Photography Critique

ApparentlyNothing · 08-25-2009, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guitarguy90

@ApparentlyNothing:

Dude, talk about lighting genius. . .Flickr: nickwheeleroz's Photostream
This guy is amazing. He's the reason I built the softbox in the first place.

Well, I learned from one former assistant and one current assistant of Jeremy Cowart's...... so.....

Quote:

Before I go any further, my setup was my camera with a 580EX II bounced off the wall to her left, and an old Honeywell strobe in a softbox to her right. The whole setup is fairly limited, since the strobe (an old one that I just found out my Dad had from way back when) only has two power settings. The only way I had to adjust the lighting was to move it further back, or raise the power of the 580 to balance it out.

Can't change power much? Change aperture. Unless you're having to shoot at some really large aperture like 2.8 or lower and you want more depth of field, adjusting aperture works just fine. Also moving the strobe closer to her would have upped the "power". Learning to work with your limitations is always beneficial, since you just never know what could happen at a shoot in the future. Gotta know what to do quick when only 1 of your 4 strobes decide to work at your major label band shoot (hyperbolic example... in that instance, you make your assistant drive 90 mph to get to the camera store to rent more... but you get what I mean).

If you're going to use more than one strobe, you need to "build" your lighting first. Start with your main light that will expose your subject. Get correct exposure with just that strobe. Then add other lights using ratios (which I don't really remember since I don't use multiple lights much at all) to get a good look. With two strobes and a shot like the one you had, it might have been better to use one as a hair light to set her off from the dark background than to try and use one as a fill.

Quote:

So yeah. It's very possible that the softbox isn't diffusing the light enough. It's fairly small (24x18), and I haven't settled on a good diffusing material yet (for those pictures I had two white plastic trash bags and a thin bedsheet draped over it - it's not a very professional looking setup

)

Methinks a plastic trash bag is not the best material for a softbox. Try a thin white bed sheet maybe. You could also just try using a shoot through umbrella. They aren't as expensive as softboxes and do the job for diffusing.

metropolis4 · 08-25-2009, 08:47 AM

The problem I've had with the settings on the flash are that in normal light they give me too slow a shutter speed to shoot people (f/4 at 200ISO). Plus they seem to be perfectly set to give you that deer in the headlights with a dark background look. So I had been trying to compensate by using a little wider aperture and underexposing but then it gets sketchy and throws off the white balance. I was trying to compensate for the blue tint of the flash, but I guess I went too far... I'll have to work on that. I'm trying to figure out how the ISO, aperture and shutter speed all effect the flash so I can find some different settings that will work better

ApparentlyNothing · 08-25-2009, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metropolis4

The problem I've had with the settings on the flash are that in normal light they give me too slow a shutter speed to shoot people (f/4 at 200ISO). Plus they seem to be perfectly set to give you that deer in the headlights with a dark background look. So I had been trying to compensate by using a little wider aperture and underexposing but then it gets sketchy and throws off the white balance. I was trying to compensate for the blue tint of the flash, but I guess I went too far... I'll have to work on that. I'm trying to figure out how the ISO, aperture and shutter speed all effect the flash so I can find some different settings that will work better

Shutter speed relates to ambient light, essentially. If you think about it, a flash shot is always going to be a fraction of a second, no matter how long your shutter is. Aperture is going to be directly related to the exposure and power of your flash. If your flash settings arent very flexible, change your aperture to compensate. Shutter won't do much at all for exposing with flash, because like I said, a flash shot is always a fraction of a second. If anything, that's what's going to start messing with your white balance because you'll be letting in more ambient light that is a different color than your flash.

guitarguy90 · 08-25-2009, 01:44 PM

I think I'm getting it a little better. This is with the softbox more straight on. I had the light a lot closer this time, which I guess might be why the lighting didn't look flat to me like it did the other day? I don't know.

The bounced Speedlight was the main lighting on this one (left side of my face), with the softbox as a hairlight.

RipVanWinkle · 08-25-2009, 01:48 PM

If you can't get your shutter speed up enough, try raising your ISO. This doesn't really sound like the problem you're describing, but like the problem you're claiming...

To (possibly) help you understand...When I worked as a wedding photographer, we very often (usually actually) shot indoor receptions at night. Sadly for photographers, rooms are usually lit for beauty, not for photography.

Even though a slower shutter speed usually = lots of motion blur...when using a flash, the flash often does the work of "freezing" the image (not totally though). If you combine this with a longer shutter speed, as Jon said, the ambient light makes up much of the rest of the exposure (but can mess up a WB).

ApparentlyNothing · 08-25-2009, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guitarguy90

I think I'm getting it a little better. This is with the softbox more straight on. I had the light a lot closer this time, which I guess might be why the lighting didn't look flat to me like it did the other day? I don't know.
Attachment 90709

The bounced Speedlight was the main lighting on this one (left side of my face), with the softbox as a hairlight.
Attachment 90710

MUCH better.

**redbaron** · 08-26-2009, 01:46 AM

Nearing the summit of Mt. Townsend on 8/22

MyChainsAreGone · 08-26-2009, 05:00 PM

I never knew this thread existed.

Well when my uncle was here I used his camera, a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi, to take a bunch of pictures down in Oregon, they have some cool waterfalls. I honestly know nothing about photography except I learned some f stop, shutter speed, rule of thirds and that is about it in a class last semester. I pretty much just point something cool, focus and shoot. So tips are always good!

Well here's my photos if anyone wants to take a look.

Flickr: Michael Sherwood's Photostream

I'm having a Flickr problem though, I know my URL is MichaelSherwood but I don't remember my sign in E-mail, lol.

metropolis4 · 08-31-2009, 01:00 PM

Thanks for all the tips. I haven't had a chance to try any more flash portraits lately, but I did a little more playing around with editing:

The first was a square photo alternate. We've had some storms come through here this week and I took a couple quick pictures off our balcony to see what I could do with the clouds. And I just couldn't help throwing the picture of Shilo in there