Mike's Work Environment

This afternoon, Mike (mikes_old_virago) and I spent some time in his upstairs garage just playing around with the camera. The objective was to use some natural light and again play with the flash. Here's a couple from the shoot he can add to his work portfolio.

I know I took away some more knowledge on this flash stuff..... My biggest take-away is how little post processing is required with flash. Get the composition right, get the flash right, try to work the shadows and shape the light, shoot and you're done.

Natural light with a large reflector camera low/left. Bright cloudy/rainy late afternoon.
#1


Shoot-thru umbrella camera left, silver reflector low camera right
#2


SB700 strobe flagged off on the backside. One each side about 45 degrees in front of the subject
#3


Same setup as above
#4


#5


Thoughts?


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still favor the softer natural light most of the time.
I think when you want a hyper detail, gritty feel, flash is good, which I think is good for a guy in construction.
like #2 except the wistful, faraway pose. I think a straight look at the camera would suit the character better.
the shadows on his eyes seem odd on #3
could you diagram this: SB700 strobe flagged off on the backside. One each side about 45 degrees in front of the subject?
#5 is a cool shot

I'm no expert but #3 makes him look like a panda, something looks odd about his eyes (the shadows).

Gary

Overall I think you've done some good work here. I do agree with the lighting on #3. Maybe the 45 degree method used? The outside of his eyes are lit an the insides are dark. For #2 I think your lighting is great. I'm just not a big fan of the staring away shot, I think it works for #1 better. #4 and #5 are cool action shots.

Totally agree with #3, and I'm not really sure 'why' that came out like that. If the flash units were equidistant at 45* to his front and sides, there shouldn't have been much shadowing at all. And after looking at it a bit longer, yeah, the wistful look should be looking straight at the camera for that one. I might have grabbed one looking directly at the camera. Will have to go check on that.

The first shot (another wistful-ish) I had him do only because it was raining pretty hard and in construction, rain most often means no work.

That last shot is 1/8000th. Sure stops the sawdust pretty well....


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The "flag" limits light travel to the back of the image making it easier to control ambient light and 'spillover' light back there. That's sort of where I've been playing in killing it off, but I think some background is appropriate for some situations.

Here's "2a", looking right at the camera:


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M38A1 said:

Here's "2a", looking right at the camera:

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Click to expand...

Personally, I prefer this one. I'm guessing it was shot at around 24mm or so?