three could have benefited from a bit softer light. I like #1 the best out of this set.

Thanks for all the comments.... I really do appreciate them.

I have to say, I totally winged the setup on these. I setup my flash to shoot through the white umbrella which was on a tripod camera left about 6.5' up and maybe four feet from the subjects. I shot the camera in Manual mode, using a CactusV trigger on the body and remote on the strobe. Flashes were also set to Manual mode and I believe 1/4 duration. (I had started out at half, but it was too much/hot so I backed down to 1/4)

My first shot was just of the tree, and it was beautiful, but the background was blown out so I kept the flash at 1/4 and dialed in some shutterspeed to darken the background. The second shot was pretty much like the images, and when I did the first one with Debbie, I had that "Wow" moment - as in I really thought I can do this stuff with some practice. Shots were done right about 7pm or actual sunset time leaving some blue/skylight out there behind the subjects.

Deb's shoes are in fact, jet black with little to nothing else. No bright stitching or laces - just black. But I can see how that gives a weird look to her feet. I can certainly understand how the reflector could have helped. Funny part is, I'm a hands-on learner, and I had an extra tripod/foamcore board/clamps. I just didn't think to use it but now seeing the shadows on the non-flash side, will incorporate them in the future since I can see what is missing with how I shot this time.

What I found to be the hardest thing to figure out, other than what you all pointed out to me, was 'how' to pose people. I just don't have a knack for that since I've never done it. I don't know both shoulders should be seen on women or to shoot down on them instead of up the nose. Hand placement is difficult for me too - where/how placement kind of stuff.

I think what I'll do is head over to Precision Camera tomorrow and pick up a book on portrait and posing techniques and study it. Yet honestly, I really want to tackle this kind of setup on a trail with either runners or cyclists to see the results at dusk. That way I don't really have to worry so much about where their hands or shoulders are vs finding the ideal location with the background and getting the right/left lighting spot on.

Again, thanks for the input. I'm quite sure I'll stick with this type of shooting as well, but I'm just uncomfortable at the moment with the posing.

FYI, the rest of the shots are HERE


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DFW_Warrior said:

Basically everything I have been studying has told me, "aperture controls flash power, shutter speed controls ambient". I know that with a more open aperture you will naturally get more light at a given shutter speed, but it will also throw your flash way off balance too.

Click to expand...

Your right. Changing your apeature will throw your flash off balance but you can dial the flash down since most of the time, your flash isn't gonna light your background too well. Make sure your camera is set to the flash synch shutter speed or slower and your good.

Especially in portraits, you have time with the first series of shots to get your exposure set up right. The beauty of digital.

There are a couple posing apps you might want to check out. Find some articles from Monte Zucker who has posing down to a science. He is real big on short lighting in lieu of broad lighting. He also favors doing a facial analysis which I had a problem doing. The more you shoot and pose, the more comfortable you will be and thus the more comfortable your model will be.