Self Portrait - First Time Flash.

K_Pugh · Jul 14, 2008

I bought an SB-600 a day ago and have just been familiarising myself with it.

I made a sort of soft-box contraption and converted an old microphone stand to accommodate the flash unit. I put the soft-box as the backdrop and the flash behind that. I had to use the on-camera flash but used a piece of card to direct the light to the right then bounced it off a white reflector.

C&C required obviously but i think i got semi ok results but i'm just wondering if there's anything obvious sticking out that i should watch out for.

sorry about the subject with the lazy eye, horrible hair and stuble.. :lol:

(i'm thinking a fraction more light on my face but i couldn't get more due to the limitation of my on-camera flash, if i opened the aperture i would probably have missed focus...)

And a quick try with the Black&White option in PS3:

DRoberts · Jul 15, 2008

I would bounce the front light from above, bouncing it to the right seemed to blow out that side of your face alittle to much. Good creativity in the thought process though.

andrew99 · Jul 15, 2008

I'm a little confused (and curious).. So you are using 1 flash, the SB600 mounted to the camera? If I had to guess, I'd say you used 3 lights, 2 on the face and 1 on the background, so I'm interested in your setup!

Regarding the picture, my only suggestion would be to try and get more contrast between the subject and background. Maybe a dark shirt and less exposure on the face would do it. But definitely a good shot! ..And I prefer the colour one over the B&W.

K_Pugh · Jul 15, 2008

Yeah i was trying to keep an eye on over-exposure on the details (of the face) but i guess i did miss the highlights on the left side of my face.. i'll have to watch that more.

As for the setup:

The background is a bit piece of white fabric on a frame i had made as a sort of soft-box thingy (without the box). the flash was behind the fabric shooting through it making the background pure white and also lighting the sides of my face a little.

The on camera flash had a piece of card to prevent it from shooting directly on the front of my face and to redirect it to the right side.. i had a reflector placed to bounce the light back onto the left of my face.

The reason i whipped the white shirt on was that i was seeing if i could keep the white seperate from the background and not overexpose it, it was mostly a learning experience but i know what you're saying!

thanks for teh comments and help

andrew99 · Jul 15, 2008

Ahh ok, I understand now. Wow, the reflector is very efficient, I'll have to try that! One last question, how did you trigger the flash behind the background? The D80 commander mode?